Basic Trope: The tyrannical government placates the people with mindless entertainment and probably sufficient food.
- Straight: To keep the proletariat distracted from economic hardships and costly wars, the People's Republic of Bulungi broadcasts 24 hours of repetitive shows and violent sports.
- Exaggerated: The Ministry of Entertainment has a hand in every single form of media, from films to books to tabloids.
- Downplayed: Independent media does exist in Bulungi, providing some media which promotes critical thinking, but its influence pales in comparison with the one backed by the government.
- Justified: The bread and circuses are focused on provinces that have been recently conquered, to prevent the rise of resistance movements.
- Inverted:
- The People's Republic of Bulungi keeps its citizens hungry and angry as some sort of Zero-Approval Gambit.
- The People's Republic of Bulungi actually helps its people and focuses on making life better with no distractions.
- The government fears that well-known sitcoms which have jumped the shark will result in the proletariat undergoing mental degradation, so they try to distract them from entertainment with constant broadcasts about economic hardships and costly wars.
- Subverted:
- Despite the government's attempts to placate the people, they are able to see through this and have independent sources of entertainment.
- The Republic of Bulingi is accused of "Bread and Circuses" as a policy and "falling into decadence" by Bob. The complainers are former aristocrats fallen into irrelevance. Bulingi being at peace is considered decadence by Bob. He is also angered at the "uppityness" of commoners ruling themselves and using the treasury to improve general welfare and care for the disabled, widows, and orphans instead of military adventurism and gaining wealth via trade instead of conquest. Said policies have pragmatic benefits as soldiers don't need to worry about their survivors or being rendered destitute from the fighting.
- Double Subverted: Except a good portion of the people don't care about where their entertainment comes from.
- Parodied:
- The show used as the "circus" consists of the rebel failing to bring down The Evil People's Republic of Bulungi. This should have been a hint that the republic is bad, yet no one noticed.
- The "circus" is a daily event that consists of everyone gathering around their computers and laughing about how dumb people must be if they're distracted from the state of the world by mindless entertainment. note
- Zig Zagged: The "circus" only works for some people, and time will tell whether the republic falls or are barely saved.
- Averted: The People's Republic of Bulungi simply oppresses the citizens, or it ain't tyrannical to begin with.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Keep their bellies full and their televisions on, and the people will follow you to catastrophe."
- Invoked: The People's Chairman knows that the proletariat will never be a problem so long as they are fed and their televisions are on.
- Exploited: Seeing that the standard slogans of justice and freedom won't work with these folks, Ernest, the leader of Bulungi Front for Liberty, promises them an even higher standard of living when they get in charge, focusing on the people who are neglected by the current regime.
- Defied: See Pragmatic Villainy.The Govt. Chairman: "We aren't going to last long on distracting people by entertainment. We should actually think of somehow solving the economic problems — at least so that our people would see their lives getting actually better and wouldn't think of an uprising."
- Discussed: "So Ernest, you wanna rouse people of Bulungi for a revolt? Ah, scrap that, for no one's gonna give up their food and fun for the sake of some abstract 'freedom'."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The people of Bulungi are eventually conditioned into being only concerned about their everyday meal and dose of entertainment... and when the war betwen Bulungi and Kimara breaks out, instead of defending their homeland Bulungians simply leave now that their country can't provide enough of either for them. Even worse, some of them go on to actually betray it because Kimarans promised them more bread and more circuses, and Bulungi's citizens don't care who their food and fun come from.
- Bulingi's food supplies eventually start running out due to the government's greedy and horrible policies, while their entertainment gets worse and worse as creators are forced to insert more blatant propaganda in an attempt to keep the populace from rebelling. It doesn't work; instead a dissatisfied populace begins mass protests.
- Reconstructed: After taking control of Bulungi, the newly-appointed Kimaran Governor-General sees what kind of people he had just incorporated into the empire. While he doesn't abandon the "nutriment and entertainment" policy, he gradually starts introducing patriotic education along with these to teach people of Bulungi that their "bread and circuses" have a source.
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