To-do list:

• It was decided to turn Unacceptable Targets into an index for tropes about targets that are considered off-limits, such as Sacred Cow, He Panned It, Now He Sucks!, Dude, Not Funny!, and other tropes, similarly to how Acceptable Targets was turned into an index for targets that aren't considered off-limits. This includes removing its YMMV status and removing all examples from the page.

This thread's wick check:

Wick check from the Acceptable Targets thread:

Creator decides or acknowledges X is not okay to target

1. Author Vocabulary Calendar: Eminem's habit of making celebrity Take Thats is, by Word of God, because he just disses anyone whose name rhymes with something funny. This eventually led to a running joke of Slim's beef with "Christopher Reeves", in which Slim often pleads with the furious audience that it's not his fault Christopher's name rhymes with everything.
2. videogamedunkey: "Goldeneye fuckin' sucks." (Dunkey's subscriber count instantly drops from 2.8 million to 15)
3. Final Destination: Distanced from Current Events: The 9/11 reference in Final Destination 3 (a picture of one of the towers covered by a shadow of a plane), which was considered tasteless and offensive by critics, is removed from the TV version of the film.
4. Vinesauce Miitopia: What Could Have Been: Vinny made some light casting changes during the series, generally with Miis based on real-life people. The Prickly Husband NPC role was originally filled by a Satoru Iwata Mii; since Iwata is considered a huge Unacceptable Target after his death, Vinny exchanged the Mii for Batman at the start of the sixth stream. This is also why Mike Stoklasa was replaced with LumberJahn after a single stream, as Vinny wasn't comfortable with having a "local" online personality in his main party, even if he didn't mean any harm by it.^note The "locality" part is important when it comes to Gordon Ramsay being in the main party and Vinny also showing interest in putting Tommy Wiseau in; Vinny is fine with putting these real people in the game because they're very unlikely to ever know or care about being gag characters, and it helps that they already act in very ridiculous, cartoonish ways (while Mike Stoklasa is just a fairly normal person who exaggerates on camera)
5. Quinton Reviews: Discussed, but averted in "That Time the World Ended". Quinton mentions that there is a sad aspect to The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls^note namely that the featured explorer connects the search for the skulls to his memories of his then-recently-deceased best friend he used to discuss the skulls with that makes dunking on these people almost not fun, but he ultimately decided that stuff like "is this Atlantis?" is ridiculous enough that he can laugh at them.
6. Hare Brush: The establishing shot of the mental hospital Elmer is committed to ("The Fruitcake Sanitarium: It's Full of Nuts") was cut, as per ABC's Standard and Practices rule at the time that prevents the mention and mocking of mental illness.
7. Hamilton: Reportedly, the reason why "The Adams Administration" is so short is because the original version took a shot at Abigail Adams, which the audience did not seem to appreciate. Apparently, as soon as Lin saw the audience's reaction to the joke, he knew the song had to go.
8. Mike, Lu & Og: Word of God said that during the making of "The Three Amigas", while the male writers were making up jokes about Lu losing Mike to Hermione, the female writers said to them that such a situation is serious for a girl.
9. Red Dead Redemption: It may not be intentional, but Native Americans in this game exist mostly as cannon fodder; Nastas, the only named native in the game, dies in his 3rd mission, and the final enemy faction consists entirely of them (admittedly, they were being manipulated by a white man). This may be why the natives are portrayed as Unacceptable Targets in the sequel.
10. The Bob Newhart Show: Bob was originally a psychiatrist when the show was pitched but Newhart was uncomfortable with the idea, he didn't think it was right to make fun of the truly mentally ill. It was at his behest that Bob was changed to an outpatient psychologist helping otherwise ordinary people through their problems^note Very basically, a psychiatrist is an MD, and works with patients who have serious issues such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder which often require powerful prescription medication to control. Psychologists are not MD's (though they often hold advanced degrees), and talk with patients/clients to determine mental/emotional issues, and then discuss ways to deal with them (further adding to the confusion is that most psychologists and therapists know psychiatrists that they work with when a psychology patient does require prescription medication, though usually less powerful ones).

Audience saying it's not okay to target X

1. Acceptable Political Targets:
   • In fact it can also be said that every single president even before JFK gets some form of backlash by those critical of the American political system. This could be due to possible Values Dissonance on the worldviews of the early presidents on slavery, treatment of Native Americans and their support of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Woodrow Wilson have been hit the hardest by this. Only Washington, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt are unanimously considered Unacceptable Targets.
   • Though he is still very much an acceptable target among liberals and progressives, as far as mainstream conservatives are concerned, Ronald Reagan is practically an Unacceptable Target.
2. Freestyle Version: * Around a quarter of Drake's mixtape So Far Gone is freestyles, using songs by Jay-Z ("Ignorant Shit"), Kanye West ("Say You Will"), Lykke Li ("Little Bit"), Santogold ("Unstoppable") and Peter Bjorn and John ("Let's Call It Off").^note (Drake's controversial 2012 track "Jodeci Freestyle" is not an example of this trope, as it is over an original beat.)
3. So Unfunny, It's Funny: Elements of this have always been part of Eminem's schtick, ranging from totally undeserved insult comedy hurled at Unacceptable Targets that is so abusive that all you can do is laugh, to howler puns and double-entendres which he explains, to him just improvising knowingly lame songs in one of his arsenal of silly mystery accents.
4. Emily Bett Rickards: * Sacred Cow: Make no mistake, Felicity Smoak is far and away the most hated character in the Arrowverse for many reasons, but her actress Emily Bett Rickards is firmly off limits. She is seen as an outright saint in real life - she has raised money for charitable causes dedicated to fighting auto-immune diseases, sponsored a scholarship worth upwards of $250,000 out of her own pocket, is very nice and personable to her fans, and did "tons of research" when she discovered Felicity would become paralyzed. If anything, she is the most pitied out of everyone involved with the show since she's had to watch her character's reputation go down the drain through no fault of her own. It's basically one of the rules of being an Arrowverse viewer: you are not to say anything bad about Emily under any circumstances.
5. Professional Wrestling: Most Smart marks/smarks do not tolerate the negative comments to the following people as they are considered Unacceptable Targets, especially if it's minor like "I don't this person".:
6. Western Animation J To R: It's big in China, it even comes to the terms of being untouchable, (though it has slightly more leeway with its parodies) as proven by Chinese video streaming website Billibilli's "Creative Treaty" that includes the rule that forbids mature videos that can attract young kids and peoples, it even includes the creepypasta version of Peppa Pig character as an example!
7. Asia: Since the 1920s the world knows at least one historically important Turk: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey and also modernizer of its culture and society. He is still seen as a hero by the Turkish population and someone who should not be criticized at all.
8. Live-Action TV (Other): Fred Rogers, God of Completely Respected Figures and Those Who Cannot be Mocked (Mister Rogers) as a Demigod in the Hall of Positive Reaction (House of Popularity)
9. Western Animation: * Clone High was met with mediocre reviews and low ratings when it premiered back in 2002 due to its serialized format, cheap animation style, and Audience-Alienating Premise (Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist clones of historical figures enact parodies of teen dramas). These, along with massive backlash in India against its portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi, led to the series being cancelled after a single season. In the years since, the show has come to be a Cult Classic that is now considered one of the best animated series of the 2000s due to having a quirky sense of humor with clever history-themed jokes and being a serialized series that was legitimately good at parodying high school dramas.
10. Bee Movie: Some viewers were annoyed with the gag of Winnie the Pooh getting tranquilized, feeling it was hitting too close to childhood.
11. Cards Against Humanity: The game was originally launched under the philosophy that there were none, but this stance has changed, as the creators have removed cards such as "Date Rape" and "Passable Transvestites" from newer sets (cards about Holocaust victims, among other topics, remain intact). Interestingly, the 19-year-old trans gentleman who protested the "Passable Transvestites" card has since recanted, saying that it was not okay for him to single out just transgender people as an Unacceptable Target, and he never meant for his post to go viral.
12. Chernobyl Diaries: Many critics pointed out that using a real-life tragedy like the Chernobyl disaster as the basis for a trashy zombie flick was in very poor taste. The UK-based Chernobyl Children's Lifeline charity even outright called the film "disgusting".
13. Clone High: The show's portrayal of Gandhi has caused an uproar from Indians.
14. Derry Girls: He Really Can Act: Tommy Tiernan has developed haters in The New '10s for aspects of his routine that involved mocking people with Down Syndrome, remarks towards Jewish people and the Holocaust that were in very poor taste, a weak defense where he claimed "Irish people aren't racist; they're just having the craic" and from people who don't think his energetic style of comedy is funny. Here he plays the Only Sane Man to perfection, many finding his performance as Gerry funny.
15. Etika:
    • Etika had become this as soon as he went missing. People who have made clown memes and treating his disappearance like it wasn't a big deal have been slaughtered by comments talking about how unfunny and mean-spirited their words are. And following his passing, those same people who made clown memes or just mocked Etika's passing were torched hard.
    • Next to the clown crowd are a segment of the K-Pop crowd (whether just trolls or legitimate), who have added Etika to their list of recently deceased celebrities to mock by saying they should have "stanned" certain K-Pop acts or that these celebrities never stood a chance against their favorite K-Pop stars, with most times it done deliberately by spamming the same repetitive clips of those same artists. Suffice to say, K-Pop fans and Etika fans are not on good terms because of it.
16. High School High: While the film doesn't treat actual inner-city schools or gangland drama with derision, it was still an irreverent take on a film genre that was so deeply rooted in reality (Roger Ebert referred to the film's premise as "kicking its subjects when they're down") that simply making fun of it comes off as insensitive regardless, not helped by the fact that one of its more unfortunate tropes is played with little to no irony.
17. In the Company of Men: A bet between two white-collar workers involving the emotional destruction of an innocent woman as Revenge by Proxy... and that woman is also deaf.
18. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: The Internet has some very raunchy places, but try to make fun of this man and the Hive Mind will eat you alive.
19. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Fluttershy has been considered this both in-universe and out. With the latter, characters in the show who have slighted her will gain the wrath of the fanbase, most notably with Gilda in her debut episode, Fluttershy's pet Angel (Especially in the episode "Putting Your Hoof Down") and Pinkie Pie in the episode "Filli Vanilli".
20. Ren And Stimpy AP C1x 02 Ren Seeks Help The fact that Ren is torturing innocent animals is enough to upset many viewers, especially since these scenes are Played for Laughs, albeit extremely dark laughs.
21. Steamboat Willie: Mickey and Minnie's animal abuse drew ire from some viewers, who found animal abuse to be something that should never be played for humor.
22. The Blockbuster Buster: One likely reason for the particularly strong backlash against his Into the Woods review was that you cannot complain about Stephen Sondheim songs as lightly and uncritically as he did.
23. The King Amuses Himself: This play's Historical Villain Upgrade of King François I of France is what led the play to be banned after a single performance. In Verdi's own adaptation, the King was demoted to an Italian provincial duke, a far more Acceptable Target at the time.
24. The Walking Dead (2010): Laurie Holden. Andrea gets a lot of flak from the fandom, but her actress from all appearances is off-limits. Unlike with Sarah Wayne Callies and Josh McDermitt, fans never displaced any of their hate for Andrea onto Laurie Holden. It's common knowledge that she was contracted for seven seasons and had no intention to leave the show. If anything, a lot of people view her as a victim of bad screenwriting, and still praise her for trying to play Andrea as honestly as possible.
25. Wadanohara: Notice how this game is devoid of Rule 34? While its obscurity has some part in it, it's the fact that Wadanohara is implied to be a rape victim that makes fans very uncomfortable with the idea of sexualizing the character or the game. This trope was made clear when Mogeko drew a NSFW picture of Wadanohara and Sal; it incited a backlash and damaged the relationship between Mogeko and their fans.
26. Yotsuba&!: Unacceptable Targets: Almost the Trope Namer, due to her being a 5-year-old that is adorable and innocent in nature. Even in the darkest depths of the Internet, Yotsuba Is Off Limits.

Other uses, unclear

1. Creativity Leash: index
2. Never Speak Ill of the Dead: See also
3. Universally Beloved Leader: Contrast 0% Approval Rating. An adventurer (not a ruler) treated this way has a 100% Heroism Rating. When the adoration is enforced by others, it's Unacceptable Targets.
4. Dorkly Originals: He even manages to stop the Hulk, who doesn't use metal whatsoever, by daring him to attack an elderly Holocaust survivor.
5. Better Call Saul: Other Characters: In-Universe. Bauer attempts to use his status as a serviceman to try and intimidate Jimmy into showing some respect and taking his order to pull the commercial. It doesn't work on Jimmy, who is utterly unfazed by his empty threats and then dismisses him from the office with a patently insincere "Thank you for your service!"
6. Unwind: In-Universe. Grace is "low-cortical" (intellectually disabled) and apparently parts pirates won't unwind people like her.
   • Everyone Has Standards
7. Joker Game: He Who Must Not Be Seen: It's very obvious that the portraits were Emperor Hirohito. But his face wasn't shown because it's taboo to have him and his family portrayed in Japanese media unless it's for historical, educational, or informative purposes.
8. The Office USSWE 4 Blackmail: An in-universe example. Oscar was offended when footage spliced from Milk into a video made by Creed for extortion.
   • Dude, Not Funny!
9. Advertising: The original iteration of the long-running Sonic Drive-in commercials with a duo eating in a car and having Seinfeldian Conversations featured a male-female couple played by actors Brian Huskey and Molly Erdman. Then a viewer saw Huskey in an Onion News Network video featuring a Black Comedy story about making Iraq more accessible to handicapped soldiers, which the viewer deemed Dude, Not Funny! since he ran a veterans blog and considered those in the military and veterans to be Unacceptable Targets. He angrily contacted Sonic. Even though Huskey already had a long career doing sometimes-edgy comedy even before the Sonic spots, Sonic decided they didn't want any controversy whatsoever and dropped both Huskey and Erdman. Luckily for Huskey, he would find success soon after as a writer and actor on Childrens Hospital. Erdman has gained notice as the creator of the humor website Catalog Living.
10. Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction: * Every Episode Ending: Jonathan Frakes always delivered a pun at the end of every story with a grin, which always related to the story's theme or subject matter. The only time he didn't do this was in the case of a woman and her daughter being reunited with the woman's long-lost mother, a Holocaust survivor.
    • Speculative, could be in the "Creator decides/acknowledges" section
11. Ziwe: Extreme Doormat: A huge point of the humor. Pretty much all of the Iconic Guests would easily No-Sell Ziwe's boorish behavior and attempts to race bait them if they were willing to stand up to her and argue back like a normal person would. But they're celebrities, this is a talk show, and Ziwe is a black woman, so instead they just let her walk all over them.
12. ThanksKilling: "Oh please, Ali. Your legs are harder to shut than the JonBenet Ramsey case." The others react like it's the greatest joke ever.
13. The Iron Teeth: Herad is against killing women and children.
    • misuse
14. Zelda's Honor: Its debatable if the exploitation of the Kokiri was a necessary evil for the villains to proceed with their plans. Some of the abuse on them can be quite shocking.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 18th 2023 at 3:33:47 AM

Paging ~badtothebaritone to the thread. Anyway, I'll wait for more feedback before saying anything myself.

Edit: Well, I found the original wick check from the Acceptable Targets thread. Pretty sure Tabs did that one.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 10th 2023 at 3:15:13 AM

I could see this being a disambiguation.

I'm leaning toward disambiguating as well, or maybe turning it into an index for tropes and Audience Reactions about targets that are considered unacceptable, similarly to how we turned Acceptable Targets into an index.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 10th 2023 at 2:00:51 PM

I was wondering if this would work as an index. to that for now, unless a convincing argument is made otherwise.

to an index

After thinking about it a bit more, I think I've changed my mind on disambiguating and would prefer turning it into an index if we turn it into a list of tropes, between Acceptable Targets already getting that treatment and the fact that I'm not sure if we already have an index for the opposite of Acceptable Targets. (I feel like I might have brought up turning this into an index in Acceptable Targets' thread, but I'm not positive.)

I think an index would be fine.

Index makes sense

on turning it into an index. Going over it now, it's pretty fucking weird reading over some of the real-life people listed, especially with some of the more recent criticisms and reappraisals of figures like Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

Maybe Humor Dissonance too?

That might work. Since this is becoming an index and not a supertrope, what's listed doesn't always have to involve unacceptable targets, but I can see how Humor Dissonance could depending on the target of the joke (such as if the joke in the work is about someone or something audiences think shouldn't be joked about).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 18th 2023 at 3:49:29 AM

Finally got around to turning the page into an index. It's not that long right now, but feel free to add more.

220 wicks to remove, which isn't much.

Edit: Dewicked the Unacceptable Target redirect and cut it, and now we're down to an even 200.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 24th 2023 at 5:33:02 AM

Dewicking is done, so locking.