History Main / SillyReasonForWar

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': In "The Bedrock Hillbillies", Fred inherits some land in a rather rustic area, only to find that a hundred-year-old feud between his family and another called the Hatrocks is still going strong. Fred knows nothing about how this fight started, but when Wilma manages to talk to a couple of them (they're polite enough to call a one-hour truce and even bring a pie with them) they find that it all started because one of Fred's ancestors made a very unflattering remark about a ''painting'' of the Hatrocks' long-deceased matriarch. (Wilma and Betty can't resist commenting on how absurd that sounds.)

* In an {{Homage}} to Creator/DrSeuss, ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' once had an issue where the Defenders found themselves in a dimension with two lands named 'Here' and 'There' who were locked in a war. The Defenders eventually learned that the reason for the war was that the people of 'There' objected to the people 'Here' referring to their land as 'There', when it was obvious that they were really 'Here' and the other side was 'There'.
** The story also may be an allusion to Creator/RudyardKipling's poem ''We and They'', in which an obviously British child is incensed because
-->''And They live over the sea,''
-->''While We live over the way,''
-->''But--would you believe it?--They look upon We''
-->''As only a sort of They!''
* During his NotSoDifferentRemark [=/=] rant in ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'', [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] remarks that the last world war was caused by a dispute over how many telegraph poles Germany owed as war reparations. Which, true or not, he evidently finds hilarious. While Germany having fallen in arrears in its delivery of telegraph poles did not cause a war, it was the reason given by France for occupying the Ruhr Valley in 1923. One British observer commented that this was the most devious use of wood since UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar.
* Italian media make a habit of remarking that WarIsHell in the clearest possible way, so of course ''[[ComicBook/RatMan1989 Rat-Man]]'', a series thriving on insanity and [[CrossesTheLineTwice jokes you laugh about in spite of yourself]], would try and come up with the stupidest possible reason in the ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' parody: the country of [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Euthanesia]] has been in the grips of a genocidal civil war between the Farawi and the Dellabona-Prati tribes, that started because the Farawi lived on the apartment above the Dellabona-Prati and walked around in clogs all the time, and some of the individual atrocities in the conflict are sparked by other violations of the condo regulations.
* In the comic book ''[[ComicBook/TheSmurfs Smurf Versus Smurf]]'', a civil war erupts in the Smurf village over whether the word "[[{{Smurfing}} smurf]]" should be used as an adjective (south end) or a verb (north end). This gets funnier in languages that allow for many composite words (e.g. Dutch and German) because now the war is about whether the proper term is "corksmurf" or "smurfscrew". As a whole, this was parodying the language divide issues in UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}. In the [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs animated series]], this led to the creation of the first [[TheOlympics Smurfic Games]], thereby averting the war scenario.
* One of the earliest ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' stories has Clark sent to cover a war in a small South American nation. After uncovering a corrupt weapon manufacturer and the US senator collaborating with him, Clark drags the opposing generals into the forest and demands they settle it by fisticuffs. The generals admit to having no clue what they're fighting about, and quickly make peace when Clark explains the whole war is a scam to sell armaments.

* Italian media make a habit of remarking that WarIsHell in the clearest possible way, so of course ''[[ComicBook/RatMan1989 Rat-Man]]'', a series thriving on [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs insanity]] and [[CrossesTheLineTwice jokes you laugh about in spite of yourself]], would try and come up with the stupidest possible reason in the ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' parody: the country of [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Euthanesia]] has been in the grips of a genocidal civil war between the Farawi and the Dellabona-Prati tribes, that started because the Farawi lived on the apartment above the Dellabona-Prati and walked around in clogs all the time, and some of the individual atrocities in the conflict are sparked by other violations of the condo regulations.

* The song ''99 Luftballons (99 Red Balloons)'' records the beginning of WorldWarIII happening because of a misunderstanding that occurs when [[TitleDrop 99 red balloons]] float away accidentally from a park and were registered by radar (doesn't really helps that both sides are full of trigger-happy [[GeneralRipper General Rippers]] and [[ColonelKilgore Colonel Kilgores]] that "want to be [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain]] [[CowboyCop Kirk]]").
* ''The Battle Of Epping Forest'', by Genesis, describes a battle between two gangs over "gangland boundary". By the middle of the song, though, one of the gangsters says "I'm breaking the legs of the bastard that got me framed!", thus revealing the pretext of the fight. [[AndThatsTerrible This is a bad reason to fight over]], [[spoiler: more so since all of the so-called soldiers die and the gang bosses settle the matter with a coin toss anyway]].

** Orks (and [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Orcs]]) don't really ''need'' any reason to kill their enemies (or each other) beyond boredom, but they're good at finding justifications. For example, the two Greenskin gods are Gork and Mork, one the god of brutal cunning (he hits you when you're not looking), the other of cunning brutality (he hits you ''really'' hard even when you are looking). The question of which is which regularly leads to a happy round of religious warfare, at least until the Greenskins find something more interesting to fight.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Gorgeous'', heroes... er, ''[[AntiHero protagonists]]'' Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent find themselves caught in a civil war between a local lord and his daughter, who's raised an army and marched on the palace. Her reason for rebellion? She wants a bigger allowance.

[[folder:Other]]
* Website/{{Fenspace}} has the so-called "Tomed incident", which arose when some Trekkies and some ''Star Wars'' fans got into an argument over yield and feat calculations that became somewhat heated, and a series of bad decisions [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy made under the influence of alcohol]] caused an EscalatingBrawl that turned into a citywide riot. Both their respective factions consider this incident an OldShame in-universe.
* A Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse [[MemeticMutation meme]] consists of a three-panel comic that has [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Steve Rogers]] getting into a SeriousBusiness disagreement, usually about something mundane, like a TV show or food, followed by a smash cut to the title of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', suggesting the two heroes come to blows over it.
* "[[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/ien/ien137.txt On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace]]" Is a famous essay by Danny Cohen on whether data should be transmitted from the most-significant bit to the least-significant bit or vice versa. It draws heavily on ''Gulliver's Travels'' down to the names for the sides: Big-Endian (most significant first) and Little-Endian (least significant first). To this day, those are the "official" names of those groups.
* ''Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG'':
-->625. I must remember before the next time I shave off the sleeping dwarf's beard and glue it to the sleeping elf, wars have been started that way.
* In RealLife: The Pig War of 1859, which began in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Washington}} San Juan Islands]] after an American farmer shot a British farmer's pig. The pig was the only casualty. Mind you that tensions were high between American and British settlers. The shooting of the pig was just the catalyst. Luckily cooler heads in both militaries saw how stupid the whole thing was and ended the notion of a war on the spot.
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[[folder:Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' has the parents of South Park calling for war with Canada because they didn't want to take responsibility for letting their kids see a movie with foul language. (And [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny]] died attempting to imitate one of the movie's more inane comedy scenes, making the outrage seem more justified.)

* The [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha TSAB]] certainly views the beginning of the war between the [[Franchise/SailorMoon Moon Kingdom]] and Dark Kingdom as this in ''FanFic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'': because Beryl, jealous that Endymion fell in love with Serenity instead of her, incited the war.

* In ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch2'', it's revealed that the yo-kai have been engaged in a civil war that's lasted hundreds of years, with the race being split into the "Bony Spirit" and the "Fleshy Soul". The two sides really don't like each other, and you're told the war began due to either side finding the opposing factions' beliefs disgusting. Then you find out that this disgusting belief is [[spoiler:whether cream or custard filled doughnuts are better]]. Nate/Kate mentions how much of a silly it is to even argue about something like that, let alone have a war over it, particularly since they're basically the same thing anyway.

* In RealLife: The Pig War of 1859, which began in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Washington}} San Juan Islands]] after an American farmer shot a British farmer's pig. The pig was the only casualty.

* Ben Hed (of ''Webcomic/PixieAndBrutus'' fame) released a one-shot comic where, after 2000 years of war and bloodshed, the elves and the orcs are finally getting together to discuss peace. Since the war has gone on for so long, the initial reason for the conflict has been forgotten. The historians on both sides go back and forth with various acts of aggression, until finally they determine that the start of the war was triggered by an orc pranking an elf into sitting on an egg.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Rather than hold elections or have kings, the Drazi in randomly divide their population between "green and purple" scarf wearers, fight non-lethally, and [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership the side with most victories got to rule]] for the next 5 years. This causes all manner of problems in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E03TheGeometryOfShadows The Geometry of Shadows]]" when the faction war breaks out on the station in the vicinity of non-Drazi, especially when the greens decide that the 'non-lethal' part of the rules can be glossed over in the interest of victory. And it turns out there [[LoopholeAbuse Ain't No Rule]] that says the leader of a certain faction has to be a Drazi themselves, as opposed to, for example, a human Earthforce officer who takes the green leader's scarf just to make a point. They freely admit that that part is stupid, but the rules of the conflict predate contact with other species and the ObviousRulePatch is still caught up in committee. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski doesn't miss the opportunity to [[{{Anvilicious}} drop an anvil here]] when the Green Drazi leader argues that the scarves are just as important to the Drazi as national flags are to humans, though Ivanova attempts a retort that human flags theoretically mean something more than "I literally pulled this color scarf out of a barrel".

** And it also happens in ''Slayers: Great'', where the father and son of a famous golem-making family, Galia and Huey, are fighting a personal battle that they eventually try to settle by building giant golems and having them fight each other. The reason: Galia is obsessed with making [[{{UsefulNotes/Kawaisa}} Kawaii]] golems, to the extent he builds his mega-golem in the form of a {{Chibi}} Lina Inverse, even going so far as to spend time and effort causing it to make cute sound effects when it steps or does anything. Huey, on the other hand, is into ultra-realistic golems -- and his favorite source material are beautiful, buxom women. His mega-golem is designed as a humungous statue of [[GagBoobs Naga]], and he devotes effort to making sure the breasts jiggle like hers. When they finally reconcile, their first combined effort golem is a WesternAnimation/BettyBoop reference; a SuperDeformed woman's face atop a realistically sculpted sexy woman's body.

* In RealLife: The Piq War of 1859, which began in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Washington}} San Juan Islands]] after an American farmer shot a British farmer's pig. The pig was the only casualty.

* In RealLife: The Piq War of 1859, which began in the [[UsefulNotes/Washington San Juan Islands]] after an American farmer shot a British farmer's pig. The pig was the only casualty.

* In RealLife: The Piq War of 1859, which began in the [[UsefulNotes/Washington]] San Juan Islands after an American farmer shot a British farmer's pig. The pig was the only casualty.

* In ''Film/DuckSoup'', a devastating war between two countries begins because of Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) taking offense at getting called an "upstart". Rather a ''BerserkButton'', wouldn't you say?

** Literature/BookOfJudges, Samson killed a thousand men ([[WithThisHerring with a]] [[ImprovisedWeapon donkey's jawbone]]), burned down the Philistines' granaries and vineyards, and humiliated their gods, and for what? His wife was given to Samson's companion by her father, a Philistine.[[labelnote:*]]The same wife he married during the lion and honey riddle arc.[[/labelnote]] The Israelites and the Philistines already had tense relations with each other, and since Samson did that stuff [[OneManArmy by himself (with the Spirit of God causing him to Hulk out)]], this one looks to be more of a RoaringRampageOfRevenge than an all-out war.

* "The Crystal War" in the backstory of, and eventually ''Wings of the Goddess'' expansion for, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', that resulted in two continents being consumed, with tens of thousands dead, and originally [[spoiler:[[BadGuyWins victory for the Shadow Lord]]]]. This caused [[spoiler:a [[BadFuture timeline]] so [[CrapsackWorld damn wretched]] that the Goddess, Altana, intervened back during the War to stymie the Shadow Lord and create a peaceful future, which unintentionally [[TimeyWimeyBall split the bloody timeline]], resulting in the timeline the Player Character exists in. ''[[SerialEscalation This]]'' [[SerialEscalation drew the attention]] of Atomos, The Devourer, an entity that exists outside of time, to devour the timeline it deems "unnecessary."]] So what caused all that mess? A fool LoveTriangle. Years before the war, an expedition to the [[GrimUpNorth uncharted Northlands]] was commissioned. One member of that expedition [[spoiler:lured another member of the expedition away, and [[MurderTheHypotenuse tried to kill him]] due to TheChick favoring the latter over the former, and due to the former's distrust towards the latter's desire to establish peace with the beastmen tribes. TheChick suspected something was up, followed them, and ended up eating the blow meant to kill the former. The killer fled the scene, rejoined expedition, and told them the victims had fallen off a cliff. He led them away from the actual site of the encounter, causing the expedition to assume them lost. The original target survived long enough to have the [[DespairEventHorizon grief over his loved one dying]] to [[DealWithTheDevil bargain with The Dark Lord for power to get his justice]],]] which turned him into the Shadow Lord that united the beastmen and began the War.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Rather than hold elections or have kings, the Drazi in randomly divide their population between "green and purple" scarf wearers, fight non-lethally, and [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority the side with most victories got to rule]] for the next 5 years. This causes all manner of problems in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E03TheGeometryOfShadows The Geometry of Shadows]]" when the faction war breaks out on the station in the vicinity of non-Drazi, especially when the greens decide that the 'non-lethal' part of the rules can be glossed over in the interest of victory. And it turns out there [[LoopholeAbuse Ain't No Rule]] that says the leader of a certain faction has to be a Drazi themselves, as opposed to, for example, a human Earthforce officer who takes the green leader's scarf just to make a point. They freely admit that that part is stupid, but the rules of the conflict predate contact with other species and the ObviousRulePatch is still caught up in committee. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski doesn't miss the opportunity to [[{{Anvilicious}} drop an anvil here]] when the Green Drazi leader argues that the scarves are just as important to the Drazi as national flags are to humans, though Ivanova attempts a retort that human flags theoretically mean something more than "I literally pulled this color scarf out of a barrel".

* [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Splatoon]]: This is basically what Splatfests are. There are two teams in the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games, and three teams in [[VideoGame/Splatoon3 the third]], and they choose between a certain topic, and then compete over which is better. The topics in question have a wide variety of ranges, such as [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokemon Red or Pokemon Blue,]] [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants SpongeBob or Patrick,]] Rock, Paper, or Scissors, etc. The topics even vary depending on the region. {{Downplayed}}, since at the end of the day, it’s still just a friendly competition.

* [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Splatoon]]: This is basically what Splatfests are. There are two teams in the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games, and three teams in [[VideoGame/Splatoon3 the third]], and they choose between a certain topic, and then compete over which is better. The topics in question have a wide variety of ranges, such as [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokemon Red or Pokemon Blue,]] [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants SpongeBob or Patrick,]] Rock, Paper, or Scissors etc. The topics even vary depending on the region. {{Downplayed}}, since at the end of the day, it’s still just a friendly competition.

* [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Splatoon]]: This is basically what Splatfests are. There are two teams in the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games, and three teams in [[VideoGame/Splatoon3 the third]], and they choose between a certain topic, and then compete over which is better. The topics in question have a wide variety of ranges, such as [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokemon Red or Pokemon Blue,]] [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants SpongeBob or Patrick,]] Rock, Paper, or Scissors etc. The topics even vary depending on the region.