History Main / KarmicOverkill

** In a {{filler}} episode in the first season, Kenshiro faces the Snake and Scorpion [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Biker Gangs]] led by their respective leaders, Junk and Baron. The two gangs are underlings of the ArcVillain, Shin and extort the villagers of their supplies. When asked by a villager to stop their feuding and break their control over the village, Kenshiro tricks the two gangs into killing eachother in [[EnemyCivilWar all-out war]], then proceeds to kill every last survivor. Kenshiro usually gives his opponents a chance to run or surrender, but in this case, he gave no opportunity to anyone in the gang. Add to the fact that members of the Snakes actually got a small PetTheDog by letting a child into a restricted area in exchange for an apple and that Junk offered to do anything in exchange for mercy (with Kenshiro retorting that he'd only take Junk's life), Kenshiro's insistence on leaving no survivors among both gangs and giving Junk a CruelAndUnusualDeath seems a little needless.
** In the ''Fudoh Arc'', a man selling eggs is killed by a gang of [[TheAPunkalypse apocalyptic punks]] with his chickens roasted and eaten. Upon confronting the robbers, Kenshiro immediately gruesomely kills them all, even when a {{Mook}} offers Kenshiro the fried chicken to save himself. Whilst the punks definitely did deserve to punishment for their murder and robbery, the fact that Kenshiro has a technique to permanently reduce an opponent's strength, means he could've punished the gang without gruesomely killing them all.

* In the ''Anime/MidnightHorrorSchool'' episode "Noisy Noisy", the bullies [[TerribleTrio YumYum, Tubee and Usop]] throw books off the library shelf and try to frame [[TheStoic Docky]] for it with [[GenkiGirl Noisy]] being their accomplice. However, after Noisy reveals the truth about Docky's accusation...the rest of the students gang up on the trio and start bad mouthing them for what they did to both Docky and Noisy, which in turn made the former use his whirlwind abilities on the trio to send them running and the latter sends the elevator down, which got the trio stuck in it with the whirlwind. Despite the trio's deed being bad, it ''wasn't the Worst Thing that they did'' and many felt bad for the trio when Docky sent his whirlwind after them, with it being more or less being an act of [[NotSoStoic raging out]] than a form of revenge.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': The title character himself gets this in the third movie, ''Anime/NarutoTheMovieGuardiansOfTheCrescentMoonKingdom''. Naruto spends the first third of the movie dealing with Hikaru's bratty behavior, even after he at least tried to make an effort to be friendly with him. The straw that breaks the camel's back for him was when Hikaru wanted to buy Naruto as a slave, but he hits him with a toy arrow after he rightfully refuses, prompting Naruto to bop him on the head and make him cry. Sakura punishes him by beating him up, is DeniedFoodAsPunishment until [[OrderedApology he apologizes]], and [[KickTheDog then taunts Naruto by waving food in his face]] when he sticks to his guns. Naruto was supposed to be seen as in the wrong, but it's hard to feel sorry for Hikaru when he constantly abused Naruto, only for Naruto to get punished for fighting back.
* From ''Manga/YuGiOh'' is VillainOfTheWeek Goro Inogashira, a [[TheBully bully]] who steals the booth location from Yugi's class during the school festival because it's right by the entrance and sees the most foot traffic. The worst thing that happens to Yugi and his classmates is that he and Jounouchi end up in the infirmary with some injuries. In response, Yami Yugi challenges him to a Shadow Game which ends with him dying in an explosion. Normally, most of the one-shot villains from the manga's early days are treated as {{Asshole Victim}}s who deserved their punishments, but very rarely did anyone ever die, even people who committed more heinous crimes than Goro. One such example is Kokurano, a PhonyPsychic from the chapter before Goro's. He was guilty of arson, attempted murder, and {{attempted rape}}, yet all that happens to him is that he gets knocked out with chloroform and exposed as a fraud, which makes Goro's death look like DisproportionateRetribution by comparison. One future guidebook would establish that he wasn't actually killed, just hospitalized (the original story simply shows him caught in the explosion, then moves on).

* Creator/CharlesPerrault's "Diamonds and Toads"/"The Fairy" ([[https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=35&tale=862 link]]), a "Literature/MotherHolle" variant, involves two sisters' respective encounter with a fairy. She blesses the good sister with having diamonds fall from her mouth whenever she speaks. The bad sister however rudely rebukes the same fairy causing her to be cursed with having to spit toads and snakes whenever she speaks. The mother later drives her two daughters out of her house. The good sister meets and marries a prince while the bad sister, after wandering for a while, dies alone and miserable in the woods... which is a frankly harsh punishment for rudeness, especially considering that the mother [[KarmaHoudini gets no punishment]] for her bad parenting.

* ''Fanfic/ChuninExamDay'' spends several chapters punishing Sakura and Sasuke for their "crimes", to the point where even readers who hate the characters felt bad for them.
** Sasuke undergoes massive amounts of AdaptationalVillainy, being TheSociopath rather than an IneffectualLoner whose worse crime up to that point was calling Naruto a chicken once. Almost every loop sees him murdered or at least mutilated for Naruto's entertainment and/or convenience, such as the harem repeatedly stealing his eyes to further their training. One particular loops sees him {{mind rape}}d by Ino who forces him to very publicly soil himself and tell everyone that the Sharingan evolves by making its wielder play with their feces. Afterwards, Ibiki threatens to kill him if he tells anyone what happened.
** The worst Sakura ever does is not want to date Naruto, and for all the story claims otherwise, she does show him moments of friendship and genuine concern when he's acting out of character. While she never dies for Naruto's amusement, she's nonetheless humiliated repeatedly in basically every loop she appears in. Even women who barely know her gleefully join in on her mistreatment just because she [[FelonyMisdemeanor refused to date Naruto any of the several thousand times he asked her]]. Once she's brought into the loops, Sakura is then ostracized for an unknown length of time that's implied to be years or decades, until she's so lonely that she offers to be Naruto's SexSlave if he'll show her some affection. Eventually, she begs him to stop bringing her into the timeloop, functionally killing that version of her for good, just to end her loneliness.

** ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': One of the biggest complaints about the story is the sheer lengths the universe goes to punish [[Characters/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrailGohFujihachi Goh Fujihachi]]. He becomes Vermillion City's personal scapegoat, with everybody pointing fingers at him and blaming him for Chloe running away, never even bothering to see past the cookie-cutter reality. ''Then'' he reaches a breaking point in Act 2, when [[spoiler:Parker subjects him to the mother of all nightmares just to make himself feel better because of it, leaving Goh a shell of his former self with nary a hint of sanity left.]] Then, [[HopeSpot just as he's recovering from the previous event]], [[spoiler:he gets kidnapped by a lunatic who wants to use his Mew Tracker to get a Shiny Mew, with them even giving him ''an injured Mew'' as leverage, all while holding him at gunpoint.]] What did he do to deserve all of this? He searched for his best friend for days on end, growing sick with worry, only to be told to his face she wants nothing to do with him when they eventually do talk. Yes, Goh did need to be told off for taking Chloe for granted, but by the time the poor kid finally manages to see her again, it's hard not to feel bad for a kid who was so desperate to fix a friendship that they willingly enter a DeathWorld with no promise of their own escape.

** ''Fanfic/{{Apotheosis|MHA}}'' might as well be the ''definition'' for this trope, thanks to multiple characters that often get more punishment than they really deserve. The most prominent is All Might, who tells a Quirkless child that he shouldn't try to be a hero because it's dangerous (and showing the boy his own secret ''crippling injuries'' to show that he's being serious and why the job is too dangerous for someone without powers), and in return gets his reputation destroyed and quirk stolen by a VillainProtagonist. Most readers who aren't super into the story tend to find this to be overkill to the extreme, as it treats someone telling a kid a [[BrutalHonesty hard but honest truth]] as the ultimate act of evil that they must be ''destroyed'' over.

** Draco Malfoy suffers extremely disproportionate punishments for what he does. In an early chapter, he makes an insensitive comment about Harry being [[YourSoulIsMine Kissed]] by a dementor, and gets thrown off the Hogwarts Express in retaliation, leaving him with severe injuries. Later, he tries to kill Luna out of revenge for [[YouKilledMyFather her murdering his father Lucius in cold blood]], and in response, Harry has him tortured in front of the entire Slytherin house by a confunded Snape. After ''that'', he gets forcibly [[GenderBender turned into a girl]] and [[BreedingSlave made to bear twenty-four children by Crabbe and Goyle]], which is treated as entirely deserved.

** For some, the mean twins Nicki and Lizzy Watson, don't get nearly enough screen time to develop them as Carrie's bullies. Unlike Chris and Tina, who have active parts in tormenting Carrie and setting her up to be humiliated, the twins are just part of the GirlPosse and are only mean by association. They get a particularly gruesome death, where Carrie pins them to the floor so they can be trampled by the crowd. While certain moments in the film point to them being aware of the prank and possibly in on it (and they were in the original script), it can seem a bit much for two minor characters to die in such a cruel way.
* ''Film/DantesPeak'': The only major sin Paul Dreyfuss committed was not immediately believing Harry 100% that the volcano was going to erupt at the very start. Not only did Paul have very legitimate reasons for waiting to push the panic button, he even has the team stay long after they normally would at any other investigation, waiting for something to happen, even beyond the time frame he initially allotted. When the seemingly inactive volcano finally does show legitimate proof that it is preparing to erupt, he immediately presses the panic button, does everything he needs to do to get the town prepped, apologizes to Harry, and orders the rest of the team to safety while offering to stay behind himself in the danger zone to try and help Harry off the mountain (the rest of the team stay too). Despite all of that, he dies from drowning after the military orders their evacuation and the bridge he's on collapses from under him (and as the very last man in the very last convoy to evacuate Dante's Peak, nobody else gets hurt). Definitely a heavy-handed death for someone that was nowhere near an outright villain, or a [[SuitWithVestedInterests Mayor Vaughn]].

* The FinalBoss of ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' is not [[BigBad Poppy Adams]], but instead Agent Whiskey who makes a FaceHeelTurn at the last minute. His reasoning behind this however, turned out to be [[UnintentionallySympathetic more sympathetic than the writers intended]]. His pregnant wife (who he had described as "the love of his life") was killed when two drug addicts started a shootout at a convenience store. Not only that, but his death via meat grinder was much more brutal than Poppy Adams' (who is much more evil and would be much better suited to such a fate).

** While many people needlessly antagonize Junior, his violent reactions to the abuse go well beyond anything sane or rational. The stunt with the car in particular could've easily gotten someone killed.

* ''Film/{{Se7en}}'': Theodore "Victor" Allen was a drug dealer and a pederast who also committed armed robbery and assault, but his fate at the hands of [[ThemeSerialKiller John Doe]] (being slowly pumped with drugs, starved, dehydrated, and riddled with bedsores for an entire year) is so horrific that many viewers felt sorry for him. By contrast, while the movie treats his fate as horrific, both the police and the hospital doctor express NoSympathy for him, with one officer even stating "You got what you deserved".

* "Literature/TheManWithoutACountry" by Edward Everett Hale: Though Philip Nolan was involved Aaron Burr's treason plot against the United States (which, in RealLife, Burr was acquitted of) and though his outburst that he wishes never to hear of the United States again makes him guilty of contempt of court, his fate to be confined on Navy warships for the rest of his life, forgotten about, and prohibited from hearing any news of home again is way too excessive for most readers, since it is basically a form of psychological torture that he endures for more than fifty years and causes him to snap and be brainwashed into not merely loving, but worshipping his country, [[MyCountryRightOrWrong believing that everything it does is justified because it is his country, not because the act is good]]. The narrator fully agrees with that sentiment, and seems unaware that Nolan's constitutional rights, under the Eighth Amendment, were violated by the country he comes to love so much.

** Phoebe herself is the only Charmed One to get punished for misusing her magic, being stripped of her active powers, and only ever earning her premonitions back. The out of universe reasons were that her levitation was getting too expensive and had to be written out, but both Piper and Paige were almost as guilty as Phoebe in their misuse of magic, and suffered no personal gain consequences. Paige likewise was the one who participated in the aforementioned killing of Rick above.

* One story of Literature/TheTalmud tells of a rabbi and holy man, whom we are meant to emulate, see a drowned corpse float by him on a nearby river. He then [[NoSympathy mocks the dead man]], saying he deserved that fate because he must have murdered someone by drowning him. Of course this is a total stranger, so the man is more likely an unfortunate innocent.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'': Havetti is a brutish pirate that was extorting a portside village out of food and supplies, also admitting to throwing Makalov, a [[TheGamblingAddict compulsive gambler]] off of his shop for attempting to cheat his crew. Despite this, the fact that Havetti hasn't hurt anyone, unlike the prior bandit villains faced by the Greil mercenaries, has made more than one player regret that there is no option to take Havetti alive and that the Greil mercenaries have to kill Havetti to clear the map. Similar applies to MiniBoss, Nedata, another pirate, whom seemed relatively pleasant for a criminal.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': Victor and Vincent are a pair of bandit twins that try to raid a village for money, only for Victor to be killed by the heroes. Later the despondent Vincent tries to avenge his brother's death, only to be killed as well, with his death PlayedForLaughs. Given worse villains like [[spoiler:Gangrel]], a tyrant whom intentionally ran his country to the ground and caused the deaths of hundreds of people, were forgiven by the heroes, it can be easy to wish there was a way to thwart Victor and Vincent's actions without killing them.

'''Franklin''': Oh shit, ya'll two did that?\\

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', one Mementos target is a middle-aged unemployed man who's cheating in order to get the high score at a video game. While he's a nuisance to others, and is denying players who play fairly the chance to have their achievements honored, his crimes pale in comparison to most of the Mementos targets, who generally consist of bullies, abusers, criminals and other scum yet receives [[HeelFaceBrainwashing the same punishment]].

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Zul'jin was [[UnIntentionallySympathetic always viewed more sympathetically]], despite being a guerrilla fighter whose attacks have occasionally killed civilians. The reason for this being that his beef with the high elves and humans is perfectly legitimate as they are established as having taken the ancestral land of his race, the Forest Trolls, a race that humans and elves almost universally [[FantasticRacism treat solely as vermin to be exterminated]]. By the point, the ExpansionPack, ''ShadowLands'', revealed Zul'jin was sent to Revendreth, the setting's equivalent to {{Hell}}, whilst far worse villains, like Lady Vashj whom invaded Zangermarsh, intentionally destroyed the eco-system of the area ForTheEvulz, robbed the natives and animals of their water supply, and organized horrific mass slavery of marginalized people, didn't get sent to Revendreth, even Zul'jin's biggest detractors admitted he didn't deserve to get sent to {{Hell}}.

* Website/SFDebris talks about this this in his commentary on the Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot, pointing out how the rule of law is supposed to protect the innocent ''and'' the guilty, the latter in particular being protected from getting more than they deserve. Otherwise, people would be saying that Willis' death from a drug overdose was well-deserved because he cheated to get his scholarship, or (by Wonder Woman's example), whoever Willis hedged out with his use of performance-enhancing drugs should break into the hospital and beat him up for cheating.

*** Spitfire had freely condoned Lightning Dust's recklessness until after the tornado incident when Rainbow Dash explains to her what had been going on -- which she would already have known if the cadets had been properly supervised during training.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E16TwentyEightPranksLater 28 Pranks Later]]", the response of ''all'' of Ponyville to Rainbow Dash going on an unrelenting pranking campaign is to make Rainbow believe that one of her pranks has GoneHorriblyWrong and she had accidentally unleashed a ZombieApocalypse. While they did try to tell her to stop and Rainbow refused, it was a bit much for some people.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Nanosec in his debut in [[Recap/TransformersAnimatedS1E06Nanosec the titular episode]]. He may have been a greedy crook who was recruited by Megatron to retrieve a highly-dangerous element, but that's pretty much all he is, unlike the fascistic Decepticons, the sociopathic Meltdown, or Porter C. Powell, the corporate prick who callously threw a tween girl with no accountable next of kin out on the street the second he had control of her father's company. Nanosec getting tricked by Bumblebee into [[RapidAging rapid-ageing]] himself until he's a withered old man who can't so much as ''stand'' without support seems like an overly-cruel fate even if it was necessary to stop him accidentally blowing Detroit sky-high, especially since the ageing could well have ''majorly'' shortened Nanosec's lifespan if he hadn't been de-aged in his reappearance.

* From ''Manga/YuGiOh'' is VillainOfTheWeek Goro Inogashira, a [[TheBully bully]] who steals the booth location from Yugi's class during the school festival because it's right by the entrance and sees the most foot traffic. The worst thing that happens to Yugi and his classmates is that he and Jounouchi end up in the infirmary with some injuries. In response, Yami Yugi challenges him to a Shadow Game which ends with him dying in an explosion. Normally, most of the one-shot villains from the manga's early days are treated as {{Asshole Victim}}s who deserved their punishments, but very rarely did anyone ever die, even people who committed more heinous crimes than Goro. One such example is Kokurano, a PhonyPsychic from the chapter before Goro's. He was guilty of arson, attempted murder, and attempted rape, yet all that happens to him is that he gets knocked out with chloroform and exposed as a fraud, which makes Goro's death look like DisproportionateRetribution by comparison. One future guidebook would establish that he wasn't actually killed, just hospitalized (the original story simply shows him caught in the explosion, then moves on).

* While ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' are already notorious for frequently having characters end up in {{Hell}} for [[AuthorTract not following the author's Christian beliefs]], the most infamous instance is "Flight 144", where a missionary couple who have spent fifty years helping countless Africans by building schools and hospitals get sentenced to eternal damnation for [[HardWorkHardlyWorks believing that their good works were worth more than Jesus' sacrifice]]. That same tract has a man who killed somebody in a drunken brawl (which he seems to have genuine remorse for, to be fair) end up in heaven because he helped his cellmate find Jesus.

** While Glitz and Glam are portrayed as rude, obnoxious and hypercompetitive, many fans called foul at the implication that they deserved to be beaten by Fizzarolli and then crushed by a pillar at the end of the episode they first appeared in. This was because the worst thing they do in said episode is act like {{Alpha Bitch}}es to him and Blitzo (with many fans claiming that they weren't much worse than Verosika, who never gets such brutal mistreatment and is even shown some sympathy by the narrative), never once cheat or try to sabotage Fizz, and will most likely end up being victimized by Mammon's exploitation just as much as he was.

* ''Webcomic/BetterDays'': Harvey Longfellow, during and after his brief time dating Sheila Black, shows himself to be an unsavory character. He [[PhonyVeteran lies about his war record]], claiming he served in Vietnam with Sheila's late husband Jim, and implies that Jim cheated on her. When Sheila finds out the truth and angrily confronts him about his dishonesty and manipulation, he subsequently refuses to leave her alone, eventually [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping her]]. Virtually all of the comic's readers agreed that Longfellow was a despicable scumbag thoroughly deserving of a long stay in prison, but more than a few still felt his death from being deliberately infected with a fatal case of meningitis by some of Jim's old army friends was nevertheless excessive. This was because Harvey had been beaten to the point of hospitalization by Sheila's son Fisk, was already in police custody, and had enough evidence against him to put him behind bars for a very long time. He was no longer a threat to anyone and was going to face justice, so these readers saw his ultimate fate as unnecessary and even cruel, especially considering an even worse criminal who [[ParentalIncest molested his own children]] suffered a comparatively humane death (being shot in the head) under far more justified circumstances (he was threatening {{FBI agent}}s with a shotgun, and one of them killed him in self-defense).

** A CutawayGag in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E4BriansGotABrandNewBag Brian's Got a Brand New Bag]]" had [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Lucy Van Pelt]] receiving a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown by Peter for all the times she teased Charlie Brown with the football. While Lucy was [[{{Jerkass}} far from the most likable character]] in her own series, this was still seen as way overboard.
** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS12E16HerpeTheLoveSore]]": Despite all the bad things that Peter, Quagmire, and Joe have done over the course of the series, having their booths at their tavern taken by some {{Jerkass}} soldiers who bully them, people showing them NoSympathy for it, and said soldiers getting off [[KarmaHoudini scot-free]] was still uncalled for.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A CutawayGag in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E4BriansGotABrandNewBag Brian's Got a Brand New Bag]]" had [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Lucy Van Pelt]] receiving a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown by Peter for all the times she teased Charlie Brown with the football. While Lucy was [[{{Jerkass}} far from the most likable character]] in her own series, this was still seen as way overboard.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfiction ''The Diary of a Loud'', Lincoln [[WouldHitAGirl punches Lola]] in the [[EyeScream eye]] hard enough to send her to the hospital just because she read his diary to her classmates. This was meant to be portrayed as Lincoln punishing Lola for her prior behavior, but it became ''immensely'' unpopular due to Lola [[WouldHurtAChild just being six (or seven) years old]], along with it seeming disproportionate since she was ''sent to the hospital''.

Compare FateWorseThanDeath, DeathIsDramatic, AlasPoorVillain, AlasPoorScrappy, AntagonistInMourning, ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, UnintentionallySympathetic, EasyRoadToHell, FelonyMisdemeanor, and JerkassWoobie. Contrast KarmaHoudini, DeathIsCheap, DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist, and JokerImmunity.

** In a {{filler}} episode in the first season, Kenshiro faces the Snake and Scorpion [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Biker Gangs]] led by their respective leaders, Junk and Baron. The two gangs are underlings of the ArcVillain, Shin and extort the villagers of their supplies. When asked by a villager to stop their feuding and break their control over the village, Kenshiro tricks the two gangs into killing eachother in [[EnemyCivilWar all out war]], then proceeds to kill every last survivor. Kenshiro usually gives his opponents a chance to run or surrender, but in this case, he gave no opportunity to anyone in the gang. Add to the fact that members of the Snakes actually got a small PetTheDog by letting a child into a restricted area in exchange for an apple and that Junk offered to do anything in exchange for mercy (with Kenshiro retorting that he'd only take Junk's life), Kenshiro's insistence on leaving no survivors among both gangs and giving Junk a CruelAndUnusualDeath seems a little needless.

* Several Horror comics where the AssholeVictim gets an ironic death can elicit this depending on how extreme it is compared to the severity of the crime. An infamous example is ''[[Creator/ECComics Haunt of Fear]]'' #19's "Foul Play", where a UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} player [[OpposingSportsTeam murders a rival player]] with poisoned spikes. Rather than informing the police when they figure it out, the rival's team takes vengeance by luring the killer to the stadium at night and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutally dismembering him]] (''implicitly while he was still alive'') and playing a macabre game with his body parts as equipment. It's supposed to be vigilante justice but given how needlessly gruesome and sadistic the method is, the players just look like even worse psychopaths than their victim.

** ''#203: Trailer Trashed'': A newlywed husband dies while fixing up an old RV for him and his wife to live in after he tries to unclog the plugged septic tank with bleach, which mixes with the acidified waste in the tank to create chlorine gas, essentially turning the RV into a gas chamber. This is treated as him being TooDumbToLive, but since bleach is commonly used to clean toilet bowls, thinking that it might work on the tank itself is [[EntertaininglyWrong an understandable mistake]]. Not to mention that the husband himself seems like a decent human being, undeserving of getting gassed to death.

** In "[[Recap/RegularShowS06E27LunchBreak Lunch Break]]", Mordecai and Rigby prank Benson by ordering an $85 sandwich, prompting the latter to force them to eat ''the entire sandwich'', or else they're fired. This was seen as too extreme a punishment for the both of them, especially considering the fact that Benson [[NeverMyFault outright ignores that he wasn't obligated to buy the sandwich for them in the first place]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': [[AlphaBitch Chloé's]] final fate near the end of season 5 involves her getting all but disowned by her father and taken away from Paris by her mother. A number of fans felt that this was too harsh of a punishment for her actions, as her mother was previously shown to be [[AbusiveParents heavily verbally abusive of Chloé]] (indeed, she's berating Chloé for tarnishing their family name on the plane ride out of Paris); as a result, it gives the implication that it's okay to punish someone by making them live with an abuser, which fans felt that not even Chloé deserved. It doesn't help that none of the people who'd enabled her selfish behavior up until now (including her father, who repeatedly spoiled her by abusing his power as mayor) [[KarmaHoudini get any form of punishment for doing so]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder'': The episode "[[Recap/TPFLouderAndProuderS2E2GrandmasHands Grandma's Hands]]" gained infamy for this. After Penny avoids doing school work and stays out past her curfew for weeks, her parents decide to lock her out of the house at night (which is both dangerous and illegal in real life, yet here it is PlayedForLaughs). Oscar ''does'' send her to Suga Mama's house... but it only gets worse from there. Penny is "disciplined" by being forced to sleep in a little dog bed, [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment denied eating breakfast]] and doing various chores. Thankfully, Penny gets better by the end and reconciles with her parents, but it still isn't hard to see why fans were turned off by this episode.

** In "[[Recap/RegularShowS03Ep29MuscleMentor Muscle Mentor]]", Rigby chooses to ditch work once again while badmouthing Benson (who overheard it all); in turn, Benson has Muscle Man be Rigby's "mentor", putting the latter through a ''painful'' HumiliationConga. While Rigby did start it by being lazy and disrespectful, many still saw this as overboard, with Benson's ''joy'' in Rigby's suffering not doing any favors in particular, espically when he stops Mordicai from saying a drawing Rigby and Muscle Man noting Rigby still has a few minutes left.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In the episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E32FusionCuisine Fusion Cuisine]]", the Crystal Gems make it no secret that they are very mad at Steven and Connie for running away. While they do have every right to be mad at him, denying the latter television for ''1000'' years seems a bit harsh.

** "iHate Sam's Boyfriend": The trio's revenge on Jonah for trying to kiss Carly while he's with Sam? They wedgie-bounce him on iCarly. And he's still left in the device even after the show's over. To be fair though, he was an annoying jerk throughout the episode and the punishment itself could be for everything rather than just the one thing.
** "iParty with Victorious" has probably the most glaring example in the show's history; if not that, then of all Nickelodeon's. Carly and Tori have discovered that their boyfriend Stephen was two-timing each of them with the other. Their response? Exposing him over iCarly so the whole world knows. While what he did was bad, their revenge is the equivalent of cyberbullying.

* From ''Manga/YuGiOh'' is VillainOfTheWeek Goro Inogashira, a [[TheBully bully]] who steals the booth location from Yugi's class during the school festival because it's right by the entrance and sees the most foot traffic. The worst thing that happens to Yugi and his classmates is that he and Jounouchi end up in the infirmary with some injuries. In response, Yami Yugi challenges him to a Shadow Game which ends with him dying in an explosion. Normally, most of the one-shot villains from the manga's early days are treated as {{Asshole Victim}}s who deserved their punishments, but very rarely did anyone ever die, even people who committed more heinous crimes than Goro. One such example is Kokurano, a PhonyPsychic from the chapter before Goro's. He was guilty of arson, attempted murder, and attempted rape, yet all that happens to him is that he gets knocked out with chloroform and exposed as a fraud, which makes Goro's death look like DisproportionateRetribution by comparison.

** [[AlasPoorVillain Amazingly enough]], the death of [[spoiler: [[TheCaligula Joffrey]]]] got this reaction from some fans, due to just how [[NightmareFuel gruesomely he died]] (he's poisoned and chokes on his own vomit while the guards and his parents are unable to help him).

* ''Series/TheHauntingHour'' has Norman from "Swarmin' Norman" being eaten alive by millions of insects. While Norman did let his power to control insects corrupt him, many viewers found it to be too excessive a punishment, not only because he was a middle school-aged boy who had been mercilessly bullied his entire life, but the reason Manny, his loyal pet decided this was necessary without even trying to work things out with him was that he [[DisproportionateRetribution squashed two of his insect minions]].

* Invoked in the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{The Royal Protector|TheEternalWinter}}''. Brittney Wong issues a FalseRapeAccusation against Marco after they make out in a dark room due to them both mistaking the other for their date, but not only does the accusation fall flat due to everyone figuring out it was a misunderstanding immediately, Brittney suffers a HumiliationConga soon after. Marco starts trying to keep her ''out'' of trouble as things fall apart around her because he wanted her to enjoy herself (admittedly just to boost his own reputation), and admits that she doesn't deserve what's happening to her.

* ''Website/GoAnimate'': Whenever a troublemaker is punished for whatever they've done (i.e. killing someone or destroying something), they will often receive a [[HumiliationConga Punishment Day]]. [[BrokenBase Depending on who you ask]], the punishments they get from their [[AbusiveParents parents]] may end up being too excessive, especially if they're ''killed'' or mentally broken for their actions.

* This is sometimes considered to be one of the biggest flaws of specific types of fanfiction such as Salt Fics, [[RevengeFic Revenge Fics]], [[FixFic Fix Fics]] and [[AccusationFic Accusation Fics]]. While the exact details tend to differ depending on which style is used, there is a consistent element of the writers creating these in order to deal with an element, character, or story point that they have grievances with, justifiably or not. That in itself isn't much of an issue, [[GoneHorriblyWrong but where things tend to go awry is that the fiction]] has the possibility of going straight past justifiable grievances into outright vicious overreaction. It also doesn't help that this can also depend very heavily on the fic writer's self-awareness, since Karmic Overkill can be the result of them making the exact same mistakes as the original story, just punishing the "right people" too excessively because they don't recognize what the actual issue was in the first place, or simply not being skilled enough to actually put their "better than the original" ideas into practice.

* This might as well be a running theme in the ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomverse'' series. The author admits that she actively tried to invoke this reaction at times to help serve as a {{deconstruction}} of the usual AccusationFic tropes, as some characters in-universe even question whether some of these characters actually deserve the punishments they get. But perhaps she did this a bit ''too'' well:

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough At Last]]", Walter Bemis is a kind man who [[{{bookworm}} absolutely adores reading]]. However, everyone in his life from his overbearing wife (who destroys his books after feigning interest) to his boss seems to hate his habit. After a huge explosion destroys everything and everyone apart from him, he finds that there is time enough to read. Then his glasses break, leaving him completely unable to. Again, all of this was because he liked reading.

** "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS03E01Chameleon Chameleon]]" gave rise to many, ''many'' [[AccusationFic Salt Fics]] that were [[FandomSpecificPlot/MiraculousLadybug inspired by its events]], as well as the events of later episodes. Many of these stories involve Adrien, Alya, Nino and/or other classmates of Marinette having their reputations, futures, and lives absolutely ''destroyed'' for the crime of... [[DisproportionateRetribution being tricked]] by a ManipulativeBitch. The fact that Marinette often becomes a DesignatedHero whose characterization is completely altered so that she acts more like [[AlphaBitch Chloe]] or (ironically enough) [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila herself]] doesn't help.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E126LivingDoll Living Doll]]" deals with Eric, a stepfather who is having a bit of trouble adjusting to his role as such, in part due to his own [[LawOfInverseFertility inability to father children]] and the fact his wife already has a daughter from a previous marriage named Christie. The titular Doll, dubbed Talky Tina, is purchased one day and adored by Christie. However, when Christie isn't present, Tina constantly harasses Eric -- even beginning their disastrous feud by stating outright that she doesn't think she likes him very much. It culminates with Eric trying to destroy the doll (thus further alienating his family) and eventually being murdered by it when he [[StaircaseTumble takes a nasty tumble down the stairs]].
** A more famous example occurs in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough At Last]]". Walter Bemis is a kind man who [[{{bookworm}} absolutely adores reading]]. However, everyone in his life from his overbearing wife (who destroys his books after feigning interest) to his boss seems to hate his habit. After a huge explosion destroys everything and everyone apart from him, he finds that there is time enough to read. Then his glasses break, leaving him completely unable to. Again, all of this was because he liked reading.