History Main / LaserGuidedKarma

->''"Ow! The bitter pain of karmic justice!"''
-->-- '''Lunella/Moon Girl''', ''WesternAnimation/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur2023''

See also: HoistByHisOwnPetard, when a villain gets killed by their own weapon, or TheDogBitesBack, when they're killed by an abused lackey.

* Music/TheLonelyIsland[='=]s "Threw It On The Ground" has the narrator angrily throwing various objects on the ground for all kinds of immature reasons. This comes to a head when he flips the table of "two Hollywood phonies" who were just minding their own business at a restaurant; said "phonies" tackle him to the ground and tase him in the ass for his efforts. In other words, '''T'''aser-Guided Karma.

* ''Music/TheLonelyIsland''[='=]s "Threw It On The Ground" has the narrator angrily throwing various objects on the ground for all kinds of immature reasons. This comes to a head when he flips the table of "two Hollywood phonies" who were just minding their own business at a restaurant; said "phonies" tackle him to the ground and tase him in the ass for his efforts. In other words, '''T'''aser-Guided Karma.

->''"Karma police, arrest this man."''
-->-- '''Music/{{Radiohead}}''', [[Music/OKComputer "Karma Police"]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/AnthonyBourdainsHungryGhosts'':
** In "The Starving Skeleton", a chef had refused to fix something for a starving man, only for that man's undead spirit to return and eat him as revenge.
** The titular pirates in "The Pirates" make it no secret that they all intend to rape the woman they find adrift in the ocean. In-response, the woman (revealed to be a Sazae-oni) steals all of their testicles and swims off with them.
** In "Salty Horse", a Spanish Lord develops an insatiable appetite for horse-meat and has every single one of his horses - including the ''foals'' - killed, cooked, and eaten. One of these horses manifests as a vengeful spirit and possesses him. If the story-teller is anything to go by, the rest of his life was very unpleasant.
** At the end of "The Heads", a mugger tries to mug the protagonist after he has been through hell escaping a Rokurokobi and being accused of murder. He then gives him the detached head as compensation, whereupon it comes to life and eats the mugger.
** In "Deep", a particularly sadistic chef that sexually molests his apprentice has his shirikodama ripped out of his torn-apart carcass and eaten by a {{Kappa}}.
** In "The Snow Woman", the {{Yukionna}} spares the man -- and even has sex with him -- in exchange for not speaking of it to anyone. Years later, he confesses of his encounter to his wife. His wife turns into the yukionna and freezes him to death.
** In "The Cow Head", the starving villagers kill and eat the kudan that had done nothing to them. Then youkai all burst out of their stomachs.
** The chefs in the FramingDevice reveal themselves as youkai and cook and eat their hosts, doing so to punish them for their ConspicuousConsumption.
* In ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'', Veronica's schemes to beat Betty usually tend to backfire on her.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** ''ComicBook/BatmanDarkVictory'' has these:
*** Former commissioner and CorruptCop Gillian Loeb briefly reappears in issue #2. Jim Gordon, who'd recently attained his iconic rank as Commissioner, is clearly less than pleased by the visit -- and rightfully so as Loeb came to gloat about both Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face and the Hangman killing [[Series/Batman1966 Chief O'Hara]], and to not-so-subtly imply that he intends to use the latter to try to get the Commissioner position back from Gordon. The issue literally ends with the reveal of Loeb's corpse, a victim of the Hangman, before he could realize his plan.
*** SWAT officer Pratt, another corrupt cop (whose crimes included partaking in a firebombing of a building ordered by Loeb and attempting to shoot a cat while searching through the wreckage for Batman) tries to shoot Batman as retaliation for Bats punching him through a wall (which itself was a response to Pratt's attempt to shoot the cat). Not only is Batman wearing body armor, but when Batman comes to, he finds that the Hangman got to Pratt in the meantime.
*** A stand-off between the Joker and Two-Face ends with Two-Face repaying a beating the Joker gave him in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'' with a similar beating of his own.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanContagion'' sees MayorPain Armand Krol's efforts to get revenge on Gotham for voting him out (by appointing incompetent DirtyCop Andrew Howe to replace Sarah Essen as police commissioner) and downplaying the Clench crisis to try to keep order. The governor, long fed up with Krol's BS, sends in the National Guard, anyway; tells Krol of this ''after'' the fact; and goes ahead and swears Marion Grange, the woman Krol lost to, as mayor ahead of schedule, who also informs Krol of this after the fact, while she's kicking him out of the office and firing Howe so she can reinstate Jim Gordon as Commissioner. During the crisis, the police opt to even listen to Gordon, even though he was still a civilian at that point.
* ''ComicBook/BerrybrookMiddleSchool''
** After being insufferable bullies to Jensen throughout "Brave", Foster and especially Yannic are caught red-handed while harassing him by his friends and some teachers. Yannic is seemingly suspended for good, while Foster comes back a very changed and regretful kid now on the receiving end of what he used to do alongside his worse companion. Jensen decides to forgive him regardless.
** At first, James seems like a KarmaHoudini when the last we see of him is mocking Jorge for being framed. But the trope is played straight with OffscreenKarma when it's revealed that he and his cronies were suspended. It helps that the events beforehand had him progressively lose what was important to him (his girlfriend and other kids' respect).
* From ''ComicBook/BlackScience'':
** In the first issue, Grant impulsively rescues a slave during his smash-and-grab. They immediately run into her husband when they reach the surface. Overjoyed to be reunited, the husband leads his warriors against the slavers pursuing Grant so the latter can escape.
** A woman murders her alternate universe clone and takes her place. Grant reveals evidence of the murder to her family and calls the police, knowing that she can't furnish any realistic defense.
* In ''ComicBook/Camelot3000'', Sir Tristan's reincarnation as a woman initially seems purely random, until it's revealed that he'd raped at least one woman in his previous life. His new female form is therefore both a deterrent and a karmic lesson, especially when he/she is stalked by his/her reincarnation's former fiancee, who won't take no for an answer.
* ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' shows karma being paid onto a resident of Earth-3. Superman-Prime kidnaps Annataz Arataz, the evil doppelganger of ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}, and forces her to help him torture Mr. Mxyzptlk for information on Earth-Prime's whereabouts. When Annataz is first shown, she's a sniveling coward who begs Prime not to kill her, but as her ordeal goes on she finds the strength to help Myx and turn against Prime, foretelling that he will never find his home. Myx offers to help Annataz escape, but she sends him away as a way of acknowledging what a horrible person she truly was, and that Prime's torture was karma getting even. She pulls a HeroicSacrifice as a way to fully atone for her past deeds, allowing Prime to kill her when he brings down his headquarters on top of them. Even Mxyzptlk, the mercurial trickster that he is, feels Annataz doesn't deserve to die that way.
* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In Scrooge and Flintheart's second confrontation for determining who's the world's richest duck, they convert all their holdings into silver dollars and will have the piles measured. Glomgold, worried he might lose, tries to cheat by purchasing a special liquid that can shrink things with the goal of using it to shrink Scrooge's pile of money. His plan is thwarted, and he ultimately loses... by the same amount of silver dollars that he spent to buy the juice.
* ''ComicBook/PoisonIvy2022'': [[spoiler:Beatrice Crowley used her chemicals to turn people and plants into monsters.]] Ivy turns her into a giant monstrous-looking tree, unable to move or talk.
* An interesting one that took a few storylines to get to. In ''ComicBook/SupermanAndTheLegionOfSuperHeroes'' an elderly couple, acting on the xenophobic drive of Earth-Man, murder a crash-landed alien child and bury him in their field. Flash forward to ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis: Legion of 3 Worlds'', where the same couple discover Superboy-Prime in their field. They make the mistake of pissing him off and he vaporizes them both, unwittingly avenging the young alien.
* The ''ComicBook/FinalCrisisAftermath: Run!'' mini-series is this trope's race to catch The Human Flame. After being pegged as the man who photographed the Martian Manhunter's final moments, he suddenly finds himself the most wanted man ever and he decides he's not going to be pushed around anymore. He gains what he feels is ultimate power, only to for karma to finally catch up, leading to Firestorm, Red Tornado, and John Stewart to haul him away in a prison in space, unable to move or use his powers. John even calls this karma.
* In the early days of ''ComicBook/{{Firestorm|DCComics}}'', the villain Plastique tried to blow up a building full of innocent people with a suit that had a bunch of bombs attached to it. So how did Firestorm defeat her? He vaporized her suit to get rid of the bombs, leaving Plastique herself [[DefeatByModesty naked in public]], [[NakedPeopleAreFunny laughed at by her would-be victims]].
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'':
** In one issue early in his time as the Flash, Wally West expresses contempt for a homeless man who seeks shelter in his apartment building. Then ''he's'' evicted, and thanks to various other misfortunes (his credit cards being inexplicably declined, his superspeed shorting out from hunger, losing both his luggage and his mother) he's reduced to eating pretzels from mud puddles in less than a day and getting the same amount of scorn from passersby (one of whom dropped that pretzel in the puddle to see if he was desperate enough to eat it). It eventually turns out that it's all due to machinations from aliens who were deliberately putting him under stress.
** Zoom (''[[Characters/TheFlashHunterZolomon Hunter Zolomon]]'') tried to ruin Wally's life because he thought MiseryBuildsCharacter and he wanted to make him a better hero. It was also partly out of {{revenge}} for not helping him prevent his paralysis at the hands of Gorilla Grodd. So Wally shoves him through one of his time rips, where Zoom is forced to watch [[MyGreatestFailure His Greatest Failure]]: Sending his father-in-law to his death because he (a criminal profiler) told him a criminal he was meeting with wouldn't be armed. Again and again and again. Hearing himself say "He won't have a gun. Trust me Ashley..." over and over. The last we see of Zoom in that story, he's vibrating from impotent rage. So... How about that misery, Zoom?
* One issue of ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe: Special Missions]]'' juxtaposed positive and negative examples of this. Just before a mission, pilots Ace and Slipstream are friendly and cordial with their ground crews while Cobra's Strato-Viper is mean and abusive to his. During the mission, the Strato-Viper shoots down Ace, only to be shot down himself by Slipstream. The Joe ground crew rushes to Ace's aid and rescues him, but the Cobra ground crew takes their time and gets to the crash site just in time to see the Strato-Viper's Night Raven slip beneath the ocean surface. Not only that, the Strato-Viper was unable to escape from the cockpit because one crew member stole his breakout tool.
* ComicBook/GreenArrow: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] during the ''Cry for Justice & Rise and Fall'' storyline, where Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen) murders Prometheus for destroying Star City and causing the death of his adopted granddaughter Lian Harper. During Oliver's capture and trial, his family washes their hands of him, with his wife Black Canary (Dinah Lance) returning her wedding ring and declaring their marriage over. His adopted son Speedy I/Arsenal/Red Arrow I (Roy Harper) and biological son Green Arrow II (Connor Hawke) tell him they are through with him. It is implied that Oliver killing Prometheus is the last straw, with Oliver constantly cheating on Dinah, his neglect of Roy, and his abandonment of Connor and lying that he did not know he was his son was the main cause of them leaving Oliver. However, before that storyline, Oliver Queen works hard to repair his relationships with them, and they had forgiven him before. It is also implied that they were traumatized by the events of the story, Star City being destroyed for Dinah, the loss of his daughter for Roy, Connor being in a coma and losing and regaining his memories, and with the resentment they have for Oliver despite forgiving him, they all lash out at Oliver.
* ''Literally'' in ''ComicBook/HaloBloodLine''. After the Covenant warrior Reff goes mad with power, kills his brother, and tries to take over an ancient Forerunner superweapon, the facility's robot caretaker fires an {{Eye Beam|s}} of doom and fries him to a crisp.
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Bruce Banner's father, Brian Banner, was, not to put too fine a point on it, a complete and utter monster. He brutally abused his wife and son, eventually killing his wife and forcing Bruce not to testify. Eventually, he broke out of an insane asylum (where he was put after drunkenly gloating about getting away with murder) and confronted Bruce at his mother's grave. The two fought, and Bruce knocked Brian down... which caused him to smash head-first into his wife's tombstone, killing him.
* Happens to ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'' in almost every episode. Whatever trap he's trying to set for the Caliph, he's the one who will fall into it, so that he ends up blasted into space, trapped in the Stone Age or the 20th century or an alternate dimension, turned into a dog or a frog or a woodlouse or a gold-plated statue or a photograph, turned invisible, and so on and so forth. One particularly memorable example happens in "Scandal in Baghdad" when he has a scandalmonger who can literally sniff out scandals plant a fake story in the papers about the Caliph having an abandoned illegitimate child. When the plan backfires, Iznogoud jails the scandalmonger... who sniffs out that Iznogoud himself has ''three'' secret children whom he had imprisoned so that he didn't have to deal with them -- and when Iznogoud is jailed for being a deadbeat dad, the family reunion is far from happy...
* In ''ComicBook/JupitersCircle'', J. Edgar Hoover tries to blackmail Blue-Bolt into becoming his pawn through photos of him in a tryst with another man. [[spoiler:He later drops the scheme when Skyfox blackmails him with his own photos of Hoover engaged in sex with his right-hand man]].
* After Red Mist is revealed as TheMole, ''ComicBook/KickAss'' soundly beats the shit out of him the first chance he gets, and without much effort to boot. And this is ''pre''-TookALevelInBadass Kick-Ass, for those keeping track.
* In ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'', Gato and Sergio are killed in a car crash immediately after murdering Fortunato, because Sergio injured his hands beating Fortunato to death and consequently lost control of the car.
* Some of the strips Creator/SergioAragones does for ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' feature this. One notable example is from "A MAD Look at Racism", where at a restaurant, a black man is treated poorly by the head waiter, ignoring him in favor of white patrons, placing him at terrible tables, etc. The waiter gets his comeuppance when he later finds out that the black man was a food critic for a local newspaper, who proceeded to give a scathing review to the restaurant.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'', Cassidy the vampire is captured and tortured mercilessly by a hitman until Jesse arrives to save him. Jesse knocks the hitman into the pit where Cassidy's been contained, breaking his neck in the fall and paralyzing but not killing him. The last shot is of Cassidy leaning right over him with a big grin and saying "How're yeh?".
* ''ComicBook/RickAndMortyOni'': When the Meeseeks escapes prison, the guard viciously beats his legless cellmate, who stayed behind, not wanting to get in trouble. Once the guard's finished, he realizes that the Meeseeks, on its way out, let all of the other prisoners out of their cells.
* If you encounter the ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', stay far away from Molly Hayes. Do ''not'' yell at her, spook her, be mean to her, point a gun at her, breathe fire at her, or try to hurt her in any other way. And definitely do ''not'' kidnap her and try and kill her, even if her evil parents killed your whole gang and psychically paralyzed you. It never ends well. Just ask the Punisher.
* ComicBook/TheSpectre: Overlapping with ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, those who find themselves on the wrong side of the Spectre almost always end up facing the most gruesome form of poetic justice.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** In his origin story Spider-Man allows a burglar to escape from a pursuing policeman. ''One page later'' his beloved Uncle Ben is dead, killed by the same man. Not a TragicMistake, as this event then galvanizes him to devote his life to heroically fighting crime instead of propelling him towards a tragic catastrophe. Which is also why [[spoiler:Spider-Man decides not to interfere with the event when he travels back through time in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #500]].
** Flash Thompson seems to be an aversion, as he ends up sharing an apartment with Peter Parker. Averted/lampshaded when he loses his legs when serving in Iraq, saving a fellow soldier, fulfilling the jock ending up crippled aspect of this trope.
* Karma finally catches up to [[ComicBook/SubMariner Prince Namor]] in the ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'' reboot of ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'' -- after willingly destroying the ComicBook/BlackPanther's kingdom of Wakanda in ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' and pairing up with Thanos and his group to speed up the Incursions in the lead up to ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', he finally gets his comeuppance as he ends up getting killed at the hands of Hyperion, whose homeworld was destroyed by Namor's actions.
* ''ComicBook/StarWarsDoctorAphra'': Aphra spends the entire ''Catastrophe Con'' arc manipulating and using a hapless, innocent shapeshifter despite his kindness towards her, even admitting to him that "it's used or get used" when he tries to protest her treatment of him. Turns out he wasn't an innocent shapeshifter after all, but [[MadDoctor Dr. Evazan]], and Aphra's actions gave him an idea to use ''her'' for a little entertainment.
* In ''ComicBook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInThe8thGrade'', Mxyzptlk and his kind initially find messing with [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Linda Lee]] funny as part of a game they're playing together. But then he gets greedy, breaks the rules (never take the game too far), traps his kind in a separate dimension, and tries to gain power for himself. After he's defeated and poofs back home in humiliation, his kind punish him by sending him to the 1st dimension, which is just a flat land akin to a kid's scribble drawing.
* In ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'':
** In ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus The Blue Lotus]]'', Tintin defends a rickshaw driver from an abusive racist bully. Later, when the Japanese put a price on his head, he manages to escape the town with the help of the driver's brother.
** Likewise, in ''[[Recap/TintinPrisonersOfTheSun Prisoners of the Sun]]'', he defends Zorrino from bullying foreigners, and is given a talisman which will save him from death.
[[/folder]]

* LaserGuidedKarma/{{Literature}}

* LaserGuidedKarma/LiveActionFilms

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys2022'' features this prominently, with Mr. Wolf and Diane on the good side, and Professor Marmalade on the bad:
** During the dance at the charity gala, Mr. Wolf gives Diane her diamond ring back after stealing it earlier in the film, showing his commitment to being good. And when the Bad Guys are framed for stealing the meteorite, he tells her the location of their hideout and loot as proof of his good faith. The result: she's the only person to realize something's wrong, leading to her breaking them out of jail and helping them take down Marmalade.
** As for Diane, the whole reason Mr. Wolf reforms for real is because she bonds with him and reveals she really does want him and the gang to live better lives. When Marmalade turns the whole city against them, she becomes their sole supporter, breaking them out of jail and helping to stop Marmalade's plot. As a result, the gang stops her HeroicSacrifice by turning themselves in, electing to [[SecretKeeper keep her secret]] of being the Crimson Paw.
** Professor Marmalade is a deceptive, manipulative guinea pig who frames the gang for his own crime of stealing the Love Crater Meteorite as part of his big heist. He's defeated by being deceived and manipulated in turn by Mr. Snake, and he's arrested when framed as the Crimson Paw.
** One example not involving the three: after their fallout with Wolf, the rest of the Bad Guys return to their hideout to find everything ransacked and panic, giving them ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine due to their criminal history. Even Piranha points this out.
--->'''Mr. Piranha:''' Now I understand what it feels like to have things stolen from you! ''I don't like it! I REALLY DON'T LIKE IT!!''
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula'', when ComicBook/TheJoker shocks Penguin and tosses him into the river, Penguin recovers just in time to see Batman swing after a retreating Joker. He nearly drops the trope name:
-->'''Penguin:''' Instant karma, Joker!
* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has the prince and his castle and staff transformed for denying a beggar woman shelter. She was really a beautiful [[DisproportionateRetribution (if somewhat petty)]] enchantress.
* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'': For both the ants and the grasshoppers.
** Princess Atta and the Queen have no choice but to exile Flik and the other bugs once they learn that they were from the circus, despite the fact that they lied to Flik earlier about wanting him to find "warrior" bugs. The result: they're not present to deal with the grasshoppers when they arrive early and decide to take over, leaving all the ants completely at Hopper's mercy.
** Hopper pushes his luck too far once the fake bird is burned. He orders Thumper to beat Flik up in front of the entire colony to send a message about how weak they are. It backfires when Flik stands up and declares that ants don't serve grasshoppers even after he's almost been beaten into the ground. This rallies the whole ant colony together to oust Hopper and his gang for good.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', Ernesto being crushed to death by a falling bell back in 1942 seems to be this for him after he deliberately poisoned the tequila his former music partner Héctor drank, then gained success by claiming to have written songs that were really composed by the man he murdered. Even better, after he gets tricked into making an EngineeredPublicConfession while in the Land of the Dead, he ends up trapped under another bell.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'': Prince Hans arrives in Arendelle with an idea to usurp its throne in order to prove himself to his MassiveNumberedSiblings. He quickly formulates the plan when he meets the naive Princess Anna, using her loneliness and desperate longing for affection to manipulate her into accepting his marriage proposal; once they're married, he intends to murder her sister, Queen Elsa, so he can be the royal consort. He even gloats about it when he thinks it's all about to come to fruition -- prior to this gloating, the audience has practically no reason to suspect him. But at the end, after his treachery is exposed, he gets punched by Anna for it before being exiled from Arendelle to be judged and punished by his own family.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':
** Huph refuses to let Bob stop a mugging going on outside the office. In his fury, Bob throws Huph through a series of walls which lands him in hospital. This gets Bob immediately fired.
** Thanks to Syndrome's KickTheDog moment, his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Mirage does a HighHeelFaceTurn in favor of the merciful Mr. Incredible.
** Mirage encounters a downplayed version. She was fully complicit with Syndrome's Project Kronus that led many supers to their deaths. After her HeelFaceTurn, she frees Mr. Incredible from his restraints only to immediately face his grief-filled wrath that nearly ends her life. She is spared only because she reveals that Mr. Incredible's family is alive and even then she receives a punch in the face from Helen.
* In ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'', when presented with a memory retrieval chute that can instantly return her to Headquarters, Joy abandons Sadness rather than risk her corrupting the core memories by proximity, and because "Riley needs to be happy". This act of betrayal directly leads to Joy being plunged into the memory dump when the memory chute is damaged.
* When they first meet in the climax of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', Tai Lung, mocking Po's weight, goes "What are you doing to do, sit on me?" This is also TemptingFate as, during the stairway tumble, Po does land ass first on Tai Lung's face at one point.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MickeysOnceUponAChristmas'', when Mickey interferes with Pete conning a poor family into buying a badly-made 10-foot tall Christmas tree, Pete takes the money he would've gotten out of Mickey's paycheck, leaving Mickey broke, before literally throwing Mickey and Pluto off the lot. He then proceeds to put his cigar in the same back pocket with Mickey's money, which [[RumpRoast burns his butt]] and causes him to run into and ignite the buckets of highly flammable glue he used to make the trees, sending him into the sky and causing flaming shrapnel to fall down and burn the lot to the ground.
* ''WesternAnimation/StrangeMagic'': The unnamed girl with whom Roland cheats on Marianne. Since Marianne is the princess of their kingdom and is getting publicly married to Roland, the girl is a knowing home-wrecker. The film punishes her by having her be influenced by a LovePotion into loving a frog. [[note]]Though considering what [[{{Jerkass}} a jerk]] Roland is, it's probably an improvement.[[/note]]
* ''Franchise/ToyStory'':
** In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', Al steals Woody from an innocent family out of greed and selfishness, intended to sell the "Woody's Round-Up" collection to a Japanese museum for millions. He ends up getting zilch due to the toys escaping the luggage they were thrown in, losing his chance at getting rich ''and'' the rest of his collection in one fell swoop.
--->'''Al:''' (''seen crying during a commercial after Hamm accidentally changes the channel after losing the Buzz Lightyear videogame Rex played earlier'') Welcome to Al's Toy Barn. We've got the lowest prices in town. Everything for a buck-buck-buck! (''bursts into tears'')\\
'''Hamm:''' Well! I guess crime doesn't pay!
** In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', Lotso leaves the toys to die in a garbage incinerator after Woody and Buzz [[SaveTheVillain save him from the shredder]]. For a moment, it looks like he's going to be a KarmaHoudini, as Woody tells the others that "he's not worth it" upon escaping. But then Lotso is found by a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} garbageman who straps him to the front of his truck and drives off with him.
* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with [[spoiler:Tyler.]] His [[BirthdayPartyGoesWrong Birthday Party Gone Wrong]] is [[AssholeVictim his own fault]]. He tries to appear cool but everyone is bored until Mei shows off the panda. Then when he attempts to bully her into continuing the entertainment, showing NoSympathy when she says she needs time alone, Mei pounces on him and roars in his face. All he can do is cry and say that he's sorry. However, he is still a 13-year old boy who suffered scratches and bruises from the assault, and could've ended up a lot worse had Mei's mother not shown up at that moment. Even Mei, who has every right to be mad at him, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone is ashamed of what she did to him]].
* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler attempts to fight Gorgon [[KickTheSonOfABitch only to be overpowered and mauled to near death]], while the herd abandons him. [[spoiler:But before Gorgon can finish Scowler off, a returned Patchi rallies the herd into fighting against Gorgon and his pack, leading to a repentant and humbled Scowler surrendering his leadership to him (after getting very loudly roared at by him).]]
[[/folder]]

** Cinder wishes for nothing but to be strong, feared, and powerful, and appears to gain that by becoming the Fall Maiden and instigating the fall of Beacon Tower and Ozpin. After she is wounded at the conclusion of the Beacon Arc, Salem forces her to stay close for healing, revealing that Cinder now has a crippling weakness to Ruby's power. Salem's other subordinates have no respect for her, view her as a failure and mock her injuries. Cinder didn't expect this outcome and resents it, having gone from strong, feared and powerful to weak, mocked, and protected.
** By the time of Volume 7, Jacques' LackOfEmpathy towards his workers and abusive behavior towards his wife and children eventually come back to haunt him. [[spoiler:Weiss learns that Willow once set up cameras in every room in the manor if she ever needed evidence to protect her children's safety. That act inadvertently captures the meeting between Jacques and Watts, which uncovers Watts's scheme, Jacques's involvement, and the fact that the election result was rigged. Thus, Weiss arrests Jacques for treason]].

* The ''Franchise/{{RWBY}}'' franchise:
** ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': A grander example than usual. The man who would become known as Ozpin failed to stop Salem's evil plots. The gods therefore cursed him to keep fighting her, ''[[{{Reincarnation}} forever]]''. Thousands of years later, he considers this a perfectly fitting punishment. Of course, as with everything else regarding this character, it turns out to be quite a bit more complicated than he claimed. Ozma was Salem's lover until he died of a mundane disease. Salem entreated the gods to resurrect him, and even tricked them into doing so briefly, but was punished for her hubris with CompleteImmortality. When she raised a rebellion against the gods, she was punished further by having ''all of humanity'' wiped out, leaving her alone. It was only when humanity managed to return, in a lesser state, that Ozma was pulled from the afterlife and given the opportunity to redeem humanity. He was reincarnated, found Salem, and they raised a family together. But when he realized that Salem planned to start a MasterRace of their children and kill everyone else, he tried to take the children away. Ozma and Salem fought, the children died, and Ozma was reincarnated again. So while it was a ''karmic'' punishment, it wasn't really as simple as the gods directly punishing him for his mistakes, as he originally said.
** ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY Chibi}}'': In "Happy [=BirthdayWeen=]", Ruby acts like everything should go her way and everyone should do what she wants because it's her birthday, up to and including forcing Team JNPR to give her their Halloween candy as a present and stealing an entire bowl of candy left out by Dr. Oobleck. By the end of the skit, the rest of Team RWBY has gotten sick of it; when Ruby tries to convince them to buy a Halloween costume for her, they [[VisualPun dress her up as a trash can]], complete with a sign saying "TRASH".

* ''Advertising/FrontRowJoe'': In the [[https://youtu.be/GmOS-9RffLQ holiday trailer]], Clyde puts dynamite into a gift box and gives it to Joe, intending to blow him up. Joe gives Clyde movie tickets as a gift. Clyde is so moved by this gesture that he takes the gift box back... [[KickTheDog and gives it to Elton]]. Elton opens the box to find popcorn and drinks. Confused, Clyde takes the box and looks into it. [[spoiler:The dynamite immediately explodes in his face.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'' features this prominently, with Mr. Wolf and Diane on the good side, and Professor Marmalade on the bad:

* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler attempts to fight Gorgon [[KickTheSonOfABitch only to be overpowered and mauled quite nastily]], while the herd abandons him. [[spoiler:But before Scowler can be killed, a returned Patchi rallies the herd into fighting against Gorgon and his pack, leading to a repentant and humbled Scowler surrendering his leadership to him (after getting very loudly roared at by him).]]

* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler attempts to fight Gorgon [[KickTheSonOfABitch only to be overpowered and mauled quite nastily]], while the herd abandons him. [[spoiler:That is, until Patchi comes back to rally the herd into fighting against Gorgon and his pack, leading to a repentant and humbled Scowler surrendering his leadership to him (after getting very loudly roared at by him).]]

* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler attempts to fight Gorgon [[KickTheSonOfABitch only to be overpowered and mauled quite nastily]], while the herd abandons him. [[spoiler:That is, until Patchi comes back to rally the herd into fighting against Gorgon and his pack, leading to a repentant Scowler surrendering his leadership to him.]]

* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler attempts to fight Gorgon [[KickTheSonOfABitch only to be overpowered and mauled quite nastily]], while the herd abandons him.

* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler [[KickTheSonOfABitch gets attacked by Gorgon who gives him a nasty mauling]], while the herd abandons him.

* ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'': [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] [[KickTheDog attacks and beats up his brother Patchi, nastily tells him he's out of the herd, and leaves him to die while preventing Juniper, to help him]], coldly telling her "[[IHaveNoSon I don't have a brother]]" when she calls him out for it. All for leading said herd from drowning in a frozen lake, which [[NeverMyFault Scowler himself led them into]]. Afterwards, Scowler [[KickTheSonOfABitch gets attacked by Gorgon who gives him a nasty mauling]], with the herd abandoning Scowler.