History Main / RottenRoboticReplacement

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' often has to deal with robotic Judges introduced to the Mega-City-One for whatever reason or crisis. They almost invariably go insane and start shooting everyone.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Professor Menace builds a robotic Wonder Woman meant to replace her, and his plan almost works until he's afraid she'll return from Paradise Island and prevent him from using his robot to commit crime and has it attack her while she's on her way there. She manages to short it out and catch Menace.
* Averted with the Wash Bot in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'''s Earth-That-Was arc. It was meant as bait to trap Zoe but was programmed to think and act like Wash, so it ultimately protected Zoe from the trap. It proved friendly and helpful during the arc and Emma, Wash’s daughter, liked it. However, it struggled to find a place for itself apart from Wash’s identity.

* ''Film/TheSantaClause2'': When Scott is temporarily cast away from the North Pole until he can find a woman to be his wife, a toy Santa is created to take his place. This fake Santa lacked Scott's compassion and boundaries, proclaiming a kid naughty for not doing anything bad at all and places Head Elf Bernard under house arrest.

* In ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' episode "[[Recap/TheAddamsFamilyS2E26LurchsLittleHelper Lurch's Little Helper]]", Lurch is promoted "head butler" of the house by giving him another butler to order around, "Smiley" (played by Robby the Robot). Smiley proves a poor replacement, leading Lurch to terminate him and go back to being the house's one and only butler.
* The Buffybot from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' ''was'' built with genuine impersonation of Buffy in mind, but only in a [[StalkerWithACrush certain context]]. When the gang tries to use the robot in combat situations and to fool other people, it can generally maintain a halfway decent veneer of normality for a short period of time before screwing it up due to the limits of its programming. Examples include spouting WordSalad instead of [[BondOneLiner snappy one-liners]] and [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere running away in the middle of a fight]] because her override tells her to return to Willow for service if she's damaged.

* Subverted in the Award-winning 2004 Manhua, ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'' by Wang Xiao-yang. Set in the future where orphans are given to [[RaisedByRobots robotic mothers]] instead of real, human parents, the protagonist, Sinbell, who lose his biological mother when he was 4 years old often thinks his robot mother, whom raised him for nearly a decade, to be this trope. Until TheReveal at the end of the story: [[spoiler: Sinbell's biological mother, Aya, gave up her life to save him during a chemical explosion, and her will before perishing is that her soul will be transplanted into a machine - her new robotic body - so she could continue her duties as a parent. Which means, for years the "mediocre robotic replacement" Sinbell had publicly condemned before his friends? That's his actual mother]]. Yep. Pass the tissues.

* ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'': ''Katamari Forever'' sees the King of All Cosmos being knocked into a coma. The Prince and his cousins decide to make a Robotic King to replace him... and said Robotic King [[HereWeGoAgain destroys the stars]]. Robotic King does, however, feel bad about it and tries to help The Prince once again rebuild the cosmos.

* ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanityInvitational'': Fan and Test Tube create a robotic version of Bow to fill in the void left when the real Bow died, and filled the robot copy with everything the real Bow would have experienced except the moment when Bow died. Eventually said robot Bow experiences existential crisis once she realises that she is a robot, thinking she actually was the real Bow.
* In the 1988 animation ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiTgoRR3tbk Technological Threat]]'', the tyrannical boss of an office takes every possible excuse to replace his workers with obedient robots. Eventually, there's only one worker left, and he looks up to see that ''even the boss has been replaced.'' Then the bossbot leaves the office for a moment, and the one remaining living worker starts avenging his colleagues.

** In "Maternal Combat", Dexter makes a robotic version of his mother to replace his mother when she gets sick. It works well until he and Dee Dee fight over the robot's controls, making her go berserk.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': When Judy goes to a spa getaway, Jimmy creates a "Maternotron" to be her temporary replacement, so that he and his father can get out of doing chores his mother would otherwise be doing. Maternotron however becomes too controlling and strict, such as forcing Carl and Sheen to complete a giant questionnaire to decide whether or not they are allowed to spend time with Jimmy at all.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' revolved around an attempt by Khan Industries to [[JobStealingRobot replace all pilots with a robot]], the "Auto-Aviator", and Baloo's fight to not be put out of business. While he was unfortunately unable to beat the Auto-Aviator in a ManVersusMachine competition, the Auto-Aviator showcases a ''very'' fatal flaw on in the episode's final act: it is ''completely unable'' to change from its preset course and ''will not'' accept orders to do so, even when not doing so endangers the plane and everybody in it from ''being shot down by air pirates''.
* One ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' episode has Tom being replaced with a robotic mouse-hunting cat in order to better hunt Jerry, and at first it's shown to be efficient. However, later, Jerry discovers and exploits its weakness: toy mice that heavily distracts said robot, causing it to go crazy and wreck the house while trying to hunt them, causing the owner to replace it back with Tom.

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'': Beaker 2.0 from his namesake episode was invented by Bunsen to take the real Beaker's place when the latter left to get a haircut. At first, Bunsen enjoys working with Beaker 2.0, but Beaker 2.0 soon [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turns against Bunsen]] and kicks him out of Muppet Labs so that he can work on new inventions by himself. As a result, Bunsen needs the real Beaker's help to stop Beaker 2.0.
* In the first episode of the ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' relaunch series, "Danger Mouse Begins ... Again!", after Danger Mouse accidentally destroys all of London's oddly-shaped glass buildings and [[NoFourthWall wipes out the series budget]], he's replaced by robotic Safety Mice created by the supposedly reformed Baron Greenback. Inevitably, it turns out to be an evil plot.

** Subverted with the decoys. They act every bit as emotional and passionate as the real thing, to the point that they often don't even realize they themselves are decoys and even sometimes resort to making their own decoys. They all end up tearing each other apart in a massive CloningBlues scenario.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In an episode of season three, Rick, Morty, and Summer decide to stay on another planet for a few weeks. In order not to worry Beth, Rick creates robot replacements of all three of them to stay at the house on Earth. The robots do okay other than rather [[BadBadActing monotone acting]], but then the Mortybot [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming starts to become sentient]] and launches into a rant about being alive in front of Beth. Rickbot and Summerbot intervene, but come off somewhat odd themselves.
-->'''Summerbot:''' We will return... possibly in different clothing.

-->'''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]]:''' Well... they weren't ''that'' bad...\\

* ''Series/{{Alice}}'': In "The Robot Wore Pink", Mel replaces Alice, Jolene and Vera with a robot named Blanche. Unfortunately, the glitchy robot works too slowly, and when put on high breaks the dishes and tables while frightening away the customers.

* ''Series/Alice'': In "The Robot Wore Pink", Mel replaces Alice, Jolene and Vera with a robot named Blanche. Unfortunately, the glitchy robot works too slowly, and when put on high breaks the dishes and tables while frightening away the customers.

* ''Series/Hazel'': In "Rosie's Contract", Hazel has a nightmare where she is replaced by a robot (played by Robby the Robot).

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Ultimate Computer". A computer called the M-5 is installed on the ''Enterprise'' to determine if it can replace James Kirk as captain of the ship. M-5 [[AIIsACrapshoot develops artificial intelligence, goes crazy and tries to destroy four other Federation starships]].

* ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'' in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine #63. TSR Labs creates a robotic version of Phil Foglio to replace him. The robot shocks Phil and knocks him unconscious for most of the strip. Phil gets his revenge by pouring water in the robot's ear and short circuiting it. In the last panel, just as Phil announces that he and Dixie are finally going to do "Sex and D&D" next month, a robot replacement for Dixie appears (it replaced her offscreen).

* Subverted in the Award-winning 2004 Manhua, ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'' by Wang Xiao-yang. Set in the future where orphans are given to [[RaisedByRobots robotic mothers]] instead of real, human parents, the protagonist, Sinbell, who lose his biological mother when he was 4 years old often thinks his robot mother, whom raised him for nearly a decade, to be this trope. Until TheReveal at the end of the story: [[spoiler: Sinbell's biological mother, Aya, gave up her life to save him during a chemical explosion, and her will before perishing is that her soul will be transplanted into a machine - her new robotic body - so she could continue her duties as a parent. Which means, for years the "mediocre robotic replacement" Sinbell had publicly condemned before his friends? That's his actual mother]]. Yep. [[{{Tearjerker}} Pass the tissues]].

* Averted with the Wash Bot in ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' ’s Earth-That-Was arc. It was meant as bait to trap Zoe but was programmed to think and act like Wash, so it ultimately protected Zoe from the trap. It proved friendly and helpful during the arc and Emma, Wash’s daughter, liked it. However, it struggled to find a place for itself apart from Wash’s identity.

* In the ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' episode, "Robot Jeffy", Jackie Chu [[DetentionEpisode gives Jeffy detention]] when he [[ToiletHumor takes a dirty dump in his diaper]] (or Triple-D'd, as Jeffy calls it) and tosses his diaper at Jackie Chu's face. Because Jeffy doesn't want to go to detention, Cody gets his robot, Codo, to make a robot of Jeffy named Jeffo to take his place. When Bully Bill bullies Jeffo, Jeffo enters Kill Mode and goes on a rampage, leading Codo to destory Jeffo, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing himself in the process]].

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{TaleSpin}}'' revolved around an attempt by Khan Industries to [[JobStealingRobot replace all pilots with a robot]], the "Auto-Aviator", and Baloo's fight to not be put out of business. While he was unfortunately unable to beat the Auto-Aviator in a ManVersusMachine competition, the Auto-Aviator showcases a ''very'' fatal flaw on in the episode's final act: it is ''completely unable'' to change from its preset course and ''will not'' accept orders to do so, even when not doing so endangers the plane and everybody in it from ''being shot down by air pirates''.