History Main / WritingLines

Coming up with methods to evade, enliven or simplify this punishment is commonly attempted. These include getting a computer program or magical spell (in WizardingSchool) to write the lines automatically, taping multiple pens together so you can write multiple lines at a time (which does ''not'' work in RealLife), drawing a vertical line down the page to reduce each sentence by one word (by creating a non-serif 'I' for the phrase 'I must'), farming the lines out to underlings or altering your handwriting so that 'I must not' starts to look like 'I must'. These may be used successfully by a HighSchoolHustler. Other characters trying this will most likely be caught out and have to redo the work properly.

* A variant in some older British school stories is that the offender is made to copy out lines of poetry. This crops in, among others, ''Literature/ThePrimeOfMissJeanBrodie'' and ''Literature/StalkyAndCo'' (In the latter, SadistTeacher Mr. King gets a rare PetTheDog moment when he reads out Virgil's ''Literature/TheAeneid'' to a student who's been sentenced to write out several hundred lines of that work. Really it's just an excuse for keeping the lad company and taking his mind off the upcoming ordeal: the detention means he will miss games practice and thus get caned.)

* One of the covers of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' #481, which spoofed ''Film/TheSimpsonsMovie'', parodied Bart Simpson's writing of lines with Alfred E. Neuman as Bart writing "I WILL NOT USE THE SIMPSONS MOVIE TO SELL MAD".

!!Examples:

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' imagines doing this until he's an old man, then his teacher orders him to do it again.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode "Dexter Detention" has Dexter and the other students in detention writing [[FelonyMisdemeanor "I Am A Criminal"]], with some writing it pretty wrong. Then Dexter decides to use the chalk to devise an escape plan [[EveryoneKnowsMorse in Morse code.]]

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[[RuleOfThree I will not write a caption for this image.]]\\
[[SelfDemonstratingArticle I will not write a caption for this image.]]-] ]]

* A key gameplay mechanic in ''VideoGame/SkoolDaze'' (and its sequel ''VideoGame/BackToSkool'') - get caught misbehaving and you are given lines; earn too many and it's game over.

* A UsefulNotes/McDonalds commercial from 1987 features the Hamburglar stealing hamburgers from Ronald's class. At the end, he is caught and is forced to write "Don't take burgers [[CatchPhrase rubble rubble]]".

** In their [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth year]] Seamus is set to write "I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick." After accidentally producing a spout of water that hits Professor Flitwick in the face while talking and waving his wand around.

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* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'': In one of the magazines, [[{{Sleepyhead}} Humphrey]] had to write lines saying "I must not fall AsleepInClass". He fell asleep anyway, [[{{Irony}} while writing them]].
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': In their eponymous story, The Three Little Witches have to copy out the Whateley Code of Mystic Ethics twenty times, and as the Code of Ethics is five pages long, it's a hundred pages.
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* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', the title character is forced by Principal Wartz to write "Mooning is not funny" on both a sheet of paper and on the blackboard.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' has Dexter and the other students in detention writing [[FelonyMisdemeanor "I Am A Criminal"]], with some writing it pretty wrong. Then Dexter decides to use the chalk to devise an escape plan [[EveryoneKnowsMorse in Morse code.]]

** More benignly and amusingly, one of Harry's classmates is set conventional lines by Professor Flitwick. After misaiming a spell, flinging Flitwick around the room, he must write out "I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick."

* A McDonalds commercial from 1987 features the Hamburglar stealing hamburgers from Ronald's class. At the end, he is caught and is forced to write "Don't take burgers [[CatchPhrase rubble rubble]]".

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode, "Crime After Crime", Mr. Herriman makes up new rules so that no one will suspect his [[ICantBeliveItsNotHeroin carrot addiction]], one of which involves not standing on rugs. Wilt stands on a rug upon hearing this new rule, and throughout the episode, tries to decide on how to punish himself. One of these punishments involves writing "I will not stand on rugs" on the chalkboard repeatedly.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode, "Crime After Crime", Mr. Herriman makes up new rules so that no one will suspect his [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything carrot addiction]], one of which involves not standing on rugs. Wilt stands on a rug upon hearing this new rule, and throughout the episode, tries to decide on how to punish himself. One of these punishments involves writing "I will not stand on rugs" on the chalkboard repeatedly.