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Parental Sexuality Squick - TV Tropes **Peter Quill:** I don't need to hear how my parents... **Drax:** Why? My father would tell the story of impregnating my mother every winter solstice. **Peter:** That's disgusting. **Drax:** *[offended]* It was *beautiful!* You Earthers have hang-ups! Do you have parents? Are your parents human? Do you have any siblings, particularly any who are not your twin/triplet/etc? If you have answered "yes" to any of these questions, then... it logically follows that your parents have had sex, at least once in their lives, and quite possibly more than once. Of course... - You could be the product of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), informally called a "test-tube baby." But then, IVF is expensive, even when covered by insurance, and is generally only done after couples have been trying to conceive the old-fashioned way for a long period of time. - Your parents could be in a same-sex couple, and thus lacking all of the.. er, required equipment for procreation — but then, someone had to be responsible for either providing needed genetic material, or carrying the pre-born you to term. Even then, it's still quite likely your parents have sex, even if it's not the exact acts required for procreation. - You could be some kind of deity or demi-deity, arising out of a virgin birth — but statistically, that's so unlikely as to be impossible. And, as *Dogma* pointed out, being the product of a virgin birth doesn't necessarily mean your parents didn't have sex after you showed up. **Listen closely**: Your parents put Tab A into Slot B to bring you into the world. Disgusting, isn't it? In fiction, it's common enough to see a child react with curiosity to their parents in a Primal Scene. As they get older, however, say into double digits, the very *thought* that their parents might be getting it on (or even their parents kissing in front of them, for the G-rated version) is enough to send them searching for the Brain Bleach. Usually by the time a child reaches their twenties, and is able to fully comprehend and empathize with sexual attraction and activity, this reaction lessens — generally from "Eww, gross!" to "I really didn't need to hear that, Dad." — although for comedic effect, it might not fully go away, as Peter Quill in the page quote above can attest to. Compare I Banged Your Mom, Affection-Hating Kid (though most affection that kids gag at in media is SFW), Old People are Nonsexual (the belief that aging should kill sexuality). Contrast The Talk, which can be used to prevent this. ## Examples: - A DirectTV ad plays on this, with the son going home to be comforted by his parents after getting a high cable bill, only to see them in the middle of a group of elderly couples engaging in slow massages. Which results in the son driving away with tears in his eyes, which in turn has him driving into "a pizzeria that makes really good baked ziti." - One Clorox Bleach commercial has a woman fixing breakfast as her senior citizen parents have come for an overnight visit. The dad then says, "Better hurry up with those eggs. Your mother and I worked up quite the appetite last night," as the two exchange very telling looks. Cut to the daughter now washing her bedsheets. For life's "bleachable" moments, indeed. - One Downy ad involves a teen being squicked out when his grandparents come out of a closet with wrinkled clothes. - An IKEA commercial features a middle-aged couple gleefully chasing each other around the house to the sound of country music, she wearing lingerie and rubber boots and wielding a pitchfork, and he in his underwear and wearing a pig mask. They're abruptly interrupted by their adult daughter arriving home, accompanied by her boyfriend, and they all stare mortified at each otheruntil the parents and boyfriend crack up. The tag line inquires whether it may be time to move out. (The parents bursting out laughing makes it a nice example of normalizing the older people's sexuality in spite of the embarrassment.) - One ad for a reverse mortgage features an adult woman visiting her parents and hearing her father complaining about his bad back. The daughter believes that his bad back is due to the stairs in the house and suggests that her parents downsize. Her mother responds: "It wasn't the stairs. Actually, we love the stairs." and maintains significant eye contact as her daughter shudders at the implications. - *Deadpool* runs into this with his and Shiklah's daughter, Warda in the 2099 story. Warda hates her father but thinks highly of her mother. **Warda:** What did Shiklah ever see in you anyway? **Deadpool:** Well my nickname used to be The Merc with a Mouth, and let's just say I knew how to use it. **Warda:** You're a gross old man!! - *Firebreather*: The protagonist is the son of a human woman and a dragon. Yes, a full-sized, reptilian one. - *Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit*: Downplayed as Parental Affection Squick — in the first issue, Kamala finds her parents being mushy and affectionate to be very off-putting. *Parental affection... it's almost enough to make me lose my appetite...* - *Nextwave*: The Captain mentions that one codename he considered was "Captain Avalon", after the Roxy Music album of the same name. He quickly decided not to do so after learning that his mom conceived him while listening to that album. - *Spider-Girl*: This is Mayday's reaction to hearing her mom's going to have another baby. Her thought process goes directly from "How could this happen?" to "EWWW!" - *Supergirl*: - *Supergirl (Rebirth)*: Downplayed. Supergirl *really* doesn't like hearing her foster parents flirt when she's around (or when she is *not* around — she can hear them from anywhere, literally). They are not concerned about her squicked reaction, though. **Jeremiah:** What I did miss? **Edna:** Just the **launch**, Jeremiah. But the new uniform sure fits. **Supergirl:** Comms are live. I can **hear** you two. **Edna:** We're your **parents**, Kara. We're not **dead**. - *Many Happy Returns*: Linda learns that her mother got pregnant. When their parents explain the hows and whys, she decides she did NOT need to know that. **Linda:** How did this happen?! **Fred:** What— **Linda:** Are you responsible for this? **Fred:** What the hell kind of question's that? **Linda:** Haven't you ever heard of protection? **Fred:** I had a gun nearby. Didn't help. **Sylvia:** Remember that afternoon you kind of surprised us, when your dad and I reconciled? Well, I think that's when... **Linda:** Oh, I SO don't need to hear that! Jeez, Ma, you're too old old to be having— **Sylvia:** Sex? **Linda:** I was gonna say "a baby", but yeah, the other thing, too. - *Superman*: Jon accidentally discovers that, apparently, Lois has kept Clark's very-revealing gladiator costume from Warworld (which looks suspiciously like a piece of Superman-inspired leather S&M gear) in her and Clark's bedroom closet, and is utterly mortified by the implications. - In *Superior Spider-Man*, when Peter discovers he is able to rifle through Octavius's memories, he finds one of the night before Doc Ock's planned marriage to Aunt May (the plot of a real comic from 1973), and quickly tries to convince himself he hadn't. - Inverted in *9 Chickweed Lane*. Parents Amos and Edda discuss what their newborn children will think when they envision their parents having sex. "Can you for a moment imagine being our kids, thinking of us locked in an act of most private intimacy?" Apparently, imagining that turns them on. - Two characters in *Zits* had the stories of their conceptions told to them, with horrible reactions. - Jeremy is in his room playing "Stairway to Heaven" on his guitar (he always liked the song for some reason) when his mother mentions that he probably likes the song so much because he was conceived to it. Within minutes, he's rinsing his ears out and boiling his guitar strings. - Hector's parents let slip that a batch of blueberry muffins burned during his conception. The very sight of a blueberry muffin results in severe nausea thereafter. - *FoxTrot* had a story arc where Andy decided to discuss "the birds and the bees" with her teenage daughter Paige. Paige is shown to be incredibly uncomfortable, but one comic implies that it's because Andy keeps referencing her own relationship with husband Roger. ("So the boy might say 'C'mon, just one hickey'. That's what your father said...") - In *Baby Blues*, Zoe and Hammie have been known to act grossed out whenever they see Darryl and Wanda kiss, if only as a form of "entertainment." In one strip, when Darryl and Wanda catch Zoe and Hammie snickering as they kiss, Wanda asks them if they think it's funny when they kiss. Zoe replies no...just when they kiss each other. - To remain blissfully ignorant, Ivy in *The Booty Call* very much insists that no one in her family, *including her parents*, has ever had sex. - *The Secret Return of Alex Mack*: Alex is incredibly grossed out when her mother mentions using a diaphragm. Given Alex's novel biochemistry, though, it's important to consider her contraceptive options... - In *Daria* fic *Camera Obscure*, by A.A. Pessimal, Quinn Morgendorffer is completely squicked out over her parents reviving a moribund sex life, and begs to spend the night sleeping in her sister's room. Daria pretends not to understand and makes her suffer before relenting. **Daria:** They're married. They got a licence to practice. Get over it. - *Child of the Storm* has Harry develop a subdued variant on this in regards to his father, Thor (formerly incarnated as James Potter) and Jane. He's happy that they're happy, once he gets used to Jane, but he doesn't want to know the details — though he does sometimes act oblivious to force his father to try and explain things, thus embarrassing himself. - There is a *Meet the Robinsons* fanfic where Lewis ends up swapping dating stories with his Kid from the Future Wilbur and mentions that one of the girls he dated prior to Franny (Wilbur's mother) helped him realize how much he liked kids; Wilbur comments on how disturbing he finds that. Lewis points out that he needs to like kids for Wilbur to exist; Wilbur counters "There are many things necessary for my existence that I don't like to think about." Lewis can't respond because he's laughing so hard. - In *Mass Effect: End of Days*, a human boy born to an Alliance AI and a human (It Makes Sense in Context) hears his mother discussing sexuality with Legion. Reaction... predictable. - *The Legend of Link: Lucky Number 13*: - *How the Light Gets In*: - Thea is horrified when she walks in on Dean about to go down on Laurel. They're both a Parental Substitute to her, so it counts as this. A thoroughly amused Sara then makes the situation even worse for Thea. **Sara:** It's been like half a year, dude. Of course they're gonna fuck tonight. Probably more than once. In different positions and everything. **Thea:** Oh, god. Please don't talk about them *fucking* in *different positions*. **Sara:** Okay, they'll just stay in the one position. **Dean:** Did you think we were sexless beings? **Thea:** Yes! **Dean:** Oh. Right. Well, okay then. You're right. We don't have sex. In fact, we're virgins. Mary was an immaculate conception. Better? - Sara then starts to talk about the time she walked in on her parents having sex, only to be cut off by Laurel **Laurel:** Oh, please don't tell the hide and seek story again. I want to have sex tonight. I don't want to think about my parents. **Sara:** Eh, point taken. - In *The Official Fanfiction University Of Middle-earth*, Legolas doesn't want to hear about his parents' romantic escapades. "Is it any wonder we get written as bunnies, doing everyone at every opportunity?" Legolas said darkly. To his amazement, his father only smiled. "Alas, they do not realise that since we do not arrange marriages among Elves and marry only when we are most certain it is love, we like to enjoy the rewards of such a strong love. Your mother and I have enjoyed..." This time, Legolas put his own hands over his ears and blocked the rest of the sentence out. Some things were the same, be you Elf, Human or Balrog. There were mental images concerning your parents that just weren't right. - *A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script*: Elves don't find discussions concerning sex inappropriate or squicky, not even when it's about family members' sex lives, and they find funny how humans make a big deal of it. **Soldier:** [nodding] I don't see how she could have been right about it: he was able to touch the Silmaril, after all, and if mortal flesh were inherently corrupt that oughtn't have been possible. — How come Men are so peculiar about something as normal as the conception of their own offspring? I've never understood why you all make such an issue of it, especially since you need so many of them. Why would mortal parents want to pretend to their children that they just happen along out of thin air — **Ranger:** — or under rocks, don't forget under rocks — [Beren covers his face with his hand, laughing in spite of himself] **Soldier:** — even when everyone knows it isn't true? **First Guard:** [musingly] I think for the same reason that mortal children want to pretend the same thing. It's like the time we were visiting Eithel Sirion and there was a new human guardsman there who wanted to know what the celebration was for, and we told him, and after he finished coughing and someone fetched him a new drink, it turned out he thought we were joking. **Third Guard:** You saying back, "You mean you don't remember it?" didn't help convince him otherwise. It was funny, but we never understood why the High King's Men would rather congratulate the Prince on his birth than his conception. It seemed like silly semantic games to me. **Second Guard:** We could ask Beren instead of speculating. **First Guard:** We could, but he'd just get even more embarrassed than he already is. - In *Unexpected Surprise*: - When Adrien tells Nino and Alya about him and Marinette using condoms which were already inside the room, Nino points out that, since the apartment used to be his mother's, they must have been intended for... at which point Adrien asks him not to go there. - Emma, when she sees Adrien kissing her mommy's neck, acts disgusted... and points out that when a guy wants a girl to like him, he's supposed to kiss her lips. - In *Pokémon* fanfics that feature IronShipping (Byron/Riley), it is common for Roark, Byron's son, to express horror, shock, or disgust at the thought of his father and Riley (who is usually depicted as his childhood friend) sleeping together. - In *One Stressful Week in Sunyshore,* after learning about Riley's crush on Byron, Roark goes home and promptly has a nightmare where he walks in on the two of them having sex and completely loses it. - In *That's Why I Love You,* Byron prepares a Valentine's Day gift for Roark and another for Riley, but gets the packages mixed up, resulting in Riley receiving a bag of candy and a stuffed Cranidos, while Roark gets a box containing imported dark chocolate and a man thong. He is not happy when he finds out who it's for. **Byron:** *(over the phone, as Roark is screaming in horror)* Would you calm down already? Look, I'll come get 'em myself Monday and bring your gift with me. **Roark:** I want twice as much candy for the psychological damage. **Byron:** I'll give *you* psychological damage! - *Multiversal Constants* being an Alternate Dimension fanfic, it gives Jon and Damian the opportunity to react like this. - Jon actually was a huge Shipper on Deck for his (alternate-future) parents, but when they finally get together and Conner jokes about Jon's counterpart being born nine months later, his reaction is a big pile of NOPE. - To explain how wrong he finds alternate Dick crushing on Zatanna — who's MUCH older in his home dimension — Damian says it would be like his eldest brother was dating his mother. - In *The Shoebox Project,* the Marauders get The Talk. James gets it from his mom while his dad gives it to Sirius, and they argue over who had the worse experience. "She spoke about *her* and *my dad* and — you know." "Oh God." Sirius peeks out from behind the curtain. "You win." - *Til Death Do Us Part*: - Ash faints when he realizes what really occurred prior to a video-phone call he once gave. He remembers thinking it was weird that Professor Oak was wearing a bathrobe in the middle of the day and he swears he heard his mother's voice in the background. After the two reveal that they're a couple, Ash recognizes that he caught the two after having sex. He then faints again when Delia shows off her wedding ring. - Ash has a mixed reaction to the news his mom and step-dad are having a baby. It's largely due to this but also partially due to jealousy. - While not outright disgusted, Ash's younger half-sister Laurel gets embarrassed when she comes across her elderly parents getting ready to have sex. She promptly exits the house with her boyfriend. - In *A Few Needed Adjustments*, Keisuke is uncomfortable hearing Kyubi describing his past affair with Fumi. By contrast, Natsume (who just learned Kyubi is her biological dad) is just bored: **Kyubi:** She was so much more polite, kind, and beautiful than any other lady. **Keisuke:** OK, I'm not listening to you gross people anymore. **Kyubi:** I didn't know she was married at first. I just saw, conquered, and came. **Keisuke:** OK, Natsume, I'm just going to bed, my fingers are not working. - In a *Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers* fanfic, set in the future, the original Rangers are now middle-aged, and their children are serving as Rangers. Kimberly is married to Rocky. They have seven children, including a set of twins. The oldest, 18-year-old Billy, finds out that the original Billy (now deceased) is his actual father, and Rocky isn't. In the end, that makes him feel *relieved*. Why? Because now he can imagine that Kimberly and Rocky have had sex only five times, instead of six. - In one episode of *Sailor Moon Abridged*, Serena, after being drained and trapped by a monster, awakes (naked for some reason) in a mental world with Luna. Believing she's dead (and therefore free from being Sailor Moon), she hugs Luna in joy, just as Queen Serenity shows up, leading to this conversation: - The Season 3 Epilogue of *Dragon Ball Z Abridged* has deleted scenes where Trunks talks to Bulma about how little she prepared him for Vegeta. She proceeds to, in this deleted scene, talk about how she and Vegeta had sex and Bulma went along with it. **Bulma:** At that point, I figured "in for a penny, in for a pounding", and I *really* was. **Trunks:** [External Screaming] - *Soda at 70 Proof*; Rachel gets grossed out when her parents tell her about how her mother Experimented in College: **Dad** : "Cut your mother some slack. She means well. There was that whole phase she went through in college " **Rachel** : "Uh, la la la la la ." **Dad** : "Heh, sorry. It's just that seeing her all over that other girl made me realize how jealous I was and how much I loved her." **Rachel** : "Ew! Can you censor yourself? Censor yourself in front of your daughter? Please?" - Inverted in *Back to Zero* when Cassidy casually talks about Jessie's sex life with their boss Giovanni. Unbeknownst to either Cassidy or Jessie, Giovanni is Jessie's father. Giovanni isn't exactly interested in hearing about his child's intimate life. - Downplayed in *Amazing Fantasy*. After an Imagine Spot gives Izuku a Raging Stiffie, he desperately tries to get it to go away by trying to Think Unsexy Thoughts. One of the images he brings up is his Amazingly Embarrassing Parents kissing. - In *The Official Fanfiction University of Redwall*, when the infamous "Of Warlords and Pleasures" fics come to the staff's attention, Veil Sixclaw is subject to this despite the Swartt Sixclaw fic being the least bad of the bunch. - Played with in *Recovery None* as Church and Tex aren't Carolina's parents but are AI based off them. While fusing back together, they sound like they're having sex. Because Church was still connected to the comms system, that meant poor Carolina heard every detail. When Tex confirms that she and Church had sex (or the closest thing to it for an AI), Carolina is visibly queasy and nearly throws up. - *White Sheep (RWBY)*: - Salem, immortal Queen of the Grimm, is absolutely shameless about her active love life, to the horror of all her children. Poor Cinder probably has it the worst. Since she's an adopted daughter, Salem keeps trying to set her up with her son Jaune, and giving *very specific* instructions on how she should seduce him. - Taiyang, Ruby's father, happily relates a story about how his teammates Raven and Summer made out on a dare. The problem is that Raven was Tai's first wife and Yang's mother, while Summer was Tai's second wife and Ruby's mother. - Kali and Ghira, Blake's parents, apparently have an active sex life they make no effort to hide. Blake is especially embarrassed when her mother assumes that the bell collar Blake is wearing is a sex thing. - *Path Of Needles*: Sarada is grossed out when her parents reveal that they're having another baby. She thought they were "too old" to still be having sex, despite that Sasuke and Sakura are only thirty-three. - *Us and Them*: Aeris does not want to think about her parents doing the deed, *at all*. - Her response after getting the haul of sexy items that were foisted on her by a bridal goods shop ready to take back and realizing Ifalna kept one pair of black panties: "Eww." - After she laments how hard it must have been for her parents after she and Seph got married, he points out to Aeris (who has just given birth), that since her mother is as far along as she is, they probably had other things on their minds. Aeris promptly buries her head under the covers and starts singing until he stops. - In *Rising Heat* by Solcane (NSFW), Adrien, when speaking to his father, keeps remembering how him and Marinette had Their First Time during a class tour. It's a rather embarrassing case of arousal he struggles to keep hidden... until Gabriel drops a few words implying Adrien was conceived during a similar trip, and possibly even at the same place. - *The Bolt Chronicles*: Happens a few times in these stories, in all cases expressed using the phrase TMI. - In The Autobiography, Penny is disgusted by the possibility that her mother may be looking at porn on her laptop. - In The Cameo, Bolt is embarrassed by his fathers dissolute sex life. - *Son of the Sannin*: When Kurama is explaining to Naruto why he fears being sealed in the Gedo Mazo statue so much, he tells Naruto to imagine if someone tried to shove him back in his mother's womb, a comparison that makes Naruto scream in disgust. - *The Black Sheep Dog Series* has a disguised Sirius completely *mortified* when his aunt Lucretia loudly discusses of the fact that his parents vigorously tried to conceive an heir every day, for four years, before his birth. At a party. - *Unchained* zigzags with the trope. Uchiha Tajima is pretty chill when his daughter decides to steal a man for herself and Senju Toka mercilessly teases her younger cousin over his sex life, but Izuna's brothers are horrendously awkward and embarrassed by every reminder of their sister's marriage. - *Sakamoto vs. Takamaki* has Jean Takamaki (Ann and Shiho's son born from insemination) invoke this on Natsumi Sakamoto (Ryuji and Hifumi's daughter) to get her to stop attacking him, by pointing out that since Natsumi's birthday is exactly nine months after Ryuji's birthday, she was essentially conceived as her father's birthday present, much to her horror. Unfortuently for him, it only lasts a few times before he jokes that she wore ribbons in her hair as a kid because she was her dad's birthday present, leading her to punch him in the face and runs off. He admits to a confused Yoshio Sakamoto that he had that coming. - *Describing The Series Via References* features the main cast of *RWBY* reading their series' memes. Several of those memes relate to either how sexy their parents are, or the sexual escapades of Ruby and Yang's father. The characters are suitably mortified. - This parody of *The Owl House* has Amity discovering a hickey on her mother's neck, to which the twins quickly put two and two together; Amity is mortified, Edric is disgusted, but Emira is hopeful that they might get another sibling. - *Hero Chat*: The heroes discuss Hawkmoth having a bird kink after he Akumatizes Jagged Stone into the bird-themed "Canary", complete with Glam Rock makeup and fishnet stockings. Luka asks if they can kinkshame Hawkmoth another time since said Akuma was his dad, but to no avail. - *Just The Three Of Us*, an Amphibia fic, has Anne dealing with this in her twenties when she and her girlfriends Sasha and Marcy accidentally get some of her parents 'private photos' mixed in with some Halloween stuff. This trope is not helped out by the fact that Sasha and Marcy think Anne's mom's still pretty hot, so Anne's both mortified by seeing her mom in sexy poses for her father *and* by Sasha calling her mom a 'caramel milf-shake'. - Inverted in *Gabriel gets used to... (Adrien having a Girlfriend)*. There, it's Gabriel who is forced to order extra soap to wash out his eyes whenever he encounters evidence that his son's relationship with Marinette progresses as expected for their age rather than seven to ten years younger. - Inverted and Played for Drama in *Strategy Sets the Scene for the Tale* with Alicent Hightower, in order to show how deeply repressed and smothering she is. Being horrified by your son cheating on his fiancée with prostitutes might be justified, but feeling disgusted because your son has consensual, loving sex with his bride on their wedding night certainly *isn't*. - Raz seems to find Milla and Sasha being affectionate with one another rather exasperating in *Razputin Vodello AU*. - *Naru-Hina Chronicles*: In Chapter 96, Naruto stumbles upon one of his dad's equipment satchels, which contains pictures of Minato and Kushina together... along with a picture of his mother naked. He's understandably mortified at the last one. - In *My Old Kentucky Home* Pandora Lovegood has an encounter with Narcissa Malfoy after feeding her marijuana brownies. **Lily:** Well as long as you didn't catch anything. **Pandora:** She is very careful and I made certain I was as well. **Harry:** Can we not talk about that. Parent sex is not cool. - *Love Isn't What You Always Think It Is*: **Snape:** True. We have had some epic fights. I think the longest we went without speaking to each other was a week and it only lasted that long because someone was hurt and unconscious. I did thank you properly for quitting after that? **Harry:** Yes, you did. Once I recovered, I believe you prescribed three more days of bed rest and we didn't do much resting. **Septimus:** Ohhhh yuck, so didn't need to hear that. It's bad enough watching the two of you kissing but to hear you discussing that. Sorry, my parents are virgins. - *The Dark Lords of Nerima*: In the last chapter of the sequel, Sailor Pluto mentions that the new timeline they've created will result in Chibi-Usa being conceived sooner. She glances over at Mamoru and Usagi and winces at the thought. - "Have you ever wondered if your Mom kissed you goodnight after giving your Dad a blowjob? You are now." - "The one thing you do not want to think about while eating: that at some point, your *grand*parents had to have sex." - "If you have a biological younger sibling whose birthday is approximately 9 months after your own birthday, then it's entirely likely that your parents had sex and conceived your younger sibling during one of your birthdays." - After peeking through the key hole into his parents' bedrom, the kid sighs and says:"And *these* people give me crap for picking my nose!" - *Keeper of the Lost Cities*: In *Neverseen*, Della mentions that she initially rejected Alden's advances because of the pressures that come with nobility. Fitz and Biana are put off by the talk of "advances" between their parents. - Happens in *Memory* by Lois McMaster Bujold. Ivan freaks out when he learns that his mother has gained a boyfriend in Simon Illyan. **Ivan:** They're old, Miles! It's, it's, it's... *undignified*. Or something. Scandalous. She's high Vor, and he's, he's... *Illyan*. - In *The Princess Diaries*, Mia walks in on her mother and her math teacher having breakfast together in bedwear. Her mother claims that nothing happened, he was sleeping on the couch, but Mia knows the truth. She even points out that Lily would psycho-analyze it to be a lie said to assuage Mia's horror realization that her mother was not a maternal, and there non-sexual, being. - In *Sein Language*, Jerry Seinfeld says that nobody wants to visualize their parents having sex and that if he found out he was adopted, this would be great news because that would mean it was possible that his parents were just really good friends. *I mean, sex is a great thing and all but you don't want to think that your whole life began because somebody maybe had a little too much wine with dinner.* - *The Mermaid's Mirror*: When Lena is searching her parents' room for ||the lock opened by the key the mermaid gave to her||, she opens her mom's bedside drawer and is disgusted to find sexy underwear. She's afraid to open her dad's drawer because it might contain "marital things." She opens and closes it as quickly as possible, and doesn't describe whatever she sees. - *Love Over Gold*: When Diane comes out to her mum as lesbian, her mum tells her that she once experimented with her friend Elaine. Diane is horrified by the thought of her being sexually active. **Mum**: Oh, so *I'm* supposed to be all accepting of *your* sexuality, but the moment you hear about a snippet of *my* sex life, you act like it's all horrendous and terrible? **Diane**: That's different. You're my mum, you're not supposed to *have* a sex life. - Awkwardly subverted once on *America's Funniest Home Videos* when a couple announced to their 3 children that they were going to soon have a new sibling, one of the boys (who looks to be about 6 or 7 years old) exclaims, "Way to go, **dad**!" and gives his dad a high-five. - One episode of *Arrested Development* has Michael convincing his mother to visit his father in a conjugal trailer. While Michael is mildly discomforted by the discussion, his brother GOB reacts with outright disgust when Michael talks to him about it. GOB is later detained against the window of said trailer during their visit. - *Arrow*. When Quentin Lance is revealed to be involved with Donna Smoak their respective daughters have Brain Bleach reaction (though that may be related to them regarding it as an In-Universe Crack Pairing). - *Avocado Toast*: - Heidi is horrified to hear her parents have an open marriage, having run away when her mom said this, After coming back to find them dancing with Patricia and Hunter (she thinks as a prelude to sex) she freaks out again. - Elle is equally dismayed learning her mom is dating a younger man (while partly due to it being cheating, since she's married, Elle dislikes it on general principles). - *The Big Bang Theory*: - The gang has gotten a hold of one of the prop rings from *The Lord of the Rings* movies and are holding it together, with the last one standing getting the ring. Howard and Rajesh try to psych Sheldon out by invoking this about his beloved grandmother. **Howard:** Think about it. The only reason you exist is because your grandmother had sex. **Raj:** Yeah, Meemaw did the nasty! - Howard is on the receiving end of this too. He sees Stuart, as male nurse and home-help, getting too friendly for comfort with his mother. When Raj tries to raise the possibility that his mother and Stuart might have crossed the line and become... *errrr*...., Howard is mortally squicked out and refuses to entertain the possibility. - A double dose of this occurs when Sheldons mother (whos widowed) and Leonards father (whos divorced) meet and quickly hit it off. During dinner they both decide to leave early at the same time, where it not only turns out theyre both staying at the same hotel, they go so far as to turn their cell phones off for the remainder of the night. It ultimately turns out that nothing happened, but the thought alone was enough to thoroughly discomfort both Sheldon and Leonard. **Sheldon**: I dont like this at all. **Leonard**: I dont like it either **Penny**: Really? *(Bursts out laughing)* Cause I love it! - In *Blossom*, her parents nearly sleep together after being divorced for years. Blossom and Tony discuss it afterwards. Tony admits they just like to think their parents had sex only three times (one for each child). Blossom says she likes to think they just did it twice, and Joey was sent to Earth by aliens. - Subverted in one episode of *Boy Meets World*. Shawn is trying to leave the house quickly and when he walks toward the window he panics because Cory's parents are having fun in the backseat of the car. Instead of being squicked, Cory thinks his parents are really badass. - *Breaking Bad*: In "Shotgun", during a fit of spontaneous sex, Walt and Skyler hear Jr. walking into the house. They try to sheepishly play it off as he approaches their room, but halfway there, he realizes what is going on, gets disgusted, and leaves. - Played With in an episode of *Brooklyn Nine-Nine.* Amy and Rosa are discussing Captain Holt's recent tension at work, and Rosa says she's pretty sure it's because he's been away from home due to the night shift and he and his husband haven't had sex in a while. Amy's response is, "Gross! Rosa, those are our dads!" She thinks of Holt as a father figure too much to be comfortable with the idea of him having sex. - *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*: - In "Earshot", Buffy is infected with demon blood that allows her to read other people's mind. She then accidentally reads her mother's mind and... well: **Buffy:** *(extremely outraged)* You had sex with Giles ?! You had *sex* with *Giles!?!* On the hood of a police car?! *TWICE?!!* - Averted in "The Witch", where Joyce shows Buffy her high school yearbook. **Buffy:** Mom, I've accepted that you've had sex. I'm *not* ready to know that you had Farrah hair. - And in "I Was Made to Love You", when Joyce comes home from a date, Buffy notes that her date didn't kiss her good night. Joyce decides to have some fun. **Joyce:** Oh, no. **Buffy:** What? **Joyce:** I left my bra in his car. **Buffy:** MOTHER! **Joyce:** Just kidding! **Buffy:** Good god, that's horrible. Don't do that. **Joyce:** I left it in the restaurant. **Buffy:** No more! No more! No more! *[runs upstairs, hands over her ears]* **Joyce:** *[calling upstairs]* On the dessert cart! - Mild example in *Call the Midwife*: Timothy Turner loves his stepmother dearly, but still gets grossed out by his parents kissing. **Tim:** Ugh, do you have to? **Shelagh:** [ *highly amused*] Not strictly, but it embarrasses you and that keeps us entertained. - *Corner Gas*: - In an episode, Brent accidentally records his parents begin to act out a sex fantasy on the gas station's security camera. Afterwards, he rips the camera out of the wall and denies that it was ever there. - Also, this conversation, when Oscar doesn't want to go to the doctor. **Oscar:** A guy my age goes to the doctor and everyone's gonna assume he's gonna get one of those little blue pills. Everyone in town is gonna be saying how I can't get it- **Brent:** *[grossed out]* Dad! **Emma:** What's he talking about? **Brent:** Viagra. **Emma:** Oh, for Pete's sake! *[Beat]* Well, if you're going there anyway, you might as well ask... **Brent:** *[even more grossed out]* Ohhh, Mom! *[leaves]* - This makes up roughly 15% of the humor in *Cougar Town*. In the first episode, Travis walks in on his mother performing oral sex on a man his own age, and so the standard is set. - *CSI: NY*: Young teenager Ellie and a (boy) friend of hers pop in to her apartment to pick up some sodas because the party they're attending is running low. Jo and her boyfriend happen to be about to have sex at the time. She hears noises in the kitchen, thinks it's a burglar and grabs her gun to confront the intruder. Ellie is clearly uncomfortable seeing her mother in an open blouse with her shirtless boyfriend (whom Ellie's never met before) behind her. - *Cursed*: Nimue looks away hurriedly and begs Merlin to move the vision along in time when it shows her parents embracing passionately, clearly about to have sex (quite possibly when she'd been conceived), narrowly avoiding an unwanted primal scene. - *Different Strokes*. Arnold encounters his father's current girlfriend in the hallway, but he's surprised rather than grossed out—"I know what goes on between men and women, I just never thought of *you* like that." - Deliberately invoked by Frank in an episode of *Everybody Loves Raymond*. Ray and Robert hide in their parents' closet trying to scare Frank, but Frank finds them and scares them instead by pretending to have sex with Marie. Averted in another episode, when Ray and Robert speak with Frank about what they think is their parents' nonexistent sex life. Frank, though, points out that they have sex *every night*, shocking both of his sons, whose sex lives are nowhere near as vibrant. - *Fargo*. When Gina Hess realises Lester Nygaard fooled her into giving Sex for Services, she barges into his office with her two sons to confront him. The sons are eager to beat up Lester on her behalf, but get uncomfortable whenever she starts ranting in intimate detail about the services she provided for him. - *Frasier*: - In one episode Martin starts telling his sons about how he used to get through stakeouts by picturing their mother waiting for him back home. Frasier and Niles loudly interrupt him every time he tries to continue the story. - In a later episode, Frasier and Daphne discuss Martin and Sherry, who are in the midst of an argument: **Daphne:** Well, at least they'll be in a good mood when they come out. There's nothing like make-up sex. **Frasier:** Daphne! Please. Sherry and my dad do not have sex. **Daphne:** Well, of course they do. They're probably— **Frasier:** Daphne! I have to sleep at night. My dad and Sherry do not have sex! - Inverted when Niles is explaining to Frasier how tempted he is to sleep with Maris during their separation. Martin, who's in the room with them, has to ask his sons to knock it off. **Martin:** You know, Niles, remember when you were a kid and your mother and I wouldn't discuss the Cuban Missile Crisis in front of you because we knew it'd give you bad dreams? **Niles:** Yes. **Martin:** It's a two-way street. - In *Freaks and Geeks*, Sam and Lindsay are horrified when their parents get frisky mid-day... while all their friends are over. - *The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air*: Will walks in on his mother in bed with his girlfriend Lisas father, and immediately goes into a screaming fit of hysterics. **Will:** *MAMA NOOOOOOOO!!!* - A recurring theme in *Friends* with Judy and Jack Gellar: Ross and Monica accidentally seeing their sex tape; Monica later seeing the "live show" version; Jack cheerfully discussing the list of celebrities he's allowed to sleep with Ross, oblivious to his son's discomfort. - Inverted in *Game of Thrones*, after Margery Tyrell marries King ||Tommen|| Baratheon, she starts spreading stories of his impressive sexual prowess around town, much to Cersei's disgust. - *Ginny and Georgia*: Ginny is unhappy when Georgia talks about her past or current sex life, mimicking vomiting once after this. - *Gotham Knights (2023)*: Duela repeatedly comments "Ew" when her mom mentions her sex life. - *How I Met Your Mother*: - Ted's mother and her second husband don't seem to have a problem talking about this around him, eventually leading him to lose it at their wedding. - In a later episode, Marshall has a freakout when he sees his mother having sex. Lily tells him to calm down and that his mother is only a woman with needs, at which point he tells her that she'd been screwing Lily's father. Lily immediately throws up. Eventually, they come clean and tell their parents they're okay with them dating...only for them to clarify that they aren't dating, just having sex, proclaiming themselves as "family with benefits". Cut to Lily and Marshall puking a closet. - On an episode of *Joan of Arcadia*, Joan (along with her brothers Kevin and Luke) gives her parents (Helen and Will) a pass for a weekend at a spa so they can have their "married couple" weekend — which she doesn't want to know the definition, or the details, of (she's freaked out enough when Helen reminds Will about playing "strip Scrabble"). - *Just Shoot Me!*: Red, Dennis' father, briefly gets involved with Nina. When he asks Dennis something related to their sex life, Dennis faints. - In *Life in Pieces*, Tyler is horrified when Tim starts describing to his son how he thought he'd lost his virginity in high school but had the experience "disqualified". **Tim:** We were on this couch at Uncle Dave's beach house. **Tyler:** I don't think I want to hear this story. **Tim:** It's time I told someone and I want that someone to be you. **Tyler:** No! It doesn't have to be! - *Lucifer (2016)*: - Played straight with Amenadiel (an angel) when he sees his mother making out with a guy. He later squicks out whenever Mother brings up sex. Notably, Amenadiel has only had sex for the first time in millennia a few weeks prior, and with a demon no less, so his attitude towards sex is... controversial. - In season five Dan finally learns that when he first started dating Charlotte Richards she was possessed by Amenadiel and Lucifer's mother. When Dan tries to ask Amenadiel about the *exact* timeline of what happened and when it quickly gets uncomfortable for the angel. **Dan:** Was the Goddess ever inhabiting Charlotte's body when *I* was...inhabiting Charlotte's body? **Amenadiel:** See, I prefer not to talk about this, Dan, but I do believe there was some...overlap. - Played With in regards to Lucifer, who treats Mother's sex life with casual dismissal (he even explains that the phrase "Big Bang" isn't just a metaphor, that really was how the universe came to be) and he also has no problem talking to her about his own sex life and doesn't deny that he probably inherited his sexual appetite from her. But he's not comfortable when she acts sexual in his presence, such as in "Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire", he is scandalized when she is Mistaken for Prostitute due to her Stripperiffic clothes and says they're going to need to get her out of those clothes, which she interprets literally and strips naked in public. He is comically horrified and immediately takes off his jacket to get her to wear *something*. - In season 6, Rory is squicked out when Lucifer and Chloe discuss whether he knocked her up from last night's sex. Like Father, Like Daughter. - *The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power*: Theo is disgusted by the sight of his mother and Arondir being close and flies into a rage when one of the other villagers suggests they're in a relationship, though this has as much to do with Theo being prejudiced against elves as it does one of the accused being his mother. He eventually grows out of this and in "The Eye" he greets Arondir with a hug when they're reunited. - *The L Word: Generation Q*: Angelica walks in on her moms (who divorced years earlier) making out, which appals her as she doesn't like to think of them being sexual. - *Mad About You* has Paul's parents revealing their libido was rekindled with a hormonal treatment, making him and his wife very uncomfortable as details are given. Gets even worse when their attempt at having sex following a trip is stopped by Paul's parents being in the bed when they arrive. - In *Modern Family*, The Dunphy children walk in on their parents having sex, they eventually realize that it's a good thing that they love each other so much and get them a lock for their door, which unfortunately has a very audible click. - *Mohawk Girls*: Caitlin is not at all happy to hear about her dad's sex life with his girlfriend, Vicky, especially not how much he pleases her as a lover. - On *NCIS*, Tony DiNozzo gets this when he walks in on his father doing it... in Tony's bed. - *One Day at a Time (2017)* - Lydia and Berto were a pair of Happily Married Latin Lovers. Berto is a Posthumous Character, serving as The Lost Lenore to the widowed Lydia. She often tells wistful tales their romantic passion and tends to give way Too Much Information. Their daughter and grandchildren are uncomfortable hearing this. - Inverted Trope when Penelope believes that her 17-year-old daughter Elena has had sex for the first time. Elena's a lesbian, so Penelope can't use the risk of pregnancy as a concrete reason to object, leaving her with the more intangible discomfort of the whole thing. **Penelope:** So what? I'm supposed to be okay that she's having sex? I'm a mom. She's my kid. I can't condone this. [...] **Ramona:** And what did your mom say [when you first had sex]? **Penelope:** *[scoffs]* Are you kidding me? She doesn't know! I was sneaky. I didn't put her through the torture of thinking about this. [...] If you're gonna be a sexually active teenager, you need to do it responsibly and make sure your parents never find out. But now I know, and I have to have an opinion. And I don't want to be the mom that's all, "Sex is dirty. You're gonna go to hell." But I also don't want to be the mom that's like, "Use my bed. I'll get you water so you stay hydrated." *[beat]* Now I have to talk to her. *[mock cries]* I don't want to. - In *Psych*, Shawn accidentally walks in on his (divorced) parents while they are having sex. After Shawn rants about the incident, Gus insists that his parents never had sex, his rationale being that he was "a perfect little miracle" and that his sister was adopted. Later in the episode, in a spirit of mockery, Shawn introduces Gus as "Immaculate Conception" as a part of his Running Gag of always introducing Gus using bizarre names. - *Resident Alien*: Max is grossed out by his parents' inability to keep their hands off each other in the aftermath of beating up home intruders together. They're so frequently and shamelessly Overcome with Desire that it disturbs their friends, too. - *Schitt's Creek* goes to this well more than once, which is natural given it's a show about adult children forced to share a small living space with their parents. In Season 1, David gets a Primal Scene. In Season 5, Moira confides to Alexis that her father had a history with "boom-boom girls" prior to meeting Moira, and Alexis responds by reminding her mother she no longer has a therapist. Later, Johnny tells the kids that their mother was the author of some racy love letters he kept, and they are squicked. - *Scoundrels (2010)*: Logan gets traumatized when he walks in on his parents having a quickie in the bathroom. - *Seinfeld*: In "The Junk Mail", George is mortified when he, his cousin, Jerry, and Frankie the mailman, walk in on his parents having sex in Jerry's van. The Stinger shows George's father giving him The Talk while announcing that they will do it again, while George is banging his head on the table trying to suppress the memory. - *The Summer I Turned Pretty*: Belly reacts to Conrad's joking mention of her parents having sex by saying it's foul and expressing half-joking disgust. She's amused on realizing that her mom had sex in the next episode though. When told of exactly what happened later by her mom however she covers her ears and says she's not listening. - *Supernatural*: In the episode "Jump the Shark" Sam and Dean discuss whether or not the young man claiming to be their half-brother is the real deal. Sam speculates that one could have "slipped past the goalie" and Dean cringes because "Now, I'm thinking about dad sex." - *That '70s Show* had an episode in which Eric walks in on his parents during sex (unbeknownst to them) and spends the rest of the episode entirely unhinged. It's the only time he ever receives sympathy from his sister. At the end of the episode, Donna tells him of a time when the same thing happened to her — ||except they were doing it *in the hammock*.|| - Referenced in *Time Gentlemen Please*, in regards to Christianity and the virgin birth: **Guv**: No man likes the thought of his parents having sex, but to base an entire religion around the idea that they never did is taking it a bit too far! - *Titans (2018)*. Dick and Kory being a Parental Substitute for the younger members of the Titans is lampshaded by them having this reaction to the two pairing up. - *Wednesday*: Gomez and Morticia Addams' passionate affection for each other has been the couple's most endearing trait for decades, but on *Wednesday*, it's a running joke that their teenage daughter finds their endless making out to be gross and embarrassing. **Wednesday:** Wild jackals can control themselves better than the two of you! - *The White Lotus*: Olivia is mortified to hear her parents having sex in the next room. - *Wings*: Helen realizes mid-conversation that when she was a child, her parents used yodeling as a way to disguise their boisterous lovemaking. Roy finds the discussion of parental sex distasteful, inadvertently explaining why in the process: **Roy:** Look, my mother was a saint. My father was a pillar of the community. The last thing I want to do is imagine Mom wrapped in cellophane, Dad wearing tights and a miner's helmet. *[Beat]* I didn't wake up and ask for a drink of water again for 25 years! - *Wizards of Waverly Place*, played straight fairly often, but a notable example is when Alex is told by her mother that her father is her 'big cuddly bug' and finds it grosser than the idea of going out with her older brother. It Makes Sense In Context, kind of... - *You Me Her*: - Emma's mom tells her that her dad's "insatiable", making Emma cover her ears comically with both hands. - Izzy is way less than pleased when she realizes her dad is having sex with Lala, but he reasonably protests that he's an adult. - *Young Sheldon*: - In "A Brisket, Voodoo and a Cannonball Run", Sheldon is unpleasantly reminded of when he witnessed Mary and George having intercourse in bed as an infant by hearing his dad remark, "Hot damn!" while eating the brisket made from the recipe Sheldon remembered as a baby. - In "A Resident Advisor and the Word 'Sketchy'", it doesn't take Missy long to figure out that her parents are having sex or about to have sex. She's grossed out and once she's confirmed her suspicion wants them to stop talking. - *Assassin's Creed II* has a more diluted example, but Desmond still feels disgusted when he sees his ancestor Altair getting frisky with his wife and realizes he just *witnessed his own great-great-... *. note : (however many greats it takes to get to 1195 from 2012) -great-great-grandpa's conception - In *Mass Effect 3*, Liara's reaction to her father note : as in "the one who didn't give birth to her" — Asari are a One-Gender Race. The mother and father telepathically link, and the mother's body uses the father genes to randomise the genes of an egg and fertilise it at the same time. No actual genetic material is transferred (||Matriarch Aethyta||) telling her that her mother had a "hell of a rack" is a grossed-out "You don't need to tell me *everything.*" - *Psychonauts*: - Teens in *The Sims 2* will react in disgust to their parents doing any type of romantic reaction, whether it be a simple kiss or a full-on make-out session. In addition, if they are on the same lot when their parents engage in public Woohoo, rather than cheer or jeer like other sims, they will run to the edge of the lot and cover their face in embarrassment. - This occurs during a boss battle in *South Park: The Stick of Truth*. The player is shrunk down by Underpants Gnomes and must battle them while watching the player character's parents having sex in the background. The boss battle even has a quicktime event where you must dodge ||your dad's scrotum.|| - In the sequel, *South Park: The Fractured but Whole*, the player's tragic backstory is that, when they were younger, a group of burglars broke into the player's house, leading to the player... walking in on their parents having sex. This scene is revisited every time the player unlocks a new class, with the ending revealing that ||their parents weren't having sex, but getting drunk and high and arguing over you||. At the end of the game, ||Mitch Conner reveals he orchestrated the plot out of revenge for his father, who got "fucked". Mitch's mom defuses the situation by explaining that she was the one to fuck Mr. Conner||. Keep in mind that ||both backstories were fabricated by Cartman and that the Conners are just hand puppet personas he made up||. Kyle snaps at Cartman that *everyone's* parents *had* to have had sex in order for them to have children in the first place. - In *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt* following the reunion of Geralt the player character and Ciri, who's essentially his daughter, the two of them get the opportunity to visit Ciri's bartender friend, Bea. After they help her out, Bea (whilst she's still unaware of his identity) jumps upon an opportunity to flirt very unsubtly with Geralt, prompting Ciri to chide her for shamelessly flirting *and* also clueing her in on who Geralt is. Bea is sheepish for bare moments before flirting with him *again*, forcing Ciri to resort to I'm Standing Right Here to get her to back off. - After they leave the tavern and are out of Bea's earshot, Geralt twists the knife by turning the tables on Ciri and teasing her about her friendliness with Bea, saying that Bea "seems nice"; Ciri wearily says Geralt's terrible. - *RWBY* - This is weaponized by Ruby and Yang's uncle Qrow, who tells a story about how he was "defeated" by a waitress' skirt to distract them while they're playing a fighting game against each other. Then when he brings out a photo of the team he was a part of with their parents, Team STRQ (Stark)... **Qrow:** We were pretty well known back in the day. **Ruby:** Well known for crummy fashion sense. **Qrow:** Hey, we looked good! And I have a number of inappropriate stories that'll back that up... but I'll save them for when you're older. **Ruby:** *[shuddering]* Eww, gross. - In Atlas, Jaune gets an assignment to escort children to pre-primary school, and finds himself fawned over by a gaggle of young mothers. As one of them offers him yet another batch of home cooking, her daughter looks back in clear embarrassment, sticking out her tongue in disgust. - *If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device*: When the Emperor learns that he has still living mortal offspring, he reminisces to his (tube-grown) sons Magnus and Kitten about how rough he used to be in bed and leaving his partners bruised, much to their disgust. **Magnus:** LALALA I CAN'T HEAR THIS. I DON'T WANT TO BE ON THIS PLANET ANYMORE. - *Helluva Boss*: Octavia is annoyed by her father Stolas' absent-minded thirsting over Blitzo in her presence. **Stolas:** ( *on the phone with Blitzo while Octavia is in the room* ) Why, hello, my *big-dicked Blitzy* . *[Blitz and Octavia Spit Take simultaneously]* **Blitzo:** WHAT- **Octavia:** THE- **Blitzo:** FUCK- **Octavia:** -DAD!? **Stolas** : Language ! Everyone! - Inverted in "Batmetal Forever". When Batgirl starts stripping at the rock concert, her father Commissioner Gordon awkwardly shields his eyes. - In *Dragon Ball Z Abridged*, this became something for Future Trunks. For example, in Episode 50: **Semi-Perfect Cell:** ( *finishes powering up*) Now, do you understand, Vegeta? **Vegeta:** What I understand is, I'm going to pound you so hard, the boy's mother is going to be jealous. **Future Trunks:** OH, CAN WE NOT?! **Goku:** I guess my penis *is* an arm, because sometimes Chichi wants me to do that thing which involves my fist, and then some ramming it up in... **Gohan:** NO DAD! DON'T SAY ANYTHING MORE! - In this Not Always Related/Romantic note : (crossposted to both pages) story, a woman *thinks* she's sending sexy selfies to her husband, but they're going to her squicked-out child instead. - *Adventure Time*: In "Rainy Day Daydream", when Finn turns Jake's imagination back on, he also imagines a fairy turning Jake's imagination into overdrive. Finn hastily turns Jake's imagination back to normal, and Jake moans "Aw, I imagined my mom naked! Yuck!" - *Archer*, to the point where his mother getting married actually causes him enough stress to push him into a fugue state. - *Bob's Burgers*: In the premiere episode "Human Flesh", Bob and Linda start making out at the apex of a Ferris wheel. The kids are in the car right behind them, and while Tina is okay with it, Gene teases them and Louise gets weirded out. **Gene:** You're a couple of sluts! **Tina:** I think it's nice. **Louise:** ( *to the operator*) Can we get this thing moving? I'm getting mentally scarred up here! - *Daria*: - In the first episode of *Disenchantment*, Bean cringes as her stepmother tries to give her The Talk before her own Arranged Marriage. (The fact that she's a Fish Person doesn't help.) **Oona:** I know I am not your mother— **Bean:** Please don't. **Oona:** But I *do* have sex with your father. - *Family Guy*: - In the episode "The Son Also Draws", Stewie is freaked out after accidentally walking in on Peter and Lois having sex the night before. Brian messes with him by suggesting where else they did it. - In the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler", Lois discovers she has an older brother who had been committed to a mental hospital before she was born. When he was a kid, he had walked in on their mother giving a blowjob to Jackie Gleason and found the sight so traumatizing that he had a severe mental breakdown. Even all these years later, he is still haunted by it to the point of developing a hatred of fat men. When Lois has him released since he appears sane enough (aside from the imaginary wife), he becomes the titular Fat Guy Strangler. - In the episode "Lois Comes Out Of Her Shell", as a result of her mid-life crisis, Lois gets a lot raunchier with Peter, and the two of them end up having sex in the laundry room. However, Chris, Meg, and Brian hear them having sex from the living room, and are disgusted. **Meg:** Oh my god, that's so disturbing! **Chris:** I know, gross! **Brian:** Yeah, and my hearing's a lot better, so I hear, like, suction and stuff. - In one episode of *The Cleveland Show* Cleveland's Dad and Donna's "Auntie Momma" have ludicrously dirty sex (in the dark) and then discuss it at the dinner table. Causing Cleveland to vomit continuously for almost a minute. Though that may have been because he knew that "Auntie Momma" was actually "Uncle Kevin" as his Dad had the same reaction when he found out. - Inverted in *American Dad!* in "Bullocks to Stan", where Stan's boss is dating his daughter. - Also inverted in "Daesong Heavy Industries II: Return to Innocence," where Hayley seems weirdly *into* watching her parents have sex. - On *Futurama*, Leela finds out it's worse when the parental sex is with your Abhorrent Admirer. **Munda:** I'm not too old to enjoy hot sex with Zapp. **Leela:** Ugh! **Munda:** *Sex with Zapp! Sex with Zapp! Sex with Zapp!* **Leela:** No, no! - *Inside Job (2021)*: In "Buzzkill", Rand mentions past sexual antics with Tamiko, squicking out Reagan. **Reagan:** Ugh! This is why I'm going. In space, no one can hear their dad talk about boning their mom. - In *Invincible (2021)*, one of Mark's first scenes is Screw This, I'm Outta Here because his parents are getting *too* affectionate in front him. He even says that one of the things parents should never do is have sex in front of their kids, and his mother lightly remarks that he should be happy that his parents love each other so much. - On *King of the Hill*, Hank feels pretty awkward about sex in general. When he comes into the kitchen to see his mom and her boyfriend doing it on his counter, he experiences Temporary Blindness until he and the boyfriend talk through their problems. He's also continually exasperated with his father's womanizing ways. **Hank:** How could you not know you had another son?! How many women have you slept with? Five? *Six?!* **Cotton:** 273. - The *Lizzie* episode "Fifty Shades of Green" has Lizzie Green creeped out by her parents being overly affectionate toward each other in front of her. She puts a stop to it by tricking her father into watching a home movie of her grandparents getting intimate on the night of her parents' anniversary. - *Metalocalypse*: - On the episode "Dethfam", Nathan Explosion delivers the line "the fact that my parents had sex to create me makes me want to be buried alive." - Skwisgaar walked in on his mom having a threeway. Twice. The first one caused him to run away ||and find the guitar that inspired him to be a musician.|| The second one made him realize that he's not, and can never be, a 'regular jackoff' and returns to the band, which he previously tried to quit. - *VeggieTales* of all things had this. Larry sings a silly song about how his great-grandparents (give or take a few 'great's) invented macaroni and cheese. His grandfather was from a family of pasta makers, and his grandmother was from a family of cheesemakers, but alas, they were Feuding Families. After an accident mixed the macaroni and cheese together, the families agreed that they tasted better together and ended their grudge, the young lovers leaned in for a kiss... cut to Larry slamming shut the photo album and exclaiming, "Whoa! Those are my grandparents! We don't need to see that!" - *The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants*: In the Halloween special, Harold spots the Ship Tease between his mom and Mr. Meaner and promptly goes into a Heroic BSoD over it. - *The Simpsons* - Exploited by Abe in "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" where Homer begs him not to talk about sex. Homer shudders after Abe admits that he's had sex. - Marge was once asked about Bart's first words. She remembered a time she was having sex with Homer, baby Bart enters to the room, and cries "Ay, Caramba!". So she said she does not remember it. - On *The Fairly OddParents!*, Timmy, having wished he was adult, watches an adult movie and is squicked when he sees the characters on screen kissing. He then sees his parents making out a few rows down and is even more disgusted, screaming "IT BURNS!" while covering his eyes. - In *The Amazing World of Gumball* episode "The Cringe," Gumball and Hot Dog Guy deliberately put themselves in embarrassing and awkward scenarios to try and figure out why they feel so much of the titular feeling between each other. After a few unsuccessful tries, Hot Dog Guy suggests that they "take things to the next level"; cue Gumball entering Hot Dog Guy's house *pretending to be his step-father and attempting to give HDG The Talk*. HDG begs Gumball to stop, but Gumball can only get a few words out before their faces crumple up like paper from embarrassment. - Happens a few times on *Rick and Morty*: It's played straight with Morty and Summer about their parents, Beth and Jerry, and inverted by Rick, who's Beth's father. - Inverted in "Lawnmower Dog": When Rick and Morty are several layers deep in the subconscious of Morty's math teacher, they end up in a strip club with Hookers and Blow. Rick mostly doesn't have a problem with it, but he and Morty are both completely revolted when they see a Stripperific mind-version of Summer (Morty's older sister and Rick's granddaughter) there, who hits on them. - "Rick Potion #9": Summer, Jerry, and Rick are discussing the possibility of Beth cheating on Jerry with her coworker, Davin. Summer points out that, as horse veterinarians, digging around the insides of horses probably isn't the most romantic setting, but Rick brings up that Beth may have lied about having to work, leading to: **Rick**: Maybe Davin is digging around in *her* insides. **Summer**: Grandpa Rick, so gross! You're talking about my mom! **Rick**: Well, she's my daughter, Summer, so I outrank you. - "Mort Dinner Rick Andre": Summer makes a crack about her parents not wanting her to say "Let's lick tits!" because they're not getting any. Jerry and Beth proceed to correct her that they've been very "sex-positive" lately and watch porn together, eliciting grossed-out reactions from both Summer and Morty. Rick also walks in to see Beth and Jerry flirting with each other, and informs them all that they have poison capsules in their teeth. - "Bethic Twinstinct": Morty and Summer are already horrified enough to learn that ||the two versions of their mom (one of whom is a clone of the other) are having an affair with each other behind their dad's back. But it gets worse for them by the end, when Jerry and the Beths reconcile via him watching them have sex in front of him, which quickly turns into Three-Way Sex...which, as shown in the video example, Rick, Morty, and Summer can hear in its entirety from downstairs at the dining room table. Unable to use a portal gun to escape the situation, the three of them can only sit and listen in misery and disgust, and it drives the kids to literal tears||.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalSexualitySquick

Parent-Preferred Suitor - TV Tropes Regard the classic Love Triangle, where someone has to choose between two prospective suitors. This is a difficult decision to make under the best of circumstances... but it gets a lot trickier when the parents take a vested interest in who their offspring ends up with. In these situations, the character's parents will want them to get together with one suitor over the other. This could be because of the parent personally liking one more than the other, or because they genuinely believe their offspring will be better off with them. And as for the suitor they don't like? They usually hate that one with a passion, regardless of what their offspring thinks of them. In some instances, the parent will actually grow to accept the other suitor, and grant the pairing their blessing. Contrast Dating What Daddy Hates. Compare with Love-Obstructing Parents, Boyfriend-Blocking Dad and Parental Marriage Veto. See also The Matchmaker, Shipper on Deck and Shipper with an Agenda. If the parents have complete control over their offspring's decision, this could lead to an Arranged Marriage. Often a case of Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor, with the parents pushing for the rich suitor. A stereotypical trait of the Jewish Mother, especially if her preferred suitor has better social standing/is better-off. Can overlap with Parents Suck at Matchmaking if it turns out that their preferred suitor is someone who is all wrong for their child. ## Examples: - Rowan Atkinson's "Wedding from Hell" sketch, where he portrays the father of the bride giving a Bitter Wedding Speech at the reception: "Ladies and gentlemen and friends of my daughter. There comes a time in every wedding reception when the man who paid for the damn thing is allowed to speak a word or two of his own. And I should like to take this opportunity, sloshed as I may be, to say a word or two about Martin. As far as I'm concerned, my daughter could not have chosen a more delightful, charming, witty, responsible, wealthy—let's not deny it—well-placed, good-looking, and fertile young man than Martin as her husband. And I therefore ask the question: *why the hell did she marry Gerald instead?* *(Beat)* Because Gerald is the sort of man we used to describe at school as a complete prick." - *Superman: Secret Origin*: General Sam Lane is very supportive of his subordinate, John Corben, marrying Lois, seeing in Corben the son he always wanted. He also considers Clark Kent to be too "weak" to be a decent son-in-law. - *As Fate Would Have It*: Subverted with ||Curtis||. As Yancy's father states, he regretted agreeing to the arrange marriage and decided to pay off his debt to the former's father over time. When his daughter found and began dating Nate, he was happy that she found someone whom she genuinely loved. - *The Book of Life*, General Posada detests Manolo and wants Maria to marry Joaquin instead, mostly to make sure that Joaquin stays to protect the village from Chakal. ||He relents when he realizes that Maria really does love Manolo.|| - *Pocahontas*: Chief Powhatan thinks that Kocoum, a loyal warrior in their village, would make an ideal husband for his daughter Pocahontas, but she prefers foreign explorer John Smith. - *Shrek 2*: Initially, King Harold is outraged at Fiona's decision to marry Shrek, an ogre; as he had planned for her to marry the conventionally attractive Prince Charming, both out of prejudice and due to having made a deal with the Fairy Godmother. As the film progresses, however, he learns to accept his daughter's choices and grows out of this. - *The Count of Monte Cristo*: The Count tells Danglars a story of an Italian nobleman who left his sons a vast fortune if they married according to his wishes and a pittance if not, as part of his ploy to get Danglars to get his daughter to marry the wealthy Italian viscount Cavalcanti. ||Cavalcanti is revealed to be a Mock Millionaire and a wanted criminal, leading to Danglars being ruined, which suits his daughter just fine as she's all but plainly stated to be a lesbian.|| - In *Evernight*, Bianca's parents are sympathetic when her first date with Lucas doesn't work out, but can barely hide their excitement when she agrees to go to the Autumn Ball with Balthazar, feeling he's a much better choice of boyfriend as he's more strait-laced and mature than troublemaking Lucas; it's also because he's a vampire and so could become a long-term partner for Bianca (who is destined to become a vampire herself). Bianca feels both guilty and frustrated because while she thinks Balthazar is nice, she would prefer to be with Lucas. Celia and Adrian are accepting of Bianca dating Lucas again...until he's revealed to be a vampire hunter, after which Bianca has to keep her romance with him a secret. When she pretends to be dating Balthazar, Bianca feels uncomfortable over how happy her parents are about this because none of it is real, and increasingly sees their attempts to push her towards Balthazar as a sign of them being controlling. - In *Harry Potter*, Molly Weasley initially didn't like Bill's fiancée Fleur Delacour for being too snobbish and would have preferred him to marry somebody more fitting for him, (implied to be Nymphadora Tonks). But after Fleur decides to stay with Bill even after his face gets disfigured by a werewolf, Molly starts seeing that Fleur's love for Bill is genuine and becomes more accepting of her. - *My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!*: The main character, Catarina Claes, is sought after by a large number of both men and women. Catarina's mother, Duchess Millidiana Claes, greatly supports Catarina's adopted brother Keith as her ideal partner, because Catarina is so stupid that Millidiana is afraid of what would happen if her daughter married a prince that Catarina is engaged to. She feels that Keith is the only person that can really keep Catarina in check, and she also just really wants her adopted son to be happy. - Parodied in *Love and Freindship*, where the *only* reason Edward rejects Lady Dorothea (while preferring "no other woman to her!") is that his father favours the match. - *Parker Pyne Investigates*: In "The Problem of Pollensa Bay", the client of the week is a Beloved Smother who wants Pyne to get rid of her adult son's fiancée, who she dislikes as a bad sort (exacerbated by the fiancée's exaggeration of her modern behavior and makeup to annoy her). After speaking with both the son and the fiancée, Pyne arranges for a fake Operation: Jealousy via his Mrs Fanservice Madeleine. Naturally the mother forgets all about her gripes about the previous girl to complain with her about the local Gold Digger who openly treats her son like dirt. The operation is a success, even though the son has a lingering bout of what Pyne calls "Madeleine-itis" at the end. - *Sword Art Online*: The "Mother's Rosario" arc kicks off with Asuna getting into a fight with her mother after the latter issues a Parental Marriage Veto of her existing relationship with Kirito and tries to set her up with a boy she considers a more suitable match. ||Asuna is able to talk her out of it towards the end of the story arc.|| - In *Twilight*, Charlie would much prefer Jacob dating his daughter Bella, and merely tolerates her boyfriend Edward (at one point he bans Edward from the house for several weeks). In Charlie's defense, he's known Jacob since he was a child and Jacob was the one person who was able to make Bella happy after Edward dumped her, so he trusts him and knows he truly cares for his daughter. Bella also tends to get seriously injured and/or run off to God knows where without telling Charlie anything when Edward is involved; although it's a bit complicated because Edward is a vampire, from Charlie's perspective Edward appears to be a horrible influence on Bella, if not abusive. ||When Bella reveals she's marrying Edward, though, Charlie grudgingly accepts it and walks Bella down the aisle, wanting her to be happy more than anything||. - *Spin Doctors*: This is essentially what's happening in the song "Two Princes". There are two "princes" (suitors), one of whom is the singer and the other being the one the girl's father wants her to marry. "You marry him, your father will condone you, how about that now? You marry me, your father will disown you - he'll eat his hat now." - *American Dad!*: In "The Longest Distance Relationship", Stan is *very* insistent that Hayley forget about her husband Jeff (who is currently lost in space), and form a lasting relationship with Millionaire Matt Davis, who has been attempting to woo her. This is driven by two things: a desire for Hayley to marry a rich man (so he can enjoy the good life by proxy), and Stan's long-held hatred for Jeff. - *BoJack Horseman*: "Time's Arrow" shows that Joseph Sugarman really wanted his daughter Beatrice to marry the nerdy Corbin Creamerman, only because Corbin's father Mort owned a profitable dairy company that Joseph wanted to merge with his sugar company. Beatrice instead pursued a one-night stand with Butterscotch, the bad boy who crashed her debutante ball, mostly because she knew her father wouldn't like that. Joseph gets mad and demands Beatrice go on a stroll with Corbin, and to Beatrice's surprise, she ends up bonding with him. Unfortunately, she's pregnant by Butterscotch, and has to marry him instead, leading to a very unhappy family life. - *Futurama*: During Leela's wedding to ||Lars|| in "Bender's Big Score", while Leela's mother is happy that she's marrying a two-eyed human, her father gripes that Leela deserves a husband with a dozen eyes - specifically, the compound-eyed Fly Mutant. - *King of the Hill*: Kahn would very much prefer his daughter Kahnie develop a relationship with fellow Loatian Chang Wusahnasahn over her preferred beau Bobby Hill. This is solely because he is racist and also because Chane is the son of wealthy Laotian businessman, Ted Wusahnasahn, who is a member of a country club that he wants to get into. Funnily enough, his wife Minh reveals Kahn himself was not her own father's first choice of husband material for her, so this apparently is a running trend in their family.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentPreferredSuitor

Parental Substitute - TV Tropes *"Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop. It would never leave him, and it would never hurt him, never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."* An amazingly large number of children in fiction suffer from Parental Abandonment or parental death. Other children are "lucky enough" to have both parents, but unfortunately live in worlds where there are no Happily Married families. For most such children, life is an endless series of disappointments and let-downs. A lucky few, though, manage to find a Parental Substitute. A Parental Substitute is an adult friend who fills the children's lonely life with guidance and (often) love. They guide the child and teach them how to stand on their own feet, how to have fun, and how to not be so bothered by the fact that Mommy or Daddy are never around (or ignore them). If the parents in question are dead, the substitute may have known them and be able to answer when the child says Tell Me About My Father. They often tell the kid they are So Proud of You. Usually, by the end of the story, the Parental Substitute leaves as well, but at that point the kid is able to stand on their own two feet. This trope is often a feature of Tear Jerkers, especially if it follows Take Care of the Kids. If it's an older sibling who's taken over the parental role, that's Promotion to Parent. The Old Retainer may take over this role in event that his employer's children are suffering from Parental Abandonment. If an entire society has teens become parental substitutes, that's a Teenage Wasteland. If the child gets into a big argument with the substitute, expect to hear "You're Not My Father" by the time things get really heated. Imaginary Friend is often involved. If the Parental Substitute decides to make their status official, as it were, the kid becomes Happily Adopted. Compare and closely related to Promotion to Parent (when it's a sibling), Honorary Uncle, Nephewism, and Adoptive Peer Parent (for non-relatives), Like a Son to Me, Team Mom, and Team Dad. Not to be confused with My Real Daddy. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples: - Technically, the Supermen from *Happy Heroes* don't have proper parents, being Ridiculously Human Robots that were revived from Mech Stones. With that said, Doctor H., the mechanic who revived them, acts as their father figure and takes care of them to make sure they're functioning properly. - In "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird", the princes and princess are raised by a deer, which oddly enough does not produce Raised by Wolves. Then again, kind-hearted fairies provided her, so perhaps it was magic. - "Tattercoats": The main character's mother dies in childbirth, her father's fate is unknown, and her grandfather refuses to take care of her. An old nurse is the only person who makes the effort to raise Tattercoats to the best of her ability. - *The Boxtrolls*: Fish, for Eggs. Eggs indirectly calls the boxtroll his father at one point. - Greek Mythology: - Zeus fathered a number of sons, none of which he actually helped raise. Some of them were lucky enough to find substitute father figures who took care of them: Heracles was raised by Amphitryon, his mother's mortal husband, while Perseus was raised by the fisherman Dictys, who took his mother Danae in when she was abandoned by her own father, and Dionysus was raised by his maternal aunt Ino and her husband Athamas, who Zeus gave to them to take care of so his jealous wife Hera wouldn't find out about his affair. - Zeus himself was raised on a secluded island by nymphs, a goat, and his grandmother Gaia. He liked the goat best—enough to make it the constellation Capricorn after its death. - Achilles spent most of his childhood being taught by Chiron with no contact from his birth parents, so he treats Chiron more as a mother and father than either parent. This is best demonstrated in *The Achilleid*, when Achilles falls asleep after reuniting with his mother and ends up snuggling to sleep with the old centaur, more comfortable with him than his own mother. - In *WHO dunnit (1995)*, Trixie sees her father's business partner, Tony, as a substitute dad after her real father disappears in an auto accident. - On the 2016 *Road To Best In The World* Silas Young took it upon himself to act as ACH's father after coming to the conclusion his seven year old son was more of a man than ACH. ACH was offended, already having a good relationship with his biological father. - For Big Bird on *Sesame Street*, being only six years old, and living on his own, several of the adults on the show act as a parental figure for him, notably Gordon, Susan, and Maria. This gets lampshaded in one episode when Big Bird has to check into the hospital, and the receptionist asks Maria if she's his mother. She replies, "Not exactly... kind of... yes." - Eureeka in *Eureeka's Castle* acts like a mother to Magellan the dragon, and to a lesser extent, everyone else. - In *Henry IV* Falstaff likes to think that he is this to Hal. If anything, it is the other way round, at least in *Henry IV, Part 1*, where Hal is usually the one deciding what they're going to do, protecting Falstaff when he's in danger from the police, and telling him off when he behaves inappropriately. This makes Hal's rejection of Falstaff at the end of *Henry IV, Part 2* a devastating example of Parental Abandonment. - *Into the Woods*: Cinderella becomes one for Little Red Riding Hood and probably for Jack too. - In *Philoctetes*, Neoptolemus is mostly a good guy who is lacking in guidance. While Odysseus first takes on this role for him, Philoctetes becomes a more sincere parental figure to him by the end. - *Hamilton* - George Washington is this for the protagonist, which causes no small amount of taunts from Hamilton's enemies. (It should be noted that, historically, Washington was also a father figure to Lafayette and John Laurens.) Hamilton actually resents Washington's paternal feelings since he's got a lot of Daddy Issues, and it causes a major rift in "Meet Me Inside.". Although it is played a lot more straight in the later part of the play where the last time we see Washington alive is during the "the Reynolds Papers" number where Washington get the paper thrust into his face, and he answer with a silent look of pure disgust at Hamilton who until then stoicly stood perfectly still while people threw his letter at his face finally turned away in shame. And just before getting shot he glimpsed "the other Side" and he saw his dead Son, his dead Mother and the now dead Washington waiting on the Other SideWashington taking the place of the actual father that he never knew. - The older Mulligan also says that he stands *in loco parentis* for Hamilton, Laurens, and Lafayette. - Miu Iruma from *Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony* becomes this completely by accident, courtesy of an amnesiac Monotaro dubbing her his "mommy". Miu plays along with it and acts very tender and loving towards her "son", and this dynamic returns in *Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp*. - *Double Homework*: Johanna is this for the protagonist after the deaths of their parents. She cooks for him and pushes him to succeed. And according to Tamara, Johannas influence does more to make him into a better person than her own does. - *Melody*: Amy has been the title character's primary mother figure since the death of her biological mother. - *Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney*: Several cases take place in the series: - *Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney*: ||Phoenix|| becomes the substitute parent to Trucy after the girl's father flees from the courthouse and had effectively vanished from her life. Despite missing her biological father, Trucy still sees ||Phoenix|| as a loving father. - *Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth*: ||Hakari Mikagami|| becomes ||Shimon Aizawa's adoptive mother|| after the death of his mother, Ami. His father, ||the *real* president of Zheng Fa||, is already dead. - *RWBY*: - Weiss Schnee's mother Willow is a neglectful alcoholic and her father Jacques is a self-absorbed businessman who is only concerned with maximizing profits and his own image. On the other hand, Klein Sieben is an approachable man who can shift personalities to cheer up Weiss when she's feeling low. He provides her with coffee after she's been in a cold room, uses his rude and grumpy personality to make her laugh by mocking Jacques' behaviour, and has a motherly personality that fusses over her well-being. Once Jacques detains Weiss for her insolence in Volume 4, Klein doesn't hesitate to secretly help her escape the family mansion and flee Atlas. Thus, Weiss considers Winter and Klein as the only family she has left. - In Volume 6, Emerald's unwavering belief that Cinder will look after them, even when she's estranged from Salem, leads to a confrontation with Mercury. Mercury implies Emerald's blind faith in Cinder comes from a desperate need to have a mother-figure in her life, and he states she's deluded if she thinks Cinder cares about either of them. Emerald doesn't listen, but Cinder has a sadistic craving for power and has physically hit Emerald for questioning her decisions. - In *True Tail*, a giant brute bear named Brutus looks after a small young kitten named Caleb. Caleb is also an orphan, so in this series, a bear is the closet thing the kitten has to a protective father. - By the end of the first *Cobra Kai* season, and well into the second, two examples stand out: Johnny for Miguel, and Daniel for Robby (who just happens to be Johnny's estranged son). - *Dragon Ball Z Abridged*: Exaggerated with Gohan and Piccolo due to Goku's ditziness being equally inflated, to the point where Gohan once greets the two of them with "Hi Dad! Hi Goku!" - *Mirrorfall*: Ryan for Stef, starts referring to her as his daughter in the third book. - *Oxventure*: In the *Dungeons & Dragons* campaign, Prudence - who was abandoned by her birth parents, and raised by a sinister warlock that she ended up justifiably murdering - has developed this sort of relationship with her warlock patron, who has become universally known as "Daddy Cthulhu". - *SuperMarioLogan*: - Because Bowser is usually in the other room watching his favorite Show Within a Show, *Charleyyy and Friends*, Chef Pee Pee is usually the one watching his son, Junior. - Mario becomes this to Jeffy in all of Jeffy's appearances (excluding "Bowser Junior's Playtime 4", "Pokémon Part 6", "Bowser Junior's Game Night 4", and "The Dog Show!"), because Jeffy's mother, ||Nancy, abandoned him on Mario and Rosalina's doorstep||. - DD from *Cream Heroes* takes on something of a fatherly role to the younger cats. It becomes the most noticeable when he's introduced to Nana, Toto and Dodo. He immediately takes it upon himself to be a father figure to the latter two, much to Nana's delight.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalSubstitute

Parents Are Wrong - TV Tropes A character is in conflict with one or both of their parents, where the parents represent Tradition and the kid represents Change. Eventually the plot proves that the kid was right and the parents were wrong. Usually the parents admit that they were wrong and they promise to be more flexible in the future. This supports An Aesop about how change is a good thing and tradition is flawed, or at least that some *specific* tradition is flawed and some specific reform is needed. Very often comes up in the context of Arranged Marriage, where the parents want their kid (usually a daughter) to marry someone whom the kid does not love, and the kid rebels. Eventually the kid either finds a different partner or just chooses to be single, and the parents come to realize that the kid knows best. Likewise the trope is used for when parents presume to dictate where their kids will live, what jobs they're allowed to take, what hobbies they're allowed to have, etc.. Easily dovetails into Be Yourself. See also Fantasy-Forbidding Father. ## Examples: - Disney Animated Canon: - Pixar: - In *Brave*, Merida is approached by three suitors and her mother says that she has to marry one of them. Merida turns them all down, insisting that marriage should be her own choice. Eventually, Merida's mother agrees to break tradition for Merida's sake. - In *Ratatouille*, Remy is a rat who wants to be a chef, but his dad wants him to eat garbage like all the other rats. Eventually Remy proves himself as a chef and his Dad learns to accept it. - In *Finding Nemo*, Nemo wants to be more adventurous but his dad Marlin is overprotective. Nemo *does* find himself in risky situations, but nevertheless the aesop of the climax is that Marlin needs to let go and allow Nemo to have more freedom. - In *Turning Red*, Mei wants to keep her giant red panda transformation ability but her mother and female relatives want her to seal it away. By the end, they all come to respect Mei's choice. - In *Dead Poets Society*, Neil wants to be an actor, but his father forbids it. When he finds that Neil went behind his back to perform in a play, he withdraws Neil from Welton and enrolls him in a military school. Neil ends up committing suicide, but even then his father doesn't understand that he did anything wrong. Instead his asks Dean Nolan to find someone else to blame, which ends up costing Keating his job. - In *October Sky*, Homer yearns to make a career in rocketry, but his father insists that he take the "practical" route of staying in town and working in the coal mine. Eventually, Homer proves himself as a budding scientist and his father relents. - *Now, Voyager* revolves almost entirely around the fact that Charlotte's mother is wrong about everything and has inflicted some serious psychological damage as a result. Charlotte's character arc is all about finding herself and learning to stand up to her mother, including one case where she turns down a marriage proposal despite her mother's wishes. - In *My Big Fat Greek Wedding*, Tula's father wants her to be traditional and marry a "nice greek boy". He's also opposed to her getting any advanced education, because she's already "smart enough for a girl". He eventually relents on both fronts. This inspires Tula's brother to pursue a career in art, despite his father's dismissive attitude. - "Where the Lilies Bloom" by Bill and Vera Cleaver. After the death of his wife, a dying Roy Luther left daughter Mary Call with these requests: One, do whatever is necessary to hide the fact that he's dead. Otherwise, the government will come along and split the children apart. Two, prevent her older sister Devola from marrying that no-good Kiser Pease. Mary Call gradually comes to see that her father was wrong about both of those things, and even comes right out and says so as the narrator. The story closes with Kiser and Devola's wedding, where it's assumed that the older siblings will now help look out for the younger ones. - One episode of *Touch (2012)* involves a Saudi teenager who aspires to be a doctor, but whose parents have earmarked her for an Arranged Marriage. After she runs away from home with a friend and they end up delivering a woman's baby in the middle of the desert, her dad decides to let her go to medical school after all. It probably helps that in the same episode, her betrothed ends up marrying a woman overseas, making the arranged marriage moot anyway. - The protagonist of *Daughter for Dessert* admits to Amanda that he shouldve told her more about her late mother. - In *Melody*, Arnold eventually admits that he wasnt the most supportive stepfather to the title character, and says that although the two of them do need to live apart, she is always welcome to ask him for help if she needs it. - In an article titled Junior Knows Best, Catholic film reviewer Steven Greydanus discusses this trope as it is depicted in various movies.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsAreWrong

Pardon My Klingon - TV Tropes *"Get your krutacking hands off me, you Rigellian nuthole!"* The Science Fiction cousin of the Unusual Euphemism. Much like the frelling Foreign Cuss Word, even though everything else aliens say is translated perfectly, krutzing profanity will remain in the speaker's native language. Silflay hraka! If this results from the Translation Convention, it's purely a smegging transparent attempt to appear edgy without bringing down the wrath of the zarking censors. Lalabalele talala! If Translator Microbes are at work, we're left with the sense that there are gorram Media Watchdogs even in the future. Blitznak! Then again, would *you* want your Belgium translator-microbes to tell the alien precisely what the zentraidon you've just slipped up and called its flurking mother? D'Arvit! Alternately, the alien swear words might not translate cleanly into the audience's kriffing language, much the same as with actual flarf-narblin' swear words and insults in many languages in Real Life. Kogec mjaa! One common literary use of the splitten flitten trope involves common words from Earth languages misheard by aliens as swear words in their own languages — oh, shef'th! — much as the English "foot" resembles a French vulgarity. What in yaolin? Or the French word for "seal" is pronounced exactly the same as the F-Word. Siripat sulat! Or, how the Russian word for "book" sounds like an English racial slur. Go ghuhg yourself! Curiously, Aliens Speaking English seems to be the least intrusive mechanism for this trope, as we can easily imagine a non-native speaker lapsing back into his native frakking tongue for an expletive. E chu ta! You bosh'tet! Shazbot! See also: Translation Convention, Translator Microbes, Aliens Speaking English, Informed Obscenity, These Tropes Should Watch Their Language, sæælyulát!. Contrast with My Hover Craft Is Full Of Eels, which is when someone is trying to speak a language they dont know, but often accidentally spout out something offensive. Did you get all that, petaQ'? ## Examples: - *Macross*: "Yakh! Deculture!" Even when Zentraedi are speaking Japanese like the rest of the cast, this phrase tends to go untranslated. From context, it is almost always used as a profanity, though the word "deculture" by itself eventually becomes in-universe slang meaning "awesome!" in human-affiliated space by the time of *Macross Frontier*. - For many years, Comic Books and Newspaper Comics would indicate swears with punctuation symbols: #@!$%&* being the most popular choices, in just about any order. It can still occasionally be seen, and has the advantage of being generic enough for *any* swearword the reader wants to insert. - Used as a plot point in *Lucky Luke* when interrogating natives that attacked them, Luke notices one of them understand the Sir Swears-a-Lot since he blushed. - Marvel Comics: - Cosmic Marvel characters tend to say "das't" a lot. Guess what it means. - In Marvel's *2099* universe (which takes place in the titular year), "shock" is the general all-purpose swear word. - Mojoverse natives Longshot and Shatterstar use the word "fekt", which from its usage appears to be the equivalent of "fuck" or "shit". - *Planet Hulk* has "fratz", which is used in the same way as "fuck". - *Guardians of the Galaxy* has Rocket Raccoon's "krutacking". It seems to be only a non-literal, rarely-conjugated form of "fuck", like when he tells a pair of Earth raccoons to "put on some krutacking pants". - "Flark", which turns out to refer to a painful face parasite, sees a lot of use. - Rocket actually discusses how much more vulgar Earth swears are compared to flark. - "Glorp" is used in place of "God", like "Thank Glorp". - *Supergirl* tends to call people who annoys her "snagriff" or "babootch". In *Supergirl (Volume 5)* issue #34, after Catherine Grant has published a smear piece on her: **Supergirl:** Cat Grant is a total snagriff. **Superman:** Yes, she is. - In some versions of the comics, Supergirl routinely uses Kryptonian profanity, which is represented in Kryptonian alphabet, so we have no idea what she's saying. Clark normally avoids this trope due to being a goody-two-shoes. However, he has occasionally said "What in the name of Rao" and similar phrases. - *2000 AD* is rather fond of this trope: - The Mighty Tharg, the magazine's alien editor, regularly drops Betelgeusan terms into his editorials, such as 'grexnix' (idiot) and 'squaxx dek Thargo' (friend of Tharg). - ABC Warriors had some slightly bizarre examples in its early days. Two instances that stick in mind are "I started this... and by zrokk I'll finish it!" and "You krogging old ape! Why won't you listen to reason, drang it?" - *Shakara* uses 'frukk' on occasion, in exactly the way it sounds like it should. - *Kingdom*, on the other hand, averts this, with the dogs freely using curses up to *shit* (though the F-word seems to be off-limits). - *Judge Dredd* has a few. "Drokk" (the f-word), "Grud" (God) and "Stomm" (shit). Note that these are *legally sanctioned* expletives which suggests the originals are illegal, hence why Judges don't use them and neither do civilians, not wanting to run foul of the harsh laws in Mega City One. - *PS238*: - *Skin Horse*: Nick the Human Helicopter is subject to a similar sort of profanity filter. **Nick:** Those **motorfingers** put some kind of **shucking** censor software in me. Said they were tired of my language. Buncha **pineapples**. - *Legion of Super-Heroes*: Jim Shooter introduced this during the Silver Age. When he came on as writer to the 2004 version, which didn't use it, he brought it with him; suddenly, everyone was peppering their dialogue with "florg"s and "zork"s and "scrag"s. - *Green Lantern*: Kilowog of Bolivax Vik uses "Poozer" as an all purpose swear word. - And still in The DCU, Lobo uses the words and phrases "frag", "Feetal's Gizz" (foetal's gizzard maybe?) and "bastich" - mixture of bastard and (son of a) bitch - as generic swearwords. - In *Paperinik New Adventures*, our protagonist encounters and assists colonel Neopard, an alien Private Military Contractor who keeps repeating the words "Plutz!", "Grabbaga Plutz!" and "Cyssa!", which Paperinik takes for greetings. At the end however he realizes they aren't and asks him what they really mean, and when he does (through a whisper) the shock of the reveal is strong enough to make his cap fly off. And break the fourth wall. **Paperinik:** You can't say that in a Paperinik story! **Neopard** *(smugly)*: No? But I've been saying it all the time! - Parodied in the same issue with the robotic assistant of Neopard, sergeant Qwin'kennon, who talks in an alien language... That is actually the dialect of *Milan*. The translation balloons keep the *general* meaning of his words, but if you know the dialect you realize he's swearing just as badly as its master. - The Greek God and sometime Avenger Hercules has had several limited series and a graphic novel dedicated to recounting his adventures in a potential alternate future, where he travels throughout space. In the course of these tales, he goes to several different worlds where characters use various epithets such as "fropp", "moogies", and "bvadlak", which serve as fairly obvious substitutes for "shit", "balls" and "asshole", or some other unflattering term for an individual, respectively. - *Lilo & Stitch*: - In the original film and its sequel works, Gantu is fond of using the oath "Oh, blitznak!" Stitch himself, when brought before the Galactic Council and asked to prove his intelligence, utters a string of words that are left untranslated from "alien" gibberish, although its profane content is clear from the shocked gasps of the hearers. Stitch's statement is so vulgar, a *robot* vomits. This trope probably was used to leave what Stitch said deliberately to the imagination, as there isn't much in the way of utterances left that would inspire such reactions from contemporary 21st century viewers. - We *supposedly* got the meaning of the Tantalog term "Meega, nala kweesta!" later. However, while "Meega" was firmly established by *Lilo & Stitch: The Series* to be a personal pronoun (like "I", "me", "my", etc.) thanks to several other spoken uses in that show, the full phrase was believed for years to be literally translated as, "I want to destroy!" which doesn't really sound vulgar. It wasn't until February 2022 that Chris Sanders stated in the comments of a TikTok video he posted about the phrase that it does *not* mean "I want to destroy", but instead is a phrase so bad that he "could never say it." - *Monsters vs. Aliens*: "What the flagnar!?" - *Rio* gives us this line courtesy of Linda: **Linda:** Squawk squawk squawkity squawk squawk! [Beat ] I'm sorry, I didn't mean to curse! - Played for Laughs in the movie of *Scott Pilgrim vs. The World*, every time someone swears, the film puts a black box over the person's mouth (and at one point someone's hand) and the film inserts nonsense sounds. Naturally, Scott himself Lampshades this directly. After one woman swears, he says: How do you move your mouth like that? - Tim Burton's *Alice in Wonderland* features Underlandish curse words. At one point the White Rabbit expresses his disgust at the actions of "real" animals who do their "shukum" in public. - Reversed in the live-action *Transformers* movie. Frenzy spends the whole movie scurrying and skulking around muttering to himself in Cybertronian, until, as one of his shots fatally ricochets back towards him, his last words are "Oh shi--". - The rest of Transformers plays this pretty straight, though. "Oh Slag..." "That bot's got bearings of chrome steel." And so on.... - The chaps at TFWiki.net have a list of these, because of course they do. - *Star Wars*, mainly the Expanded Universe, has "stang", "kriff", "burn", and either "Sithspawn", "Sithspit", or just "Sith-", Depending on the Writer. - "schutta." - And "Emperor's Black Bones!" - And "karking" — *really* offensive to non-humans. - It got rather silly in *Death Star*, in which **milking** was used as a curse word. - This trope actually used in *The Empire Strikes Back*, in which a droid says "E chu ta!" and C-3PO merely remarks, "How rude!" rather than translating or replying. This has hilarious implications because the same phrase is said in *Knights of the Old Republic* **all the freaking time.** - Here's the complete list of Galaxy Far Far Away curses. More than a few are from languages other than Basic, the language that is rendered as the reader or viewer's language. - Still misses out Fierfek. Which although used by Mandos a lot one of them tells off a jedi when she uses it. - Episode 4 features R2-D2 whistle something to C-3PO in one scene, to which he is told "Watch your language!" - Given a Call-Back in *The Last Jedi* when Luke and Artoo reunite on Achtoo; Artoo beeps something that was evidently pretty profane, causing Luke to gently scold him for swearing on sacred ground. - Jabba the Hutt occasionally uses "poodoo" in conversation, which is translated as "fodder" in the subtitles. Apparently the actual meaning has something to do with feces, but other writers have justified it as bantha fodder being utterly repulsive to anything that isn't a bantha. On the other hand, poop is just food after its journey through the stomach. - Sebulba in *Episode I* is also fond of using "poodoo" as a curse word. - And that's not even going into Mando'a. That language would probably lend itself to a GREAT Cluster F-Bomb attack. - The Devaronian Kardue'sai'malloc (the horned, toothy guy from the cantina in *A New Hope*) is a fugitive who goes by the pseudonym Labria. As explained in his entry in *Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina*, "labria" is a very rude word in Devaronian that translates to "cold food", though something of the meaning is Lost in Translation. He thinks humans are weird for using religion, sex, and excrement as curses. - In the *New Jedi Order*, after integrating her Yuuzhan Vong personality, Tahiri will sometimes drop swears in the Vong language. *Khapet* is the only one written out, and it's left untranslated (though it's used in a situation where "damn" or "shit" might have both been substituted). - Subverted in *District 9* - the aliens, due to their insect-like physiology, can't even pronounce human syllables, but when one of them swears at Wikus it is baldly subtitled as "Fuck off!" - In the original *Angels in the Outfield* (shown fairly often on Turner Classic Movies), a foul-mouthed baseball manager lets fly several times in the first few minutes of the film. Actor Paul Douglas was told to yell out anything he wanted (no problem there), then his words were cut, mixed, spliced together and run backwards, so that we don't really know what he's saying. The "swearing" sounds like gibberish even on a backwards play! - In the 2008 adaptation of the Strugatsky Brothers' *Prisoners of Power* the protagonist's Translator Microbes fail to translate the expletive "Massaraksh". In the original novel there *were no Translator Microbes*, so there was a good reason why it took some time for him to find out what it means, but in the movie he should have known from the very beginning that it literally means ||"the World inside-out''||. - In the film version of *My Favorite Martian*, Martin frequently says "Blotz!" which translates pretty literally to "Shit" (including one instance where he asks, "Does a wild bear blotz in the woods?"). - In *Road to Zanzibar*, the natives of Darkest Africa have their lines subtitled in English, but one line produces a **[CENSORED]** stamp instead of a subtitle. - Per Word of God, in the Na'vi language, it is quite possible to be rude or insulting, but not profane as such; the Na'vi don't have the concept of words that it's bad to say. The closest we get is "skxawng", which means "moron". - In the animated movie *Fantastic Mr. Fox* all the characters cuss by saying, well, *cuss.* - The Soviet Cult Classic, *Kin-Dza-Dza!*, features the Universal Swearword Acceptable In Civilized Speech, "Kju" (used to replace any contextually applicable swearword you can think of), as well as the Universal Word "Koo" (yes, there's a reason they sound similar), covering all other things the authors couldn't make up alien words for. It probably helps that all the Human Aliens are partially telepathic (and thus communicate with the protagonists by learning Russian from their minds, and only use the alien words for swearing or naming alien devices. "But Fiddler, even you must realize that this is the most elementary kju!" - Patrick Winslow in *The Smurfs*, who doesn't know a lick of how to speak in Smurf, ends up letting out a stream of words in Smurf that make the other Smurfs react as if he had a bad case of potty mouth. - *Turkey Hollow*: One of the monsters says something in the monster language, which makes the narrator say, "That profanity is uncalled for." - Subverted in *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)* with Zaphod's angry exclamations of "Humma Kavula!", which sounds like an alien swear (and is even mistaken as such by Arthur) but is actually the name of his political opponent when he ran for President. - *Watership Down*: - At one point, Fiver exclaims "O embleer Frith!" in exasperation. Given that "embleer" is not only Lapine for "smelly" but a fairly strong all-purpose insult (the glossary at the end points out that it's used to describe the scents of predators, for example) and Frith is their god (who also happens to be the sun), the phrase might be akin to taking the Lord's name in vain. - "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah." ||Literally, 'eat shit, you lord of stench!'|| This is an excellent example, because by this point in the novel, we have already seen all of these words (in different, innocent contexts). ||Shit is a pretty important consideration in your life, if you're a rabbit.|| note : Yes, rabbits do have to chew their cud, or rather caecotropes, masses of undigested fibre and nutrients that their digestives systems couldn't break down the first time through. To be fair, caecotropes do exit the body the same way as droppings, but one assumes that a sentient rabbit would think of them as entirely different from *hraka*. - *Star Trek Expanded Universe*: - *The Final Reflection* does this with actual Klingon; when the Klingon characters are speaking, most of the dialogue is rendered in English but the curse words are left alone. - From the Star Trek Novel Verse, we have *Vikak* (A curse among the Payav), *krught* (a Tellarite curse), *Frinx* (the all-purpose Ferengi sexual euphemism), *Grozit* (the Xenexian all-purpose curseword), *kyeshing* (among Pacifican Selkies), and many more. - One novel even has Riker use an obscene *whistle* to shock an hysterical visiting Starfleet commander so he'd snap out of his panic. The whistle was a swearword in Bottlenose Dolphin, which was the distressed commander's species. - In another, an untranslated insult can be worked out to mean something like "Your father fucked a shit-worm." - Mark Anthony's *The Last Rune* / *Blood Of Mystery*: After several characters come into possession of a translation spell, one character continues swearing obscure and bizarre oaths in his native language until he realizes they're being translated for his companions. As he puts it, "They work better when nobody else knows what you're saying." - *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*: - "Belgium" is the most obscene word in most of the Universe, the only exception being Earth, which is so isolated and oblivious that it innocently named one of its countries after the word note : although Earth is ||actually a supercomputer built by aliens||, it may be a prank by ||the mice who built it||. It's actually a little Writer Revolt from Douglas Adams, who when doing the original radio version wanted a bit about the "most gratuitous use of the word 'fuck' in a serious screenplay" but, as they weren't allowed to say "fuck" on the radio, he changed it to "Belgium" and got an even funnier bit out of it. It actually creates a dichotomy between the British and American versions of *Life, the Universe and Everything* — the British version just has a straight "fuck", while the American version has "Belgium" and the radio show's explanation of its significance. "Belgium" has since migrated to other adaptations as a hard swear ( *e.g.* Ford exclaiming it during the Vogon attack in the film version), and even to other works, like *Neighbours*. - In the first book, Arthur's offhand comment, "I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle" is picked up by a freak wormhole, which transports the comment right in the middle of a diplomatic negotiation — where it sounds exactly like one side's most vulgar insult, accidentally starting an interstellar war. The gag makes it to the text-adventure adaptation, which will pull a certain input from the parser to fill the role of the offending phrase (and gives you extra kudos if you type in the book's original phrase at the right time). - There are a few "spacey" swear words used periodically throughout the series, mostly out of Zaphod's mouth, including "What the photon?!", "Starpox!", and "zarking" (as in "What the zarking fardles was that?", which Word of God confirmed to be a reference to the Great Prophet Zarquon). The "Belgium" gag from *Life, the Universe, and Everything* also gives us "swut", "joojooflop", and "turlingdrome" (the latter also seen in the snippet of Vogon poetry). - Played straight and subverted in *A Clockwork Orange*. On one hand, the Nadsat swearwords Alex and his droogs use are incomprehensible to English speakers (though the context makes them obvious). On the other, Nadsat is made up of Russian that Burgess either anglicised or used for his own purposes, as in "khoroso" to "horrorshow". Thus anyone with an even basic knowledge of Russian would be able to work out Nadsat in a second, though they'd probably be irritated by the spelling and somewhat puzzled by the Cockney rhyming slang. - In the *Spaceforce* novels, Jez speaks English but swears like a trooper in her own language. Because her partner Andri keeps his translator unit's profanity filter on, we only get the alien words. - The locals of the *Sector General* book series are so big on the galactic peace and harmony thing that their Translator Microbes do this on purpose. The euphemism of choice is "made a sound that did not translate." Alternatively, the untranslatable sounds could simply be non-verbal vocalisations (such as laughter, sighing etc). Considering how literal the translation computer seems to be (in one book, the heroine is worried because an Earth-human has threatened to use her intestines for hosiery supports; her friend, who is used to dealing with Earth-humans, explains that they often make meaningless comments like this and she shouldn't worry), it is more likely that expletives that have a literal meaning would simply be translated literally (for example, Earth-human expletives might be rendered 'Faeces!' or 'Mating!'), and no species other than that of the speaker would understand why they were supposed to be rude. - In E. E. "Doc" Smith's *The Vortex Blasters* (a novel loosely associated with the *Lensman* series), the ultimate unrepeatable expletive on Tominga (where the language metaphors all revolve around plants) is "srizonified". Sentient telepaths, just like the Lens, leave this untranslated, but we are told that it is loosely rendered as "descended from countless generations of dwellers in stinking and unflowering mud." - In the Poul Anderson/Gordon R. Dickson Hoka story "Undiplomatic Immunity", "Garrasht!" is a swear word in Worbenite. This later enables the hero to unmask a surgically-altered Worbenit spy. - The fairies in *Artemis Fowl* use this: - The word "D'Arvit". In one of the margins, it is "explained" that if the word were to be translated, it'd just be censored anyways. Given the fact that there is already swearing present in the books (as well as the context in which 'd'Arvit' is used), it's obviously a fairly strong word. It's rather infamously used in fanfiction as 'd'Arviting', despite the fact that the word doesn't conjugate the same way as in English. It's worth noting that 'd'Arvit' was said as the first curse in the series, so *at that point* it could have meant, in context, 'damn it' (Which even seemed likely, given the word itself, and the færies pointing out that every human language originated with Gnommish). But that seems fairly mild. Bottom line, it's vulgar. - And also, 'cowpog', which is apparently a vulgar version of 'moron', from what a slightly-more-than-a-bit-delusional Artemis manages to explain. - *Discworld*: - A subversion: Dwarfish words are occasionally used in such a context in a conversation that the non-Dwarfish-speakers present assume they're swearwords. Example from the novel *Feet of Clay*, when a group of angry dwarves discusses an attempted robbery on a dwarven bakery by human criminals with Captain Carrot of the City Watch: "They kicked Olaf Stronginthearm in the *bad'dhakz*!", "Let's hang 'em up by the *bura'zak-ka*!" Footnotes explain that the words in question meant "yeast bowl" and "town hall." The joke is upped when Captain Carrot, dwarf by adoption, patiently explains, "Now, now, Mr Ironcrust. We don't practice that punishment in Ankh-Morpork." with the footnote adding: Because Ankh-Morpork doesn't have a town hall. - Interestingly, the dwarf word for Littlebottom's name seems to be "Sh'rt'azs", which sounds rather like "shortarse". - There's also the dwarf insult tossed at Cheery when the dwarfs see her dressed in a way that clearly indicates she's female in *The Fifth Elephant*, "ha'ak". Later uses of "ha'ak" in *Thud!* establish that it's not gender-specific, apparently meaning something along the lines of "betrayer/sullier of dwarfishness". - Occasionally invoked with Troll words also. *Men at Arms* has two troll recruits sworn into the Watch using a powerful Trollish oath of loyalty and obedience, namely "I will do what I'm told, or get my *goohuloog* head kicked in." *Monstrous Regiment* introduces the word 'groophar', which is implied to be Trollish for "fuck". **Carborundum:** If people are *groophar* stupid, then we'll fight for *groophar* stupidity, 'cos it's *our* stupidity. And dat's good, yea? **Maladict:** I realize I ought to know these things, but what does "groophar" mean? **Carborundum:** Ah, well . . . when, right, a daddy troll an' a mummy troll— **Maladict:** Good, right, yes, I think I've got it, thank you. - This joke is also commonly pulled with archaic words rather than foreign ones, particularly in *Guards! Guards!*. The penalties for betraying the secret society involve "having your figgin roasted, having your gaskin plucked out," and so on, when these eye-watering words actually mean things like "mince pie" and "waistcoat worn by makers of spectacles". Similarly, there was mention of an esoteric punishment involving being 'hung up by your figgin', students looking up the word out of morbid curiosity and discovering it meant a kind of pastry. Leading to the conclusion that either the language changed over time or there was some secret horror to being suspended next to a teacake. - Captain Carrot is known as the only man who can audibly swear in asterisks. "D*mn!" But he has nothing on Rincewind, who can orate an expletive consisting solely of, "!" - The "children's" Discworld book *The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents* differs from the typical "grown-up" Discworld novels only in that the swearing and sex references are translated into either Cat or Rat. The fully human Stupid-Looking Kid even swears in Rat, something that is instantly lampshaded. - Early *Discworld* books replaced the harsher swear words with dashes. A lampshade was hung on this in *The Truth*, wherein a character has a verbal tic that causes him to punctuate his sentences with dashes and "-ing." This led to an ultimate Face Palm moment when a reader's mother sent an irate letter to Terry Pratchett, complaining about the amount of swearing present in the books. As he said, some people will complain about anything. - Lampshaded even earlier in *Mort*: "Well, —— me," he said. "A ——ing wizard. I hate ——ing wizards!" "You shouldn't —— them, then," muttered one of his henchmen, effortlessly pronouncing a row of dashes. - Also, throughout the series, the phrase "pardon my Klatchian" is used after a character swears. That sounds a bit familiar... - *Nation* has characters using two languages, English and that of the Nation, both of which are rendered in English for the reader's convenience. The only untranslated word occurs when Mau complains that his new trousers "chafe the sresser". - Characters in the *Doctor Who Expanded Universe* novels say "cruk" a lot, which means... pretty much exactly what you'd imagine, and apparently takes the same conjugation. Played with in *Happy Endings* (set Next Sunday A.D.) when "totally crukked" apparently comes from a kids TV show and just means "tired". The Doctor warns someone who uses it that this will change by the 25th century. - Used once in *Redwall* with the reportedly foul-mouthed squirrel Grood: "Gorrokah!" As well as "splitten flitten gurgletwip" and the other incoherent swearing he was repeatedly reprimanded for. - Inverted in *The Enemy Papers*: human and alien know enough of cheap insults on each other's tongue (or at least they think so), but fluid use of the foes' language is beyond either. So when *slightly* more complex profanity is used, Davidge *has to stop and explain it* — after all, what's the point of swearing at someone if the target can't understand? They switch to this linguistic "problem" until all is clear... *and then resume the brawl*. In the original story, the exact phrase used by the Drac is "kizlode" = "kiz" + "lode". - *Known Space*: - The favorite four-letter word is "tanj" — originally an acronym for "There Ain't No Justice". - In the *Man-Kzin Wars* stories, "k'zeerkt" (plural "k'zeerekti") is a Kzinti epithet for humans; a kzeertk is a Kzinhome animal that looks like a small hairless monkey. - A few of Niven's stories have "bleep" and "censor" as swear words in their own right, having picked up the connotations of the words they originally replaced. - In Piers Anthony's *Xanth* series, swear words are 'bleeped out' magically if spoken in the presence of a child, although the characters still object to this. An extreme case is in the book *Roc and a Hard Place*, where a roc (giant bird) is put on trial for using a swear word in the presence of an egg she was caring for. It turns out that although the roc didn't realize it, the chick inside that egg is actually able to hear and understand words spoken in his presence, even before hatching. - The curse words are consistently rendered in Symbol Swearing such that **####** and **$$$$** always refer to specific four-letter words. It's worth noting that these seven words of power carry enough power to literally scorch shrubbery and hair in their vicinity. *The Color of Her Panties* involves the protagonists having to use Lethe water to unteach a goblin child who'd learned them too early and was causing trouble. - Subverted in Piers Anthony's *Prostho Plus*, wherein all dialogue is translated by the characters' earpieces. A clam-like alien shouts something that comes through as "Boiling oceans!" and the students surrounding him mutter, "Did he say 'poisoned anthills'?" "Yeah! 'Melted ice cream'!" - One of H. Beam Piper's *Paratime* stories had an offhand reference to a Paratime agent being unable to use a straight rearrangement of his real name to fit in because his first name, "zortan", is a particularly unpleasant swear word. The phrase "son of a zortan" pops up approximately 75 times over the rest of the story. - *Dragonback* has "frunge". - In *Brave New World*, John the Savage swears in Zuñi, the language of the area where he was raised. - Ciaphas Cain makes liberal use of the term "frak" and its many meanings. - In *Daughter of the Drow*, Forgotten Realms novel by Elaine Cunningham, happens most likely because a drow just have no reason to learn upper-Common words not related to things like commerce or magic: **Liriel**: I've pulled your *tzarreth* out of the fire four times, you've saved mine three—that sort of thing. - *Mortal Engines* In *Fever Crumb*'s far future London the term blog has become a general purpose profanity. - In Dan Abnett's *Gaunt's Ghosts* the Tanith use "feth". The word obviously sounds a lot like fuck and the main protagonist thinks that it does mean that. *Supposedly*, it refers to the tree spirits back on Tanith. It is actually somewhat ambiguous in the passage where that claim is made as to whether Gaunt is telling the truth and it doesn't mean what people assume, or he's bullshitting an Inquisitor (and he's definitely got the attitude for it), or he's telling the truth and the word DOES still mean exactly what people assume. After all, there are some pretty, well, lascivious tree-spirits in the folklore of our own world. - The Verghast members of the unit, who join after *Necropolis*, have their own curse, "gak". Its noted by one of the commanding officers that the two separate parts of the unit starting to use each others' swear words was a good sign, that the unit was finally starting to gel. - William Gibson's "All Tomorrow's Parties" had a bit of twist on this concept in that the reader can hear the profanity, but the characters involved can't. "People are fascinated by the pointlessness of it. That's what they like about it. Yes, it's crazy, but it's fun. You want to send your nephew in Houston a toy, and you're in Paris, you buy it, take it to a Lucky Dragon, and have it re-created, from the molecules up, in a Lucky Dragon in Houston. . . What? What happens to the toy you bought in Paris? You keep it. Give it away. Eviscerate it with your teeth, you tedious, literal-minded bitch. What? No, I didn't. No, I'm sorry Noriko, that must be an artifact of your translation program. How could you imagine I'd say that?" - In Bruce Coville's *My Teacher Is an Alien* series, the main characters have a device installed in their brains that translates all alien languages, even aphorisms and gestures. However, it is stumped by Kreeblim's use of the word "Plevit", save that it seems to be rather obscene. - *Bill the Galactic Hero* often uses "bowb" as his expletive of choice. - Happens with the Hork-Bajir in *Animorphs*, though justified since they speak a mixture of their own language, Galard, and English. - *The Automatic Detective* does this once with a nonverbal communication: in response to Mack's quip, Mack narrates, an alien "executed a maneuver with his tentacles that I could only assume was derogatory in nature." - The exclamation *Khadasa!* appears in *Deryni Rising*, although the characters otherwise use English, including other swearing in English on occasion (Archbishop Cardiel actually shouts "Goddamnit" once). - In the *Confederation of Valor* series, the races in the Marines learned to get along by learning to swear at one another in their native languages. - In *Brimstone Angels*, heroine Farideh and her twin sister Havilar are the adopted daughters of a dragonborn warrior, and all three of them have a tendency to spout obscenities in Draconic when upset. The author has compiled a short lexicon of these (and Draconic terms that *aren't* profanities) on her website. - *Illuminatus*! combines this trope elegantly with a thermonuclear Take That: "shit" gets censored with "burger", "penis" with "Rehnquist" and so on. (Wilson evidently lifted the idea here: Gore Vidal) - Would you believe that J. R. R. Tolkien did this? *The Two Towers* has an untranslated line in some Mordor dialect of Orkish, cursing about Saruman. According to Word of God, "I have tried to play fair linguistically, and it is meant to have a meaning and not to be a mere casual group of nasty noises, though an accurate translation would even nowadays [in the 60s] only be printable in the higher and artistically more advanced forms of literature". However, over the course of his life, Tolkien gave three different and contradictory translations for that line, and none really lives up to that statement. note : Yes, fans have studied and "reconstructed" a lot of Tolkien's languages, but the different dialects of Orkish are very divergent with each other and with the Black Speech, and very little is known of any of them. - Orcs are also prone of throwing snarling nonsense words like "garn" or "nar" in their speech, in places where you'd be likely to hear soldiers throw in expletives. - In *Ella Enchanted*, Ella is learning Ayorthaian, the language of the kingdom next to the one in which she lives, from her roommate at boarding school. She calls a bully an "ibwi unju" for mocking her roommate's accent. It only meant "tall girl" - I didn't know any Ayorthaian insults. But the way Areida immediately bent double, convulsing with laughter, made it seem like the most vulgur of epithets. - In *Void Stalker* from the *Night Lords* series, after learning that ||Septimus got Octavia, *the navigator*, pregnant||, Talos uses a bout of corporal punishment on his slave Septimus. Note : Possibly for the first time in either ones' lifetime. Despite their incredibly one-sided relationship, they were on pretty good terms with each other. When Talos tells Septimus "Give me one reason not to kill you. And make it *incredibly* good," in a moment of defiance (also a first), Septimus simply tells him *"Tshiva keln."* The phrase was Nostroman for "Eat shit." Talos only paused and laughed before continuing, and gave Septimus a stern warning before leaving. - Keith Laumer's "Retief" SF series has "Pratzel!" note : in the German translation, the English one may differ - even nonce words might get adapted to the language , it's a mild expletive. - *Wasp (1957)*: The alien Sirian insult "soko", which apparently means something analogous to "bastard". - While we're at Eric Frank Russell, "faplap" and "enk" in "Next to Kin" (AKA "The Space Willies" AKA "Plus X"), some all-purpose insult for (alien) people. - In *Warrior Cats*, cats have a variety of phrases that are synonymous with human curses, such as "fox dung" (and similar terms) for "shit". - In *The Sharing Knife* series, "blight" is an all-purpose swear for Lakewalkers. - The multipurpose swearword of choice in the *The Ship Who...* series is "fardle" and its variants: fardles, fardling, fardled, etc. There's also "nardy" which is a surprisingly effective insult of unknown meaning, and "shellcrack" which is an expletive that only seems to be used by shellpeople, who probably invented it on the first place. - In *Tailchaser's Song* "me'mre" literally translates to "food-soil" in cat Conlang and is the equivalent of "droppings". Despite this, it's only ever used as the equivalent of "shit". The Clawguard is especially fond of using it as an insult towards their slaves. Tailchaser: *This promise-keeping seems like a me'mre of a way to go about things*. - In *Ozma of Oz* by L. Frank Baum, in a fit of anger at losing the Nome King exclaims "Hippikaloric!", which, the narrator notes, "must be a dreadful word because we don't know what it means". - In *Shadow of the Conqueror,* we have things like "blackened," "son of a Shade," and then the word "Light" being used in all the same ways we use the word "God." ex: "Daylen Namaran, you blackened son of a Shade! *Light,* you're such a Light-blinding bastard!" note : And he is, by the way, though he's trying to do better. - Yahtzee Croshaw's Jacques McKeown Saga, currently consisting of *Will Save the Galaxy for Food* and *Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash* has 'pilot math', in which abbreviated mathematical terms are used as substitutes for common swear words. "Plying, trac-eating divs, doints and brackets." - *Star Wars: The High Republic* the phrase Suriks Blade is uttered on more than one occasion. Of course, this is a Mythology Gag, referencing the Jedi Exile Meetra Surik, the Player Character from *Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords*. - In Jo Walton's *Tooth and Claw*, the V-noun and G-verb (implied to be a gendered slur and the draconic equivalent of "fuck," respectively) are never actually spelled out, and the very dirty anatomical colloquialism used by Kest in reference to Sebeth is cut off altogether. Based on the context, the implication is that they are very bad words that are jarring from a middle-class dragon like Kest and *completely* shocking from ||a noble matron like Berend||, even considering that ||she's painfully bleeding to death at the time||. - *Goblins in the Castle*: Early on in *Goblins on the Prowl*, Fauna watches a group of goblins searching her cottage for something. When a goblin who's otherwise been speaking English suddenly yells "Urxnagle!" in frustration after they fail to find what they're looking for, she guesses that it's a goblin cuss word. - *Aliens in the Family*: In one episode, Spit calls Bobut a garch. - Mira Furlan, the actress playing Delenn in *Babylon 5* occasionally cursed in Minbari after fumbling a line. - There are few curse words in *Babylon 5*, most of which are human in nature. However, Minbari is probably the language where Translation Convention is averted most often. One case provides an instance of "Pardon My Minbari": Lennier is complaining that Sheridan ruined a ritualistic dinner and grumbles some words in Minbari with a tone of frustration, to which Delenn replies, also in Minbari, in a tone that seems to convey a need to be more understanding and patient. - Early seasons had the words 'stroke' or 'stroking' used by humans as swear words (presumably a euphemism for masturbation). - *Battlestar Galactica*: - The original 1978 series made extensive use of "frack" and "felgercarb". - The 2003 relaunch changed the spelling to "frak", and has been particularly fluent in conjugating it in ways that match English constructions: frakking, frakker, frakked... - Frak has been slowly making its way into regular English euphemisms, simply because it has aural satisfaction when spoken. Over the past few years, it's also been used with some regularity by Ascended Fanboys in *other* sci-fi series who might presumably have watched *Battlestar Galactica* (e.g., Topher in *Dollhouse* and Fargo in *Eureka*). - While felgercarb has been changed to a brand of toothpaste. - *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*. In "A New Man" Giles is turned into a Fyarl demon by the villainous Ethan Rayne. Translation Convention is used so that Giles is heard speaking English by the viewer most of the time, but, when it switches to the POV of any other character, he's grunting and snarling in the Fyarl language. A gag scripted — but unfortunately not used — involved Giles bursting in on Rayne shouting, "I'm going to rip off your arms and shove them up your— *(sudden shift to Giles shouting in Fyarl)*. - Lampshaded in an episode of *CSI*: the episode is actually titled "Fracked" (a natural gas drilling term), and when Ray Langston is asked if he knows what fracking is, he says that it sounds like some kind of sci-fi curse word. Notable since Katee Sackhoff guest stars in this episode. - *Defiance* has "shtako", an Irathient word used in the same contexts as "shit", although other races, including humans, adopt it. Occasionally, though, it's used in contexts where the f-word would be more appropriate, such as "you shtako coward!" - In one episode of *Dinosaurs* one character accidentally shouts "Smoo!" on television after accidentally hurting himself. This titillates the public enough that the network creates "The Smoo Show", which then prompts imitators such as "The Flark Show" and "Kiss my Glip". - *Doctor Who*: - A line when the Doctor is holding Davros hostage in "Destiny of the Daleks" strongly implies that "spack" is a Gallifreyan obscene verb. It is often claimed that this was an accidental line-garbling by Tom Baker, but the delivery seems too strong and deliberate for that. - While the above explanation is possible, the line is more likely to be a garbled "just back off!" - The line as scripted was "Now back off". Baker says "Now" (NOT "Just"), then holds an "s" sound, most likely because he was about say "stay back" or something similar, realises as he's saying it that it's wrong, and turns it into "back off" without pausing. The end result is "Now ssssback off". He most likely expected a retake that never happened. - Tom Baker's Doctor uses a Gallifreyan swear word (said in the footnote to be so unspeakably rude that its translation was deleted from the TARDIS's matrix) in the novelisation of "Shada", in reference to this. Of course, being a novelisation, we just see some handwritten squiggles (apparently Old High Gallifreyan writing), one of which looks a bit like the joined-up Venus and Mars symbol sometimes used to represent sex. - Also spoofed in the book version of *Shada* with "The V of Rassilon", an ancient and incredibly rude Gallifreyan symbol, which is actually just the British V-sign. - A script from one of the many early-90s attempts to bring the show back either as a motion picture or a new series contained the memorable phrase "Sons of Sabiches!" - In "The Christmas Invasion", just after making a big deal out of the translation mechanism, the Doctor lapses into Sycorax when insulting the alien leader. Since the Translator Microbes are linked to the Doctor's mind, it's not quite clear whether he's doing this for effect, or it's a suspiciously timed failure of his still-unstable mind. An Expanded Universe story claimed previously that the Translator Microbes have a "swear filter". - Chan In "Utopia", Chantho has a Verbal Tic of beginning all her sentences with "Chan" and ending them with "Tho". According to her, not doing so is the equivalent of swearing to her species. Tho - The Doctor speaks Judoon in "The Stolen Earth". The Doctor is talking to Judoon. So why wasn't it in English in the episode? Similarly, Martha is able to understand the Hath in "The Doctor's Daughter", but it isn't translated for the viewer. - Neil Gaiman's Word of God says that while the Corsair has never been recorded to have fought the Daleks, there was an incident where she may have removed the gunsticks and manipulator arms from a whole squad of them and welded them into "something incredibly rude in Skarosian". - Largely averted in *Earth: Final Conflict*, as the Taelons try to appear sensitive and evolved. However, right before ||being blown up||, Zo'or (who was ||turned into an Atavus||) screams "Shabra!", being, presumably, a Taelon curse word. - A CBBC advert for *Ed & Oucho* has the pair having a conversation. Oucho speaking in his tongue of "dee baa shor baa dee" says something, to which Ed replies he cannot say on television. Oucho continues and Ed starts shouting louder at him to stop. - A fairly extensive vocabulary of Belter creole profanity was created for *The Expanse*, most of it based on existing words from various languages used in new ways. Examples include pasheng (the f word), sabakawala (asshole), dzhemang (dickwad), and kaka felota (which pretty much translates as what it sounds like and is a curse that only people who spend a lot of time in zero G would come up with). - *Farscape*: The Translator Microbes only translate profanity sporadically. "Bitch" and "ass" come through loud and clear, but the show had an entire vocabulary to replace FCC-unfriendly words, and occasionally just for humor: - *Firefly* had lots of swearing in Mandarin Chinese, though curiously most of the curses when literally translated are actually rather mild or downright funny. Wash's spiel to Zoe in "War Stories" translates as "All the planets in space flushed into my butt". They also use archaic English words that have largely fallen out of use such as "rutting" note : Still used to describe animals in heat, at least for deer, "humped", or "gorram" (which seems more like a linguistic drift from "goddamn"). - In *The Mandalorian*, the go-to expletive is "Dank ferrik". Djarin uses it from time to time, and so does one of Bo-Katan's Nite Owls. - Mork, from *Mork & Mindy*, used "Shazbot" most noticeably; despite it being an alien language, it bears enough resemblance to an English expletive that the audience recognizes it. - Lampshaded in an episode of *NCIS* where a suspect insults Gibbs in Klingon, but McGee is able to translate it as "your mother has a smooth forehead", which to a Klingon is a very dirty thing to say indeed. To Gibbs... not so much. - *Porridge*, of all things, has "Naff". Fletcher has also referred to Warden Mackay as a "charmless Celtic nerk" at least once. - *Red Dwarf* has "smeg" (and variants thereof, such as "smegger", "smeghead", etc.). As in: - Additional hilarity ensues when Kryten tries to swear. Due to either a malfunction or censorship, when he says "Smeghead" (usually to Rimmer) all that comes out is "That smeeeeeeeee... Smeeeeeeeee..." - The show's usage of "Smeg" became so prolific that when Craig Charles visited a PBS station in California for a pledge drive, an astonishing number of people pledged on the contingency that he would either call them a smeghead on air, or tell them what "Smeg" meant. His answer to the latter? "Ask your mother." - Your mother would probably tell you that it is an Italian brand of large kitchen (and other home) appliances (cookers, fridges, etc)... - That, or it's short for "smegma" (look it up if you really want to know). The show's creators say they'd never heard of smegma, but thought it worked perfectly for the long form of "smeg", both in meaning and in name. - "Goit" and "Gimboid" were also used, but with far less frequency. - In one episode, Lister calls Rimmer a "gwenlan," which was a Take That! against a producer who had turned the series down. - A few episodes used "Gordon Bennett" as a exclamation of annoyance. - Truth in Television. "Gordon Bennett" is often used in Britain as a substitute for swearing or blasphemy (possibly because the first syllable sounds like the Cockney pronunciation of "God"). The real Gordon Bennett was a newspaper baron famous for, among other things, being both eccentric and extravagant. - In one episode of *Shake it Up*, Tinka flies off the handle when she learns that CeCe will be dancing with her brother Gunther instead of her and rattles off a very colorful string of words in the language of whatever country it is that she comes from. When asked for a translation, Gunther remarks that he doesn't feel comfortable repeating what she said in mixed company. - *Stargate SG-1*: - "Deadman Switch": **Aris Boch:** And you, O'Neill, you're considered — Well, you're a pain in the mikta. **Jack O'Neill:** Neck? **Teal'c:** No. - "Gonach, ha'shak!" (screw you, fool/weakling!) and "Mai'tac!" (damn!). - Also, until the defeat of the Goa'uld, Teal'c was ubiquitously known as "shol'va" (traitor). The word was always spat out as a curse, although it made Teal'c and O'Neill smile. - The episode "200" had a scene that was a Shout-Out to *Farscape* above, parodying its tendency toward this trope by consisting almost entirely of the characters swearing in alien languages. The best one had to be Christopher Judge's character's "Hezmana!", or perhaps Ben Browder's "Son of a hazmot!" - *Star Trek* - *Star Trek: The Next Generation*: - Worf occasionally uses Klingon curse words. Also, in Fanon, Picard frequently swears in French (something he actually did onscreen, if only rarely). - In "The Mind's Eye", the Klingon governor, Vagh, has confiscated Federation weapons used by separatists (they turn out to be Romulan replicas), leading to a tense on-screen moment: **Picard:** Governor, you speak as if we were enemies, not allies. **Vagh:** And you speak the lies of a *taHqeq*! translation : Someone who is "all talk and no action." **Picard:** *(pauses, walks straight to Vagh's face)* *Qu'vatlh ghuy'cha' baQa'*! **Ambassador Kell:** Gentlemen! **Vagh:** You swear well, Picard. You must have Klingon blood in your veins. - A perfect example is an exchange involving Worf, Riker, and the eponymous Romulan admiral in the episode "The Defector": **Jarok** *(posing as "Setal")*: How do you allow Klingon *petaQ* to walk around in a Starfleet uniform? **Worf**: You are lucky this is not a Klingon ship. We know how to deal with spies. **Jarok**: Remove this *tohzah* from my sight. **Riker**: Your knowledge of Klingon curses is impressive. But, as a Romulan might say, only a *veruul* would use such language in public. - *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine*: - Subverted and also inverted in the episode "The Way of the Warrior." In the middle of a battle between a Klingon fleet and Deep Space Nine that was going decidedly worse than the Kingons had expected, Gowron and Martok have a brief, un-subtitled exchange in Klingon that *really* sounds like it's laced with frustrated profanity. Turns out Martok was actually paying the crew of *DS9* a compliment: **General Martok** : They fight like Klingons! **Chancellor Gowron** : Then they can *die* like Klingons. Destroy their shields! Prepare boarding parties! - Because their ears are erogenous zones and they are a heavily patriarchal society, Ferengi have idioms that equate their "lobes" to testicles if used in a human context. A common insult is to call someone "lobe-less" (like calling a human "ball-less", with similar gendered implications since female Ferengi have much smaller ears than male Ferengi), while one compliment or boast is to say someone "has the lobes" (like how a human "has the balls"). - *Star Trek: Voyager*: Another example of Klingon swear vs. swear comes in the finale "Endgame." Admiral Janeway is escorted into a Klingon cave by the ¼ Klingon-¾ Human Miral Paris and snarks about the décor, prompting one of the Klingons to unload a Foreign-Language Tirade on her—and Miral returns fire with a profane blast that has the Klingon backing down. - *Star Trek: Enterprise*: - *Star Trek: Picard*: - In "The End Is the Beginning", the Romulan assassin whom Picard interrogates insults his captor by calling him a " *qezhtihn*." - In "Nepenthe", when Narek loses the tracking signal on *La Sirena*, he shouts " *Qazh!*", which is apparently the Romulan equivalent of "Shit!" - In "Broken Pieces", Narissa utters a panicked " *Qezh*" just before she's mauled by a group of xBs. It's the root word of *qezhtihn*. - *Juck* is the standard curse word in the galazy of *Mission to Zyxx*, and you can probably guess what it means. One planet actually does use *fuck*; this is explained as being one of the ways that planet's dialect differs from the galactic standard. Meanwhile, in the Coalition of United Planets, *toop* is the standard curse; the heroes quickly figure out that *toop* translates directly as *juck*, but for some reason it's the one word the COUP's universal translators don't translate. - In *The Space Gypsy Adventures* Gemma launches a tirade of Mogavis insults at Constable Bones after he shoots Fluff down. Bones is part space gypsy and understands what she's saying but no one else in the area does, especially not the audience (it is a kid's show after all). - Made into a running joke in Dino Attack RPG. Given that it was based on a LEGO line on a family friendly board, actual curses were out of the question. At fist players just got around it by using mundane variants (i.e. "darn") but later made a running joke out of creating curse words that would seem "foul" to LEGO people, many of which were inside jokes. For instance: - MegaBloks: Since a large portion of LEGO fans view MegaBloks as a Shoddy Knockoff Product of LEGO. As a sort of Take That!, "megablok" became one of the most often-used curse words in the RPG, used in many different contexts such as "son of a megablok", "megabloking", "what the megablok", and "oh, megabloks". - 4+ figure (or simply "4+" in some cases): Used as a derogatory term, derived from a line aimed at young children which became particularly infamous for its oversized and uncustomizable minifigures. A number of variations also exist, such as "4+ Pirates" and "Jack Stone", which refer to specific themes from the line. - "Znap": Often used when the other two are not fitting. Based on a short-lived line of sets made to compete with K'nex. - Older Than Television: In Gilbert and Sullivan's *Utopia, Limited* (1893), Tarara, the Public Exploder of the Kingdom of Utopia, enters raving in his native language ("Lalabalele talala! Callabale lalabalica falahle!"); the Utopian maidens all cover their ears when they hear this shocking language, all the more shocking since a royal decree has abolished the Utopian language in favor of English. Tarara nevertheless insists he has no choice but to the Utopian language for venting certain feelings of his, having learned from British education that the English language has no such strong expressions. - Being Merchandise-Driven, *BIONICLE* has the challenge of bringing in new villains every year and having to establish their bad guy cred. One time they did this in part by having the team name be a dirty word in-universe: "Piraka" means thief, murderer, sadist, and so on; Even Evil Has Standards but Piraka don't (and the villains in question wear this label *with pride*). And being Merchandise-Driven, the "offensive" word got plastered all over posters, websites, toy packaging, you name it. - Doubly subverted in *Warhammer 40,000*, with the term Eldars use to talk about the humans: "mon'keigh" (pronounced mon-k-aye), a racial slur for species deemed inferior. Its literal translation is *those who must be killed*. - Orks, on the other hand, famously have their all-purpose curse "zog," which seems to have no specific meaning other than as profanity. - Tau refer to humans, generally derogatorily, as "Gue'la", a term clearly derived from the Chinese " *gweilo*".Humans who serve the Tau, on the other hand, are called gue'vesa. - And in the classic fantasy *Warhammer*, Dwarfs had a colourful Conlang named Khazalid that contained a lot of insults: "Skruff", a thin or unkempt beard, *never ever* use this to insult a Dwarf unless you really want to fight him; Umgak, literally "Like a human", also used interchangeably for describing shoddy craftsmanship; and "Wazzock", meaning "sucker" (literally "A dwarf who has exchanged gold or some other valuable item for something of little to no worth at all") but also used as a catch-all term to insult someone's intelligence. - Averted with Wulfrik the Wanderer, a Chaos character who was given the gift of tongues to be able to insult any opponent in their own language so they couldn't *not* want to fight him, so his taunts come out in translated English without any foreign words. - One of the sourcebooks for the FASA Star Trek game had an aside about terms different species use for things that don't work and what their literal translation into English is. The Tellarite word translates to "inedible" or "tastes bad". The Andorian word literally means "pink". The Orion word translates as "trade goods". It also mentions that there's no equivalent word in Vulcan. "Apparently, on Vulcan everything always works." - *Shadowrun* has quite a few family-friendly swears as part of its future slang. "Drek" is the common equivalent of "shit," whereas "frag" is the common equivalent of "fuck" - though, given the tendencies of most shadowrunners, it's used more to refer to death than sex ("he got fragged"). By the time 4th Edition was released, the use of future slang was greatly diminished in favor of more real-world profanity, but 5th Edition brought it back in full force, probably because of the grognards who produced that edition. - In the computer RPG *Neverwinter Nights*, the elven cleric Linu La'neral will exclaim "Takasi! Oh, excuse my Elven" when she fails to break or unlock a chest that your character can't unlock. - *A Tale of Two Kingdoms* has "gronk" as a generic Goblin swearword, cuss and interjection, plus assorted bits of "slang". They also use 'Pinkskins' and 'Pinkies' as a slang for humans. - Even *The Sims* seem to have their Simlish swear word equivalents. In the first game, angry or frustrated Sims would sometimes yell something that sounds like "Googlesnot!" - In *StarCraft*, Zeratul and the other Dark Templars will say "Cas Nerada" or something like that when annoyed. The inflection clearly marks it as some Protoss cuss word. - Presumably it's Khas, which would make sense as a Dark Templar curse (being something along the lines of Khas be damned) since the whole Dark Templar society is based around the rejection of the Khala, which was Khas's invention. - Drone and Grenadier class Locust in the *Gears of War* series sometimes scream "Suck my blithe!" in the campaigns and Horde mode. Of course, they don't pardon their Locust, as those few seconds could be better spent shooting you in the face. - *Mass Effect*: - "Bosh'tet", meaning "faulty tech", is a quarian swear word that Tali will say whenever frustrated (quarians live most of their lives on star ships, so their culture is much more tech oriented than other races). She also calls Shepard this (albeit affectionately) if Shepard chooses to tease Tali about how flustered she gets confessing how much she's come to trust and appreciate Shepard. - She also exclaims " *Keelah*" from time to time. It translates as "By the homeworld" so it might have connotations along the lines of a more secular "For Heaven's sake." - Mordin once refers to one of his fellow Salarians as "bit of a cloaca, though." The cloaca is the bird/amphibian equivalent to the anus/genitals and Salarians are confirmed to be amphibians that reproduce via eggs, so It Makes Sense in Context. He was basically calling him an asshole AND a dick. - Krogans also have the refer to a "quad", which correlates pretty directly to a "pair" of balls or cojones (Krogan have four testicles). "You've got a quad" is used in the same context as "You've got a pair" would be. - If you decide to kick Conrad Vernor in *ME2*, the Asari bartender will yell, "Kick him in the quad!" then apologizes, "Sorry. My father was a Krogan.'' - If you kill the thresher maw in Grunt's loyalty mission, Wrex remarks, "Next you'll tell me he's a quint and craps dark matter." "Quint" presumably meaning having *five* testicles. - *Mass Effect: Andromeda*: Jaal will at one point refer to Aksuul as a "vehshaanan". Ryder asks what that is, and Jaal replies "Someone pleased with his own shit." The angara also have the general-purpose "skutt", which is essentially their equivalent of "fuck" and used as such just like humans use the latter. - In *Infinite Space*, the word "Grus" is a context-sensitive swear. It can mean anything from "Shit" to "hell". - The *Thief* series has the word "Taffer". Its also used as "What the taff?" - In *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind*, enemy Dunmer are fond of call you their race's Fantastic Slurs: s'wit, fetcher, and N'wah. The first two are used similarly to "shit/idiot" and the "f" word while also being an offensive term for a slave, respectively. The last is a highly offensive word for "outlander" with similar negative connotations as the Japanese "gaijin". - One of the voice chat options in *Tribes* is "Shazbot!", a reference to *Mork & Mindy.* - In *Dragon Age: Origins*, when removed from the party at the party selection screen, Sten reacts with a disgusted "Vashedan." Saemus in *Dragon Age II* uses the same phrase towards one of his "rescuers." It translates, more or less, as "refuse" or "rubbish". Since Qunari seem to abhor waste, this may be worse than it sounds. - Fenris tends to lapse into Tevene (his native language) if he's upset. Which can be often. - Dorian in *Dragon Age: Inquisition* also swears in Tevene, most often using the phrase "vishante kaffas," which translates roughly to "you shit on my tongue." Solas in the same game occasionally swears in Elvhen. - *Half-Life 2*, during the chapter "Sand Traps" had a vortigaunt camp after you got the bugbait, you'll come across two vorts who'll pardon themselves for there "flux shifting" speech and tell you they will speak English unless they want to get away with saying "unflattering things about you." - After which, they immediately go back to their flux shifting speech. - In *The Reconstruction*, Yacatec does this twice. Early in chapter 4, he calls Tehgonan a "Zin d'an" note : It literally means "little brother" in Shra, but because si'shra use it to refer to ordinary shra, its slang use is a serious insult., at which point Dehl snaps, "Yacatec, please do not call him that." Later, after the camp is ||threatened to be washed away by magical rain||, he snaps at Ques, flinging what is presumably a heinous insult at him in his native language. - In *Guild Wars*, the only Asuran word heard so far has been "bookah," which is stated to mean a non-Asura. Given its general usage (and its derivation from a clumsy, stupid creature in Asuran folklore), however, it's really something of a racial slur. - *Wings of Dawn*: During a Q&A session with the fans, Crystal (a Cyrvan) responded to a certain request with "Ariyu ze yyura." No one's sure what this means, but everyone's sure it isn't... polite. - In the game itself, a Cyrvan named Sylphia launches into a brief Foreign-Language Tirade when she and the heroes jump into a massive blockade unexpectedly. Silver responds that she's glad she doesn't know what it meant. - In the original *Unreal*, a Kraal minion leaves behind journal pages about a human prisoner the player is tracking. In the first entry you find, he says the prisoner "kicked me in the hrangos!" Soon after, just to make sure there's no doubt what those are, another entry says the prisoner escaped, and when the Kraal's superior officer finds out, "I'll be de-hrangoed for sure!" - In *Baldur's Gate* series, the drow elf Viconia has a pretty sharp tongue. Sometimes she uses Drow curses: from relatively mild "Oloth plynn dos!" note : "Darkness take you!" up to—when she's *really* angry—"Iblith!" note : "Shit!". - In one intro dialogue between Kano and Baraka in *Mortal Kombat 11*, Kano tells Baraka that he should join Kronika. Baraka's response? " *NOKT* you and Kronika!" **Kano:** Now that's a bonzer attitude. - *Ghost of a Tale* features the word "scrunt", which the lore describes as "a word too rude to define." - *Republic Commando* has all the classic Star Wars curse words, as well as some more obscure ones. Theres even a loading screen dedicated to the word Fierfek, which is universally accepted as Huttese for poison, but the Clone Commandos adopted it as a battlefield curse. **Boss:** Come on you fat, ugly fierfeks, come get me! - In *Heaven's Vault*, the slave trader uses words towards Aliya such as *farwet* and *sallehua*. The exact meaning is not explained, but from the context they must be swear words in Elborethian patois. - In *Xenoblade Chronicles 3*, the soldiers of the Keves and Agnus nations use the terms 'spark' and 'snuff' as expletive terms (i.e., "What the spark are you on about?" "Ah, snuff it!", etc.), and a replacement for the "fuck" swear. This is justified in the context that they both serve under the Flame Clocks of their respective colonies, and so evoke fire-based symbolism for this kind of emphasis. Their status as Child Soldiers with no notion of sexuality or religion means that they lack the vocabulary to reference such concepts, though real-world expletives that refer to body parts (such as 'bollocks' and 'arsehole') and other exceptions like "bitch" are evidently still fair game. - *Homestar Runner* features The Cheat, who only speaks in his self-titled language (which sounds like cute grunts), and Pom Pom, whose "voice" is a bubbling sound; both have had instances where they were told to watch their language. - *Lobo (Webseries)*: Like in the comics, Lobo swears with "frag", "Feetal's Gizz" and "bastich". - *Starship Regulars*: The characters swear some alien phrases. "Flaht" is used in place of "shit". - Tim in *Bobbins* used to say "tupping", particularly in his supposed hard-man catchphrase "Tuppin' liberty!". (He has used it sometimes in *Scary Go Round*, too.) In this case, the replacement is just an archaic word meaning... exactly the same thing. Shakespeare used it in Othello. - The orcs in *Dominic Deegan* say "Ilka tuk tak" whenever they feel like they need to let out some foul language, and it is infrequently commented as being very inappropriate. - *Save Hiatus*: When Ven finds out his favorite show, *Hiatus* has been cancelled, he's not very happy. The creators even had a contest to name all the sources of his epithets. - The utterance of real swear-words in *Erfworld* is impossible, due to instantaneous forced self-censorship by the Powers That Be ("Oh, boop!"). In a variant of this trope, Erfworlders have come up with some pretty graphic uses of words they *can* say (e.g. clinical terms like "testes" are permitted) to sidestep this limitation. - And Parsons does manage to overcome the censorship quite spectacularly in the last strip of the first book, whether due to extreme frustration or him having recently "broken the game" through his exploits. - Robot swearing is discussed at one point in *Questionable Content*. **Pintsize** : Human cusswords focus on mating, excretion, and genitalia. Robot cusswords focus on mashing on homerow. ASDF is a four-letter word. **Hannelore** : Hee hee! So what is "qwerty" slang for then? **Pintsize and Winslow assume squicked-out expressions** What? What did I say? - *Darths & Droids*: - Artoo lets out a lengthy string of untranslated bleeping in this strip. (With the inevitable link back here.) In the annotations, it is stated that making up your own curse words is "as fun as praff." **Annie:** Wow. I almost regret leaving the translator off for that. - In strip #1019, Pete (R2-D2) rolls a die with the numbers written in Quenya. (He has a lot of custom dice.) **Dungeon Master:** Okay, I can't read Quenya. What does it say? **Pete:** *(sigh)* It says "your periscope is *(Quenya)* note : rácina = broken." - *Schlock Mercenary*: - The comic has some good ones from robots as well: "Divide me by zero!" "Mother of chrome!". - Prabstdi have a couple with some elaborate history, emphasizing how big they are on having control. "Doublethrice" is a mild one, which refers to all the "mechanisms" through which they can exert control and can be more or less translated to "despite everything I have, something happened, I hated it and I couldn't stop it". They also have their own version of Flipping the Bird, by lifting one of their hooves and waggling their vestigial finger at the one to be insulted; this essentially compares them to that same finger, which they consider entirely useless and thus turns the whole gesture into the rudest one available for the race. - Fobott'r have another with a good history. A "tlumnph" is a metal plate engraved to the micron with the genealogy of its bearer, making them extremely important relics to each individual fobott'r. Tlumnphrot is, therefore, the possibility of a low-quality tlumnph corroding and thus losing its important contents. While it's not something that happens, the *very idea* is so offensive tlumnphrot makes for a fairly strong swear. - Cthulhu in *Chainsawsuit* had a good reason for Precision Fhtagn Strike. - Liska in *Tails From The Mynarski Forest* once shouted "O EMBLEER FRITH!" — a reference to *Watership Down*. After a reader commented that a fox seemed unlikely to use "embleer" as a swear (see above), the writer responded that it might be akin to saying "Sweet Jesus". - Some of the trolls' names for genitals in *Homestuck* are obviously supposed to be obscene, although troll words are really just strange compounded English words, and they use excessive amounts of ordinary profanity, too. Some constructions like this are things like 'bone bulge', 'nook', 'bulgereek nookstain', 'shame globe', 'phlegm lobe', 'seed flaps', and so on. For instance, Vriska at one point talks idiomatically of someone having their head stuck up their nook, much as we'd talk about someone with their head stuck up their ass. - *Commander Kitty*: Characters use the multipurpose swear "numph." It's been used as a mild expy for "noob" ("Quit acting like a numph.") or a less-mild expy for "screwed" - or more profane, depending on the speaker. ("I really numphed this up, didn't I?") - In *Yokoka's Quest*, Mao says "What the helck", a portmanteau of hell and heck, when he finds out that Kalliv was in his pocket for his journey to the Darkness Clan. - In *Recursion*, "flux" is used as a replacement for a certain other "f-word". - At the end of the pilot video for *Button's Adventures*, Button, who has just been grounded for staying up all night playing video games, shouts "Zeikamif," ("ZAY-ka-miff") a word in the video game's Conlang which is subtitled with Symbol Swearing. - Spoony plays this one for laughs in his review of the *Demolition Man* video game. He has a sponsorship deal with Taco Bell and thus has to keep the show all-ages, but when the game gets particularly frustrating he starts resorting to such classics as frell, frack, and smeg in order to get around the restriction on swearing. - Subverted in *Adventure Time*, in which "Glob" is used frequently as a euphemism for "God" in exclamations. After a while, it is revealed that there is an actual deity in their universe called Grob Gob Glob Grod, and he really does exist. - *The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers*: Xan in particular has a fondness for spouting "botsna ratta", which is clearly a curse, though the Fictionary on the website insists it translates as being a "very strong drat". - In season three of *Avatar: The Last Airbender*, Aang uses "monkey feathers" in a context that implies it's the equivalent of "motherfucker". - *Batman Beyond* did this to make the future seem more real, by having slang terms being slightly different. Terry would often utter 'slag it' when he was agitated. It's not a new slang term (being used in both real life British and in ''Beast Wars'). - There's also "twip" which was used often by Terry as an insult for his younger brother. Though it could just be a corruption of "twerp", a contemporary insult commonly delivered to someone smaller than the insulter. - The word k'vark is quite an obvious four-letter-word replacement in *Ewoks*. - On *The Fairly Oddparents*, both Norm and HP have used the term "smoof" in place of any expletive. Oddly, smoof was established in its first use as a magical substance rather than anything that could be dirty. - It makes sense, since it seems to be more an anti magic material. To them, it could be a literal way to refer to some version of hell. - *Justice League*: Hawkgirl occasionally says "Yom Shigureth" when she's frustrated. - *The Legend of Korra*: Lin uses "flameo" at one point, a term heavily implied to be an F-bomb alternative. - *Lloyd in Space* used the interjection "durf" a lot, although given that he's a kid, its meaning is probably more along the lines of "darn". - *Megas XLR*: I'll have your jhorbloks for not putting Warmaster Gorrath on here! - Cathy from *Monster Buster Club* does this. **A lot.** - In the *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* episode *It Ain't Easy Being Breezies*, Seabreeze explodes at his fellow Breezies with a rant that leaves Fluttershy in horrified, open-mouthed shock. When her friends ask her to translate, she declines, blushing. - In an episode of *The Owl House*, a member of the Wizarding School's Girl Posse calls the other members "you witches", which is what they all literally are, but the way she says it makes it seem like a stand-in for "you bitches". - *Pirates of Dark Water* did this to let their fantasy pirates swear, which for cartoons was a bold move. - Common examples are *chonga* and *chongo-longo*, but special mention goes to *noy jitat!* (implied to mean "damn!" or "God damn!") which actually got conjugated — and fairly often — into *jitatin* ("damned" as in "that jitatin monkey-bird") and *jitata* ("damned one", "damn kid", or occasionally "dumbass"). - *The Simpsons*: Kang and Kodos occasionally use expletives such as "Holy flurking schnidt!" In another episode, Bart says "Oh, shazbot!" when threatened. Both examples parody *Mork & Mindy*. - *SpongeBob SquarePants*: Since the show is rated Y7, there obviously isnt any swearing, although the characters will frequently say barnacles, which is implied to be at least a mildly bad word in Bikini Bottom. However, there are some underwater words that are treated as profane. - In Sailor Mouth, SpongeBob and Patrick learn a new word thats literally a dolphin sound effect, which is treated like a substitute for the f-word. It is one of the 13 bad words, you should never use. - In Krusty Love, SpongeBob gives Mr. Krabs a long rant that is in complete jibberish, although those words are said to be quite foul. - *Star Wars Rebels*: - Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go has an episode where Sparx says "Monkey doodle!" in shock and is promptly told "Watch your language!" by Gibson. - Happens in an episode of *Team Galaxy* in which Josh and Brett are supposed to be translating a text from an alien language into English. Josh, who has been goofing off playing a video game on his computer, connects his up to Brett's and steals his copy. Josh ends up taking all the credit. Annoyed, Brett tells Josh he has a word for him and speaks some strange word. The whole class suddenly gains an expression of shock on their faces. - *Teen Titans*: - Starfire is prone to using Tamaranian profanity and/or insults when agitated. For a character portrayed as sweet and innocent, she has a foul mouth. She knows many of the Curses of the Tamaranian Ancients. - This becomes a plot device in the episode *Troq.* The word in question is an ethnic slur against Tamaranians, unbeknownst to the rest of the titans. The word literally means "nothing", which causes a misunderstanding at first when Cyborg asks Starfire what the word means. So Cyborg casually calls Starfire a Troq later, which makes her furious...because it's not that Troq doesn't mean anything, it's that it literally means "nothing—i.e., "zero or worthless". - Starfire did it again in a DC Nation Short. - *Transformers*: - Justified in *Beast Wars*. The transformers — Rhinox in particular — use "slag" as an epithet roughly equivalent to the s-word, which makes some kind of sense for robots, as it's the unwanted by-product of smelting. One time, Rattrap even goes as far as to yell, "Holy slag!" in a completely appropriate situation. - *Transformers: Animated* uses "slag" as a swear word, this time with Bumblebee as the worst offender. Note that the Dinobot Slag was renamed "Snarl" in Animated (with a bit of Lampshade Hanging from Scrapper). As it's also a sexist insult in some places, later series have pretty much replaced it with "scrap" or "frag" (which were already being used anyway). - *The Trap Door* had some wanderfully evocative examples - 'Globbits' and 'Great Grumfuttucks Tusks'. - In *Voltron: Legendary Defender*, "quiznak" seems to be (at least somewhat) offensive in Altean. The characters tend to use it in Oh, Crap! moments, and Coran and Allura freak out in the background in Episode 1 when Lance tells Keith to "shut your quiznak!" (though in that case, the fans debate on whether or not the specific context Lance was using it in made it more offensive than it normally would be given that the contexts they use it in indicate it's closer to the f-word or s-word in meaning and attempting to use it as an a-word substitute as Lance was is beyond inappropriate.) - Captain Olia says "ruggle" in a Oh, Crap! moment during the fourth season finale. - *Wander over Yonder* has an impressive collection of outer-space swears, many of them used by Sylvia. The episode "The Family Reunion" has her visiting home where her mother reprimands her for swearing, making it clear that terms like "grop" and "narfin' froods" are indeed curse words in this universe. - In *Young Justice*, Lobo repeatedly shouts keezy fem! during a fight with Wonder Girl, which appears to be a stand in for crazy bitch! Word of God says it literally translates to "little female", with "keezy" being a very vulgar form of the word "little".

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PardonMyKlingon

Parental Marriage Veto - TV Tropes No wonder why his father-in-law refuses the blessing for them, although he manages to do the Pose of Supplication . *"Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life? * Say yes, say yes, 'cause I need to know. You say I'll never get your blessing till the day I die. 'Tough luck my friend, but the answer is no!'" You are a grown adult. You've found your true love, and they love you back. You want to get married. Everything's great, right? Wrong! Your parents are convinced that you've picked the wrong person, and will do almost anything to prevent the marriage. This is different from an Arranged Marriage. Your parents don't want the right to pick your spouse. They just want to veto your choice. In some societies, your parents may have a legal right to such a veto. Maybe your true love is penniless (or Unable to Support a Wife), or is in a lower social class. Maybe your true love is of the "wrong" race, religion, ethnicity, or gender. Or maybe their family is somehow disreputable. Or maybe your parents just don't like your true love. (Especially if they have a Betty they prefer to your chosen Veronica.) But all is not lost. If you and your true love can stay true to each other, and be persistent, your parents will eventually notice your true love's good qualities, and will change their minds. Alternatively, you may hear the words "I Have No Son!" (or daughter, depending) addressed to you in no uncertain terms. Sometimes, it will turn out that your parents are attempting to see whether or not your feelings are genuine. If you cannot overcome the obstacles put up by your parents, then they were wise to delay things. If you and your true love find a way around the obstacles, then that's becomes proof that it really is true love. In rare cases, your parents are right. You really have picked the wrong person to marry. If you are in a Fairy Tale or a Fantasy story, your parents may give your true love an Engagement Challenge. In extreme cases, your parents will be not be above Offing the Offspring. In appropriate settings, they may instead take the slightly less drastic step of packing you off for Taking the Veil. You may have to fight in order to be together. Even though most people in the western world choose their own spouses, this *isn't* a Dead Horse Trope. It can still appear in historical fiction, fantasy, in stories not set in the western world, or in any story where parents believe that they have a right to meddle in their grown children's lives. Contrast Child Marriage Veto. See also Love-Obstructing Parents, Dating What Daddy Hates, Meet the In-Laws, and Wedlock Block. ## Examples - An episode of *Planetes* inverts this when it turns out that Edel had to stay away from her husband for five years to prevent her parents from vetoing their divorce. - Happens more than once on *Maison Ikkoku*. One is in the Backstory, where Kyoko's parents objected to her marriage to her former teacher Soichiro; another is at the end, where Kyoko's father again objects ||to Godai's impending proposal. He gets over it in the end||. A minor one is Godai's cousin, who ends up deciding to elope. ||Her father catches on and decides that if she and her boyfriend are willing to elope, then he'll give his blessing.|| - *Gundam*: In the original *Mobile Suit Gundam*, Garma Zabi believes that his father will try and pull this trope on him and becomes desperate to find a way to force him to accept. Possibly subverted, as Garma was Degwin's favored son and it's doubtful the old man could have refused him anything. It's then played straight in the case of Iserina Eschenbach, Garma's sweetheart. *Her* father was a rabid Zeon hater, after all. - *Ai Yori Aoshi* has Aoi and Kaoru's childhood Arranged Marriage being canceled, due to him leaving the abusive Hanabishi clan. As a young adult, Aoi sets off to find him, leading to their reacquaintance and later decision to override the veto. ||They get their happy ending and ultimately marry.|| - In *Cardcaptor Sakura*, Nadeshiko falls in love with her teacher, and her parents and *especially* her grandfather disown her when she marries him while she's still in high school. They disapprove of him partly because of their age difference, but mostly because he wasn't rich like them, thus either feared he was a Gold Digger or disliked his lower social class. Years later, Sonomi still hates Fujitaka - although in Sonomi's case, it's less that he's older and poorer and more that he took her beloved cousin away from her. - ||A whole episode of the anime is dedicated to actually fixing this, with Nadeshiko's grandfather Masaaki apologizing to Fujitaka for the Amamiya family's shabby treatment of him. And Fujitaka forgives him.|| - *Ai Shite Night*: ||Shige forbids his daughter Yakko from marrying her rock-star boyfriend Go when they ponder getting married as soon as he returns from the USA. When they persevere, Shige finally gives in.|| - Brutally used in a *Case Closed* case in which the Jerkass father of a rich girl not only forbids his daughter from marrying her pianist boyfriend, but ||he stomps on the pianist's hand and breaks it, which ruins his career. The poor piano man commits suicide and the Broken Bird daughter runs away. And the new family butler, who was the pianist's dad, kills the old man.|| - Used earlier when a diplomat with a shady past has a Freak Out over seeing a photo of his son's girlfriend, ||the daughter of the old rival he sent to jail on false testimony... and of his second wife, the poor guy's stepmom.|| Even better/worse/whatever: ||said second wife/the girl's estranged mom had *no* idea of her second hubby's Uriah Gambit up until then - and once she found out, she killed said husband as punishment.|| - In *Final Approach* Ryo learns late in the show that this is why his fiancee was given to him at the start of the story. His grandmother and her grandfather were once in love, but were torn apart by her grandfather's family for being from a poor family. He relented to his family's wish and married another woman. It turns out the entire setup for the series is her grandfather using his tremendous wealth to create a situation where his granddaughter can marry the grandson of the woman he lost to Parental Marriage Veto. - When Anasui asks Jotaro for permission to marry Jolyne near the end of *Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean*, Jotaro asks him if he's insane and completely refuses to justify the request with an answer. Then Anasui asks again, and he responds by snatching his daughter away from him. Perhaps Anasui would have had more luck if he popped the question when ||the world wasn't about to end|| — and if he wasn't a bit Ax-Crazy. - Two in *Sand Chronicles*: - Ann's maternal grandma Misayo didn't approve of the marriage of Ann's parents Miwako and Masahiro as it also meant moving from Miwako's home village to Tokyo, but she couldn't stop them. She still doesn't like Masahiro when he sees her again post-Miwako-death. - Fuji's mother is against his intention to marry ||his cousin Mariko|| due to their prestige as well as the unfortunate implications she thinks it'll bring, which is why she wants to get him into an Arranged Marriage with someone more appropriate. ||Volume 10 shows that his parents finally gave in and the final chapter gives a glimpse of their wedding.|| - In the Child Ballad *Willie's Lady*, Willie's mother is trying to do this retroactively by cursing his wife to die in childbirth. - This was one of the early plots in *Blondie*. Before they were married, Dagwood's wealthy parents disapproved of Blondie, feeling she was a Gold Digger (and initially, she was), and tried to get him to marry a woman of their social class. They finally gave in and allowed Dagwood to marry Blondie after he went on a 30-day hunger strike, but warned him that if he married her, they would disown him. They went ahead with the wedding, and the rest is comic strip history. - Subverted in *Persepolis*. While Marjane's mother doesn't approve of her engagement, her father overrules any vetos on the conditions that her husband-to-be lives outside of Iran with her and agrees to let her divorce, should it come to that. He agrees, and the two are married. Eventually the two become unhappy and get divorced, at which point Marjane's father reveals that he suspected as much, but also knew that flat-out forbidding the marriage would only make the couple more determined to defy him. To keep things as smooth as possible, he just made sure Marjane had an easy out when things inevitably went badly. (Her mother, upon hearing this, is annoyed that he didn't just let her in on the plan so she wouldn't have worried so much.) - Pointedly defied in *Fantastic Four (2018)*. After proposing to Alicia Masters, The Thing decides to bury the hatchet at least on this matter with her stepfather Philip (AKA The Puppet Master) and visited said incorrigible mind-controlling supervilian in the prison where he was getting the full SuperMax treatment. After Ben received Philip's blessing without reservation or conditions he returned home jubilantly and Alicia reassured him that he had been worrying over nothing; ||then, once he left the room to call the rabbi, she slipped a clay figurine out of her apron to place in a heavily shielded container she returned to her shelf of knick-knacks||. - *Star Wars: Legacy*: Emperor Roan Fel is aware that Imperial Knight Draco Antares is in love with his daughter Princess Marasiah Fel (it's mutual), and tells Draco that if he thinks he's going to marry the Princess, he's got another thing coming. ||Draco is forced to kill Roan for unrelated reasons at the end of the Volume 1 story, and we never find out if he and now-Empress Marasiah got together (though she did kiss him before all that went down, so *probably?*).|| - *Wonder Woman (1942)*: As part of mellowing and sweetening Sourpuss into a kindly lady from her tough no nonsense original she was given a backstory in which her "bitterness" is due to her father refusing to allow her sweetheart to marry her as a teenager, then they meet again and get married and her personality is given a complete 180. - In "The One-Handed Girl", the king's son begs his parents to let him marry the heroine, and they are unable to bring themselves to do this. - In "The False Prince and the True" (included by Andrew Lang in *The Lilac Fairy Book*, the true prince saves his life by learning that he really is the prince, and the purported one is not, which requires him to promise to marry a very old woman. When he recounts this to his father, he tries to get his father to invoke this: he would rather marry a bride of his father's choosing, he says. His father has none of it — he will keep his promise. - "The Death of Koschei the Deathless": Inverted. Before dying, Prince Ivan's parents make him promise that he will allow his three little sisters to marry whoever they want. Honouring his promise works to his benefit when his brothers-in-law save his life. - In "Maid Maleen", the titular princess says that she will only marry her childhood love, while her father wants her to marry somebody else. She gets locked in a tower for her trouble. - *A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script*: - Thingol wishes that he could do that. Fervently. - Argued by Fingolfin. He loathes Eol, but Luthien's story convinces him that disapproving of his daughter's marriage is as meaningless as if he were disapproving of his death. So he decides to welcome Eol in the family, hoping that gesture may lessen the tensions in his daughter's marriage. - Averted with Finarfin. After finding out that his daughter Galadriel was married — much to his shock — he asked what his son-in-law Celeborn was like. - *A Cure for Love*: Souichiro is quite livid upon discovering Light and L's relationship and makes Light spend a week at home somehow believing that that will make the gay go away. - *A Destiny of Ice and Steel*: ||Syrio Forel's intended Melira accepted his proposal, but her father rejected the proposal and had Melira marry another man to spite Syrio||. Edward fears that Lord and Lady Stark would turn him down if he ever proposed to Sansa. - *A Growing Affection*: Hinata's grandfather rejects her relationship with Naruto and tries to force her into an Arranged Marriage. ||It doesn't work.|| Shino's parents are able to prevent him from marrying ||Sasame, but not from fathering her children.|| - *Alea Iacta Est*: ||When Kaiser told Allfather that he wanted to marry Andrea, he flipped, and after sending Andrea away, set him up with Theo's mother||. - *Battle Fantasia Project*: Parodied in the remake, where Mariam's father initially opposes her relationship with Kai because he's terrified by the possible results of the love between his daughter (whose personality is often compared unfavourably to a *shark*) and Kai (who has more than one similarity with her). He kinda had a point... - *Beyond the Dawn*: Per book canon, Thingol to Beren and Lúthien. - *Crimson And Clover*: Lulu's parents don't seem to like Wakka one bit. ||Cid likes Paine and gives her his approval to marry his daughter.|| - *Crimson and Emerald*: Kiyome's parents and Kei's parents refused to allow them to marry each other. - *Enslaved*: More like a *tribal* marriage veto, in that the Tribe's shaman is very against Katara and Zuko's union. The fact that they're already technically married doesn't sway him in the slightest. - *HTTYD The Kunoichi's Way*: Inverted, as Ash's parents are pressuring him to find a girl, something he won't do because he is holding a torch for Hicca. - *Luna The Match Maker*: Braeburn with ||his daughter, Honey, and Jato.|| - *Marigold Saga*: - Xibalba is definitely opposed to Marigold's crush on Juan Carlos, and tries to forbid her from seeing him again. However, he *does* have some good reasons to oppose to the relationship. - Juan Carlos is *human*, while Marigold is a *goddess*. The Ancient Rules forbid any sort of romantic relationship between these two groups, lest they end up like the Greek Gods with too many demigods. - Marigold and Juan Carlos didn't know each other for that much time, only a few weeks. As far as he is concerned, their 'love' might as well be only a temporary crush, and they will move on from it later. - Marigold actually *hid* her relationship from him in the first place, and to any parent that means 'I'm up to no good'. If she had talked it out with him, perhaps he MIGHT have considered it, though in the end she still wouldn't have been allowed to have a formal relationship with Juan Carlos due to his status as a *human*. - He simply cannot bear that *Manolo's son* is trying to woo his baby girl. - *My Big Fat Gargoyle Wedding*: Demona does not think Broadway is good enough for Angela. - *Of White Trees and Blue Roses*: ||King Aerys puts his foot down on a marriage between Rhaegar and Lyanna because he didn't think of it himself for Joanna Lannister and he doesn't want to "pollute his house with wolf blood". He's even jealous that Rhaegar even *tried* a solution in the first place.|| - *One Hundred Days (Buzz Lightyear)*: King Nova absolutely does *not* approve of his daughter marrying Buzz. - *Point of Succession*: Sayu is engaged to a criminal. ||This seems to be at least part of the reason why their parents disowned them.|| - *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines*: Jeanette Fisher's parents, Kaoruko and Kazuto, had to go through this. Kaoruko's father didn't approve of Kazuto because he came from Gringy City and almost forced Kaoruko into an Arranged Marriage, until Kazuto exposed the future son-in-law as the criminal he actually was. - *Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break*: ||Twinkleshine's parents threaten to cut her off entirely if she marries Trixie and Lemon Hearts, claiming implications for their social standing and political careers. Doesn't stop her||. - *Red Fire, Red Planet*: This was apparently attempted by Ba'woV's great uncle Chel'toK, the head of the House, when she went to marry Brokosh, a Lethean mercenary. Fortunately for the happy couple, in Klingon tradition the right to Marriage Veto belongs to the *lady* of the House, and Lady K'Ronu didn't have a problem with it. Chel'toK resorted to trying to kill Brokosh. Twice. - *Request and Receive Saga*: In *She waited, asleep*, ||it's part of the backstory: Naga doesn't approve of Tiki marrying Robin||. In *She wakes, alone*, ||it's revealed to be a Secret Test of Character to ensure he's worthy for her daughter.|| - *Shadows Of The Past*: The first words ||Megatron ever says to Sarah|| are along the lines of "Break up with Will or die." - *Snuggles the Symbiote*: An interlude focusing on Ashley's grandfather Patrick reveals that Patrick Senior disapproved of his son Patrick Jr.'s marriage to Ashley's grandmother because she was Chinese, and they never reconciled before he died. - Ashley's maternal grandfather tried to pull this with her parent's relationship for similar reasons, a traditionalist Japanese man who didn't want his daughter marrying a man who was half-white and half-Chinese, but Patrick talked to him. Then they argued. Then they got drunk. After that, they fought over who would pay for the wedding and all problems were resolved. - *Strings*: Korra and Tarrlok's cover story is that Korra's Boyfriend-Blocking Dad refused to let them get married and they ran away together. - *The Last Son*: - Namor judges Leviathan's worthiness to be with his cousin Namorita. He approves Leviathan, BUT he must also needs the permission of Namorita's mother Namora... - ||Superman's godfather, General Zod, doesn't approve of his godson's relationship with Alison Blaire, who is part Kryptonian, and sees her as something less than an animal. He explains this to Alison while choking her.|| - * The Lie I've Lived*: Fleur's parents are *not* happy that their daughter is dating the one guy (Harry Potter) who's guaranteed to get her involved in the upcoming war. - *The Many Dates of Danny Fenton*: ||In the alternate ending where Danny marries Phantasma, The Phantom was against their relationship and Danny and Phanty married against his wishes.|| - *The MLP Loops*: Brought up in Loop 48.3, where Big Macintosh is replacing Bruce Banner. Shortly before the Gamma Bomb incident, Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who didn't approve of Banner in comics canon even *before* he became the Hulk (and isn't Looping, making him unable to distinguish between Banner and anyone Replacing him in the Loop), warns Mac with "Don't even think for a moment that I'll let you marry my daughter." This being Mac (who is notoriously not interested in romance when Awake at this point) and not Banner, Ross's warning doesn't bother him in the slightest. - *The Padme Aus*: Dictated Palpatine's family history, as described in *A Distant Cousin*. - *The Pieces Lie Where They Fell*: ||Chantico, the dowager empress of the Cuanmiztl Kingdom and mother of its prince-king Tizoc, had no legal right to veto her son's marriage... so she instead just convinced his intended bride - Xvital - to run away just hours before the wedding, threatening to expose the truth about Xvital's background as a thief and con artist to Tizoc (to top it off, the penultimate chapter reveals that Balance, in order to get Xvital into place to become one of the new Bearers, had possessed Chantico to make her drive Xvital away). The couple eventually reunite and, after Tizoc reveals he already knew about her background but still loved her anyway, he proposes again, with Xvital happily accepting.|| - *The Prince Of Death*: 100% subverted "Do you know what we're discussing? That you've just given me permission to fuck your Prince?" - *The Rejuvenationverse*: Herod Sanguine disapproves of Bayard and Rowena. ||But ultimately does leave them an appropriate inheritance in the will read at dinner. Unfortunately, the will that ends up being used is far less pleasant for them||. - *The Young Stag*: Cersei has voiced her disapproval of Steffon and Arya's marriage since the beginning and does everything she can to split them apart. Unfortunately for her, Robert and Ned approve of the arrangement and actively encourage it. Following Robert's death and Joffrey's rise to the Iron Throne, Cersei once again attempts to break Steffon's betrothal to Arya and join his family at King's Landing. Steffon, however, refuses, remaining with Arya and making his own claim to the Iron Throne. - *Total Drama Comeback Series*: ||Harold's|| folks don't approve of their relationship with ||Leshawna||. - *We Were Young Once*: Older brother marriage veto, in this case. Thranduil refuses to let Malach and Menelwen marry without Oropher's consent. - In *Danny Phantom: Stranded*, Star worries Danny's parents will forbid them from seeing each other because of her parents' yelling at each other. - In *Shazam!* fanfiction *Here There Be Monsters*, Edith does not mind that her daughter Mary dates Freddy Freeman -a. k. a., Captain Marvel, Jr.-, but Mary has noticed her mother is reluctant to let them get married. Mary doesn't want to think badly of her mother, so she wonders if Edith's balking out because her snobby business associates would not think highly of someone who lets her daughter marry a newsboy. Compounding the issue, Freddy is perfectly willing to elope, but Mary wants it to be a proper ceremony... which her mother would have to pay for, since they cannot afford it. - In *The Moon's Flash Princess*, Lux' parents are opposed to their daughter's intention to marry Minako. This is out of a large misunderstanding, as Minako is an unconventional young adult with no job and their daughter is sixteen, from a wealthy family and traumatized from being caught up in the SAO incident, and mistakenly concluded Minako is a Gold Digger, when the truth is that Minako has no idea of Lux' feelings for her (or pretends so due their age difference) and, while without a steady job, still makes more than enough money to live comfortably. - *Corpse Bride*: Implied by the lyrics of "Remains of the Day," which says Emily fell hard and fast for a man, "but her daddy said no". ||Said man turns out to be the villain of the film, meaning Emily's father was absolutely right to reject him, even if it led to tragic results.|| - This is a plot point in *Frozen* when Elsa, as Queen and acting as parent to her younger sister Anna (they were both orphans by then), refuses permission for Anna to marry Prince Hans Westergaard of the Southern Isles. It turns out ||Elsa was right, as his intentions towards Anna were not honorable.|| Mostly she was probably just surprised that the engagement happened so fast, as the two had just met. - In *Shrek 2*, Fiona has already married Shrek, and the king tries to get rid of him, partly because he doesn't approve on his own and partly because Fairy Godmother is manipulating him to put her own son Prince Charming on the throne. He later changes his mind after seeing how Fiona really loves Shrek, not Charming, and does not wish to impede upon her free will. - *Turning Red*: Before the ritual to lock the red panda's spirit, Jin tells Meilin that his mother-in-law, Wu, did not approve him marrying her daughter, Ming. She did not succeed in breaking up the wedding, however, because she and Ming had a big argument over that, which ended up causing Ming to transform into her panda form and destroying half of the temple. Considering how huge Ming's panda form turns out to be, this was a wise choice. - In *The Lord of the Rings* movies, Elrond tries to keep his daughter Arwen from marrying Aragorn, since this would require her to give up her elven immortality. Unlike most examples of this trope, he makes a very sound and very logical argument against it, and has no quarrel with Aragorn himself. (Quite the contrary! He thinks "He's Like a Son to Me.") Emotionally, Elrond wants his daughter to be happy, but he understands the the *very* serious consequences (his twin brother - Aragorn's ancestor - gave up immortality), and he wakes her up to reality. Arwen marries Aragorn anyway, and accepts the consequences. - *Bend It Like Beckham* is set in present-day England, and the protagonist's older sister is about to be married. The groom's Sikh parents try to break his engagement because the protagonist has been seen hugging a white "boy" in public, which is a significant taboo in their culture (the "boy" is actually a female friend, played by Keira Knightley). They eventually relent once the misunderstanding is explained. - Earlier in the film Jess explains to her mostly white teammates that she wouldn't be allowed to marry somebody white, definitely not someone black, and not someone Muslim- pretty well limiting her choices to a Hindu or Sikh Indian. - *Meet the Parents* centers around this. Although technically they are not yet engaged and Ben Stiller is just trying to preemptively win their approval so this trope won't come up when he proposes/asks for permission to propose. - In both sequels, her father keeps trying to tear them apart, believing Greg to be an inadequate husband. Both times, his conclusions turn out to be totally wrong (Greg is ||not the father of his parents' maid's son||, and Greg ||is not cheating on his wife||). In the second sequel, Greg and Pam already have kids, yet Pam's father suggests that she seriously consider leaving Greg for her Old Flame. - In *It Happened One Night*, Ellen's father is trying to annul her marriage to King Westley. Of course, this turns out to be moot after Ellen meets Peter, who is played by Clark Gable. - In the Bollywood film *Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham*, adopted son Rahul marries Anjali against his father's wishes and is disowned. The father's main objection against Anjali - implied, rather than specifically stated - is that she is from a lower class. Also an example of *I Have No Son!*. - *Something New*: It's made pretty clear that Kenya's mother would disapprove of a relationship with Brian. Her father gives his support to her unconditionally, however, giving her the strength to pursue their relationship. - In *Scarface (1983)*, Manny and Gina are married behind her brother Tony's back. When he finds that out *right after he kills Manny*, he regrets it. - Reverse example: *Psycho IV: The Beginning* shows that Norman Bates disapproved of his mother of being engaged to Chet Rudolph. This results him murdering the both of them. - *The Godfather Part III*: Although Vincent/Vinnie and Mary are cousins and don't get married, Michael shows disapproval of their relationship because it would endanger his daughter. When Vincent becomes the new head of the family, Michael tells him the price: give up his relationship with Mary. ||It doesn't matter later, since Mary gets shot to death.|| - In *Dodsworth*, Kurt's mother is an Ice Queen who flat out disapproves of the marriage between her son and Fran for concerns about Fran's reproductive capabilities. - In *Crimson Peak*, Edith's father puts a halt to Thomas's plans to propose to her, on the grounds that he suspects Thomas of only wanting her for her money. He pays off Thomas to not only call off the proposal, but also to disabuse Edith of any notion that he loves her. ||Lucille gets around the issue by killing Edith's father.|| As it turns out, ||not only was her father right about Thomas and Lucille's motives, but he had another reason to oppose the marriage - he'd learned that Thomas was already legally married to at least three other women.|| - In *Equinox Flower* Hirayama tries hard to exercise this, not even for any specific reason, but just because he wasn't asked ahead of time. He eventually finds out that the veto is no longer in effect in Japan. - The plot of *Monster-in-Law* is Viola disapproving of her son Kevin wanting to marry Charlie and doing everything in her power to drive Charlie away. - *Peach Blossom Weeps Tears of Blood* has an Uptown Girl plot in which a poor tenant farmer's daughter falls in love with the rich son of the rich woman that owns the land. When the rich lady categorically refuses to let her son marry a lowborn peasant girl, tragedy ensues. - *Son in Law*: When Walter and Connie find out that Rebecca is engaged to Crawl, they don't outright forbid it because they're afraid of them eloping. Instead, they do everything to convince Crawl and Rebecca that they're not ready for marriage. - There's an old joke based on this: One Sunday morning William burst into the living room and said, "Dad! Mom! I have some great news for you! I am getting married to the most beautiful girl in town. She lives a block away and her name is Susan." After dinner, William's dad took him aside. "Son, I have to talk with you. Your mother and I have been married 30 years. She's a wonderful wife but she has never offered much excitement in the bedroom, so I used to fool around with women a lot. Susan is actually your half-sister, and I'm afraid you can't marry her." William was heartbroken. After eight months he eventually started dating girls again. A year later he came home and very proudly announced, "Dianne said yes! We're getting married in June." Again his father insisted on another private conversation and broke the sad news. "Dianne is your half-sister too, William. I'm awfully sorry about this." William was furious! He finally decided to go to his mother with the news. "Dad has done so much harm. I guess I'm never going to get married," he complained. "Every time I fall in love, Dad tells me the girl is my half-sister." His mother just shook her head. "Don't pay any attention to what he says, dear. He's not really your father." - There are a couple songs based on this joke, see the Music section. - Many of Anthony Trollope's novels contain this trope. - In *Doctor Thorne*, Frank Gresham's parents don't want him to wed Mary Thorne, who is illegitimate and poor. However, ||illegitimate and rich is fine||. - In *Framley Parsonage*, Lady Lufton doesn't want her son to marry Lucy Robarts, whose brother has become involved in someone else's financial scandal. But mainly because she doesn't think Lucy's is 'significant' enough (character-wise) to be the wife of such an important man. - In *The Last Chronicle of Barset*, Major Grantly wants to marry Grace Crawley. The Major's father is appalled at this, because Grace's father has been accused of forgery and theft. - In *The Duke's Children*, the last of the *Palliser* novels, the Duke of Omnium is trying to stop two marriages. His daughter wants to marry a poor man. His eldest son wants to marry an American. - In *The Way We Live Now*, Lady Carbury is trying to prevent her daughter from marrying Paul Montague, who is apparently already engaged to an American widow. - *Tolkien's Legendarium*: - In *Beren and Lúthien*, Thingol doesn't want his daughter Lúthien to marry the mortal Beren. While he doesn't know at the time that that would eventually result in her choosing to become mortal, he had premonitions of Doom around the whole matter. So he set Beren an impossible task to get rid of him (breaking into Angband and stealing a Silmaril), no doubt hoping he'd give up or die, which of course completely backfired in horrible ways for generations to come. - In *The Lord of the Rings*, when Elrond (Beren and Lúthien's immortal great-grandson) finds out that his daughter Arwen and his mortal adopted/foster son Aragorn are in love, he sets down what seems to be a impossible set of restrictions on their marriage: Sauron must be vanquished, Aragorn must unite the ancient kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor *and* become High King over them. This puts a great deal of stress on Elrond and Aragorn's relationship, but when Aragorn helps fulfill every single one of these conditions, Elrond allows the marriage to happen. Those nearly impossible tasks had the bonus effect of ensuring Middle-Earth would at least theoretically be habitable for them and their descendants. - In *The Other Boleyn Girl*: - Anne Boleyn furiously ||banishes her sister Mary from court when Mary admits that she has secretly married William Stafford and is carrying his child.|| Although not technically her mother, since Anne was Queen at the time, she could be considered a de facto guardian. - A more straightforward example comes earlier in the book, when Anne ||secretly marries Henry Percy||. The marriage is annulled by Cardinal Wolsey, and Anne is ||banished from court by her family as punishment||, while Henry Percy is ||forced into marriage to a woman closer to his social standing||. It is implied that this early loss is what drives Anne to be as cold and ambitious as she is for the remainder of the book, and that she never is quite over it. - P. G. Wodehouse used this trope quite a bit: - The A-plot of *every* *Blandings Castle* book, to the point where Wodehouse himself had his own names for all the character tropes involved. The "parent" was always one of his governess sisters, and the resolution almost invariably ended with the Hon. Galahad Threepwood (or sometimes Uncle Fred) blackmailing said sister into letting the marriage go through, generally using an element of the B-plot. - The trope also tends to turn up regularly in Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories. There is a Lampshade Hanging in at least one book where a writer character said something like, "He forbids the marriage? I couldn't use that in a story nowadays!" - *A Damsel in Distress* starts off this way, with Maud Marsh, the daughter of the Earl of Marshmorton, in love with a thoroughly unsuitable (American and not rich) young man she met on a ship voyage. The family has absolutely put their foot down, and forbidden her to even leave the house until she "comes to her senses" and chooses a more suitable mate. It turns out that this technique was actually successful with her father, back in the day. - In *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, the Dowager Marchioness (basically "queen mother") of the Sun family subverts this trope by blessing the marriage of her daughter to Liu Bei, then upbraiding her son Sun Quan and his right-hand man Zhou Yu (son-in-law of the State Patriarch who also supports the marriage) for plotting to *kill* the groom, since after word got out it would make her daughter unweddable (in a "what man would want her now?" kind of way). - Anne Brontë's *Agnes Grey* uses this as the Backstory and a running plot thread: when Agnes' mother chose to marry a poor parson, she was disowned by her father (despite annual visits with her daughters to her childhood home, they never even *saw* him); after Mr. Grey's death, she receives a letter from her father telling her she can come back and her daughters will be heiresses if she will just say that she regrets marrying. All three Grey women (she would have done it had her daughters wanted the money) tell him to go to hell. - In *Little Women*, Aunt March tries to do this to Meg when she wants to marry John Brooke, a poor Englishman and Laurie's tutor, mistakenly believing that he's a Gold Digger who wants to use her to get Aunt March's riches. It backfires, rousing Meg's anger and turning her reluctant 'no' into a defiant 'yes.' - In *Jo's Boys*, Meg won't let her daughter Daisy marry Nat because — besides his being an ex-homeless nobody — Meg (a widow by this point) doesn't think the sensitive, very young and inexpert musician will be able to man up and provide for Daisy. However, when he returns to the States after two years' European study as an established violinist with a steady income and excellent future prospects, Meg relents. (The beard he grows in the meanwhile helps.) - In *His Only Wife* Elikem's family, led by Aunty Ganyo, *hates* his girlfriend (also his baby mama) with a passion. When voicing their disapproval and telling him to break up with her is not enough, they arrange for him to marry Afi from their village in Ghana, hoping that she will drive him away from the woman they loathe. - Jane Austen really loved this trope. Of course, it was the law of the land in her day, unless you escaped to Scotland. - In *Northanger Abbey*, General Tilney forbids his son Henry from marrying Catherine Morland after being mislead *again* about her fortune (the novel's antagonist, realizing she won't marry him, changes his report of being hugely wealthy to miserably poor—neither were true). Henry asks for Catherine's hand *before* telling her about his father's disapproval, which Catherine appreciates because she would have felt honor-bound to refuse otherwise. Fortunately, this happens near the end and a way out of the General's wrath is swiftly procured by the plot. - Edward in *Sense and Sensibility* maintains a secret engagement with Lucy Steele, the poor niece of his private tutor from his teenage years. When his mother learns, she demands that he break the engagement and when he refuses, cuts him off without a penny. Lucy soon dumps him for his newly-enriched brother, but it's a good thing because it frees Edward from someone he long ago ceased to love and he can marry his real love, Elinor Dashwood. - In *Pride and Prejudice*, Mr. Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, attempts to veto the marriage... which ends up helping to bring it about, since at the time that Lady Catherine declares her veto, Elizabeth and Darcy are each separately convinced that the other no longer wants anything to do with them. Hearing that Elizabeth has refused to promise not to marry him is what gives Mr. Darcy enough hope to try proposing to her again, with rather better results than his first attempt. - *Persuasion* deals with the long-term fallout of a parental marriage veto. Anne was convinced to break her engagement with naval captain Wentworth, not because of her father's threats of disinheritence but Lady Russell's sober advice. The result was heartbreak for both her and Wentworth for the next eight years, and when they're thrown back into each other's company it takes a long time for them to sort their feelings out. - In Gene Stratton-Porter's *Freckles*, McLean tells Angel she can't confess her love to Freckles for fear of her father's disapproval. She assures him afterwards that Freckles would not take her even with her father's consent, owing to his fear of disgracing her. - Somewhat subverted in Anne Fine's *Fly in the Ointment*. The parents disapprove of the match and upset/insult their daughter by not coming to the wedding. The father is a petty tyrant who the daughter is glad to ignore. However, she soon concludes that they were right to dislike her husband and if they had not upset her so much by missing the wedding she soon would have run home to them. - In the second *Apprentice Adept* trilogy: Stile and Lady Blue object to Bane (or rather his Photon doppelgänger, Mach in Bane's body) marrying Fleta the unicorn. Not for any species hangups but because Fleta wouldn't be able to provide an heir to the title of Blue Adept. Since this was a case of Reason Before Honor in a Piers Anthony work, this bites the good guys hard in the ass later. Conversely, Stile and Lady Blue's Proton counterparts, Blue and Sheen, had no problem with Bane-in-Mach's-body being an item with the alien Agape. Since Mach was a Ridiculously Human Robot, producing heirs were never an issue. - Sorta used in Andersen's *The Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep*. The Chinaman isn't the Shepherdess' father for obvious reasons (they're porcelain figurines), but he still wants her to "marry" the mahogany satyr instead of the chimneysweep she fancies. - A fact of life in *Funny Boy*. One character was completely cut off from her family for marrying outside her ethnic group. Radha's parents and siblings definitely act as though this power is a given, and although Radha is willing to defy them, this is a very serious decision. - Elsie Dinsmore's father vetoes *two* proposals. The first is from a sickly childhood friend; Horace is afraid he won't reach twenty-one (and he doesn't). The second is from a con man after her inheritance. Elsie honors her father's wishes both times and ends up marrying the man who exposed the second candidate as a drunk and gambler. - In the Agatha Christie novel *The Murder on the Links*, Paul Renauld forbids his son Jack from marrying Marthe Dubriel, and cuts him out of his will. ||It transpires that Marthe is the murderous daughter of a blackmailing murderess, so he had a point.|| - Another Agatha Christie example comes from the Miss Marple novel *A Pocket Full of Rye.* Rex Fortescue threatens to cut off his daughter Elaine without a cent if she marries the Communist Gerald Wright. Elaine would have married him anyway, but Gerald was only interested in Elaine for her money and promptly dumped her. At least until Rex died, leaving Elaine a large amount of money... Interestingly, Miss Marple is convinced the marriage will turn out well, as she sees the gold-hunting groom as a man who will respect and be kind to the woman who made his dreams (a school) come true where he's resent a poor girl married for love for ruining his life. - The *Lord Darcy* story "A Matter of Gravity" by Randell Garrett. Count de la Vexin forbids his son from marrying the daughter of his chief guardsman. The Count's daughter believes that because he is a "psychically blind" rationalist, he is incapable of recognising or understanding True Love. ||As in *Murder on the Links*, which may have inspired this, he actually recognises the woman is a nasty piece of work, and gets murdered by her||. - In George Eliot's essay on trope, "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists", one novel has a mother ready to curse her son because her marriage plans are not obeyed until his true love tells her that she will not, in fact, marry him without her blessing. - In *David Copperfield*, David's boss Mr. Spenlow isn't thrilled when he shows interest in his daughter Dora. (It's not helped by the intervention of Jane Murdstone either.) ||And in the same chapter, Spenlow dies in an accident.|| - Part of the backstory in Kathryn Hulme's *The Nun's Story.* Gabrielle/Sister Luke's much-adored father refuses to let her marry her longtime boyfriend, Jean, because he fears that insanity runs in Jean's family. It's one of the reasons, although not the only one, that she takes vows. - In L. Jagi Lamplighter's *Prospero Regained*, Prospero explains that he forbade Ferdinand to Miranda in hopes of getting her to defy him. - In Edgar Rice Burroughs' *The Monster Men*, though he and Virginia can marry without it, von Horn knows he must either get Professor Maxon's consent, or have him murdered to prevent his changing his will. - In Gene Stratton-Porter's *A Daughter Of The Land*, the Bates sons were too intimidated to marry against this, except Adam. The father's technique was to give them farms, but keep the title himself. *Adam was the one son of the seven who had ignored his father's law that all of his boys were to marry strong, healthy young women, poor women, working women. Each of the others at coming of age had contracted this prescribed marriage as speedily as possible, first asking father Bates, the girl afterward. If father Bates disapproved, the girl was never asked at all.* - In L. M. Montgomery's *The Blue Castle*, Olive's romance with the town Bad Boy was broken off because of familial disapproval. Not, whatever those outside the family say, because the Bad Boy was losing interest. - Twisted around in *A Brother's Price*. Males in this world are rare, so a family lucky enough to have a son will either trade him for another family's son - men marry every sister in a family - or sell him. Jerin is approaching the age of marriage and is anxious, because he might be traded for the son of the huge, possibly-incestuous Brindle family. He reflects that if it were up to his mothers, they wouldn't want him to be unhappy, but in these cases the decision is up to the sisters who are looking to marry someone, and some of his sisters are interested in the Brindle son. His sisters *don't* approve of his falling in love with Princess Ren, since in their eyes she tried to rape Jerin. - That said, while mothers have little to do with the decision-making process on Jerin's side, Ren still has to get permission from her Mother Eldest to marry Jerin, because she *is* a princess and the Prince Consort must have good genes and a good history for the sake of the realm. - Gleefully invoked in *Anne of Windy Poplars*: Anne helps a timid young lady elope with the young man she loves and takes on the responsibility of breaking the news to the girl's intimidating father, who sternly forbade the couple from having anything to do with each other. When Anne informs the father of the elopement, he takes the news with deep relief and satisfaction - he'd wanted the two to marry all along and issued his veto on the accurate assumption that the boy would be much more interested in Forbidden Fruit than in having a girl pushed at him, but had feared that his daughter would end up being too spineless to go through with it. With the matter finally settled, he promises to "grudgingly come around" in a suitable period of time. - There are *three* plot lines in Michelle Magorian's *A Little Love Song* (which is set in 1943), and they all deconstruct this trope in one way or another: - The first one happens in the book's present day, where seventeen-year-old Dot has been kicked out by her parents for getting pregnant out of wedlock and is facing the stigma of becoming an unwed mother. Dot states that if her stubborn father had just let her marry her childhood sweetheart Jack when they had asked for his permission, this never would've happened. - The second one happens about 26 years earlier and is told through a diary that the main character Rose finds. The diary belongs to a woman named Hilda, and tells the story of how she was a volunteer nurse during the First World War and fell in love with one of her patients, Matthew. Hilda's family refused to let them get married, partly because Matthew was six years younger than her and worked at a publishing company while Hilda herself was firmly upper-class, but mostly because her parents and brothers had decided that as the only daughter, she would remain unmarried and stay at home and take care of her parents until they died. - The third one is just a short conversation during which Rose expresses concern that their mother might not let Rose's sister Diana marry Robert because he's from a lower class. Diana just states that if their mother won't give her permission, she will just marry him anyway, and that she's pretty happy that he's from a different class because if she married someone from their own class she would just end up being a decoration at a dinner table, while Robert actually treats her like a person. - In Stephanie Burgis' *A Tangle of Magicks *, Mrs. Carlyle breaks into the opening wedding to declare her son is underage and can not marry without her permission. Revealing that he is not the bridegroom but the best man does not slow her down at all in her tirade. - A more or less Justified example kicks off the climax of A.L. Phillips' The Quest of the Unaligned. While King Kethel vetoes Crown Prince Alaric's desire to marry Laeshana, this is because Laeshana is a mage of fire, and the law requires that the Crown Prince marry an elementally unaligned mage. - A few pages later, we have a completely Unjustified example. ||After Alaric uses the secret powers of the Prince's Crown to change the nature of Laeshana's magic, rendering her unaligned|| Queen Tathilya tries to veto the marriage on the grounds that Laeshana is a peasant, which on top of being irrelevant isn't even true. (Laeshana belongs to the Order of the Open Book, and members of that order are the social equals of the nobility, no matter their birth.) - *Septimus Heap* has the titular Heap family being at defiant odds with the gatekeeping Gringe family, which causes problems when Simon Heap and Lucy Gringe meet in dance class and fall in love. Their *first* attempt at getting married in *Magyk* goes sour courtesy of the Big Bad's current rule over the Castle. Simon ends up disowned by his family for reasons entirely unrelated to the romance * : read: Apprenticeship to the aforesaid Big Bad, but continues to try to court Lucy. Come the end of *Darke*, both families had accepted the relationship and Simon has been redeemed, so *Fyre* opens up with the wedding. - *Kindling Ashes*: Tilda's father was fine with Corran courting her because Corran was his favorite pupil. It was Lord Dunslade who issued the veto because he disapproved of his son marrying down. - In Jorge Isaacs' *María*, while Efraín's father/María's uncle and adoptive father does *not* hate María (in fact, she's pretty much another daughter), he'd rather have Efraín focus only on his future university studies than romancing his cousin. ||It ends tragically when María dies from her illness while Efraín is studying abroad on the patriarch's instructions; the dad blames himself heavily and even calls himself her murderer, and he ends up tearfully apologizing to Efraín for having separated them.|| - *His Only Wife*: The Ganyo family, led by matriarch Aunty Faustina Ganyo, *hates* middle brother Eli's girlfriend with a passion. When voicing their disapproval is not enough, they arrange for him to marry protagonist Afi, a seamstress from their village, to drive him away from the woman they loathe. - Inverted by the Thomas Hardy short story *The Son's Veto* (published in the collection *Lifes Little Ironies*). The protagonist is a widow, who's first husband was a wealthy parson whom she married because she didn't dare turn down his proposal; their son was raised as a member of the upper class, but she still thinks of herself as being beneath them both. As a result, her son is able to forbid her from marrying her Unlucky Childhood Friend (it's made clear he's not against her remarrying; he just doesn't want a commoner for a stepfather). - A variation in *Sing the Four Quarters* by Tanya Huff. Annice, the younger sister of the King of Shkoder, is barred by royal decree from Joining or having children (which don't necessarily go hand-in-hand in this series) on pain of death, lest it imperil the succession. This was King Theron's revenge for her joining the bards rather than be married off to the heir of Cemandia. In the present day Annice decides to carry her Surprise Pregnancy to term pretty much to spite Theron and force the issue. ||Except that after he'd grown up a little more, Theron came to really regret doing this to her and wanted to lift the ban, but they hadn't been able to speak civilly ever since. Once he manages to get in contact with her after chasing her halfway across Shkoder on an unrelated matter, he forgives her and tells her he could never have his own sister executed, regardless of what he said way back when.|| - In the backstory to *Pan Tadeusz*, mr. Horeszko did this in the most cruel way possible - simply *ignoring* his daughter's beloved's feelings for her, then asking his advice on an Arranged Marriage for her. - In the backstory to *Dinner at Deviant's Palace*, Irwin Barrows exiled Greg Rivas from the Barrows lands because he felt Rivas wasn't good enough for his daughter Urania. ||In the present, though he depends on Rivas to rescue Urania, he's prepared to have Rivas killed if there's any sign they're going to get back together.|| - Dr. Sloper in *Washington Square* tries to pull this on Catherine during the entirety of their relationship, even threatening to disinherit her. (Though he likely considers her an Inadequate Inheritor anyway.) - This trope appears in *Way of Choices* where Xu Yourong's grandfather engages her as a child to the disciple of the Taoist who saved his life, her immediate parents are horrified and do everything in their power to dissuade her fiance, Chen Changsheng, so she can pursue a proper marriage with a young man of their choosing. Ironically, Chen who has since learned he is fated to die as a young man, first came to them in order to break off the marriage contract but their snobbery, insults, bribes and threats convince him otherwise. The parents then become his enemies and do everything in their power to sabotage him. Meanwhile, 500 chapters in Chen and Youroung have met only a few times and he is unaware (though she is) of her identity, as they largely communicate through writing. - *Dead End Job Mysteries*: Attempted by Helen Hawthorne's mother Dolores. After Helen divorces her deadbeat husband Robbie pre-series and goes on the run, Dolores keeps trying to get her to go back to him - due to her religious views, she believes divorce isn't recognized by the church and that Helen will burn in Hell if she ever remarries. When Helen is finally getting remarried in book 8, Dolores finds out and is so opposed to it that she's arranged for Helen to get threatening letters warning what will happen if she goes through with it, and finally takes a bus all the way from St. Louis to southern Florida, where she barges in to stop the wedding, declaring that she'd rather see Helen dead than with a man other than Robbie. She then suffers a heart attack and brain bleed during her rant and is essentially comatose afterward, so she has to be put in a home for the rest of her life, dying in book 9. Her death and Helen getting a new divorce settlement allow the wedding to finally go off by the end of the book. - *Dragonriders of Pern*: Sibling variant - Toric tries this on his sister Sharra when it is revealed that she and Jaxom plan to be married. Luckily, Jaxom makes it clear in a very satisfying and dramatic fashion that he and Sharra will not be parted, and that as a dragonrider he will come for her anywhere on Pern. - *The Knocker on Death's Door* by Ellis Peters, a woman who is dating the younger son of an Impoverished Patrician family is invited to afternoon tea by his elder brother, who attempts to warn her off. She's affronted, and amused, that people still behave like that. ||It turns out that he was actually trying to get her clear of the family because he'd found out his younger brother was the murderer.|| - In *The Baby-Sitters Club*, Mary Anne learns that her father used to date her new friend Dawn's mother Sharon while they were in high school, but Sharon's parents didn't approve so they ended up breaking it off. They initially drifted apart and married other people, but ultimately reconnected through their daughters' friendship (by which point he was a widower and she was divorced) and ended up getting back together and later marrying. - This is a common trope in old literature from the former Jugoslavia, generally a highly patriarchal area where Arranged Marriage was very common in places until relatively recently. note : and may still occur today in places, particularly in Gypsy and Muslim communities Two iconic literary examples are found in: - *Sosedov Sin* ("The Neighbor's Son"), an 1868 novella by Slovene author Josip Juričič, Franica, the daughter of wealthy farmer Anton Smrekar, falls in love with the honest, hard-working and handsome tefan, the son of a neighboring farmer. They wish to marry, but assume that Franica's proud and despotic father would not allow them to, as he despises tefan's father, who unlike his son is a wastrel. Once, Anton hires tefan to help him with a job, and treats him unusually kindly, prompting tefan to ask Anton for Franica's hand. This, however, infuriates Anton, who roughly rebukes tefan, and then makes short work of his daughter, accusing her of disrespecting him for making promises to the son of a man she knows her father cannot stand, and coercing a promise from her not to speak to tefan again. The resolution to this situation comes when, after a period of keeping Franica practically under house arrest, ||Anton attempts to marry her off to his good friend's son Petar, but Franica does not show up at the service and runs away to the house of a woman with whom she had stayed in the past while at school. When Anton finds his daughter in bed with a fever, and tefan praying in a church for her recovery, he realizes that he has made a mistake. Franica does recover and Anton lets her marry tefan and also becomes a somewhat gentler man.|| - *Pop Ćira i Pop Spira* (Priests Ćira and Spira), an 1898 novel by Serbian author Stevan Sremac set in a village in the Vojvodina note : now the Northern part of Serbia, but then a Serbian enclave in Hungary region, tells the story of the two priests who served the village, who each have an only daughter. When the village receives a new young schoolteacher, Pera, who intends to study for the priesthood, the priests' wives both wish to marry their daughters off to him. Priest Spira's daughter Melanija takes a liking to Pera, while Priest Ćira's daughter Jula loves aca, the local barber. However, they meet secretly in the garden, knowing that Jula's parents wouldn't approve of the match. They are discovered and Jula's parents initial reaction is to attempt to put a stop to it. ||However, after some time passes, Jula complains to her mother about it; her mother goes to her father and pleads the couple's case, taking into account that aca is planning to better himself. Priest Ćira relents, requesting only that they wait until he has settled a conflict that he currently has with Priest Spira. The novel ends with Jula marrying aca and Melanija marrying Pera. The former couple ends up having four children with aca becoming a dentist, while the latter couple remains childless and ends up leading a dull bourgeois life.|| - "Talma Gordon": Capt. Gordon vehemently opposed the idea of Talma marrying Edward Turner. ||At first it seems like it was because he was a poor nobody, but when the truth about Talma's mother Isabel Franklin is revealed, it's apparent that her ancestry was the reason.|| - *Zara Hossain Is Here*: Zara's parents weren't allowed to marry by their families, but they did it anyway. She believes it's why they're so accepting of her being bisexual and dating a girl even when they come from the very conservative Pakistani Muslim culture, as they've known how terrible being denied who you love can be. - *Star Wars Legends*: - Defied in *X-Wing: The Bacta War*. Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik know that her father Booster would be totally against them getting married (he's an ex-cop and she's a smuggler, and furthermore Corran's father sent Booster to the Penal Colony on Kessel), so they don't give him the chance to offer an opinion: ||they have Corran's CO Wedge Antilles marry them in secret right before they ship out for the book's final battle. Booster is furious, but is mollified when they agree to hold a second, more public ceremony that all their friends can attend.|| - Exploited in *I, Jedi*. Corran, undercover with the Invids Space Pirates as "Jenos Idanian" to look for the missing Mirax, is queried by a squadmate about his missing lover. He quickly makes up a story about wanting to destroy a starliner company because his lover is the heiress and her cousin, the owner, forbade them to be together. So "Jenos Idanian" plans to rob the company of everything and then retire with his lady love on the spoils. - Zakaria from *The Key to Charlotte* used to be in a relationship with a woman named Rachel, but their relationship was ruined by her meddling father, who she still listened to even though she was an adult. - A variation in *Sir Nigel*: Edith (the sister of Nigel's beloved Mary) has fallen into the clutches of the Depraved Dwarf Paul de la Fosse. Strangely, the father isn't so much averse to the union (as de la Fosse is rich and of a well-regarded family), the problem is that de la Fosse is a serial seducer, taking pride in wooing young women with promises of marriage and backing out on them, leaving the women Defiled Forever (Edith is of course persuaded that these are all lies). Nigel sets out with a priest to inform de la Fosse that he either marries Edith tonight or dies, and only when de la Fosse accept at swordpoint does Edith understand she's been played for a fool. - *The Sunne in Splendour*: Richard and Anne are moving toward a Happily Arranged Marriage when her father switches political sides and breaks off her betrothal. Anne and Richard are heartbroken, especially as her father marries her off to his political enemy, Edward of Westminster. Similarly, their siblings Isabel and George wish to marry and the king vetoes it, but with the help of Anne and Isabel's father, they marry anyway, infuriating the king. It's only after Anne's father dies and she's widowed that Anne and Richard can reunite. These same historical events are portrayed in a Lighter and Softer novel, *The Virgin Widow* and in The Cousins' War Series with all the authors imaging the feelings of these young people caught up in historical events. - The song "Rude" by MAGIC! is sung from the point of view of a man who is distraught over the fact that his girlfriend's father refuses to give his blessing to their marriage. The young couple in the song eventually defy the girl's father and decide to get married anyway. - The narrator of The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" says he "had things planned but her folks wouldn't let her". - The popular Renaissance Faire song 'Johnny Be Fair', based on an old joke (see the Jokes section): *"And I would marry Johnny but my father up and said: * I hate to tell you, daughter, what your mother never knew, But Johnny, he's a son of mine, and therefore kin to you. (repeat with at least two other names) The lads in town are all my kin and my father is the cause. If things should thus continue, I shall die a single miss I think I'll go to mother and complain to her of this." "Oh daughter didn't I teach you to forgive and to forget. Your father sowed his wild oats, on that you needn't fret. Your father may be father to all the lads but still.... He's not the one who sired you so marry who you will!" - This joke is also the basis of the song "Shame and Scandal". - The narrator of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself" has come to understand why his mother didn't approve of his lover. *"Maybe you should know that * My mama don't like you and she likes everyone." - A sympathetic perspective flip happens in Chuck Wick's "Stealing Cinderella." The singer comes to ask for his girlfriend's hand in marriage, and while her father thinks it over, he's left in a room with pictures of her throughout her life—and he suddenly realizes that he wouldn't blame her father for invoking this trope. After all: *In her eyes, I'm Prince Charming * But to him I'm just some fella Riding in and stealing Cinderella - Older Than Dirt: The Egyptian air god Shu tried to prevent his son and daughter, Geb and Nut (earth and sky), from marrying each other and having kids. In another version, the sun god Re tried to prevent their marriage. Either way, it didn't work, and Geb and Nut became the parents of Wesiri/Osiris, Aset/Isis, Sutakh/Set, Nebet-hut/Nephthys, and maybe Haruw/Horus the Elder. Nonetheless, Shu still holds them apart. - Japanese Mythology: - The God of Storms Susano-o wasn't thrilled when the minor god Okukinushi fell in love with his daughter Suseri-hime and she came to like him back. He tried at least *thrice* to kill the guy (by sending him to sleep in a room full of snakes, then having him clean his hair of which is full of either wasps and bees or Creepy Centipedes, and later setting a fatal archery challenge involving a field in fire), but Okunikinushi lived through each attempt on his life. Then he outsmarted Susano-oh by tying his long hair to his rafter when he was asleep so he and Suseri-hime could elope, also taking Susano-oh's treasures (his bow and arrow and his beloved *koto*) with him. When Susano-oh woke up and caught up with them, he relented and gave the lovers his blessings. - The legend of Hachikatsugi-hime has the youngest son of a nobleman falling for a young maid named Hachikazuki, who always hides herself behind a huge wooden bowl doubling as a hat. The guy's parents, logically, oppose to this romance. ||They talks to Hachikatsugi and stage a "wife contest" to make her "give up"; the girl has an Heroic BSoD right before it, but when her boyfriend reassures her... the hat, which until then was stuck to her head, suddenly falls off and reveals a small wooden box, containing a mix of Bag of Holding and Memento MacGuffin that reveals the girl's noble heritage *and* has the riches and clothing she needs for the contest. Her confidence restored, Hachikatsugi passes the "contest" with flying colors, so the parents revoke the veto and let her marry her son.|| - Shakespearean examples: ''My will to her consent is but a part. An she agreed within her scope of choice." - However, by the third act he has gotten far less kind and tells her she can marry the man he's chosen or be disowned. ''An you be mine, Ill give you to my friend. An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets." - In *Two Gentlemen of Verona*, Sylvia's father goes so far as to banish Valentine when he learns that they're in love. Admittedly they're trying to elope at the time... - A variation in *The Taming of the Shrew*: Bianca's father will not allow her to get married, not due to any objections with her suitors, but because he swore not to let her marry until her older sister Katherina is married. - *The Fantasticks* is the story of two neighboring families trying to arrange a marriage between their children by building a wall between them and faking this trope. Their Batman Gambit works. - *The Importance of Being Earnest*: Gwendolen's mother said that "to lose one parent is unfortunate, to lose two is careless" and refused to allow Gwendolen to marry Jack until he had found his parents again. Jack later turns the tables on Lady Bracknell by refusing to give permission for his ward, Cecily, to marry Algernon, who is also Bracknell's nephew, unless she relents and lets him marry Gwendolen. - In *Fiddler on the Roof*, Tevye finds himself increasingly tested by his daughters' choices of husbands. For each daughter, he weighs the value of the tradition each of them is flouting against the love each feels for his daughters. He eventually agrees to let eldest daughter Tzeitel marry her childhood friend Motel rather than have an Arranged Marriage, and later to let second daughter Hodel marry activist Perchick even though his ideals often contradict Tevye's traditional mindset. But when third daughter Chava falls in love with Fyedka, a non-Jew, he decides that's a bridge too far, and disowns her when he learns that she's gone behind his back to marry Fyedka. "If I bend that far, I'll break. But on the other hand — No! There is no other hand!" - In *Zemsta*, Rejent Milczek really does not think his son should choose his own wife. The boy may love Klara, but how is this basis for anything? - In the backstory of *The Merry Widow*, Hanna and Danilo were in love, but Danilo's uncle put an end to it because Hanna had no money. Residual feeling from this causes complications when Hanna reappears in Danilo's life as a widow with a large inheritance. - In *Oklahoma!*, Andrew Carnes' won't give his consent to Will marrying his daughter Ado Annie unless Will can prove that her can earn, and hang on to, $50 ($1,400 in today's money). - In *Amnesia: Memories*, Spade World has the heroine's father be against her relationship with Ikki and even them room-sharing in *Amnesia Later* for various reasons. One being that he doesn't think Ikki could support himself and the heroine, another being that the father was a Casanova himself in his youth and has learned about Ikki's large amount of girlfriends, so he's convinced that Ikki will dump his daughter when he gets bored of her, as the father used to do. It's only in *Amnesia Later*, where he sees how earnest Ikki is with his intentions, including doing a Pose of Supplication to get his blessing for the room-sharing, and basically blurting out his intention of marrying the heroine once she's finished with college, that he relents and allows it. - In *Higurashi: When They Cry*, the backstory reveals ||Shion and Mion's mother Akane|| faced one coming from her mom, ||"Demon Granny" Oryuu.|| - In *Umineko: When They Cry*, Eva is very vociferous about her rejection of her son, George's, love for Shannon, a Meido who works for the Ushiromiya family's main house. - In *Red String* it's been recently revealed ||Miharu and Kazuo's Arranged Marriage, which has developed into love anyway, was all his mother's idea in order to give him a chance not to be married to be a snotty society girl. This is against his father's wishes, who wants it called off. When he tells Kazuo to do so (Kazuo having overheard the details already a day before) it doesn't go down well.|| - In *PvP*, Brent and Jade's wedding reservation was canceled by Jade's mother due to them arranging the wedding in a way she didn't like, fortunately Robbie allowed them to have it at his mansion. - In *Erstwhile*, Maid Maleen's father rejected her love. - *A Hero's War*: Landar's parents are actually quite in favour of her marrying Cato, knowing that they are good for each other and that Cato is a One-Man Industrial Revolution, but her extended family oppose the match because Cato can't use magic, and outright defying them would severely harm her father's standing in the Iris Clan. Landar *could* just burn her bridges and leave the clan, but her father instead suggests a way that Cato might be able to win them over. - One of the laws of the Pantheon in *Thalia's Musings*, even for the Twelve Olympians. Apollo tries to invoke this as Governor of the Muses, but is quickly shot down by Calliope. It's strongly implied that Artemis, as her twin brother Apollo's legal guardian, can invoke this to him. - Many gay and bisexual people risk getting disowned by getting married, if they can even legally get married. Also, if they belong to an organized religion that is against same-sex marriage, they may end up being excommunicated and excluded from certain aspects of involvement with church activities if they dare to marry someone of the same gender as themselves, which can be just as depressing as having one's parents reject them for their marriage. - Beatrix Potter got engaged to the publisher of her storybooks. Her parents objected because he was a tradesman but eventually relented, if she would wait out the summer to make sure her love for him was real. Unfortunately, he died before summer's end and the wedding never happened. You can imagine her parents' reactions... - Peculiar example because it's based partially around an Arranged Marriage: a Jewish rabbi has set up a system in which Jewish children (on a voluntary basis) are tested to see if they're carriers of the Tay-Sachs disease allele. For background, Tay-Sachs is a Mendelian recessive trait (more or less...) and the disease that can kill by age two (life expectancy for the condition in general is about four) should a child receive two copies of the gene, but a child who receives only one copy will be healthy; thus a child of two carriers has an alarmingly high 25% chance of having the disease. This trait is particularly prominent among Ashkenazi Jews. Understandably concerned about the health issue but also cultural sensitivities (among them a desire to see Jews continue to marry Jews), the rabbi started this project; the children are not told the results of the test, but are given a number. In later life, should their families be contemplating a match between two people who have been tested, they just send the numbers in and are advised to drop the match if both of them are carriers... a rare *genetic* Parental Marriage Veto. - Then there are of course the royal families: - King George III vetoed quite a few of his sons' potential marriages, mostly because they wanted to marry either commoners or Catholics, which led to a succession crisis after the death of Princess Charlotte (the daughter and heir of George IV) in childbirth. George IV was succeeded by his younger brother, William IV, who was then succeeded by his niece Victoria, the daughter of his brother Prince Edward. Meanwhile, his wife, Queen Charlotte, forestalled any attempts to marry off her younger daughters to keep them as her companions, with the result that two daughters married later in life (48 and 40) and two never married at all. - King George VI initially vetoed then-Princess Elizabeth's marriage to Philip Mountbatten, mostly because she was underage and he was still largely seen by the public as a Greek and Danish prince, even though he had given up those titles. After World War II, when Philip was a British war hero and Elizabeth had turned 21, her father finally consented to the marriage. - Elizabeth herself vetoed Prince Charles' potential marriage to Camilla Shand because of her somewhat scandalous dating history and the belief that Charles needed to marry a young English virgin. Camilla married Andrew Parker-Bowles, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, and the rest, as they say, is history. - For the longest time, the sovereign of Great Britain had veto rights over the marriages of *anyone* in the succession who could claim descent from George II. If they married without permission anyway, they'd lose their place in the succession. This was eventually repealed (but not until *2013*!), and the current law only limits the sovereign's veto rights to the first six people in the line of succession. note : Current list: Prince William (married with the late Queen's approval), Prince George (born in 2013), Princess Charlotte (born in 2015), Prince Louis (born in 2018), Prince Harry (also married with the late Queen's approval), and Prince Andrew (married with the late Queen's approval as well). - King Olav V of Norway initially vetoed Crown Prince Harald's engagement to Sonja Haraldsen because she was a Norwegian commoner and Olav wanted his son to marry a princess. Harald responded to this by informing his father that if he couldn't marry Sonja he wouldn't marry at all. Since Harald was the sole heir to the throne, and his not marrying would have meant the end of the Norwegian monarchy, and they had been dating for almost a decade by that point, Olav relented. Fifty years later, they're still happily married. - King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden was notorious in his belief that royalty should only marry other royalty, which led many of his sons to marry without his approval and lose their titles and succession rights in the process just to get out of hearing the parental marriage vetoes. Gustaf VI Adolf's son, Prince Bertil, and his grandson, Carl XVI Gustaf, had to wait until after his death and Carl XVI Gustaf's accession to the throne before they could marry their commoner brides. Carl XVI Gustaf and his bride, Silvia Sommerlath, had to wait for four years. Bertil and his love, Lilian Craig, had waited for forty-three. - Empress Nagako/Kojun of Japan allegedly opposed the marriage of her son, the then-Crown Prince Akihito to Michiko Shoda, due to the fact that Michiko was a commoner and her family was Roman Catholic. While they did marry, relations between Nagako and Michiko remained strained for the entirety of the empress' life, as she disapproved of Michiko's hands-on mothering in contrast to the traditional separation of imperial children from their parents and Michiko herself is said to have wondered why her mother-in-law disliked her. Some sources even say the intrigues took a life long toll on Michiko and that she never fully regained the confidence she'd had in her youth. - Umberto II, the last King of Italy, opposed his son's Vittorio Emanuele's marriage to Marina Doria. Vittorio Emanuele eventually went on and married her anyway without paternal permission... And, by the House of Savoy's bylaws, would have excluded himself from the succession had Italy still been an kingdom. - In the Baha'i faith, a couple cannot get married unless they both get the consent of their parents. If one of them vetoes it, they'll just have to wait until the grouch keels over (or just become self made orphans). - Consuelo Vanderbilt had hoped to marry Winthrop Rutherfurd. Her mother refused, because she set up her marriage to the Duke of Marlborough. To this end, she first begged, ordered, and even faked a fatal illness to force her daughter to marry the Duke. Her daughter finally relented, after which her mother's fatal illness miraculously got cured. It would not be an understatement to call the marriage "unhappy" (famously, the married couple always dined with a gigantic centerpiece placed on the table between them so that they do not have to see each other even when etiquette dictate that they must be in the same room at the same time). - J. R. R. Tolkien's own romance, which became the basis for the story of Beren and Lúthien. Tolkien met Edith Bratt at 16 and 19 respectively and fell in love, but his guardian Father Morgan later forbade contact between them until Tolkien became a legal adult at 21. He wrote her on the evening his twenty-first birthday and found out she was engaged to another man. She broke it off, though, when she learned he hadn't forgotten her, and accepted Tolkien's marriage proposal. Tolkien described their troubled courtship in considerable detail in a letter to their son, acknowledging that his guardian had a point as 'Falling in love, even a true and lasting love' is not really a good thing for a young man who should be concentrating on his education. Tolkien also emphasized that Edith had made him no promises and was completely free. Had she chosen to go through with her first engagement he, Tolkien, would have had no grounds for complaint. - When Marie Curie was working as a governess to put her sister through university, she fell in love with the son of her employer, but they rejected on the grounds that she was too poor. This was actually a good thing for the world as she and the man she did marry, Pierre Curie, were a fantastic scientific team. - Dorothy Osborne and Sir William Temple were a famous 17th Century English couple, who finally managed to marry after her father died (and she suffered smallpox, to the ruin of her looks and the loss of any other marriage prospects.) - This isn't always a bad trope. For all the times parents/family object on unreasonable grounds, there are times when loved ones have the ability to realise two people shouldn't take such a big step and, if said step is taken, are eventually proven right. - Napoléon Bonaparte, who had a thing for arranging marriages around him, pulled this on his youngest brother Jérôme when he married an American heiress in 1803 ; when he became Emperor, Napoleon annulled the marriage with a decree in 1805 on the grounds that Jérôme was a minor when he married. Napoleon also objected to the second marriage his brother Lucien made out of love, but could not convince him to divorce and Lucien preferred to go into exile rather than renouncing his beloved wife. - Dieudonné Thiébault, father of General Paul Thiébault, attempted to prevent his son's remarriage to Elisabeth Chenais, citing her expensive tastes and unsavoury reputation as arguments against the match, but more importantly reminding Paul that he was still legally married to another woman when he proposed to Elisabeth. Paul ignored his father's objections, rushed through the divorce and married Elisabeth anyway... and despite his pledges of absolute truthfulness, he makes absolutely no mention of this in the Memoirs he wrote long after both his father and Elisabeth were dead. - The Greek businessman Alexander Onassis Livanos had a Secret Relationship with Fiona Thyssen, a divorcée who was 16 years his senior *and* whom he had a crush since he was a pre-teen. Alexander's parents, the powerful and rich entrepreneur Aristotle Onassis and his first wife Athina "Tina" Livanos, *really* disliked this and tried to sabotage their bonds: i.e, Thyssen hated the idea of being seen as a Gold Digger so when Onassis Sr. purchased Alexander a huge villa outside Athens *despite knowing this*, she took it as an insult from them. - In The '50s, a Japanese man named Toshimichi Okubo met Princess Aisin-Gioro Huisheng of China, and they fell in love. However, Huisheng's Japanese mother Princess Hiro Saga refused to let them stay together: both because he was a commoner and because her daughter was a candidate to get into an Arranged Marriage to then-Crown Prince Akihito. Huisheng and Okubo ultimately commited suicide together. - Ancient Catholic traditions had a way to get around this and other vetoes: the priest being considered a mere witness, a couple could get around the veto by going to a priest with two other witnesses and declaring themselves husband and wife. Due the practice being much abused, the practice was eventually banned in the Council of Trento with the *Tametsi* decree... That *also* specifically banned any kind of marriage veto. - In a number of countries, where Arranged Marriage is still common and is still done for the same reason. The big issue is that if a woman decides to flee the marriage and marry the person *she* wants, she stands a very good chance of being *murdered by her own family* to "restore their honor." - Carl and Marie von Clausewitz could have married earlier if not for Marie's mother's determination to find a more suitable match for her only surviving daughter (Marie was a Countess and Carl was, at the time, a junior officer of questionable nobility). However, Sophie von Brühl eventually consented to the marriage and this delay was one of the many obstacles that only deepened their bond. - Meiji novelist Kōyō Ozaki, upon knowing his student Kyōka Izumi was planning to marry, harshly objected and threatened to cut ties with him unless he left the woman. Izumi then waited for his mentor to die before going forward with the marriage. - French law allows ascendents to veto, in courts, any marriage of their descendents in which legal causes exist, such as lack of consent or bigamy (art. 177 of the Civil Code). - When Blanche Monnier wanted to marry a lawyer rather than someone her wealthy family chose, she decided to elope. Unfortunately, her mother caught her and locked her up for over two decades, telling people that she'd run away with her lover, who spent the rest of his life under suspicion that he'd killed her.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalMarriageVeto

Motherly Scientist - TV Tropes **Dr. Sarah Kinney:** There's no reason to subject X-23 to the bonding process until she's X-gene active and fully matured! *[...]* **Zander Rice:** *"No reason"?* Are you sure you just don't want to see your little pet go under the knife? **Sarah:** Don't be stupid. **Zander:** Well, you've certainly spent a lot of time in her cell lately. **Sarah:** Martin, the limited time I'm given with X-23 is necessary for development. Your own psychologists have told you that. **Zander:** Aw. An overprotective mother. She's the mother you always wanted. She gives you a candy when you take your medication, warns your brothers about messing around with you, gives you a shoulder to cry on when you feel lonely, and occasionally gives maintenance to your prosthetic leg. Of course, she's the first to give you a hug after you go through the tax-paid psychiatric treatment because you're told you're a "special kid with great potential". Meet the Motherly Scientist: Frequently feeling compassion for the test subjects (sometimes not always embracing that compassion until it's too late), the motherly scientist is usually the first to ask that the test subjects be given humane treatment. Note that regardless of the gendered implications of motherly, the Fatherly Scientist is also not uncommon, as the focus is largely on the scientist's conscious decision, with or without struggle, to reject treating the creature, creation, or just plain human being as a mere test subject for experimentation, choosing instead to forge and nurture a familial bond with them once it is acknowledged that the subject is capable of experiencing a range of emotions like any other. It's generally *more* common for the Motherly Scientist to be female, however, because Women Are Wiser and are assumed to have "motherly instincts" and care for the test subjects as people while men are assumed to view them more dispassionately as mere experiments. For the sake of consistency, the scientist will, for the large part, be referred to as female for the rest of this article. The trope can contain one or more of the following scenarios, depending on the scientist's personality and background. (And as evident within these scenarios, the role isn't limited to a scientific researcher, but also doctor, technician — and even farther-flung, priest or *magic-user* — as long as there is a strict set of rules, obligations, expectations or beliefs that the motherly figure turns her back to treat the subject with care.) ## 'They're like my own children' scenario: Most of the time, the plot starts with a brilliant doctor participating in an Evil Experiment on human test subjects, most of them young children (and perhaps an older Wendy) or students in a conveniently-placed high school. Everything, of course, in the name of Science, or for the Greater Good. It could also happen that the doctor in question was deceived or coerced into performing said experiment — or maybe she just was hired to keep the kids quiet. Sooner or later, an experiment goes horribly wrong (or horribly right), or the truth is finally revealed, making the doctor realize the error of her ways. After rescuing them, she decides to become the test subjects' adoptive mother, forming a Secret Project Refugee Family and living Happily Ever After. In other cases, she just feels responsible for the guys now that they've grown up — or maybe there's some pending business to finish so she can redeem herself and move on with her life. And if you think a normal Mama Bear or Papa Wolf is fucking scary, Hell Hath No Fury like a Motherly/Fatherly Scientist with access to One-Man Army levels of weaponry, technology, money, or superpowers to protect his or her children. There's also the other Doomsday scenario. She dies, and her charges decide that nothing is holding them back from taking revenge on everyone. After researching a non-human subject for a while and giving it a name, the doctor's nurturing instincts finally kicks in, causing the doctor to form a parental bond with the poor little thing until the eventual decision to free the subject. If she met the creature in the jungle, and there are more of them, she could become a Nature Hero. Can turn into "Tarzan And Jane" if the subject is biologically and age-compatible with her. If by contrast, the subject isn't biologically compatible and the scientist needs to separate, it ends up with a goodbye. - If the doctor's an expert in genetics, cybernetics, arcane magic, or alchemy, the plot starts when she creates a new life form or Artificial Intelligence with a ridiculously human body. The young child then begins to develop emotions in such a way that the doctor's heart is moved into raising the child as her own. In this scenario, it's common that the doctor serves as a parent, psychiatrist and physician for the Robot Kid who wants to Become a Real Boy. The extremely rare inversion of this trope happens when the A.I. *becomes* the adoptive mother. Usually happens with a supercomputer storing mommy's memories. - It could also happen that the child was created specifically to be the child the scientist always wished for. - If the scientist creates a nearly-exact copy of a deceased child, either for him/herself or for someone else, it's called Replacement Goldfish. Whatever the plot is, the common denominator is the parental and protective feelings of the scientist towards the test subject. If a scientist just happens to be a nice parent, this trope doesn't apply (see Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter) unless her child was genetically engineered and carried inside *her* womb or experimentally transformed into something else. Tend to overlap — depending on the circumstances — with Mad Scientist or Reluctant Mad Scientist, Psychologist Teacher, Kindly Vet, Team Mom/Team Dad, Mama Bear/Papa Wolf, and in some extreme cases, Anti-Villain. Subtrope of Parental Substitute. Compare Magical Nanny. Contrast Guinea Pig Family and Evil Matriarch/Archnemesis Dad. ## Examples: - ||Professor Harumi Kiyama|| from *A Certain Scientific Railgun* was originally an uninterested scientist left with the job of watching over a group of esper orphans, only to gradually start caring for them like a mother. ||Then things go horribly wrong when the dangerous experiment they were a part of (which Harumi had been told was something safe) sends them all into comas, to Harumi's shock and her boss's utter indifference. With a corrupt administration refusing to help the students and instead choosing to cover up the incident, Harumi takes desperate measures trying to find a cure.|| - Dr. Ochanomizu for *Astro Boy*, a colleague of Astro Boy's creator Tenma who adopts the titular robot after Tenma couldn't get past how Astro Boy wasn't the proper Replacement Goldfish for his dead son he had envisioned. - Professor Kisaragi, *Cutey Honey*'s creator whom she openly refers to as her dad. - Lorelei from *Saber Marionette J To X* — she is, in more than one way, the mother of all the marionettes. - To an extent, Washu from *Tenchi Muyo!* towards Ryoko (she's partially her child as she was created using her own eggs), but Washu's attitude towards her is not quite motherly. - Nanami from *Sukisho*. He's a scientist who was involved in some unethical experiments on children, but eventually rescued and formed a family with them. - Subverted with Kotaro Kannagi from the anime *Code-E*. He starts the research on Chinami's Type-E power, but eventually falls in love with her rather than considering her his child. - *Doctor Slump*'s Senbei creates Arale and raises her as his child. - Kanami from *Darker than Black* cared a lot about catatonic Dolls◊ in jars and learned their quirks, which became evident in the episode when CY-463 trapped them. In her observatory, they are more *tools* than *subjects*, but it's not like she could do any more for them even if she had any real power. - When the Astronomy Bureau "doll system" is about to be closed in *Shikkoku no Hana*, Kanami decides to quit and go to Hawaii, to "live as far away from things like the Gate and Contractors as possible" — an interesting statement, Dolls being an effect of the Gate as much as Contractors. - Cher Degré from *Wolf's Rain*. She is fascinated by Cheza and desires to understand her and her purpose. When Cheza escapes, she tries to follow her. Later she learns about the wolves and helps them escape, at the cost of her own life. - Subverted in *Soul Eater*: Doctor Medusa plays the nice doctor, but she's secretly experimenting on her patients. Plus in an outright aversion, she's absolutely despicable in her treatment of her main experiment/minion Chrona, ||who actually is her child||. - Played with regarding Dr. Stein. He's not this way towards his test subjects (besides his one of his coworkers and a random endangered bird, he doesn't really have any), but he *definitely* is towards his students, to whom he acts as both a Team Dad and a Papa Wolf. - Winry in *Fullmetal Alchemist*, who is overprotective of her automail, to the point of bashing Ed with a wrench when he breaks his arm and leg. - *Negima! Magister Negi Magi*: Satomi Hakase gradually becomes this to her best creation, Chachamaru. ||After Chachamaru is almost destroyed, when Hakase gets ready to repair/heal her, she treats her almost like a daughter and even comforts her on how she's done well.|| - Dr. Mimori Kiryu from *S cry ed*. Feeling compassion for how Kazuma is tortured, she lets him escape and later gets interested in the Inners, eventually forming a community with them. - To a minor degree, Julia Silverstein from *Blood+*. She takes care of Saya and uses her blood to make a Serum that can stop the effects of the Delta 67 agent. - "Mama" from the non-canon *Halo Legends* episode *Odd One Out*. She tells her kids to wash their hands and has enough intelligence to completely control a UNSC frigate, and turns out to be ||a rampant military-grade AI||. And one heck of a mama, indeed — if you dare mess with her kids, she'll **kick your ass** into a rift in space-time. ||Yes, literally.|| - Zigzagged in *.hack//SIGN*: Tsukasa finds a mother in the A.I. Morganna. Later he realizes she's not his real mother, but an Evil Matriarch. But then it turns out that ||she WAS designed to have a mother role for the Key of Twilight, but as she wasn't programmed with any role afterward, she just went mad and decided that the Key should NEVER awaken at all||. - Dr. Isaac Gilmore from *Cyborg 009* is the Team Dad of the Cyborg group. And in his case, he *has* to, since he used to be one of the Mad Scientists that cyborg-ized them in the first place, and witnessing the Moral Event Horizon crossing of his colleagues was what made him decide to join their crusade. - *Neon Genesis Evangelion*: Ritsuko, Naoko, and Yui are all initially presented as being examples of this trope. However, they don't stay that way and the darker side of what they were doing quickly comes to the fore. - A sweet yet sad example in *El Cazador de la Bruja,* with the Professor slowly becoming a father figure to Ellis ||before his death, as shown through flashbacks||. - It's heavily implied that Dr. Kamiya acts as a male version of this towards ||Shiro|| in *Afterschool Charisma*. - In *To Love Ru Darkness*, Tearju Lunatique is shown to be this to Yami during the time they still were together. - An important part of the alleged backstory to *Akumetsu*, where a female scientist involved in the evil genius' attempts to clone himself a perfect new body winds up bonding with the Perfect Copy. They fall in love, kill the guy, and burn everything, but he dies... leaving her with about a hundred infant clones. Somehow she gets them adopted all over Japan, all with the first name 'Shou', and keeps one to raise herself, dying before he turns 18 but training him to use all the tech she'd helped invent. Of course, we hear this via a Shou, and all of them are fundamentally Unreliable Narrators. - They are also Trope Overdosed; most of Akumetsu's shticks are pulled straight from Japanese TV, and the Shou telling the story is very conscious of this trope as he tells it. He also cheerfully casts doubt on its accuracy *himself*; they're all insane, after all. Doctor Shou appears to have been raised by the Motherly Scientist, though. - While she doesn't necessarily seem this way at first, Jennifer from *Amazing Agent Luna* and *Amazing Agent Jennifer* fits the trope. She was involved in the creation of Luna, and is normally very strict with her and never gives her a break, always pushing her to complete her missions and not get too involved with making friends or being an ordinary girl. But she has her reasons for appearing cold, and she is trying to do right by Luna and ||prevent the Agency from "terminating the experiment"||. As far as she's concerned, Luna is her daughter. - Dr. Angelika Einstürzen from *Dogs: Bullets & Carnage* *seems* to be this to the Cerebus spine children, ||some of whom might be her *actual* kids||. But then she makes them fight huge monstrosities to earn her fleeting love, and things start going downhill from there... - *Lyrical Nanoha*: - Averted for drama in the first season. ||Despite Fate being Precia's daughter in every sense of the word (having both been created by her and cloned from her actual daughter Alicia), Precia outright *refuses* to view her as anything more than a tool or failed experiment, and is both physically and emotionally abusive to the poor girl.|| - Jail Scaglietti from *StrikerS* is a villainous example that spills into Even Evil Has Loved Ones. Yes, he's a Mad Scientist who's planning on overthrowing the government and has no problem torturing children, but he genuinely views his twelve combat cyborgs as his daughters (||even the ones who have a HeelFace Turn||). - Granz Florian is another example, though this only applies in *The Gears of Destiny*, where his daughters are both robots that he accidentally granted sentience. In all other continuities, they're his biological children. - Flashbacks in *Detonation* showed that pretty much everyone on the Planet Restoration Committee considered the lead scientist Phil Maxwell to be Iris' father, and her primary motivation during the movie is getting revenge for his murder. ||This turns out to be a subversion when it's revealed that Maxwell was Evil All Along and never considered Iris his daughter, he just treated her as such because it would help her develop her potential as a Super Soldier faster.|| - Poison Ivy from Batman. Her "children", in this case, are the plants she takes care of. - Becomes more literal during the *No Man's Land* arc, where Gotham is leveled by an earthquake and subsequently cut off from the rest of the U.S. She takes over Robinson Park and unofficially adopts 16 orphans. - Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm adopts Hellboy after he was summoned into this world. - Dr. Sarah Kinney was this to X-23, being virtually the only staff member who treated her humanely. In her dying moments, she gave X-23 the name "Laura" and told her she loved her. Since she also carried her to term, this example is more literal than most. - In the *Flashpoint* universe, in which Superman was raised in a government facility, Sam Lane came to view young Kal-El as his son, and was the one who insisted that the other government workers refer to him as "he" rather than "it" and Kal instead of Subject 1. In the climax of the story, he outright refers to him as one of his children. - Inverted in *Superman*: The A.I. in the Fortress of Solitude contains the memories of Superman's biological father. - Aaron Stack the Machine Man was raised by Dr. Abel Stack, the only scientist in the X-Robot program who saw the robots as living, feeling beings. - Depending on the Writer (and on his meds), Dr. Will Magnus, creator of the Metal Men, is sometimes a fatherly scientist, but sometimes sees his creations as simple machines. - During *Green Lantern And Green Arrow*'s "socially relevant" phase in The '70s, they did a very weird story about overpopulation, set on a planet that had tried to overcome a population shortage by making Artificial Humans. The problem was that the person in charge of the project was an infertile woman obsessed with the fact that this was a way for her to produce life: so she *kept on* making artificial people, complete with Fake Memories so no one could know who was "real" and who Really Was Born Yesterday, and was flooding the world with them. When the heroes finally stop her, destroying a couple of less humanoid biological androids in the process, she suffers a complete Villainous Breakdown because she views all these beings as her children. - In *The Clockwork Girl* by Sean O'Reilly and Kevin Hanna, the titular creation isn't even given a name by her father. In contrast the bio-engineering scientist he fights with has named his monstrous boy, Huxley, lets him enter his own experiment in the town science fair (an adorable venus flytrap he took care of) and is a little overprotective of Huxley due to health issues and how people judge the boy. - *Neon Genesis Evangelion*: - Subverted with Ritsuko in *Advice and Trust*. She looks nice and caring at the beginning. However, she doesn't care for Rei, mistreats her and regards her as a doll and a tool at best, or a creepy abomination at worst. ||It gets played straight after Rei saves her during a suicide attempt.|| - *Children of an Elder God*: In contrast to her canon self, Ritsuko is a bit warmer, and she actually cares about the pilots. When some of them tell that they fear that theyll become monsters, she states that she will not let it happen. - Ritsuko is more of a Promoted to Parent Older Sister Scientist to Rei in *Doing It Right This Time* because she really *is* Rei's sister, thanks to Naoko (allegedly) pulling some sort of Baby Trap on Gendo and substituting her ova for Yui's. Naoko and Rei's relationship... was not an example, although it's strongly implied she wasn't exactly parent of the year when Rits was a kid either. - *EVA Sessions: Someplace Vast and Dry*: Yui created ten clones of herself using frozen samples of her own ovum and artificial sperm containing DNA from ||Lilith||, to test the viability of human-alien hybrids as prototypes for the larger Evangelion units. Gendo and Yui soon came to regard them as their ten little daughters, long after they were of no further scientific use. - *The Second Try* subverts this with Ritsuko. She treats the pilots coldly and regards Rei as something less than human, and she even tried to destroy Reis spare bodies. However, after Rei covers up for her when Gendo questioned her, Ritsuko started treating the children a bit better. - *Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide*: Subverted with Ritsuko, who initially seems nice, albeit cool and detached... but eventually reveals that she doesn't care at all about the pilots. She specifically loathes Rei. - *Last Child of Krypton*: Ritsuko becomes this after the battle against Zeruel. When she understood what Gendo was like, she stopped treating Rei like an inhuman thing. - Subverted in *Once More with Feeling*. To Misato's face, Ritsuko pretends to care about Rei. In reality, she loathes her. In turn, Shinji despises her for treating him and his fellow pilots with indifference and scorn. - *AQUA: The First Step*: Dr. Polendina was beloved by all of the children in the Jaeger Program, visiting them once a week and teaching them social skills. - Professor Juniper in *Dear Diary* is a Pokémon researcher who raises starter Pokémon for trainers but, unlike most starter suppliers, treats the Pokémon like her children and never sources them from the nightmarish breeding farms that most starters come from. Opal sees her as a mother figure. - *The First Saniwa*: Yaobikuni has medical knowledge and even decides to carry out a medical experiment at one point, while still retaining her canonical Yamato Nadeshiko personality. - *Persona Chaos Butterfly*: Shinshudo, aka Yuu Kimijima. She ||gave Aigis her trademark neck ribbon, and is openly disgusted by the inhumane treatment that Labrys suffered, taking her in and raising her as her daughter||. - *The Bridge*: As per the film source material, Dr. Azusa Gojo became quite paternal over the third Godzilla, a.k.a "Junior". Even decades later, Azusa outright refers to the kaiju as her son, and he mutually sees her as his mother. Because of this bond, Azusa is brought in to talk some sense into Junior after he suffers what could have otherwise been a Despair Event Horizon. - Cameron in *Total Drama Legacy*. Using a Uterine Replicator and the combined DNA of him and his husband Lightning, he created not one, but *two* children for him and Lightning to raise together. And he loves them both *immensely*. He's shown to be a very Doting Parent towards his daughter Storm, and seems to be very affectionate towards his son Thunder as well. - In events that take place decades before *Manehattan's Lone Guardian* begins, the scientist Juniper Leaf begins growing attached to a kidnapped foal that was brought in for drug testing. When the foal starts showing signs that the injected drug was tampering with her mind, Juniper's journal entries become more distraught. - After carving a body for *Pinocchio*, Gepetto brings him to life with the power of a wish and a good heart. - Isaac Asimov: - *Robot Series*: The robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin is notorious for being detached and unemotional. But in the short story "Lenny", she studies a robot whose brain has been accidentally programmed in a way which causes it to behave similarly to a human baby. She becomes very attached to Lenny under the pretext of studying his learning capabilities, and the end of the story reveals that she has taught him to call her "Mama". - "The Ugly Little Boy": Edith Fellowes was a pediatric nurse before applying for the job at Stasis, Incorporated. She was hired to take care of an experiment; taking a boy from forty thousand years in the past and bringing him to the present. After three years of caring for the boy, bathing him, dressing him, feeding him, helping him sleep, teaching him how to read/write English, naming him, Ms. Fellowes has grown to love Timmie. The boy, in turn, thinks of her as his mother. - In the *H.I.V.E. Series*, Professor Pike creates H.I.V.E.mind, an Artificial Intelligence that is intended to run the eponymous school. As he has no children of his own, the AI calls Pike his father and quickly develops a desire to be human. Any time Pike is asked to meddle with the source code, he cries. - In the *Replica* series of YA novels, Amy's mother was one of the scientists working on a project to create genetically-enhanced Super Soldiers, but after realizing the evils of the project, she rescued/kidnapped one of the clone babies and raised her as her own. - The golden age pulp robot *Adam Link* and his father are a perfect example of the Pinocchio Scenario. - In a variation on the Pinocchio Scenario, Douglas Preston's novel *Jennie* is about a chimpanzee raised like a human being. Almost everyone who gets to know her feels a deep parental love and desire to protect her. The ending is one of the most high-octane Tear Jerkers you will ever read. - Dr. Cay in the *Vorkosigan Saga* book *Falling Free* was a Fatherly Scientist to the genetically-engineered Quaddies. By the start of the novel, he's passed away, and Leo Graf has to take the mantle as a Fatherly Engineer. In stories set two centuries later, Leo is a folk hero to their descendants. - In *Unwise Child* by Randall Garrett, Dr. Leda Crannon, a child psychologist, is brought in to help develop an AI after the first two attempts failed. She treats 'Snookums' as her child but subverts the usual ending as she realizes he is very much a machine. - In Aldrea Alien's *The Rogue King*, Amelia not only carries the alien hybrid she makes but raises him as if he's her son. - *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*: Maggie Walsh, head scientist of the secret government demon-hunting project the "Initiative", is the evil version of this. She's called "Mother" by her cyber-demonoid creation Adam and considered soldier Riley Finn one of her children as well after enhancing him with drugs and conditioning. - Dr. Helen Magnus of *Sanctuary*. In addition to being an actual mother, she is fiercely protective of the abnormals in her sanctuary and will do anything to help/save them. On the other hand, she's not afraid to kick more than a little ass when necessary. - Dr. Coady on *Orphan Black* is a more malicious example of this. While ||the Project CASTOR clones|| see her as a mother figure, she has no problems mistreating them. - Joel Robinson on *Mystery Science Theater 3000*. As the creator of the bots, they often treated him like a father figure, and he returned the affection. - *Star Trek: The Next Generation*: Dr. Noonien Soong is the roboticist who created the androids Data and his brother Lore (in his image, by the way) and regards himself as a father to both of them. A later episode reveals that he had a wife, Juliana, who helped him in his experiments as well as considered herself Data's mother, pretty much forming a full nuclear family unit. - Inverted in *The Big Bang Theory*, with Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard's cold, robotic and unfeeling mother. She considered conceiving and raising a son to be a sort of long-term experiment in behavioral psychology. Sheldon Cooper views her as the dream mother he wishes he had been brought up by. Beverly feels a sort of affection for Sheldon that she signally fails to manifest for her own son. - The series *Small Wonder* revolves around this as inventor Ted Lawson builds a robot named Vicki, and he and the rest of the family take her in and raise her like a daughter. - In *Heroes*, Mohinder, who is some sort of physician/scientist, is hired to find a cure for the Company's "Walker System"... a little girl with the ability to find anyone. He doesn't want to enable them, but can't say no to helping the ill girl. And Molly and Mohinder end up bonding and he becomes her guardian for the rest of the series. (Even though she gets Put on a Bus to stay with his mother most of the time.) - Virstania, the self-styled Mother of Gargoyles in *Vampire: The Dark Ages — House Of Tremere.* Having turned to the creation of golems and other artificial forms of life as an alternative to forming friendships with her fellow mages, Virstania was exhibiting signs of this trope *long* before she became a vampire. However, it wasn't until she helped Goratrix to create the first gargoyles that she proved herself a Motherly Scientist, lavishing maternal attention on the newborn creations and encouraging them to adopt her as their mother — which they did. Unfortunately, Virstania proves herself a dark play on this trope, for though she genuinely loves her gargoyles, she goes to horrifying extremes to ensure that they love her back: among other things, she has no problem with subjecting Alvusia, the gargoyle Baby Factory, to an eternity of painful impregnation and birth, nor does she have any qualms about taking the newborn gargoyles away from Alvusia and forcibly indoctrinating them into believing that Virstania is their mother *and* goddess, ensuring Undying Loyalty from all of her "family". - Dr. Natalie Halmier in *Mutants & Masterminds*, a physicist for a Mega-Corp, who created Kid Robot of the Sentinals when she realized the AI she'd created to control one of her projects was self-aware and learned it wanted a humanoid body. She then had to protect him from the Mega-Corp, leading to a court appointing her his legal guardian. - Dr. Catherine Halsey of *Halo*, creator of the SPARTAN-II program, was much of a mother figure towards the Spartan children while at the same time administering the augmentations that killed or permanently disabled most of them. Worthy of note, however, is that her motherly treatment of them when not subjecting them to painful augmentations is believed to be a major contributor to the emotional stability of the Spartan-IIs compared to the Spartan-IIIs. She is rather disturbed when Cortana, an Artificial Intelligence who is based on Halsey's brain, admits that she finds John-117 (Master Chief) attractive. Halsey realizes that this means her feelings towards John aren't entirely maternal. - Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum from *BioShock* started off her work in Rapture as an Evilutionary Biologist doing it For Science! and began the Little Sisters initiative after she discovered that the ADAM slugs work most effectively when implanted into young girls. She felt tugs of maternal concern for them as she went along but repressed it as best she could, but one day, when one of them happily crawled into her lap, she pushed her off and screamed at her in fury, until she suddenly realized that it wasn't the girl that she hated. The breaking point came after the lab started creating Big Daddies, men unwillingly fused into metal suits to protect the Little Sisters as they collected ADAM from corpses scattered around the city. Seeing one of the girls reaching out to the "metal man" threw Tenenbaum back into a memory of herself as a little girl during the war; after her father had been taken away by the Nazis, one of the officers reached out to her to take her to work in the concentration camp, and she realized that the only way she would survive is if she "made friends with the metal man", which led her to cut off her emotions from then on and work with the scientists in the camp. Seeing another little girl tie herself to a "metal man" caused her to break down in tears and embrace the girl, apologizing — soon after, she took as many girls with her as she could to a hideout in an abandoned dorm to begin fixing what she had broken. - Similar to Tenenbaum, Phoenix Wyle from *Cytus II* became this for his initial test subject Shizuka "Nora" Shiino. Having performed human experiments on her and other infants to find the cure of the Ender Virus, she was the only one to survive. Phoenix then took her in and eventually warmed up to her despite being forced to have her used the physically-straining ability for the mafia's benefits. In the end, he sacrificed his life to send her away from being chased by said mafia, wishing her to have happy life and be able to make her own music. - Happens in the backstory of the blob-man character Zac in *League of Legends*. Originally, he was just a strange, living sludge, discovered in the depths of Wretched Hive Under City Zaun. It was collected and intended to be weaponized by one of the local Chem-Barons. Dubbed the **Z**aun **A**morphous **C**ombatant project, the intent was to craft a force of Super Soldiers, but a married couple of scientists working on the project realized the slime was alive, aware, possibly sentient and empathically resonant. They nicknamed the project Zac, and eventually ran away with Zac, who had begun to adopt a humanoid form, and raised him with the best upbringing they could. Eventually the Chem-Baron who funded the project found them, and Zac's scientist parents were killed in the chaos. - Ariel Hanson from *StarCraft II* — she researches to save the lives of the infected colonists. - Dr. Mizrahi from *Xenosaga* was MOMO's adoptive mother. Even Shion had her Motherly Scientist moments towards KOS-MOS, but that was quickly substituted by Homoerotic Subtext. - Dr. Light from the *Mega Man (Classic)* series, especially in the *Mega Man Megamix* manga, where he tries to be a Papa Wolf, even though there's not much an old man can do against powerful robots or the government except provide tech support. He's still doing that for *Mega Man X* a hundred years later, in the form of Infinity Plus One Armors. - Dr. Wily refers to Zero as his son in the ending of one of the crossover games, ||although his idea of a father-son activity would probably be killing Zero's best friend||. - Ciel in *Mega Man Zero* is motherly towards Alouette, ||perhaps out of guilt for what she did to her own creation, who ended up the Big Bad||. - In *Mega Man 4*, Dr. Cossack shows Papa Wolf tendencies towards his daughter, Kalinka. ||A chapter of the Megamix manga revolves around his belief that robots should also be regarded as part of people's families and his failure to be a father figure towards Skull Man.|| - The son of Dr. Light's Alternate Universe counterpart in the *Mega Man Battle Network* universe is this towards ||MegaMan.EXE, who in the game is one of his twin sons. To save his life, he turned him into a Navi||. Unfortunately, that project meant he didn't spend a lot of time with Lan. - From the same universe, Dr. Cossack seems to be a subversion: he was very kind to his creation, Bass.EXE, until suddenly deciding to have him destroyed when he grew too powerful. ||As it turns out, the scientists out to destroy Bass.EXE went so far as to stick Dr. Cossack in jail so he couldn't do anything to warn Bass.EXE or prevent it. Not that Bass.EXE believes this.|| - Dr. Gustav Brackman from *Supreme Commander* sees all Cybrans as his children. ||In the case of the Cybran player character, it turns out this is more literal since it's eventually revealed that he's Brackman's clone.|| - Lemon Browning of *Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2* generally treats her androids as tools, albeit valuable ones. But when Lamia starts to develop human emotions and betrays her to save the protagonists, she starts to act like a proud mother and even helps Lamia escape captivity. ||This is because Lemon is an android herself, and was rejected by her parents for not being a suitable replacement for their dead daughter.|| - *Fallout: New Vegas* has Dr. Whitley, the inventor of ED-E. Despite being an Enclave scientist, it was clear that Whitley cared deeply for his creations and protested heavily against having ED-E scrapped to make Power Armor. In the end, he sent ED-E to Navarro (unaware that it's been razed at this point) ||and was likely killed by the Lone Wanderer||. - In *Cut the Rope*, little Omnom winds up on a, to quote the game, "mad (but not evil) scientist's" doorstep. This scientist performs loving experiments with Omnom, all of which lead to little Omnom gaining the candy he loves ever so much. - Though she is generally an unstable, foul-mouthed, questionable, hard-shelled woman, Kokonoe from *Blazblue* treats Lambda as well as she can given the circumstances. Kokonoe checks in on her regularly, guides her on missions, makes sure she's alright and fixes her up often, and never shouts at or belittles her. This is partly out of the guilt of fixing her up and sending her out to fight in the first place. - Merveille in *Solatorobo* saved a "defective" product of her and Baion's experiments to create a life after she was ordered to destroy it. ||That would be Red, the protagonist of the game, and in the DLCs she seems to be trying to get him together with Elh.|| - In *Diaper Dash* Wilson worked for a company that made high-tech, low-human-involvement gadgets for use on infants. When he tried to cuddle a baby that was about to cry during a "sleep ray" test his boss threatened to fire him, so he quit and started a daycare center. - ||Meyneth|| from *Xenoblade Chronicles 1* can be considered this, given that ||she *was* a scientist before Zanza created a new universe, turning both of them into gods||. - Based on what little we see and hear about him, Professor Gerald from *Sonic the Hedgehog* was like this towards Shadow. To the point of addressing him as "my son" in a prerecorded message. At least that's how he was at first, before his granddaughter was killed. - *Metroid: Other M* features ||Dr. Madeline Bergman, director of the Bottle Ship's secret bioweapons program. To control the Metroids that they had been breeding, her team decided to create an AI based on Mother Brain. They placed the AI, dubbed "MB", in a gynoid body under the belief that it would foster a maternal bond with the Metroids, which seemed less risky than a dominance-based relationship. Naturally, the scientists started anthropomorphizing their creation, to the point where Madeline treated her as a daughter and named her Melissa. However, unlike most examples of this trope, Madeline's maternal feelings weren't strong enough to persuade her to stand up for MB when things went pear-shaped; faced with MB developing emotions, the scientists opted to alter her programming rather than risk her jeopardizing the missions, and Madeline stood on the sidelines rather than intervene. MB did *not* take this well, and what had been fairly minor rebellion up until that point became genocidal rage.|| - *Warframe* features Margulis, ||an Orokin Archimedean who served as a surrogate mother to the Tenno following the Zariman Ten-Zero incident. While the rest of the Orokin wanted to kill the Tenno for fear of their power, Margulis argued to spare them, and eventually developed the Transference process and Warframes to allow the Tenno to channel their power safely. Tragically, while the Orokin did decide to spare the Tenno, Margulis herself wasn't so lucky; in what is heavily implied to be retaliation for her defense of the Tenno, she was executed as a criminal, which likely contributed to the later rebellion by the Tenno that would destroy the Orokin Empire once and for all.|| - Winston Smith of *The Secret World*. One of two Orochi scientists assigned to monitor Emma Smith, the duo were also told to act as Emma's parents as a cover; however, unlike his "wife" Julia, Winston treats Emma with dignity and affection despite all the warnings he's been given about her. Also, Emma herself confirms that Winston isn't just doing this because it's his job: he genuinely cares about her. - Shows up twice in the *Utawarerumono*. ||First is Mizushima from the first game where he is shown as something of a father figure to the subjects under his care, even going so far as to release all of them in an attempt to lighten his guilt of all the unethical stuff he has done in the name of science. Second is Mito from the sequel duology who despite having grown jaded over the years, is shown to care deeply for his own creations, especially Anju, Honoka and Woshis despite the artificial means by which they were born||. - Dr. Cortex was revealed to have been this at one point in the flashback tapes of *Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time*. As he began training Crash to lead his mutant army, he found himself becoming more affectionate towards Crash. Cortex would confide in him, give him his old pants and celebrate his birthday. Cortex himself even describes his feelings as "fatherly" and his planned full name for Crash - Crashworth Cortex the First - suggest he would've genuinely adopted Crash as his son. After the Cortex Vortex's malfunction and Crash's escape, Cortex dropped the notion entirely, leaving Coco's development up to N. Gin and reacting to her own escape along the lines of "Darn, not again". - Zigzagged in *Double Homework*. Dr. Mosely does offer emotional support at times, especially to the protagonist, but there is never any denying her bluntness, and eventually, ||the class discovers her bizarre ulterior motive||. - Metis Cykes and Aura Blackquill in *Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies* were a psychologist/roboticist pair specializing in AI. Their creations, Clonco and Ponco, called them Mama Aura and Mama Metis until Metis was murdered and Aura retreated into a shell of bitterness - Pietro Polendina from *RWBY* is a skilled roboticist who created P.E.N.N.Y., a breakthrough in cybernetic research due to the robot's ability to generate an Aura. While she's military R&D, Penny has been given the chance to develop a human persona and her relationship to her creator is that of father and daughter. When Pietro meets Team RWBY, he extends his fatherly attitude towards them, talking about how often his daughter has spoken of them, confiding in them his concerns about Ironwood despite having only just met them and worrying about them when they're captured by Ace-Ops. - Parodied in the *xkcd* strip "Network": Somehow the computer guy's virtualized viruses invoke some kind of Cuteness Proximity towards him. "Who's a good virus? You are! Yes, you are!" - Dr. Lee in *Skin Horse* would be this trope if not for certain conditions; she does care about her creations, but those creations are made out of kidnapped human beings. - Dr. Sciuridae from *El Goonish Shive* is a rare fatherly scientist. Not only does he treat the subjects of the lab where he works much better than his colleagues, but he also eventually takes advantage of an opportunity to free them, and helps them adjust to normal society. Bonus Points for making a Replacement Goldfish ||of his dead daughter|| in the process. - Jean's relationship with Molly in *The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!* is the Pinocchio Scenario. Slight variation in that Bob was the one who raised her from infancy since Jean didn't realize her experiment had produced her until Molly was already grown, but Jean is now completely devoted to raising her right. - She's tried to develop a similar rapport with Molly's clone "sisters," Golly and Jolly, but they had each grown and established their own lives before Jean even met them. - Molly considers her robot Roofus her son, and he calls her Mom. - Golly considers both Jolly (it's complicated) and Gosh her children, which they acknowledge, but she has a poor relationship with both of them. - Dr. John Bowman of *Freefall* has produced Uplifted Animals as a "proof of concept". To prevent them from being scrapped, he arranged for their release in public. Although since he's recluse who is described as a jerkass by the few people who have met him, Florence hasn't quite ruled out the possibility that he believed his experiments would be dangerous, and just released them because he thought it would be funny. - Tabitha in *Far Out There* definitely qualifies. Her crowning achievements are a pair of super-powered zombie children, of whom she is extremely protective. - Lindesfarne of *Kevin & Kell* experimented on some mice (who, in this fictional universe, are as sapient as she is) for a school project. Kevin at one point expresses concern that she might get overly attached to them, and this is proven correct when she cancels the experiment and does an alternate project, keeping the mice around in her room and often having conversations with them. - *Follower*: Dr. Calway appears to treat the second generation Chio as her own children. - *A Miracle of Science*: Despite being a stern taskmaster and occasionally short-tempered, Dr Virgil Haas cares for and respects his robotic minions Dryden and Chaucer. The feeling is mutual, which plays an important role in the denouement. - The only slightly Mad Scientist who turned Jack into the titular Super Soldier with serious Shock and Awe in *Crankrats* did implant steampunk contraptions in a six-year-old's chest, but other than that he treated Jack like a son. - Dian Fossey from *Gorillas in the Mist*: First she goes to Africa to study the gorillas, and then fights to protect them (bonus points for being a real person). - Same with Jane Goodall. - Koko, the signing gorilla, seems to think of Francine "Penny" Paterson, the researcher who taught her most of the sign-language and seems to have raised her, like her mother. Penny seems to see Koko as her child as well. - Christina Maslach, who brought about the early end of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment by objecting to the subjects' suffering as she was preparing to help with the experiment as a graduate student. Philip Zimbardo, who ran the experiment, noted that she was the only person out of more than fifty people who had observed the experiment to question its morality.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentlyScientist

Parental Fashion Veto - TV Tropes *"Don't step out of this house if that's the clothes you're gonna wear!"* *No child of mine is Describing Parental Fashion Veto Here in a shirt like that!* A kid, often a Bratty Teenage Daughter, wants to go out with her friends, out on a date, or out to a party, but the way she's dressed does not please her guardians, usually a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad and/or an old-fashioned mom. This may be due to the outfit being overly sexy, or the parent may simply disapprove of the style. In The '90s and early 2000s, bare midriffs was a common cause for this, the style being a visual shorthand for "rebellious teenage girl". This may also extend to makeup and hair. What happens can vary. Often the kid will obey but in a huge huff. Other times a fight will break out, and might even cause enough bitter feelings to make the Conflict for the episode. Sometimes the kid will try to outsmart the parent by smuggling the offending outfit out of the house, either hidden under clothes they know will meet with parental approval or carried in a bag. The kid then changes clothes once they are safely away from their parents' disapproving gaze. However, this is likely to end with the kid suffering a mishap which results in the parent finding out they wore the forbidden clothes. Compare Age-Inappropriate Dress, I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable, Underdressed for the Occasion. This trope is central to the "parents won't allow pierced ears" version of the Ear-Piercing Plot. Contrast No Dress Code, which implies a distinct lack of parental fashion veto. # Examples: - *Pokémon Adventures*: Taken to abusive extremes by Lillie's mother Lusamine, who forced her daughter to dress how *she* wanted and would often mock her appearance. This emotional abuse is extreme enough that Lillie developed PTSD-like symptoms and gets triggered when her appearance is complimented. - *Archie Comics*: There are several pages of Betty and Veronica (often Veronica with a dash of Ms. Red Ink) wearing clothing that their fathers object to them wearing due to making their daughters look like the Ms. Fanservice types they are. - *The Boys*: During *The Name of the Game*, Butcher has a meeting with Mother's Milk. MM objects strongly to the outfit his daughter's wearing. She ignores him and Butcher chews her out over disrespecting her father, terrifying the two 'gangstas' she was hanging out with in the process. Note that this is somewhat more justified in that his daughter ||looks to be almost 20 but is actually *12*|| due to the Compound V in her body. - *Doom Patrol*: A flashback in the tenth issue of John Byrne's run as Nudge's father scold his daughter for attempting to go out wearing fishnets. - *MAD*: One strip had a father passive-aggressively berating his teenage daughter for wearing a tube top. **Daughter**: Is it okay if I wear this to school? **Father**: Sure, if you want to look like a tart! **Daughter**: What's a tart? **Father**: A tramp, like your mother. A loose woman who flaunts her goodies for every plumber and pool boy who comes around! **Daughter**: So, is that a yes? **Father**: Sure, it's a free country. - *Calvin and Hobbes*: Several strips involve Calvin's mom disagreeing with Calvin's style choices: - In one strip, Calvin's clothes gain sentience and force themselves on him, leading to him trying to leave in the horribly mismatched outfit. Calvin's mom says "You're wearing that?" and is implied to make him change. - Another strip involves Calvin trying on Triangle Shades, only for his mom to refuse to buy them. - In one strip, Calvin decides to invert his pants and shirt when headed to school, but his mom has none of it. - *The Far Side*: - In one cartoon, a fly leaves for a date, with her father telling her to remove some of that makeup and the gallon of pheromones. - Another strip has a calf wearing a leather jacket - his parents tell their guests just to ignore him, as he's just going for the shock value. - *Stone Soup*: While it's not unusual for Holly to favor pieces that are both high-priced *and* slutty, in one strip she managed to outdo even herself in such a way that her mother Val finally laid down the law: **"NO DAUGHTER OF MINE IS GOING OUT LOOKING LIKE THAT!!!"** - Some DeviantArt pictures spoof this by having Darth Vader from *Star Wars* get upset at Leia's bikini: - *The Black Sheep Dog Series*: Walburga Black is *outraged* to see her eldest son dressing as a Muggle — worse, a *penniless* Muggle. She throws his entire wardrobe out to replace them with "proper" — read aristocratic — clothes, to Sirius' big displeasure. - The first chapter of *A Day in the Life* sees Professor Utonium veto a bright pink bikini that Blossom wants to wear, with Buttercup offering snarky commentary and Bubbles trying to find a middle ground between the two. During the ensuing argument, he accidentally reveals that she's actually the youngest of the three Powerpuff Girls, much to her and her sisters' shock. - *Superman/Batman: Apocalypse*: While he's her cousin rather than her actual dad, Clark Kent takes on this role when Kara Zor-El arrives on Earth. When they go shopping together, she tries on a very revealing outfit which he quickly disapproves of. She decides it's perfect. - In *Turning Red*, this is played with. Ming says "Youre not going out like that, are you?" but what she's referring to is not Mei's clothes but her Little Bit Beastly appearance. - *Apollo 13*: The Lovells' teenaged daughter wants to go trick or treating dressed like a hippie despite her mother's disapproval. She tries to appeal to her dad instead which doesn't work. **Barbara:** Dad, can I wear this? **Jim:** *(mild glance)* Yeah, sure. **Marilyn:** Jim... **Jim:** No! No, absolutely not! **Barbara:** *(walking away, groaning)* This stinks! - *Bridget Jones' Diary* has a scene where Bridget shows the modern and urban outfit she'll wear to meet Mark Darcy, her eccentric and critical mother pronounces it inadequate for obtaining a man and makes her wear a brocade skirt and vest ensemble with a red pussy bow blouse (not impressive), later (in the original script) Bridget opts to wear a sexy and black dress to the consternation of her mother. - *The Cheerleaders* (1974 softcore comedy film): Jeanne, a new cheerleader, is going to a party dressed in a very tight shirt and shorts she wore when she was 10 years old. Her father doesn't let her go. Her new cheerleader friends explain that you have to sneak out in more conservative garb and then change. - *Clueless*: Cher is about to head to a party (on a date with Christian) when Josh asks her dad if he's going to let her go out in what she's wearing, a white mini-dress. Cher's father asks her if that's what they're calling dresses these days, tells her it looks more like underwear, and makes her put something on on top. She puts on a transparent wrap. - *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* (bowdlerization taken from its 20th Anniversary Edition): "You're not going out dressed like that! You look like a hippie!" - *A Kid Like Jake* is about a four-year-old boy who likes wearing skirts and other girl's clothes. His parents allow him to dress up at home or at school, but they don't allow him to wear what he wants in the streets. Jake has a fit when his parents won't let him dress up as Rapunzel from *Tangled* for Halloween. At the end of the film, ||his parents finally allow Jake to wear skirts outdoors||. - *The Snapper*: The second-eldest daughter Lisa, who's presumed to be 13 or 14, wears a Madonna-like short skirt and jewelry and leather boots much to the patriarch's dismay. - *The Spy Next Door*: Farren wants to go out wearing clothes that are wholly inappropriate for a 13-year-old. In one scene, Gillian has to make her change twice. In another, Bob vetoes Farren's outfit over the newly-installed intercom. - *1-800-Where-R-U*: Jess's mother *tries* to enforce this in the first book when Jess wants to go to school in a pair of jeans that expose her knees (she'd originally planned to wear a top that would expose the upper part of her chest, but decided against it since she's acquired a star-shaped scar right there and doesn't want anyone seeing it), calling them "slut jeans". Her father, on the other hand, sees nothing wrong with them and lets her go out without any issue. - *The Berenstain Bears*: In the Big Chapter Book *And the Dress Code*, Sister Bear starts wearing "rad clothes" (in her case, jeans with holes in the knees), the new spring fashions, but only at school (she stops at Babs Bruno's house and changes into and out of them on the way to and from school) because Papa, who doesn't approve of them, wouldn't allow her to do so otherwise. - *Colin Fischer*: In seventh grade, Melissa Greer used to show up for school in dark trousers or long skirts, go into the girls' room, and come out in ripped jeans or a miniskirt. - *Love Anthony*: Thirteen-year-old Sophie tries to wear makeup to the family photo session, but Beth wipes it off before they leave the house. - *Can You See Me?*: In *Ways to Be Me*, Tally persuades Mum to buy her a crop top if she promises not to wear it in public. In fact, she wants to wear it to a laser tag party because her friends will all be wearing similar tops, but Mum makes her wear a T-shirt instead. When she arrives, she sees that Layla's mum also made her wear a T-shirt. - In *Orange Clouds, Blue Sky*, Skye wears a short denim skirt that she has to secretly change into at a Burger King. She regrets it when Starr hits her at a bookstore, causing her to fall into a bookshelf and her skirt to ride up. Later, she gets chewed out by both her parents for wearing it. - In *Carpe Jugulum* Countess Magpyr feels this way about the younger "reverse-Goth" vampires, commenting that Lady Strigouli should be making "Wendy" (Hieroglyphica) wear more eyeshadow. - "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" by Beastie Boys: "Don't step out of this house if that's the clothes you're gonna wear". - *Alter Ego (1986)*: It is possible to object to an especially stupid fashion involving scotch tape worn by your children. - *Mother 3*: At the beginning, Hinawa orders Lucas to change into his clothes before going outside to play with his brother. - *Pokémon Sun and Moon* and *Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon*: Played for Drama. Eleven-year-old Lillie has always been forced to dress how her mother wants. A part of her Character Development is escaping her mother's abusive grip and beginning to dress how she pleases (which Lillie dubs her "z-powered" form). - *My Two First Loves*: On the first day of school, the protagonist plans to wear an off-the-shoulder crop top and a tight miniskirt. Her dad makes her change, but she can sneak it out as a diamond option.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalOutfitVeto

Parents as People - TV Tropes "I hate it when they look at me that way." *"We're all flawed people, Emily. Being a parent doesn't change any of that."* Unlike the all-powerful but undercharacterised Parent ex Machina, the reader/viewer knows about The Protagonist's parents. They have friends outside the home, hobbies that take them out of the house, and full-time jobs. The audience will also be able to discern what kind of relationship the two have as a couple whether they're still as starry-eyed over each other as they were when they started dating, or making each other miserable and on the brink of divorce. In any event, they will have their own quirks, character strengths, and character failings. They'll also be hopeless as parents. Or, if they're Good Parents and they may be! sometimes still their lives and personalities will get in the way and cause some level of woe to their offspring. This couple are not usually nasty or, if they are, we'll be told all about their Freudian Excuse. They're probably at least sympathetic, if not downright likable. We'd probably like to have them as friends but definitely wouldn't want them as parents. One way to tell which you're dealing with is to see the actions the story takes to humanize the parent. If the parent is actively evil like a Wicked Stepmother or Evil Matriarch, then that is not this trope. Instead of villainous behavior; the parent will be neglectful, demanding, or ignorant of the damage they are causing, but the story shows that they're doing this unknowingly. Said parent(s) may display a lack of awareness while partaking in activities or backstory that explain their behavior. They may not even be treated as a bad parent by others, but the story makes sure to frame their behavior as selfish or, at the very least, neglectful. Exactly how this is intended to be taken depends on the work. In some versions, the parent may be treated more comedically and may have little active participation in the plot, while more dramatic examples may make this conflict the entire point of the story. Be aware that such a character can still be an Antagonist without being an outright Villain. If you're a protagonist, and your parents are given lots of witty one-liners, lots of characterisation and inhabit the Competence Zone to some degree, expect to suffer Parental Abandonment as they pursue their hobbies and relationships at your expense. If mom and dad are still together, you'll be a living example of the phrase "the children of lovers are orphans," as the parental units will be too wrapped up in each other to spend much time with you. On the other hand, if they're fighting constantly, they'll be too busy yelling at each other to notice that you haven't eaten in three days. One particular type of this parent is one, usually-single parent that is firmly in the Competence Zone, and probably a part of their child's zany schemes. Their friends will think these parents are "cool" and they will probably agree he just wishes his dad would occasionally show up to parents' night, and that mom remembered to cook dinner every so often. The "golfing dad" is an old trope, and if dad's the only absent parent the child probably won't suffer too badly (until the plot calls for it). However, if *mom* has a hobby that takes her out of the house, works at a demanding job, or has a problem that makes her borderline unfit as a parent, parental neglect will almost certainly be a plot point. How it's approached varies from show to show, from the mother realising she'd go mad without her career, to an enormous guilt trip about abandoning her child. If this happens in a family of sufficiently high social standing, particularly in a medieval setting (being a king requires a lot of work, you know), there is a chance that the protagonist and/or one or more of his siblings may become Royally Screwed Up as a result. Unlike Parent ex Machina, these parents aren't infallible, and they can't solve all of their kids' problems because they can barely handle their own. Their son or daughter can't blithely assume that "dad will take care of it," because he won't. Or he can't. Or he'll try to and fail spectacularly. To compensate, there's usually an alternative mentor who fills in for the absent or ineffective parent. If not, the child will be an adult long before his time as being the Only Sane Man in a crazy family will force them to take care of themselves. If they're the oldest sibling, they'll probably *be* the "alternative parent." Again, Good Parents sometimes also fit into this category. A good parent in a bad situation may be forced to neglect or leave their beloved child, may get caught up in Anger Born of Worry, or might just be so embarrassing that it impacts the kid's social life. Someone who believes in Honor Thy Parent may point out that parents still deserve respect despite their failings; how much the child agrees with that is up to them. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples: - Batman does truly love all of his children but since hes an emotionally constipated Control Freak, he has trouble opening up to them. His only biological child Damian was introduced in *Batman (Grant Morrison)*, only for Bruce to die in the pages of *Final Crisis* before they really got to be close. Dick Grayson became Batman in the interim and got promoted to being Damians dad and mentor. Dick being more of a Nice Guy, gets Damian to calm down and respect him much easier than Bruce ever did. By the time Bruce came back as Batman, he and Damian still clashed like crazy. Damian even lived with Dick for a little bit afterwards. The 2011 * Batman and Robin* series deals with them getting to know each other as both father and son and Batman and Robin. It takes them both a lot of time and work but they got there by the end of the series at issue #40. - In the Blue Devil comics, Kid Devil aka Eddie Bloomberg's parents were this to him, with his aunt Marla Bloom being the alternative parent and Blue Devil being a kind of surrogate uncle. His parents' neglect ended up having some effects on Eddie later in life when he joined the Teen Titans, making him very desperate to have a family. - Deadpool has a daughter who lives with foster parents. It's probably for the best since he's been shown to be pretty neglectful and is an objectively terrible role model. However, he's also a Papa Wolf who dotes on her when he gets to see her and does sincerely try to be a good father. - In *Eight Billion Genies*, Ed clearly loves his son Robbie dearly but is reeling over the loss of his wife June and drinks himself into a stupor while sitting at the bar. It isn't long before Ed spends his wish to bring June back, knowing full well that he won't be able to give Robbie the upbringing he needs without her. - General Ross has been presented chiefly as this sort of parent since the mid-80s in *Hulk* comics (as he is in the films, below). He loves Betty, but he's not equipped to get emotionally close to her, particularly not since the death of his wife, and his obsessions have often gotten between them. He's trying to reconnect with her these days, but it's not proving easy. - It's shown to be generational, as Ross's own father was a career officer who was rarely around. - The *Knights of the Old Republic* comic plays this for as much drama as it can. Krynda Draay, mother of the Big Bad, was a Jedi seer who lived through the Great Sith War and lost her husband in the process. As a seer, she blamed herself for failing to predict and prevent the war, which caused her to dedicate her life to training new seers afterward so that such a war could never come to pass again. This led to her neglecting her own son Lucien since he had no talent for Force Sight. Lucien thus grew up desperate for his mother's approval, leading to him slaughtering his own students when he believed it was what Krynda would have wanted. - Recent interpretation of Lois Lane's father Sam to be in this light. He's a high-ranking military officer, which frequently clashes with his daughter's career as a famous journalist who exposes corruption and dirty deeds of the government. He has hesitation about Superman - the man his daughter supports and is in love with. - Lois herself is portrayed as this after she gave birth to Jon. She is loving and wants the best for him, but she still doesn't really know what to do with a child with superpowers on top of balancing her love for her career. In fact, she sometimes gets herself into trouble that Jon has to use his superpower to help her. - *Maus*: Vladek is an obnoxiously stingy and controlling parent who works Art's last nerves on more than one occasion. But to be fair, Vladek's life was not easy: he lost his family (including his firstborn son) in the Holocaust and lost his wife to suicide. Art eventually accepts his father as an imperfect being. - *PS238*: Atlas is what you'd expect classic Superman to be as a father: Somewhat bumbling, well-intentioned and eager to show his superpowered son how to take part in the 'family business', but also chronically busy saving the world and somewhat uncomprehending of the fact that his son, Ron, is a slight Shrinking Violet who'd prefer to become a musician. Then ||he has to leave Ron behind to try and reform his still-existent, Evil Empire of a home world||. - *Baby Blues* is a comic strip all about parenting, and it's not afraid to showcase the Warts and All aspect of the subject. As a result, while Darryl and Wanda always try to be Good Parents to Zoe, Hammie, and Wren, they are definitely *not* perfect. They're both capable of making mistakes, and even when they do have a handle on parenting, their life as a family is always going to be a little crazy...and they wouldn't have it any other way. - *Calvin and Hobbes*: - Dad often remarks that he would've preferred to just get a dog. Mom generally keeps her game face on, but even she has her limits. In some fairness, Calvin *is* a Bratty Half-Pint who would definitely be a handful for most parents in general (while a lot of Alternative Character Interpretation theories abound that Calvin may have ADHD or be somewhere on the Autism Spectrum, two disorders that were way less known back in the strip's running days in the late '80s/early '90s), and even Bill Watterson did later express some regret at the way he depicted them (even though he's also remarked they're doing a lot better than he would've). Of course, a good deal of strips show that they *do* love Calvin at the end of the day; he's just hard to deal with at times. In short, they're ordinary people, and Calvin is extraordinary. - During the story arc where their house was broken into by burglars while they were away, several strips are devoted to Calvin's parents being shown as afraid and vulnerable. Calvin's dad discusses to his wife that he always believed parents were infallible and always knew what to do as a kid, but now a parent himself, he was a bit disappointed to discover the whole thing was improvised. - Barbie movies: - In *Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus*, Princess Annika's parents are overprotective, but it's revealed that this is largely because ||an evil sorcerer previously cursed their eldest daughter to be a pegasus when she was around the same age as Annika after she rejected his marriage proposal, and they haven't seen her since||. Her parents are terrified that the same might happen to Annika. - King Randolph in *Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses* loves his twelve daughters unconditionally, calling them the "best part of [his] life", but he's often overwhelmed by their antics and energy, and believes they need a maternal presence to guide them in the absence of their late mother, Queen Isabella. Unfortunately, his choice for said maternal guardian is his treacherous cousin Rowena. - Cartoon Saloon: - Abbot Cellach from *The Secret of Kells* is technically Brendan's uncle, but he's still the closest thing to a father figure Brendan has. While he can be very strict and harsh towards his nephew to the point of locking him in his room to punish him, he still cares for Brendan, making sure to send him breakfast and ||being devastated when he thinks Brendan was killed in a Viking attack||. - Conor from *Song of the Sea* does genuinely love both his children, but his grief over his wife's disappearance makes him emotionally unavailable a lot of the time, and his doting on Saoirse makes Ben feel like The Unfavorite. He eventually feels his inadequacies as a parent to the point that he lets his mother take his children away to live with her in the city. - Bill Goodfellowe from *Wolfwalkers* clearly loves his daughter Robyn, but he still insists on her staying in town and going to work in the scullery despite how much she hates doing both and would rather go hunting with him. This is driven by his desire to keep her safe like he promised his wife, and also because he's scared of losing her if either of them disobeys the Lord Protector. - Flint's father Tim in *Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs* does care for Flint and is proud of him but simply has a hard time expressing it properly to Flint, ending up seemingly callous and uncaring to Flint's career choices and successes. Meanwhile, Flint desperately wants his father to acknowledge him and is frustrated when his father doesn't say so. - Coraline's parents are too busy trying to move into a new house and meet a publishing deadline to cater to their bored daughter—as her mother points out, she is old enough to entertain herself. What she finds when she goes exploring is more than enough to make her appreciate her lovingly boring parents. The book has a similar vibe, but Coraline's mother is harsh and unsympathetic, while her father is loving but too distracted to pay much attention. - Disney Animated Canon: - In *Frozen*, the King and Queen meant well but understandably did not know how to handle a daughter with vast magical powers and an anxiety disorder. Their attempts to keep her isolated from everyone and telling Elsa to "conceal, not feel" prevented disaster in the short-term but they also strained the once close bond between their children and left them both with issues. Worse, the psychological toll this had on Elsa ensured that when she did eventually lose control she would lose it to such a degree that the entire kingdom was threatened. ||The sequel reveals that they were killed trying to find someone who could help them understand Elsa's powers.|| - Judy's parents in *Zootopia* have a loving, supportive relationship with their daughter, but they wish she would choose a safer career. They mean well but they do acknowledge and advise to a young Judy that it's near impossible for her to be a police officer and try to attempt to convince her to "settle" and be a carrot farmer instead. While they're honestly relieved that Judy is only a meter maid, Judy, who had higher aspirations, is not happy to hear their reactions. - *Moana*'s father Chief Tui loves her very much and wholeheartedly believes that she'll be capable of leading the people of Motunui when she becomes the next Chief. However, because of his Dark and Troubled Past where ||his best friend drowned in a storm when the two of them recklessly stole a fishing boat and sailed beyond the reef as teens||, he actively discourages Moana from her desires to wayfind despite being fully aware of her fascination for it because he fears that his only child might suffer the same fate if she tries it. - In *Encanto,* Abuela Alma has a demanding attitude toward her children and grandkids. ||Mirabel calls her out for turning them all into Stepford Smilers and driving Bruno away, but this has severe consequences. Ultimately, Mirabel realizes that Alma, who founded Encanto as a widowed refugee, was motivated by fear of losing everything again, while Alma admits to losing sight of the fact that the family, rather than their magic, is the real "miracle" in her life||. - Dreamworks Animation: - King Harold in *Shrek 2* clearly loves his daughter Fiona very much, but he also has his own views of what a happily ever after for a princess should be. Not only that, he has a secret Deal with the Devil that involved his daughter entering an Arranged Marriage with the son of the Fairy Godmother and breaking this pact has serious consequences. He does eventually have a HeelFace Turn when he sees how unhappy Fiona is without Shrek as well as seeing just how low the Fairy Godmother and Charming were willing to stoop, realizing he was wrong to impose upon her free will and that being with Shrek is what truly makes Fiona happy. - *Kung Fu Panda*: - Shifu loved and spoiled his adopted son Tai Lung, having been convinced Tai Lung would be the Dragon Warrior and unfortunately neglected to teach him humility and the spiritual side of kung-fu. So when Oogway denied Tai Lung the dragon scroll and Shifu did not step in to defend or comfort him, Tai Lung took Shifu's silence as a withdrawal of unconditional love and that he needed to become the Dragon Warrior to be worthy of Shifu's love at any cost. - Even when Shifu adopted Tigress, he acted far more coldly and aloofly towards her, in an attempt not to repeat the same mistake as he had with Tai Lung. However, this made him often criticize Tigress, along with his other pupils, far more harshly if they did not meet his incredibly high standards. - Mr. Ping is usually a Good Parent to his adopted son Po and is very supportive of him. However, in the third film, he displays signs of jealousy and fear that Po's biological father Li Shan might try to steal Po away from him. - Li Shan is naturally afraid for Po when he sees Po fighting, having been reunited with his long-lost son after twenty years and doesn't want to lose him again. This causes him to ||lie to Po about teaching him to master chi and bringing him to the panda village to hide him from Kai|| in a futile attempt to protect him. This actually sours his relationship with Po until Mr. Ping helps him through it. - Rick in *The Mitchells vs. the Machines* wants to connect with his daughter. Unfortunately, he doesn't understand technology at all, whereas Katie's passion lies in filmmaking. The split between them is not either's fault, and it's simply a matter of having completely different interests. - Pixar: - Bob and Helen in *The Incredibles* love their kids and normally are doting parents to them, but that doesn't stop Bob's desire to return to superheroics from causing issues. In the sequel, Bob's attempt at being a House Husband doesn't work out very well and he ends up making Violet's problems worse, but he's genuinely trying to help them. He even admits to Violet that he thinks he's being a bad father. - *Brave*: Queen Elinor is very dedicated to her role as queen, running the kingdom of Scotland and following tradition to a fault to ever notice that Merida feels trapped in such a rigid environment that doesn't allow her to do her own choices. Due to this clash of ideas, the two fight and lead to the main plot of the movie. - Riley's parents from *Inside Out* are somewhere between here and straight-up Good Parents. It's shown that they're *usually* the latter — being affectionate, attentive, and compassionate caregivers — but they're not perfect. The bumpy move to San Francisco at the start of the movie (combined with Dad's stressful new job) has them distracted and stressed, and they make a couple major missteps. Most notably, Mom thanks Riley for being so understanding and cheerful in the face of the move, acknowledging that it's difficult for everyone... but then says that if they can just try and stay positive for Dad, it'd be a huge help to him. She obviously didn't mean to, but this encourages Riley to not only mask her sadness but try not to feel it *at all*, which leads to her making some pretty bad choices. ||Fortunately, when Riley breaks down sobbing towards the end of the movie and admits she just *can't* pretend to be happy right now, her parents immediately realize their mistake and comfort her.|| - Explored in *Coco* where the story shows that parents and adults are like any other human being and can make mistakes, all while their ultimate goal is to support and protect their family. - When Miguel's grandmother Elena isn't doting on him, she harshly lectures him for having any love of music, not out of malice but because she is afraid that Miguel would lose sight of his family and abandon them as his great-great-grandfather had. - Miguel's father also continues the Riveras' generation-long stance against music and wishes his son would follow in their footsteps. When Elena destroys Miguel's guitar, he looks horrified but can't bring himself to stop his mother, leading to Miguel running away. - Imelda has nothing but fierce love for her family but her stubbornness and refusal to let go of grudges cause problems for Miguel, especially when she tries to force him to give up music for good in exchange for getting her blessing to return to the land of the living. - ||As it turns out, Hector did not mean to abandon his family; he left to be a musician to make money for them and loved his daughter with all his heart. Unfortunately, his partner did not take him wanting to go home lightly.|| - *Turning Red* has a major focus on the parental relationship of Mei Lee and Ming Lee. Ming tries to be a perfect parent while Mei tries to be the perfect daughter. It doesn't take long, however, for it to become apparent that Ming is a helicopter parent who doesn't listen to Mei and assumes she knows best at all times. This is then further explained when it becomes apparent that Ming has unresolved issues with her own mother. ||During the climax of the film, Mei finds a teenage Ming in the astral plane and sees her emotionally break down. Mei, for the first time, sees that her mother's behavior is due to the fact that her grandmother expected the same of Ming, and after a serious argument that resulted in injury to her own mom, Ming has never forgiven herself for being imperfect.|| - *Sing*: - Meena's family is shown to be loving and supportive of her but their attempts to encourage and push her to pursue a singing career have the unfortunate effect of putting a lot of pressure on the already shy Meena. This is especially noticeable with her grandfather, who is one of Meena's biggest supporters but has a tendency to be abrasive towards her stage fright. - Rosita loves her husband and 25 children with all her heart but she feels consumed with taking care of them and wants to re-ignite her dream of being a star. That's the reason why she auditions for the singing competition in the first place. - Rosita's husband Norman is a loving husband and father who truly appreciates his family but he is a Workaholic who works 12-14 hours a day and is often fatigued and distracted as a result. - This is a realisation that The Divine Comedy had come to in his song 'Mother Dear', but uses this fact to sing her praises for how she was ever able to put up with him in his youth. *It was not that long ago it first occurred to me, * That my mother was a person in her own right. Now I realize how very lucky I have been, And there, but for the grace of God, go I. Mother dear, she can see inside. Mother dear, and I've nowhere to hide. Mother dear, did I spoil your plans? Mother dear, I do the best I can. - The protagonist in "Rockabye" by Clean Bandit is a poor single mother, work as a prostitute who struggles to provide for her son but love him dearly and wants him to have a better life than she did. *Now she got a six-year-old * Trying to keep him warm Trying to keep out the cold When he looks in her eyes He don't know he is safe when she says She tells him, "Oh, love, no one's ever gonna hurt you, love." "I'm gonna give you all of my love." "Nobody matters like you." (Stay up there, stay up there!) She tells him, "Your life ain't gon' be nothing like my life." (Straight!) "You're gonna grow and have a good life." "I'm gonna do what I got to do.", yeah. - One of the most famous and utterly tragic examples comes in the form of "Cat's In The Cradle" by Harry Chapin as a father is too busy at work to pay much attention to his son and only realizes it after his son has grown up and moved away. - The narrator's father from the 10-minute version of "All Too Well" by Taylor Swift. He obviously loves his daughter and is concerned and sad for her when her boyfriend stands her up, but unfortunately didn't notice the red flags in the relationship (such as him being *much* older than her) and bought into the boyfriend's sweet facade until the damage was done. She doesn't seem to hold it against him; after all, she bought it, too. - Dot Harper from *Unwell Podcast*. While she clearly loves her daughter Lily, they have a strained relationship. - This is how Rey Mysterio's feud with his son Dominik Mysterio portrayed him as. Rey admits that Dominik's criticisms about him aren't unwarranted and that he wasn't the best father to his children, constantly prioritizing his career over them. However, he points out the reason for his Parental Neglect was so he could give them a life he could only ever dream of, including fabulous wealth and a privileged name. In the end, despite whatever Dominik may believe or claim, Rey does love him, and it is *only* because of that love that he hasn't kicked his son's ass in a match yet. Adding to that, while he was willing to endure Dominik's verbal (and sometimes physical) abuse of him, he drew the line at Dominik flinging that abuse at his mother and sister as well. When Dominik finally crossed that line, Rey had enough and attacked his son, and then accepted his challenge for a match at *WrestleMania*. - *Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto* has an extreme (historical) example — Cesare has been a political tool for his father, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, for almost his entire life. At 16, he's serving as an ambassador, playing the game through the corrupt city-states of 1491 Italy to help his father get elected pope. During their negotiations, Lorenzo "The Magnificent" de'Medici comments on Cesare's maturity and competence (especially compared to Lorenzo's own sons). Rodrigo's scenes make a b-plot, as they show him arguing with the other cardinals and establishing the political landscape. Likewise, the viewer sees Lorenzo as more than just a parent all along, but when his teenaged son Giovanni learns his father is dying, he has to very quickly grow to understand his father's accomplishments as a politician in order to carry on his goals. - Phoenix Wright from *Ace Attorney* is obviously a loving, devoted father to his adoptive daughter Trucy, and while they have a very close relationship, he isn't infallible. For example, he jets off to Khura'in when he believes his old assistant Maya is in danger, just days before Trucy's big television debut. When it turns out Maya is fine but isn't going to be done with her training for a few more weeks, he decides to stay in Khura'in rather than come home to support his daughter. When poor Trucy ||gets accused of murdering her costar during the show||, he *still* doesn't come home; while Apollo may be a capable attorney, the game makes it clear he's a complete **legend** by this point, and even if he weren't, Trucy would probably appreciate her father being there for her. - Averted in *CLANNAD* with Nagisa Furukawa's parents. Her father Akio has the phases of the tough guy and the Boyfriend-Blocking Dad, while her mother Sanae has the sensitive and loving personality as The Ditz. They are willing to do everything to protect and help Nagisa whilst trying to maintain a healthy, loving relationship between their own selves. ||It was eventually revealed that the two indeed *followed* this trope earlier in their lives, as they were constantly busy pursuing their dream careers in acting (Akio) and teaching (Sanae), and little Nagisa was left alone at home constantly. After an incident where Nagisa fell seriously ill while they were working and they just managed to save her before she nearly died, they find out she was born sickly and have decided to both quit their jobs to pursue the goal of protecting Nagisa instead. This explains the bakery they set up, and why Sanae is so horrible at baking to begin with. Poor Nagisa doesn't know this, and falls into an Heroic BSoD after she finds out, but eventually recovers when her parents tell her directly during an important play she was doing that she shouldn't blame herself. In *After Story* they still fit in as they raise Ushio during her early years, after Nagisa's Death by Childbirth and Tomoya's years-old Heroic BSoD, but don't allow themselves to grieve for Nagisa so they can do their best for Ushio.||. - *Dream Daddy*: Robert never managed to be the most caring and attentive father to his daughter, he also didn't have the best example of a father. He deeply regrets their currently estranged relationship and the end game shows he is desperate to make amends with her in any way he can. - *Perseverance*: Jack and Natalie are each flawed and fighting their own demons, but despite the strained relationship between them and Jack's at times thoughtless behaviour, they still care for each other, love their daughter a lot, and are doing the best they can. - *Umineko: When They Cry* is one of the most radical examples of this trope. The parents aren't just people, they're full-fledged main characters. All of the mothers got some great development, and the fathers have quite a bit as well. (Except Hideyoshi, who despite being really nice we don't know much about, to the disappointment of the fanbase.) They also have one of the Biggest, Most Screwed Up Families a video game player is ever going to meet. - CollegeHumor: In "The Six Ways You'll See Your Dad", the last way you'll see your father, after viewing him as a superhero, a clown, a tyrant, a sell-out, and a source of income, is that he's a guy with his own hopes and dreams just like you. - Goku is depicted this way in *Dragon Ball Z Abridged*, which is surprising given how the series treats his Parental Neglect as a long-running gag. ||Episode 60 shows that his desire to push Gohan into being a better fighter is because that's what *he* likes, and he wants to share that with his son. The problem is well, he's Goku, and thus never even considered Gohan may not be like him.|| - Big D from *Hunter: The Parenting* is a loud-mouthed DMT-junkie who gets on his sons' nerves, keeps vital secrets from them that ultimately costs everyone dearly, and openly favors his son Horse. However, Big-D genuinely loves his sons (and grandson), has no problem with their love lives, and praises and expresses for one of his sons, Markcus... when Marckus is not around or in earshot. It's heavily implied in both the main episodes and audio logs that his Hunter life has *deeply* affected him, and the fourth audio log has him confessing to Horse that he is frequently troubled over how to protect his family and whether his choices are the right ones. Meanwhile, we see the fallout of his actions in his sons, especially Marckus, who has started to resent Big-D to the point of distrusting his father and seeing him as a Manipulative Bastard who treats everyone like weapons in his war with Vampirekind. Even Door, who is otherwise loyal to Big-D and understands the latter's more questionable decisions, agrees that Big-D has made serious mistakes that he cannot condone. - We don't see them, but The Nostalgia Critic's parents. Abusive, scary, implied to have expected way too much of him and apparently raised him as a girl for a short time, but took him out for a meal when he got an A—and his mum sorted things out when he was getting bullied as a child. That last bit more than likely induced Stockholm Syndrome, as he's still living with her and calls her his world. - Jobe in the Whateley Universe has parents like this. His parents are still together, but his father is a megalomaniacal supervillain who now runs his own country, and his mother is The Ditz. They seem proud of the fact that they have managed to raise a sociopath. The biggest area of friction before this year was that Jobe prefers bio-devising while his father is a robots-and-power-armor kind of inventor.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsAsPeople

Parents for a Day - TV Tropes The canonical equivalent of a Kid Fic, in a way. In this trope, a baby or something like it is raised, who leaves by the end of the episode. It can happen when one character raises a child for an episode. This allows for a little Character Development in letting a character show his or her softer side. The character will often grow attached to the child. Another type will have two or more characters raise a child for an episode, letting it go after it matures by the end. It's a great way to add some Ship Tease, and quite often, some Ho Yay, as there's often the implications of a couple. Note that this isn't always the case, however; there's times when characters do this for different motives. Does This Remind You of Anything? is sometimes present, too. Can overlap with A Day in the Limelight and Baby Morph Episode. When it's only a simulation of a child it's called Egg Sitting. Compare Babysitting Episode. Contrast Children Raise You. See also Is That Cute Kid Yours?. ## Examples: - This happens in *Akkan Baby*, where Shigeru (pregnant) and Yuki are left in charge of Doorstop Baby, Puni. While they mean well, they're Maternally Challenged with a bit of stupidity, so they mess a lot of things up. After a stunt where they almost kill him, they agree to do better with Puni but that was when his mom shows up. After that, Shigeru thinks this trope with be the same with her and Yuki's child and her mother has to explain that taking care of a baby for a few days is different than raising a child for a years. - In one chapter of *Beastars*, Bill discovers a live fetus inside of an egg he cracked open while making a meal. After wondering if it would be ok to eat it since it would probably die anyway and deciding against it, he keeps it alive with the help of Pina and Aoba for a few days before handing it over to the police. This leads to some Character Development for Bill. - *Berserk* offers an on-going example of Type 2. Starting in the Millennium Falcon Arc, Guts and his companions encounter a strange little boy on nights of the full moon. The boy has an attraction to Guts and especially Casca, and the latter takes it upon herself to care of the boy. His appearance offers development for both Guts and Casca: Casca because she currently has a child-like insanity and is unable to take care of herself even, yet she still has some lucidity and maturity to act motherly towards another, and Guts because despite his dark and brooding personality, he is still shown to have a gentler side to him. The kicker is that the boy's presence also offers Guts and Casca a small amount of Ship Tease, as it rekindles memories that ||Guts and Casca conceived a child that was tragically lost due to the events of the Eclipse - but it's hinted that the Moonlight Boy might be their lost child reincarnated||. Ultimately, whenever the Moonlight Boy makes his appearance, he vanishes not too long after. - In *Bleach* episode 260, Kazeshini (Shuuhei's Zampaktou) finds a baby whose dying father asks him to take care of it. After growing attached to the kid, Kazeshini decides to leave him with a woman who wanted to take care of him. When they're attacked by a sword fiend (which, by the way, was the one who killed the baby's father), Kazeshini protects the kid with his own body, understanding why Shuuhei accepts to risk his life for others. After killing the sword fiend, he asks the woman to raise the kid, before leaving to fight his final battle with Shuuhei. - The entire premise of *Hyakunichikan!!* is a high schooler having to raise a five-year-old for 100 days. - Episode 8 of *I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying* has Kaoru and Hajime looking after the daughter of one of Kaoru's relatives. - In *Maison Ikkoku*, Godai and Kyoko are forced to look after the abandoned children of a runaway waitress (sort of, it's very complicated). This shows that both have good parenting skills. Shipteasing left and right. - In *Perfect Girl Evolution*, Ranmaru Mori, being a ladies' man that tends to have affairs with married women, has this happen to him in one of the stories. One of the women he had an affair with left a little girl with him, telling him that she's his daughter. He takes care of her for a while and gets very attached to her, until the mother comes back and it's revealed that the daughter isn't his. Unfortunately for the little girl, her father is much uglier than Ranmaru, and she cries while saying she wants her "pretty daddy" instead. - In *Sailor Moon* Usagi and Mamoru have to care for a baby whose mother recovers from being attacked by the Monster of the Week. Actually, Mamoru volunteers and Usagi decides try to help him, mostly to try and get close to him since this occurs early in the first arc of the R season, where he has lost his memories of their time together while she had them back at the start. - In *Shugo Chara!*, ||Rima and Nagihiko|| help look after a little boy for a few hours after he got lost. - In the *Tenchi Muyo!* episode "Hello Baby!", the girls have to take care of a baby whose mother is ill. Ryoko, Mihoshi and Ayeka have no idea of how to care for the infant until Washu comes to the rescue. - One episode of *You're Under Arrest!* has Natsumi and Yukari having to take care of an American boy who traveled to Japan by airplane on his own. - *Happy Heroes*: In Season 3 episode 48, Careless S. finds a babified Big M. in the Supermen's house and takes care of him. This works out a bit painfully for Big M. since Careless S., in his usual forgetful fashion, doesn't make the best parent for a baby. He watches a parenting program that teaches him how to make a milk formula for Big M. to drink, pouring the contents right into Big M.'s mouth instead of into the bottle he needs to feed him with, for example. - *2point4 Children*: In "And Now the Screaming Starts", Rona tries to raise a baby she found in a bush, even though she's not really fit for the job. Hilarity Ensues when the baby crawls under the floorboard. She is eventually made by Bill to take the baby to the police and learns that it is difficult to be a mother. - In an episode of *The Andy Griffith Show*, Opie and his friend find a baby on the courthouse steps. Worried that it'll end up abused in an orphanage (because they've read Dickens novels), they try to hide it in the backyard and care for it while searching for a new family. Unfortunately, Opie searches for foster parents by knocking on doors and asking, "Would you like to have a baby?" This confuses the neighbors and leads Andy to think his son needs The Talk, which makes him very uncomfortable. Finally the parents show up, and it turns out that they had an argument, which almost caused a divorce, and the mother panicked about being a single mother. Andy lets them take their kid back, but not before calling their hometown's sheriff to ask him to keep an eye out for other signs they aren't good parents. - In *Battlestar Galactica (2003)* , Leoben leaves Starbuck with a little girl the cylon had kidnapped, telling Starbuck that she's the pilot's daughter. Of course, he's lying, but she doesn't find that out until after she's bonded with the child. - *Birds of Prey (2002)* saw Helena take care of a child in "Three Birds and a Baby". The child's Rapid Aging caused him to die at the end of the episode in a surprising Tear Jerker. - In the *Bones* episode "The Baby in the Bough" Booth and Brennan take care of a victim's son. While Bones is rather Maternally Challenged and initially unwilling, she becomes attached by the end. - In the *Castle* episode "The Good, The Bad, and the Baby", Castle and Beckett have to parent the baby found at the crime scene while they try to locate his parents. An interesting case since Castle and Beckett were already together and Castle had experience raising Alexis, but the experience does give Beckett more confidence to possibly be a mom one day. - In *Charmed* the sisters need to take care of a child not their own for a day several times throughout the series. It does serve as both a foreshadowing and practice for when they get their own child. Since they are basically 3 moms, there is no Ship Tease, Ho Yay, or implications of a couple. Just a foreshadowing/practice. - *Designing Women* - Season 2, Episode: "Oh, Suzannah" - Suzanne suddenly volunteers to foster a Vietnamese boat child, Li Sing, for a month (a month that lasts almost the whole episode), at which point she'll go to her adoptive home. Suzanne becomes attached to Li Sing quickly and has a hard time letting go. - *The Golden Girls* - Season 2, Episode: "And Then There Was One" - Sophia runs in a marathon, while the ladies babysit several children of runners; the parents of one child, a little girl named Emily, do not return. The ladies must then contemplate whether or not to keep the baby and raise it themselves or hand it over to child services. This especially affects Blanche. Reluctant to even hold the child at first, Blanche becomes overly-attached, which brings up issues about her own daughter at the end of the episode. ||Emily's father, who previously tried to call and couldn't get through because Sophia mistook him for someone else, eventually turns out to have been late because he was with his wife in the hospital as she gave birth to triplets.|| - For a few episodes during *Heroes* Volume 4, Hiro and Ando have to take care of Matt Parkman's son. - *Jake and the Fatman*: In "Pretty Baby", Jake, McCabe and Derek take turns looking after a baby while they search for the infant's mother who witnessed a murder. - The *Jeeves and Wooster* episode "Return to New York" (the part based on the story "Fixing It For Freddie") has Bertie and Jeeves looking after a toddler that Bertie "temporarily kidnapped" as part of his scheme to bring a couple back together. - This happens to Dani Beck and Olivia Benson a couple times on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*. In Dani's case she takes in an emotionally disturbed little girl who sets her apartment on fire in an attempt to ensure that Dani will never leave her, which shocks her so much that she asks for a transfer. In the Season 12 episode "Trophy", Olivia is suddenly given custody of the grandson of one of their rape victims. Several episodes later, however, his drug-addicted mother turns up again and has the boy taken from Olivia and custody transferred to his grandparents. - In the *MacGyver (1985)* episode "Rock the Cradle," Jack Dalton's ex-girlfriend, on the run from criminals, leaves her son "Jack Jr." in Jack's airplane hangar, with a note asking Jack to take care of him. Jack and MacGyver have to look after the kid while trying to track down Mama. - In the *Mann & Machine* episode "Billion Dollar Baby," Mann and Eve rescue a baby from traffickers. They have to look after him for a few days while his parents are identified. In the meantime, Eve develops unexpected maternal feelings for the baby. - *Monk*: In "Mr. Monk and the Kid", Monk bonds with a boy involved in the case he's investigating, and starts wanting to adopt him. Eventually, he decides that he can't take care of the boy, because ||he can barely take care of himself||. - On *Northern Exposure*, an off-screen woman leaves her child in Dr. Joel's waiting room. The townspeople try to take turns caring for the child, with varying results. At the end of the episode, the enigmatic receptionist hands the baby back to the mother, who has second thoughts about the abandonment. - *Person of Interest*: When the Machine spits out the number of a 6-month old baby, Finch kidnaps it and takes care of it with Reese until it is safe. And speaking of dynamic duos taking care of babies in unsafe conditions... - Done on *Remington Steele*. - Clark and Lana do this on *Smallville*, with the odd twist that it only lasts a day because the child in question has a kryptonite-induced mutation that causes him to age by several years every few hours. - On *Supernatural*, Dean and Sam take care of a baby ||shapeshifter|| in "Two and a Half Men". - *Samurai Jack* ended its original run with "Jack and the Baby", where Jack finds a baby and has to find their parents. It wasn't a particularly exciting way to close out the series. - The Type 2 version is present in the *Danny Phantom* episode "Life Lessons", where Danny and Valerie have to be fake parents to a flour sack for a class project. This episode hints at a relationship between them that occurs a couple more episodes later in the series. Also, Sam and Tucker are fake parents of another flour sack, possibly to mock shippers. - The *Family Guy* episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows" has a subplot in which Peter grows a beard, which ends up with him raising the hatchlings of a rare swallow that used his beard as a nest. - In an episode of *Hey Arnold!*, Arnold and Helga have to raise an egg together. There's already enough UST, so hijinks naturally ensue. - The *Itchy & Scratchy* episode called *Foster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!* shows that Scratchy adopts Itchy for the whole episode, until Itchy kills Scratchy, steals Scratchy's TV, and runs away, with Scratchy saying his last words: "Why, my only son?" - In *Metalocalypse*, the band members briefly take care of a foster child, though they treat him like an animal. - An episode of *The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh* features Rabbit stumbling across an orphaned bluebird named Kessie and raising it himself. Of course she flies away by the end of the episode, after Rabbit softens from his usual persona. Kessie appears quite a bit since then, making an encore appearance in a later episode and being a recurring character in *The Book of Pooh*. - *The Pink Panther* becomes a temporary parent in "Congratulations, It's Pink." He steals what he thinks is a picnic basket and finds a baby in it instead. The oblivious family leaves without the baby, leaving Pink to look after it. - *Pinky and the Brain*: - There was an episode where Brain attempted to clone himself, and some of Pinky's DNA got mixed in. Cue Pinky and Brain acting like a bickering couple while they try to raise the clone. - The episode "Whatever Happened to Baby Brain?" also had Pinky posing as the mother while Brain pretends to be a Deliberately Cute Girl in order to become a child star and raise money for his unstated world domination plot. Needless to say, Pinky took "her" own role too well. - A *Scooby-Doo* cartoon from the early 80s has Scooby and Shaggy become babies from steam in the gym and Scrappy has to take care of them in the meantime before it wears off. Hilarity Ensues. - *The Simpsons*: In "Selma's Choice", Selma starts to worry her biological clock may be ticking, and decides to find a way to become pregnant. Selma tries video dating and eventually considers an anonymous sperm donor. Meanwhile, Homer promises Bart and Lisa they will go to Duff Gardens, a popular amusement park, but Homer becomes ill after eating a spoiled sandwich. Marge, in an effort to give Selma a chance to experience the responsibilities of motherhood, nominates her to take the two. Bart and Lisa wear Selma out at Duff Gardens. - An episode of *Spongebob Squarepants* had this happen to Spongebob and Patrick with a clam. - *Total Drama Pahkitew Island* had a weird example: in "Three Zones and a Baby," the contestants had to go through an obstacle course filled with deadly, sleeping animals while carrying babies, because Chris is a being of pure evil. Naturally the babies never got hurt, but the teenagers sure did while protecting them. Most of the contestants are happy when the legal department demands they give them up before the episode ends, but Max bonds with his little minion and actually gives back a fake at first. - *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog*: Scratch and Grounder create a robot with spare parts, then raise it, in an episode filled with Ship Tease. - *Codename: Kids Next Door*: In "Operation: C.A.M.P.", Numbuhs 2 and 3 care for a lost baby skunk they name Bradley. Unusually for the trope, while they refer to each other as his parents (and have lots of stereotypical parental bickering), it lacks any Ship Tease and is more akin to two kids playing house instead. - Children in foster care generally stay with the foster parents for a period ranging from a few days to several months, and are then reunited with their birth families. Sometimes the kids don't go back, but that's a different trope. - Though it's not exactly for a day, animal rehabbers do something like this if the baby animals are young enough (animals kind of age weird by human terms). In a similar case, you get something like this with class pets of certain science classes.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsForADay

Parents Know Their Children - TV Tropes **Valka:** C-Could it be? After all these years... How is this possible? **Hiccup:** Eh, should I... Should I *know* you? **Valka:** No. You were only a babe... *But a mother never forgets.* A parent-child bond is strong enough that even in situations where the child is in disguise, is being impersonated by someone else, or is in the midst of a crowd of look-alikes, the parent can still identify them. Commonly associated with mothers due to the maternal bond that's usually created through pregnancy, childbirth, and the early years of child-rearing. However, this phenomenon isn't limited only to mothers, as fathers and other relatives can qualify for this as well. Compare Something Only They Would Say, which is where a character who's in disguise or whose identity is uncertain makes himself known by saying or doing something that only they would normally do. May also overlap with Spot the Imposter in some cases, but it is *NOT* the same trope. Contrast Doesn't Know Their Own Child. Also not to be confused with That Thing Is Not My Child!, where a person denies parental responsibility to a child because said child was born via cloning or other unnatural means. Often the parental/familial method of beating a Twin Switch, especially when the Identical Twin ID Tag isn't in effect. An inversion of this trope would be the child being able to identify their parents despite the specified conditions. NOTE: To qualify for this trope, the persons MUST be related, whether by blood, adoption, or some other family-related clause. True Companions don't count, as while they may have the *semblance* of family ties, in the strictest sense of the word they are not family and generally haven't raised the child/children from birth or infancy. ## Examples: - *Tenchi Muyo!:* - In the OVA, while Yosho's false persona of Katsuhito Masaki had been known fact for a while, his mother sees right through his disguise of being *old*, which was part of that persona, and asks him to take it off. No one else knew about that. - In the movie *Tenchi Muyo in Love*, Achika recognizes Tenchi as her son, despite the fact that she is in high school, unmarried, not even dating, and Tenchi won't be born *for another nine years*. - *Dragon Ball Z*: Inverted during the Namek saga. Captain Ginyu has switched bodies with Goku, planning to use this to his advantage when he meets Krillin and Goku's son, Gohan. Before Ginyu can even open his mouth, Gohan is quick to tell Krillin "That's not Dad!" - In *Parasyte,* mothers seem to have this. The parasite who took over Ryoko Tamiya had to kill her host's mother, who could somehow tell that she was an "imposter" and tried to call the police; the parasite is initially confused about how she managed to figure this out. Likewise, Shinichi's own mother realizes that *something* is wrong with him, despite the fact that he's (at least mostly) retained his normal personality. - *Kasane*: When Nina's mother first met Kasane impersonating Nina she immediately noticed that there's something different about "Nina" and she ultimately realizes that Kasane is not Nina. Nina's father, on the other hand, averts this trope and Kasane convinces him that the mother suffers from the Capgras delusion. - Averted in *Zekkyou Gakkyuu*. Rika's mother fully believes that the transformed Mary is her own daughter, and pays no mind to her real daughter trapped in a doll's body on the shelf. - Subverted in *Nichijou*. Yuuko Aioi's Oddball Doppelgänger, Doublecheeseburgirl, has such similar clothes and hair that she is often mistaken for Yuuko by her friends until Doublecheeseburgirl does a Face-Revealing Turn to reveal her freaky, depressed-looking face. At one point Yuuko's mother approaches her from behind and smacks her on the head for making a little girl cry. Doublecheeseburgirl turns around — and Yuuko's mother smacks her again while saying "Don't give me that face!" - Downplayed in *Boruto* during the time travel arc. Hinata specifically notes that Boruto resembles her crush Naruto and even comments to the other girls that she feels far more at ease around him compared to her usual Shrinking Violet self, but she gives no indication of being aware that he's her Kid from the Future. - *Superman*: - In one *Spider-Man* story, the Chameleon has seemingly tricked Aunt May into thinking that he's Peter, only for her to correct him of that notion—she is, after all, Peter's mother in all but name, and he could never fool her. Oh, and by the way, those cookies that she offered him were poisoned. - *Ms. Marvel (1977):* While Joe Danvers is unable to recognize that the blonde-haired superwoman who saved his life is his only daughter, his wife is able to instantly notice despite not having known Ms. Marvel even existed until the day before. However, this also has to do with the fact Joe is a colossal sexist ass with a very fixed image of what Carol is "supposed" to be, and no amount of effort on Carol's part has ever changed that. - In *Birthright*, Aaron *immediately* recognizes his son Mikey even though Mikey has aged to adulthood during his time in Terrenos. - The *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* fic *Time and Time Again* features Katie Summers, the Dhampyr daughter of Buffy and Angel who travels back in time to prevent Buffy's death at Glory's hands. While Angel has to be told as such, Buffy, despite still being in a relationship with Riley at the time and having been told by Angel that vampires can't have children, is able to deduce on her own that Katie is her daughter. - *The Ultimate Evil*: This trope is played with when the Living Statue of Lo Pei meets Valerie Payne. He believes her to be his daughter Lo Mei because she has the same crystal blue eyes, handwaves the physical differences as the result of magical concealment, and lampshades this trope by saying that any father can know his beloved child anywhere. While the living terracotta is mistaken, Valerie is Lo Pei's descendant by thirty-six generations. - In the *Miraculous Ladybug* fanfic *The True Villain*, Marinette (the titular superhero) is shocked to discover her parents know about her heroics. Her mother admonishes her for this, saying "You insult me, Child. I can pinpoint your voice in a crowd of almost a hundred people. I'm pretty sure a little red mask is not enough to hide you from the gaze of your mother." - In *Time Fixers: Nicktoons of the Future*, Cindy reveals that she was able to recognize Maxwell as the future version of her infant son when her husband isn't. - Subverted in *Boys Do Tankary*. Nyra's mother gave her youngest child, Vincent, up for adoption, not even bothering to give him a name. Years later, when Nyra contacts Vincent, Nyra's mother assumes Vincent seduced Nyra when Nyra's actual reason for calling Vincent was to reach out to him as his sister. - *Infinity Crisis*: In *Gamma Relations*, Magneto feels there's something about the Maximoff twins but is unable to define what. - In *Batman: Angel of Death*, when Azrael's mask is broken off, ||Catwoman instantly knows the woman underneath is her younger sister, Maggie||, despite how they haven't seen each other in almost two decades. - Inverted in the final chapter of *The Second Try* where ||a four-year-old Aki|| is able to recognize her parents despite ||both of them being significantly younger than when she last saw them a day prior (from her perspective) and her not even knowing that she time traveled.|| - In *born of hell('s kitchen)*, Matt immediately identifies seven-year-old Peter as his son by his smell, in spite of being previously unaware of the fact he was a father at all. - *Here There Be Monsters*: When Edith Bromfield lets on that she knows Mary's secret, she points out her own daughter could not keep her fooled forever. - *Second Chance*: After Kalana and Aiko find out the truth about Ventus and his ability to take control of Sora's body, it's stated that they can instinctively tell when he's in control with no explanation beyond "mothers intuition". - Ned Stark in *Knights, Magic, & Dovahkiin* instantly recognizes his Mysterious Protector as Jon when he unmasks himself, despite having not seen him in over ten years. - A sibling variant happens in *Mad Sanity* when Ariana Dumbledore, after Time Traveling into the future, is able to instantly recognize both of her now-elderly brothers, Albus and Aberforth. - In *What Tomorrow Brings*, Elfangor instantly *knows* that Tobias is his son when he sees him for the first time. - In chapter 89 of *Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty*, it's revealed that Goku and Chi-Chi ||recognized from the beginning that Future Daikon wasn't their nephew from Raditz and Launch (akin to Future Ranch being the latter couple's daughter) but rather their own Kid from the Future. Specifically, he's the future version of their younger son Goten||. - Downplayed sibling variant in the *Fate/stay night* fanfic *Fate Converge*, where Sakura Matou notices that her senior Rin Emiya looks like an older version of her supposedly-deceased big sister but can't confirm it. It's not until learning that Rin lost her old family and memories in the Fuyuki Fire, the same event that Sakura's sister and mother were reported to die in, and only has a Tohsaka pendant with no idea what it is that Sakura can confirm her suspicions. - In *Tales of the Kitty-Whiskers and Ladybug*, it's implied, at least from Plagg's POV, that even while under amnesia, Lamiroir is able to faintly recognize that ||Apollo and Trucy are her children||, while her ability to ID voices ||lets her know that they are the superheroes Ladybug and Kitty-Whiskers||. - *Spirited Away*: - Inverted when the protagonist's parents have been transformed into pigs; to rescue them, she must pick them out of a line-up of several dozen other pigs. ||She correctly determines that *none* of the pigs are her parents||. - Subverted at another point in that Yubaba ||cannot recognize Boh transformed into a mouse||. Of course, the fact that ||he was turned into a mouse|| is a more substantial handicap than normal. - In *How to Train Your Dragon 2*, Hiccup's long-lost mother, Valka, is ultimately able to recognize him despite the fact that she hadn't seen him since he was just a baby (and Hiccup is 20 years old when they finally reunited). - *Tangled*: Implied to be the reason Rapunzel's mother recognizes her in the end ||despite her trademark long blonde hair chopped and brown by the end of the film||. - In *Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie*: Arnold finally reunites ||with his parents Miles and Stella||, and they're instantly able to recognize him even though they hadn't seen Arnold since he was just a baby. Though, to be fair, the unmistakable Arnold still had the same hairstyle since birth and was wearing the hat they gave him. And not many kids have football-shaped heads. - In *Luca*, Daniela and Lorenzo spend roughly half the movie all but harassing the children of the town trying to find their son among them. But in the end, all it takes is for Luca to ride past for Daniela to *instantly* recognize him. - *Brave*: Inverted. The triplets recognize Elinor in bear form despite BOTH parties remaining silent. - In *Jett Jackson: The Movie*, this is how Miz Coretta, Jett's great-grandmother, figured out that Jett had switched places with his TV role, Silverstone. When Silverstone asks her how she knew, she says that from the moment she first looked into the then-newborn Jett's eyes, she knew she would always be able to identify him. ||This information later becomes important in defeating the shape-shifting Big Bad in Silverstone's world when he makes himself look identical to both Jetts||. - In the remake of *The Parent Trap*, the father looks each twin in the eye and declares which one is Hallie. We never find out if he's right though since the twins keep playing up the charade and make him question his own judgment. - *Stardust*: Una and Yvaine are captured by the witches. Tristan, trying to rescue Yvaine, mistakes Una for one of the captors and is about to attack her when she identifies herself, having recognized him even though the last time she saw him was when he was an infant. - *Changeling*, a 2008 movie based on true events, is kick-started when a missing boy is returned to his mother — but she immediately realizes it's an imposter. She is committed to a mental institution when she refuses to acknowledge the boy as hers. ||It's a ploy by the kidnapping case's lead investigator to cover up the police department's incompetence and corruption||. - Horribly subverted in the Korean film *Horror Stories*, where a Wicked Stepmother fails to recognize her daughter ||was killed and turned into pickled meat that she was eating.|| The heroine, who knew the truth, is appalled. "And you call yourself a mom?" - In *Attack of the Clones*, Anakin finds his captive mother Shmi at a Tusken Raider camp, and Shmi recognizes Anakin instantly despite having not seen him since he was nine, which was ten years ago. That Anakin calls her "mom" probably helps. - *Relative Fear*: This is discussed when Linda gets Adam's DNA tested due to her correct suspicions he was Switched at Birth. **Linda:** I love Adam, but Dr. Hoyer, virtually from the day I gave birth I had this feeling that he wasn't mine. That he didn't belong to me, that he didn't come out of me. - *The Moomins*: Finn Family Moomintroll has a case of this, where everyone is playing hide and seek, and Moomin decides to hide under a hat which nobody knows to be an artifact that randomly shapeshifts whatever is inside. Naturally, nobody recognizes him afterward. In the end, he turns to his mother for help, she takes a look and says "Yes, that's Moomin". This also reverses the magic. - Subverted in *Tree Castle Island* by Jean Craighead George: after Jack discovers on a camping trip that he has a long-lost twin named Jake, and the two return to civilization, Jack's mother (adoptive mother, never knew he had a twin until now) insists that she recognizes the boy she's raised. She goes and stands in front of *Jake*, not realizing that the two had switched where they were standing when she wasn't watching. - *Heckedy Peg*, a children's picture-story book, provides a variation: an evil witch turns seven children into seven different types of food. Their mother tries to rescue them, but the witch says she will only change them back if she can guess which child is which food item. ||She guesses right||. - *She's Not There*: - Gets discussed by Caroline, who always thought that she would instantly just recognize her missing daughter if she were to ever see her again. But when she actually meets Lili, the girl who thinks she might be the missing daughter, she cannot feel anything that might let her know. - Played with, as the grandmother just smiles at Lili and flat-out says that Lili *is* the missing Samantha, claiming that she can see a young Caroline in her face. The rest of the family is unsure if they should believe her. - *Harry Potter* - Double Subverted by the twins Fred and George, who indignantly claim that their own mother can't tell them apart when she gets their names wrong... only to reveal that she got it right in the first place. And then there are their monogrammed Christmas sweaters, where they claim to be Gred and Forge. - This trope is brought up in Harry's internal narration in *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, where he notes that Ron is avoiding looking into his father's eyes while under the Polyjuice Potion for fear of being recognized. However, considering Harry's earlier use of the potion had Luna Lovegood see straight through it because of his expression, it seems it's not just limited to parents. - *Discworld* Averted for Moist von Lipwig, who is so nondescript (an invaluable skill for a conman) that his mother often ended up picking up the wrong kid from school. - *The Braided Path*: Mishani cuts off her hair so she can disguise herself as a doctor's assistant to visit her mother, who has been sending her secret messages in her novels. Her mother instantly recognises her and even praises her new look. Subverted with her father, who notes the doctor's assistant seems strangely familiar but cannot quite place her. - In the *Animorphs* prequel novel *The Andalite Chronicles*, Elfangor immediately recognizes that ||Tobias|| is his son due to seeing his mother's features. - Played with in *Angel* in which Illyria disguises herself as Fred in order to trick Fred's parents into believing that their daughter is still alive and well. They seem to fall for it... though as she's about to leave, Fred's mother wonders if there's something a bit "off" about her daughter, before shrugging it off. - *Castle*: The reveal in one episode is that a victim was killed because she had just sent away a DNA test to prove that her son had been switched at birth with another boy. Since she's dead, she doesn't get to explain why she suspected the switch or how she identified the correct child, leaving this trope as the only explanation. That said, her husband and the other boy's mother had no idea anything was wrong (and the other boy's father was the one who switched them, so he doesn't count). - *Criminal Minds*: Invoked(?) in "The Inspired" which centers around a pair of identical twins on a crime spree. Despite the fact that they'd been identified when one was arrested in the other's place and fingerprinted, Hotch is confident that the only way to figure out which twin is which is to bring in their delusional schizophrenic father, who hasn't seen them since they were toddlers over twenty years ago. Though, to be fair, he identifies one based on an established character tic, rather than any inherent "paternal bond." - *CSI* episode "Split Decision" — identical quadruplets are involved in a killing conspiracy, even though one was a lot younger due to the in vitro fertilization aspect of the story. The mom of one of the four said she'd know him anywhere, but didn't know the other quadruplet who'd been ID'ed at the time. - *Doctor Who*: Pete Tyler can sense a connection to his daughter Rose, and trusts her immediately, even when she's come back in time to meet him because he died when she was a baby, or when he's an Alternate Universe counterpart who never even had a daughter to begin with. In the latter instance, Pete actually strikes up a conversation with Rose while she's posing as a waitress at his wife's birthday party and ends up telling her so much about his life that he gets confused and quickly excuses himself from the conversation. - On *Drop Dead Diva*, model Deb dies in an accident and is reborn into the body of plus-size lawyer Jane. A recurring theme is Deb handling her mother Bobbi, who obviously thinks she's dead yet oddly finds herself trusting this "stranger" she turns to for help. - Jane's mother, Elaine, often shows up to cause a fuss with her eccentric attitude but Deb/Jane does get to love her as she can't be with her real mom. When she's ||dying||, Elaine stuns Deb by revealing she'd always somehow known she wasn't really Jane but loves her like a true daughter. - In *Fringe*, during Season Four, although Peter is both out of his original timeline (making him unknown to everyone in the current one) and in the other universe, his mother Elizabeth still recognizes him as her son grown up. - Subverted and Played for Laughs in an episode of *Full House,* in which Joey dresses Michelle and her identical-looking Greek cousin in matching outfits and challenges Danny to figure out who is who. Michelle accidentally gives it away. **Michelle:** You'll never guess, Daddy. **Danny:** Oh, this is a tough one, but I'm going to guess the real Michelle is the one who just called me Daddy. **Michelle:** Aw, nuts. - *Jejak Suara Adzan*: When Ririn first sees ||Putra in a video call||, she is stunned and, although she claims it's nothing at that moment, later confirms that she thought she is seeing her long-lost son Dika, which turns out to be true. - *Kamen Rider Build*: ||Shinobu Katsuragi|| recognizes Sento as his son ||Takumi in spite of Takumi's different face|| because of the way Sento messes with his hair, stating that he always played with his hair whenever he was anxious or upset. - *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* - Subverted in the episode "Bullseye". A mother suffering from Capgras Syndrome insists her daughter is an imposter, though she does recognize her daughter's voice when she can't see her. - One episode has a woman recognize her daughter after passing her on the street one day. She'd never even met the daughter—she was conceived via invitro fertilization and born to another couple via surrogacy. Since the fertility clinic in question had essentially stolen her extra embryo after helping her conceive the (non-identical) daughter she did raise, she shouldn't even have known this child *existed*, but apparently a mother's instinct is that powerful. - A similar (but relatively realistic) example occurs in an episode where a woman takes revenge on the men who gang-raped her almost ten years prior because she heard a child laughing one day and somehow recognized the laughter as the daughter conceived via the incident—who she'd given up for adoption—which reawakened the trauma. - *The Outer Limits (1995)*: Downplayed in "Time to Time". The 25-year-old Lorelle Palmer from 1989 travels back in time to April 14, 1969, and meets her parents Tom and Angie. Both of them find her very familiar and Angie automatically trusts her for reasons that she can't explain but neither makes the connection. - In *Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue*, Captain Mitchell is able to recognise that the Titanium Ranger is his long-lost son just by looking at his eyes. - Played for *very* Black Humor in the *Red Dwarf* episode "Can of Worms": When Cat is impregnated with Polymorph larvae, which subsequently take the forms of the other Dwarfers, he is unerringly able to identify and shoot the Morphlings because "a mama always knows her kids". - *The Twilight Zone (1985)*: In "The Once and Future King", Gary Pitkin tells Sandra that the real Elvis Presley's mother Gladys could tell that he wasn't her son after he assumed his identity. He believes the knowledge that Elvis was dead is what ultimately killed her. - This has been cited in many *Unsolved Mysteries* segments, where people insist that their child's death or disappearance is due to foul play rather than an accident or suicide—"He/she would never do that!" "He/she wasn't suicidal!" (Although the "child" in question is often an adult at this point, the trope still applies). - Krabat is a Sorbian legend about a beggar boy who is called into the "black mill" by an old evil magician/miller where he learns, along with other boys, how to perform magic. In one version of the legend, Krabat reads without permission in the magician's book. The magician then transforms all of the boys into ravens. Only Krabat's mother is able to save him because she can pick him out of all the other birds. - The German folk song "Hänschen Klein" is about a boy who walks the earth for seven years. He grows up and decides to come home, but nobody recognizes him anymore. His mother saves the day by looking into his eyes. - Subverted in Oedipus the King, as Jocastas failure to recognize her son (who she believed to be dead after being abandoned as a baby) leads to the events of the plot. - Inverted in *Devil May Cry 4*, where Dante could recognize Trish (who has his mother's face) even when she was disguised as ||Gloria||. ||In *Devil May Cry 5* Dante also reveals that he suspected Nero was Vergil's son and thus Dante's nephew the moment he saw him, though he wasn't certain until he saw how the Yamato reacted to Nero. Vergil otoh had no idea Nero was his son until Dante outright told him during their final battle.|| - Double Subverted in *Dragon Quest XI*. Early in the game, the Luminary finds himself sent 10 years back in time to his adoptive hometown. His mother completely fails to recognize him, but his grandfather realizes who he is instantly. Later on, the spirit of his biological father is able to recognize him despite having not seen him since he was a baby, and his biological mother is one of the few people to sense his presence when he goes into a recreation of the day Dundrasil fell. - *King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human*: Upon being rescued, Rosella has very little skepticism that her rescuer is her long-lost twin brother, though she can still ask for verification by having Alexander-Gwydion reveal his embarrassing birthmark. - In *King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow*, if Cassima's parents are brought Back from the Dead, they can identify that the Cassima who is so eager to marry the Vizier is definitely not their daughter. It helps that she also indulges in a bit of Something They Would Never Say. - In *The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask*, the Deku transformation that Link gets is the result of a Deku Scrub getting cursed by the Skull Kid into an inanimate form and the Scrub's form being subsequently used to curse Link. But the Deku Butler, the father of said Scrub, never mistakes Deku Link for his son despite remarking upon the resemblance. This is in contrast to Goron and Zora Link being mistaken for Darmani and Mikau, respectively, who did not have any relatives in the story. - In *Fate/Grand Order*, King David immediately realizes ||Dr. Roman is really his son Solomon, but agrees to keep the secret.|| - Implied in *TRON 2.0*. There are a few points where Benevolent A.I. Ma3a refers to the protagonist as "Jet" and not "Alan-2" (his login), and ||when corrupted by bugged code, fights it off long enough for Jet to run ||. As we find out through the Story Breadcrumbs, Ma3a is the Virtual Ghost of Jet's mother (who was killed in a Freak Lab Accident in this timeline) with her consciousness compiled into the AI. - *Ni no Kuni*: After the party acquires Mornstar in the past alongside the Emperor's sons, Gascon and Marcassin, they return to Hamelin to find the Emperor on death's doors after an attack by Shadar. Before dying, the Emperor recognizes Swaine as the older version of Gascon, to the latter's surprise. The Emperor outright tells him that even if his appearance changes in the future, he can recognize his own flesh and blood. - *Jojos Bizarre Adventure Eyes Of Heaven*: Inverted when Jolyne manages to recognize a time-traveling teenage Jotaro as her father. It probably helps that Teen!Jotaro and Adult!Jotaro LOOKS EXACTLY THE FUCKING SAME!! - *Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity* has a Promoted to Parent example (given both characters have a Missing Mom). ||When the adult Sidon is brought from the future to save his older sister Mipha from Waterblight Ganon, Mipha immediately recognizes her brother despite the latter being much bigger.|| - *No More Heroes III* has a grandparent-grandkid example. ||When Travis renders Native Dancer unconscious he moves to behead him. Much to his surprise, his own body instinctively refuses to follow through with the killing blow despite his conscious efforts. Native Dancer is revealed in the ending to be Travis' *grandson* (Travis' daughter Jeane being his mother) from the future, Scott Touchdown.|| - *Unsounded*: Duane recognizes his kid seven years after he'd last seen them and thought ||her dead|| with ||Miki|| wearing a helmet, face-concealing goggles, a form-disguising uniform, having grown significantly and being in a place ||women aren't permitted in Aldish society||. - In the *Family Guy* DVD movie *Stewie: The Untold Story*, Future Lois is able to recognize her infant son when the rest of the family isn't. - In the pilot of *She-Ra: Princess of Power:*, it's established that Princess Adora was kidnapped as an infant. When Prince Adam brings the now-adult Adora into the throne room, King Randor and Queen Marlena immediately recognize her. Man-At-Arms also recognized her. - There are also several hints dropped in *He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983)*, most notably in "The Rainbow Warrior", that Queen Marlena knows Prince Adam's secret identity, but doesn't say anything. **Prince Adam:** I was wondering when Skeletor had us all chained up, why did you free me instead of one of the others? **Queen Marlena:** Because you are my son, Adam. I didn't have time to free everyone. And I had a... feeling you would know what to do. **Prince Adam:** Mother, ah... **Queen Marlena:** Adam, a mother always knows her own son. And what he is capable of doing. - On *The Cleveland Show*, when Roberta is made to disguise herself as a fat girl as part of a school project, no one at school recognizes her and Junior ends up falling in love with her. When she agrees to go on a pity date with him and he introduces her to the rest of the family, they all somehow recognize her instantly. - A played-with version occurs in *Young Justice*, where M'gann brings Sportsmaster and Cheshire into Artemis' mind to prove to them that Tigress is an enchanted disguise from a glamour charm and she isn't really dead. Cheshire, Artemis' sister, believes, but their emotionally abusive father doesn't. Instead, Artemis convinces him by using a fighting technique he taught her. **Cheshire:** Come on, Crusher! Artemis is your daughter. Can't you feel her presence here? **Sportsmaster:** This is just some Martian mind game. Right now, I don't even feel *your* presence. - *The Simpsons*: - Happens in a roundabout, comedic, yet oddly heartwarming fashion in "The Principal and the Pauper", where it's revealed Principal Skinner isn't the *real* Seymour Skinner. The real one "died" and he kept up the charade after coming back from the Vietnam War because he couldn't stand to upset the real Seymour's mother. Still, it's implied that she knew deep down he wasn't *really* her son; she has to tell him where "his" room is in the house after all. - Played for Laughs in an episode where Bart and Lisa went missing while on a field trip. While searching the area where they were last seen, they find something, and Marge gasps — it's the plastic tip from Bart's shoelace! When the others give her a look, she simply says "A mother always knows." - Inverted in *Star Wars: Clone Wars*, where male Nelvaanians were being mutated into Super Soldiers. The women of the tribe are initially horrified when Anakin rescues them... until a young girl recognizes her father. - In an episode of *Star Wars Rebels*, Ephraim and Mira Bridger hear their son's voice in a rebel transmission. Ezra has been separated from his parents for nearly nine years, during which time he's grown from a kid to a teenager and his voice has broken, but they recognize him anyway. What also sold it was that specific words in the speech were exactly what Ezra's parents taught him. - *Star Wars: Visions*: In the season 2 episode "The Spy Dancer", Loi'e's son was taken from her as an infant by the Empire. Decades later, she recognizes him (now an adult, in Imperial uniform, with his alien features concealed so he can pass for human) the moment she gets a good look at his face. - *Steven Universe*: In season 5, ||White Diamond is Pink Diamond's "mother", and instantly recognizes Steven as her the second he steps into the throne room, despite his gem being covered by his shirt. Even Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond did not recognize Steven as Pink until he was able to project her aura during their fight in "Reunited".|| - *Ivor the Engine*: Jones the Steam and Ivor have a very close bond after so many years working together, but Jones usually acts as a sort of parental figure for Ivor, who is good-hearted if sometimes a little disobedient, like a child. Jones can usually guess Ivors moods quite easily. - In many instances in the animal kingdom, a mother knows her offspring by their scent. The inverse is true as well, with animal babies identifying their mother the same way. - Some animal species accomplish this via sound. - Another example, which also appears under *Flags of Our Fathers*: The mother of one of the Marines who raised the famed flag over Iwo Jima recognized her son in the picture - from the back. She knew her own child's back and buttocks well enough that she insisted it was him even though officially, it wasn't. Eventually, she turned out to be right. - Invoked by Frank Sinatra after his son's 1963 kidnapping; when asked if the whole thing could be a set-up or hoax of some kind, the elder Sinatra outright denied the notion since he knew that no matter what was going on in their relationship, he would *never* deliberately put his beloved mother through this pain.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsKnowTheirChildren

Ron the Death Eater - TV Tropes If it works for you, it works for me... note : Not visible in the picture on right: The snake tongue, and (filed-off) red-horn-like growths above his ears *"*Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory * is a well-loved movie based on the wonderful book *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory *. Parents love it, children love it, heck, we even love it. That does not mean it is perfect. Our goal is to expose the dark underbelly of the story. To reveal once and for all the truth about the only real villain in the movie (and no, it is not Slugworth). It is Grandpa Joe."* The fandom's tendency to shoehorn a good canon character into being a villain or make a villain *significantly* more evil than in canon is Ron the Death Eater, the inverse of Draco in Leather Pants. (The term usually used for this in fanfiction is "character bashing"). This demonization of a character can be seen as a kind of deliberate Flanderization often, in creating Ron the Death Eater, the fandom spins his canonical non-evil actions into evil acts, uses canonical evil actions as a justification as to why they are irredeemably evil even if the canon says otherwise, and has every possible negative trait of the character exaggerated. A measure of ruthlessness becomes complete and utter sociopathy, a tendency towards holding grudges becomes an obsessive hatred of anything they dislike, slight denseness becomes raging stupidity, etc. This is often the result of also having a Draco in Leather Pants, but it doesn't *have* to be some characters inspire this sort of portrayal on their own, either through their canonical blunders, having some flaw that makes them Unintentionally Unsympathetic, or being an obstacle to the author's One True Pairing, especially if said character is a member of the Official Couple set. In any case, Ron the Death Eater is likely to be a Card-Carrying Villain who does things For the Evulz than to have any plausible reason for switching sides. This trend may lead to the production of Fan Works that have other characters who are canonically friends of the victim act as though he or she has always been an object of justified loathing, rather than going the "shocked at betrayal" approach. Or, even if these characters end up siding with the Draco in Leather Pants, they are subject to some character defamation themselves by way of "I was stupid to love him and not you". Unlike Draco in Leather Pants, this can also be intentionally done for comedy, usually of the black variety. In works relying on this much rarer reasoning, the character in question is turned into a Jerkass (or worse), but the other characters' relationships with them aren't changed much. That way the main characters are exposed to, and thus constantly made to suffer by, a villain, and good times are had by the audience. Named for the tendency in *Harry Potter* fanfics where Draco Malfoy turns good and hooks up with Hermione (or Harry) to have Ron in canon a decent, upstanding sort of fellow with a few faults but firmly on the side of good who happens to have a long-standing enmity with Draco lose his mind (or have it lost for him) and often join Lord Voldemort just for a chance to kill the sainted Malfoy. Compare Die for Our Ship or Derailing Love Interests (fans' or the creators' dissatisfaction with who the main character gets to be with romantically is the major cause of this trope), Designated Hero (the hero of a work coming off as not-so-heroic is the other major cause), The Scapegoat (when a character is blamed for an event they're not responsible for), Historical Villain Upgrade (when a work depicts a historical figure as worse than they were in real life), Dark Fic (a fan work that's deliberately Darker and Edgier than the original work and may involve characters being subjected to this trope), Rooting for the Empire (when the audience actually wants the bad guy(s) to win), Adaptational Jerkass (when an adaptation makes a character more of an asshole than they were in the original work), Adaptational Villainy (when an adaptation makes a character more evil than they were in the original work) and FaceHeel Turn (when the original source material itself turns a once good character evil). See also Accentuate the Negative, which this trope essentially does to fictional characters. Contrast Draco in Leather Pants, where an evil or mean character is interpreted by fans as being a better person than they are in canon. Darker and often more serious counterpart to the Memetic Psychopath, who is **always** Played for Laughs. And last but not least, head to Paint the Hero Black if you wish to join in the madness. ## Subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Examples (sorted by the original canons' media): - *Bad Touch, Bat Touch* reinterprets Batman as a wealthy predator who has sexually abused not only his his adopted sons and biological son, but also several other preteen and teenage superheroes. He got away with it until Billy Batson told Nightwing about it, which led to everything coming out. - *Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)*: - Sally suffered this royally from the fandom for many issues after her Jerkass attitude and slap to Sonic. The reason? Sonic prioritized putting an end to Robotnik's reign of terror over settling down with Sally, and Sally saw this as "selfish". - *Severe Misery* (a college AU story) turns Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Nicole Lynx, and Fiona Fox into cruel Alpha Bitches who run a shady sorority that engages in Draconian natured hazing rituals for the heck of it. During and after another ritual, a demonic black dog terrorizes the four girls causing them to get into a fatal car crash. It is revealed afterwards that ||the latest hazing victim was actually the author's Self-Insert character in disguise and had been the one who sent the demon dog after the four as revenge for the last hazing ritual in which she was the victim. The story ends with the college faculty never finding out who killed them, the self insert proceeds to violate their memorial, and gets away with it scotfree.|| As bad as the author tried to make the four characters, the self insert evidently ended up looking 10 times worse. - *The Smurfs*: In *Empath: The Luckiest Smurf*, Hefty the Lovable Jock from the comic and cartoon series has Took a Level in Jerkass and is portrayed as a bully and a Sore Loser who can't stand that Empath got Smurfette while he did not. He got over it at Empath's wedding when he made his peace with both Empath and Smurfette and became friends, and eventually found happiness with a Smurfette from another village. - *Richie Rich*: Played for Laughs in the case of *Occupy Richie Rich*, which depicts the Rich family as jerkasses who have utterly ruined the world's economy and regularly flaunt their wealth over the non-rich. - *Spider-Man*: - Parodied In-Universe in *The Unwritten*, about a son of a writer who got famous after creating a series of novels very similar to *Harry Potter*. The first two start with fragments of those books, and the third with a fragment of Frankenstein. The first page of the fourth issue shows Harry's counterpart slaughtering Ron and Hermione's counterparts in a really terrible way, only to have it turn out on the next page that it's a Dark Fic. - An academic essay by Lenise Prater argues that it was sexist for Xavier to have sealed away Jean's Superpowered Evil Side. The fact that Jean was using these powers to throw cars around and intimidate innocent people (even *before* the murdering started) is conveniently glossed over. - *Garfield*: - The Tumblr account I Hate Jon Arbuckle depicts Jon as a creepy, bigoted, sexually deviant jerk who abuses his pets, harasses women, and once drank dog semen. - *Garfield Gameboy'd* is a series of cutscenes from a make-believe game depicting Garfield as a murderous Eldritch Abomination who stalks everyone and ultimately brings about the end of the world. - *For Better or for Worse*: *The New Retcons* could just as easily be called "Why Elly Patterson is the Devil: A Manifesto". Every possible plot element that can be used to show her in a bad light is turned towards that purpose. The story doesn't give her any slack at all, even condemning her for things other characters are allowed to get away with (her trying to trick a man into marriage via The Baby Trap? Unforgivable; Elizabeth ||getting pregnant via *adultery* and trying to pass it off as her husband's?|| The story's on her side). It stops just short of blaming her for *her own murder*, but only just. Her detailed backstory essentially sums up her life as both a complete waste and herself as a phony in everything she did. - Not that John gets it much better: hes seen as a sexist dolt and an abuser. - In the *Alpha and Omega* fic *Armarok Spirit*, Eve is turned into a controlling abuser who lets someone rape her daughter. In canon, she threatens to **strangle** Humphrey at the mere suggestion he might have done something inappropriate with Kate. - Buck Cluck from Chicken Little, notoriously so. The movie's writing makes him come off as neglectful and unsympathetic jerk who doesn't come to his son's aid when he needs it, and only doesn't act embarrassed about his son's very existence when Chicken does something heroic. However, the movie also makes it clear that he's never outwardly or intentionally abusive and that this is the best he can do given his circumstances, being a widower raising a paranoiac child by himself, and he does eventually see the error of his ways. An extreme Vocal Minority of people on the internet (especially critics), however, depicted him as an abusive sociopath with no redeeming qualities, sometimes labeling him *one of the most evil Disney characters* or even *the most Abusive Parent in all of fiction*, somehow beating out the likes of Judge Claude Frollo, Ragyo Kiryuin, Shou Tucker, Relius Clover, and Fire Lord Ozai for the title. The character's Disney Wiki page had an ongoing Edit War between ticked-off viewers categorizing him as the villain and adding "neglecting his son" to the list of things he likes and admins struggling to keep the page neutral. note : This reputation largely grew out of The Mysterious Mr. Enter's thrashing of the film, as he famously has a zero-tolerance policy for whatever he considers to be poor depictions of abuse and bullying in fiction, having grown up with an abusive father and enduring bullying well into adulthood. - *Encanto*: While Alma Madrigal isn't exactly the epitome of a good grandparent, she has a pretty damn tragic Freudian Excuse and is shown to genuinely love her family in spite of her perfectionist tendencies. And the film itself never downplays how harmful her tendencies are, with her being genuinely remorseful about it. You would not know this if your only experience with the movie was fanfiction, which tends to turn her into an outright Abusive Parent and grandparent. - *Frozen (2013)*: Elsa and Anna's parents have it bad, despite dying within the first ten minutes of the film. Keeping Elsa and Anna separate was misguided but in canon they're not depicted as outright Abusive Parents. They're treated as Well Intentioned Extremists who are still Good Parents who love their daughters. *The Ice Behind Bars* presents Elsa's father as abusive towards Elsa even before the accident. He hates her for her powers and doubts that she is even his. After Elsa accidentally injures Anna, his treatment of her only gets worse. When Anna and her mother disappear, Elsa's father uses the chance to claim that Elsa was killed along with her sister. He locks her up and regularly tortures her until Anna rescues her years later. - *Merida and Astrid: The Absesses Of The Heart* and *Hiccup: The Hasteful Hatred Of The Pericardium* both depict Hiccup as a demented misogynistic pervert who tries to rape the protagonist/s of the story, and failing horribly. He's also a Mad Scientist for some reason, and a cry-baby who whines to "daddy" about the protagonist/s hurting him. - This fan theory for *The Incredibles* suggests that Edna Mode is a villain who worked for the Big Bad Syndrome. - In *The Land Before Time*, Mr. Threehorn the *Triceratops* didn't like other dinosaur species, but the sequels show him working together with other dinosaurs (even if he complains about it). *Secret Love* depicts Mr. Threehorn as an intolerant anti-interspecies jerk who's willing to exile children for this relationship and those who support this, cowed into submission only by Chomper's speech about him being intolerant. - *The Lion King*: - In *Scar The Unsung Hero*, Scar was abused by his brother, Mufasa, who told him that he was worthless, would gladly kill him, and gave him the scar, was bullied by most of the lionesses, Rafiki attempts to kill him to get revenge on Mufasa, and Zazu gladly took part in bullying Scar with Mufasa and didn't bother telling the lionesses how Mufasa had treated him. - *The Lion King Adventures* story *Hakuna Matata* demonises Timon and Pumbaa into evil wizards with the power to drain life from living beings for themselves. And they've been doing this for *two hundred years*. ||Simba and Nala manage to defeat them by tricking them into draining each other's life at the exact same time, causing both to die.|| - In the Non/Disney fanvid fandom, and to a lesser extent the fanfic fandom, this is commonplace with characters like Jasmine from *Aladdin*, Elsa from *Frozen*, and Esmeralda from *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*. However, this is more-so because their designs and scenes make it easy to manipulate them into villains (with Word of God being that Esmeralda's design is outright based on prior Disney villains) than an actual dislike for the characters. For example, Jim from *Treasure Planet* is the designated "bad boy" in the Disney crossover fandom. He's a common 'Veronica' to most other male leads' 'Betty'. This fan-vid portrays Jim as Cinderella's crappy boyfriend who flirts with other girls and doesn't take her seriously. She ultimately ends up leaving him for Eric. - *Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)*: It's a common cynical claim that Santa and the other reindeer didn't actually learn to accept Rudolph for who he was, they only learned to tolerate his difference because it could be useful. However, this is Common Knowledge, as while they were unquestionably and unjustifiably jerks to poor Rudolph, they realized how wrong they acted and apologized *before* realizing his nose can navigate the snowstorm. Donner is also often seen as an Abusive Parent because he was at first ashamed by his son's different trait and didn't protect him from bullying, but, again, he realized his wrongdoings and apologized for them before Rudolph's ability to navigate was realized. - *Turning Red*: - Some detractors see Mei as a Spoiled Brat who takes her mother for granted and throws tantrums all because she wouldn't allow her to listen to the music she likes. They tend to ignore that Mei has been nothing but kind and loyal to her mom her *entire life*, Ming does things that would be humiliating for any child to deal with (like accusing Devon of being a predator after seeing Mei's drawings and spying on Mei while she's at school), and Mei realizes that being her true, authentic self makes her significantly happier while her family wants her to hide it away. Even before then, she never got to be herself around Ming because she didn't want to disappoint her. - Conversely, there are also a number of viewers who view Ming as a borderline Abusive Parent whose lack of letting Mei have any free-will is the reason she became a brat in the first place note : It's Truth in Television that children and teens with overly controlling parents are more likely to become rebellious. and was too Easily Forgiven in the end. This also ignores the fact that Ming's controlling behavior wasn't out of malice but rather because she genuinely thought she was doing the right thing for Mei. Furthermore, the film makes it clear that Ming's in the wrong because of her overprotectiveness and that she needed to learn that she can't keep smothering her daughter. The fact that even those who don't see her as abusive genuinely found it hard to sympathize with Ming ||even after her whole backstory is revealed|| doesn't help. - *Up*: Construction worker Steve. Many fans think he deserved to be hit in the head by Carl due to the mishap with his mailbox, and blame him for causing Carl having to go to court and subsequently losing his house. What is overlooked however is the fact that Carl assaulted Steve, with him getting a gash in the head. Also Steve likely had no way of knowing how important the mailbox was for Carl. - *The Amazing Spider-Man*: *The Amazing Spider-Man 2*, a fan sequel to the film, turns Gwen Stacy into a bitter mess who blames Peter for her father's death which results in, after they got back together, her insulting and berating him until they break up to make way for the author's version of Mary Jane. - The *Better Watch Out* fanfic Better Watch Out: Aftermath portrays Ashley, who in the original movie was at worst a slight jerk, as a serial child rapist. This is also used to make the Draco in Leather Pantsed Luke Lerner look better. - *The Devil Wears Prada*: Nate is far from the perfect boyfriend in the film, but even with that, the fanbase portrays him as far worse than he actually is. Most fans make him out to be an abusive jerk, when the most he does is get angry at Andy for putting her job first. They also like to ignore his more positive traits, like trying to comfort Andy when she is forced to take Emily's place in Paris. This also comes from a healthy dose of Die for Our Ship, as a lot of Miranda/Andy shippers like to play him as far more aggressive in trying to get her to quit, when in reality he is right about the job changing her, mainly because Miranda admits to trying to do just that. - The *Marvel Cinematic Universe*'s very active shipping fandom has given us these: - *Sky High (2005)* - "The Good, The Bad, and The Misunderstood" derails Will, the Ordinary High-School Student protagonist, into what could be described as an unholy cross between Zapp Brannigan, Vernon Dursley, and Darwin Mayflower in the name of pairing his lancer and eventual Love Interest Layla with The Rival, Warren. From the beginning he's shown to have let his fame go to his head and begun to cheat on Layla (who is herself portrayed as an Extreme Doormat who always goes back to him rather than plantifying his ass), eventually graduating to beating her and finally, strapping her with a torture device and locking her in the closet for Warren to swoop in and save. The reviewers *hated* this, and Will was hastily retconned into an evil clone; chapter 8 ends with what seems to be an appearance by the real Will, but before it could be explained where he was or how the clone replaced him, the fic went dead. - "Don't Mess With a Peace" has Will's newfound celebrity post-movie go to his head (a very common theme in anti-Will fics) and he begins to feel he is entitled to have Layla. At the end he flat-out attempts to rape her before being defeated in a Heroic Sacrifice by Warren's Fixer Sue sister. - In "Layla at the End," he outright murders her, backhanding her through a wall that falls on top of her. - "Guerre et Paix" turns Steve, Will's father, into an unrecognizable drinker and Domestic Abuser, who, given that the story pairs Will with Warren, also gets the obligatory token homophobe role. It's also revealed that Josie cheated on him with someone heavily implied to be Wolverine, which is portrayed as a good thing. By the end, Steve's been carted off to rehab and Josie runs into the arms of her Hopeless Suitor, Mr. Boy. In the film, his worst trait is simply being a little too obsessed with the family name. - A number of backstory fics for *Star Trek (2009)* play out the existing villain version of this trope with Kodos from the original series. Canonically, Kodos was a particularly extreme Well-Intentioned Extremist who was trying, in his own twisted way, to save lives, and who carried incredible amounts of guilt over his actions for the rest of his life. In reboot fanfics he appears in, however, readers can expect to see him depicted as a Complete Monster who was eager for a chance to put his eugenic theories into practice (in some cases to the point of engineering the famine for this purpose), who cares only about the elimination of the unworthy and just uses the excuse of saving lives as a cover, and who actively participates in the rape and torture of children. - In *You Don't Have To (Say Yes)*, Kodos rapes Kirk repeatedly, painting Kirk's submission as the price for Kodos looking the other way on the children Kirk is trying to protect, and then killing Kirk's brother when he finds out and tries to put a stop to it. - In *Fruit of the Tree of Life*, Kodos keeps an estate with a massive surplus of food, but keeps it all for his chosen few and lets everyone else go hungry, even letting excess fruit lie and rot in his orchard rather than share it. He also forbids the grounds workers to take any of that extra food, even though they're all starving. Then it's revealed that he caused the famine deliberately to kill off the people he deemed unworthy. - In *The World Well Lost*, it's Kodos himself who's killing witnesses (an act that in canon was done without his knowledge, and he was horrified when he learned of it). He also gleefully recounts how he left a woman to burn to death because she wasn't "valuable enough to be worth saving" — a far cry from the canonical Kodos who viewed his actions as a necessary evil and certainly never indicates he took any pleasure from it. - *Star Trek Into Darkness* - *The Wizard of Oz*: - The Agony Booth's review of *It's a Wonderful Life* frames Mary as the villain of the film, causing George's poverty, his father's death, and his perpetual isolation in Bedford Falls due to having wished once that they could be married and giving away their honeymoon money. Interpreting her spur-of-the-moment wish as such ignores that 1.) even if Mary's wish caused Mr. Bailey's death, she had no idea it would go that way, 2.) Mary giving away the honeymoon money was done with George's full and no-reluctance consent. - An appreciable chunk of critics, fans and casual viewers alike tend to paint Kevin McAllister of *Home Alone* as a budding sadist and psychopath on par with Jigsaw because of the creatively painful traps he lays out to thwart the Wet Bandits, who are just nonviolent cat burglars. This does, however, overlook how the two crooks are breaking into a house where they *know* an unattended child is staying, and they even go so far as to taunt Kevin about it when they arrive to burglarize his home (" *We know that you're in there, and that you're *"). By that point, the kid is well within his rights to assume they mean him harm and respond accordingly. **all alone!** - In the 2000s there was a fansite with messageboard [1] dedicated to *mutant x* where protagonist "Adam" the leader of a group of mutants is in fanon the reckless scientist antagonist who controlled the mutants for their own gain, whereas the actual canon antagonist "mason eckhardt" was turned into the "antihero" that just wanted to help humanity to protect the genepool from the mutated people. The board was run by an old woman chemical technical assistant of a conservative persuasion. - *Star Wars*: - The "Darth Jar Jar" meme is an odd example of using Ron the Death Eater in order to invoke Draco in Leather Pants at the same time as an attempt to see the character in question Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. In canon, Jar Jar Binks is a well-meaning but Lethal Klutz who is banished on pain of death for being obnoxious. Despite getting into trouble, his bumbling inadvertently causes every *positive* story turn in *The Phantom Menace*, proving that even the seemingly useless have value. Unfortunately, said obnoxiousness created a venomous Hatedom and he became a punchline in mainstream media. Then some people started to recognize some of his influences and backstory, but came to the opposite and erroneous conclusion that Jar Jar was an evil Sith Lord manipulating even Palpatine... and therefore somehow a more worthwhile character than his canon arguably inspirational self. - Played for Laughs by this meme, which portrays Yoda as a racist, sociopathic sexual deviant who is addicted to ketamine and kills people (his preferred method being running them over in a 2001 Honda Civic) for any number of reasons. - The Massive Multiplayer Crossover *Avengers and Oliver & Co.: Ragnarok Madness* manages to single handedly demonise Tony Stark, Daisy Duck, Heimdall, Jarvis, Nick Fury, nearly all of the *Gargoyles* (sans Lexington) plus Elisa, Sunna, and even the freaking fossils at the Museum of Natural History. - *Code Prime* ramps up Suzaku's stupidity and denial to notably higher levels than in canon. In addition to his canon problems with accepting the problems of Britannia, he ends up blindly following Megatron for most of the story and denies the Autobots and Black Knights are good guys until it becomes screaming obvious who the bad guys are. This is a more transparent case than most since the author admits to a blatant hatred of Suzaku from his actions in *R2* of *Code Geass*. That said, once Suzaku joins the good guys, the hatred more or less died off shortly into the *R2* segement of the fic. - *Fantasia Times*: - The most notable instance of this is the "Royals" group of characters. While most of them in canon could be a little rude to their friends (those in the "Rebels" group of characters), most of the time it was just harmless snarking and/or them being Innocently Insensitive. Here, however, they're presented as being a stuck-up group who originally bullied their friends for daring to breach the status quo, only to ultimately see the error of their ways, perform a HeelFace Turn, and get promoted to love interests (we say "presented as" because they come off more as designated villains who basically painted a target on their backs by *daring* to question the Original Character). - There are a few straighter examples within the fic: King Beast goes from a reasonable authority figure to someone who's willing to *drown a child* when she steps out of line, and Ren Kunanzuki goes from an Innocently Insensitive teenager to a baby-snatcher and wannabe murderess. - *Shadows over Meridian* takes Caleb's canon stubbornness and short temper and dials them up, turning him into a borderline Knight Templar with an Irrational Hatred of Jade/Kage so extreme that he refuses to believe the evidence she provides that Nerissa was impersonating the Mage and manipulating the rebellion (even as everyone else accepts it), convincing himself that her presence on Meridian is the cause of everything that's gone wrong since Phobos was overthrown and ignoring his role in driving her towards the Knights of Vengeance. - *Superwomen of Eva: Emerald Fury*: While Asuka didn't have the most pleasant demeanor in canon, she at least had her sympathetic moments and qualities, and a painful backstory that explains that her behavior is the result of the psychological and emotional baggage she bears. In this story, she is portrayed as considerably harsher and ill-natured unlike in canon. It also doesn't help that the author dislikes Asuka. - *Super Sentai vs Nickelodeon* has Katara, Mr. Krabs and Pearl as part of the villains. - Many, *many* images, videos, and audio recordings depict Barney the Dinosaur as a child murderer courtesy of the show's Periphery Hatedom. - Perhaps the most notable example is the *Day of the Barney Trilogy*, wherein Barney is depicted as an Eldritch Abomination responsible for numerous atrocities throughout history and orders his juvenile followers to murder their parents en masse. - In addition, comedian Stephen Lynch recorded audio segments depicting Barney as a bus driver and a babysitter, which were often featured on *Opie & Anthony* when they were radio hosts in Boston. In the first track, Barney is a school bus driver who abuses children and encourages smoking. The second segment involves Barney babysitting two children. He invites over a prostitute and makes the children watch porn while doing so. - *The Muppet Show*: Various internet communities have done this to Kermit the Frog for whatever reason thats always Played for Laughs: - In the Game Grumps playthrough of *Pokémon Art Academy*, Kermit, voiced by Barry, declares his love for killing and murder. **Barry (as Kermit)**: I LOVE MURDER!! I LOVE KILLING, I LOVE MURDER!! - SMG4, covered below, also has done this to Kermit. In one video based on *Assassin's Creed Origins* Kermit wished to destroy Egypt and reshape it in his image. - He is regularly depicted in the Vinesauce community as Joel's abusive father. - Jacksfilms made a duo of animations involving Kermit singing and telling rather disturbing songs and stories to children. **Kermit**: When I'm through with you, they'll never find your body. And even if they did...all they'd find would be teeth! - *Sesame Street*: - Elmo, who suffers a similar Periphery Hatedom as Barney, gets this treatment as well. This is especially evident in the Aerosmith parody "Elmo's Got a Gun" by Tommy & Rumble, though it should be noted that it was miscredited to "Weird Al" Yankovic, who denied writing the song. - In addition, this website from 1997 depicts Bert as an evil man siding with Adolf Hitler and being present at events such as the Kennedy assassination. - The "Grover Goes to School" machinima series by Toadmushroom95 depicts Grover as a disobedient arsonist delinquent. - Not only that, "Bertstrips" depict *almost every* resident of the Street as some sort of sociopath or do-badder in situations that are usually based around racism, sex, murder, or hate crimes. Though this is Played for Laughs as these strips play the trope for Black Comedy. - *Super Mario 64* and *Garry's Mod* machinimist SMG4 depicts Teletubbies as insane, xenophobic, crowbar-wielding, Ax-Crazy maniacs feared and despised by the main cast. - In *Dragonlance* canon, Kender are treated as one of the better of the "good" races, with many of both the novels and the game sourcebooks spending a great deal of effort talking up their pure hearts and innocence. Statements like "Kender are the eternal children of Krynn" and how Krynn would be a darker place without them are common. However, years of experience at the tabletop of kender characters "borrowing" the wizard's spellbook and the cleric's holy symbol, all justified by their actual canon lore and characterization, has led to them becoming, in fanon, a despicable blight of inconsiderate thieves who are either brain-damaged or playing dumb. On some boards, killing Kender is considered to be Poke the Poodle-level evil at worst, as opposed to canon, where it's treated with about the same weight as murdering children. This is primarily because a Kender's more distasteful traits in canon are because they truly don't know any better and aren't actively interfering with the reader, whereas the player sitting across from you with a smug grin on his face most certainly *does* know what he's doing *and* is usually screwing the game up for you in the process. This has to lead to many a table throwing a campaign Off the Rails to start a genocidal campaign against the Kender. - There's a theory among *Dungeons & Dragons* fans that Pelor, the Greyhawk sun god who more or less embodies Light Is Good, is actually evil - depending on your version, he's either actually a god of fire, deserts, and burning, or a cover identity of Zarus, an obscure god of human supremacy. The evidence for this consists of a few artifacts with destructive aspects designed for undead-hunting, a myth where he refused to assist one of his clerics in the Cycle of Revenge, and the fact that one of his clerics was once shown casting an Evil spell (which wasn't considered Evil when said cleric was casting it). Though this is often clearly a joke, just as many people have taken it seriously. - More than a few people in the fandom of Brazilian tabletop RPG *Ordem Paranormal* consider the Ordo Realitas, an order dedicated to protecting people from paranormal monsters and evil cultists, to be worse than Kian, because they aren't willing to go to the same extremes (such as worldwide genocide) as him to stop the paranormal for good. The fans' reasoning for this is that murdering billions at once would be better in the long run than losing a number of people to paranormal entities every year - keep in mind, these same fans are often the ones quick to criticize the members of Ordo Realitas who kill/imprison cultists who have been caught doing something seemingly evil; never mind the fact that in-universe characters who have had contact with both groups pretty much unanimously have a much better opinion of the Order than of Kian's cultists, or that the people in Ordo Realitas genuinely care about each other and about innocent people. - Happens to Raoul of *The Phantom of the Opera* a lot, mostly due to being the perceived block between Christine and Erik getting together. The sequel, *Love Never Dies*, only added fuel to the fire, with Raoul suddenly becoming an alcoholic jerk who doesn't care about Christine. Because the writers said so. - *Wicked*: *Not Completely, Altogether Here* and its sequel are predominantly musical-based, with some book elements added in. In the fics, Elphaba's father Frexspar was an Abusive Parent who doted over Nessarose while scorning his elder daughter. Elphaba has fonder memories of her deceased mother Melena. In the actual books, the opposite is true: Melena had a hard time attaching to Elphaba and considered drowning her more than once, while Frex learned to love his green daughter quickly; Nessarose was still his favorite, but that didn't translate into poor treatment of Elphaba. In the musical, his favoritism of Nessarose is more blatant, but he's mostly just dismissive of Elphaba rather than actively cruel; meanwhile, very little is known about the mother at all. - *Borderlands 2* has an In-Universe example in *Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep* (a abridged retelling of the main story in the form of a *Dungeons & Dragons*-esque game). Tiny Tina makes you fight an Expy of ||Angel, who turns into a giant maniacal spider-woman. That's because she's pinning Roland's death on her, when in reality, Handsome Jack shot Roland from behind after Angel died in the battle, due to having her Eridium supply destroyed at her own request. Lilith and the others waste no time in calling her on this.|| - *Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals* is a Dark Parody of *Cooking Mama* by PETA that turns Mama into a messy animal-hater just because she isn't vegan. Halfway through, she turns good after becoming vegan and pledging not to cook non-vegan recipes anymore. - *Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns* gives this good to Bhelen, complete with a ridiculously long rant. - *Diablo*: In the Diablo III shrine of the Video Game Shrines, the Big Good Anu from canon is actually the Big Bad. He's an all-around terrible person, which means when his "good half" birthed angels, most of the angels were weak and ineffective, explaining why in the games, the forces of Heaven never give the player any meaningful help. Also, his real name is ||Anus||. - A small faction of *Disco Elysium* fandom, largely people who ship Titus/Glen, loathe Kim Kitsuragi because he is a cop, drawing attention to his willingness to let the Player Character abuse people and his willingness to pawn confiscated items to protect your character. Some fans even suggest that you can't be a fan of the character if you are against repressive state violence and racist abuse of power in real life. - *Fire Emblem*: - *Sandpaper and Satin* is a *Sacred Stones* fic that treats Lyon this way, making him out to be manipulative and passive-aggressive and even making Eirika resent him for trying to take her away from Seth. - *That Big Decision*, an Erk/Florina fic that paints Serra as a jealous bitch of the worst kind who would happily let Florina *die* just so she could have Erk all to herself. - *Forever With You*, an Ike/Soren Melodrama(which is no longer available) in which Micaiah goes from Well-Intentioned Extremist My Country, Right or Wrong to a jealous bitch who hates Soren to death for ||simply being the technical rightful heir to Daein|| and even goes so far as to have him *killed*. - Jealousy, a Chrom/Male Avatar fic that makes no bones about how the author feels about Sumia and her relationship with Chrom. Sumia goes from a sweet, clumsy, friendly girl who may have a crush on her prince to a whiny, petty little bitch who actively tries to break up Chrom and the Male Avatar's "true love". The Male Avatar doesn't come off too well either, turning him from a loyal friend into a just as petty jackass who tells Sumia "Well I had his child, so you can just back the fuck off." - Sumia gets it again in *Saphire and Chrom - The Birth of Lucina*, portrayed as a bitter, hateful bitch who wanted Chrom all for herself and only helps out an ailing female Avatar just so Chrom and the others won't yell at her. This also slides into Double Standard, as Gaius harbors feelings for the Avatar but falls more into the camp of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy. - *His Eyes*, a L'Arachel/Rennac fic that is no longer available, has L'Arachel married to Innes, who is portrayed as a controlling jerk who bruises her wrists to keep her from scratching during sex and is implied to be having an affair with Vanessa. (This also leads into Good Adultery, Bad Adultery, as L'Arachel has been carrying on an affair with Rennac for a long time but her cheating is justified because "they're in love"). - *Corrin in Peril* warps *the entirety of Nohr* into a bunch of card-carrying villains who enjoy heaping abuse on poor, innocent Corrin during her time as their prisoner, and thus deserving of being invaded and killed by the always-noble Hoshidans. Laslow and Odin arguably get it the worst — they're turned into cruel, callous abusers who mistreat and rape Corrin and gloat about killing Queen Mikoto *to Corrin's face*. - *YANDERE SUMIA*, just like the title implies, turns Sumia into a Yandere who murders all the other women who could possibly be Chrom's "waifu"- Maribelle, Sully, Olivia, "Female Avatar" and even the Maiden. When Chrom refuses to marry Sumia because she is a "waifu killer," she murders him, too. - *The Savior King, the Master Tactician and the Queen of Liberation*: The author outright states she hates The Flame Emperor/||Edelgard||, and so in addition to ramping up the character's existing negative traits, new flaws are created wholecloth to further turn the audience against them. For example, ||Edelgard|| canonically never disregarded Dimitri as an out-and-out madman as done in this fic, nor did ||she|| consider him naive, guileless, or stupid. ||She's|| also portrayed as disparaing Claude for being mixed-race, a sentiment never once hinted at in canon. - *Five Nights at Freddy's*: - While he's already a bad guy (or at least as much as the animatronics in general are), Balloon Boy's dickery gets bolstered quite a bit, most infamously in *Five Nights at Fuckboy's*. - A number of people, such as MatPat of *Game Theory*, believe the murderer William Afton and the Phone Guy to be one and the same, citing how both were security guards and how one of the former's sprites has him holding an object interpreted to be an old-fashioned phone, among other things. This has largely died down following the release of the third game, as it shows Afton met his end after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was closed and left to rot, whereas Phone Guy died months or even years when it was still in operation, thus disproving the theory, but a number of people believed in it regardless. The theory was debunked by Scott himself. - Luis Cabrera, a secondary character from the *Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery* unintended emails, tends to receive a variant of this. He's a co-worker of "Ness" (aka Vanny/Vanessa) who repeatedly messages her about her bizarre online behavior and Sanity Slippage, with the implication that he's also romantically interested in her, judging by his frequently complimenting her and trying to ask her out for coffee. He later ends up manipulated by her, in large part because of his feelings. Many fans understandably see his actions as "creepy" because he oversteps boundaries and keeps sending messages even when Vanessa isn't going to respond. However, a few fans exaggerate his actions as being an Abhorrent Admirer who feels entitled to Vanessa's love and attention. Reading between the lines throughout his emails shows that, while his actions do have some stalkerish implications that would make someone feel uncomfortable, it's less out of maliciousness and/or entitlement and more out of being anxiety-prone and having poor social skills. Luis is legitimately trying to reach out to a co-worker undergoing Sanity Slippage he has feelings for, it's just not the best way of going about it. He also later admits he's "probably overstepping" in later emails. It's also easy to forget that Luis is checking her search history at least partly because of his job as someone on the IT team who gets notified of "red flag" search terms. - Being a protagonist both known for having an implied Dark and Troubled Past and prone to morally grey actions in an IP that where almost every situation is an Ambiguous Situation has made it almost inevitable that Gregory, the Kid Hero player character of *Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach*, is sometimes interpreted in a harsher or more cynical light by some members of the fandom. While some of these are legitimate Epileptic Trees about Gregory's characterization or role in the story, there are others who exaggerate his more questionable moments as pure villainy rather than, at worst, pragmatic ruthlessness to survive. For example, ||while Vanny getting 'disassembled' in one ending is obviously a horrible way to go out, Gregory not only does it in self-defense but is urged by Freddy to do so.|| Other than his Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, Gregory is portrayed in-story as a Mouthy Kid whose darker personality traits most likely come from ||seemingly living on the streets and having to 'grow up' faster as a result||, with no major indication as to otherwise. - *Genshin Impact*: There is a tendency to present Raiden Shogun's actions as much more harmful than they actually were and calling her an outright criminal, who Inazuma had to be saved from by the Traveler. - The infamous Vision Hunt Decree is often seen as a crime she has never been held accountable for. Realistically speaking, however, it was simply a new law Raiden Shogun has passed and, being the ruler of Inazuma, she had full right of doing so. It can be seen as an equivalent of gun control laws which are completely common in Real Life (just like Sakoku Decree is just a regular border control). Nobody has ever died as a direct result of the Decree, even if they refused to hand over their Vision, nor was it a threat to Inazuma's sovereignty. The only people who have been killed were the ones who formed La Résistance and tried to use military force to overrule her, causing a civil war. - The game made it clear that majority of Inazumans didn't care much about the Vision Hunt which is not surprising, since most people don't have Visions. This law didn't affect them, so it's hard to expect some huge social backlash against Raiden's rule. ||Same goes for Ei locking herself up and supposedly leaving the country without care for 500 years, since the Shogun who was put in her place was a competent substitute leader (so much that citizens generally didn't notice a difference).|| - Contrary to frequent accusations, there is no known person who has been actually "murdered" by Raiden. She is often resented for killing Kazuha's friend and (to a lesser extent) ||La Signora||, but both these cases were fair duels and "the loser dies" rule was clearly established and agreed upon. All participants were (or at least should be) ready to face the consequences of defeat and even Kazuha himself doesn't bear a grudge against Raiden Shogun or Sara (despite what his fan portrayals would suggest). - *Kid Icarus Uprising 2: Hades Revenge* gives this treatment to Dark Pit, or as he is called in the story, Pittoo. In the source material, he is neutral at worst, while the fanfic has him as part of the Big Bad Ensemble. His track record in the story includes attacking a university and submitting various tortures upon the children within, stealing a nuke, then building his own when it's stolen off him, sacrificing Pit to create a 'zomboy' army, stealing *The 3 Scarred Treaures*, unleashing The Smooze on the world, teaming up with Hitler, Stalin, Frollo, and David Cameron, tricking Cloud Angle into destroying the world, framing Pit for terrorism, brainwashing Mao Zedong into attacking Japan, and building a laser cannon to bring the world to his mercy. - *The Legend of Zelda*: - In *Zelda's Honor*, even though it is zigzagged and justified within the context of the story, it is still shocking to see ||Ruto, the Zoran princess|| turn evil for the majority of the fanfic; often times swapping sides based on either mood or circumstance. - Played straight with ||Kafei|| who is first introduced as chivalrous and good but turns full-on villain by the end of his story arc. - In "The Fate of House Tula", Ganondorf makes some comments expressing male chauvinist tendencies. Not only has he never even been *hinted* to have sexist views, it would make no sense for him to do so given his background and upbringing. - *Mega Man*: - *Miitopia* plays with this. In the game you can cast Miis as various characters in the story, including the main villain the Dark Lord. Sometimes this leads to this trope such as Dark Lord Morshu or Dark Lord SpongeBob. - *Sonic the Hedgehog*: The fanfic *Bloody Domination* took Anti-Hero Shadow the Hedgehog and turned him into an insane, remorseless paedophile by the second chapter, rapidly moving on to a complete psychopathic serial killer and rapist, driven insane because... well... why the hell not? The author was apparently bent on discovering just how gruesome a story she was capable of writing, and most reviewers seemed to find it successful (while others didn't seem to get that this was the point). Many demanded a sequel. - *OMORI*: - In many fanfics where ||The aftermath of Sunny's confession that he accidentally killed Mari|| is explored, you can bet that it will portray Hero as ||losing it the most due to how he and Mari were in a (presumably) committed relationship at the time of her death.|| This makes this somewhat justified, but not to the extent that Hero would *kill Sunny* over it, especially since he's the Martial Pacifist of the friend group. - For some reason, fans depict ||Basil as an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer who's willing to kill anyone to prevent Sunny's secret from getting out,|| when it's...Basil we're talking about. - Mari, in canon, is generally a Cool Big Sis who, at her absolute worst, has a perfectionist streak that makes her Innocently Insensitive and ||her death is clearly a tragic accident that everyone involved deeply regrets||. A common Fandom-Specific Plot, however, portrays her as an abusive Big Sister Bully whose nicer traits are a facade, with such stories ||implying — if not outright stating — that she *deserved* to die||. - *Spyro the Dragon*: Ember was included in *The Legend of Spyro: A New Dawn* mainly to defy this trope because the author was sick and tired of her getting this treatment by the fandom. Quite a few readers agreed and she ended up being the Ensemble Dark Horse. - *Story of Seasons*: - Sugarapplesweet likes depicting the sweet, chaste pastor Carter as villainously lustful towards Popuri in particular. The one-shot *Condemned Passion* turns Carter into a rapist and a murderer. He's lusted after the childishly innocent Popuri for a long time. One day he spiked her wine and tried to have his way with her, but Popuri resisted, which resulted in him hitting her and accidentally killing her. *Satan's Ballroom* outright turns Carter into a Pedophile Priest drooling over a child Popuri. - *Best Friends* does this to all of Forget-me-not Valley and Mineral Town. All the villagers are too ignorant and/or homophobic to realize the protagonist and her female companion are a couple, not "best friends". - James Sunderland of *Silent Hill 2* gets this a lot from certain fans. Canonically, ||he did perform a Mercy Kill on his wife that was in part motivated by the emotional abuse, neglect, and sexual frustration he suffered as a result of her terminal illness and mood swings||, but to hear some fans go on about it, he's a ||murderer and monstrous sexual predator who views all women as nothing more than objects to sate his lust, as reflected by how the monsters he faces are all feminine and sexualized in appearance||. What this overlooks is that James is haunted by these suggestive entities because ||he's *consumed with guilt and self-loathing* over letting his selfish feelings drive him to take Mary's life, which the malevolent forces behind Silent Hill are exploiting to torment him||. Although, interestingly, the nature of the game means his true characterization is partially up to the individual player; ||if you obtain the "Maria" ending, then James *does* give in to his baser desires and effectively abandons his love for Mary by accepting Maria —what the town offers to James as an "idealized" version of his late wife— as a substitute||. - *Super Mario Bros.*: - *Touhou Project*: - The Chinese *Touhou* doujin *Yuyuko's Yukkuri Farm* goes to the extreme and has Yuyuko raising yukkuris in order to eat their babies. The author is extremely fond of depicting Yuyuko as a sadist and has a major dislike of her. - A Dark Fic author by the name of Stripe Pattern believes Byakuren, a kind, selfless Buddhist magician who believes in equality between humans and youkais, is a psychotic monster. In Stripe Pattern's doujin *Love and Peace*, Byakuren is shown helping youkais slaughter humans for food before she was sealed, saying that since humans and youkais are equal, youkais eating humans is exactly the same as humans eating rice and fruit. The author *actually quotes* Byakuren's background to support the "fact" that she's evil. The same author also depicts Sanae, a happy-go-lucky ditz with racist tendencies and an overt fondness for youkai extermination note : In canon, it's kept ambiguous as to whether or not "youkai extermination", as it's called by Reimu, actually results in the death of the youkai, though youkai characters supposedly exterminated pop up to complain about getting beaten up by the heroines, and the spellcard system was specifically instated to avoid actual death., as a very serious, sadistic Blood Knight who hates her own goddesses (people she loves in canon) who goes insane frequently. - One author, Zounose, has Byakuren come up with a way to keep the youkai she takes care of from eating people: use the corpses of recently dead babies to fertilize the fruit trees she grows, so that the resulting fruit technically counts as human flesh note : According to the local "expert" on everything in the series' setting, and the youkai themselves (who are also prone to saying things to scare off humans), youkai require human flesh to survive. In fanon, this often ranges from being outright ignored or questioned, to proof that youkai are all sadistic eldritch abominations with an evil morality, out to murder humans. Just so we're clear that the author doesn't consider this to be a good thing, everything is done in sinister tones and Byakuren chews on the flesh of one of the fruits, saying it's the secret to her youth note : even though canonically, magicians *don't need food* in the first place and are already immortal, which is, for obvious reasons, a major no-no in Japan. Or anywhere else. The same artist also considers Sakuya to be willing to murder her own mistress, someone she's undyingly loyal to in canon. - There's a mildly popular series among a certain subset of fans revolving around Koishi, who can manipulate the subconscious, being a cannibalistic, sadistic psychopath. Note that, in canon, Koishi is considered to be brain-dead, with absolutely no thoughts or personality of her own. note : This is, of course, only speculated by the resident Unreliable Narrator. In addition, Koishi's power to manipulate subconsciousness often gets warped into an evil power by cynical artists who consider the subconsciousness a very nasty place.. And Koishi isn't the only one who gets it either. Sanae is a youkai hating fanatical serial killer, Byakuren is a Dark Messiah who rallies the youkai into committing genocide on the humans, Yuyuko is a cannibal who eats Youmu when she first appears, and so on. Although most of these are actually subversions, since ||they (including Koishi) were all Driven to Madness by the *true* antagonists so they could put Yukari in a position to be killed||. The actual examples of this trope are ||the Watatsuki sisters (who go from just being xenophobic jerkasses in canon to the evil masterminds behind the slaughter of Gensokyo's inhabitants), Koakuma (who willingly sided with the Watatsukis and is a yandere who rapes Patchouli) and most of the Lunarians||. - This is subverted in the doujin *The Silence of the Rabbits*, which depicts Eirin as a sadistic monster who does cruel experiments and is also a cannibal. The subversion is that ||this isn't the real Eirin, but a clone that Eirin created to manage the other clones that she created, but who went evil, incapacitated and imprisoned her. The clone wanted to come up with a poison that could kill a Hourai immortal, but despite her advances, she feared the original, and it turns out during the climactic battle between the Eirins that Eirin created her using the template for the Reisen clones rather than her own||. - With some characters, it gets up to a Memetic Mutation, as shown on Memes.Touhou Project. The opposite is rarer, due to White-and-Grey Morality in canon. - Post- *Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time*, a notable streak formed in the fandom depicting Penelope's actions in the previous game in as negative a light as possible, and as having been Evil All Along. At least, from those fans who didn't take "the Penelope twist" as reason to disown the game entirely. - *Undertale*: - ||Chara/The Fallen Child's|| portrayals in fanon may or may not be this. The game isn't shy about being ambiguous in their personality, and leaves hints for both ||Chara being rotten to the core|| or ||the game's narrator on all routes, who has a sense of humor and compassion.|| - Asgore sometimes suffers from this in some fanworks, being depicted as a Crazy Jealous Guy or a Stalker with a Crush towards ||Toriel|| and a far worse person than he is in general. While Asgore is not exactly morally pure (it's hard to excuse ||killing six children and trying to commit genocide||), the game goes out of its way to depict him as a fundamentally Nice Guy who felt he had no choice. And while he does wish to get back with them, he respects their choice and is shown in the ending working for them, which implies the two of them were able to mend their relationship somewhat. - This of course works the other way around: ||Toriel|| is often made a bad person so Asgore can be seen as better than he actually is. - *Final Fantasy X*: In *Crimson And Clover*, Auron, the grumpy old samurai mentor, tries to rape someone. - Callisto Hime wrote some *The Legend of Zelda* and *Fire Emblem* that had this unfortunate effect with the characters in the latter franchise, mostly owing to her scarce knowledge of it at the time. The most notable example is Marth, who is portrayed in the story as being so desperate to save his nation from the incoming war, that he would break off his friendship with Link and take advantage of Zelda while she's emotionally vulnerable to sway her to his side, things that canon Marth, while suffering losses that take a heavy toll on him, would never resort to. - *Ace Attorney*: - Klavier Gavin is one of the few rivals who isn't an Amoral Attorney, and is The Charmer. In these fics (hide your kids first), both by the same author, well... this comment left on one of the fics will explain: || Okay, I know that Klavier can be mean(in a funny way) but THIS mean? That's sick. That's just sick! Maybe he likes Ema but not that much. Why would he rape her? I know its fanfiction but GAWD.|| - The fanfic *Dirty Sympathy* turns Butt-Monkey attorney who never seems to get respect from anyone Apollo Justice and Klavier into Amoral Attorneys who frame Kristoph Gavin and Daryan Crescend for the murders of Shadi Smith and Romein LeTouse just so they can get a Dirty Cop and another Amoral Attorney in jail/executed. However this is downplayed, as Klavier and Apollo are portrayed more sympathetically than Kristoph or Daryan. - Iris is sometimes changed from misguided but kind and well-intentioned person to Extreme Doormat who will do whatever her sister asks her to including murder. Case in point: This fic has her actively help ||murder Phoenix|| even though her canonical motivation for participating in Dahlia's necklace plot in the first place was to prevent her from doing just that. - Before *The Circus* confirmed that Stella from *Helluva Boss* did abuse Stolas and went out of her way to belittle and demean him every chance she got even before he cheated on her, she was often depicted as an abuser by Stolitz (Stolas/Blitzø) shippers instead because Stella happened to be married to Stolas. In a fit of rage, after learning that Stolas has cheated on her with a lowly imp, Stella hires Striker to assassinate Stolas. While Stella certainly was far from a saint, there was no indication at the time that Stella abused Stolas, much less was an abusive partner to him - or neglectful or abusive to their daughter, Octavia. Despite this, many "pre-Season 2" fanfictions, fan art pieces, and fan comics go out of their way to demonize Stella for "getting in the way of Stolas and Blitzø being together". One fanfiction even goes as far as to depict Stolas and Octavia teaming up to torture and murder Stella in a graphic way. - *RWBY* - In the fic *Trials Of A Workaholic*, Weiss is depicted as sexually abusive. This was apparently based off her Squeeing over Pyrrha's battle skills *for all of two scenes*. Why the author even thought that it was sexually motivated, we don't know. - In *Pinned*, Pyrrha—of all characters—is depicted as a rapist. This is the girl whose greatest canonical flaw is that she's so compassionate she can't speak up for herself. - Pyrrha is not the only example. Taiyang Xiao Long has been depicted a few times as being a poor parent to Yang or Ruby or, in the case of *Fixing A Broken Mother*, a terrible husband to Summer. Mind you, Taiyang's defining character trait is that of being the best father he can be to his children, exemplified by the fact that his Establishing Character Moment is of him sleeping in a chair at his comatose daughter's bedside, and had a Heroic BSoD upon Summer's death. Fans who prefer the theory that Qrow is Ruby's father often downplay Taiyang's relationship with Ruby, such as *A Simple Request* where Ruby wants her uncle to give her away on her wedding day because she's closer to him than she is with her father. - In *The Plus One Of RWBY*, Weiss is portrayed as greedy, short sighted and selfish, with all her canon acts being reinterpreted as one sided and all Rule of Funny thrown out. Her line "I'm not perfect, not yet" is considered a heinous act of arrogance, and causes the "hero" to go into a psychotic rage and considers killing her for it justified (he doesn't do it, but acts like not killing her is showing restraint and mercy) - The Betrayal Fic *Queen of Grimm* has Weiss and Pyrrha team up with CRDL to kill Ruby simply because they find her to be deadweight. - *Learning To Bloom* downplays Neptune's good elements and turns him into a womanizing Gold Digger towards Weiss, while Jaune is a suffocating boyfriend (bordering on Abhorrent Admirer) towards Pyrrha. - *Second Summer* has Taiyang manipulating Ruby into acting as a mini version of her mother Summer. This includes answering to Summer's name and having sex with him. Eventually Qrow finds out, kills Taiyang, and rescues his nieces. - The Volume 7 AU fic *Ironside* has this done to Team RWBY, Blake and Yang, specifically, as well as the Happy Huntresses. So far, their actions have proven to be harshly detrimental and the fic goes to show how said actions have repercussions which none suffered from in canon. - Coeur Al'Aran has a thing for this. - Many works where Team RWBY *isn't* part of the primary focus has them cast in a much more disparaging light, seeing them punished for civilian casualties that didn't exist in canon or giving them In-Universe Protagonist-Centered Morality. *Null* deliberately takes this to its logical extreme, with the team uncaring about said civilian casualties and coming off almost worse than the actual villains of the fic, but *A Rabbit Among Wolves* and *Professor Arc* hits them with Adaptational Dumbass and have them the subject of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for their canon actions. - Ozpin is subjected to this more often than not. His personality is often heavily changed to make him less benevolent and well-intentioned, though *how* it's done depends on the genre. In more comedic works like the aforementioned *Professor Arc*, Ozpin is often made an Adaptational Jerkass and Adaptational Dumbass, being made out as the butt of numerous jokes while his canon plans are mocked relentlessly. In more drama-focused works, Ozpin is given Adaptational Villainy, being made very duplicitous and monstrous in his own right, with a willingness to sacrifice *anything* if it means stopping Salem. - The Brothers get this treatment by some fans as being the true Big Bad, not helped that they were already Jerkass Gods even before the birth of humanity as they used the world as their personal playground to make and break whatever they want. Even their decision to make humanity as a compromise between them is seen more like an experiment at their mercy as long as they played by their rules. Their lack of attachment to humanity and how they work ends up making Salem look nice despite her selfishness and twisting her subordinates wishes into her favor, and several Crossover fics having her get her wish to destroying them, along with dying herself. - *The Petri Dish*: While Thaddeus Euphemism isn't perfect, he ultimately means well. In *The Peutrid Dish*, however, he's outright evil. Justified as it's implied he lives in a parallel universe from the canon Thaddeus. - *Rain (2010)*: While Gavin in the early chapters was certainly a bit of a rude, Jerkass who had trouble accepting that his childhood friend Rain is Transgender, he was still genuinely trying his best to understand Rains situation and is struggling with his own crush on her as well. Despite this, some readers just found him to be nothing but an irredeemable Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, to the point that they even expected him to be the comics Big Bad. After he Took a Level in Kindness, fans eventually warmed up to him. - *Sleepless Domain*: A major turn of events in the comic occurs when Cassidy accuses main character Undine of somehow being responsible for the fate of her former teammates — three of whom were killed in action, while the fourth gave up her powers to save Undine's life. An over-the-top Dark Parody fan comic takes Cassidy's tactless accusation and runs with it, as Cassidy awakens chained up in Undine's Torture Cellar where she extracts girls' powers before killing them.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PaintTheHeroBlack

Parental Title Characterization - TV Tropes *"He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn't your daddy."* In fiction, how you refer to your parents is a sign of your relationship with them. "Mom"/"Mum" and "Dad" (or the languages counterparts) are the most neutral and "normal" terms that most characters use. Other titles have more meaning behind them. In some cases, switching from "Mommy"/"Mummy" and "Daddy" to "Mom"/"Mum" and "Dad" is just a matter of a younger user wanting to be seen as a "big kid." A Spoiled Brat or Daddy's Girl will often refer to her father as "Daddy" even as most of her peers outgrow the title, especially if she's rich. In contrast, a full-grown man calling his mother "Mommy" or "Mummy" is seen as goofy or weird, signifying he is either a Momma's Boy, a Manchild, or that his mother is the My Beloved Smother type. "Ma" and "Pa" carry similar levels of informality as the above examples, but in a more rural sense fitting for a Farm Boy (or girl). "Mother" and "Father" used to be perfectly neutral terms but have become formal and old-fashioned over time. It can signify that the characters are uptight and formal, they're royalty, or that their parents are distant. Using "Sir", "Ma'am", and other extremely formal titles has even more weight to it than referring to them as just "Mother" and "Father". It's almost always to signify that the character's parents as abusive, aloof and unaffectionate, or are militaristic. Some children may be expected to address parents by their professional titles, in lieu of using parental titles if they're also their children's students or subordinates, out of respect and keeping personal and professional lives separate. Works of Xenofiction often have animals refer to their parents as "mother" and "father" (assuming he's present) in order to emphasis their otherness. There's some Values Dissonance to this trope. For example, using "Mama" and "Papa" as an adult can be seen as childish in one area or during one time period but perfectly normal and affectionate in another. The Super-Trope to Calling Parents by Their Name, which is used when characters call their parents by their given name and usually signifies either lax parents or bad familial relationships. Compare New Parent Nomenclature Problem, which is like this trope but applied to a "new" parent (adoptive, stepparent, etc.) See also Japanese Sibling Terminology and Japanese Pronouns, which are just as personal for the user. Related to You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious and You're Not My Father. Also see Significant Name Shift. ## Examples: - *Are You Lost?*: - Homare calls her father "Papa," which Shion finds cute. - Shion uses the very respectful "Otou-sama" and "Okaa-sama" ("Father" and "Mother") on her parents, reflecting her privileged upbringing. - *Citrus*: - Mei calls her father, who was a teacher at her family's school for much of her childhood, "Sensei" rather than "Father," as a show of respect for his work. Unfortunately, after Shou leaves, Mei is greatly shaken, although she does eventually come to terms with his decision and calls him "Father" as she sees him off on his latest trip. - Yuzu, who's by far the more laid-back of the two stepsisters, calls her mother "Mama," and calls her late father and stepfather "Papa." By comparison, Mei calls her stepmother "Mother." - In *Comic Girls*, Tsubasa, a tomboyish girl who comes from a very wealthy family, addresses her parents by the very formal "Otou-sama" and "Okaa-sama" (translated as "Father" and "Mother") while at home. It's played with, though, in that this is less proof of the kind of person Tsubasa is and more of the kind of person her parents expect her to be. - In *Digimon Adventure 02*, thirteen-year-old Mimi is known to lead a comfortable life. When being picked up from a party in one episode, she calls her father "Papa" in the original version and "Daddy" in the dub. It may have had more to do with Gratuitous English in one case, and matching lip flap in the other. In *Digimon Adventure*, she was ten, but called her father "Dad." - In his Lotus-Eater Machine experience in the second-to-last episode, eight-year-old Cody thinks he's with his father, who had died by the time he was four or five. He's a very intelligent and serious young man; that the subtitles for the original version of this scene have Cody addressing his father as "Daddy" speaks to the emotional impact his father's loss has on him. The dub team made him a year older, so it makes sense that they had him call his father "Dad". - Cana in *Fairy Tail* tends to call Gildarts by his given name. This is a mixture of her spending years before working up the courage to tell him he was her father, and him quickly becoming an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent once he finds out, much to her chagrin. That said, during the final arc, she does call him "Dad" when he's going up against August and putting his life on the line to protect her. - *Food Wars!*: The relationship between Soma and Erina and their respective fathers, Joichiro and Azami, is clearly shown by the way each one addresses them. Soma, who is very laidback and casual, calls Joichiro "Oyaji", and the two have a very close relationship with each other, with Soma looking up to Joichiro and wishing to surpass him one day as a chef. Erina, on the other hand, calls Azami "Otou-sama", which is both due to her being raised as an Ojou, as well as a mixture of respect and fear due to Azami being an Abusive Dad to her (albeit in a Knight Templar Parent way). - *Fullmetal Alchemist*: - Most of the Homunculi call the Big Bad "Father," but Greed, the rebellious offspring, is far more casual and flippant with Father, calling him "Dad" or other such terms. - Ed usually calls Hohenheim by name due to their strained relationship (something Ed's traveling companions once call him out on), while Al, who's less judgmental of his father, still calls him "Dad." At the end of the series, after Hohenheim offers to ||sacrifice himself to bring Al back from the other side of the Gate||, Ed angrily refuses the offer, saying "You're useless, Dad!", something that Hohenheim's happy to hear. - In *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable*, Josuke Higashikata insists on referring to Joseph Joestar, who fathered him in an extramarital affair with Josuke's mother and only recently found out about Josuke being his son, "Joestar-san"/"Mr. Joestar," which is appropriately respectful but expresses that Josuke doesn't consider Joseph his father. - *Lyrical Nanoha*: - Chrono, a TSAB Enforcer who's highly professional and serious to a fault, almost always refers to his mother Lindy, who commands the ship he serves on, as "the captain." There are only two exceptions- he calls her "Mom" once when highly flustered in the original series (before correcting himself), and once refers to her as "my mother" in passing during the second season. - Subaru and Ginga generally call their father, Major Genya Nakajima, "Otou-san"("Dad") but Ginga switches to "commander" while on duty since she serves in her father's battalion. Their adopted siblings have varying modes of address- the very formal Cinque calls Genya "Chichi-ue" ("Father"), Genki Girl Wendi uses "Papa-rin," and Dieci and Nove also use "Otou-san." - In some fan translations, Fate calls Precia "Mother," but calls her adoptive mother, Lindy, "Mom," signifying she has a closer relationship with the latter note : In the original Japanese, Fate uses "Okaa-san" on both. Of course, while her relationship with Lindy is better, it isn't easily established, as it takes her the entirety of the second season to call Lindy "Mom" rather than "Admiral Lindy" (or "Lindy-san" around people who don't know about the TSAB). - Fate's children Erio and Caro address her as "Fate-san"(unlike Vivio, who calls her "Fate-mama"). While it's clear that they love and respect her, their choice of address means it's unclear how much they think of her as their mother. - *Major*: Goro has this it in a subtle way. He calls his late biological father Shigeharu Honda "Otosan" which is mildly formal, while he calls Hideki Shigeno "Oyaji", which straddles the line between being affectionate and disrespectful (depending on Goro's mood), which suggests he may have slightly more respect for Shigeharu. That said, Goro does have a close relationship with Hideki (even taking his surname later on), so it may have to do with his own personality more than preferences over one father. - *My Hero Academia*: - Katsuki Bakugo is a hotheaded and rude individual who doesn't even bother to learn most of his classmates' names, instead using insulting nicknames on them. He's similarly rude to his mother, calling her names like "hag", much to her displeasure. - By contrast, Momo Yaoyorozu, a polite girl from a wealthy family and Tenya Iida, a serious and upstanding young man, respectfully call their parents "Mother" and "Father." Tenya's older brother Tensei also does the same. - Shoto Todoroki uses various disparaging terms while referring to his father, due to their extremely strained relationship. He also sometimes refers to him by his hero name, Endeavor, less out of disrespect and more as a way of acknowledging that while Endeavor is a terrible father, he's a great hero, thereby being entirely different people in public and in private. He does call Endeavor "Father" ||when Endeavor suffers a Heroic BSoD after realizing that the villain Dabi is his supposedly dead son Toya||, perhaps showing that he does care about him. - *Naruto*: - Boruto usually calls his father Naruto " *oyaji*" (old man) to emphasis his feelings of neglect by his father. When he's happy with his dad, he calls him the very affectionate " *tou-chan*" ("Dad" in the English dub). - Sarada does not know her father Sasuke well due to ||him being on a mission since she was a toddler||, however, she refers to him with the affectionate "Papa" (changed to "Dad" in the English dub). She also refers to her mother by "Mama" ("Mom" in the English dub). - In *Itachi's Story*, Itachi usually calls Fugaku "Father" after graduating the academy at a very young age, which Itachi sees as "a distinction he drew for himself as a full-fledged ninja." When the time comes for the massacre, Itachi switches back to using "Dad," (even though he can't remember the last time he called Fugaku that), because now that he knows that he's going to be parted from his parents forever, Itachi longs for the good old days when they were a family. - In *New Game!*, Ko Yagami starts to call her mother "Mama" ("Mommy" in the dub), but then switches to "my mother," when talking to Aoba, apparently not wanting to seem childish, since Ko is 25 at the start of the series. Ko's best friend, Rin, teases her about it when she overhears Ko on the phone with her mother. - In *One Piece*, Vivi usually calls her father, Cobra, "Papa," but at the end of the arc, tells him "Sit down, Papa... I mean, *Father*." Cobra briefly remarks at how much Vivi's grown up. - *Pokémon*: - James calls his grandparents "Nana" and "Pop-Pop", implying both that he's a bit preppy and that he's close to them. - Lillie usually calls Lusamine "Mother", with one exception in the English dub — she briefly calls out for "MOMMY!" when ||Lusamine is kidnapped by Nihilego||. - *Ranma ½*: Ranma's love-hate relationship with his Jerkass father is cemented by always referring to him as "oyaji", rather than "otou-san" (in English, this becomes "Pop"). He has a greater deal of respect for his mother, but his casual manner of speaking is set in stone, so it earns her an "ofukuro" from her son (literally "bag", but it stays "Mom" in other translations). - On *Spy X Family*, Anya always calls Loid "chichi" note : "Papa" in the English translation since she's a very young girl, even though Loid tells her to call him "father," since his mission (which is the reason he adopted Anya) requires him to have Anya attend a school attended by many children of wealthy Ostanian families. It's worth pointing out that "chichi" is often used when talking *about* one's father, rather than talking *to* one's father. - In the English dub of the second season of *Sword Art Online*, Asuna alternates between using "Mother" and "Mom" on Kyouko, using the former in more tense moments, and the latter when they're getting along better. She also meekly obeys a request to come to dinner with a "Yes, ma'am." - In *A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow*, Koyuki Honami, the daughter of a teacher at her school, refers to her father as "Honami-sensei" while at school, one of many things she does to keep up her reputation as a model student. - *Yuru Oyako*: - Yuuki calls her mother Sayaka, by name, because she has an incestuous crush on Sayaka. - Sayaka most often calls her mother, the president of the company where they both work, "President," since Sumika is her boss as well as her mother. Sumika insists that Sayaka call her "Mom" note : Actually the much more formal "Okaa-sama" in the original Japanese off the clock. - The rich Daddy's Girl Veronica from *Archie Comics* refers to her father as "Daddy" even as an adult. - *Batman*: - Lonely Rich Kid Tim Drake usually addresses his father as "dad" or "sir", but when talking about him to others or in his inner monologue it's more often "father" or "Jack". His mom is "mom" or "mommy" regardless. - Damian Wayne calls his dad father. Its representative of being raised in a formal, hands off cult of assassins. - In *Cat's In The Cradle*, Sayaka Maizono notices that Kyoko Kirigiri doesn't call her father Jin "Dad" or even "Father," and wonders if it's because Jin is headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. Kyoko then replies that it's partly for that reason, and partly because she doesn't think of him as her father. - Perhaps to highlight how distant and abusive she is towards her kids, *Cellar Secrets* has Satsuki and Nui refer to Ragyo as "the Mistress". In the first chapter, Satsuki does call her "Mother" but doesn't stick to calling her that. At another point, Ryuuko dubs Satsuki, her older sister, as "Mam", to emphasize that Satsuki's pratically her mother. - With *Cinders and Ashes: the Chronicles of Kamen Rider Dante*, the fanfic takes an aspect of what *Re:CREATORS* established (that being the creators' relationships to their creations are akin to parent and child) and applies that logic by having characters call their creators by parental titles. In particular... - Magane refers to her creator as daddy, showcasing her playful (if outright dangerous) side. - Likewise, Yudai also refers to Hoshi as "dad" most of the time, though often switching it up to father. Emphasizing his more rebellous personality. Though, this is less of him actually acknowledging him as a parent and more constantly guilt tripping him into acknowledging he created him. - Then there's Vega, who exclusively calls Hoshi father to symbolize a more regal persona. Though, he also insists to call Altair mother due to her connections to him. Likewise, due to her own refined tone, Altair refers to her *own* Creator as mother. - In *Continuance*, Soji Seta (aka the protagonist) calls his parents "Mother" and "Father," showcasing his distant relationship from them. Yukiko calls her mother "Mom" and her father "Daddy," (in the game, she uses "Mother" on her mother, and uses "Father" on her father in the manga adaptation), to show a hidden playful side to her. - *A Different Point of View*: Even after turning fourteen, Muffy still calls her father "Daddy" (but her mother is just "Mom"). This shows that she's a Daddy's Girl. - *Dragon Ball Z Abridged*: Freeza is portrayed as an even *bigger* Spoiled Brat than his canon counterpart, which is only reinforced by his constantly calling his father "Daddy". - In *Goldstein,* the Orthodox Jewish characters usually call their parents "Mummy and Tatty." One of Yehudah's friends, Danzinger, comes from a family that used to be less observant than their neighbors; the fact that he called his mother "Mum" was one thing that set him apart from the other children. - *Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail*: As Chloe's relationship with her father degrades, she increasingly mentally refers to him by his title rather than as her parent. By the end of the first act, she's addressing him as "Professor Cerise". - Invoked by Jacques in *Lullabies and Fairy Tales*. He insisted that his daughter Weiss use a formal "Mother" instead of "Mommy". - In *Let the World Smile*, Zelda refers to her father as "my lord". This emphasizes the distant relationship between the two. Her father is more king than parent. - Used with Yang in the one-shot *Love, Lose, Repeat, Prioritize*. As a child she referred to her step-mother Summer as "mommy" or "mama", but strictly used a more formal and distant "mom" for her absent biological mother Raven. - Discussed in the *Ma Fille* chapter "Growing Up"; the realization that Katrina isn't a little kid anymore is when she starts called Joe "dad" instead of "daddy". - *The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.*: - In regards to her two dads, Anastasia refers to Monty (the older, wealthier, and more aloof of the two) as "Father", while the younger and sweeter Waylon is referred to as "Daddy". Both of these titles are fitting for Anastasia's character ("Father" is old-fashioned and polite, while "Daddy" is stereotypically often used by spoiled rich girls), but who she refers to with what title also says something about how she perceives each parent. - The *other* character with two dads, Simon, distinguishes between them in a very different way. He calls them both by their professional titles followed by "Dad"; Principal Skinner is "Principal Dad" and Superintendent Chalmers is "Superintendent Dad". (Think how the Koopa Kids refer to their father as "King Dad".) While the use of "Dad" instead of "Father" or "Seymour/Gary" does establish that he has a close relationship with his parents (which he very much does), the appended title is a reflection of Simon's stiffness, formality, and obsession with his education. - Violet's abusive Stage Mom in the *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* fic *Through Their Eyes* enforces this. When Violet was four, she forced Violet to begin using "mother" instead of "mommy". - In *wasting beats of his heart of mine*, Zagreus reincarnates as a mortal and is adopted by Philomenus the farmer. Zagreus calls him 'sir' as an adult, but both he and the narration refer to him as his father or foster father, implying a loving but slightly removed relationship. In contrast, Zagreus was never close to his late foster mother, and both he and the narration refer to her as Philomenus's wife. - In *Where Talent Goes on Vacation*, Chiyuri Nagato generally refers to her mother, Yukari, as "Mom," but is expected to call her "Nagato-sensei" while in class, as a way of keeping their private lives separate from their time at school, and showing Yukari the appropriate respect owed to a teacher. While Chiyuri occasionally slips up, she doesn't mind, seeing this as Yukari's way of acknowledging her as a student. The Tachibana sisters, who had a similar arrangement the year they were in their mother's class, know where Chiyuri is coming from, but Akira Azuki, whose mother is her manager, is initially put off by Chiyuri having to treat her mother differently (since Akira is allowed to call her mother "Mom" no matter where they are). - Throughout *Bambi II* Bambi refers to the Great Prince as "Sir" to reflect the latter's distant and somewhat intimidating nature to him. Them fully developing a loving bond is culminated by Bambi finally calling him "Dad", an even less formal term than his "Mother" whom he had a far more relaxed and affectionate relationship with beforehand. - *Brave*: Rebellious Princess Merida refers to her mother Elinor as either "Mum" or "Mother". She regresses to "Mummy" in the climax ||when she begins crying due to believing her mother is permanently a bear.|| - *Frozen*: - *Frozen*: The sole time Elsa refers to her parents by their title is when she cries for help. She uses the affectionate and childish "Mama" and "Papa". This fits her young age in the scene (eight), but also shows she has a loving relationship with her parents. Over the course of her childhood, she withdraws from her family due to fearing she might hurt them. - In *Frozen II*, Elsa and Anna are shown calling their parents "Mother" and "Father". This fits the 19th century time period as well as their royal upbringing. - *Igor*: Dr. Glickenstein usually refers to his mother (who was apparently a bossy sort and wanted him to be a plumber like her instead of a Mad Scientist) as "Mother", but when he whines about how she was right, he calls her "Mummy", making him seem like a little kid throwing a tantrum. - *The Land Before Time*: - Daddy's Girl Cera calls her father "Daddy" but her mother "Mom", showing that she's closer to her dad. - Littlefoot refers to his mother as "Mother", although their relationship is definitely warm and close. ||It highlights the *Bambi* parallel when his mother meets her fate.|| - *The Little Mermaid (1989)*: Ariel always calls King Triton "Daddy," highlighting her youthful innocence, and showing that despite their painful conflict, their relationship is ultimately close and caring. - *The Lion King*: - *The Lion King (1994)*: Simba calls Mufasa "Dad" as a cub, highlighting their close, playful bond, but as an adult calls him "Father" when speaking in awe ||to his spirit in the clouds.|| - Kiara in *The Lion King II: Simba's Pride* uses "Daddy" on default to show that she's a Daddy's Girl. When speaking more formally, she uses "Father" due to her upbringing as a princess and having become the lioness equivalent of a young woman. - All of Zira's children use "Mother" towards her. She's a strict and abusive mother who doesn't coddle or allow for fun. - In *Mulan*, Mulan usually calls her father "Father," but when they reunite at the end of the film when she comes home from the army, she touchingly calls him "Baba" (Mandarin for "Daddy"). - In *Shrek 2*, the fully grown Prince Charming calls his mother, the Fairy Godmother, "Mummy," and it isn't lost on Fiona. As it happens, Fairy Godmother is controlling Prince Charming. - At the beginning of *Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son*, Malcolm expresses disappointment that his stepson Trey won't call him "Dad". Trey does so at the end of the film after they come to an understanding (and get through a lot of trouble together). - *Big Jake*: James, a man in his twenties, mockingly calls his estranged father Jacob McCandles "daddy" in one scene. As he is resentful for Jacob abandoning him and his family years ago. Jacob punches him in retaliation and orders him to never refer him by that again. - In *Bye Bye Birdie* the lead begins referring to her parents by their given names because it's the "modern thing" to do. When she freaks out about winning a contest to kiss her favorite singer, she switches to "Mother" and then "Mommy". - In *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,* everybody refers to the family patriarch as Big Daddy (and unlike Big Mama, his first name is never given). In the film version, however, there's a scene where Brick goes to have a heart-to-heart with him and refers to him as "Pa" and "Papa." This actually gets Big Daddy angry when he notices. Given the subsequent discussion, Brick seems to think of "Big Daddy" as representative of his big-man, throw-money-around style of parenting, while "Pa/Papa" is his attempt to engage him on a healthier, emotional level. - A weird thing happens with Violet Beaureguarde of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* on film: - In *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*, both of her parents are present. She addresses her mom as "mother." Judging from the fact that Mrs. Beaureguarde's only line is a First-Name Ultimatum directed at Violet, we can assume that she takes a strict line with her daughter. Violet calls her father "Dad"; he indulges her competitiveness, and they appear to be much closer. - In *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*, Violet's dad is nowhere to be found. Violet probably calls her mom "Mother" here because her mother is her coach. They seem to take their relationship as seriously as everything else, and to them, competition *is* everything else. - At no point does Kylo Ren in *The Force Awakens* refer to ||Han Solo|| as his "father", showing just how much Ren wants to cut himself off from who he once was. - In *Hook*, The titular character tries to get Peter Pan's son, Jack, on side by being more present and supportive than Peter himself. However, Hook doesn't really care for Jack, so despite being sore at Peter, Jack only ever addresses Hook as "Captain." - In *Little Annie Rooney*, Annie calls her father "daddy dear" when she tries to sucker up to him while avoiding punishment. - *The Santa Clause*: Seven-year-old Charlie addresses his parents as "Mom" and "Dad" throughout. Scott and Laura's divorce probably made Charlie feel like he had to grow up a bit more quickly, but he still loves them. - *Artemis Fowl*: Artemis addresses his parents formally, as "Mother" and "Father". When Artemis and his father are reunited after several years, Artemis slips into formalities. Fowl Sr. shakes his head, remembering that he was indeed that stern and demanding, but has now reverted to the personality his wife was attracted to (that he no longer has to deal with The Mafiya probably helps). - Bambi from *Bambi* calls his mom "Mother". This could be because of the time period of the book, but it also could be to emphasize that he's an animal. - In *The Color Purple*, Squeak was in jail for over a decade. As a result, her kids call their step-mom "Mama" but Squeak "Miss." It upsets Squeak. - Squirrel in *A Dog's Life* notes that her mother's name was "Stream", but that to her and her brother she was just "Mother". - In *A Dog's Purpose*, all dogs presumably only use "mother". The protagonist doesn't understand that "mom" is another term for "mother" and thinks that Ethan's mother is literally named "Mom". - Erin Hunter: - Most adult cats and older kittens in *Warrior Cats* refer to their parents by name. In the rare occasion that they do use a title, it's usually "Mother" or "Father". - Dogs in *Survivor Dogs* refer to their parents are "Mother-Dog" and either "Father-Dog" if they're present in their life or "Sire-Dog" if they're not. - Wolves in *Firstborn* call their parents the formal "mother" and "father". - In the *Hannah Swensen* mystery novels, Hannah and her two sisters always call their mother Delores "Mother." Since Delores is a Proper Lady and My Beloved Smother, in sharp contrast with her Girl Next Door baker daughter, the formal title suits her much better than "Mom" would. - In *Harry Potter,* all of the Weasley kids refer to their parents as "Mum" and "Dad," except for Percy, who calls them "Mother" and "Father" to show that he's stuffy and overly-serious. ||After a three-year estrangement, he calls Arthur "Dad" when apologizing to him||. - In a sort of meta example: the American edition of the books changes most of the British slang. J. K. Rowling is fine with this, but was aghast that the first book had the Weasleys calling Molly "Mom" instead of "Mum," which was changed in the later books. - *Les Misérables*: - Grandparent example: Marius calls his grandfather "Father" (since his grandfather is the one who raised him) when they're on good terms, but "Monsieur" when they're estranged. When he's unsure of where they stand, he avoids addressing him by any name. By the end, he's back to "Father," though. - Cosette usually calls her adoptive father Jean Valjean "Father," while Éponine and Azelma usually call Thénardier "Papa" this highlights the class difference between the girls, and rings somewhat ironic too, since Valjean is the warm, loving father of the two, while Thénardier is an abusive one. Averted in the musical adaptation, however, where Cosette calls Valjean "Papa." Also, when Valjean is trying to distance himself from Cosette for her own good after her marriage, he insists that she call him "Monsieur Jean," but gets to hear her say "Father" again when they reunite ||just before he dies.|| - In *Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs*, there's some discussion about the difference between being a father (merely siring a child) and being a daddy (committing to and nurturing a relationship with the child). Sometime in Mattie's early life, his parents divorced, note : in part because all four of her children had inherited a terminal illness from mother Jeni, unbeknownst to her so he never got to know his father. - *My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!*: - In the novels, Keith mentions that as an illegitimate child, he was not allowed to call his father or his wife "Father or "Mother." Even after finding a more loving home with Catarina and her parents, he calls Catarina's father "Duke Claes" and Catarina's mother "Madam Claes" in his narration, despite he was adopted by Duke Luigi Claes for the express purpose of being his future *heir*. - Catarina uses "Okaa-sama" on her mother ("Mother" in English), since her mother is a noblewoman who is strict about etiquette. ||When Catarina wakes up in a dream of her old life as "the monkey girl," she calls her mother that. The monkey girl's mother is rather confused, presumably more used to being called "Okaa-san" ("Mom").|| - In *Out of the Dust,* Billie Jo switches from "Daddy" to "[my] Father" after he ||accidentally causes her and her mother to get burned|| and ||leaves her to tend with her dying mother while he goes out drinking. She goes back to "Daddy" when they reconcile||. - In the *Ramona Quimby* series, Ramona calls her mother "Mama" in the earlier books, but switches to "Mother" as she gets older, except for one emotional moment near the end of *Ramona and Her Mother*, where she says "Mama" again. She always calls her father "Daddy," though. - In *A Song of Ice and Fire*, it's part of standard etiquette among nobles to address their parents "My lord father" or "My lady mother" in public situations, but Tyrion Lannister nearly always calls his father that, because they hate each other. - *A Tale of...*: - Snow White referred to her biological mother who died in childbirth as "Mother", showing her lack of a bond with her. She referred to her step-mother Grimhilde as the affectionate "Momma" growing up but switched to an aloof "Mother" when she became more abusive. She switched back to "Momma" ||after Grimhilde turned sweet again after becoming the new Slave in the Mirror||, and she uses that even years later when her own children are grown. - Subverted with Maleficent. She only calls her adopted mother "Mother" once. She's usually referred to as "Nanny". However, it's not meant in a negative manner. It's just *everyone* calls her "Nanny". - Gothel and her sisters refer to Manea as a stern, distant "Mother", which Manea enforced. Manea was a neglectful and emotionally abusive mother. - In *The Ten PM Question*, the siblings Louie, Gordana, and Frankie call their mother "Mama" but their father "Uncle George", since they previously thought he was their uncle and the name stuck. - Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet (aka, *A Wrinkle in Time* and its sequels) Inverts the usual way this works: the Murry kids call their parents "Mother and Father" despite being close to them, while Calvin uses "Mom and Dad" despite his family being very dysfunctional. In *A Swiftly Tilting Planet* Meg (now Calvin's wife) calls his mother "Mom" simply because that's what he does, but privately thinks that it feels odd to address her by anything. - The Bible: - Much fuss has been made about Jesus regularly calling his mother Mary "woman" throughout the Bible (especially the Gospel Of John). Note that calling someone "woman" was *much* less disrespectful in ancient Greek or Aramaic than it is in modern-day English, and was actually the *formal* way to address women (kinda like "Ma'am"). But even by those cultural standards, it was a very impersonal and abnormal way to address *your own mother* in particular. Interestingly, Catholic and Protestant commentators have read this in almost opposite ways; Catholics typically see it as Jesus comparing Mary to Eve in a Call-Back to the Book of Genesis, while Protestants typically read it as Jesus saying he takes orders from his divine parent instead of his human one. A third interpretation is that he speaks to Mary as her God rather than as her son that while she gave birth to his earthly body, his divine nature transcends family ties. - There are a few verses in the New Testament that use the word "Abba" (not that one) when referring to God, which has similar connotations to "daddy." **Romans 8:14-15 (ESV)**: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" - In the story that inspired "Monster" by Meg and Dia, the Villain Protagonist had abusive parents who made him call them "Sir" and "Hannah". - Both "Daddy" and "Papa" are used in Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" to show what a Daddy's Girl the protagonist is. The song is about a young woman (or maybe even a teen) who ends up pregnant by her "bad boy" boyfriend. - *Bye Bye Birdie*: - Kim calls her parents by their first names because it's the "modern" thing to do. But when she gets the call informing her that she's been chosen to be kissed by Conrad Birdie on live TV, she calls, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" in wild excitement to tell her the news. - Albert still calls his mother "Mama" in his late thirties, highlighting that he's a Momma's Boy and that Mae is My Beloved Smother. - *Wicked:* The intro to "What Is This Feeling?" shows the difference between the two main characters in this regard. Spoiled Daddy's Girl Glinda writes to her parents with the cutesy-sounding "Dearest, Darlingest Momsie and Popsicle." Meanwhile Elphaba addresses her with "My Dear Father," showing herself to be more serious and their relationship to be more distant. - In *Caillou the Grown Up*, Caillou calling his parents "Mommy" and "Daddy" emphasises that he's an immature Manchild. - *FreezeFlame*. - *Carl* - The titular character calls his chief of police step-father Calvin "Officer Mitchell", mainly because Calvin considers Carl calling him by his first name a huge form of disrespect (Carl will call Calvin by his given name when he's out of earshot, however). Carl's step-brother Logan, on the other hand, calls his step-mother Linda by her given name, as Linda doesn't mind it as much as Calvin does. Carl's 10-year old half-sisters Carrie and Sally, call Linda and Calvin "mommy" and "daddy" respectively, showing their nature as spoiled little girls. - *Bowser's Koopalings*: - *RWBY*: - The affluent Weiss calls her abusive father "Father". In contrast, she has a better (but still troubled) relationship with her mother, who she calls "Mom". - Downplayed in that Yang does call her absent mother Raven "mom", but only sarcastically. Her Good Stepmother Summer, on the other hand, is called "mom" unironically. - *Kevin & Kell* - Lindesfarne starts off calling her father "Daddy," but gradually switches to "Dad" as the strip starts allowing its characters to age, and she goes off to college. While she called her adoptive mother Angelique "Mother" in her youth, after Angelique walks away from her family, Lindesfarne eventually calls her by name, signifying that she no longer considers Angelique a mother. - When Rudy first gets a visit from the memory of his father Randy, he addresses him as "Father," prompting Randy's memory to say that Rudy had called him "Daddy-kins" around the time of Randy's death. Rudy later calls him "Dad." - *The Amazing World of Gumball*: - *Archer*s relationship with his mother is dysfunctional, to put it *mildly*. Their love-hate enmity is so inappropriate it borders on the psychosexual, and definitely not helping the case is the fact that Sterling Archer, a grown man who - for all his flaunting and disrespecting of his mom - only ever (unconsciously) refers to her as "Mother". As he put it, shes gripping him "tightly, by [his] childhoods throat". - *Back to the Future*: Jules and Verne both have a positive relationship with their parents, but their names for them still differ because of the boys' personalities. Jules calls them "Mother" and "Father", which shows his more formal approach to life. Verne, who behaves more like a normal kid, calls them "Mom" and "Pop". - Cricket Green of *Big City Greens* refers to his parents Bill and Nancy as "Dad" and "Mom", but his sister Tilly always calls them by the more juvenile terms "Papa" and "Mama". She does, however, call Nancy "Mom" with Cricket at the end of "Phoenix Rises" when she's released from prison. - In *The Cleveland Show*, Cleveland periodically berates Cleveland Jr. because, among other things, he still calls Cleveland "Daddy" at fourteen years old. - In *The Dragon Prince,* Callum and his stepfather, King Harrow, are the familial version of Twice Shy. This is demonstrated by their first scene together: Callum bows and starts to address him the way any normal person would, only for Harrow to cut in and an awkward silence to ensue. Two episodes later, Callum's half-brother Lampshades the fact that Harrow would probably be really happy if Callum called him "Dad." Shortly thereafter Callum does, though only as assassins are trying to kill them. - *Ed, Edd n Eddy*: Edd always refers to his parents as Mother and Father. They also refer to themselves this way in the sticky-notes they leave along with the house. - *Family Guy*: - Meg calls her grandmother Babs "Nana". It's worth noting that she's a member of Newport high society, and she's in a position to have doted on Meg before, along with and because of her successful corporate CEO husband, Carter. - Lois, who is 43, always refers to her father Carter as Daddy, reflecting her position as a doting daughter to a powerful dad. - Stewie initially deemed Lois his arch-enemy and regarded Peter as a waste of space, and saw fit to referring to them as "Lois" and "the fat man", respectively. He's actually *aghast* that his future self would even consider calling them "mommy" and "daddy". When his Villain Protagonist nature slowly drifted away over the succeeding seasons, he became more restrained and casual, and now generally calls them by regular parental titles. - Played With in *Gravity Falls:* Dipper and Mabel refer to their great-uncle as "Grunkle" Stan (a term which, according to Word of Saint Paul, Stan coined himself). Later Stan's brother Ford is introduced. Mabel calls him "Grunkle" Ford, but Dipper, who bonds with Ford specifically because they're both more serious and intellectual, opts for "Great-Uncle" Ford. - *Jem*: - *The Jetsons*: Judy Jetson will sometimes refer to her parents as "Mom" and "Dad" but occasionally "Mother" and "Daddy". Brother Elroy always uses "Mom" and "Dad". Jane always refers to her mother as "Mother". - Kim Possible usually refers to her parents as "Mom" and "Dad" like a typical teen. But when she wants to be taken seriously, she'll call her Mom "Mother" (she never does the gender-equivalent with her Dad, due to her father's tendency to be overprotective and treating her like a little girl). And when she's in an affectionate mood and plays up her cuteness on the occasions where she accepts and wants her father's smothering, she'll refer to him as "Daddy". - The titular character of *Little Bill* is five years old. He calls his mother "Mama," but admires and wants to emulate his father enough to call him "Dad." Little Bill's siblings, eight-year-old Bobby and ten-year-old April, call their parents "Mom" and "Dad." Everyone thinks so highly of their great-grandmother that they call her Alice the Great. - *The Loud House*: - Used in *Miraculous Ladybug*: - Protagonist Marinette refers to her parents as "Mama" and "Papa" despite being a teenager, hinting at their close and loving relationship note : in the English dub, she alternates between these terms and the more age-appropriate but still affectionate "Mom" and "Dad". Co-star Adrien in contrasts uses "Father" for the present but emotionally absent parent he has remaining, alternating between "Mom" and "Mother" for his Missing Mom. In French, he uses *vous* for "you" when talking to his father, which is far more formal than any normal parent/child relationship. - Though parents don't come up as much with other characters, Marinette's babysitting charge Manon uses "Mama" and "Mommy" for her mother and Adrien and Marinette's classmate Alix uses the age-appropriate but affectionate "Pops" when she is seen with her father. Alpha Bitch Chloe uses both "Papa" and "Daddy" depending on dub, indicating her Spoiled Brat status and his Pushover Parent nature. - *OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes*: - There's a boy in *The Proud Family* named Michael. He can't be much younger than fourteen-year-old schoolmate Penny, and he calls his father "Daddy." The problem is that his father is the school's P.E. teacher, who would rather Michael call him "Coach" in public. - *Recess*: Whilst most characters do refer to their parents as "Mom" and "Dad, Gus refers to his father as "Sir" and the Ashleys will often refer to their fathers as "Daddy". - *Rick and Morty*: Though Rick often claims he treats his two grandchildren with an equal level of disdain, the relationship he shares with Morty is decidedly different than the one has with Summer. They, in turn, treat him pretty differently, too. Summer (who still respects him to a certain degree) refers to him as "Grandpa Rick" or "Grandpa", while Morty, (who knows Rick more intimately for the jaded demon that he is), just calls him plain old "Rick". - *The Simpsons*: - Utilized iconically by Bart, who frequently calls his father, Homer, by first name or other more derogatory titles to display his cocky impudence (though he also calls him "Dad"). In the original shorts, Lisa did similar to show her similar bratty characterization, though when she diverged into a more precocious, well-behaved child, she started referring to him solely as "Dad". As shown in the flashback episode "Lisa's First Word", both kids referred to Homer by first name even as a toddler, building up to the heartwarming final scene where Maggie calls him "Daddy", though out of earshot. - 12 year old Todd Flanders calls his father Ned Daddy. - Principal Skinner refers to his mother as "Mother" rather than "Mom", which showcases his uptight personality and ultra-formal way of speaking. - When Mr. Burns is talking to his mother in "Homer the Smithers", he refers to her as "Mater", an early-20th-century slang term for "mother". This, alongside other instances of Mr. Burns using Antiquated Linguistics, establishes that he is very old and very behind-the-times. - Used to show the relationships among the blended family in *Sofia the First*: - Sofia always calls her mother "Mom," and they have a very close bond. Meanwhile, she initially calls her stepfather King Roland by his title, due to not knowing him very well and feeling out of place in the palace. By the end of the pilot movie, she's warmed up to the situation and begins calling him "Dad." - James refers to his father and stepmother as "Dad" and "Mom" respectively. He's shown from the beginning to be quick to bond with Miranda and eager to have a mother. - Amber, meanwhile, typically refers to them as "Daddy" and "Mother." She's very close with her father, though he has more in common with James and Sofia, so her childish affection highlights their unique bond. While most of her animosity at the beginning was reserved for Sofia, Amber also struggled accepting her father's remarriage and isn't shown bonding with Miranda until late in the series, even though she *is* just as excited as James to finally have someone to spend Mother's Day with, so the formality shows that they aren't quite as close. She finally calls Miranda "Mom" in the last season after she realizes that Miranda does love her as a daughter and want what's best for her, despite filling a disciplinarian role Roland doesn't. - *South Park*: Stephen and Linda Stotch, Butters' parents, abuse their son on a daily basis and constantly ground him for minor things, even those which are completely out of Butters' control. As a result, Butters usually calls Stephen "sir" rather than "dad". Oddly enough, Butters still calls Linda "mom" even though she is just as abusive as her husband. - *SpongeBob SquarePants*: Pearl, despite being a teen, still calls her father Mr. Krabs "Daddy", because she's a Daddy's Girl. - Being a nerdy Manchild, Bubble Bass often uses a whiny Mother! when referring to his mom. - Throughout the entirety of *Steven Universe*, Steven called Greg "Dad", reflecting their close but casual relationship. In the *Steven Universe: Future* episode "Bluebird", Steven grimly calls him "father" after Greg narrowly escapes a Hostage Situation. Partly it's Steven trying to seem more mature, but mostly emphasizes that Steven was very serious and *incredibly pissed* at Greg's assailant. - Raven from *Teen Titans* at first calls her mom by her name when they meet. She switches to "mother" a sentence later. This shows her detached, emotionally repressed upbringing. - The *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* usually refer to their adoptive father Splinter as "Master Splinter" or "Sensei", showing their student-teacher relationship. Whenever they use a parental title, it's usually a formal, respectful "Father". *Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* is the sole exception—there, they usually call him "Dad", reflecting that Splinter in this series is their father first and teacher second. - When TLC's titular Little Couple, Jennifer Arnold and Bill Klein, adopted their son Will from China, they encouraged Will to call Bill "Baba," Mandarin for "Daddy." After Bill and Jennifer adopted daughter Zoey from India, the children were encouraged to simply call Bill "Daddy." This was probably done to make it easier on the kids, as Bill had become a father to children from two different cultures by this point. - Fred Rogers consistently referred to his parents as "Mother" and "Dad," implying that while Fred and his father had a more playful relationship, mom was the disciplinarian of the household. - Even his closest blood relatives have to address King Charles III as "Your Majesty" in formal situations. The same was true for his mother Queen Elizabeth II and her predecessors before her. Apparently, official protocol dictates that when first meeting the monarch and his or her consort in the morning, even their immediate family have to call them "Your Majesty" or "Your Royal Highness" on the first encounter of the day. It is believed Elizabeth II was more informal than that to her children and grandchildren. Apparently. - As mentioned in the *Miraculous Ladybug* example, languages with T-V distinction can create an added question on whether children address their parents or vice versa with the formal or informal "you". Whereas a few old-fashioned households have the parents addressing the children informally and the children addressing the parents formally, this is increasingly seen as overly formal as the terms "Mother" and "Father" and thus only the informal form is used both ways. Some might also address their grandparents formally if they see their own parents doing so.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalTitleCharacterisation

Parent-Induced Extended Childhood - TV Tropes **Olivia:** Do you remember when Steve and Shirl were this little? **Hugh:** Yeah. They grow up, that's for sure. **Olivia:** Pretty soon, they won't be caught dead like this. **Hugh:** Oh, they'll go full Theo on you. You can't prevent it. **Olivia:** Well, you know *that* one. She would never, not even when she was little. [ *sighs* ] I wish we could just freeze them. Keep 'em just like this forever... Sad to say, it's not uncommon for parents to treat their offspring like children even after they've turned eighteen. However, no matter how domineering they may be, some comfort can be found in the fact that parents like this don't actually have the power to keep their kids from growing up... ...most of the time. In fiction, some especially controlling parents take drastic steps to make sure their beloved children never physically age past a certain point, never mentally or emotionally mature to adulthood, or, in cases where they already *have* grown up, regressing them to childhood - all "For Your Own Good," of course. For good measure, it's very common for the parent to be some kind of immortal as well, especially given that this infantilizing mindset is often accompanied by the belief that only *they* can defend their child. The means of accomplishing this can involve anything from the magical to the comparatively mundane, but with a few notable exceptions, the actual motive at its purest tends to be *very* simple: the parent cares so *unhealthily* for their child that they can't face the prospect of "losing them" to adulthood - either because they fear being replaced by lovers or spouses, because they fear for their child's innocence or safety, or simply because the parent can't stand not having a child to care for (in which case Münchausen Syndrome By Proxy may be involved). The exceptions can be more laudable, or they can be more reprehensible, but the end result of this trope is almost invariably the same: Not Growing Up Sucks. Needless to say, this trope can very easily be classified as abuse and is usually only enacted by the most dangerously obsessive of parents (be they biological or adoptive), including the Knight Templar Parent, dark cases of Helicopter Parents, and only the most toxic forms of Mama Bear and Papa Wolf. Fortunately, victims of this trope may be able to "break the spell" and return to normal aging; in the process, the parent may be subjected to an Anti-Smother Love Talk, even forced to acknowledge that it was wrong of them to deny their child the chance for a happy adult life. In more cynical stories, though, this extended childhood cannot be undone, and the parents who inflicted it will go unpunished *and* unmoved. Also, don't be surprised if some kind of Nightmarish Nursery is involved. A subtrope of All Take and No Give. Contrast Hands-Off Parenting and Parental Neglect. Compare Raise Him Right This Time, which can also be inflicted by parents but is usually regarded in a more positive light. ## Examples - In *Tokyo Ghoul,* it's revealed that ||Juuzou Suzuya|| was subject to a particularly monstrous form of this by his Ghoul mother: ||along with other tortures, she castrated him before he hit puberty so that he wouldn't properly grow up and lose his childish good looks.|| - In the horror comic book *Horde*, Ruby Ando's attempt to reconnect with her hoarder mother Mia goes horribly wrong when the ever-expanding hoard is found to be a sentient force keeping her imprisoned through her obsessions. After fighting her way through the labyrinthine collection and reaching her mother again, Ruby tries to get through to her one final time... only to be regressed to childhood and transmuted into a doll - essentially, the perfect daughter for a controlling parent who would rather treat Ruby as a possession than a person. Oblivious to what's just happened, Mia gathers the doll up in her arms and begins cradling her like a real baby, and it looks as if Ruby is going to stay this way... ||However, after remembering how happy she was in the days before her hoarding desires overcame her, Mia is finally able to overcome the spell of the Hoard, restoring Ruby to normal.|| - *Best Friends Forever*: After Fluttershy dies of old age, Twilight can't bear the thought of outliving any more of her friends. She isolates herself and the remaining members of the Mane Six in a castle where she magically de-ages them into babies, raises them from foalhood to adulthood, and turns them into babies again when they get old, a cycle she repeats for centuries. - In the final chapters of *The Land of What Might-Have-Been*, it's revealed that ||the daughters of the Radiant Empress were hit with a biological weapon fielded by the Deviant Nations, causing them to begin manifesting the green skin their mother was born with. Unable to cure this condition, the Empress began dosing Elarose and Essella with a diluted version of Morrible's botched immortality serum, regressing them to childhood so they could retain their youth while she continued looking for a cure. However, it's also revealed that the Empress has since begun using this as a means of controlling them, not only regressing her daughters when they start growing up again but every time they grow rebellious or express an opinion that she disapproves of. By the time Elphaba finds them, Elarose and Essella have been imprisoned in a Gilded Cage for decades, but still look like they're only nine years old and believe that they've only been confined for a week.|| - In the *Bioshock Infinite* fanfic *A Life With Vigor,* one chapter discusses alternate Columbias where more unusual Vigors were developed. One of them, "Father Time," became particularly popular with Columbian parents: the Timekeepers were often hired to regress rebellious teenagers to infancy for the sake of "reforming" them into model citizens; also, on a less official basis, they could be hired by controlling parents who wanted to keep their children from leaving the nest - either by regressing them back to infancy as many times as desired or simply by creating a temporal field around the nursery and preventing the kids from aging at all. - *Sherlock* fanfic *A Small Miscalculation* features Sherlock being regressed to childhood by none other than his own mother as part of a gambit to Raise Him Right This Time, even kidnapping him halfway through the story to ensure that everything goes according to plan. Worse still, a horror-stricken Sherlock eventually realizes that his mother will continue using the youth serum on him until his mind breaks under the strain, leaving nothing of his original personality or memories. - In *Ultra Fast Pony*, Spike is 67 years old but still looks like a child and is treated accordingly. In "For Glorious Mother Equestria!" he starts showing signs of going through puberty, but in keeping with her My Beloved Smother characterization in this abridged series, Twilight (his adoptive mother) uses magic to de-age him back to childhood... and dialogue in "The Longest Recap" confirms that this a regular occurrence. - *The Baby*: Mrs. Wadsworth and her two daughters have spent years keeping her son from maturing mentally, ensuring he retains the mindset of an infant despite being biologically twenty - to the point that they are more than willing to zap him with a cattle prod if he even tries standing upright. As such, the crux of the film involves a social worker attempting to get "Baby" away from Mrs. Wadsworth so he can achieve psychological adulthood... ||except it turns out that she has no intention of doing such a thing at all, instead adopting Baby so he can become a brother to her husband, who has been left in a similar state due to brain damage sustained in a car crash.|| - As with the original novel, *Interview with the Vampire* features Lestat making young Claudia into a vampire as a surrogate daughter to keep Louis from leaving him. As a vampire, she doesn't physically age - but she continues to emotionally and mentally mature, so Claudia gradually chafes at being treated like a child by Lestat, who insists on showing her off to neighbors as a piano-playing Child Prodigy and still lavishes her with toys despite her being several decades old by that point. Even Louis can't help talking down to her like she's a little girl. ||However, after the two of them seemingly murder Lestat - *twice* - Louis goes on to treat Claudia more like an adult during their time in Paris.|| - Occurs symbolically in *The Wall*: during "The Trial", Pink imagines himself being taken to court for his character flaws, with monstrous incarnations of people from throughout his life testifying against him. One of them is his notoriously controlling mother, who literally connects herself to Pink via an umbilical cord and spends most of her time in the spotlight holding Pink's shrunken, doll-like form in her arms like an infant as she begs for the judge to let her take her condemned son home. - Played With in *Codex Alera*: At the start of the cycle, Tavi is a 15-year-old orphan but looks much younger. As well, he cannot manifest any Furycrafting powers, which usually awaken at age 12-13 in his peers. This is eventually revealed to be due to the manipulations of his aunt Isana, ||who is actually his *mother* and has used her powerful Watercrafting to fake Tavi's age and to prevent the onset of *his* powerful Furycrafting. She did it to prevent anyone from realizing that Tavi's father was none other than Gaius Septimus, the late heir apparent to the Aleran empire, making Tavi the only legitimate heir to the throne||. - *Discworld*: Death adopted Ysabell when she was an orphaned infant, and had to make special arrangements for her to grow up at all, since Death's domain is a Place Beyond Time and by default age doesn't touch those who reside there. He left off when she was sixteen, believing that she'd grown up enough - a sign that, while he cared for her in his own eldritch way, he still doesn't really understand how mortals work. By the time of *Mort*, Ysabell has been a sixteen-year-old (with all the attached emotional foibles) for thirty-five years and the isolation is getting to her. She ultimately chooses to ||leave with Mort and live a human life; though initially left with the impression that Mort seduced her, Death ultimately lets her leave and marry Mort with his blessing.|| - In *Interview with the Vampire*, the vampire Lestat "adopts" a dying child and makes her into a fellow vampire as part of a gambit to keep Louis by his side out of obligation to their "daughter." The girl, Claudia, is left frozen eternally in childhood and often *treated* like a child even once she mentally matures into an adult; this naturally results in considerable resentment and eventual hostility when she realizes that she's never going to grow up. - In *The Postmortal*, once the "cure" for biological aging becomes common throughout the world, certain parents begin using it on their children - hence referred to as "Peter Pan cases". In one of the newspaper articles collected alongside the main plot, a mother ends up piquing the suspicion of her neighbors when her baby daughter never ages or grows in any way; an investigation quickly reveals that the woman gave her child the cure so that she'd never grow up and leave her. Worse still, since the baby can't age, her mind will never develop either. The article concludes with the mother going to prison for child abuse. - In *The Twilight Saga*, it's mentioned that some vampires would intentionally create "immortal children", turning little children into eternally young vampires. Their vampire parents often found them enchantingly adorable... but unfortunately, these children were unable to emotionally and mentally mature, meaning they never acquired the self-control to moderate their hunger for blood; combined with their powers, this often led to them wiping out entire towns in their tantrums, so the Volturi ruled that any immortal children and those who created them would be executed. - In *The Act*, abusive mother Deedee not only keeps her daughter Gypsy Rose sick for the sake of Fake Charity but also tries to prevent her from growing up as literally as possible via real-world methods. It's left ambiguous if this is to make it easier to scam money and other material benefits from well-meaning observers, to make her easier to abuse, or some combination of the two. Either way, Deedee starves Gypsy Rose, keeps her medicated, subjects her to unnecessary medical treatments, gaslights her into believing that she's much younger than she actually is, and forces her to make use of Age-Inappropriate Dress - such as Disney princess costumes. - *American Horror Story: Murder House*: - Chad and Patrick are both desperate to claim Vivien and Ben's baby as their own, both to have something to keep them together and to give them something to do in their eternity together as ghosts. Chad offhandedly mentions that he plans to smother the child while it's still "young and cute", though this doesn't end up happening - ||because they end up having yet another breakup and abandon the plan out of sheer despair.|| - Zigzagged by Nora Montgomery. Having lost her baby to a horrific kidnapping/murder/resurrection in the 1920s, she is obsessed with getting her baby back and latches onto Vivien and Ben's ||one surviving|| baby as a substitute - to the point that she might be willing to go through with Chad and Patrick's plan. However, she doesn't bother with either killing or keeping the baby, if only because she finds herself incapable of putting up with said baby's crying once she has him; as it happens, Nora wasn't much of a mother when she was alive and hasn't changed in death, so she wearily returns him to Vivien of her own free will. - *American Horror Story: Hotel* features the adoptive variant: Countess Elizabeth is in the habit of "adopting" children and making them into vampires so they can remain hers forever. By now, she has four in total, and all are kept cloistered away in a Nightmarish Nursery concealed deep within the hotel, where they are allowed all the candy, cartoons, and videogames they could possibly want... at the cost of occasionally donating blood to their adoptive mother's private stash. Most of them are chronologically adults by now, and it's implied that some - like Wren - are mature enough to understand adult concepts like self-sacrifice, but the Countess insists on treating them as children. ||One of them is none other than Holden, the missing son of Detective John Lowe.|| - Played with in the *Doctor Who* episode "Forest Of The Dead". In the finale, it's revealed that the library's central computer CAL is actually a little girl named Charlotte Abigail Lux. Her father incorporated her into the system in order to save her from a terminal illness, allowing her eternal youth and all the books in the universe to read. For good measure, her family kept her existence a secret in order to prevent her from becoming a freakshow to the rest of the galaxy. As benevolent as this move was, it's implied that CAL isn't happy with it, as her Lotus-Eater Machine features her living an ordinary life on Earth with her father (who has been dead for decades in the real world). ||In the finale, River Song is uploaded to the system after her Heroic Sacrifice, allowing her to become a surrogate mother of sorts to CAL.|| - In the *Eerie, Indiana* episode "Foreverware", identical twins Bertram and Ernest have been prevented from aging past the age of twelve for the last thirty years, thanks to being forced to sleep in containers of the eponymous time-freezing substance every night by their controlling mother. Worse still, said mother also sleeps in a Foreverware container. ||The episode ends with Marshall opening the twins' container, allowing them to do the same to their mother; overnight, all three of them age by thirty years, allowing Bert and Ernie to take on adult lives at long last.|| - *The Haunting of Hill House*: - Early in the episode "Screaming Meemies," Olivia Crain absently wishes that she could keep Luke and Nellie frozen at their current age. Over the course of the episode, Hill House's malign influence uncovers the hidden anxieties behind this innocent wish, slowly driving her to madness with horrific visions of what might happen to her children when they grow up. Eventually, Olivia is manipulated into taking drastic steps to keep her youngest children safe and young - namely ||by killing Luke and Nellie with rat poison at a tea party in the Red Room so that they can live forever as ghosts||. Hugh is able to stop her from completing the attempt and flee the house with the children in tow before she has a chance to try again, prompting Olivia to kill herself... but unfortunately, her efforts to "preserve" her children continue as a ghost - eventually resulting in the death of an adult Nellie. - In "Silence Lay Steadily", Olivia and the House do their best to keep the now-adult Crain children trapped in the building with the intent of keeping them there for eternity. For good measure, the Red Room is revealed to be a Lotus-Eater Machine for mortals and ghosts alike, so Olivia can live out her fantasy of keeping her sons and daughters as children forever once they're dead. This is aptly demonstrated when Luke is reunited with the ghosts of his mother and little sister in the Red Room, where Nellie has been made to look like a six-year-old again ||and Olivia is trying to get Luke to join them at another deadly tea party, even baiting him with the "Big Boy Hat" he loved wearing when he was six.|| - The *Law & Order* episode "Falling," inspired by the "Ashley X" controversy, involves parents planning on subjecting their severely developmentally disabled daughter to a medical procedure that would prevent her from going through puberty and growing to her full height, essentially ensuring she remains in a childlike body forever. As such, a good deal of the court debate concerns the ethics of the procedure and whether it's really being done for the daughter's comfort or the parents' convenience. - *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*: The episode "Pathological" is another Ripped from the Headlines version of the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case. Here, Mariel McLaughlin was kept in a childlike state by her mother Dawn, never taught any of the natural aspects of growing up, and also kept deliberately sick through unnecessary medication. This led to her accidentally accusing a boy in her class of rape because she didn't know the difference between rape and consensual sex. She murdered Dawn when she realized the extent of her deception - and that her mother was going to try and keep them apart. - *The Twilight Zone (1959)*: Subverted in the episode "Young Man's Fancy". A newlywed couple visits the husband's childhood home, resulting in a series of bizarre events that conclude with said husband regressing to childhood. The wife is convinced that the ghost of her husband's late mother is to blame for this, haunting the house and trying to claim the lion's share of his loyalty. ||However, the mother-in-law reveals that *she* isn't to blame for any of this: she's been drawn back by her son, who wants to return to his childhood out of sheer nostalgia and openly states that he doesn't need anyone else but her. Realizing that her husband has rejected her of his own free will, the wife flees the house in despair.|| - In *Skullgirls*, Annie's mother used the Skull Heart to wish for Annie to remain eternally young, keeping her frozen at fifteen years of age. For added annoyance, the wish has also prevented Annie from *swearing.* - In *Leftover Soup*, Lily runs a tabletop adventure for her friends in a sci-fi setting where humanity lives under universal population controls. Her friend Nicole is horrified by this idea and is initially sympathetic to the game's antagonists, an outlaw group called Right to Motherhood. Nicole changes her tune when she learns that the RtM members the players are investigating have been artificially delaying their children's growth in order to keep them "cute". - Zig-zagged in *Nightmare Time*. In the episode 'Daddy', Sherman Young's mother continues to treat him like a little boy despite him being a grown adult. However, it's revealed that ||she's immortal and drains the life-force of others to maintain her youth, and she *allowed* Sherman to age, having been easily capable of keeping him looking the age she'd prefer to think of him as. Sherman then decides to do this *to himself* since he likes being treated like a kid.|| - In the *American Dad!* episode "1600 Candles," Steve enters puberty, as signified by him getting his first pubic hair (which he is *very* proud of). His parents are immediately anxious, as they still haven't fully recovered from Hayley's pubescent rampages, so Francine tries to stunt Steve's growth by injecting him with a CIA formula... only for her to accidentally use too much and de-age him into a five-year-old, much to Steve's outrage. Worse still, Francine prefers him this way. ||Unfortunately, when Stan tries to kill two birds with one stone by accelerating Steve *past* puberty and directly into adulthood with another formula, he ends up overdoing it too, this time aging Steven into an old man.|| - *Justice League*: Morgaine Le Fey has placed enchantments on her son, Mordred, to give him eternal youth and eternal life. Mordred only agreed to this if he could eventually end up on the throne of Camelot, and after waiting for centuries without success, he's gotten tired of remaining a child under Morgaine's thumb. So, as soon as he acquires a source of supreme magic, he banishes all adults - including his mother - to another realm. In desperation, Morgaine de-ages members of the Justice League so she can send them back in her stead to defeat her wayward son, and over the course of this battle, Batman tricks Mordred into removing the enchantment that gave him eternal youth. This turns out to be a very bad thing for Mordred; worse still, having been reduced to an undying old man, he finds that his mother is once again required to look after him. - *The Simpsons*: In "Behind the Laughter", in which the family is portrayed as Animated Actors, Lisa writes a tell-all book about the show and reveals that she was secretly given anti-growth hormones as a way of prolonging the series' run. - The Ashley treatment is an *extremely* controversial real-life example of this: designed to improve the quality of life of a patient with severe brain impairment, the treatment deliberately stunts her growth, eliminates menstrual cramps and bleeding, and prevents the growth of breasts. For good measure, given that "Ashley X" was showing signs of puberty at a comparatively early age (common in children with severe brain damage), the treatment was enacted when she was six years old. Her parents have argued that this prevents their daughter from suffering from maturity-related issues she isn't equipped to deal with, even suggesting that it will also prevent her from being sexually abused as well. The ethics of this treatment have been fiercely debated ever since then, as have similar treatments enacted in the decades since then. - The domestication of animals, most obviously with dogs, has frequently resulted in their adults retaining physical and mental traits previously associated with the juveniles of their wild ancestors. A Chihuahua, for example, has the size, shape, and "childish" personality of a wolf cub. This neoteny has made it easier for humans to control domestic animals.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentInducedExtendedChildhood

Pariah Prisoner - TV Tropes *"In prison, there is no creature lower than a sex offender. Even snitches get a pass before these guys. S-O's, chomos, pedophiles; the nicknames all mean the same thing, and they help average convicts differentiate themselves from those they like to believe are the real monsters."* Mainstream criminals have a morality scale of their own (though in some cases, said morality may involve them being *worse*). Many of them despise police officers and prison guards (including cops/guards sentenced to prison), snitches, sexual offenders (especially child rapists), and sexual minorities or members of certain racial/ethnic groups. Truth in Television featured in many works of fiction. If prisoners of these groups get locked up together with mainstream criminals, they might be beaten up in a Prison Riot, become the victim of Prison Rape (a kind of Karmic Rape for sexual offenders), or even murdered, typically with a Sinister Shiv. These groups might fear prison worse than death. If they survive a prison sentence, expect them to be willing to do anything to avoid going back. See also Asshole Victim as a possible outcome, Moral Event Horizon for atrocities that may make them unwanted, Blue-and-Orange Morality for the peculiar rules that dictate what is acceptable and whatnot, and Even Evil Has Standards for one possible reason that some prisoners become this. ## Examples: - *The Punisher*: - Frank once visited a not-quite Luxury Prison Suite where it was mentioned that the occupants (who can have just about anything smuggled into their cell except women) made use of cross-dressers with toothless mouths who knew how to use them, considered the lowest of the low. - Frank himself is generally put into solitary after a while, as the first thing he does when he's in prison is kill a few inmates, whether they come after him for vengeance or street cred. - Played for Laughs in *Arkham Asylum: Living Hell*, in which Warren White pleads insanity to escape going to prison for white-collar crimes — only to discover that in Arkham, home of any number of psychotic murderers, scamming people out of their money makes him *even more hated than The Joker*. - In *Watchmen* when Rorschach is captured and put in prison, other prisoners plan to kill him for his vigilante activities, but he turns the tables on them. "I'm not locked up in here with you. " **You're locked up in here with me.** - Serial killer Cletus Kasady usually gets a cell of his own due to possessing a carnivorous alien parasite and being more than happy to use it to kill anyone and everyone in his vicinity. When separated from it in *Superior Carnage Annual*, he was re-introduced into the general populace in an attempt to rehabilitate him. The other prisoners treated him with contempt and one of them — who had been hired by his therapist — shanked him. After the symbiote returned, Cletus returned the favor. - In *Top 10*, Atoman - publicly a veteran hero, but actually a pedophile and ringleader of a child porn business - chooses to commit suicide rather than surrender to the police, as he believes he'll be permanently de-powered before thrown into prison, making him an easy target for his many past enemies there. Just as the police hoped, since they wanted to avoid Atoman breaking out and wreaking havoc with his powers. - In *Hard Time*, Lewis Gatherwood is in State for the rape and murder of a young (implicitly *very* young) black girl. Not only is he beaten by black inmates in the shower, but Sinister Minister inmate Gantry soon kills him by dousing him in gasoline and burning him alive. He was dead only a few *days* into his sentence. - *Sinister Dexter* has Sinister go into prison to find Dexter. Finny soon discovers that gun sharks like him are at the bottom of the food chain, mostly because of the hits carried out on mobsters whose friends are in prison. Even a paedophilic serial killer ranks above a gun shark in said serial killer's own words. Finny is outright told that a gun shark in prison is screwed precisely because he's now a gunless shark. - In *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines*, Belladonna's abusive mother is outright loathed by her fellow inmates, who have attacked her on multiple occasions. Truth in Television: child abusers are considered among the lowest of the low in women's prisons. - Crops up a couple of times in *With Pearl and Ruby Glowing*. - Danny is framed by Darla for raping her, and since she's eight years old and a beloved child star he immediately becomes a target for officers and prisoners alike. He's eventually found innocent, but only after he suffers a Career-Ending Injury from being raped and beaten so many times. - Mako is a police officer who gets framed for a robbery, and is targeted by prisoners on whom he'd used excessive force before, resulting in his infection with HIV, which he perceives as a Karmic STD. - Inverted with Beth, who kidnapped her son Boog across state lines to keep him away from his abusive father, and is praised by the cops for protecting him. - *Alcatraz*: Kit Nelson is beaten by a mob of prisoners in the yard because of his status as a child murderer. He's put into solitary confinement by the guards partly for his safety, and partly as punishment. - *Better Call Saul*: - Mike says that cops fear prison more than death. - Inverted by ||Saul himself. When he's finally arrested for his part in Heisenberg's crime syndicate and sent to prison, all the dangerous, hardened criminals around him absolutely *adore* Saul and sing a chant in his honor. After all, he spent his entire career as an Amoral Attorney keeping guys like them *out* of prison.|| - At the end of the *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* episode "Stress Position", Goren manages to shame each of the corrupt prison guards who killed the Victim of the Week (and are trying to make another witness suffer an "accident") into turning themselves in. The leader tries to stop the first to back down by warning them he'll face this trope; he says he'll do his time in solitary. - The "psycho" Serial Killer who murdered 9 married women in *Big Mouth (2022)* is hated by everyone in jail and no one comes near him because they also fear him. It becomes quite a shock to everyone when Changho provokes the said psycho and makes him cry when he mentions his mother. - In the backstory of *Life*, police officer Charlie Crews was in prison for a crime he didn't commit and ended up spending most of his time in solitary just to keep other prisoners from killing him. - On *My Name Is Earl*, Randy (who has just become a prison guard) brings in a new prisoner and introduces him as a first-time prisoner, a convicted child molester, and a former police officer to the other inmates. - *Oz*: - The prison has a separate small wing to house inmates who used to work in law enforcement to protect them from other prisoners. - Zigzagged by one of the few child killers in the show, Malcolm "Snake" Coyle. He was arrested on a robbery charge, but when the truth about his other crimes came out (he couldn't help bragging about it), all the other gangs allied together to protect the guy who snitched on him. The Homeboys, however, were pissed off when Coyle ended up dead, albeit for "political" reasons rather than moral ones. - Mershah becomes this when he gives up information to the guards to get revenge on Saïd, triggering a search that leads to Em City's entire population being punished for hiding various weapons and drugs. ||He's eventually Driven to Suicide by the isolation.|| - *Prison Break*: - When Brad Bellick is framed for murder and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, he has the bright idea to request a sentence at the same prison where he used to be the captain of the guard, thinking that his old status will grant him protection by his former colleagues. It backfires because the new hardline Warden is adamant about no privileges being accorded to anyone, so he quickly becomes a target for reprisals. - The Sona prison in Panama has a specific prisoner who is designated as the pariah and is completely ignored by the other prisoners, not even giving them any food (they feed on leftovers). This happens to Brad Bellick (the guy can't catch a break it seems) when he refuses to give up his belongings on his arrival, and only gets accepted after winning a fight much later. - In *Star Trek: Discovery*, (former) Commander Michael Burnham is imprisoned for attempted mutiny against her captain; the other prisoners despise her because, in addition to the mutiny, she's held responsible for starting the war with the Klingon Empire in which over 8,000 Federation citizens have died. - In *The Laramie Project*, one of the characters mentions that Aaron McKinney and Brian Henderson, the murderers of Matthew Shepard, were not very well-received by their fellow inmates. - The 1974 play *Short Eyes* by Miguel Piñero (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Tony Nomination, made into a film) is about an accused child molester in prison. Nearly all the other inmates turn on him for his crime. The term "Short Eyes" is prison slang for a pedophile. - In *The Dragon Doctors*, a captured member of Murder, Inc. mentions that her kind doesn't live long in Prison. - In *Gaia*, being in prison for alleged treason causes even the other inmates to turn on you. - *The Magician*: After one pirate-themed Villain of the Week was defeated and arrested for taking artifacts from a museum and trying to drown the protagonists, he was told by another inmate, "In this jail, we don't like people who steal from museums!" causing him to scream in fright! - Double Subverted in the episode "Peternormal Activity" of Family Guy. After Peter and the guys accidently killed an old war veteran, Joe talks Quagmire out of reporting it, telling him that they are going to prison for this and "you know what they do to cops in prison". It cuts to a Imagine Spot where a prison inmate asks a bored Joe several questions about the police like an excited, curious child ("when you were a cop, do they let you use the siren?") and then, right afterwards, this same inmate casually says that he and several others prisoners are going to kill Joe in the shower later.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PariahPrisoner

Parent with New Paramour - TV Tropes A fairly common plot in modern shows and sitcoms that due to divorce, widowhood, or some other situation that results in a single parent dating again and the child trying to accept a parent's new love interest. Generally, this goes one of three ways: - The kid and the new person get along quite well from the start. If Status Quo Is God this person may not stick around for longer than the episode, usually due to a breakup. In this case, the kid may be quite upset to see this happen. - The kid is nervous about the person at first (sometimes due to already knowing them or still being sore about their missing parent), but gradually warms up to them. This may go either way in terms of the people staying together. In this situation, the kid is generally shown as being irrational and in the way of their parent's happiness, which may result in An Aesop in which the kid learns to not be so self-centered and understand the principle of Parents as People. - The kid doesn't like the person at all and *never* gets used to them. This can become a recurring plot element, and likely to have the line "You're Not My Father!" (or Mother) spoken at least once. For extra angst, the new spouse might be the reason the first marriage broke up due to infidelity, which puts extra strain on the chances of the two coming to an understanding. The child might even try to get rid of the person by sabotaging the relationship. If the person is obviously a villain, this can become Guess Who I'm Marrying?, with the kid often being the Only Sane Man who can see the evilness of the new paramour. But even then, sometimes the kid puts this aside to let their parent be happy. Wicked Stepmother may be referred to in either 2 or 3 — regardless of accuracy. And any plot with Blended Family Drama will rely on 2 or 3. Marry the Nanny generally falls under 1, since she usually already has the children's love and trust by the time she strikes up a romance with the parent. The Good Stepmother usually falls under 1 or 2; either the kids will instantly love and accept her, or they're initially unsure until she wins them over. Contrast Dating What Daddy Hates, where it's the child's significant other at issue. May overlap with Teacher/Parent Romance. Compare Unbalanced By Rival's Kid. ## Examples <!—index—> <!—/index—> - Batwoman, Katherine "Kate" Kane, lost her mother when she was 12 years old, and her father got remarried to a wealthy Gotham socialite, who awkwardly enough is also named Catherine. Kate is always very quick to point out that Catherine is her *step*mother, but they seem to get along well enough (though the fact that Kate is gay is implied to be a wedge between them, and Kate does remark that she lives to see her stepmother offended when she dances with Maggie Sawyer at a charity ball). - In *W.I.T.C.H.*, Will is *not* happy about her mother Susan dating Dean Collins. Mostly because of the fact that Dean is Will's *history teacher* and she's Book Dumb. Aaaawkward. They are currently on friendly terms. It helps that Dean has since become the father of Will's half-brother. - *Batgirl*: Barbara Gordon seems to have gotten along well enough with her father Jim's second wife, Sarah Essen Gordon, but it's implied she always felt a bit distant from her. After Sarah dies during the *Batman: No Man's Land* event, Barbara laments that she never got around to calling Sarah "Mom" even though she respected her a great deal. - *Robin (1993)*: Tim Drake's recently widowed father starts dating his physical therapist, Dana Winters, and eventually marries her. Tim doesn't have a problem with it as she is much more reasonable than his father and acts as a voice of reason in the house. - *Batman*: Damian Wayne hasn't spent too much time with his dad's Love Interest, Catwoman, but at one point he called her a tramp to her face. They get along better after bonding over their love for animals and being morally grey while in league with a bunch of goody two-shoes. - A plot point in the first half of *Titans* had Arsenal dating Troia and struggling with his lingering feelings for Cheshire, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter Lian. Lian was actually growing rather close to Troia instead of resenting her, since Lian knew why her mom wasn't in the picture (Cheshire's an assassin for hire and wanted for nuking the country of Qurac). Eventually, Troia and Arsenal decided to remain friends because of the problems going on between them due to Arsenal's hang ups. An Aborted Arc during the second half would've shown Arsenal dating government agent Dakota Jamison and Lian being unhappy about it because she'd already bonded with Troia. - *Wonder Woman (1987)*: In an issue where Diana accidentally ended up back in time fighting alongside her mother against Nazis during WWII, her mother brought up what a great companion Wildcat was for her, and then offered to go into more detail for a frazzled Diana who was not expecting her mother to be romancing anyone at the time. - *Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)*: Knuckles is told over dinner that his mother, Lara-Le, intends to marry Wynmacher. He doesn't take the news particularly well and runs off, though this is more out of shock, as he holds no ill-will towards Wynmacher. - *All Assorted Animorphs AUs*: "What if Peter and Naomi got married?" is about Marco's father and Rachel's mother getting together. They both complain about this to Jake, who thinks it's the funniest thing that's ever happened in his life. - *Letters to an Absent Father*, a mini-comic series set in the *Pokémon* universe has this as one of its subjects. Delia states that she's gonna start dating again, going as far as to say, "I'm lonely, Ash..." Ash responds by shouting her down (in front of his friends, no less) and storming out, leaving her in tears. ||In the last panel, a severely distraught Ash is writing down all the details in a letter to his father||; Ash still clings to the hope that his long-lost, estranged father will someday come home. - The *Labyrinth* fanfic, The Color of Vengeance begins with Sarah being wished away by her future step-son, who wants her out of the way so his parents will get back together. - In *Child of the Storm*, Harry and Jane are, at first, rather awkward (because he's only a little less than half her age), but civil. After a clearing the air talk and a figuring out of where they stand, they're much closer - Jane treats him much like she treats her younger half brother and Harry is a quiet, but definite Shipper on Deck for Thor/Jane, referring to Jane as being something like a young Cool Aunt to him. - In *Teach Me*, Olaf's reaction that his mom is dating his teacher goes surprisingly well all things considered (way #1). - In the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal, Air Witch Irena Politek is one of the last single women in her peer group of Witches. As her closest friends not only marry but have children, Irena reflects that she's thirty-five and a spinster. On a trip to one of the remoter corners of Far Überwald, a tack malfunction on her Pegasus forces her to make an emergency landing to seek repairs. Her Wingman, who is a local girl, directs her to the metalworker, blacksmith and general craftsman, Vitali. Irena discovers more than just somebody who can repair her girth strap: he is a widower with two daughters. Who are old enough to treat the prospect of a stepmother with some suspicion and alarm and behave as you might expect. Irena, on the other hand, ruefully reconsiders that as a Witch, she should have been *more specific* when she wished for children. - In *Like Fire and Water* (an alternate TL set in the Ba Sing Se arc of *A:tLA*) we see multiple variants of #2 from Katara, note : She has a violent initial meltdown over her father replacing her dead mom with what she thinks is a random Earth Kingdom floozy, and taking the better part of a week to calm down and have a civil conversation. Zuko note : he's too happy about stumbling across his mother to have more than general apprehension about the Water Tribe chieftain tied to his issues with father figures in general, until he realizes who his new step-siblings are. and Sokka note : He tries to keep an open mind going in, but discovering "Xia's" true identity leads to a rather pointed interrogation. Azula's long-term response is unknown, but her not incinerating Hakoda *yet* is seen as a good sign. - Damian has a type 2 reaction to Batman's Old Flame Catwoman dropping back into his life in the first book of the *Dusk to Dawn* series. While he neither trusts nor likes Selina, it's not a woman other than his mother coming into Bruce's life he has a problem with, but *any* woman period. Damian emotionally depends on seeing Batman as infallible, and Selina's presence softens his father up and breaks the pedestal. Dick calls him out for being selfish and tells him he should help stop the dehumanizing Bruce does to himself rather than add to it. The kid takes this to heart and accepts Selina. In later books, they have a friendlier relationship ||and she eventually becomes his Good Stepmother.|| - A Fandom-Specific Plot in *Knights Ofthe Old Republic* fanfics with a female Player Character and Carth. Carth has a teenaged son from his first marriage. Already, we have an awkward situation with this trope in play. It only gets worse. ||Dustil is in the "I hate everything" stage, and is training as a Sith. So add a lightsaber and Force powers to an already temperamental teenager. NOW add that the Player Character used to *rule* the Sith, and is indirectly responsible for the death of Carth's wife and Dustil's mom. Veers almost into Guess Who I'm Marrying? territory.|| Depending on when the writer is setting the story, Carth may or may not know this. Dustil certainly never finds out "on panel." - *The New Girl*, an *A Song of Ice and Fire* Modern AU Fic, focuses on Shireen's reaction to her father's relationship with Sansa. She admits that Sansa isn't bad herself, it's just that Shireen doesn't like her constantly "intruding". For extra tension, there is the fact that Sansa is very young (thanks to an Age Lift from canon, she is nine years older than Shireen rather than three, but it still is a source of major squick for Shireen). - *For the Glory of Irk*: A few years before the story started, Professor Membrane hooked up with a colleague named Moira. While Gaz doesn't appear to have had a problem with this, Dib takes a long time to warm up to her, mostly because her self-admitted moral ambiguity leaves him believing that she's evil. He does eventually get over this, however, even slipping up and calling her "mom" on a few occasions. - *Showdown: No Holding Back*: Rachel's mother is dead and her father has a girlfriend who Rachel doesn't *dis*like but is kind of indifferent about. She still encourages them to get together after being reaped so her dad won't be alone if she dies. - *An Extremely Goofy Movie*: Goofy falls in love with a college librarian, Sylvia Marpole. At first, Max is happy because she provides a distraction for Goofy, since Goofy had been bugging him due to his Empty Nest syndrome. By the end of the movie, however, he's just genuinely happy for them. - When Lucy in *Despicable Me 2* was first introduced to the girls, Agnes was the first one to ship her with her adopted father Gru. Later on, ||when Gru married Lucy, all the girls were certainly happy to have a new mother.|| - Unusually amicable instance in *The Aristocats* - the kittens bond with O'Malley faster than Duchess does, and are very much in favor of him as their dad. - For most of the *Rugrats* series, Chuckie's father, Charles Finster Sr., is a single dad due to the death of his first wife (Chuckie's mother) Melinda. In *Rugrats in Paris*, however, Charles meets, falls in love with, and marries Kira Watanabe, who in turn is a divorcée with an infant daughter named Kimi. - In *Onward*, Colt Bronco began dating Ian and Barley's mother Laurel some time after their father died, and while they show some annoyance at him they seem to get along and his love for Laurel is obvious. By the end their relationship seems to have improved. - In *Over the Moon*, the conflict begins when Fei Fei's father introduces her to Mrs Zhong, her soon-to-be stepmother. She is shown to be nothing but kind and patient with Fei Fei and genuinely tries to connect with her, though Fei Fei wants nothing to do with her as she feels Mrs Zhong's very presence is tarnishing her late mother's memory. - In *Enchanted*, Robert's girlfriend Nancy seems to get along with his daughter Morgan, but Giselle and her hit it off almost instantly, with Morgan even helping Giselle realize her feelings for Robert. - Baroness Elsa Schraeder in *The Sound of Music*. Of course, she ends up losing out to Maria. - The movie *Mrs. Doubtfire* involves Robin Williams' ex-wife dating Pierce Brosnan. Williams spends his time dressing up as a woman to see his kids and running interference in his ex-wife's relationship. Brosnan on the other hand is shown to be genuinely caring of her and all three of the children, and actively *wanting* to be the responsible husband/father figure they never had. - *The American President* has a scene where the widowed president asks his daughter her feelings about him seeing another woman. She is completely fine with it. - In *American History X*, the mother bringing home a Jewish Liberal teacher doesn't sit well with Derek her White Supremacist Skinhead son. Cue *Family Feud* - In *Freaky Friday (2003)*, Anna doesn't get along with her mother's fiancé, despite him being a really nice and friendly guy, which also increases the tension between her and her mother. When he shows support for her band however, Anna realizes that he really is a good guy for her mom and their family, and she only disliked him initially because she didn't want her dead dad "being replaced." - *Juno*: Juno gets along quite well with her stepmother, who in turn, supported Juno during her pregnancy, even calling out an ultrasound tech who sterotyped her daughter. - *Legally Blonde* takes 3 to its logical conclusion, with Chutney killing her father thinking he was Brook. - *Louisa*: Played straight, except for the fact that the mother and son involved are 20-30 years older than characters usually are with this trope. Hal, a Standard '50s Father (played by Ronald Reagan) gets very upset when his mother Louisa, a widow in her seventies, starts up a DecemberDecember Romance. He even tries to forbid his mom from seeing her new boyfriend, Henry the elderly grocer. - In *Love Actually*, Sam got along fine with his stepfather Daniel, who raised him after his mother died. And when ||Daniel met another woman||, he had no problem with it. - *Sleepless in Seattle* has this in spades, with Jonah being horrified with the women his dad meets, to the point that he tries to sabotage their dates. Of course, he has the perfect woman in mind for his dad... - In *My Girl*, Vada's mother went the Death by Childbirth way. She doesn't seem bothered by her father dating the new employee Shelley, and she gets along quite well with her future stepmother — who does prove quite helpful when Vada unexpectedly gets her first period. Apparently, no one had told her about such things yet, so Shelley steps in to explain and comfort. - The sequel's showing of their relationship is beautiful, since Shelley and Vada are close without Shelley trying to replace Vada's mother. Shelley steps in to talk to Vada's dad when she worries that Vada is going to feel neglected due to the new baby and reminds him to spend time with her, talks frankly to Vada about the changes in her body due to her pregnancy, is genuinely interested in Vada's life and in knowing about her dead mother. She is the one who encourages Vada to learn about her mom and go on a trip across the country to try and find out more about her. Their relationship is a wonderful example of somebody being a parent without trying to replace a missing parent. - *Mamas Boy 2007* with Jon Heder's character's mom, played by Diane Keaton dating Jeff Daniels. - Combined with MayDecember Romance in *Middle of the Night*, where 56-year-old Jerry gets engaged to 24-year-old Betty, much to the displeasure of his daughter Lillian, who's actually a year older than Betty. Eventually she comes around, smiling as she says Betty's a nice girl but her father is "an old lech." - *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang* has the romance between single father Caractacus Potts and Truly Scrumptious. Caractacus's kids Jemima and Jeremy are eager for them to get together. - In *Fly Away*, Jeanne's new boyfriend Tom is a type 1 - he quickly becomes fond of her autistic daughter Mandy because of her enthusiasm, and Mandy likes him too. - *Pitch Perfect*: Beca's mom never appears in the movie, but it is stated she divorced her father. Her Dad has a new wife, who Beca calls her "step monster". - In *My Science Project*, Michael's dad impulsively marries Dolores, a cosmetics saleswoman he barely knows who uses her company's products to redecorate the apartment, to Michael's displeasure. - In *Jimmie (2008)*, Kathy starts dating Jimmie's swimming coach Jan, to the annoyance of her ex-husband Michael, who is willing to babysit Jimmie while she works on her translation but doesn't appreciate doing it so she can have a night out. - In *The Big Cube*, Adriana tries to be friendly towards her teenage stepdaughter Lisa, but Lisa dislikes her instantly, feeling that she stole her father away from her. The situation worsens when Lisa's father dies in a boating accident and Lisa blames Adriana, and then when Adriana refuses to give her approval for Lisa to marry her sketchy boyfriend. - *Steam*: - Laurie dates her son's coach. It doesn't appear he even knows, so we don't get his reaction. - August begins a relationship with Doris that outrages his son William, who feels its disrespecting his late mother, falsely claiming Doris is a gold digger as August's very successful as a lawyer. - In *Fire Emblem Fates*, Hinoka was the slowest of her siblings to warm up to her stepmother and later Parental Substitute, Mikoto, after her birth mother Ikona died and her father Sumeragi married Mikoto, who was likely a concubine prior to becoming his legal wife. Initially, Hinoka was very cruel and defiant towards Mikoto, though over the years she warmed up to her and regrets her actions by the present time of the story. - *Half-Life 2*: Implied between Eli Vance, his daughter Alyx Vance and his co-worker Judith Mossman. Eli and Judith may be more than friends, and Alyx does not get on with Judith. ||Ends with No Romantic Resolution with Eli's sudden death at the end of *Episode 2*.|| - *Life Is Strange: Before the Storm* opens some time after Chloe Price's mother Joyce has started dating David Madsen, and Chloe does not like him any more than she does in the original game, even if David and (optionally) Chloe are trying to make things work. Her disposition towards him does not improve at the start of "Brave New World", when David announces that he is moving in, though David can ||make a peace offering|| in "Hell is Empty" that may help Chloe take David proposing to Joyce in the ending somewhat better. *Slightly*. - In *Love & Pies*, Kate is happy to see her single mother Amelia fall in love with Joe and sometimes teases them about it. - In *Persona 3*, Yukari Takeba is disgusted with her mother's constant search for new lovers because she thinks it dishonors the memory of her dead father. ||As the link progresses, Yukari learns that her mother wants to remarry, but ultimately decides to wait until Yukari is ready.|| - *Persona 4* has Eri Minami, the Temperance social link, who recently married a single father and is trying to become close to her new stepson, Yuuta, but doesn't have any success. Meanwhile, Yuuta is convinced that Eri hates him because the two are so distant (what with Yuuta's father overseas at the time). It's up to the main character to help their relationship improve. - *What Remains of Edith Finch* has the type 3 variant. Gus is not fond of his father remarrying after divorcing Kay, to the point of refusing to attend their wedding. - The subject of one of Colony 9's sidequests in *Xenoblade Chronicles 1*. The mother's kids don't like the new paramour very much, and depending on your choices you can either help the couple get together or have the mother reconcile with her children but keep the suitor in an ambiguous Just Friends relationship. - Happens in any ending of *Daughter for Dessert* with Kathy, Heidi, or Lily. ||After getting out of jail,|| the protagonist announces his new relationship to all the diner staff. How Amanda reacts depends on whether he decided before to continue their own relationship. If he did, Amanda is hurt and angry, but if not, she is understanding and accepting of her father's new girlfriend. - *Higurashi: When They Cry* : - There is an interesting example: *Tsumihoroboshi-hen* has Rina, the new girlfriend of Rena's father. It turns out that ||she's the lover of Satoko's Evil Uncle Teppei and plans to extort money from Rena's father||, and when Rena finds out, Rina ||tries to kill her||. Rena ends up ||killing her in self-defense||. Then she ||kills Teppei||. Things go downhill from there. Of course, Rena has issues with Rina even before all of the stuff above. It mostly had to do with the fact that ||Rena's mom cheated on her dad. She liked her mom's boyfriend before her mother told her that she was pregnant and intended to divorce her father to marry the boyfriend||. - A more traditional version happened in Satoko's backstory. After Satoko's mom remarried after going through about three other husbands, Satoko was not happy about her new stepfather and constantly fought with him, to the point where she faked child abuse from him in an attempt to get rid of him through social services. It didn't work. ||This comes back to bite her in the ass in some arcs where she is abused by Teppei, to the point where social services are reluctant to act out of belief she may be lying again.|| - The sister-series to *Higurashi*, *Umineko: When They Cry* follows this up with an inversion. Battler likes his step-mother, Kyrie, viewing her as a sort of Cool Big Sis. It's his *father* Rudolf he holds a grudge against for remarrying so soon after the death of Battler's mother Asumu. In response, he went to live with his maternal grandparents for the six years leading up to the beginning of the story. And to make things more complicated? ||There was a child switch involved, and Asumu is *not* Battler's bio mom. *Kyrie* is his biological mother.|| - The plot of *Our Two Bedroom Story* is kicked off when the protagonist's mother, single since the death of her husband when the protagonist was a child, decides to remarry. The protagonist is a bit uncomfortable with the idea, but the guy seems kind and genuinely in love with her mother, so she tries to be supportive, and decides to find somewhere else to live so that the newlyweds can have some privacy after their wedding. - *Alice (1999)*: This is a common thing with Alice. She absolutely *hates* Joan, who her father is dating and uses her as a go-to villain in her fantasies. However, Joan is actually *quite* nice to her and is genuinely trying to bond with her. It turns out that the reason Alice dislikes her so much is because of a Freudian Excuse. ||Alice's mother is never there, her first parental substitute, Miranda, died in a car accident. Alice blurts out during a camping trip that she doesn't need another mother to abandon her.|| - The early days of *Better Days* often had this as a plot element with Fisk's widowed mother Sheila trying to find someone new, including once dating her kid's principal (||this ended badly, with him being psychotic and raping Sheila only to die under suspicious circumstances||) and their married next-door neighbor Sam (who was also the father of Fisk's best friend, just to complicate things), who after having an affair with Sheila and being caught eventually married her years later. Fisk then had a a conversation with his mother where he told her that while it was too late for Sam to replace his father, it didn't matter, she was happy now, and that was what mattered. - In *Kevin & Kell*, Lindesfarne (Kevin's daughter) bonds rather quickly with new stepmother Kell, while Rudy (Kell's son) has more trouble accepting stepfather Kevin, but does eventually. Species issues are probably relevant - Rudy, being a canine (fox/wolf cross), has some trouble accepting a rabbit as outranking him. Lindesfarne, on the other paw, does not have the pack structure issue complicating her relationship with Kell. - Marten in *Questionable Content* is very happy when his father Henry announces that he's getting remarried to his boyfriend Maurice, and Marten is thrilled to have two dads now and calls Maurice "Dad Two, Dad Harder". A good bit of it is that his mother Veronica approves of Maurice, and her marriage to Henry ended because he realized he was gay and the two still have a strong relationship. - When Veronica starts dating Jim from The Secret Bakery, Marten's just as stoked for three dads. - In *Roommates* for added awkward two of the main cast members' parents began flirting / going out, namely James' mother with Jareth's father. Adds to the horror that this is a Mindgame Ship (The Gadfly / Magnificent Bastard), and that the family of Jareth is notoriously bad news. In the Spin-Off *Girls Next Door* Jareth is blessed with this trope on his mother's side too but that is more of a Guess Who I'm Marrying? situation as she got together with *his rival*. - One story on *Not Always Right* has a man call an online store to complain that they hacked his email and canceled his order from them, a gift for his girlfriend. After investigation, his daughter had canceled the order because she doesn't like the girlfriend. - *Nightmare Time*: "Jane's a Car" begins about a year and a half after the death of Tom's wife Jane, as he starts seeing his high school girlfriend Becky again. His son, Tim, likes Becky a lot and they get along well, and he even outright tells his dad he's okay with them dating since it's nice to see him happy. Unfortunately for Tom, Jane's Not Quite Dead... and *not* happy to hear he's moved on with his life.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentWithNewParamour

Parenting the Husband - TV Tropes *"If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with. But if it just sits on your couch, eats your food, watches your TV, and uses your phone, and doesn't seem to realize or care that you set it free, you either married it or gave birth to it."* — **A parodic twist on a well-known proverb** A modern, less "offensive" variation of the Henpecked Husband, where in a married couple, the husband is quite a child-like, slobbish jerk, and the wife is like a parent to him except that she can quite easily provide him sex. Sometimes, the wife may talk about feeling like she really does have one more child than the number of children they have, and guess who the extra is? Ironically, her job of child care may be made easier by the husband being able to connect to their children more effectively. Sometimes, though, the husband is perfectly angelic or a hard worker, or a mixture of the two, and the wife is simply motherly with no shallow motives, with him being most of all a Bumbling Dad with a penchant for causing wacky hijinks that she must resolve, this being part of a Women Are Wiser setup. A rather awful Double Standard; the notion of a girlish wife in need of control and protection by a fatherly husband rarely appears and carries a lot of Unfortunate Implications (and similarly, the Henpecked Husband scenario is considered nowadays to be a big Take That! against the sole idea of a woman pulling the weight on the family— see the description above) but this one persists. There is offense given to both sides— men are told that they're useless and incompetent in the realm of family life and should really just let their wives take charge; women are told that they can't expect their husbands to act like grownups and should just resign themselves to having to carry their husband's weight responsibility-wise and being regarded as the boring killjoy of the family for it. There is also an uncommon misconception that in pre-70s shows. you were more likely to see the inversion, due to patriarchy being a thing. Truth is, a show having the wife be childish and her husband being her father is pretty much a Dead Unicorn Trope, and it was only as common back then as it is now. Part of this misconception might come from the popularity of *I Love Lucy*, one of the few 50s TV shows people can name off the top of their heads. But in reality, the husband/wife dynamic in I Love Lucy was just much a novelty back then as it is now with *King of the Hill*. Not to be confused with Wife Husbandry, which is when an adult raises a child with the intent of eventually marrying them. ## Examples: - In *Dragon Ball*, Chi-Chi treats her husband Son Goku very much like this. However, it could be subverted, as the fact that Goku is a phenomenally powerful alien Martial Artist makes this relationship look more equitable than most other examples — Chi-Chi "takes care" of Goku at home, Goku "takes care of her in return"... by saving the world on a regular basis. To say nothing of when Goku actually does get de-aged to a child. Also Goku's home life isn't that explored in the story, what with him either dying or away fighting aliens, so Chi-Chi probably doesn't count on him doing chores around the house. - *Dragon Ball Super* explores their homelife a little, with Chi-Chi forcing Goku to get a job as a farmer partly to set a good example for their son Goten and partly so they stop sponging off her father's money. In the first episode Mister Satan gives Goku a ludicrous amount of money as a reward for defeating Majin Buu note : it was actually given to Satan, but he's already rich and felt that it should go to the people who actually saved the world, which convinces Chi-Chi to let him dump his job and go back to training. However, later on she lies about having blown through the reward money in order to get Goku to go back to farming. - Gender inverted in *I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying*. Nozomu says the reason why he hasn't thought about having kids is because he's basically Rino's mother already. - Subverted with Amir and Karluk in *A Bride's Story*. Amir thinks this is the case with her 12-year-old husband Karluk, and is initially fine with it. Karluk, however, grows weary of it pretty quickly and makes it very clear that she doesn't have to babysit him. Not only does it make her back off, but has the side effect of making her fall head over heels in love with him. - *Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs* has this as Maries relationship with her Reverse Harem, as Laser-Guided Karma for her selfishness. She pulled a Hijacked Destiny to get rich noble dating sim capture targets to fall in love with her, only for them to end up disinherited, having been overly spoiled Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense beforehand, and repeatedly raiding her cash reserves to buy her gifts to try and impress her, mistaking her tears over Perpetual Poverty for tears of joy, all while refusing to help make food and such. Eventually, she gives them each enough money to last a week and kicks them out for a month, which only Julius really learns from, while they each become more eccentric from their new jobs. - Baron and Baroness Bomburst in *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang*. She buys the man *toys*, for God's sake, and coos over him as if he were a precocious, temperamental infant. (Which, admittedly, he totally acts like.) - Taken to a rather Squicky extreme in *Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders*: The Jerkass critic in the first story, as a result of a spell gone wrong, turns into a baby, giving his infertile wife the son she could never conceive. Needless to say, when this movie was featured on *MST3K*, this did *not* go un-mocked. **Mike:** Oh, good, now she has to raise her horrible husband! **Crow:** That's what most wives think they do, anyway. - When the doctor in *Blindness* goes blind, his wife ends up treating him more like an infant than a spouse anymore, and it repulses him. - Refreshingly averted in *Neighbors*; not only does Kelly help Mac with the schemes against the frat, but she's appalled when Mac admits he wants her to be the one who keeps him from doing crazy/stupid things, responding that just because she's the wife doesn't mean she doesn't have the urge to do crazy things too. - In *Suffragette*, the protagonist's marriage is an average one for the time the film takes place in. When she returns from serving prison time for participating in a demonstration for women's rights, her first question to her husband is whether he has eaten enough - she doesn't consider him capable of feeding himself. And she's right; he answers that a (female) neighbour cooked for him and their son. He also proves himself utterly incapable of taking care of the son while the protagonist is away, to the point that the child is running around in pyjamas on the streets. - *Ascendance of a Bookworm*: One of aspects of the King Incognito involving Manchild Sylvester is that he turns out to be a married father of three under his real identity. Unsurprisingly, his wife is an "older sister" type and is stated to be one of the few people who can control him. - A gender-reversed version of this occurs in Charles Dickens' *David Copperfield*, in which David's ||first|| wife is childlike and asks him to think of her as his "child-wife." - David's Wicked Stepfather, Mr. Murdstone has a darker version of this trope; essentially breaking his (much younger) wife and forcing her to become perfectly compliant to and dependent on him and his sister. He does this with both David's mother and ||his second wife||. - In Diana Wynne Jones' *House of Many Ways*, sequel to *Howl's Moving Castle*, Howl actually turns himself into a Deliberately Cute Child, and poor Sophie has to deal with both him and their son. While trying to do her job. - In the Moomin books, Moominmamma to Moominpapa. In the comics she openly laments how hard it is to have a husband that never grows up. - Justified, gender-reversed version in *A Brother's Price*, as sisters share a husband - some of the younger sisters may still be actual children when the older sisters marry. - *Journey to Chaos* plays this for laughs with Mr. and Mrs. Enaz. Ponix is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander whose wife gives him a list of things that he's not allowed to do when he is working, such as "eat beans in public". When it comes to his job as an ambassador, he is quite competent. - *Desperate Housewives* has Tom and Lynette Scavos. Lynette often has to play the bad guy and suffer through being the disciplinarian while Tom is the cool dad. - *Friends*: There was an in-universe joke that Monica was the adult and Chandler the child, but the truth was that Chandler was equally likely to be the adult to Monica's child. It usually depended on what joke the episode was going for, and they actually had a very balanced relationship most of the time. - Possibly the best example of this was Monica wanting to spend all the money Chandler saved on her "dream wedding," which she had planned since she was five. He refused because he wanted to keep it for their future. - In Brit Com *2point4 Children*, the husband was rather needy, although emotionally rather than practically. The writer has said that Ben was the "point four" of the title. - *The Cosby Show*, though Cliff Huxtable is not a Bumbling Dad, and this one possibly isn't an example of Closer to Earth; Clair Huxtable was more practical but not really morally superior, and in fact was sometimes *indrawn breath* wrong. - Debra and Ray Barone in *Everybody Loves Raymond* fit this to a tee in the mid-to-later seasons of the show. In the earlier seasons of the show, Raymond was portrayed as being rather clever and witty, at one point even winning a national award for his writing skills. In the later seasons, he was seemingly dumbed down to make Debra look better by comparison, all so that the show could more easily shill Debra and use this trope. - *Home Improvement* plays with this, on the surface Tim is very immature while Jill evokes Women Are Wiser but a number of episodes show that Jill can be a bit nagging and Tim is genuinely trying to help the family with his modifications around the house. In many cases Tim is quite competent when he wasn't trying so hard (the appliances he rewires tend to explode, but rebuilding hot rods and general home upgrading projects often turn out quite well). - Turk and Carla on *Scrubs*. When Carla first meets Turk's mom, she's creeped out by how similar they are. - *Modern Family*: - Phil and Claire. Zig-Zagged: Phil is definitely One of the Kids, but he's occasionally shown to be The Wonka when his self-confidence and goofy, likeable manner help him get ahead in life, and Claire's attempts to reign him in are shown to be neurotic and controlling as often as mature and responsible. - Somewhat inverted with Jay and Gloria. As Jay has the advantage of experience (and Gloria a fiery Latin temper), Jay is usually the one to play the role of the mature adult and reign his wife in. - Lily and Rufus on *Gossip Girl*. - *Mad Men* gives us a few examples: - Trudy sometimes comes across as being more a parent than a wife to her impulsive, impatient husband, Pete. - Gender-flipped in several cases where an Age-Gap Romance is in play: - Don and Megan have shades of this, with her at one point sarcastically addressing him as "Daddy". - Roger and Jane, especially given that she is more or less the same age as his daughter. - Henry and Betty, most notably when he has to calm things down between her and Sally. - The Trope Maker: *The Honeymooners*. - *Two and a Half Men*: Being fed up with this sort of situation is what causes Bridget to split up with Walden. - Queen Anne in *The Musketeers* has fallen into this role with her Manchild husband King Louis. - Another gender-flipped example in *I Love Lucy* - Ricky literally spanks Lucy on multiple occasions (and not for fun.) - Played with to a lesser degree between Arthur and Guinevere on *Merlin*, in which the maternal and wise Guinevere often calms or cares for her temperamental husband. Sometimes, Merlin got in on the act, and there's a scene between him and Guinevere in Season 5 where Gwen pretty much hands responsibility of Arthur over to Merlin for the day. **Guinevere**: You will look after him? **Merlin**: He doesn't always make it easy. **Guinevere**: I know. - Zig-Zagged on *Parks and Recreation* with Andy. In the first season he is utterly dependent on his much more mature and responsible girlfriend Ann, culminating when it comes out that the broken leg he'd used as an excuse to have her wait on him hand and foot actually healed some time ago. This could count as a Deconstruction since this is very much *not* depicted as a normal or healthy relationship for either of them. Then averted and sometimes mildly inverted when Andy dates (and later marries) April, who had been an apathetic Deadpan Snarker but becomes much more carefree and fun-loving under his influence. Neither of them is especially mature or responsible, and when Ben moves in with them he ends up having to teach them a number of "functioning adult" lessons (like doing dishes and not eating mac and cheese from a frisbee). But when someone *does* have to emerge as the adult voice of reason, it's usually Andy because he's more cheerful and optimistic while April can be too stubborn. - *That '70s Show*: Kitty sometimes acts like this toward Red. This is most evident in "Red Sees Red", where Kitty actually *threatens to quit her job* to keep an eye on him and protect the kids from his wrath. - In *The Suite Life on Deck* episode "Maddie On Deck", Maddie **inadvertently** gets engaged to an 8 year old. She learns that the only way to get out of the marriage was for Zack to duel him. After Zack loses Round 1, Maddie invokes this trope **Maddie:** (pretending to call her parents) Hey mom, hey dad. Yeah, I'm not coming home; I'm spending the rest of my life *raising my husband.* - *The Twilight Zone (1959)*: In "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain", there is a very literal application of this trope. Harmon Gordon takes an experimental youth serum developed by his brother Raymond so that he can be the husband that his unfeeling wife Flora, who is 40 years younger than him, wants. However, he regresses to a toddler within hours. Raymond, who despises Flora for ruining Harmon's life, tells her that she will have to raise Harmon and take care of him if she wants access to his money. He threatens to throw her out on the street with nothing but the clothes on her back if she even hires a nanny or governess to take care of Harmon. - *Kevin Can F**k Himself*: The series is a Deconstructive Parody of sitcoms, and this is one of many sitcom tropes that comes under fire. Rather than being a lovable, well-intentioned manchild who is loved by his wife in spite of his shortcomings, the titular Kevin is a destructive, petty, self-centered *asshole* who always expects Allison to clean up his messes and causes great harm to other people. She has no time for herself and no friends of her own because his antics consume all of her time and energy and his selfishness crosses into outright emotional and financial abuse. After putting up with ten years of this nonsense, Allison truly loathes her husband and wants him *dead*. - *The Big Bang Theory* has Howard and Bernadette, early on having a number of jokes where Bernadette resembles Howards mom. When married Howard proved to be sloppy with money so Bernadette separated some accounts and put him on an allowance. But by the time their second child came around Howard decided he can't be like that anymore and made a conscious effort to handle things at home so Bernadette could get a break once in a while. - Inverted in Lady Gaga's "Alejandro": *She's not broken/She's just a baby/But her boyfriend's like a dad, just like a dad* - "Yellar" by The Bogmen *I'm a habit-former, should I structure my life* *With all good things and a motherly wife?* *It's just another excuse so I can never grow up* *And I can pee in my pants like a two-week-old pup.* - *Family Guy*: Lois and Peter Griffin. One episode even had a scene where he was refusing to brush his teeth and she would've had to do it for him if they hadn't heard burglars breaking in at that moment. - "The Tan Aquatic With Steve Zissou" gives a nod to this: **Peter:** Well, maybe you should've just had an abortion, Lois! Would that make you happy if I was never born?! - Lampshaded by Lois' mother in "Nanny Goats": **Barbara:** Lois, I've seen enough. You're completely overwhelmed, and you have *four* children. - Wilma and Fred from *The Flintstones*, however, this is downplayed, regardless, she does scold him for his behavior. - Wanda in *The Fairly OddParents!* is often this to Cosmo, who even still wears diapers. - *The Simpsons*: Homer Simpson: **Announcer:** Attention, Marge Simpson: your son has been arrested. **Announcer:** Attention, Marge Simpson: we've also arrested your older, balder, fatter son. - Nicole and Richard from *The Amazing World of Gumball*. Justified due to Granny Jojo's style of parenting (i.e. scaring him to the point that he can't take care of himself), which may have been due to Richard's Dad leaving his family over forty years ago. **Nicole:** I have raised three kids...and one husband! - *King of the Hill*: Inversion with Hank and Peggy Hill. Peggy's huge ego makes her act ridiculously childish to the point of sometimes acting like her pre-teen son when she doesn't get her way, forcing Hank to clean up the inevitable mess. - Unmarried example in *Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)* with Sonic and Sally. Though often depicted as rivaling egos, Sonic is usually far more childish and arrogant than Sally, who often needs to guide Sonic so he doesn't endanger himself, and at times the entire team by extension with his recklessness. - *Daria*: Helen often has to do this to Jake, due to the fact that Jake spends far too much time obsessing over his traumatic childhood to do any real parenting. - *South Park*: Randy Marsh is very much the sort of irresponsible Manchild who needs this... but half the time wife Sharon doesn't bother anymore. More often, it's his son Stan who gets sucked into the role of Straight Man to his dad's Crazy Scheme of the Week. - *Hey Arnold!*: While Suzie works hard taking care of the household chores and being the sole source of income, Oskar is lazy, gambles often, and whines for Suzie to make him a sandwich. ||By the events of *The Jungle Movie* Suzie's nowhere to be seen, apparently because she finally had enough and divorced Oskar.|| **Suzie**: You expect everyone else to take care of you! **Oskar**: Suzie, I don't expect everyone else to take care of me! Just you. - *Rugrats*. In the first movie, Stu is having trouble getting baby Dil settled down. While telling Didi how frustrated he is, he himself starts wailing out loud. Didi says, "Oh, for Pete's sake, Stu," and puts a binky in his mouth. - *American Dad!*: Hayley often acts more like Jeff's mother than his wife. She is said to give him baths, helps him learn his colors, needs others to watch him when she isn't around and once made him sit in a corner for 10 minutes (later upped to 20 when he talked back) because he insulted Francine.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentingTheHusband

Parenthood - TV Tropes Parenthood may refer to: If an internal link led you here, please change it to point to the specific article. Thanks!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Parenthood

The Parent-Produced Project - TV Tropes When a child needs a school project done, sometimes the parents (usually the mother) would do it for them. Often the parent is doing the project for their lazy son the night before the project is due. In some cases the kids don't *want* this much help with the project, it's the parent pushing themselves on it to make themselves look good. Related to Science Fair projects, Ridiculous Procrastinator, Last-Minute Project, and Homework Slave. ## Examples: - There was a *Cardcaptor Sakura* episode where Sakura put off her homework until the end of the holiday and had to finish it on the last day. Her father gave her some of the answers. It's also shown that her brother Touya (and Yukito) made her birdhouse project for her, but she had to do his chores in exchange. - In *Lucky Star*, Tsukasa recalls a time when her dad did a project for her; it got an award, and Tsukasa told him she thought he was amazing. Kagami thinks she would've been irritated in his position. - One *Baby Blues* story had Zoe participating in a school contest to make a poster about recycling. Darryl and Wanda end up doing the whole project, though Zoe is quick to point out to her teacher that the most important part of the poster is her own work...the signature. - *Set It Up*: Rick's son has a Science Fair coming up. Rick being a demanding Mean Boss, he has his assistant Charlie make the project. Charlie spends days working on something about lemon batteries, only for Rick to destroy it during a temper tantrum. - Inverted, or nearly so in *St. Vincent (2014)*: The big project in Oliver's class is about modern "saints", and in his speech before the presentation he jokes that most of the students probably selected a parent. - In the book *I Dont Know How She Does It*, Kate discovers a letter from her daughter's school, stating that the children were supposed to make food to bring to a cultural fair. Kate ends up steaming the labels off jars of shop-bought jam and putting new labels on them to pretend that she and her daughter made the jam themselves. - In one *The Baby-Sitters Club* book, there's a science fair coming up and many of the sitters are supervising and helping out clients with their projects. While most just supervise or offer advice, Jessi ends up taking over and doing the bulk of Jackie Rodowsky's project for him. This ends badly when the judges ask him other questions about it and determine that he has no idea. - In another Babysitters' book, one of Mallory's brothers is discouraged that another student's math fair project is much more sophisticated than his, but cheers up when one of the judges asks her a question and she can't answer it—her mother did the project for her. - In one of the earlier *Diary of a Wimpy Kid* books, Roderick is terrible with technology and makes his dad type all his essays for him. Because Rodricks drafts are riddled with huge inaccuracies that his dad cant bear to type, he always ends up correcting them and thus doing the bulk of the essay for him. - It's mentioned in the *Teenage Worrier* series that Letty's little brother can't read or write well for his age. She puts this partly down to their parents doing his school assignments for him. - In *The Devil Wears Prada*, Andy at one point is painting a diorama of the solar system. Her boss, Miranda Priestly, it seems, regularly makes her complete projects for Priestly's twin girls. - *Cheers*: In "Someday My Prince Will Come", Carla brings Gino's non-functioning science fair project—an electric generator—into the bar for the guys to fix. Cliff winds up shocking himself. - Narrowly averted in *Modern Family*. Haley needs to bake some cupcakes for school and tricks her mother into making them by pretending to be incompetent in the kitchen. At the end of the episode, Claire catches on to the trickery and dumps the freshly baked cupcakes in the bin; telling Haley that now she has seen how it's done, she can do it herself. - Inverted in another episode of *Modern Family*, where the Dunphy parents decide NOT to help their kids for a change, since the kids have grown to take it for granted that the grownups will do all the work. - Subverted by the third-season episode "Egg Drop". At the end Luke and Manny ||admit they manipulated Claire and Jay into doing their projects for them||. - In *That's So Raven*, Corey tricks his parents into completing his school projects for him by pretending to be too incompetent to complete a project of any quality. But then subverted because his actual project was a report, and in it he was trying to prove that if he messed up badly enough, his parents would always cover him. He got an A and punished in the end. - On *Still Standing*, Lauren's parents make her science projects, only to get her promoted into the honors class. In their honors projects, the teacher criticizes "Lauren's" work, and the parents naturally take it personally. - On *The Suite Life of Zack & Cody*, Arwin takes over Cody's science fair project because he wants the glory he lost when his own science fair project blew up. - On an episode of *Archie Bunker's Place* basically all the employees of Archie's bar pitch in to do Stephanie's science project for her. She feels guilty and the teacher tumbles to it right away. - This happens in *American Gothic (1995)*, when Buck (who is actually the devil...or something) does Caleb's science project for him. It becomes An Aesop when Caleb admits in front of his class that he cheated. It turns out that he learned so much about science on his own that he was able to give an impressive speech on the topic anyway. - Happens in *Reba* with Van building a volcano for Jake's science class (though Van is Jake's brother-in-law, not his father). He and Jake we're supposed to build it together, but Van dislikes Jake's ideas and does the project himself. Van mentions that his father used to do the same to him, with one of Van's projects being a *dialysis machine*. When Reba points out Van's misconduct, he apologizes to Jake and they both decide to build one together. - *The InBESTigators*: The motivation behind the theft of Pixie's project in "The Case of the Missing Solar System"; the thief's parents always did his projects for him and his own efforts paled in comparison to everyone else's so he tried to pass Pixie's off as his, though Maudie foils it. - *The Sopranos*: In one episode, Carmela decides to help AJ with an essay on *Billy Budd*. He still only gets a C and she's embarrassed as a result. - In *Narbonic*, Helen mentions that her school project ||Zeta|| was done with her mother's help. - *The Simpsons*: - Parodied and played with in "$pringfield, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling", where Lisa and Ralph won "special" awards for their costumes during a school pagent about the fifty United States, as the only two who obviously didn't have parental help making their costumes. (Ralph's costume was a piece of paper he had taped to himself saying "Idaho.") Ironically, Lisa *did* have her father's help with it. - In another episode, Lisa enters an essay contest and while her entry makes it to the top, one of the judges suspects she had help from her father because the standard is higher than might be expected for a child's essay. After talking to Homer for about a minute, she then decides to give her an extra 10 points and thus letting her go to the finals. - Another episode had Homer becoming a "helicopter parent", and build Bart's model of Westminster Abbey for him. It had the same punchline - Bart wins an award because it's assumed he didn't have parental help. - Similar to this, when Homer helps Bart build a soapbox derby car, it's done so poorly that a judge assumes Bart took the 'no parental help' rule too seriously. - In "I'm with Cupid", Marge builds a working model of the human digestive system for Bart the night before it's due. Far from being for Marge's ego, Bart *guilted* her into doing it herself by waiting until the last minute or else he'd fail. (Nelson destroys it on the bus before they get to school.) - An early episode had a father at a science fair who had clearly done the project become so protective of it he insisted his son stay away from it. - In the short-lived Nick @ Nite show *Fatherhood*, one episode involves a football player whose parents do all of his papers. - There is an episode of *Rugrats: All Grown Up!* where Tommy tries to stop his dad from finishing his project for him, since his father has done so before. - In an episode of *King of the Hill*, Bobby takes advantage of Peggys ego and gets her to write his essay for him. She also ends up writing papers for many of Bobbys classmates. - In an episode of *The Fairly OddParents!*, Timmy Turner wins a school science fair because his project was so bad that he obviously did it himself, and all of the other students had their parents' help. - *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*: "The Cart Before the Ponies" has a variant; the younger ponies are allowed help from an older pony when building their carts for the Applewood Derby, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders find their respective mentors (Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Applejack and Applebloom, and Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo) get so caught up in doing things their way, they take over the project, to the point of actually driving the carts in the big race instead of letting the younger ponies do so! When their bossiness causes a big crash that nearly spoils the Derby, the Crusaders decide they've had enough and call out the older mares for refusing to listen to their mentorees and let them do things their way. - *Arthur* deconstructs this in the episode "Muffy Takes the Wheel". The episode's conflict revolves around Muffy wanting to build a miniature car on her own for a school project, but she feels like Ed is taking it over. He's genuinely helping and doesn't come off as too pushy, and he had entered a similar contest as a kid. However, Muffy feels guilty about taking what's basically his work and passing it off as her own. In the end, she makes her own car at the last minute rather than using her father's. - Brian Regan complains about this during his "Cup of Dirt" routine. "Kid couldn't even tie his own shoes but he brought a volcano!" - Dave Barry mentions this several times in his columns. - In one instance he plots out a usual hectic morning, with "7:39 : Get child in car. 7:43 : Child mentions he has science fair project due that day, which he has never mentioned before. 7:50: Drop child off at school with completed Science Fair project, entitled "Objects found in 1984 Chevrolet ashtray". - In another, he sees it as revenge on the teacher's part for putting up with students (and especially parents): "I've got it! Next year we'll have them make a volcano that spews real lava!" "No, we already did that last year."

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentProducedProject

Parking Garage - TV Tropes In any given movie or TV show, anytime there is a scene set in a parking garage, something bad is about to happen or has happened. Indeed, Nothing Good (or at least nothing wholesome) Ever Happens in a Parking Garage. The reasons for this are many. A Real Life parking garage is an inherently boring place. There is *nothing* to do there but park one's car or drive it out of the garage. Since in a time-sensitive movie or TV show this would be padding, no scene taking place in a parking garage will consist of a single character going and parking without incident, or getting into a single car and driving away without any problems. Typical events in the parking garage: - Enemies are hiding in the garage and they attack the hero, leading to a fist fight or gunfight. - Bad guys invite the hero to a "meeting" in a parking garage, but it's an Inescapable Ambush, with vehicles moving to block exits and snipers in place. - Car chase (bonus points if it involves a gunfight as well; extra bonus points if the car chase requires the cars to drive up the parking garage spiral ramp, culminating in a standoff on the roof or driving *off* the top level) - The audience may see that a bomb is under the car or that the brake lines have been cut - A wealthy or important character may have a bad guy rob, kidnap or assassinate them. - Criminals may do shady business/drug deals, spies may have a covert meeting (not a good place for this, logically, as most parking garages IRL have security cameras) - Meeting one's resident Mysterious Informant to pass a brown envelope - Waiting for elevators up to the building above (especially if a character or a squad is getting ready to assault the building) - Making Love in All the Wrong Places - Taking long enough to get to the car for the goldfish to die. Related: Any scene set under an elevated section of highway. A few varieties of parking garages are depicted. Luxury hotel garages are new, spotless and have expensive cars in the spots. Office and mall garages tend to be older and have a wider range of cars, including easy-to-hotwire old cars for the heroes to steal and escape in. A grungy hotel in a Wretched Hive or in an Abandoned Area will have a shabby, dark parking garage with the lights flickering, making it a scarier setting for horror. While a person should always be alert of their surroundings while on their own alone in a public place, in Real Life a modern security camera-surveilled parking garage is just as safe as any of the other streets you have to walk through to get to said parking garage, except that there will often be less people. Walking through one alone at night, however, is scary because nothing is scarier than your imagination cooking up what ''could'' happen. As with Abandoned Warehouse, they're great shooting locations. They usually have an open level, there's very little set dressing that has to be done, and they're not usually far from the studio itself. Letting a show film there is probably not only cheap for the production but more profitable that day for the garage than an empty level. Not so much Truth in Television anymore. In the modern era parking garages have taken to installing cameras and hiring security or attendants, making it impractical to conduct illegal activity or mug someone in a parking garage. **Examples**: - This becomes a plot point in *Ghost in the Shell (1995)*. Togusa is on stakeout in his car when he notices that the automatic doors for the parking garage take longer to close than they normally would. He then finds out that the pressure-sensitive floor picked up far more weight than the two people he saw walking in. ||The reason is because mooks with optical camouflage snuck in behind them.|| - A crucial battle in *Sailor Moon* happens in one. - In *Serial Experiments Lain* ||The Men in Black|| meet their end in one. - Early on in *Durarara!!* a few thugs stop in one of these only to meet the infamous Black Rider. Things don't go well for them. - *Perfect Blue*: ||The screenwriter of *Double Bind*|| is murdered in the elevator of a spooky parking garage. - *Engage Kiss*: Sharon assaults The Justice in one, causing a gunfight to break out. - *Parasyte* as the Parasyte's begin to organise one of the designated feeding sites discovered by the main characters is an underground parking garage. - *Accident*. The client pays off the hitmen by leaving a packet of money in the backseat on an unlocked car in a multilevel garage, with the bay number sent to him by text. When a member of the team picks up the payoff without orders, the leader of the hitmen arranges her death via an overloaded sprinkler valve. - The basis of the movie *P2*, which has a woman stuck in a closed parking garage with a psycho. - The earlier *Lower Level* had a nigh-identical plot. - Scarecrow's drug deal at the beginning of *The Dark Knight* takes place in a parking garage. - In *Fantastic Four (2005)*, Doom ||kills Ned Cecil|| in a parking garage. - In *Fargo*, this is where the ||Bribe Backfire that kills Jerry's father-in-law|| takes place. - In *48 Hrs.*, Jack and Reggie watch as Luther retrieves Reggie's car from the parking garage it's been in for the last two years. - *Frantic*. A Hostage for MacGuffin exchange is set up in a multilevel parking garage; unfortunately it's gatecrashed by Mossad agents who turn it into a shootout. - Christine in *Drag Me to Hell* is confronted and assaulted by a vengeful gypsy in an isolated parking garage. - *Death Wish 4: The Crackdown* opens with three guys trying to rape a woman in a parking garage, and Paul Kersey intervening in his trademark lethal fashion. ||It's actually a dream he's having||. - *Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol* has a climatic battle with the Big Bad in an automated multi-level parking garage. - Noah's true intentions are revealed after a suspenseful parking garage moment in *Silent Night Deadly Night 5 The Toymaker* - In the 2012 movie *Jack Reacher*, a gunman guns down 5 people from the inside of a parking garage. This is actually a plot point, ||since the person being accused of the massacre would not have chosen that spot as it would be hard to accurately shoot from that range.|| - No one dies in *Skyline* until they pass through the parking garage. That's when things start to go south for our protagonists. That death is actually the one spoiled in the trailer. - In *Bad Boys II*, Syd's undercover meeting takes place at the top of a parking garage. Things quickly turn sour and it develops into a shootout and car chase. - The Hummer stolen in *Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)* is in a parking garage. The crew encounters police resistance for the first time while stealing it. - The shootout that prompted the plot of *U.S. Marshals* takes place in a parking garage. - A parking garage is the primary venue for the (illegal) drift competitions in *The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift*. - The climax of *Furious 7* involves a parking garage practically disintegrating as an assault helicopter shoots at it. - In *Tomorrow Never Dies*, Bond has a car chase/gunfight inside a parking garage in Hamburg. It culminates in Bond driving his car (via remote control) off the roof, sending it crashing into the front of a rental car office. - *Training Day* has the dirty cops meeting on the roof of a parking garage to plan a raid on the home of an ex-cop. - *The Bourne Series*: - Inverted in *The Bourne Identity*. An exciting Car Chase ends with Bourne driving the Mini Cooper into a multilevel garage and telling Marie to take everything she needs because they're never coming back to this car. - However the final car chase in *Jason Bourne* including a parking garage in the trail of destruction. - *The Call*: The victim is abducted from a mall parking garage. - *Best Seller* (1987) opens with the Van in Black driven by the robbers through an underground garage, with fades used to make the corridor they're driving down seem endless until they finally drive out into blinding daylight. Cue Title. - In *Highlander*, Connor MacLeod duels Iman Fasil in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden. - In *The Terminator*, Kyle Reese and the Terminator shoot it out while driving through a parking garage. This leads to Kyle being captured by the police and the Terminator escaping. - *Veronica Mars*: Keith Mars meets with an informant, ||Deputy Sacks||, in a parking garage, only for their car to get t-boned by a truck in an assassination attempt as soon as they depart, killing the informant and severely wounding Keith. - *The Bodyguard* opens on Frank Farmer shooting dead a Professional Killer in a parking garage. - *The Stone Killer* (1973). After massacring a mob commission meeting, the Hired Guns flee to their cars in the parking garage beneath the building, only to get into a shootout with police who have gotten wind of the plan and are rushing to intercept them. - In *Baby Driver*, two pivotal scenes take place in the parking garage outside Doc's hideout. The first is when Buddy and Bats discover Baby has been taping their conversations, and accuse him of being an informant before knocking him out to be brought to Doc. The second is the movie's climax, with Baby, Doc, the police, and ||a vengeful Buddy|| all out to get one another. ||Baby and Debora are the only ones who make it out alive.|| - In *T2 Trainspotting*, after Begbie realizes Renton is the one using the toilet stall next to him, he chases him out of the club to a parking garage. - In *All the President's Men*, Deep Throat meets with Woodward in a parking garage. - In *Fatal Attraction*, Alex vandalizes Dan's car in one. He thinks he hears her running away just after he finds it. - *Ferris Bueller's Day Off* uses this trope comically. After the attendant promises he will not touch the Ferrari until Ferris, Cameron and Sloane, return, we see him in the background getting into it with a coworker as the trip leave. - The freeway car chase in *The Matrix Reloaded* starts with a confrontation in a parking garage. - In the 1988 thriller *True Believer*, James Woods's character is held at gunpoint in one. - *Fear, Inc.* opens with a woman being chased by a psych with a spiked baseball bat through a parking garage; trying desperately to reach her car which is on the top level. - In *Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers*, Mei Ling attempts to murder Chen in a parking garage: first by running him down, and then by shooting at him as he is Hanging by the Fingers off the down ramp. - In *Candyman*, Helen Lyle meets the eponymous antagonist in a parking garage. - In *Ten Dead Men*, Ryan ambushes Harris in the parking garage of the greyhound track and garrotes him. - In the comic noir *Mr Blank*, our hero goes to meet with the Hermetic Secret Service in a parking garage, which promptly transforms into a shootout that ends with an alien abduction. - Parodied in *Smirkey's Game*, a parody of *The Quest for Karla* in an *I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue* spin-off book, in which the Circus *built* a multi-storey car park specifically to meet double agents in, but people keep parking cars in it. So they closed it down. It remained empty for many years, until someone pointed out that a disused car park would be perfect for clandestine meetings. So they built another one. - In the *Discworld* novel *The Truth*, Intrepid Reporter William de Word meets his Mysterious Informant at a multi-storey livery stable. - In *The Peking Target* Quiller finds himself on the run from organised crime hitmen who keep turning up everywhere he goes. He meets Ferris on the top floor of a multistory carpark on a weekend, which means no-one else should bother coming up there, only to hear someone driving up to their level. Quiller and Ferris leap into their car and drive off, right past a car with a young man and woman clearly looking for a Makeout Point. - Much of the season 6 finale of *House* takes place in a collapsed and collapsing parking garage. - There's a lot of this on *Monk*. Most notably, Monk's wife was killed in a parking garage (via car bomb). - In *Burn Notice*, if something shady's going down in Miami, odds are it's in or on a parking garage. Assassinations, clandestine meetings, foot chases; you name it, Team Westen's done it there. - An episode of *Seinfeld* takes place in a mall parking garage, and features the goldfish mentioned above. - The Grave Digger, one of the scariest antagonists on *Bones*, kidnapped Bones and Hodgins from a parking garage. - *Starsky & Hutch*: The bad guys in the final story arc make *three separate attempts* to kill our heroes in various parking garages. - In the pilot of *Alias*, SD-6 has decided that the risk of Sydney Bristow and all she knows leaving the organization are too great and send assassins after her. They come after her in a parking garage. This is only the first of many such scenes in *Alias*. - ||Doctor Melfi|| is sexually assaulted in a parking garage on *The Sopranos* in "Employee of the Month". - In one episode of *Gilmore Girls*, Rory has a clandestine meeting with the season's Alpha Bitch in a parking garage, in a parody of the Film Noir use of this trope. - On an episode of *Top Gear*, a "road test" of a Ford Fiesta includes a car chase through a shopping mall and its associated parking structure. - *The X-Files*. Fox Mulder meets his Mysterious Informant in the parking garage of the Watergate Hotel, and lampshades the historical symbolism. - *NCIS*: At least one episode featured cars parked in a parking garage as major plot points. - In an early episode, *Castle* and Beckett arrange with the FBI to meet a protected witness, and the meeting takes place in a parking garage. Castle lampshades how cliched it is. - Later, he meets up with his informant in Beckett's mother's murder in a parking garage. - *Person of Interest*. In "Number Crunch" Reese comes out the winner in a Hostage for MacGuffin trade in a hospital parking garage (though he has to shoot two criminals in the process) only to get ambushed by the CIA as he leaves. If it weren't for Finch and Carter putting themselves on the line for him, Reese would have died. - *The 100*. Bellamy, Octavia, and a couple of guards take shelter inside a buried parking garage. They're quickly attacked by Reapers. - The first episode of *The Transporter* opens with Frank being told to deliver the 'package' to a parking garage. Naturally, it's an ambush. - *Daredevil (2015)*: - Season 3 episode 3 sees Matt Murdock accost Wilson Fisk's crooked lawyer by hiding in his car in the Presidential Hotel's parking garage and garroting him from the backseat when he gets in. He interrogates Donovan to get information on Fisk's motivations for selling the Albanians out to the FBI, but is interrupted when he hears FBI agents approaching. A stealth fight ensues as Matt fights the FBI agents to make his getaway, using cars and support columns for cover. - In the season 3 finale, Dex, who's been turned against Fisk by Matt, drives into the hotel's parking garage in the Daredevil suit Fisk bought for him, accompanied by the frozen corpse of his girlfriend (who Fisk had had killed five episodes earlier). He then fights his way through his FBI colleagues intent on getting to Fisk and Vanessa. Matt is right on his tail, as he's using Dex to take out the FBI guards so he can get to Fisk. - *Luke Cage (2016)*: In season 2, Thomas Ridenhour has secured the use of Shades' best friend (and gay prison lover) Darius "Comanche" Jones as an informant. Their meetings are shown regularly happening at night in Ridenhour's car at a parking garage in Harlem. - *Payback*: Eun Yong goes to the parking garage in episode 4, which turns out to be a bad idea. He is hit by a car driven by Jin-ho and his henchmen, who are working for In-joo the gangster. They kidnap Eun Yong. - Michael Jackson's "Bad" video (which was directed by Martin Scorsese) has the setting on him and his gang "fighting" (a la dancing) with another gang in a parking garage. It was originally envisioned to be a duet with Prince, but sadly he declined. - Subsequently, "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Fat" video, a parody of the song, also takes place in a parking garage. - The "Lowlife" chapter of *Half-Life 2: Episode One* has the player racing through crumbling underground parking garages which are also swarming with zombies, headcrabs and antlions. - A Prohibition-era mission in *Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven* has the player assisting a shady deal to purchase illegal Canadian whiskey in an Art Deco parking garage. Naturally, the deal is interrupted by an ambushing rival mob, degenerating into a floor-by-floor firefight. - The showdown with BB in the original *Max Payne*. - *The Night Way Home*: The second area of the game is a parking garage. Rina has to find her bike there while avoiding the Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl pursuing her. - The Chicago mission in *Perfect Dark* involves sneaking into a corporate headquarters through the parking garage, where you're ambushed by armed guards. - The *Grand Theft Auto* series is fond of using parking garages in various missions: - In "Waka-Gashira Wipeout" in *Grand Theft Auto III*, the player kills one of the two heads of Yakuza during a Yakuza-Colombian Cartel meeting on top of a parking garage while driving a Cartel gang car, in order to frame the Cartel for the murder of a prominent Yakuza member. - In "Guardian Angels" in *Grand Theft Auto: Vice City*, Colonel Cortez stashes a gun for use in the mission in a parking garage, where the player is also joined by Lance Vance. - In *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas*: - "Ran Fa Li" has the player tasked in retrieving a car in Easter Bay Airport's massive underground carpark for the Triads, which leads to the player being ambushed by gang members from the rival Da Nang Boys. - Players in *San Andreas* may also stumble across a scene reminiscent of the Rodney King beating in the parking garage of the Los Santos headquarters. - The second encounter with Jeff in *Grand Theft Auto IV* involves the player meeting him in the an underground parking garage...revealing that Jeff has stabbed his wife to death, stuffed her into the back of a car, and is pleading the player to dump the car and her body. - The same underground parking garage is a flashpoint "Going Deep" in *Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony*, when the player aids Ray Bulgarin in eliminating a large group of law enforcers intent on planting evidence in one of Ray's cars in the garage. - *Grand Theft Auto V* has you planning an assassination and then executing it from the parking garage across the street from a large hotel, which will eventually turn into a garage gunfight if you're not quick enough in leaving. - During the return to Earth in *Mass Effect 3*, Commander Shepard and company pass through one of these. They're attacked by a swarm of Husks and two Brutes, but by this point that's not too big a deal. - There's a parking garage in the second hub level of *Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines*, which the player can visit for a side quest to rob two gangs in the midst of a trade. - The first two games in the *Saints Row* series had some of these. The first game in particular had an entire Vice King stronghold set in one. - A parking garage is one of several vanilla maps in *Devil Survivor 2*. There's a very violent confrontation with Jikokuten there should you pursue a certain storyline. - In the intro to *Emergency Call Ambulance*'s second stage, a police officer chases some criminals into a parking garage, only to get wounded. The stage itself begins with you driving the ambulance out of the garage you found him in. - *Need for Speed: Underground 2* has a large parking garage (referred to as a "parkade") in which a number of Drift and Street X races occur. Given that these are illegal street races, they definitely count. - In *PAYDAY 2*'s Hoxton Breakout heist (and the promotional trailer it's based on), the escape truck holding Hoxton and the rest of the Payday crew is forced to make a detour through a parking garage while being tailed by SWAT forces. Security bollards prevent the truck from continuing through the garage, and SWAT teams halt an escape from the entrance. A firefight between the Payday crew and the SWAT ensues as the crew searches for a security room, so they can lower the bollards and complete their escape. - One of the possible escape mission sets in parking garage, where the escape van crashed into the bottom of the garage. - *The Secret World* has a couple missions set in parking garages, that combine most of the elements mentioned above. In one, a stolen artifact has become the center of a deal gone bad, with numerous dead and zombified gangsters as a result. The other is the site of an assassination gone bad, with numerous dead bodies, and later ghosts, filling the garage. - *Watch_Dogs* has several, complete with security cameras. They're excellent for online pvp, because there are so many levels for you to hide when in the role of the hacker, and the other player has to search through them all. - *Driver* had the first installment have the first mission in a parking garage, where the undercover cop, Tanner, had to prove his skills as a driver to work for a criminal organization. Said mission is also infamous for being Nintendo Hard. - In *The Evil Within* you have to fight the Amalgam Alpha, a monstrous Eldritch Abomination, in a dilapidated parking garage. - *Modern Warfare 3* has a level where a pair of Abrams tanks use a parking garage to bypass a roadblock. The weight of the tanks proves too much for the garage structure, and one of them drops through the floor into a lower level, disabling the tank and forcing the crew to hoof it. The level ends with a shootout at ground level outside of the garage punctuated by the second tank exiting directly through a wall to plow through the baddies unexpectedly. - A ruined parking garage infested with the Lost appears in the ruined city area of *Code Vein*. - In Paw Dugan's Top 11 Video Game Composers video, the final confrontation with Dark Paw takes place on top of a parking garage. - *The Joker Blogs*; Joker's rampage escalates when they enter a parking garage, with him and Ted the Bum gunning down several cops and stealing a police car ||after just having shot up Harleen's wedding||.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParkingGarage

Parent-Child Team - TV Tropes And the kid's also his clone, to boot! Occurs when a parent and child team up as equals, especially with a common goal in mind. Beating up bad guys together, or something of the like, often comes in tow. In this scenario, the parent is very often single, and almost always very close to their child. Notably, parental substitutes may also apply in such team-ups. A sister trope to Sibling Team and BrotherSister Team. May be part of a Badass Family or The Family That Slays Together. If the parent is also a part of their child's team-up, they may be the Token Adult. ## Examples: - Downplayed in *Dragon Ball*: Goku and Gohan make for an excellent *training* team, but only directly fight alongside one another in extracanonical works; more often than not in-canon, one steps in when the other can't finish the job. Trunks and Vegeta have a similar dynamic, but are far more likely to be at each other's throats. Toss in a little Character Development, and they finally *do* manage work together in *Dragon Ball Super* against Goku Black. - *Maken-ki!*: Himegami finally reveals the true extent of her power in chapter 102, to combat the series' main antagonist Yamato Takeru. She summons ||her mother, Yatsuno||, *from the dead*, then joins both hands with hers to create a massive spell circle, in an attempt to confine Yamato within the barrier atop Amanohara. - In *Venus Versus Virus*, Lucia fights viruses alongside her adopted father Souichirou. - *Batman*: - Bruce Wayne with any *Robin* besides Stephanie Brown, when they're working together, as they're all his sons. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Tim Drake are adopted and Damian Wayne is his biological son. In the New 52, all of them even teamed up together at some point. - Also, any time Batman works alongside pre-New 52 Cassandra Cain after adopting her as his daughter. - Alfred is often portrayed as a father figure to Bruce (being the man who raised him after the death of his parents) and he frequently serves as Mission Control or an outright Battle Butler in some continuities. - Done again in the BatmanBeyond continuity, when it is finally revealed that Terry McGinnis ||is biologically the son of Bruce Wayne due to Amanda Waller's manipulation||. - A *Batman vs Predator* comic had Batman and Robin face two of the titular aliens who turned out to be father and son. - *The Punisher*: Subverted in one What If? story where Frank has a daughter with Elektra. Their daughter grows up to be a murderous vigilante and tries to encourage her son to follow in her footsteps by taking him along when she goes on missions. It ends with her death and the son telling her grave that he won't be pursuing that life. - *Stray*: Rodney Weller was the Kid Sidekick known as The Rottweiler of his father, The Doberman, when Rodney was young. It ended on bad terms after an argument drove them apart. - *A Choker And A Scalpel*: Black Canary was the apprentice of her mother, the original Black Canary, as a teenager. - *Child of the Storm* has Harry and Thor (formerly incarnated as James Potter) team up on several occasions, most notably during the climax of the first book, at the Battle of London. - In *The Line Is Not Broken*, Tsunade isn't allowed to teach her son Minato, but Minato's father Jiraya ends up his teacher. Neither Minato or Jiraya are aware of their relationship. - *RWBY: Scars* depicts Roman and Neo as father and daughter. The two work together and often fight together as well. - *Total Drama Legacy*: - Sierra and Cody Jr., the new hosts of the Aftermath. - The challenge in "Family Feud" revolves around this, as it involves each camper being handcuffed to one of their parents and running a race across the island. - After Jango Fett from Star Wars *Attack of the Clones* receives his "son" Boba from the Kamino clone breeding facility, the two prepare for a career of collecting bounties on wanted outlaws. When Boba sees the elder Fett die at the hands of a Jedi Master, it seeds a resentment of the Jedi Order that culminates in a grown Boba Fett siding with The Empire in eradicating the last surviving Jedi Knights. - *Curly Sue* features a father-and-daughter team of con artists. - In the film version of *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Harry and his godfather Sirius Black have a moment where they together battle Lucius Malfoy alone. For several seconds, they work in total tandem, as a means of highlighting their bond, right before ||Bellatrix kills Sirius||. - *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* has the title Adventurer Archaeologist team up with his father in search of the Holy Grail. Adding to the challenge of this quest is the fact that the two are estranged from years apart as well as the fact that the senior Jones is rather inept as an adventurer. - *Kick-Ass* has the vigilante Mindy "Hit-Girl" McCready and her father Damon "Big Daddy" McCready. - Logan and Laura are this in the film *Logan* as Logan tries to get Laura and the remaining mutant children to a sanctuary in Canada away from the profiteering American company that created and are now hunting them. Logan is older but still able to fight. Despite being young, Laura is a female clone of Logan and has a great deal of his berserker abilities, allowing her to be an equal combatant, particularly against people who underestimate her because of her size, age, and gender. - *Pacific Rim*: The Jaeger Striker Eureka was piloted by Herc Hansen and his son Chuck Hansen. - Tony Stark gradually becomes this with Peter Parker at the end of *Spider-Man: Homecoming* and during the battles of New York and Titan in *Avengers: Infinity War*. Peter's Iron-Spider suit was even designed by Tony to offer the kid as much protection on the battlefield as possible. - *Alias*: Sydney Bristow and her father Jack Bristow both work together under the CIA and are double agents to take down SD-6. - In some episodes of Seasons 3 and 4 of *Arrow*, Thea Queen and Malcolm Merlyn work together to protect Star City against bigger threats. However, because of Malcolm's love of the HeelFace Revolving Door, Thea tends to default to working as a Sibling Team with her brother, Oliver. - Lorelai and Rory Gilmore of *Gilmore Girls* share an extremely close bond, regarding each other as genuine friends and equals. In addition to viewing each other as best friends, they also function as a Parent-Child Team. On one occasion, for example, they compete together as dance partners in a 24-hour dance-a-thon. - *The Outer Limits (1995)*: In "Music of the Spheres", Devon Taylor and his father Dr. Emory Taylor work together to determine exactly how the alien music is affecting the teenagers who listened to it, including Devon's younger sister Joyce. - In *Stranger Things*, ||Eleven and her adoptive father, Hopper. The two form a parent-child relationship during the year between season one and two, albeit with some bickering, where he takes her in. At the end of season two, he take her back to the lab so she can close the portal to the upside-down. A month later, Owens forges a birth certificate for Eleven, and thus Hopper manages to legally adopt her||. - *God of War (PS4)* picks up a few centuries after the events of *God of War III*, with Kratos having fathered a son named Atreus (the death of his wife, Faye, being the starting point for the game's plot). While the player still controls Kratos, Atreus can be commanded to perform actions such as reading text which Kratos doesn't understand and slowly learns to fight alongside him. - *The King of Fighters*: - The Kyokuugen Team usually consists of Takuma Sakazaki, his son Ryo, and his daughter, Yuri, in order to promote their family's dojo. - Also applies to Heidern and Leona, an adoptive father/daughter duo of mercenaries who use the tournament as their cover while investigating NESTS behind-the-scenes. - Although not actually biologically related, Ellie and Joel function as a Parent-Child team in *The Last of Us*. Ellie is a capable fighter and at one point in the game when Joel is injured, the player assumes control of Ellie who has to protect Joel and gather the supplies the pair needs in order to survive. - Booker and Elizabeth from *BioShock Infinite* have a similar relationship despite not being related. ||Until the twist reveals that she's his daughter.|| - In *Daughter for Dessert*, the protagonist and Amanda run their diner together. The protagonist is reluctant to give Amanda any leeway to make decisions at first, but she proves that shes more up to the task. - *Lady Spectra & Sparky* are a mother-daughter superhero team that protect their hometown of Apollo City from villains great and small. - *Avatar: The Last Airbender*: - Rick and Morty (and sometimes Summer tagging along as well) are a **grand**parent/ **grand**child(ren) variation. - Burnatron and his son Burnie from *ToonMarty* are a villainous example of this, as they're Toonville's local villains. - In *Voltron: Legendary Defender*, ||Keith and Krolia|| team up in several instances. Even the first time they met each other they were explicitly assigned to be working together.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentChildTeam

Parent Never Came Back from the Store - TV Tropes *"My mom already left for the diner and dad went to the 7-Eleven to get scratchers. I guess he won, 'cause that was six years ago."* A form of Parental Abandonment that is often Played for Laughs but can also be Played for Drama. When a parent decides to leave their family or breaks up with their partner, they'll make the excuse of Going to the Store to buy cigarettes/milk/whatever, but they never actually come back. Other times it's an excuse made by the child's family in order to soften the trauma or shield the kid from the issue. If the child is young or naive enough, they will believe that their parent really *did* go to the store and are just taking a really, *really* long time coming back. If the parent in question really *did* go to the store and never came back because they died, it's often much more Played for Drama. A Played for Laughs variation of this is having it be that they really did go to the store, are still alive, and really are taking that long to come back. Compare to Released to Elsewhere and Dog Got Sent to a Farm, as well as to When You Coming Home, Dad? for when a dad is busy but not completely absent. Contrast Family Man, who probably never would do this. ## Examples: - Subverted with *Dilbert*. Dilbert's mother's explanation for Dilbert's Disappeared Dad is that they lost him at an all-you-can-eat buffet. In a much later strip, though, Dilbert visits his father, who is indeed still at the buffet restaurant because he's so resolutely Literal-Minded that he refuses to leave until he has actually had "all he can eat". It should be noted that this took place in *December of 1992*, and by all accounts Dildad is still at the buffet today. - Near the end of *RWBY*'s second volume, after Yang's Missing Mom Raven made some very brief appearances, fan-made character status charts listed Raven's status as "Went out to buy Powerball tickets" or "Still out buying those cigarettes" throughout Volume 3. When Volume 4 rolled around and Raven finally stuck around for most of an episode before splitting again, her status was updated to "After finding her cigarettes, Raven left once again after realizing she doesn't own a lighter." - Parodied in *Ultra Fast Pony*: Every episode opens with a different character saying the name of the show. When someone points out to Rarity that she's the only one who hasn't gotten to do one of those intros, she retorts, "My episode intro just went to the store! You'll see!" - Pink Diamond pulled a variant of this on Spinel in *Steven Universe: The Movie*. She told her they were going to play a game in which Spinel must stand still in one spot and wait for her to come back. She then proceeded to leave and never returned. Poor Spinel was left standing there for literally thousands of years waiting for her master to come back, until she eventually saw a broadcast revealing the truth, causing her to snap and become evil. Heaven knows how long she would have waited had it not been for that convenient broadcast... - *30 Rock*: - Parodied in the final episode when Tracy Jordan's father returns from the store with cigarettes....about thirty-five years after he went out. - Played straight when Tracy associates the scent of Liz's hair product with his absent father: "You're still here! You didn't go to the store for milk and heroin and then never come back!" - Subverted when Jack is talking about his father: Thirty-five years ago my father, Jimmy Donaghy, went out for a pack of cigarettes, came back, smoked one, told my mother he was leaving forever, and walked out the door. - *Bones* has Brennan's parents. One episode has her say they went Christmas shopping and never returned due to going on the run. However, another version is told in another episode as well. - *The Cosby Show*. A janitor at Cliff's hospital mentions that after a year of marriage, her husband went out for cigarettes and never returned. - In the second season of *Friends*, Phoebe finds the address of the father who abandoned her as a baby and finally works up the courage to meet him. However, her father's second wife informs her that he left to get groceries four years ago and should be back "any minute now." Phoebe's disappointment is somewhat alleviated when she meets her teenaged half-brother who she never knew existed. - *The George Lopez Show*: George's father, Manny, also went off to get some cigarettes, though Benny already knew he wouldn't be returning because they already had cigarettes. **Manny**: I'm gonna get some smokes! **Benny**: We've got smokes right here. Pick another lie. **Manny**: I'll stick to my first one! *[leaves]*. - *Gilmore Girls*: When Jess was a baby, his biological father Jimmy went to the store for diapers and never came back. He shows up again when Jess is eighteen, wanting to build a relationship with him. - Played very seriously once on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* where a father really didn't come home from the store because he got killed in a holdup. This does not do good things for the mother's sanity, and it *really* doesn't turn out well for the children. - *Married... with Children*: Seven's parents went to "get cigarettes". Al notices they used the excuse to leave town and leave Seven with them. - *Midnight Caller*: Jack's father went to buy a pack of cigarettes and never returned, leaving the family $486 and an overdue rent bill. - In *Monk*, Adrian Monk's father ran away from his own family after he was supposed to get Chinese food. - *Mystery Science Theater 3000:* In *Cry Wilderness*, they reference this in one of the riffs: **Mr. Douglas:** What did your father have to say about these meetings? **Paul:** I never told him. **Mr. Douglas:** Why not? **Servo:** He hasn't come back from buying cigarettes yet... - *NCIS*: When Nick Torres was five years old and living in Panama, his father left in the middle of the night, claiming that he wanted to be first in line to pick up something from a bakery in a nearby town. The truth was that he was helping the CIA overthrow Manuel Noriega, and leaving his family was his way of protecting them. - In *Punky Brewster*, this was how the title character wound up living alone before being found at the beginning of the series. Her mom had gone to the store and never came back. In a slight twist, Punky and her dog were waiting outside the store instead of at home. The mystery of her mom's fate served as an occasional plot point for the rest of the series. - *Shtisel*: In the first episode, Lippe is going to Argentina for a year to work for a kosher meat processor. He uses the opportunity to cut ties and abandon his family. ||He eventually comes back, but they take a long time to forgive him.|| - Referenced in "Little Things" by Good Charlotte: And that same year, on Christmas Eve, Dad went to the store. We checked his room, his things were gone. We didn't see him no more. - Told from the parent's perspective in "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen: Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack I went out for a ride and I never went back. - In "Holes" by Passenger, the second verse is about a family who had this happen. "One day her husband went to get a paper and the motherfucker never came back." - Played for laughs in *hololive* with Calliope Mori, who everyone calls Dad ever since she did a readalong of *My Dad's the Queen of All VTubers?!*. During one of the times she came back after a break, she does it.... by presenting a carton of milk. - Parodied in *Cyanide and Happiness*: The father just needed to get enough cigarettes for everyone. - *El Goonish Shive:* Apparently, Tedd's Missing Mom moved to Europe and then never came back to visit even for Christmas because it would be "too expensive". It's later implied It's Not You, It's My Enemies is (at least partially) behind it. - *Selkie*: Discussed trope. Dr. Pohl is the kind of responsible family man who would never even consider abandoning his children, but, before leaving on a day trip to visit a hidden refugee village, he promises his infant daughter, "I'll always come back from the corner store." His wife calls him a drama queen for it. - *Of What Remains*: Tony tells Kim he's going to the store to get milk, and then he disappears. Several years later, he comes back with the milk, but Kim is not amused. It turns out he *did* mean to come back a lot sooner, but he was a dangerous and wanted man and wasn't able to. - Referenced on *Adventure Time*: In "Escape From the Citadel", while Martin visibly tries to escape into space and leave his son Finn behind, he claims to be going to the store. Nobody is fooled. - *The Amazing World of Gumball*: Richard's father Frankie said he was going to get milk when he left. Richard, being the Manchild that he is, is in heavy denial about this even into his 40s. - *American Dad!*: Double Subverted in "Holy S***, Jeff's Back!". A dad is shown leaving his son, telling him that he's just going to the store for a pack of cigarettes, but it's clear he's walking out on his family. At a crossroads, he decides to break the cycle and go to the store after all...only to be killed when a meteor hits his car. - Subverted in *Black Dynamite*: **Black Dynamite's Daddy:** Now I could lie to you and say, 'I'm just goin' out for a pack of cigarettes.' But the truth is, I'm leavin' you to raise eight-year-old Black Dynamite by yourself. Now dig it while you can, because the light just turned muthafuckin' green. Bye, bitch! - *Dilbert* has a variant in which young Dilbert's father abandoned him by going to an All-You-Can-Eat restaurant, refusing to leave until he's *really* had all he can eat. It's Played for Laughs, but Dilbert seems to have been truly traumatized by the abandonment. - *Drawn Together*: Foxxy's father left to get cigarettes and never came back. - Inverted on *The Fairly OddParents!*—since Mama Cosma didn't approve of Wanda, Cosmo pulled this trick when the two got married. To be fair, he *did* come back... 9,975 years later, when he mistakenly believed that Wanda had forgotten their anniversary. - In the season two finale of *Rick and Morty*, Rick tells Morty he's going to go get ice cream. Morty begins to worry that Rick is invoking this trope, despite Rick's assurances. - In one of Heinz Doofenshmirtz's flashbacks from *Phineas and Ferb*, an Inversion happens. He was assigned by his parents to go to the store, only to discover too late that they were plotting to disown him by sending him on a ship to United States. Its anyone's wonder as to why did Doof held no animosity for his parents despite their obvious signs of treating him as The Unfavorite. - *The Simpsons*: - Nelson's dad went to the store a few years ago and never came back. It is later revealed that he actually *did* to go to the store, at which point he suffered a peanut allergy and got abducted into a circus sideshow; later episodes ignore this, however, and portray him as if he still abandoned the family. note : Also note that even the first abandonment was a retcon—in early episodes, Nelson lived with his father and it was his MOTHER who was absent. - In the episode "Future Drama", Future Nelson pulls the same trick on Sherri and Terri, both of whom he got pregnant. When they explicitly point out that Nelson's father did the same thing, he replies "I never understood that... until now. I'M COMING, PAPA!" before running away. - In some countries like Chile, the phrase "my dad went to buy cigarettes and never came back" is a common joke used even by comedians. In Czech republic, the saying is "Dad went to a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes" and is also commonly used, especially by fans of Simpsons. - This happened with Stephen King's father when Stephen was two years old. He didn't come back. King later joked he must have been looking for a rare brand. - Silent film stars Norma, Constance, and Natalie Talmadge mentioned that while they were young and poor, their father, who was an alcoholic, went looking for food and never came back.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentNeverCameBackFromTheStore

Parental Incest - TV Tropes Oedipus gets a bad rap; Freud should've named it a Jocasta Complex. *Women, listen to your mothers * Don't just succumb to the wishes of your brothers Take a step back, take a look at one another You need to know the difference between a father and a lover. Something often depicted in media as much squickier than BrotherSister Incest, Twincest or Kissing Cousins is incest between a parent and their child. Sigmund Freud had a lot to say about the Oedipus complex, and could find subtext in quite a lot of places. But in Big Screwed Up Families, Deadly Decadent Courts, particularly abusive households and elsewhere, one is likely to find examples of this trope. When this trope shows up in media, it's usually used to highlight the specific psychological issues that a character has, particularly if it features in the Backstory of a Serial Killer or other psychopath, or to give an already nasty villain that extra bit of shudder factor. When the parent is the aggressor in the relationship, it is usually quite predatory in nature, and in many cases (particularly in the case of fathers and daughters), it's a crossing of the Moral Event Horizon when it's revealed. If the child is the aggressor in the relationship, it usually means he or she is seriously twisted in some way or in the very least has serious issues. In non-consensual cases where the parent is the victim, its usually Elder Abuse. Sometimes this is played for Black Comedy, particularly in the case of mothers and sons, with the son understandably freaked out due to the mother's advances. This trope appears with step, foster, or adoptive parents as well as biological ones, sometimes to Bowdlerise it somewhat, although the power dynamics are still much the same as in parent/child incest. Wife Husbandry is one way to Bowdlerise it still further — though not out of Squick range. This is a type of Unequal Pairing, since the parent is almost always at least psychologically—if not always physically—in a much more powerful position than the child. See also Rape as Backstory and Abusive Parents. Also see Surprise Incest, where the couple involved do not know they're related, as well as BrotherSister Incest, Creepy Uncle, and Kissing Cousins. When children innocently suggest this, it's Father, I Want to Marry My Brother. See Pervert Dad for parents who don't *quite* go this far, but still have an (un)healthy dose of weirdness, and Lecherous Stepparent. See I Love You, Vampire Son, when the "parent" is the vampire that sired his "son". Older Than Dirt, thanks to Divine Incest examples. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples: - *Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time*: Cupid is one of Venus' many illegitimately born children and we can plainly see that the two of them are in the middle of sexual relations with one another. Incest isn't necessarily out of place among Classical gods, so seeing two gods of sexuality committing incest isn't out of place either. - Volume 3 of *Yandere Heaven* provides Hajime, the protagonist's stepfather. Like her twin brother, he desires a more intimate relationship with her and he wants to be seen as a man rather than a parental figure. - In *Fallen Angel*, it is widely believed, but not confirmed (although he has not denied it, either), that Xia has this relationship with her son, Jubal. - In the *X-Men* comics, Legion (a.k.a. David Haller), the psychotic, overpowered son of Professor Xavier with a legion of split personalities, time travels to the past and is implied to have raped his own mother Gabrielle Haller. - In the dystopian divergent timeline of the Age of Apocalypse, Magneto and Rogue eventually marry and have a son despite their initial surrogate father-daughter relationship after she permanently absorbed the powers and part of the psyche of his own secretly long-lost biological daughter Polaris. In addition, Rogue is canonically *even younger* in this reality than any of Magneto's prior biological children: Polaris and their fellow X-men Pietro and Wanda. One saving grace might be the fact that the mainstream continuity hadn't settled on Polaris being Magneto's actual daughter when this story was written, so the Oedipal aspect wasn't as blatant originally. Though it still was a story where Rogue wound up in love with her main father figure... - Their fellow AoA X-Men, the reformed berserker Sabretooth and the jailbait amazon Blink are a fan-favorite cult pairing despite having a surrogate father-daughter relationship, as he rescued her as a child from Apocalypse's slave pens and raised her to adolescence. This is due to the intense Beast and Beauty pseudo-Battle Couple nature of their relationship, which is exacerbated by the fact that they are both highly sensuous warriors with a deeply intimate psycho-emotional bond and physically demonstrative displays of affection. They were separated when they were both made to lead separate teams of inter-dimensional heroes known as Exiles, but were eventually reunited on a single team. In fact, Blink's then-boyfriend and fellow Exiles teammate Mimic was revealed to have known that she would never love him or anyone else as much and feared that she loved Sabretooth instead. This was shown by the fact that despite having proven herself as a leader, Blink deferred to Sabretooth during field missions. Despite later being separated again on different teams, they are currently still both single, leaving fans ever hopeful. The fact that Mimic resembled Victor in more ways than one though is hardly coincidental. - Fellow AoA mutant Nate Grey. The genetically-engineered son of his reality's Scott Summers and Jean Grey, he crosses over to the original timeline of Marvel-616 where he gets involved with Madelyne Pryor, the long-deceased clone of his biological mother. It is later revealed that he accidentally physically resurrected her with the sheer force of his immense mutant talent when he unconsciously and instinctively tried to psionically contact Jean Grey upon his arrival in the other reality (his interactions with 616!Jean as a rule, are all mother and son, which she reciprocates). He also later gets involved with *yet another* counterpart of his biological mother, when an evil counterpart of Jean Grey from *yet another* alternate reality disposes of and impersonates Madelyne Pryor. This Queen Jean, a Jean Grey corrupted by her own power, was revealed to have had a prior consort who was her reality's counterpart of Nate, essentially *her own* genetically-engineered son, who rebelled against her and was ultimately executed, but not before helping his alternate counterpart defeat his mother Queen Jean. - It should at this point be noted that he only met AoA!Jean once, briefly (though there was an instinctive connection), and it was quite some time before he realized what relation either Jean or Madelyne had to him. After that, he backed off, fast, from Maddy's advances. Maddy, on the other hand, didn't seem to have the slightest problem with it and acted as a textbook, if somewhat homicidal, Tsundere towards him. And his relationship with Queen Jean (who, again, he thought was Maddy) was, at least on his part, platonic (it was implied that she wanted him as a sex slave as well as a Living Weapon). His mental fantasy of the perfect life, Greyville, had Maddy as his best friend. Further, it also doesn't really help that he was forcibly aged to 17 and for a number of his appearances had absolutely nothing in the way of life experience. Still, with all of the above experiences, it isn't exactly surprising that the first rule he made when he attempted to create a utopian reality was 'No Relationships'. - A plot line in *Mighty Avengers* has one of the characters (the gynoid Jocasta) ending her relationship with her grandfather (Hank Pym, who created Ultron who created Jocasta) when she realizes that he is still in love with her dead sister/mother (his ex-wife/on-off lover Janet van Dyne — whose brainwave patterns Ultron copied to create Jocasta's AI). She marries her father (Ultron) instead (that was why Ultron initially created her in the first place years ago, as he himself had a desire for his "mother", the wife of his creator-father). - The main character of *The Tale of One Bad Rat* is trying to come to terms with having been molested by her father as a child. - Crazy Jane from Grant Morrison's celebrated run on *Doom Patrol* is a multi-powered Metahuman who lived with multiple personalities after being raped by her father. Morrison based Jane on the Real Life Split-Personality Team memoirist Truddi Chase. - *Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors* has a brief scene featuring Freddy making out with his daughter, who had just pulled a FaceHeel Turn. - One Bronze Age Superman story told the tale of the end of the Golden Age of Krypton. An overprotective mother created a younger clone of herself and raised it to be her son's ideal wife and married them off, since she didn't think any other woman would be good enough for him. When the son found out, he snapped, killed his mother, his wife and then himself. This eventualy lead to a civil war which devastated Krypton and turned it into a xenophobic, compassionless society. - The famous Twinkie House meme actually comes from a(n) (in)famous gay comic called *My Wild and Raunchy Son 2*. It's an entire series of exactly what you think it is from an artist (Josman) famous for that specific genre (once even involving a *grandfather* of all people). To avoid allegations that he had a serious thing for his own dad, the artist said in an interview what he *really* loved were twins doin' it, and drew a token twincest story to prove it. No one believed him when that story still somehow managed to involve an older man in the mix... - One of the minor characters seen in hell in *The Sandman (1989)* tells the newly arrived young thugs that "I took my mother by force, and strangled my sister when she wouldn't submit to my advances." - Such is the case in the *Sin City* short story 'Daddy's Little Girl'. Although it's unclear if they really are related, or it's just a fetish. - Part of ||Willow's|| backstory in *Dreadstar*. - Toyed with in the Golden Age comic book series featuring *The Clock/Brian O'Brien* (1936-1944). In a 1942 storyline, the eponymous hero is injured and dying. He is nursed back to health by preteen girl "Butch" Buchanan. She becomes his sidekick, legal ward, and surrogate daughter for the rest of his series. But she originally viewed him as a gangster and declares herself his "moll", doing her best to seduce him. - *The Walking Dead* comic had a scene where the Governor kisses his zombie daughter. To make it worse, she can't be older than eleven. It could be seen as a platonic parental kiss, but that's screwed by the fact it's an *open mouth* kiss (he even removed her teeth in order to do it). - In Barbara Slate's *Angel Love*, Angel finds out that her sister Mary Beth left home and changed her name to Maureen McMeal due to the shame she carried of Angel and Mary Beth's father sleeping with Mary Beth, and is even ashamed that she actually enjoyed it. After Angel's father left the house when this was discovered, Angel was told by her mother that her father died and went to heaven. - A variation occured with the pre-Crisis Black Canary. Dinah was inhabiting the body of her (near identical) adult daughter when she fell in love with the alternate universe version of her deceased husband. Post-Crisis, the grossness and general oddness of the situation was fixed by simply making two Black Canaries: the modern day one is the daughter of the (now retired) original Black Canary from the '40s. - The infamous *Avengers* #200 contained something of this. Carol Danvers was kidnapped, mind controlled, and impregnated by Marcus Immortus, the son of Immortus. Carol ends up having a Mystical Pregnancy with no memory of the incident. The baby grew into an adult in under a day and turned out to be another version of Marcus, reborn on Earth. Carol hated the baby, but when she saw Marcus as an adult, she fell for him. Eventually they left together to go to another dimension, and the crazy part was, the other Avengers seemed perfectly okay with it. Despite Marcus handwaving it as not *really* being pregnancy and just something that "resembled pregnancy", he still refers to Carol as "Mother" and she did give birth to him. *Avengers Annual* #10 brought Carol back, made it clear she was raped, and let her give a What the Hell, Hero? speech to the others (and by proxy, to the writers of the original story who thought this was acceptable). - The eleventh issue of *Spider-Girl* had a time-displaced Spider-Girl encounter her father during his earlier days as Spider-Man. Much to her disgust, Spider-Man at one point hits on Spider-Girl, not knowing that she is his future daughter. - The DC Comics standalone story "Smells Like Teen President" follows a disaffected grunge musician who believes he is the son of Prez Rickard. He isn't; he's the product of his mother being raped by his grandfather, but she lied to give him a father he could look up to. - In Alan Moore's *Lost Girls*: - While Dorothy Gale is recounting this version of *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*, she reveals that her uncle is actually her father who takes her to New York under the pretense of seeking psychological help, but he has sex with her repeatedly while they're in the city. Feeling guilty for the pain the affair caused her stepmother, she leaves home to travel the world. - In Alice Fairchild's retelling of her story, she attends drug-fuelled lesbian orgies, including Mrs. White and her daughter. - The miniseries *Daredevil: Father* retconned that the old man that Matt saved (in the accident that blinded him and gave him his radar sense) was molesting his own daughter, leading the daughter, Maggie Farrell, to kill several of the people Matt's helped over the years to get back at the continued abused she suffered because Matt didn't know he was saving a monster. - Commonly referenced in fairy tales. The heroine's father decides to marry her — often because she resembles her mother, or because she is the only person who can wear something that belonged to her mother, and her father promised to marry only such a woman. Some of these include "All-Kinds-of-Fur", *Allerleirauh*, "Donkeyskin", "The King Who Wished Marry To His Daughter", "The She-Bear", "Margery White Coats", and "Golden-Teeth". She usually attempts to hold him off, demanding Impossible Tasks for her consent, but this always fails. The princess must run away to escape, before going to a ball and winning a prince. Many folklorists interpret tales where she must flee her father for other reasons, such as "Catskin", where her father wanted a son and so marries her off with no care, or "Cap o' Rushes" where he takes offense at what she says, or "The Bear" where she is smothered and wants to escape, as Bowdlerised variants. Note that BrotherSister Incest can substitute, with the brother taking the father's place for the threat. - There is an *extremely* bizarre Russian fairy tale which involves a priest's daughter being tricked by a farmhand into having sex with him, without her knowing what it is (he tells her that his dick is a "comb" and that he is "combing" her). When her father finds out her confusion, *he* has sex with her and the tale ends with the narrator telling the audience that from then on, the priest had sex with both his wife and his daughter. - *Empath: The Luckiest Smurf*: - While not biologically related, the MayDecember Romance of Papa Smurf and Smurfette in the alternate timeline story "Papa Smurf & Mama Smurfette" is disgusting enough for the other Smurfs to treat it as that to the point where some even cover their eyes when they kiss each other at the wedding. Otherwise averted in "Papa's Big Crush," where Smurfette confesses to Papa Smurf that she could never love him as anything other than a father ||(and this is after purging a horny Hulked Out Papa Smurf of his feelings with a Smurfette sex doll)||. - In the Mirror Universe story "Smurfed Behind: The Other Side Of The Mirror", that universe's Smurfette is married to its Papa Smurf, although she admittedly doesn't stay faithful to him. The Empath of the normal universe is still disgusted to see that version of Smurfette and Papa Smurf kissing each other on the mouth. - *Hivefled*: the Condesce and the Grand Highblood had kids specifically for this purpose. - The *Harry Potter* fic "Apex Predator" has a few observations about such relationships in the exploration of the Blue-and-Orange Morality of Veela culture. One scene features Fleur's mother Apolline pledging "allegiance" to Fleur to affirm that she will respect Fleur's right to make decisions regarding her chosen mate, Harry Potter, with part of the ritual involving Apolline licking Fleur's clit. While Fleur and Apolline occasionally double-team Harry during some later sexual encounters, it's explicitly stated that attraction to other women is more situational in Veela than their attraction to men, and this kind of dynamic is still uncommon. Apolline later observes that while it's not uncommon for any male child of a Veela to become his sisters' "plaything", Veela will basically never have a sexual relationship with their own sons as male children are so uncommon that any Veela to have a son must have been engaging in regular sexual activity to conceive the child in the first place, so the mothers don't have any need for such an additional sexual outlet. - *What Lies Beyond the Walls* has ||Log-a-Log Brugo||, who raped his son multiple times in his life until he broke him into being his most trusted ally. - Indirectly in *Dead or Alive 4: The Devil Factor*; in chapter 7, Dante and Trish briefly make out and begin to have sex, but it ends badly when Dante remembers that she looks like his Missing Mom. - *To Lead The Way*'s Serena is subject to this as part of her backstory. - Bordering on Villainous Incest, there's Ashley's Troubling Unchildlike Behavior towards Blossom in *Ladder*. Ashley kisses Blossom (with tongue) twice and, though it's not described much, the Professor saw Ashley doing something to a (near catatonic) Blossom that made him so pissed he *punched* her. This also counts as Sister/Sister Incest, but Blossom has a near-maternal affection for Ashley and Ashley sees Blossom as her mother. To make everything worse, Blossom's only eleven while Ashley is physically five and chronologically a few days old. She doesn't seem to understand her behavior is wrong, but then again Ashley's behavior overall tends to be wrong. - In *Restraint*, Azula reveals that her father Ozai began abusing her after she turned thirteen. Due to the trauma, she has a tough time being in a relationship with Ty Lee. When visiting him in prison, Azula ends up calling Ozai out one day and ||burning his face, like he did her brother's||. - The Troll Fic *StarKitsProphcy* takes this one step further. Firestar is in love with Jayfeather's daughter Stargleam. The writer never notes this, but this means Firestar is Stargleam's *great-grandfather*. - *You Are Mine*: Frollo took in Esmeralda after accidentally killing her mother. The child, renamed "Agnes", is raised as his daughter. Frollo spends the first several years thinking of Agnes as simply his daughter, but things change when Esmeralda grows into adulthood. - *Things Jade Hates* involves Jade's mom being let out of jail prematurely and coming back home. She was in jail for having abused Jade. Jade fears her mother might abuse her six year old brother, so she wants to live away from her mother. - In *UNDERTOW*, Minx theorizes that her step-uncle and father were sexually abused by their father. This is why her Creepy Uncle abused her and why her father was so afraid to touch her. - The anthology fanfiction *Mother's Dark Love* is devoted to mothers from different films/cartoons/etc. and their unhealthy obsession with their children. - *Enlightenments* doesn't dwell on it too much, but given that the Queen of the Castle in the Mist is immortal through stealing her daughters' bodies yet has the same immortal husband through the ages, it's an odd example of father/daughter incest, one that the father *very much does not want to participate in* but is forced to go through with and the daughters themselves aren't aware of. - Heavily implied in *E350's Happy Fluffy Reviews of Really Bad Fanfics*. While scrolling through the M-rated section of Fanfiction Dot Net's *Danny Phantom* fics, Danny comes across a fanfic that's apparently about him getting sent back in time to his mom's high school days when she makes a wish that she had a friend like him in high school within earshot of the series' resident Jackass Genie. He's okay with it until Tucker points out that the genre listed is romance, at which point he goes Green Around the Gills. - An old Jewish Mother joke: A psychoanalyst has finished talking with little Irving. His mother asks, "What's wrong with him?" The doctor responds, "I'm afraid he has an Oedipus Complex." "Eh, Oedipus, schmoedipus!" she responds. "Just so long as he loves his mother!" - A girl asks her dad if she can get a tattoo for Christmas. He agrees, so long as she gives him a blowjob. She reluctantly complies, but then says, "Dad, your dick tastes like shit!" The dad replies, "Oh, yeah, your brother wanted a computer." - A joke involves a father stating that his daughter has got to the age where she starts to ask awkward questions about sex, said questions involve sex with him. - A young man is going at it hot and heavy with a young lady. He finishes, rolls off her, then says, "Gee, sis, you're even better in bed than Mom!" She says, "Thanks, I know, Daddy said the same thing!" - "The End" by The Doors from their debut album *The Doors* has the protagonist tell his mother he wants to rape her, but it is almost incomprehensible on the studio recording. Jim Morrison would actually sing "I want to fuck you!" during live performances of the song. - "Alive" by Pearl Jam from *Ten* is - according to this article - about a mother who reveals to her son that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather (a real event in frontman Eddie Vedder's own life)... and then she seduces her son because he looks like his dead (birth) father (not a real event in Vedder's own life, one hopes), leading the protagonist to become so messed up that he becomes a Serial Killer of prostitutes (the song "Once"), and ends up on death row (the song "Footsteps"). However, Vedder has veered away from this interpretation in later years, claiming that the fans "lifted the curse" off the song, and he now sees it as a life-affirming anthem. - "Daughter" *sounds* rather explicit in its subject matter (Father/Daughter incest), once you get past Vedder's nigh-unintelligible singing voice. Though it reads like that ("she holds the hand that holds her down"), "Daughter" is actually about a child with dyslexia ("mother reads aloud—child tries to understand it"), whose parents don't understand her disability and use harsh physical punishment to deal with it ("the shades go down"). Explained here on The Other Wiki. - No sex happens, but the video for "Lemon Incest" by Serge Gainsbourg and his young daughter Charlotte is extremely creepy. - The video for "Charlotte Forever", on the other hand, feels more romantic than creepy. Of course for some that may make it all the creepier. - "The Father of a Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash - maybe. It's implied, but not stated out loud. - "Magdelena" by Frank Zappa from *Just Another Band from L.A.* is a detailed confessional by a father to his 13-year old daughter of what he'd like to do to her. - "Tier" (German for "Animal") by Rammstein tells the story of a man who rapes his daughter and her getting revenge by killing him. Made even creepier by the fact that one notable live performance included the presence of the young daughter of guitarist Richard Kruspe onstage. The song "Laichzeit" ("Spawning Time") also talks about a man who harbors sexual desires for both his mother and his sister. - The song "Wiener Blut" ("Viennese Blood") from the album *Liebe ist für alle da* is about the Josef Fritzl case. - Tom Lehrer: - Also played for laughs with The Lonely Island's "Motherlover", where two studs agree to "fuck each other's mothers" for Mother's Day. - "Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith. "What did her daddy do?" indeed. Moral incest within mythology goes here. For incest between the gods, see Divine Incest . - Classical Mythology: - *Oedipus Rex* is about a prince who is prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother. After being left to die by his father and then found by someone else, he meets him unrecognized on the road and kills him. He has several adventures (including solving the Riddle of the Sphinx) before heading home and marrying the Queen, who, yes, turns out to be his mother. He spends years with her — and they have *children* — before finding out the truth about what happened, and is so horrified by it all that he goes into exile, after exacting the punishment on himself for killing the old king to end a curse on the land, while she commits suicide. - *Electra* doesn't canonically have any incest, but subtext is commonly read into it. Electra murdered her mother Clytemnestra in revenge for killing her father Agamemnon, and her name was used for the gender-inversion of the Oedipus complex. Of course, her father was already dead by that point, but she takes a very idealized view of him in the legend. - Myrrha tricked her father Cinyras into incest, after Aphrodite inspired her with passion for him, and got pregnant. Cyniras, horrified and angry, killed Myrrha with an axe. Her corpse turned into a myrrh tree and, ironically, produced Adonis. - Nyctimene committed incest with her father and was turned into an owl. Owls are therefore not seen by day because they are ashamed of themselves. - *Hippolytus*: Phaedra's unrequited love/lust for her stepson Hippolytus, which ended with Hippolytus dead (or banished away and then taken in by Artemis in other versions) and Phaedra Driven to Suicide. - Thyestes was told by an oracle that he could only avenge the murder of his three sons on his brother Atreus if he had a son by his own daughter. So he raped his daughter Pelopia (in some versions, though, he just raped a woman not knowing who she was), fathering Aigisthos, who, after being abandoned and nursed by a goat, was adopted by Atreus and raised as his own son. Later, after Thyestes was captured by Atreus' sons Agamemnon and Menelaos, Atreus sends Aigisthos to the dungeon... but Thyestes reveals the truth to Aigisthos and Pelopia. Poor Pelopia kills herself with shame, while Aigisthos kills Atreus. - An aversion with one of Heracles' descendants, who was wed to a king's widow when a snake jumped up between them just as they were about to consummate the marriage. The snake had been sent by Heracles to prevent the man from bedding his long-lost mother. - Book of Genesis: - Noah cursed the entire family line of his youngest son Ham for Ham's having "seen his father's nakedness". Since a fair number of Biblical scholars doubt he would have punished him so harshly over merely a little embarrassment, they suggest this phrase was actually some kind of euphemism for molestation or even full-fledged rape. "Uncovered his (or her) nakedness" is often used as a euphemism to mean sex in other verses, supporting this. - After Lot and his daughters escaped from Sodom's destruction, the daughters believed that since their fiancés were dead, they were the last living women and their father the last living man in the area. Having children to populate your locale being rather Serious Business back then, they got their father drunk and raped him in order to have his babies. Nine months later, they each had a son, Moab and Ben-Ammi. The former's name sounds something like the Hebrew word for "from father" and the latter's name means (literally) "son of my paternal uncle" or (figuratively) "son of my people" in Hebrew, and these boys eventually married and had families of their own that grew into two entire nations. Some detractors contend that the Hebrews made up this story to smear the Moabites and the Ammonites, who were Semitic cultures like the Hebrews, though polytheistic and pagan. However, these particular acts occurred centuries before the institution of the sexual laws in Leviticus. As such, they may serve as a kind of retroactive Aesop: "This is the kind of skullduggery people used to do back before we had those laws against sleeping with close relatives, so aren't you glad we have them now?" Also, later books of The Bible clearly state without shame that the Davidic line (including none other than Jesus Christ) came from the Moabites through Ruth. - The Talmud (Sanhedrin 103b), expanding on the evil deeds of the biblical king Amon of Judah, claims that he raped his mother, though not for quite the reason one might expect. Afterward, when she asked him bitterly, "Did you derive any pleasure, then, from the place whence you issued?" he allegedly responded "Did I do this for any other purpose than to provoke my creator?" - In 1 Corinthians 5:1-3, Paul chides the Corinthian believers' fellowship for not having expelled a certain man for sleeping with his father's wife (probably referring to a step-mother), pointing out that not even the pagans around them (Corinth being a rather decadent and sex-obsessed city) would tolerate that kind of sexual immorality and that they ought not to associate themselves with it, either. - Even after The Bible came to its close, certain Christian denominations' legends of the saints had some: - The legend of Saint Dymphna says that, after her mother died, her father Damon fell for her due to how physically similar she was to her mother, went Yandere for poor Dymphna, and tried to force her to marry him. - Saint Markella was a Christian girl from the Greek island of Chios, and her pagan dad wanted both to marry her and force her to renounce Christianity. After a very eventful pursuit, Markella's dad found her near a cave: the rocks had half-swallowed the poor girl, but her head stayed out, so he beheaded her (and in versions where she was swallowed only up to her waist, also mutilated her breasts) and then threw her head away, which is said to have floated to another island. Markella herself ultimately came to be considered a much-venerated Orthodox Patron Saint of Chios, with a monastery built in the place where her father is supposed to have murdered her. - Indonesian folklore *Sangkuriang*, basically the country's very own Oedipus. Sangkuriang accidentally killed his animal father, driven away by his angry mother who regretted it big time and prayed for the Gods for a reunion that she was given immortality, only for her son with extra levels of badass to come back home, didn't recognize her mom and fell in love and tried so hard to marry her, with his horrified mother actively refusing him (and they ended up creating a "Just So" Story for one of the mountains in Indonesia) and ended up having to get God to turn her into a flower to get away from him, and Sangkuriang went insane because of it. - *Dungeons & Dragons*: - Belial and Fierna are an ambiguous example of father/daughter incest among archdevils. Being devils, it's very much a Big, Screwed-Up Family. Of course, both of them *are* embodiments of Lust, so it sort of makes sense. It's not confirmed in the books, but stated to be a rumour... one that isn't hard to believe. - A grandparental example: Lolth, evil goddess of the drow, forced her grandson, a drow war-god, to be her bodyguard and consort for a long time before he was killed off. He apparently hated both positions. - A rather unpleasant way of avoiding this due to Loophole Abuse is found in the *Book of Vile Darkness*, where it mentions a cruel tyrant who was a previous owner of the Despoiler of Flesh, a cursed artifact which could reshape the flesh of others. This despot was attracted to his very beautiful daughters, but he refused to force himself on them. Instead, to satisfy his urges, he used the Despoiler on his slave girls to make *them* look like his daughters, and used them instead. - *Van Richten's Guide to Witches* tells the myth of how hags were first created, and this trope plays a vital part. note : Short version: A woman is a faithful and loving wife towards her husband for many years, bearing him three sons. But the husband is unfaithful, and blatantly rejects her in favor of a younger woman. Her sons refuse to defend her, equating youth with usefulness. The rejected wife is granted dark powers by a malevolent entity, uses a disguise to seduce her husband, kidnaps his lover and holds her hostage, then murders him. Later, she seduces her oldest son (a powerful warrior) the same way, is impregnated by him, then kills him. Then she uses dark magic to transfer her unborn child to the captive woman's womb, and she bears the first annis. She does the same with her second eldest son, a farmer and outdoorsman, uses the same dark magic, and the infant is the first greenhag. Her youngest son, a sailor and fisherman, is not fooled by such a trick and wary due to the deaths of his siblings, so this time she disguises herself as *his* wife to seduce him, kills him, and again, impregnates her hostage, bearing the first sea hag. Van Richten himself admits in his narrative that the ghastly story is likely apocryphal, and a sidebar confirms this view. - In *Warhammer* the Dark Elf Witch King Malekith and his mother Morathi were implied to be lovers in an early edition. Given that Morathi is a devoted follower of Slaanesh and will screw Anything That Moves, this is likely true. Given that Malekith is a 4th degree burn victim permanently encased in full body armor, not so much. That being said, incest (no matter the exact kind) isn't unheard of in Druchi society. - *Exalted*: - The setting book for the Blessed Isle says that a high-ranking Mortal Realm official is in a relationship with her Dragon-Blooded father. It's apparently taboo enough for them to keep it a secret, but not so taboo that there are any consequences for the fact that the rest of the Dynasty knows anyway. - One of the minor characters in *Aspect Book: Wood* was in a sexual relationship with his mother from the age of eleven. He Exalted — and went utterly insane — upon witnessing her death. These days, he's in the habit of having children brought to his manse, dressing as his mother, giving the children toys and sweets to win their trust, and then violating and strangling them. - William Shakespeare: This gets the plot rolling in *Pericles*. Pericles want to marry the daughter of King Antiochus but the king demands Pericles solve a riddle. The riddle basically says the king is having sex with the daughter. Pericles figures out the riddle but doesn't actually answer, but the king figures out that Pericles figured it out and sends goons after Pericles to silence him. In the end, both Antiochus and his daughter spontaneously combust. Shakespeare is awesome. - The amount of truly unsettling sexualized language in *King Lear* has led to a *number* of productions implying some kind of abusive relationship between the title character and one or more of his daughters. Notable examples include Jonathan Pryce's Lear forcibly kissing Zoe Waites' Goneril on the mouth, Anna Maxwell Martin's Regan *climbing into Simon Russell Beale's lap* to tell him how much she loves him (complete with him slapping her ass as she walks away), and about half of everything Anthony Hopkins does in the 2018 BBC adaptation. - The plot of Paula Vogel's *How I Learned To Drive*. (Well, actually her uncle, but Peck is as close to a father as L'il Bit has.) Oddly enough, the relationship is presented as sympathetically as possible, without downplaying the fact that Peck does horrible things. - There's an uncomfortable moment in act 2 of *Wicked* where the Wizard is trying to seduce Elphaba back to his side. The implication is there and you later find out that he's her father. - In Arthur Miller's play *A View from the Bridge* the main character is in love with his niece, whom he raises as a daughter, but he can't even admit this to himself. - There are no actual cases on incest in Eugene O'Neil's *Mourning Becomes Electra* (note the name) but the female lead character *and* the male (who are siblings) have serious cases of Elektra and Oedipus complexes, respectively, leading to the murders of *both* their parents. - In *Spring Awakening* one of the boys is said to have had a wet dream about his mother, and also ||the characters of Martha and Ilse are/were both sexually abused by their fathers.|| - In *The Marriage of Figaro* (both the Mozart opera and the original Beaumarchais play), Marcellina is determined to make Figaro follow through on a contractual obligation to marry her. Until it's discovered that Figaro is her long-lost bastard child. - "Accidentally" implied (and, like everything, played for laughs) in *The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)*, when they combine all sixteen comedies into one. **The Play:** The pages' clothes get ripped off, revealing female genitalia. The Duke recognizes his daughter's. **Everyone:** ... - Some versions of the musical *Pippin* imply this with Fastrada and her son Lewis. - In Richard Wagner's *Die Walküre*, Wotan seems way *too* fond of his daughter Brünhilde. His wife Fricka calling Brünhilde "the bride of his desire" also doesn't help. - "Sie selbst war meines Wunsches schaffender Schoß" — "Herself was my wish's life-giving womb." - Accidentally suggested via Ambiguous Syntax in *Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead*, briefly alarming the protagonists. **The Player:** The old man thinks he's in love with his daughter. **Rosencrantz:** Good God. We're out of our depths here. **The Player:** No, no, no! He hasn't got a daughter! The old man thinks he's in love with his daughter. **Rosencrantz:** The old man is? **The Player:** Hamlet... in love... with the old man's daughter... the old man... thinks. **Rosencrantz:** Ah. - In *Lizzie*, the titular character is being raped by her father. It's implied it's happening to her older sister, Emma, as well. - The patron saints of this trope have to be Aleph and Hiroko of *Shin Megami Tensei II*. Not only do they play the exact role of Official Couple Kazuya and Yuka from the previous game, but they set out to "rebuild the world" at the end of the game, possibly with Adam and Eve in mind (well, they did just fight God). Bear in mind that Hiroko is Aleph's mother... - In *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas*, The Truth takes umbrage at being called "motherfucker" by a gangbanger. "Firstly, you are a real buzz killer, amigo. And secondly, I never made love to my mother — She wouldn't . And thirdly..." - In *Grand Theft Auto V*, Trevor also reacts harshly to being called a "motherfucker" and starts rampages because of this. However, some of his missions imply it's true. "It's not legally fucking if you do not penetrate!" - Otacon reveals that he slept with his stepmother during a conversation in *Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty*. He was a teenager at the time, and it's implied that his stepmother was predatory. This was outright stated to be the reason why his father killed himself, cementing Otacon's Woobie status. - *Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines*: - It's revealed that ||Therese was raped repeatedly by her father as a child, which is part of the reason why she has a split personality (the other part being she's a Malkavian.)|| - The *player character* can get this as well with the optional runaway backstory. It limits your social and seduction skills, but gives you great bonuses on hiding and staying quiet. - *Hitman (2016)*: If you read into Silvio Caruso's family tape's song as being a reflection of his adolescence, the "There were candles burning as we made love" gets a whole lot more disturbing. - In *Dragon's Dogma*, it's possible for the Player Character to romance their adoptive father Chief Adaro. - *The Elder Scrolls*: - In *Morrowind*, the Mad Scientist Divayth Fyr created four Opposite Sex Clones who he variously refers to as either his "wives" or "daughters". - This is more of a fan reaction than anything that actually happens in the game, but for some reason, an alarming number of naughty *Oblivion* mods are targeted at Seed-Neeus and Dar-Ma, the mother-and-daughter Argonian team in Chorrol. (Some involve threesomes with the player character, some just have them directly go after each other, but most at least involve the two naked in the same room....) That, or when advertising more generic naughty mods (nudity mods, remodeled/textured female bodies, etc.,) Seed-Neeus and Dar-Ma seem to be the examples in the screenshots a disproportionate amount of the time. - Maven Black-Briar of *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim* is head of a family that includes Hemming, Ingun, and Sibbi Black-Briar. Hemming is indisputably her son. He may mention in conversation that Ingun and Sibbi are his children; Maven is listed in the Creation Kit as their grandmother. However, Maven explicitly calls Ingun her "favorite daughter", and both Ingun and Sibbi refer to her as their mother. Maven has no husband; Hemming has no wife. It's not hard to do the math, especially since both kids sound like Borgia expys - Sibbi is in prison for a murder even his mother/grandmother found unnecessarily heinous (though more from the bad publicity than the act itself), while Ingun, *the only remotely pleasant member of the family*, is fascinated by alchemy and its more lethal applications. - *Silent Hill*: - ||Angela Orosco|| in *Silent Hill 2* is revealed to have been raped and abused by her own father. ||She eventually killed him, which led to her running away to Silent Hill.|| - Some fans have actually *shipped* Heather, the heroine of *Silent Hill 3*, and her father in a combination of Wife Husbandry and MayDecember Romance. There are some mitigating circumstances, though the power dynamic can still make this one awfully disgusting. The fact that the opening song's lyrics, confirmed by Word of God as describing Heather's feelings about her father, use a lot of sexually charged metaphors certainly doesn't help matters any. The two were originally going to be named Humbert and Dolores in the original *Silent Hill* as a direct reference to *Lolita*, so the developers definitely wanted the subtext to be there. - *Silent Hill: Shattered Memories*, a sort-of remake of the original game, is a lot more forward with the subtext. This incarnation of Cheryl ||does indeed love her father. Very, *very* much. And this time, there's not even the mitigating circumstances anymore. She's his blood daughter, as far as we know.|| - In *Clock Tower 3*, Lord Burroughs is so obsessed with his daughter that he ignores his wife, murders his son-in-law, and abducts his daughter. Later, he transfers his obsession to his granddaughter, the heroine Alessa, who's the very image of her mother. She manages to stop him though. Also a case of Love Makes You Evil. - In the *Princess Maker* series, it is possible to make the girl marry her adopted father. (See Wife Husbandry.) They are not blood related and, some games let the age of the "father," be pretty low, so the age gap isn't big at all. - In Anime/Manga, a 15-year-old raising a 10-year-old is often used in those cases of "older sibling raising younger sibling(s) due to being orphans." Considering the "father" is a war hero (there are just as many young heroes as there as old in Anime/Manga), it "should" be easier. - In the second game... not only the ending is *very* hard to get (the daughter must have *very* low morals, to start), but it's frowned upon by the Gods and the townspeople. The Guardian Deity openly says they're very surprised that this is happening, and only (reluctantly) approve because they're not related by blood. - This trope is a significant component of the premise of the bishoujo game *Ko-ko-ro...* The protagonist, Souji Kuonji, is tormented by memories of being sexually assaulted by both his parents long after their deaths. - Warden Clement of *House of the Dead: Overkill* almost definitely had this relationship with his mother, transplanting her brain into the body of Varla Gunns and making out with her. In the end, ||after the main characters kill the giant mutant version of his mother, he insists on returning to the womb in order to undo his wrongs||. Agent G then notes the irony of Cluster F-Bomb flinging Washington using Motherfucker all the time except with Clement, which he somehow relates into how deep down, Washington actually likes G as a friend. - In Ending E of the PS2 adventure game *Shadow of Destiny*, Eike Kusch, a de-aged immortal bishounen with recurring permanent amnesia, gets together and lives happily ever after with his biological daughter Dana, who was switched with another child as an infant in medieval Germany, and brought to the present day as a baby by the manipulative djinn Homunculus, in one hell of an insanely convoluted backstory. Neither of them apparently know they are actually blood-related, and it is unclear whether or not Eike still has eternal youth. - Characters in *Medieval: Total War* can have this as a surprisingly common trait, reducing their religious support if it's discovered. This can sometimes happen with rather unlikely characters, such as unmarried 15 year olds. Strangely, BrotherSister Incest never happens unless you specifically order it. - *Crusader Kings II*: - Can rarely happen in an event in which you can fall in love/impregnate a random adult courtier (below 45) in your court, and it doesn't check for blood relationship so it can be your daughter (or granddaughter even). If your character is lustful you can't say no. - It is also possible via cuckolding to if not caught later marry your own daughter when she comes of age. Since as far as everyone else knows, you're not related. - In the *Old Gods* expansion Zoroastrians were given the option of marrying close relatives, including children and parents, it gives a boost to vassal opinion as they view it as a holy marriage. Messalian Christians (treated as a heresy of Nestorianism) have a similar feature. Due to this, children born of "Divine Blood" marriages have five times less chance to acquire the Inbred trait as an Anti-Frustration Feature, though they are five more times likely to get the Lunatic trait. - In the dimension of Praetoria in *City of Heroes*, the evil Emperor "Tyrant" Cole, mirror of the main hero "Statesman", has his needs attended to by the villainess "Dominatrix"—his *granddaughter*. - As of a recent official Q&A for the *Going Rogue* expansion, this has been rather humorously averted. The devs of the game had actually *failed to notice* this implication when the Praetorians were featured originally, and several fans calling attention to it got a rather entertaining "oh, crap, we did *not* mean to do that" reaction from them. Content since has been revised to avoid any sort of implication along these lines. - The comic actually implied it a lot more directly while at the same time pointing out the familial connection. - Sariss in *Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II* was the daughter of the Dark Side cult leader Lord Cronal, who despised her over his Straw Nihilist ideology that made him see her as a tribute to creation rather than the destruction he idolized. As a result, he had her raped by his fellow cult members and often took part in it himself, making her almost as screwed up as he was and forcing Kyle Katarn to put her down. - Used as a path to immortality by the villain ||Croesus Verlac|| in the interactive fiction game *Anchorhead* — and continues in the family for *nearly four centuries*. - Since *The Wolf Among Us* features fairy tale characters in '80s New York, this was probably gonna happen at some point or another. But really, who expected the above-mentioned ||*Donkeyskin*|| to show up? - The *Dark Parables* installment *The Final Cinderella* reveals that the second girl who was designated a Cinderella (||and was in fact the Cinderella who married the Frog Prince, as shown in the second game of the series||) ran away from home because of *Donkeyskin*-type circumstances. - In *Dreaming Mary* it is strongly hinted that ||Mari's father (represented by Boaris) had been abusing and molesting her.|| - Implied in *Mass Effect 2*. Though Miranda's stated reason for running away from her father/creator was that he was an overbearing Control Freak, she occasionally hints at other problems in their relationship that she'd rather not discuss. - An odd indirect example can occur in *Fire Emblem Fates*. Nina has a personal skill called "Daydream," which grants her a Status Buff when she's adjacent to any two paired up men. This *is not disabled* for fathers and sons (such as Leo and Forrest, for example), meaning that Nina is fantasizing about this trope. - In *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*, Mercedes's supports with ||Jeritza reveal that their (technically adopted in her case, birth in his) father intended to marry the former to produce more children. Suddenly, no one feels very sorry for him when Jeritza kills him on the spot.|| - This was part of the original conception of *Summertime Saga*, until Patreon objected to the direction the dating sim was taking; the Main Character is now renting a room in a house owned by a woman who is totally unrelated to him although she does look like she could be related when viewed from some angles, and is clearly old enough to be his mother. Amazing coincidence, what are the odds, eh? - In the controversial *Rapelay*, you can force the mother to have sex with her daughters, just as you can force any of them to have sex with you or the daughters to have sex with each other. - *Okiku, Star Apprentice*: Slightly referenced with an Sexual Euphemism-type Innocent Innuendo scene involving a son talking about his mother: **Boy**: Is it just me, or is mommy's tummy getting bigger? **Okiku**: It sounds like she had some fun. **Boy**: We played together just yesterday, but... **Okiku**: Uhhh, that wasn't exactly what I was talking about! **Okiku**: Oh, never mind, Don't worry about it. - *Annabelle (RPG Maker)*: It is heavily indicated that Jason Sunray sexually abuses his daughter Annabelle. The versions of him appearing in her nightmares tell her that she will be 'his' in a creepily lustful manner. He outright declares near the end of the first game's remake that she will dance, dress, and *strip* for him. *Exorcism* also has Annabelle recount an experience where Jason was on top of her while she was sleeping. - As indicated by the title, *Daughter for Dessert* revolves around this. - Episode 7 of *Umineko: When They Cry* reveals that ||Kinzō had a child with an Italian woman named Beatrice, who died in the process. He then had the not so bright idea of naming the child after her, and since she grew up to look so much like her mother he convinced himself that his daughter was his lover reincarnated. The result was a Child by Rape, who would grow up to become the Big Bad of the first half of the story.|| - In *Mystic Messenger,* a flashback of Jumin's backstory heavily implies that when he was growing up, one of his stepmothers tried to sexually groom him. - Features into the backstory of Yaginuma and ||Shinji|| in *Kara no Shoujo.* The first's sister was raped by their father in an attempt to shield him, causing him to act like a jerk that you only get to see come down once. The latter was raped ||by his mother and accidentally killed her.|| - *Long Live the Queen* has a couple of examples. - A completely screwed-up example occurred when ||the Duke-Consort of Lillah seduced his stepson, the Earl of Io, which is part of what led to the boy going Ax-Crazy||. - The ||seduced|| bit is putting it lightly considering that, judging by ||his oldest half-brother's age, Kevan was 14 *at most* when it started.|| - Conversely, an example that crosses over with BrotherSister Incest occurs in one ending, and is portrayed as completely benign. ||Elodie's lover Brin marries her father, and Elodie marries Brin's brother Banion, so Elodie is having an affair with her stepmother/stepsister. In this case, the relationship predates the marriages.|| - The entire Overflow universe (including *School Days*) exist under the shadow of Tomaru Sawagoe doing this constantly with his daughters, their daughters, their *daughters' daughters,* etc. - In *Strip Battle Days 2*, after defeating her in a rock, paper, scissors match, Makoto and his mother Moeko both admit to having feelings for each other and they have sex, which leads to her getting pregnant with his child/sibling. - Thwarted hard in *DraKoi*, in which the protagonist's loli mom (it's a long story) has decidedly non-parental designs on him, and is extremely frustrated when attempts to raise him for reverse-Wife Husbandry are spoiled by the arrival of his girlfriend. All of this is played for laughs. - *Anime Toons*: It is implied in *Dragon Ball- Goten´s REAL Origin* that Goten was born out of an incestuous relationship between Gohan and Chi-Chi. Both Goku and Chi-Chi denies it of course. - This is brought up in the Dorkly Originals sketch, Inbred Yoshi where the yellow inbred yoshi talks about how his mom is also his dad's mom. The main green yoshi is naturally disgusted and would rather take baby Mario to the next level himself than to leave him with the inbred Yoshi. - *Otakebi*: Kenji cheated on his wife Sayuri with his *aunt*. When the affair was exposed he was disowned by his family and he and Sayuri got a divorce. - Subverted in *Tea, Biscuits and Incest* where Makayla is impregnated by her father Chad but neither of them know he's the father because it was artificial insemination by sperm donor. But then played straight ||(so to speak) when Chad finds out that Jayden, with whom he was having an affair, is his long lost son and Makayla's twin brother And then Chad reveals that their mother is also his daughter.|| - Like other incest tropes, End Master's works feature parental incest frequently. - *Eternal*: ||Semra|| had a child with her father. Apparently this is not abnormal in svelk culture. - *Repression*: The main character ends up sleeping with his mother in certain paths. - *Suzy's Strange Saga*: Suzy ||sleeps with her son Anu in one epilogue||. - *Tales From The Basement*: In one ending, the E-Bay escapist ||repopulates the earth with mutant children together with his mother after the nuclear apocalypse.|| - In *The Guild* this is played with, and depending on how literal you take the Hinjew warlock, possibly played straight. This overlaps with over protective parental action...with naked baths and breast feeding till you're eleven. Predictably, Codex and the rest pity Zaboo, a lot. - In The Nostalgia Critic's first commercial special, he riffs on a Does This Remind You of Anything? advert for a slide with an unfortunate name. When the mother slides down it, he shouts "Mom! Get off my wet banana! ...what would Dad say?" The joke is that if his (established to be very abusive) mother tried to be sexual with him, all he'd be freaked out by would be his dad's reaction. - Earlier, in *Drop Dead Fred*, he says, "Yeah, I remember the last time I laughed at my mom's cooch" in a sarcastic but oddly sad tone. - Heavily implied in *Occupy Richie Rich*, as one cover features Richie romanticizing his own mother. - It doesn't go anywhere but a joke, but in *Dragonball Z Abridged*, Bulma starts hitting on Future Trunks. Trunks doesn't take it well: - To be fair, Bulma didn't take it well either when she realized (three years later) what she had done. **Bulma:** *Oh my god, I solicited my son for sex.* - Future Bulma, however, is completely unsurprised that her past self hit on Trunks. **Trunks:** Before you found out I was your son, in the past, you... might have made a pass at me. **Bulma:** Well *duh*. **Trunks:** MOM! **Bulma:** Hey, it's not *my* fault your dad's genetics and mine got along like chocolate and peanut butter. - Justified in "Body Shifter Universe" due to Bizarre Alien Reproduction. Shifters reproduce by mitosis, the shifter parent is replaced by two children. The offspring shifters have no problem with mating with their other parent.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentChildIncest

Paris Is Burning - TV Tropes "Is Paris Burning?" and "Paris Is Burning" can refer to several things, you may be looking for: If an internal link led you here, please change it to point to the specific article. Thanks!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParisIsBurning

Parking Payback - TV Tropes **Evelyn:** *[to girls who stole her parking space]* Excuse me, I was waiting for that space. **Girl 1:** Yeah? Tough! **Girl 2:** Face it, lady, we're younger and faster. **Evelyn:** *[does slow burn, puts car in gear]* Towanda! *[slams car into back of the girls' Volkswagen three times, laughing]* **Girl 1:** *[comes back]* Help, someone! What are you doing? **Girl 2:** Are you crazy? **Evelyn:** Face it, girls, I'm older and have more insurance. In Real Life, seeing someone park where they shouldn't (like a disabled parking spot when they're not actually disabled) or stealing the parking spot you've been patiently waiting for is incredibly frustrating. In fiction, a character might choose to take immediate revenge on the parking infringer, often in a humorous fashion (giving the audience vicarious satisfaction). A subtrope of Disproportionate Retribution. Note that these actions are often things that could get you arrested in Real Life. ## Examples: - One episode of *You're Under Arrest!* has local Vigilante Man Strike Man getting angry at a bunch of cars parked right in front of a "No Parking" sign. He proceeds to deflate their tires as punishment. - In *Harley Quinn Holiday Special* #1, Harley is looking for a car to steal and decides to steal the one that is taking up two parking spaces. - According to Dave in *Knights of the Dinner Table*, Shiela once kidney punched him for parking in the disabled spot next to the Games Pit. - Steve Dallas illegally parks his corvette in a handicapped spot in *Bloom County*. Milo wasn't able to move it, but he tried. - In *Opus* (in the same continuity), Pickles removed the wheels from a car parked in a handicapped space by someone who obviously wasn't physically disabled, and the last panel showed her revving up a chainsaw to trim down a Hummer parked in the compact car section. - *The Havoc Side of the Force* has a clear reference to the *xkcd* scene above, with Harry using a lightsaber to cut a speeder in two pieces to fit them in one parking space. - There is an urban legend about an older woman who takes revenge on the sassy young thing who brazenly zips into the parking space she'd been waiting for. When she protests, the parking spot thief says, "That's how it is when you're young and quick." The woman puts her car into gear, floors the accelerator and rams the offending vehicle. When the sassy young thing screams in protest, the woman replies, "That's how it is when you're old and rich" (or "and have more insurance"). You can check out the legend and its variations at *Snopes* here. **In General:** - Kenny Everett's 1980s sketch show on The BBC had a sketch where he crushed an illegally parked car under a tank. **By Series:** - Upon seeing a person parked in a handicapped spot, the title character of "Super Cop" by Ray Stevens shoots the owner of the car in the foot and says, "You're handicapped now!" - Website *That Will Buff Out* has the heading "Douchebag Parkers" which delights in suggesting this sort of revenge and taking pictures of it. (Please do not try any of these at home, it is one of the quickest ways to get either a criminal record, or a punch in the face.) - *Etra-chan saw it!*: - Azami tells her baking class students to park their car on other people's parking spaces without asking for their permission. Karin is annoyed by this as her parking space is often used by them when she returns home with her car, she decides to confront Azami about it, but she keeps insisting that the parking space is free when she is not using it. After being fed up with Azami's nonsense, Karin blocks her own occupied parking space with her car, preventing one of the students to leave. A few days later, another car shows up parked in Karin's parking space again, prompting her to do the same thing as she did before. - Kuroki has to deal with his noisy neighbors who block the parking lot of his apartment with their van, this causes him to snap and damage it with a bicycle. A tough looking guy, Tachibana arrives after Kuroki damaged the van, causing him to think that he was the owner of the van, however, Tachibana is actually one of the neighbors who got annoyed by the noises, and he takes another bicycle to damage the van further. The noisy neighbors end up being intimidated by Tachibana and they eventually move out from the apartment, with the damaged van being towed by a tow truck. - Azami heard about Yuri parking in Kuroki and Karin's parking space with the payment of $200 although she is using the parking space for free. Against their wishes, Azami parked her van during times when Yuri is away. One day, she left her van way past the time Yuri got back from work. Kuroki and Karin were forced to call the police. Azami found a notice on her van demanding her to pay $300 every time she uses the parking space or be sued by them. The neighbors found about Azami's antics when the police demanded that Azami remove her van through a megaphone. Akamatsu and Tachibana has had enough of Azami and made her go back to paying a parking service. - *Manga-Waido*: A mom parks on Sho's private property. He tried to stop her several times with signs, but she refused to heed the warning. Eventually he destroyed her car windows with baseballs, but it was later revealed that it was all a prank, and her car is fine. - *Refreshing Stories*: Nobue kept parking her car on her neighbor Hiroshi's garage. She began to annoy Hiroshi and his wife by making noise even late into the night. So Hiroshi decided to get back at her when she went overseas by allowing the construction workers to destroy the garage on account of a typhoon that would have destroyed her car, so he allowed it to get flooded instead. - *Tanabata Manga*: Miyuki finds her parking space being occupied by a car in the parking lot, she later decides to inform the landlord about the car, leading him to call a tow truck to have it towed. However, the woman who owns the car returns to the parking lot and starts kicking Miyuki's car out of anger and tries to steal her belongings as well, causing her to be arrested. - *Trouble Busters*: Elisha parked her RV on Michelle and her husband's private parking space without their permission. Michelle locked the RV and the gate with chains and padlocks and left for her vacation. When they returned a week later, Elisha and her husband Joseph yelled at Michelle and her husband, saying that they had to carry all the equipment by foot. Michelle exposed the couple's trespassing on the neighborhood meeting, and they were forced to move out due to nobody speaking to them after that. - In *The Whiteboard*, one character parked in the no-parking zone in front of the loading bay of Doc's paintball shop/underground fortress. Doc's friends proceeded to drive a heavy excavator through said bay as if the car weren't there. - Black Hat of *xkcd* fame does not tolerate double-parkers. - In this Not Always Friendly story a young woman steals the submitter's assigned parking space at the apartment complex where the submitter lives. After reasoning with the woman just gets the submitter insulted, the submitter simply informs the manager who has the offending woman's car towed. - Parodied in *The Amazing World of Gumball* episode "The Parking": an old man takes a parking spot the Watterson family were going for, so Nicole starts scribbling on his car in lipstick. One of her kids points out why this isn't a good idea. **Darwin:** Mrs. Mom? **Nicole:** Yes, sweetheart? *(Darwin points offscreen, Nicole notices the car she vandalized is in a handicapped spot)* **Darwin:** That's really bad. **Nicole:** Oh, I—what? You thought I was defacing this poor person's car? What kind of a mother would do that? I was... uh... I was making a decorative piece of art showing my love for diversity, because everyone is different, uh—look, see? *(Nicole redraws her scribbles into a friendly mural of people holding hands)* **Darwin:** *(whispers)* No, I meant, *look* . *(the camera pulls back to show the driver is still in the car, staring at her)* **Nicole:** I see. Well, in that case... *run.* - In the *Batman: The Animated Series* episode "Fear of Victory", Batman intercepts someone he *thinks* is the Scarecrow, delivering a fear drug-tainted telegram as part of his latest scheme. It's actually a perfectly ordinary delivery man, with a perfectly ordinary telegram — and he utterly *freaks*, thinking that Batman's there to punish him for double-parking. - In *The Boondocks* episode "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back", mild-mannered Tom DuBois experiences a Moment of Weakness when an ill-tempered gangster steals his parking spot. Frustrated, Tom gets possessed by the spirit of Stinkmeaner and confronts the gangster, laying him out with a dropkick. - *C.O.P.S.*: When Ms. Demeanour is made to wear a mind-altering tiara that forces her to abide to the law, she finds a car parked three inches out of a space into a red zone and lifts it out by hand, destroying its tires (and presumably its suspension) when she drops it back down. - In the first *Family Guy* Christmas Episode, Peter gets fed up with searching for a parking space at the mall and just drives onto another car, crushing it like a monster truck. - In an episode of *YooHoo & Friends*, Santa Claus parks his sleigh in front of Father Time's house. Father Time uses his magical powers to move the sleigh so it is front of a fire hydrant, causing Santa Claus to get a ticket. - Occurs frequently to people who park in handicapped spaces without an obvious disability. Actually a pretty terrible idea in real life, as many people have bone, muscle, heart or lung conditions that aren't visible to the outside observer but make walking long distances painful or impossible. In addition to dealing with a handicap, such people frequently have their cars vandalized by people who assume they're cheating the system. - In Real Life in 2011 the mayor of a town in Lithuania posed for photographers after crushing what he claimed was an illegally parked car with an armored car. - Casey Neistat filmed himself crashing his bike into everything parked in a bike lane to point out how often they're blocked off. See here. - In Poland, an offender might often find a sticker with an image of a penis and a message that roughly translates to "You get a penalty dick for parking like a dickhead". And it's usually really hard to peel off. - This actually started in France with the "Garé comme une merde" (parked like shit) stickers. There are endless variations, like "Garé du Coté Obscur de la Force" (parked on the Dark Side of the Force). - There is one sure-fire way to find yourself on the receiving end of this: Park in front of a Fire Hydrant. Firefighters have no time to politely ask you to move your car, so, they'll just smash the window and thread the hose through. Do we need to mention that fire hoses tend to spray water all over where they joined to the hydrant? Like *all over* the inside of your car? Or, they'll force your car out of the way with one of their trucks. note : Which keep in mind, have more than enough horse power to shove your sedan out of the way. And for bonus points, if you think you can get away with suing the department for the damages... good luck. Not only will you lose the case horribly, you'll also have to pay a hefty fine for your poor parking decision, on top of the repair cost. Oh, and did we forget to mention that your insurance rates may even go up as a result? - Similarly, anyone who parks right on the rear bumper of an ambulance (you should give them at least six feet) is obstructing the loading and unloading of the stretcher, which can cause a critical delay in a life-threatening emergency. It's not unheard of for the medics to just unload the stretcher anyway — directly onto the offending car's hood. Oh, and good luck with that ticket for obstructing an emergency vehicle. - Part of the "Stop a Douchebag" movement involves this. If you park illegally and refuse to move, they'll put a sticker on your windshield that reads(translated from Russian) "I don't care about other people, I park where I please." - In cities that receive a lot of snowfall during the winter, such as Chicago and Boston, residents have to spend hours shoveling snow to create a parking spot, and thus usually "reserve" it with chairs or trashcans. If you decide to remove the clutter and park there anyway, residents *will* retaliate. Consequences range from harmless pranks such as dumping snow over your car to vandalism and even *fights*. - Similarly, snow belt cities often have additional restrictions on parking during the winter note : e.g., no on-street parking at night in order to more easily facilitate snowplowing. Violate these rules and a ticket may be the least of your worries; at best, you're likely to find your car trapped in an island of snow when you walk out to it in the morning. At worst? A snowplow at speed can generate a *lot* of momentum, and it doesn't have to even hit your car to cause significant damage - a solid chunk of ice flung off a plow blade with enough velocity can easily smash a window or put a serious dent in the bodywork.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParkingPayback

Parental Love Song - TV Tropes *You will come of age with our young nation* *We'll bleed and fight for you, we'll make it right for you* *If we lay a strong enough foundation* *We'll pass it on to you, we'll give the world to you, and you'll blow us all away.* Some love songs are between romantic partners or spousees. Others are between good friends. Still others are between parent and child. These come in several varieties wishing for success, calming fears and insecurities, saying "thanks for the memories", or just telling the other person how special he/she is. This is not necessarily a Music trope; it appears in movies and even books as well. Sub-trope to Ode to Family. See also Platonic Declaration of Love. ## Examples Anime and Manga *Buru-buru, good little boy, go to sleep, go to sleep* *Drink plenty of milk, plenty, plenty, drink plenty* *Buru-buru, good little boy, go to sleep, go to sleep * *Loolalala, loolalala, loolalala, loolala...* Animated Film - "Baby Mine" from *Dumbo* is a lullaby sung to Dumbo by his mother after she's been locked up for defending him from a group of rude boys. *Baby mine, don't you cry. * Baby mine, dry your eyes. Rest your head close to my heart, Never to part, baby of mine. - "Deliver Us" from The Prince of Egypt has a section sung by Yocheved as she sets her infant son afloat to save him from the genocidal Pharoah, singing about how she's doing this to give him a chance to escape death and she hopes they'll meet again. - "You'll Be in My Heart" written by Phil Collins for *Tarzan*. The lyrics do not indicate what kind of love it is about, but in the movie it is sung to Tarzan by his surrogate mother Kala (Collins wrote it about his daughter). For one so small You seem so strong My arms will hold you Keep you safe and warm... - "Mother Knows Best" from *Tangled* combines this with Villain Song. She wants Rapunzel to think it's about her love for Rapunzel. It is actually meant to ruin Rapunzel's self-esteem and keep her emotionally dependent on Gothel and afraid of the outside world. - In *The Chipmunk Adventure*, Eleanor sings "My Mother", a lullaby about a mother's love to the baby penguin that Eleanor smuggled aboard their hot-air balloon. - *Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio*: "My Son", a lullaby Geppetto sings to his son Carlo about how much he loves him, and which came from Carlo's mother. My son, my son You are my shining sun My moon, my stars My clear blue daylight sky - Paul Simon's "Father and Daughter" from *The Wild Thornberrys Movie*, sung by a father promising to guard his daughter and watch her grow. - *Mr. Peabody & Sherman* has a montage of the title characters' father-son dynamic set to the below-mentioned "Beautiful Boy". - The villain song of *The Lion King II: Simba's Pride* is a lullaby from Zira to her son. However, it's more about her hate for Simba than her love for Kovu (who she wants to turn into a Tyke Bomb). - The Japanese theme for *Storks*, "Heiwa" by AI, could fit, as it was named after the singer's baby daughter. - In *Brave*, the song "Noble Maiden Fair" that Elinor sings to little Merida. - *Coco*—In-Universe, "Remember Me" wound up marketed as a romantic song, but it was actually written by ||Héctor for his daughter Coco||. - *Song of the Sea*: Bronaugh sings the titular song to her son and unborn daughter. ||Its also the song Saoirse needs to send the Fair Folk of Ireland to their home.|| Film— Live Action Literature - From *Coraline*, the "twitchy-witchy" song, in which Coraline's father expresses his affection by telling her (goofily) the things he'll do for her and the things he would never do. - The original version of the lullaby from *Holes* encourages a child in spite of the troubles that that child will face. Be strong, my weary wolf Turn around boldly Fly high, my baby bird My angel, my only - "Knife Edge" in the *Noughts & Crosses* series has "Rainbow Child", an in-universe radio hit sung by various characters to their kids. We see its full lyrics in the penultimate chapter as Sephy sings it to Callie Rose. Live-Action TV - The "Soft Kitty" song in *The Big Bang Theory*, originally a lullaby sung to Sheldon Cooper by older female relatives (mother and mee-maw), which in times of stress he asks Penny to sing to him. - In the *The Odd Couple (1970)* episode "The Paul Williams Story", Paul Williams writes a song based on the words Felix wanted to say to his runaway daughter. It brings them back together again. - "I Love My Daughter" from *Crazy Ex-Girlfriend* is a deliberate parody of the way some father/daughter love songs in particular can come out sounding... wrong. The original version was extremely pervy and apparently hilarious, but it just didn't suit the character of Darryl who really is a good guy at heart, so the broadcast version instead has him desperately try to sing a wholesome fatherly song only to get increasingly flustered when his words come out sounding the wrong way. - "A Miracle" from *Roundhouse* seems to be this (it closes out an entire episode where the main family prepares for the arrival of a new baby), though it's sung by the entire cast and not just the parents. They say, they say, they say that he's got my eyes. Oh baby, baby, baby, I'm hypnotized. Oh baby, baby, baby, how I love you. Please say, please say, please say that you love me, love me too. He's a miracle, my my my my baby... Music - "Thanks for My Child" by Cheryl 'Pepsii' Riley dedicated to her son. The highlights of this song are as follows complete with this heartwarming exchange between Riley and her son: "The love I have for you baby, is the love I have in me" Cheryl: I love you, sweetheart. Child: I love you too, Mommy! - "Remedy" by Adele, dedicated to her son. - Amy Grant's "Baby Baby", though the lyrics were vague enough for the video to spin it as a romantic song. (One of the laser-karaoke versions featured on *Oddity Archive* uses it over footage of a woman and a small child playing around in a park.) - Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness: "Cecilia and the Satellite." - "Rockabye" by Anne Marie, Sean Paul, and Clean Bandit. It's told by a third person, but it still counts. - Beyoncé's "Blue" is written about her daughter, Blue. - Billy Joel wrote "Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)" for his daughter Alexa. - "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle and others is about a little girl and her father's relationship as she grows up. I couldn't ask God for more, man this is what love is. I know I gotta let her go, but I'll always remember Every hug in the morning and butterfly kisses... - Bob Dylan's *Planet Waves* has one: "Forever Young", written for his kids. - Brotherhood of Man's "Save Your Kisses for Me" seems like an ordinary love song until the final line, which reveals that the subject is a three-year-old. - Carly Simon's "Love of My Life" was written for her children. - Céline Dion: "A New Day Has Come" and "Miracle." - Chicagos Little One. - "Memphis, Tennessee" by Chuck Berry, as revealed at the end of the song. Until the last verse it sounds like he's singing about a girlfriend. - "I Think About You" by Collin Raye. A father bemoaning the sexualization of women in advertising, thinking about his young daughter. - Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle" was written for his then-unborn son, AJ. - "Kooks", which David Bowie wrote soon after the birth of his son Zowie. - Disciple has More, a song about the singer's love for his child and his hopes that their life and relationship with God will be even better than his own. - Ed Sheeran's "Small Bump", in which the narrator sings a lullaby to his unborn child, promising to always love and protect them. ||The last few lines reveal that the mother miscarried||. - Eddy Arnold's "That Little Boy of Mine". - Eminem's most positive muse is his daughter Hailie (and later, the rest of his children). He has written several... though some get dark in tone. - "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" is, by Word of God, a song about how much Marshall loves his daughter, but it is also a Murder Ballad about Slim Shady getting her to help him dispose of the body of his murdered wife after she tried Taking the Kids. - "Hailie's Song" is a song to her in which Eminem expresses delight that he's been awarded custody of his daughter after her mother tried to prevent him seeing her. - "My Dad's Gone Crazy" is a variation where Hailie cheers on Slim Shady as he closes out the album with the foulest and most horrible shock comedy he can spit. - "Mockingbird" recounts the hard times Marshall had looking after her and his promise to always be with her. - "When I'm Gone" is about Eminem abandoning fame in order to dedicate more time to his daughters. - "Castle" is an Age-Progression Song in which Marshall writes letters to his daughter throughout her childhood, following the first half of his career from a struggling rapper to a superstar to a depressed, fat drug addict. - "Spaceship" by Andy Grammer is about his unborn child and how excited he is to be a father. - "Tina" was written for Frank Sinatra about his youngest child. - Heartland's "I Loved Her First." *But I loved her first* *I held her first* *And a place in my heart* *Will always be hers* - "Mordred's Lullaby" by Heather Dale is a tragic and dysfunctional version. - HoneyWorks has "Mama", a song that expresses a mother's unconditional love for her daughter. - "Welcome Little Girl" by Eurobeat act HRG United. - INXS had keyboardist Andrew Farriss write "Beautiful Girl" and "Baby Don't Cry" about his daughter. - "Glory" by Jay-Z, to the point of recording his daughter's first sounds after she was born, including them in the song, and crediting her as "featuring B.I.C." (for Blue Ivy Carter). - "For Bobbie," written by John Denver, was retitled "For Baby" when Mary Travers heard it as something she could sing to her daughter. I'll walk in the rain by your side, I'll cling to the warmth of your hand. I'll do anything to keep you satisfied, I'll love you more than anybody can. - Denver's Christmas song "A Baby Just Like You" was partly written for his son Zachary and partly commissioned by Frank Sinatra for his granddaughter Angela. - "Beautiful Boy" by John Lennon, about his son Sean. - "You Ruined Everything" by Jonathan Coulton. It's a lot sweeter than the title would have you believe. You ruined everything... in the nicest way. - Also by Jonathan Coulton is "When you go", written from a parent's perspective that has to say goodbye to a now grown up child (going away to college, getting married, or going into the military as per Word of God). - Johnny Mercer wrote "Mandy Is Two" to celebrate his daughter's reaching her second year. One year later, he updated it as "Mandy Is Three." - "To Zion" by Lauryn Hill is about her first child, Zion. - "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack is a mother addressing her daughter. - "I'm Already There" by Lonestar. A man who's on the road calls up his family and tells his children that he's with them in spirit if not in fact. - "Lovin' You" by Minnie Riperton is this to her then-infant daughter Maya Rudolph. She even chants "Maya" during the last chorus. - Paul Williams' "You and Me Against the World," as made famous by Helen Reddy. Remember when the circus came to town And you were frightened by the clown, Wasn't it nice to be around someone that you knew, Someone who was big and strong and looking out for You and me against the world, Sometimes it feels like you and me against the world And for all the times we've cried I always felt that God was on our side. - Madonna's 1998 album *Ray of Light* includes the song "Little Star," written about her daughter, Lourdes. - The Mills Brothers' "Daddy's Little Girl". - Mötley Crüe had "Brandon", where Tommy Lee wrote about his firstborn. In his autobiography, he remembers how it always got a negative reception played live, commenting "I wasnt writing a love ballad, I was writing a song about the most amazing thing thats ever happened in my life. I was writing a song about my son. What, are the dudes in Mötley never supposed to write songs about anything but drugs, chicks, and played-out rock-and-roll bullshit until we die? Guess so. Thanks superfans, thats tight! You guys really love us." - Olivia Newton-John released an album full of lullabies and other Parental Love Songs, *Warm and Tender*, in 1990. The track list includes standards such as "The Way You Look Tonight," "Over the Rainbow" and "When You Wish Upon a Star" as well several lullabies and a cover of Dionne Warwick's hit "Reach Out for Me," which was released as a single. - Aside from the aforementioned "You'll Be in My Heart", Phil Collins has written a couple of these for his own children. - From *But Seriously*, there's "Father to Son", about a father offering advice (mostly dealing with women) to his son; Collins' son Simon was growing up around this time. - Later, *Testify* features the song "Come With Me", in which the father promises to make the world that much brighter for his children. Collins first came up with the song as a lullaby not long after his daughter Lily was born, and later completed the song and put it on the album after his son Nicholas was born. - "In My Arms" by Plumb is a promise of protection and love for her son. - "Sail to the Moon (Brush the Cobwebs Out of the Sky)" by Radiohead mixes this with a little Protest Song. - Rod Stewart's "Forever Young", which he wrote for his children after realizing that touring was causing him to miss out on their lives. - Sade - Sandra Boynton's "Snuggle Puppy", going by the illustrations, is one of these sung from a dog to his puppy. *Oh, snuggle puppy of mine* *Everything about you is especially fine* *I love what you are; I love what you do* *Fuzzy little snuggle puppy, I love you!* - "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" by The Smiths is by a father promising to protect his innocent son. - Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely?" is the singer's thoughts upon knowing he has a newborn daughter. Being blind, Stevie is unable to actually see is daughter, but he just knows she's beautiful anyway. The album version includes audio of his then-infant daughter being born and, later, of him playing with her in the bathtub. - "A Woman's Song" by The Style Council - Paul Weller's band after The Jam - is about a mother comforting her baby, after having almost everything taken away from her and only sees consolation in said baby and his/her future. - "Never Grow Up" by Taylor Swift. - "My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw - "Just the Two of Us" by Will Smith is about his relationship with his son Trey (from his first marriage). - Ben Folds has two, one for each of his twins: "Still Fighting It" for his son Noah, and "Gracie" for his daughter of the same name. - P!nk's "Run" reads as one of these, sung from the perspective of a mother telling her child that, if they feel like there's nowhere else for them to turn, they can always come back to her. "Take the best of what I've got You know no matter what Before you walk away You know you can Run Run Run Back to my arms Back to my arms!" - Her song "Fucking Perfect" isn't directed at *her* child specifically, so much as little girls in general, though the music video ends with the singer singing it to her daughter, hoping that she'll have an easier childhood than she did. - The instrumental piece "Ballade pour Adeline" by Richard Clayderman was originally composed by Paul de Senneville for his daughter. - Athlete's "Wires" is a particularly poignant Parental Love Song about the lead singer's child struggling for life (the child was born prematurely and had other medical problems) and the realisation that the child his now happy and healthy. - "Dear Daughter," by Halestorm, mother to daughter. Unlike other songs on this list, it was inspired by a conversation Lzzy Hale had with her own mother, rather than being an ode to her child. - "Show Me" by *The Pretenders* is supposedly about the birth of Chrissie Hynde's first child, although some have suggested it's actually about baby ''Jesus, as the baby in the song definitely is described with some Messianic Archetype traits. - "You Gotta Be.." by Des'ree seems like a Pep-Talk Song, and advice given from a mother to child (most likely her daughter.) - "In My Daughter's Eyes" by Martina McBride is sung from the perspective of a mother finding strength in her daughter's admiration of her. - The second half of Tim Minchin's "White Wine in the Sun" covers this trope as Tim tells his "jet-lagged infant daughter" that once his family gathers for Christmas, she will be "passed around the room like a puppy in a primary school", before reminding her that, no matter what happens, her family are the people who will love and support her. - The first verse of Alec Benjamin's "If We Have Each Other" is about a young, pregnant woman reassuring her unborn baby that even if life is hard, as long as they have each other, everything will be okay. *The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad * If we got each other, and that's all we have I will be your mother, and I'll hold your hand You should know I'll be there for you When the world's not perfect, when the world's not kind If we have each other, then we'll both be fine I will be your mother, and I'll hold your hand You should know I'll be there for you Theatre - *Carrie* (the musical version) has, as you might expect, a fairly twisted version. A few of them, in fact. - *Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto* has Rodrigo Borgia singing one to his illegitimate son Cesare in a flashback to when Cesare was seven years old, when Rodrigo first brought him to Rome to train him to inherit whatever Rodrigo could get for him. Everything I hold, I'll bestow on you, Cesare, Out of all of my children, You're the greatest gift God has given me, My little emperor, Cesare, - It really makes you remember that, while he wasn't a good person, his crimes weren't that different from those of all the other Renaissance popes, and the real reasons for the Historical Villain Upgrade that tends to attach to him were that he was foreign, and he loved his illegitimate children too much. Here, for once, he gets a more positive portrayal. - "Father to Son" from the musical *Falsettos*. Divorced father singing to his son, giving him the advice to go his own way, and he'll be proud. - In the short-lived *101 Dalmatians the Musical*, one of the puppies asks her mother Missus if she's pretty, and Missus sings "My Sweet Child" in response, a song about how she loves her. - "Mushnik and Son" from *Little Shop of Horrors* is Mushnik's "proposal" to adopt Seymour as his son. - *Kiss of the Spider Woman* - Molina's mother sings "You Could Never Shame Me" to Molina about how she is still proud of him even though he went to jail. - "My Child Will Forgive Me" from *Parade* is about a mother trying to cope with her guilt after her daughter is murdered. - "This Time Tomorrow" from *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer*. Aunt Polly, watching her sleeping nephew, muses on time and growing older and promises him that One thing is certain No matter what you do This time tomorrow I will still be loving you. - From *Sweeney Todd*, the reprise of "Johanna". Played with, however, in that Todd muses on Johanna, but ultimately shows no desire to get back to her. And though I'll think of you I guess, until the day I die, I think I miss you less and less as every day goes by. - In *Les Misérables*, Fantine sings lovingly to a hallucination of Cosette during ||her dying song|| "Come to Me," while in "In My Life," Valjean sings briefly of how he wishes he could end Cosette's loneliness and make her fully happy. - In *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*, "If Your Mother Were Here" is sung by Charlie's parents when he falls into a blue funk over the Golden Ticket search. Each parent thinks the other could do a better job of cheering him up, and both wish they could give the boy the life he deserves because he's such a light in their lives. In the process, the song also affirms their love for each other. - "I'd Give My Life For You" from *Miss Saigon*. It's sung by a single mother to her toddler son, about how she loves him more than anything and would gladly give her life for him. ||She keeps her word at the end of the play.|| - "The I Love You Song" from *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* is a particularly depressing one, since Olive's parents aren't actually there, and she's only imagining what she wishes they would tell her. - "Min astrakan"/"Summer Rose" from *Kristina from Duvemåla*, sung by Kristina to her newborn son Danjel. The main theme of the song is actually about her love for Sweden, a country he will never see, and how she will tell him all about it but it's ripe with love and affection from mother to newborn. - "Dear Theodosia" from *Hamilton* has Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton gushing over their respective children, Theodosia Burr and Philip Hamilton, and promising to build a wonderful nation for them to grow up in. - "I Can't Wait" from *Bright Star* sung by teenage parents Alice and Jimmy Ray to their unborn child, as they promise to stand by their child and each other forever. ||This doesn't exactly go as planned.|| - *Dear Evan Hansen* has the song "So Big/So Small," in which Heidi explains to Evan how his father left them when he was young and how no matter how bad things get, she will always love and be there for her son from here on out. - A cut song, "In The Bedroom Down The Hall", is a duet between Heidi and Cynthia, in which they both sing of how they're willing to do anything for their sons. - *The Lightning Thief*, the adaptation of the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, has "Strong". - The musical adaptation of *Ever After* has one combined with a Villain Song in "After All", where Rodmilla sings about the love a mother has for her child. It's not as heartwarming in context, because of the hypocrisy of Rodmilla musing about the "unbreakable bond" between mother and child, while cruelly mistreating her younger daughter Jacqueline and her stepdaughter Danielle. Even when she speaks of Marguerite, her favorite daughter, she's mainly speaking about her hopes that Marguerite will marry the prince and become the queen of France. Not because she wants her daughter to be happy, but because marrying into royalty will make Rodmilla wealthy again. *What would a mother not do for her child?* *What lengths would a mother not go?* *Theres a bond that exists between mother and child* *Ah, but then again...how would you know?* - *Romeo et Juliette: De La Haine a l'Amour * has Lord Capulet sing about his fatherly love for Juliet after betrothing her to Paris in "Avoir une Fille" ("To Have a Daughter"). The Nurse also has one before she takes Juliet to marry Romeo in "Et Voilà qu'Elle Aime" ("And Now She Loves"). - "He's My Boy" from *Everybody's Talking About Jamie* is sung by Jamie's mother, about how she will never stop loving her son. - *& Juliet* has Angelique, Juliet's nurse, assure her that no matter what she thinks Juliet is "Fuckin' Perfect" in her eyes. - Another subversion is Raincoat of Love from *Fun Home* Its a cheerful number In the Style of The Partridge Family, but its also a fantasy Alison uses to cope with her *severely* Big, Screwed-Up Family. - *Black Friday* has "What Tim Wants", where Tom laments the loss of his wife, his inability to be there for his son, Tim, and the growing divide between the two. In it's reprise, he realises his grief for Jane is what's pushing him and his son apart, and that Tim never wanted a Tickle-Me-Wiggly doll- all he wanted was his dad to be there for him. *I don't say it enough* *I'm scared you blame me for mom, scared you blame me for your luck* *But there's no end, there's no end* *There's no end to how much I love...* - *Children of Eden* has "Father's Day" in which Father aka. God, while watching Adam and Eve sleep, muses on how much He loves His children. - *A Strange Loop*: "Periodically" begins as a heartfelt musical voicemail to Usher from his mother on his 26th birthday about how she's the one who loves him most. However, it derails into her preaching at him for being gay and imploring him to change his ways so he doesn't go to hell, though she never stops claiming she loves him and insists she's just saying this for his own good. Video Games - Cherie's version of *Let's Go On* from *Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure*. - *Rakuen* has two parents that sing their regarding child a lullaby: ||Tony and Mom||. || **Mom:** || Close your eyes, I am here and everything will be alright. I am right here by your side as we go walking through the night Web Animation Web Original Western Animation - In the first *Darkwing Duck* episode, "Darkly Dawns the Duck", Darkwing takes in a young girl called Gosalyn to prevent her from being snatched by the crime boss who killed her grandfather. She tells him about a lullaby her grandfather always used to sing her, "Little Girl Blue." Darkwing sings it, foreshadowing the father/daughter relationship that they're going to share for the rest of the series. - The *DuckTales (2017)* episode "Whatever Happened to Della Duck" reveals that Huey, Dewey, and Louie's Missing Mom Della had written a lullaby for them that she used to sing to them before they hatched. For bonus points, the melody is the famous "Moon Theme" from the original show's NES game. - The *Dinosaur Train* episode "The Good Mom" ends with Mrs. Pteranodon signing a lullaby to her kids about how no matter what happens, she'll always be their mom. - In the *Hercules: The Animated Series* episode "Hercules and the Visit from Zeus", Zach (Zeus in disguise) begins singing a lullaby to calm down the puppy Cerberus. When the two have successfully gotten him to sleep, Hercules interjects in surprise that his human mother Alcmene used to sing him that lullaby. Zeus answers that he always listened. - *Infinity Train* has Tuba's song that she sings to Hazel. Hazel says that Tuba sang it to her own children. ||After Tuba dies, Hazel sings it in memoriam.|| Anime & Manga - *Blood-C* has Saya Kisaragi with random mundane songs, who often sings about her much she loves her father. Considering she's voiced by Nana Mizuki... well, see below. Live-Action TV - *Crazy Ex-Girlfriend* has a rather unusual one called "Maybe She's Not Such A Heinous Bitch After All", where Rebecca sings about her newly-repaired relationship with her mother Naomi ||while temporarily under her care following her breakdown||. It's unusual in the case that it's not outright loving or sentimental, but rather simply comparing their past and present dynamics, which she calls "a huge step up". - On *Glee*, Kurt turns "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" into one of these for his father, who is in the hospital after a heart attack. - *Julie and the Phantoms*: Luke wrote ||"Unsaid Emily"|| for his parents (more specifically his mother, whose name is referenced in the title) about his regret at running away to join his band, and how he wishes he could make amends and say he still loves them, despite everything. Music - "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd is the singer's reminiscence about his mother giving loving advice to him when he was a boy. All that I want for you my son, is to be satisfied. - "Rock and Roll Lullaby" is B.J. Thomas's account of a man looking back on being raised by a teen mom. - "The Best Day" by Taylor Swift is a daughter reminiscing about the good times she spent with her mother and how thankful she is for those great moments. The video, which is made up of Taylor's home videos makes it clear the song is dedicated to her mom. And I didn't know if you knew, so I'm taking this chance to say That I had the best day with you today - "Headlights" by Eminem is an apology to his mother for all that he said about her. - Nana Mizuki has "Shin'ai" and "Yume no Tsuzuki" as Grief Songs for her late father. - St. Vincent's song for her mother, "I Prefer Your Love". - "The Perfect Fan" by Backstreet Boys. - "A Song for Mama" by Boyz II Men - "Daddy's Hands" by Holly Dunn - "Mama's Song" by Carrie Underwood - "Mother Like Mine" by The Band Perry - "Dance with my Father" by Luther Vandross - "Love, Your Baby Girl" by Sugarland - "Mama" by Spice Girls - "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel was written for his mother. - "Promise to Try" from Madonna's *Like a Prayer*. - "Hey Mama" by Kanye West. - "Because You Loved Me" by Céline Dion was written as a tribute to songwriter Diane Warren's father, although it can double as a romantic love song as well. - "Silver Thunderbird" by Marc Cohn is an ode to the singer's father. The silver Thunderbird in the title is the car that his father used to drive. - A more tragic example is "The Living Years" by Mike + the Mechanics; the song is more of an "I wish my father and I could have put aside our differences while he was still alive" kind of song (it's especially sad considering that songwriters B. A. Robertson and Mike Rutherford had both had strained relationships with their then-recently-deceased fathers, and singer Paul Carrack had lost his own father as a child). - Two other tragic examples, this time from a daughter to a mother, are "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" by The Shangri-La's and "I'm Livin' in Shame" by The Supremes, both about young women who regretted the way they treated their mothers (the former ran away after her mother forbade her to see her boyfriend; the latter was embarrassed by her mother's rough mannerisms and disowned her once she grew up) now that said mothers are deceased. - "Father, Son" by Peter Gabriel, about a son who didn't have the best relationship with his father growing up, but still misses him (inspired by Gabriel's troubled relationship with his own father, but the two did reconcile before the latter's passing). - "Julia" from The Beatles' *The White Album*, and John Lennon's solo effort "Mother" (from *John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band*), both written for his late mother. - "Daddy Lessons" by Beyoncé, in which she reminisces about how her father taught her to be strong and independent. - "Philomena" by Thin Lizzy is singer Phil Lynott's tribute to his mother. - "He Wasn't There" by Lily Allen is about a girl glad she didn't give up on her dad when he was a screw up as they have a great relationship now. - "Not All Heroes Wear Capes" by Owl City was written as a gift to Adam Young's father, talking about how much he loves him and how he's a hero in Adam's eyes. - Synthwave diva NINA has "'80s Girl", dedicated to her young single mother who bore and raised her in Berlin during the twilight years of the Cold War. - LANY's "if this is the last time" has the singer promising to spend every moment with his loving parents like it's the last time he'll be able to do so. Theatre - In *Mame* her nephew Patrick tries to cheer her up by pointing out that she's "My Best Girl." - ''Finale has two: - "Adjust Your Thinking," Liam's song to his daughter Dani about how everything he does is to protect her - Krista's part of "Leaving You/Me," a song sung to her son Noah about how she wants the best for him. - In *Romeo et Juliette: De La Haine a l'Amour *, Juliet expresses her conflict in the cut song "Pourquoi" ("Why"), expressing her love and devotion to her father after she heard him sing his Parent-to-Child love song, but still resenting him for betrothing her to Paris. - *The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals* subverts this with "Not Your Seed", where Alice, inected by the alien hivemind, guilttrips Bill with his shortcomings as a father. *I'm not your girl anymore* *I'm not that tween that you drove here for* *I'm not your girl anymore* *I overtook her body with an infectious spore* Video Games Western Animation Film — Animation - In *A Goofy Movie*, Goofy and Max sing the duet "Nobody Else But You", about how they still love each other even though they have trouble understanding each other. - In *Balto III: Wings of Change*, Jenna sings the song "You Don't Have To Be A Hero" to her mate Balto. The song is about he needs to be there for his son Kodi. Film — Live-Action - *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang* has "You Too," mostly sung by Caractacus Potts to his children Jemima and Jeremy, but with a few lines sung to him by the children too. Literature Music - "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman. A father sings about his daughter growing up, using the metaphor of Cinderella disappearing at midnight. Made *much* Harsher in Hindsight when the daughter he wrote the song for died tragically after accidentally being run over by an older sibling's car while still a young child. Not only did his daughter never experience those coming of age landmarks in the song, but the entire theme of "All too soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone," takes on a much darker and sadder meaning. - "Ready, Set, Don't Go", a duet between Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus. - Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" subverts the trope - the father named his son "Sue" out of misplaced love, to toughen him up and give him lots of fighting experience. - "Lose My Life With You" from *!HERO: The Rock Opera*, which is a duet with Hero and his mother both singing about the main character having to give up the family life he had to become the prophesied Messiah. - Conway Twitty's "That's My Job" between the narrator and his father. The first two sections are about the singer's father reassuring him after the singer has a nightmare of his dad dying as a small child, followed by the father supporting the singer's dreams of go out west to start his music career despite the two fighting constantly during the singer's teenage years. The final section of the song is the singer eulogizing his late father. Theatre - "I Don't Need Anything But You" from *Annie* is a duet between her and Daddy Warbucks about how glad they both are that they've been reunited and the adoption has gone ahead. Together at last Together forever We're tying a knot They never can sever I don't need sunshine now To turn my skies to blue I don't need anything but you! - *Aspects of Love* - George sings "The First Man You Remember" to his daughter, Jenny, and she sings it back to him. George initiates the song because Jenny is wearing her mother's dress. - *Beauty and the Beast* contains "No Matter What", which starts with Maurice reassuring Belle after she expresses insecurity because of the townsfolk gossiping about her strangeness. It turns into a mutual love song between an outcast father and daughter who love each other regardless of anyone else's opinion. - "Not While I'm Around" from *Sweeney Todd* is a particularly tragic example. Toby sings it to his adoptive mother Mrs. Lovett, who sings it back to him...right before telling Todd that He Knows Too Much and they'll have to kill him. Nothing's gonna harm you Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir/Toby Not while I'm around. - *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* features a song called, creatively enough, "The I Love You Song," reconciling Olive (who has abandonment issues) with her parents; her father works late and her mother is at an ashram in India. - *Billy Elliot* has "The Letter" - literally a letter left to Billy by his dead mother, which is (heartbreakingly) sung aloud at one point. At the end of the musical, Billy writes a sort of farewell letter to the hallucination of his mother that's been following him around, using more-or-less the exact same words back at her. And please Billy/Mammy, Know that I will always be Proud to have known you. Proud that you were mine. Proud in everything. - *Everybody's Talking About Jamie* has "My Man, Your Boy", initiated by Jamie to his mother, Margaret. Web Animation Western Animation - *I ♡ Arlo*: Arlo and Ansel have "In the Blue", a heartfelt duet about the two sharing a father-son fishing trip and express how much they have to catch up on now that the two are back together. - *Steven Universe* - One episode has a song called "Dear Old Dad", having Greg and Steven mainly reminiscing how Greg used to do things together as Greg stays in Steven's place to heal up his foot. - The Movie has a sibling-to-sibling variation, "No Matter What", a Call-and-Response Song that Steven sings to a ||memory-wiped|| Amethyst to help her remember everything they've done together. **Steven:** In the dark of the night... **Amethyst:** In the dark of the night... **Steven:** In the light of the day... **Amethyst:** In the light of the day... **Steven:** When you're rising to shine... **Amethyst:** When you're rising to shine... **Steven:** When you're hitting the hay... **Amethyst:** When you're hitting the hay... **Steven:** I'll be hanging around... **Amethyst:** I'll be hanging around... **Steven:** If you like it or not... **Amethyst:** If you like it or not... **Both:** I'm gonna be right by your side no matter what!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalLoveSong

Parents Suck at Matchmaking - TV Tropes In the world of fiction, if there's one thing parents suck at, it's picking an ideal spouse for their kids. For some reason, fictional parents are inclined to believe that anyone their kid picks for themselves is the sort of person they should stay far away from. And anyone they approve of as spouse material tends to be someone the kid feels, if anything, revulsion for. Maybe they're some dweeby loser who just screams social napalm. Maybe they're some smarmy douche who's more in love with themself than with their date. Or worse, maybe they're some manipulative sociopath who knows how to play the kid's parents like a violin and has some kind of ulterior motive for getting together with them. In works of fiction aimed at teenagers, this is used to emphasize just how out of touch with things the parents are. They don't know what's good for their kid, and they don't trust them to make their own choices about what they want in life despite practically being adults already (even if, being teenagers, they aren't adults). If this is the case, then by the end of the work, the parents might eventually come around and realize that their kids are mature enough to choose their own paths in life, and eventually approve of their kid's choice. Another common reason for bad matches is that the parent wants an Arranged Marriage for their child, and think money, status, Family Honor, or politics is the most important part of picking a spouse. If the parent is portrayed sympathetically, they may think the restrictions of their society mean the child is ultimately better off with the chosen spouse (especially if they believe in Marriage Before Romance), or try to comfort the princess who has to sacrifice her happiness by marrying a Jerkass prince to prevent a war. Most people in the Western world believe that pressuring or forcing a child to date someone violates their personal freedom, so this type of story usually have the child rebelling and the parent's preferred suitor being rejected at the end (or, in less idealistic works, the child ending up stuck in an unhappy marriage). If the parent had a selfish reason for wanting the arranged marriage to go through, they've probably undergone Character Development and learn that their child's happiness is more important than riches (or, more rarely, the child will abandon the parent). If the marriage was intended to prevent some negative event, they'll likely Take a Third Option to avoid it. This often goes along with a Marry for Love message, with the child ultimately marrying the person *they* wanted, and the parent eventually approving of their kid's choice. You rarely see examples of Good Parents trying to find a good spouse for their child and eventually succeeding. After all, a more benevolent take on Arranged Marriage that goes something like "Alice's parents decide to introduce her to potential suitors and allow her to turn down ones she's uncomfortable with" may be realistic, but it doesn't make for a very dramatic story, and a lot of viewers find the idea of parent-arranged matches unromantic. With that said, on rare occasions, the child will like the parent's chosen suitor or at least come around to them. In these cases, the work may be going for a pro-tradition message, or at least say that the more mature adults really do know best. Overlaps with Parent-Preferred Suitor, though that's about the parents liking who they set their child up with. This trope is about the child not liking who their parents got for them for various reasons. Contrast Dating What Daddy Hates, with which this trope goes hand-in-hand, as both are about choosing who to date. See also Awful Wedded Life which is the outcome the child is trying to avoid. Contrast also Perfectly Arranged Marriage were the parent makes a good choice in a suitor who fits their kid. See also Career Versus Man, Fourth-Date Marriage, Starter Marriage, Settle for Sibling, and Unwanted Spouse. Contrast Marry for Love. ## Examples: - *Fairy Tail*: When Lucy Heartfilia returns home to confront her father Jude over his involvement with the guild war between Phantom Lord and the Fairy Tail guild, Jude reveals that he hired Phantom Lord to retrieve Lucy for an arranged marriage with Duke Sawarr Junnelle. Lucy, putting it mildly, is not interested in the slightest in marrying Sawarr, in fact she is understandably furious with Jude for setting her up in an arranged marriage in the first place without her consent. It certainly doesn't help that the one time Lucy does think about Sawarr in a flashback she is shown to feel uncomfortable in regard to his interest in her to say the least. - *Maya's Funeral Procession*: Reina's greedy parents have arranged her marriage to her Childhood Friend Taku because of his riches. She likes him only as a brother, but neither he nor her parents accept that. - *Pokémon*: Played for Black Comedy and Hilariously Abusive Childhood. When James was a kid, his snobby parents set him up with the psychotic Jessebelle because she was wealthy and would "educate" him to become a gentleman, not caring if she used violence. Jessebelle made James' life a living hell, trying to control everything James did, from the Pokémon he would have to the way he ran away from her. Even Ash's gang pitied on him when they met her. - *Ranma ½*: Years ago, Genma Saotome and his old friend Soun Tendo agreed into marrying their children, so they would carry on Tendo's dojo. At present, Tendo's eldest daughters refuse to honor the commitment, especially because Ranma is cursed to occasionally turn into a girl, and the burden falls on their younger sister Akane. Neither she nor Ranma is happy with their forced engagement. Subverted at the end of the manga, when they eventually discover they love each other and decide to marry. Double-subverted that their marriage is disrupted by both Akane and Ranma's suitors whom Nabiki shamelessly invited to the party. Souna decides the marriage must be delayed until the couple settles down all their personal affairs. - *Renai Allergy*: Years ago, Satoko ran away from her isolated countryside to escape from the sexual harassment of Takeru, a former class colleague. Her mother kept pestering her to return and find someone to marry; one day, she calls, telling a horrified Satoko that he found her a fiancée. Even worse, said fiancée is no one else than Takeru! Out of despair, she asks her boss, Taichi, to pretend they are engaged, so her parents will leave her alone. The latter are initially disappointed, but her mother eventually warms up to Taichi, who makes clear to Takeru that he'll not let him mess with Satoko anymore. - *Skip Beat!*: A villainous example. Shou's parents want him to marry their foster daughter Kyoko, so the two will inherit their inn. Shou doesn't want any of this and goes to Tokyo to become a singer; however, he takes Kyoko with him because he knows she'll work hard to sustain him and act as his servant. Subverted later: long after Kyoko learned the truth and decided to become a star to get revenge for his abuse, Shou feels jealous because of her friendship with his rival Tsuruga Ren. He becomes a Stalker with a Crush. - In *War of the Mobians*, Sonic and Sally are trying to set up their daughter, Princess Alyssa, with Gabriel D'Coolette, the daughter of Antoine and Bunnie. The thing is, she doesn't really like him in that way. ||She's right not to like him, as he only wants to marry Alyssa so he can be the king.|| - Exaggerated for parody in *Date Movie*. The protagonist Julia is seeking love and eventually finds it with the kind (and wealthy) Grant Fockyerdoder. Unfortunately, her dad will only let her date someone of her ethnicity and thus she is only allowed to be with someone who is a Greek-Black-Indian-Japanese-Jewish person. While this is apparently more common-place than this sounds, he tries pairing her up with their handyman Nicky, who is portrayed as an unattractive slob who crassly rejects her over her appearance, only to later objectify her after she gets "pimped up." - *Oscar*: "Spats" Provolone wants his daughter to marry socialite Bruce Underwood III. She thinks he's gross, and he has pimples. She's more enamored with the former chauffeur, the eponymous Oscar. - *Penelope (2006)*: Jessica presses Penelope on marrying Edward although her daughter clearly hates him because she thinks that the only way to break the spell is for Penelope to be accepted by someone of blue blood. After Penelope withdraws the marriage, Jessica bangs on her door and begs for her to reconsider, because she can't stand having a pig-faced daughter, never taking Penelope's feelings into account. Penelope finally snaps and tells her SHE likes herself the way she is, breaking the spell at last. - The French comedy *Serial Bad Weddings* is about the parents of an upper-middle-class white French Catholic family where three of their daughters are married to a Muslim lawyer, a Jewish entrepreneur, and a Taoist Chinese-descended banker respectively. They're thrilled when they learn their last daughter is engaged to a Catholic, to the point of looking over the fact that he's a small-time stage actor... who of course turns out to be black. They attempt to present her with a "better" (rich and white) suitor, but he's so obviously nebbish and ugly she turns him down outright. The film does end on a happy note when it turns out the fiancé's father is just as reactionary as the fiancée's father, bonding over their shared admiration for France in the 50s under Charles de Gaulle. - *Shakespeare in Love*: Viola is betrothed by her parents to the unsufferable Lord Wessex, who kisses her forcefully. She has no say in that because he gets permission from the Queen Elizabeth to marry her. - *A Song of Ice and Fire*: Prince Doran Martell arranges the marriages of his heir and eldest child, Arianne, to several old lords. Arianne isn't pleased with what he is doing and believes that he's trying to pass her inheritance to her brother, Quentyn, once she marries a lord from a lower house. ||Turns out Doran actually plans to betroth her to Viserys Targaryen, making her the future queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Though Viserys died unexpectedly before the plan could be fulfilled. Because of this, Quentyn takes his sister's place instead where he must woo Daenerys Targaryen, who is already married to someone else||. - *Sword Art Online*: Both of Asuna's parents attempt to arrange marriages for her with disastrous results. - While Asuna is trapped in SAO, her father Shouzou Yuuki betroths her to Nobuyuki Sugou in exchange for saving the Yuuki family from bankruptcy resulting from the legal shitstorm the incident caused in the real world. Unbeknownst to her father, 1) Asuna has already started a romance with Kirito in-game by this point, and 2) ||Sugou lusts after Asuna so much that he keeps her trapped in the network even after Kirito ends SAO, transferring her over to *Alfheim Online* to keep her for himself as his Fairy Queen||. - The "Mother's Rosario" arc is kicked off by her mother Kyouko taking a crack at it. She dislikes Kirito largely for classist reasons and hopes to match Asuna with the son of a wealthy family. Asuna meets a couple at first but only has eyes for Kirito, and finally succeeds in talking her out of the idea after getting her to log into ALO's recreation of Aincrad to show her what she finds so compelling about the virtual worlds. - *House of the Dragon*: King Viserys loves his daughter Rhaenyra, but his preferred choices for the Princess's future consort have been rather lacking. Initially he tries to set up Rhaenyra with Jason Lannister, an arrogant Upper-Class Twit whom Rhaenyra despises from the get-go but one who belongs to a powerful House. He then allows her to select her own suitor, but when she takes too long he arranges a marriage with her cousin Laenor Velaryon from a different powerful House. While Rhaenyra and Laenor grew up together and are definitely friends, Laenor is a closeted homosexual who never sires any true heirs. - *Seinfeld*: One episode of the series had Jerry dating a woman who was downright near-perfect in Jerry's view but for reasons that are unexplained, everybody else Jerry meets (the woman's parents, friends, and Jerry's friends) saw her as such a pathetic human being that Jerry was doing her a favor by dating her. Jerry spends the entire episode trying to find someone, *anyone*, who doesn't think she sucks, and finally finds it in his parents, who gush over her and see her as a perfect match for him. The romance ends for Jerry right then and there. - *The Twilight Zone (1959)*: Deconstructed in *Spur Of The Moment*. 18 years old Anne is not happy with the fiancée her parents arranged for her; an investment broker called Robert. He is a respectable man but stiff and insensitive to the scare she took at the beginning of the episode when an old, ugly woman persecuted her while she was riding her horse. She ends up eloping with David, her "true love", but he turns out to be abusive and bankrupts her family's estate through mismanagement, with Anne becoming an alcoholic to drown her disappointments. 25 years later, she is riding her horse in the same place she saw the hag when she suddenly spots a young woman riding meters away. Anne realizes in shock that the stranger is her younger self and SHE is the hag! Screaming in despair, she rides after young Anne, trying to warn her to not marry David, but all she does is scare her former self. - In the opening of *Willow*, Queen Sorsha has arranged a marriage between her daughter, the Princess Kit, and Prince Graydon. Graydon's a perfectly nice boy, but he's also a nervous wimp, whereas Kit is a fearless tomboy who's also in love with her best friend Jade. - *Ebony*: When Ebony was 18, Count Voineck betrothed her to Victor Sedell (a man he knew superficially, from his club) in order to produce a male heir for his properties. Victor revealed himself as a drunk brute, who tried to rape Ebony in front of his friends when they doubted her virginity. In a desperate attempt to escape from him, she ran to the cellar; he came after her, but Ebony was able to push him from the stairs, causing his death. When the count learned about that, he tried to make Ebony commit suicide to clean their family's honor, but she accidentally hurt his hands when she pushed his knife back on them. Horrified of what SHE had done, Ebony left him to get a doctor but, when they returned, he was dead. She was imprisoned for five years, accused of having murdered both. - In *King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride* Queen Valanice thinks it's time for her daughter Princess Rosella to get married. One of the candidates that she favors the most is Prince Throckmorton, who Rosella dismisses as boring. Valanice tries to promote Throckmorton by citing his reliability. It doesn't work (and Throckmorton's hobby of conjugating Latin verbs can't be said to be a recommendation either). - In the backstory of *Nightmare Of The Snow*, Yukiko is forced into an Arranged Marriage by her father Shouichi with local swordsman Haruto in order to keep the family going for another generation, and when she refuses, he locks her in the mansion dungeon until she agrees. Luckily, Haruto himself is such a Nice Guy that he refuses to let this happen and breaks her out, letting them run away to a farm together ||where they, ironically, actually fall in love (and further subverted as it turns out Shouichi was really his evil mirror self)||. - In *Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell*, Jezebel allies herself with Johnny to keep her father Satan from forcing her to marry the President. However, her resistance is more because she wants to be free to find true love and not for specifically hating the President, who is stuck inside a crystal and unable to interact with anyone. Played more straight when Satan is impressed by Johnny's badassery and blackmails him to marry Jezebel instead. Neither of the two is happy with that (besides, Johnny still loves Aisha). - *Helluva Boss*: In "The Circus", Paimon had arranged for his son Stolas to marry a princess named Stella in an Arranged Marriage. Stolas didn't like Stella at all and begins to cry when he saw a photo of her struggling animals. - *Avatar: The Last Airbender*: - After defeating Katara, Pakku recognizes her necklace as the one he carved for Kanna - Katara and Sokka's grandmother - the girl he was in love with when they were young. Katara realizes that it was an arranged marriage and that her grandma didn't love Pakku, so she ran away to not submit to the North Tribe's patriarchal traditions. Subverted in the last season, when Pakku reveals he met Kanna again and this time she accepted his proposal. - Princess Yue was bound in an arranged marriage by her father to an egotistical warrior called Hahn. Since she doesn't love him, she runs away in tears when she hears Katara's constatation about her grandmother. Worse yet, Hahn obviously cares only about Yue's position, going as far as boasting to Sokka that "she came with more perks". Strangely enough, Chief Arnook notices how unhappy his daughter was and that she and Sokka love each other, but does nothing to cancel the marriage, maybe because it would be a great rupture of their customs. - *Bojack Horseman*: Subverted. Beatrice Sugarman initially hates that her entire life has been laid out for her by her father Joseph, who sees her more as a business investment than a daughter. As part of an attempted business partnership with the Creamerman family, he tries to push Beatrice together with their son Corbin. At first, Beatrice hates this and runs after a delinquent named Butterscotch Horseman, the complete opposite of Corbin and the type of person her father would hate, with whom she enjoys a one-night stand and seems to really be attached. Then later, she starts to connect with Corbin and realizes they have a lot in common and that a marriage between them wouldn't be so bad, but unfortunately, she ends up pregnant from the one-night stand and ultimately is forced to marry Butterscotch, whom she increasingly grows to hate. - *The Critic*: In one episode, Margo's parents attempt to set her up with a young man who's young, rich, and has literal blue blood. Margo asks him a question, to which he struggles to come up with an answer. She concludes he was rendered an idiot by inbreeding and rejects him. - *Gravity Falls*: Mermando writes to Mabel telling her that he had to marry the Queen of the Manatees to prevent a civil war. His expression in the photo he sends to her makes clear how miserable he feels with his forced marriage. - *Harley Quinn (2019)*: When King Shark returns home, he finds out his father has arranged for him to marry Tabitha of the hammerheads. He doesn't actually want to marry her, and he makes this clear once he finds out Tabitha feels the same way. In the end though, they get married anyway, but agree to an open relationship. - *Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated*: In "The Secret of Ghost Rig", Daphne's parents press her to "give a chance" to Rung Ladderton, who is apparently a rich heir. The guy comes late for their date, eats the salad Daphne ordered for herself then asks her to pay the bill because he forgot his wallet. ||It turns out he inherited a broken ladder company. He is the driver of the ghost truck as a façade to steal diamonds.|| - *Star vs. the Forces of Evil*: Queen Solaria tried to set up her daughter Eclipsa with prince Shastacan for diplomatic reasons, although the girl hated his repellent personality. Unfortunately, the queen believed that she knew better and imposed the marriage in her will. Eclipsa complied, but couldn't stand Shastacan for much longer, leaving him to form a family with her true love Globgor. - *Winx Club*: Sky is the crown prince of Eraklyon so his parents betrothed him to Diaspro, the princess of a vassal kingdom, since their births and hammered the idea on their heads to the point Diaspro becomes obsessed with the idea and Sky absolutely loathes it. Growing up, the pair is implied to have been good friends but Diaspro's classist and high-maintenance attitude prevents Sky from ever becoming romantically attracted to her. When Sky's true Love Interest, Bloom, appears on the scene, Diaspro becomes a Clingy Jealous Girl and even pulls a FaceHeel Turn when she fails to gain Sky's affections, which only serves to sever their bond. Meanwhile, Sky's parents don't accept Bloom until they learn she's a princess too. This doesn't make the situation a subversion, though, as Sky's preference for Bloom has nothing to do with her royal status but with her kindness and heroism.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsSuckAtMatchmaking

Parents Walk In at the Worst Time - TV Tropes Now is *not* a good time, Mother. **Mrs. Pinderhughes:** What was that noise, dear? **Mr. Pinderhughes:** Oh nothing, honey. Just our son Duncan making it with some sexy babe in his room. Boy was she *stacked* ! I'm just so proud of him. Some youngster over the age of understanding takes a friend to whom they might be sexually attracted to their room. At some point, one parent or both will inevitably find some reason to barge in and will do so. This tends to play out in a couple of different ways: - The two are, in fact, in the middle of doing something sexual with each other or just getting started. The parent(s) in question may also be bringing contraceptives (or a baseball bat or a gun) if this was expected, or a very shocked look if it wasn't. Either way, the parent(s) may decide this is a good time (late, but better than never) to give one or both of these misbehaving kids The Talk. - The two are actually doing something innocent, like studying or playing board games, and the parent(s) walked in expecting to find that they *were* making out or worse. With the thoroughly chastened parent(s) subsequently out of the room, one youngster may turn to the other and ask "So, wanna make out?" - Alternatively, though what the couple are doing is indeed innocent, the suspicious parent(s) may *just happen* to barge in during a Not What It Looks Like moment, often prompting one or both youngsters to say something along the lines of "I Can Explain." Related to Moment Killer, Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, Caught with Your Pants Down. A subtrope of Interrupted Intimacy. For children walking in on their parents, see Primal Scene. ## Examples: ## Exactly what it looks like - In *Baki the Grappler* Kozue, Baki's girlfriend, slips in his futon hugging him and silently praying for him to notice her and get on with sex. Yujiro, Baki's father, barges in, loudly boasting and ranting that Baki and Kozue should have sex, they should do it as much as they can even if society says the opposite, that Kozue should take pride in leaving Baki always wanting and never be fully consumed by his desire, and that they've got both the duty to give the Hanma's family strong children to surpass the incredible physical prowess of Baki and him. He then goes away, casually telling Baki to get a better lock. The mood utterly spoiled, Kozue and Baki end up making out at a different date, without interlopers in the same room. - In Chapter 5 of *Sakura Trick*, Yuu's older sister Mitsuki found Yuu and Haruka during one of their kissing sessions while bringing food into Yuu's room. - *Pokémon Black 2 and White 2* fanfic *As Fate Would Have It* has the beginning of the 14th chapter, where Mrs. Kyouhei, Nate's mom, catches him and Yancy in bed the morning after they've had Their First Time. It's as awkward as expected, with Yancy panicking and hiding under the sheets, and Nate in stunned silence. - Mob Psycho 100 fanfic *The Time of Panic* In which Ritsu and Sho are caught in a compromising position by Ritsu's parents. They were about to kiss but Ritsu's mother is convinced that they were about to go further. - In the *Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles* fic "Irony, Thy Name is Cameron", Sarah and Derek hear John calling out in a panic and find him naked in bed with Cameron concerned about how Cameron's just shut down, only for Derek (from a new timeline where he has seen John and Cameron's future selves as a happy couple) to jokingly realise that this is just another happy day where the Connors have reached "shut-down point", John causing Cameron to experience so much pleasure that her system temporarily overloads. - In *A Thing of Vikings*, Queen Elinor arrives to collect Merida ( *Brave*) from the Bog Burglar guest house at the end of Thawfest, assuming that Merida has been spending more time with her new best friend, Cami. Upon hearing her call for Merida, upstairs, Cami and Merida bolt from the bed and start sorting out clothingunsuccessfully. - In one episode of *Home Improvement*, Jill walks in on her son Brad and his girlfriend making out in his bedroom. This gets Brad in trouble because Brad wasn't allowed to have girls in his room. - *Eureka* - in the third-season finale, Jack and company enter Lucas' garage to find him kissing Zoe. Cue Lucas holding a pillow in front of himself. - *Roseanne*: - Played with brilliantly on two episodes. In the first, Roseanne and Jackie come into the dark living room and hear the sound of two kids making out on the couch. Roseanne assumes it's Becky, and decides to turn on the lights to ruin the moment. She turns on the lights...and it's *Darlene* making out with one of her classmates (Darlene hadn't shown much interest in this previously). - In a later episode, Roseanne tries to do the same thing when she thinks it's Darlene and David making up after a fight - except it's *Beverly* and one of the guys from the retirement home she lives in. - In *That '70s Show* episode about Jackie's lodge, Kitty and Red walk in on Eric and Donna doing the horizontal tango on the kitchen table. The next scene shows Kitty and Red scrubbing the table furiously to cleanse it, eventually deciding that it would just be best to get a new table. - On *Veronica Mars*, Aaron accidentally walks in on Logan and Veronica making out. He politely makes an excuse and leaves, and later, when Veronica has to hide from Logan's friends (their relationship is still a secret), even offers to drive Veronica home, and tells her he approves of her with Logan. - In a third season episode of *Friday Night Lights*, Coach Taylor walked in on Julie and Matt having sex when the former came to the latters house to pick up Julie to take her home. Unlike most examples of this trope, this wasn't played for laughs, and became the focus of the episode as both Coach and Tami tried to figure out how to talk to Julie and Matt about what happened. *[Coach Taylor enters Matt's house to pick up Julie]* **Coach Taylor:** Jules? *[shot changes to outside of Matt's house, silent for a few seconds, then a scream is heard]* **Julie Taylor:** *Ahhhhhh!!!* Dad!? Get out!! *[Coach Taylor then walks straight out of the house in blank shock and gets in his SUV]* - On *Gilmore Girls*, Luke offers a book to Lorelai and mentions that it's upstairs in his apartment, which is right above the diner. When Lorelai walks in, she comes across Rory and Jess making out on the couch. It's uncomfortable for all three of them. When Lorelai demands an explanation from Luke, he admits that he goes up to the apartment every 10 minutes with flimsy excuses in order to make sure that nothing gets past the kissing stage. - Played straight in a later season, when Lorelai walks in on Rory and Logan during a party at the Gilmore house. This is mortifying for both mother and daughter, made worse by the fact that both Luke and Christopher are determined to kick Logan's ass once they find out. And that Rory is in college and is an adult at the time. - The American version of *Shameless* has a brilliant example where Mickey's homophobic, drunken father, walks straight into Mickey's room to use the bathroom - right past a naked Ian and Mickey post-sex. A few tense moments until his father comes out and obliviously proceeds to tell them they should get up, as it looks like they're gay. - On *Friends*, Jack Geller walks in on Monica and Chandler having sex in a store cupboard in a hospital. **Monica:** I still can't believe that my dad saw us having sex! He didn't make it to one of my piano recitals, but *this* he sees! - On *Some Girls*, Viva's father and stepmother return from vacation to find the girls in various stages of undress and hooking up with boys. - On *The Nanny*, Fran and Maxwell find Maggie in bed with Michael. - Inverted on *All My Children*. Edmund and Maria arrive at her apartment in the middle of an argument. Edmund asks to come in, but Maria snaps, "No, because we're just going to fall into bed and make love just like we always do!" She says this as she's opening the door. . .to see her parents sitting on the couch. - The *Smallville* episode "Obsession" has Alicia Baker teleport into Clark's bedroom in the middle of the night after they went on a date and start making out with him. Then Jonathan Kent walks in on them after hearing Clark accidentally knock over his alarm clock. - *Cobra Kai:* In "Feel the Night", Daniel LaRusso shows up at the Miyagi-Do dojo to drop some things off, only to walk in on his daughter Sam making out with Miguel Diaz. He's too stunned by finding Sam kissing Johnny Lawrence's student to ask anything beyond, "Is that my drum in your pocket?" (Miguel having pocketed a hand drum while Sam was showing him the drum technique moments earlier) **Samantha LaRusso:** Look, I'm sorry, Dad. I should've told you that I invited Miguel over. **Daniel LaRusso:** All right, new rule. If you're gonna bring boys over to the dojo, leave the door *open* . **Samantha LaRusso:** Come on, Dad, it's not 1984... **Daniel LaRusso:** Look, you're grown up. You're a young woman now, okay? I get it. I just feel like in this past year there's been Kyler, and Miguel, and Robby, now back to Miguel ? Seems like you're adding more drama to your life than you need. And just imagine if Robby knew Miguel was back in the picture. *[Sam grimaces, and shifts nervously on her feet]* Oh no . Sam, really?! **Samantha LaRusso:** ...He came by last night when I was here with Miguel. **Daniel LaRusso:** And he saw you two...[kissing]? **Samantha LaRusso:** *[disgusted]* NO! God, Dad! **Daniel LaRusso:** What, I saw it! **Samantha LaRusso:** I know, it's been a lot. But can you *please* try to remember that I'm still your daughter, and that you can trust me? **Daniel LaRusso:** It's not *you* I don't trust, Sam. **Samantha LaRusso:** Miguel's changed. He's a good person. He's not Cobra Kai's #1 bully; he's not even in Cobra Kai anymore! - *Class (2016)*: In "Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart", Jackie rolls in on her daughter April and Ram naked in bed together, having obviously just had sex, and is outraged. - *Sisters*. Middle sister Georgie and her husband John walk in on their older son Trevor and his girlfriend in *their* bed. Already stunned, they are even moreso at his completely matter-of-fact reaction as if this is perfectly normal. He caps it off by rebuffing their attempts at talking to him about it, not even being concerned about the possibility of pregnancy or catching an STD. - *Kate & Allie*: Jennie and her boyfriend Jason are sitting on the fold-out bed in his living room, clearly preparing to take things to the next level when his mother returns home. Jennie leaves after they hurriedly make some excuse, but his mother isn't fooled—she picks up the phone and the next thing we see is Jennie's mother Allie telling her friend Kate that the two were found "hovering on the brink". - *Ill Fly Away*. Oldest son Nathan and his girlfriend Diane are caught by her parents. Especially bad since (a) Her parents already disapproved given that she was Jewish and Nathan wasn't, and (b) They had almost gotten away with it—he'd hidden under the bed and was caught when trying to sneak out. - *Knots Landing*: - In the series' very first scene, Sid comes home from work early because of a bad cold and finds his daughter Annie in his and Karen's bed with a random guy. - A variation in Season Eight. In "Brothers and Mothers", Eric walked in on his younger brother Michael cuddling with their stepsister Paige and quickly came to the obvious conclusion. Eric was furious as he thought that it would have an adverse effect on the family, especially Karen and Mack's marriage, and the two of them got into a fistfight. - There was a more straightforward application two episodes later. In "A Turn of Events", Karen entered Michael's room late at night to pick his clothes off the floor and discovered him and Paige in bed together asleep. Or so she thought as it turned out that Paige was only pretending to be asleep. - In The Light in the Piazza, Clara and Fabrizio are just about to consummate their relationship in "Say It Somehow." Margaret opens the hotel door, cue Intermission. - Not seen on-screen in *Black Closet*, but explained in dialogue that the reason ||Mallory||'s parents shipped her off to an all-girls boarding school was that they caught her fooling around with her boyfriend. - In *Sabrina Online*, when Amy and Thomas have sex on her bed, her mother is outside asking if they need anything. Amy's father tells the mother to leave them alone. - In *Questionable Content*, Faye's sister Mandy came out as lesbian to her mother because of this trope. **Mandy:** That's when I learned there's no way to remove your face from another girl's crotch in a nonchalant manner. **Marten:** At that point you may as well say "Do you mind? I'm kind of in the middle of something here" and go back to what you were doing , because you know it can't get any worse. - In *Red String*, Hanae's mother finds out her daughter is a lesbian this way. She doesn't take it well. - Played with in this real-life example from Mike Holmes' *True Story*, in that the boy manages to escape to the closet before being discovered; however, the protagonist, in order to convince her mother that nothing had been going on and that she *always* Sleeps in the Nude, feels obliged to go on doing so for the rest of her life. - A variation in *El Goonish Shive*: After Nanase saves Ellen's life with a sacrificial spell, she's hospitalized, and Nanase's not-so-oblivious mom walks into the hospital room while the two are kissing. - *Ennui GO!*: Len's mother (one of Noah's exes) walks in on Len and Noah having sex. She keeps coming back in (wearing ever-more revealing clothing) to ask if Len wants to tag out. - *Sandra on the Rocks*: It's revealed in flashback that Lavali has done a really terrible job of keeping her lesbianism secret from her parents. Aside from the fact that she's in an *amazingly* Transparent Closet (and that her parents — already hinted to be a pair of old hippies — are quite tolerant), these flashbacks also suggest that she has a very impressive dating history. - In this video by sWooZie, two of his friends tried to do....something to him involving ice and one of their mothers walks in on it. He then discusses the trope, wondering why parents only seem to walk in on you when you're doing something scandalous and never something good, while also pointing out that the blame in such situations is on the parents if they simply barge in without getting the ok to enter first. - On an advert for insurance (perhaps Norwich Union?). A teenager's grandmother approaches his room with a cup of tea and is greeted by cries of 'Yes! I love you!' from the room. Of course, he's actually just been informed how cheap his insurance quote is. - In *Bleach*, Ichigo often brings attractive girls back to his house, such as Rukia, Orihime and Tatsuki. When he hangs out with them in his room, his dad and sisters listen at the door to see if anything is going on. - *Midori Days*: Towards the beginning of the series, Seiji introduces himself to Midori's mother as a classmate of Midori whose real body has been comatose ever since her miniature self replaced Seiji's hand (it's... complicated). As neither Seiji nor Midori have any idea how to restore her, Seiji ends up trying to shove Midori into her body. Cue Midori's mother entering the room to see Seiji apparently groping her comatose daughter's bare chest. She faints, Seiji is lucky to escape alive. - *My Bride is a Mermaid*: When mermaids get splashed with water, it causes their legs to revert back to being fish tails. Naturally, since Nagasumi's Love Interests (Sun and Lunar) are both mermaids, he has to dry their tails off to turn them back into human form. Unfortunately, it can end up looking rather sexual to anyone who walks in on the act including other mermaids. Coupled with the fact that both Love Interests have very overprotective Boyfriend-Blocking Dads, Hilarity Ensues whenever they do walk in on Nagasumi in the act. - During the Festival Episode, Sun accidentally gets splashed with water, forcing Nagasumi to take her into a secluded area to dry her off without anyone noticing. Unfortunately for them, Sun's parents pass by and do end up noticing them. While Sun's mother is bemused about the fact that "kids these days will do it anywhere", Sun's father naturally goes berserk and attempts to kill Nagasumi, only being stopped once he sees that Nagasumi was merely trying to revert her legs back. - When Lunar accidentally splashes water on herself, she orders Nagasumi to grab a towel and dry her off. Then her Terminator Impersonator of a father (that is not just a description of his character) walks in at the exact moment that she reverts back to her legs, making it look like Nagasumi is grabbing her butt with the towel. As punishment for getting "acquainted" with her daughter, instead of killing him right on the spot (which he wouldn't give a second thought to), he forces him into a Shotgun Wedding. - *Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!* has the Not What It Looks Like variation in episode 4. Mahiro finds out that his mother is coming home (in just under a minute) and quickly attempts to throw Nyarko and Cuko out so she doesn't think that he's the kind of son who invites girls over when his parents are out of town. The girls struggle with him and when mother Yoriko opens the door, she sees Nyarko on her back in the foyer, Mahiro on all fours above her, and Cuko clinging to his back. Thankfully, Yoriko actually listens to her son's explanation and realizes what was going on. - In *Ouran High School Host Club*, when the hosts are visiting Haruhi's apartment and are about to be taken by her to the "commoner's supermarket", Tamaki slips on a Banana Peel from nowhere, and falls on top of Haruhi, just as Ryoji Fujioka, aka Ranka, walks in. About a second later, a sign pops up showing that Tamaki instantly understood what her father believed was happening. - *Rosario + Vampire* has a variation. When Tsukune goes back home for a few days, the harem follows him. Moka shows up as the girlfriend. However, the rest of the harem managed to get into his room without his mother noticing. When his mother shows up bringing tea for the two, she ends up seeing a Lover Tug of War. - *Seitokai Yakuindomo* has this happen to Suzu and Takatoshi when they're working on papers for the student council. Her mother walks in after she fell on top of him after tripping from a rotating chair. Since her mother is a big pervert, she's actually *ecstatic* at the prospect of her daughter getting some, much to her furious embarrassment. - One strip of *Zits* had Jeremy and his girlfriend studying in the kitchen, so of course Jeremy's parents come in every five minutes, getting "good, clear water!", taking out laundry, changing light bulbs, dusting the top of the fridge... - And averted in another strip, where the parents yell "STOP MAKING NOISE UP THERE" to the then-young children, and "MAKE SOME NOISE UP THERE!" to the now-teenaged Sara and Jeremy. - Tim Drake, Robin, had one particularly amusing experience. His girlfriend Arianna tried to seduce him in lingerie but he turned down the opportunity, saying that they weren't ready for it. They ended up talking all night but when her relatives walked in on them (with Arianna still in her lingerie), they got the wrong idea and chased out Tim in rage. - Happens in *Ultimate Spider-Man*, Aunt May walking in on Peter and Mary Jane. However, all they're doing is kissing, and Peter has just revealed his identity to her, but Aunt May proceeds to administer The Talk nonetheless. - In *Invincible* Samantha visits Mark utterly distraught after catching her boyfriend Rex cheating on her with their teammate Dupli-Kate. Mark is comforting her when his mother enters his room and is greeted by the sight of a girl sprawled over her son's lap (both still in their tight superhero costumes too). She immediately marches them downstairs for a talk. - *Spider-Man: No Way Home*: After Peter Parker's Secret Identity is revealed he and MJ rush back to his apartment to hide from the press. Aunt May walks in just as he's taking off his supersuit and MJ is holding his face to console him. May assumes she caught them about to have sex and immediately tries to back out of the room while telling them to be safe. - In *Transformers*, Sam Witwicky tries to find a small chip placed on his treasure glasses which belonged to his grandfather, which he forgets where he left them in his room, and gets Mikaela to help him. It gets so noisy that Sam's parents go up to check him out. His mother gets completely wrong ideas both before and after she finds the girl in his room. - *The Beginning After the End*: Shortly before their Class Trip, Arthur attempts to help Tessia integrate the Beast Will that he gave her into her Mana Core. However, the attempt gets derailed by playful teasing between the two of them which leads to Tessia tackling Arthur to the ground. At that moment, Tessia's grandfather Virion walks in on them and remarks that while he wanted them to get closer (Arthur and Tessia are Childhood Friends who have reunited after years of being apart), he didn't expect to be walking into something that he thought was far more intimate. This causes Tessia to realize that she is straddling Arthur in a rather compromising position, causing her to jump off him in embarrassment. - *My Daughter Is A Zombie*: Jeonghwan and Yeonhwa (both in their thirties) lie down on the mattress and reminisce about playing in the sheets when they were children. Meow-meow the cat knocks a blanket on top of them and an empty vitamin packet on the floor just as Jeonghwan's mother Bamsoon walks in. Bamsoon tells the two to continue whatever they were doing. - The NSFW "are ya winning, son?" meme, where a Standard '50s Father walks in on his son playing what he thinks is a normal video game and asks him that question. The son is actually playing a VR H-Game, complete with a... *peripheral* for his penis. - On *Daria,* a panicked Helen bursts into Daria's room while she and Tom are having a casual conversation.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsWalkInAtTheWorstTime

Parodies for Dummies - TV Tropes **Harmony:** I'm not gonna make the same mistakes you did. I've been doing my homework, reading books and stuff. **Spike:** What, *Evil for Dummies?* The *For Dummies* series of books is a popular way of learning just about anything, from C++ programming to Divorce Law to African-American History, achieved by simple explanations. They also provide a very useful quick reference for those already familiar with the subject. As a result of their popularity, these books are often parodied, and fictional entries to the series are often conjured into existence. This is often done to show that a character knows next to nothing about a subject but is now trying to find out. They will occasionally be ludicrously specific to the task the character is attempting at the time. Works created before the "For Dummies" series was started (or from authors or publishers who are wary of trademark laws) will use titles like "How to Do Tropes in N Easy Steps" or "You, Too, Can Trope!" or "Hey, You're not a Genius. Who Cares? Read This and You Won't Suck at X" or "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Tropes But Were Afraid to Ask." Often, titles may parody the "Complete Idiot's Guide to _______" series as well. Parodies often lean into the mildly Abusive Advertising connotations of calling one's readers "Dummies", showing a title that doubles down on it as in "[Subject] for Stupid Idiotic Morons" or the like. Sister Trope to Correspondence Course and Specific Situation Books. Also compare Snowclone and The Joy of X, which lead to similar titling conventions. If it's bad enough that only a dummy would fail to realize how useless it is, it's a Faux-To Guide. ## Examples: - *My Hero Academia*: During the Provisional License exams, All Might goes around telling the students simple advice that helps with their training. Aizawa then immediately notices All Might's back pocket holding a book that's titled "Even Dummies Can Be Teachers!", much to his surprise. - *Yuuutsu-kun to Succubus-san*: - Chapter 33 shows Sakuma the succubus gave Eru the angel a book to read on helping people who have Depression, such as Yuu, titled "Even a Monkey Could Do It: How to Heal a Heart". She learns enough from it to call Sakuma out on forcing Yuu to leave his job, as the book suggests serious life changes can cause exactly the kind of stress that should be avoided. Sakuma acknowledges this and explains she felt Yuu's case needed more drastic measures. Eru then immediately tries to use the book to tell Yuu he's supposed to be working, prompting Sakuma to tell her she's failed as a monkey. - On the back of the "How to Heal a Heart" book is an advertisement for "Even A Cat Could Do It: Quantum Mechanics!". - *Foxtrot*: - Roger tries to buy an actual *For Dummies* book, but can't bring himself to pronounce the name and admit himself a "dummy", instead asking for a book for "college-educated professionals who majored in the humanities before computers existed." - In another strip, Jason comments while browsing the "For Dummies" section of the library: - In *Dilbert*, the company produces a product that doesn't work and its instruction manual is complete fiction. The Pointy-Headed Boss's reply: "Ship it and hope someone publishes a 'For Dummies' guide." - *What's New? with Phil and Dixie* has *Gothic Romance for Dummies.* - *Evan Almighty*: God presents Evan with *Ark Building for Dummies.* - *The Waterboy* used the rival learning series *Complete Idiot's Guide* with *The Complete Idiot's Guide to Football* being read by the incompetent football coach, who is then mocked when the rival competent coach is seen reading the exact same book and laughing. - *Bride of Chucky* has Tiffany resurrecting Chucky from the dead through knowledge from a *Voodoo for Dummies* book. - *The Master of Disguise* features *The Master of Disguise for dummies.◊* - *Looney Tunes: Back in Action* has Bugs Bunny fighting Marvin the Martian with lightsabers while Bugs reads *The Force for Dummies*. - *Inspector Gadget 2* has *Quantum Physics for Dimwits*. - An Ur-Example could be the 1968 British comedy film *The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom*. note : 23 years older than the actual *For Dummies* series! The main character's lover — who lives secretly in her attic — uses a series of dubious Do-It-Yourself manuals to build all sorts of items there, including a room-size mainframe computer. - In *The Skeleton Key*, the family's lawyer has an "Estate Law for Dummies" book on his desk, which is a subtle foreshadowing that he may not be quite what he appears. - One full book-length parody of both series is called *Compleet Idoit's Guide for Dumies* — misspellings theirs, and presumably intentional. - Discworld: - In *Wintersmith*, one village of anti-witchcraft fanatics get their information from the *Magavenatio Obtusis*, which a footnote helpfully translates as *Witch-Hunting for Dumb People*. For bonus points, it is actually written by a witch||, who did it to ensure whenever she is caught they give her a hot meal and a comfortable room for the night, stuff two sixpences in her boots and then dump her in the river with easily-untied ropes round her arms and legs, rather than - say - burning her at the stake, which could be a little inconvenient||. - *Soul Music* has *Blert Wheedown's Guitar Primer: Play Your Way to Success in Three Easy Lessons and Eighteen Hard Lessons*. - *Liv in the Future*: One of the books Liv checks out from the library is *Portals for Dummies*, providing an Info Dump about how portals function and some of the roles the government takes on. The sections on how portals are sustained long-term and what kind of research the government does with them are blanked out. - One issue of *Cracked* (Collectors Edition #119) came with an insert titled *Star Wars for Dummies*. - *Dungeons & Dragons* worlds bless dummies with more literature: - *Forgotten Realms* has something close — canonically, Volo's Guides are an awful mix of brilliant investigations and silly hearsay. The most infamous was "Volo's Guide to All Things Magical", the "second edition" of which claimed that v 1.0 contained a lot of recipes how to kill oneself in a funny way — and so much of sensitive information that Volo hesitated to introduce himself in a hearing range of other wizards ever after, and Elminster had to personally hunt down and destroy every last copy. - Cover art of *d20 Modern Arcana SRD* note : visible in full resolution if downloaded (it's free) from Infinite Dreamers has a horned greenish lad reading *||13 Easy Steps to Overthrow Your Demonic Master||*, with a readable annotation traditional for this sort of literature on its back cover. - *GURPS Bio-Tech* includes several quotes from *Nanovirus for Dummies* by possible Mad Scientist Dr. Lucien Locke. One excerpt has Dr. Locke assuring the reader that a Grey Goo scenario can't possibly happen unless you intend it to. And if you *do* intend it to, here's what you do... - In *Spider-Man (PS4)*, one of the collectible items that can be found is a book owned by Peter that's titled "Work/Life Balance For Idiots", it notably has sold over three million copies. Peter notes that, ironically, he never found the time to read it. - *Grim Fandango*: The beatniks at the Blue Casket in Year 2 have a copy of "Labor Organization and Revolt Made Easy". Part of a puzzle involves Manny having to borrow it in order to convince the Sea Bees to unionize. - *The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel* features "Intermediate Mathematics For Dummies" used by Emma, despite scoring the highest at the entrance exams, she feels its more simpler to understand than the more complex ones. The main reason she uses this book is to tutor her fellow classmate Fie, a girl who is two years younger than the rest of the class, and thus behind everyone when it comes to the school's curriculum. - The somewhat free MMO *Roblox* once had a hat for sale with the title *Quantum Thermodynamics for Dummies*. It was, indeed, a "For Dummies"-style book that could be worn as a hat (just a mesh, though, so you couldn't read it or anything...). - *The Binding of Isaac* features the "Telepathy For Dummies" power-up, granting homing tears for a single room upon use. - *Unraveling God* has a bookshelf which, along with a couple more serious-sounding books, sports a copy of *Cellular Molecular Biology for Dummies, Volume 1*. - A bookshelf in a private home in *Dink Smallwood* mod *Terrania* has a copy of *Etiquette for Dummies*. - The introduction to *Magic Life* shows a student making a potion while reading *Alchemy for Dummies*. - In *Cartographer* one of the books on Reuben's desk at the inn he runs is *Managing Inns for Dummies: Version 3.2*. - *Dwarf Fortress* has some entertaining in-universe examples created through Procedural Generation, producing titles that sound like vaguely pretentious self-help guides ("Start Your Day With X", "X For The Beginning Practitioner" etc.) applied to every subject from medicine and engineering to necromancy. - *Cataclysm* has a book called "Self-Esteem for Dummies" that trains your Speaking skill. The joke being that by reading a "For Dummies" book, you are admitting you are a dummy, and calling yourself a dummy is a sign of poor self-esteem. - *Kingdom of Loathing*: Getting really good Feng shui in your dwelling requires a decorative fountain, wind chimes, and a book called "Feng Shui for Big Dumb Idiots" to figure out how to arrange them. - *Knight Bewitched*: Instead of helping them, Morgoth gives the party a book called "Enchanting For Dummies" when he is unable to do the enchanting. Meredith is slightly offended by what he is implying with that book. - *Styx: Shards of Darkness*: One the Game-Over Man scenes has Styx suggest you read "Infiltration For Dummies" while holding a book titled "Stealth for noobs" (with his face standing in for the guy on the cover). - *Princess Natasha*: In "Zoravian Lightning - Part 2", Greg reads a book titled "Moron's Guide to Driving" to study for a driving test. - *RWBY*: In their first meeting, Weiss is furious when Ruby's sneeze triggers an explosion of Fire Dust. When they next meet, Weiss shoves a pamphlet in Ruby's face titled "Dust for Dummies and Other Inadequate Individuals"; she recites the disclaimer in a voice that becomes comically fast and high-pitched before ordering Ruby to read it and never speak to her again. - *Homestuck*: Early in the comic, John consults *Data Structures for Assholes* when he needs help with his Inventory Management Puzzle. The page he turns to is a spot-on parody of the style, format and clip-art used in such guides. However, instead of providing advice useful to a novice, the book berates its reader in the tone of an obnoxious, abusive jerk. - When Rose receives knitting needles and yarn as a gift, she mentions she will seek a copy of *Knitting for Assholes*. Apparently the series covers many topics. - *The Order of the Stick*: - Vaarsuvius is looking for a way to regain spellcasting power without sleeping, due to a recurring nightmare. note : Trancing, technically, since they're an elf, but trancing is functionally equivalent to sleeping in most ways. The rules of this *D&D*-based universe says a spellcaster needs to *rest* rather than *sleep* to regain spells, so Vaarsuvius needs something not mentally taxing that would still help their ongoing research into finding Haley. *Finding Plot Holes for Dummies* does the trick. - In *Start of Darkness*, Xykon points out that as a sorcerer rather than a wizard, "This magic is in my bones, not cribbed off of *Magic for Dummies*." - *Slackerz*: One of the characters attempts to program his own game called Matt's Kickass Game for Winners (a reference to Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.) However, he knows absolutely nothing about programming. So he consults a regular programming book, a For Dummies book, and a book called Grover's Magical C++ Garden. (He even denounces that as too difficult.) - *User Friendly* — *Evil Geniuses for Dummies.* *Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell* later became the title of the second print collection. - *El Goonish Shive* once had Grace reading *Untying Knots for Squirrels* as a gag in a storyline cover. - In *Kevin & Kell* when Ralph started programming he tried *For Dummies*, *The Complete Idiot's Guide*, and finally *For Ralph Dewclaw*. Surprisingly he proved rather competent. - *Roommates*' in-world books series is *Wiki's _____ for Beginners*, for example ''Wiki's Astronomy for Beginners.' - *Latchkey Kingdom* features "Titans and You", a guide on how to kill multi-story giants written in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. - *The Emperor's New Clones*, the second *Star Wars* parody from Backyard Productions, features Vader reading *The Dark Side for Dummies*, and Han Solo's father checking *The Star Wars Guide to Techno-Babble*. - One of the naughty-scene-re-enactors in The Nostalgia Chick's review of *Showgirls* is reading *Opera for Dummies* throughout the whole thing. - Fredrik K.T.Andersson, the author of *Pawn*, in his equally NSFW gallery on Elfwood presents: *Censoring for Dummies*. - One of the things that ||Remus|| does while ignoring Logan during the *Sanders Sides* episode *Working Through Intrusive Thoughts* is a book called *Ignoring Dummies for Dummies*, which, to further illustrate the point, has an image of Logan on the front cover. - In *Suburban Knights*, Ma-Ti showed up with a book to help 8-Bit Mickey's problem. It's *Goatf*cking for Dummies*. - In one episode of *Aqua Teen Hunger Force*, Frylock lends "Mummies for Dummies" from the library to learn how to escape a mummy's curse. - *Bunsen Is a Beast*: - Mikey and Bunsen consult a book titled *Minks for Morons* in the episode "Braces for Disaster". - The episode "Beast Halloween Ever" has Amanda and Beverly read a book titled *Dummies' Guide to Beasts*, which has a very similar cover design to the *For Dummies* books. - *Danny Phantom*: - When Valerie takes interest in hunting ghosts, she checks out a library book titled *Ghost Killing for Dimwits*. - In *Reality Trip*, there's a book titled *Ghost Envy for Dimwits*. - *Dan Vs.*: In the episode "Dan Vs. Dan", while Dan is impersonating Chris, he pulls out a copy of *Pancakes for Morons*, complete with black and yellow cover. - *The Fairly OddParents!*: - In "Shelf Life", Timmy and his fairies try to stop Tom Sawyer from magically altering various books, especially because one of them, *Astrophysics for Morons*, is a nonfiction book and can allow him to alter reality. - "Booby Trapped" has Crocker and his mother owning a book titled *Poaching for Dum-Dums*. - *Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends*: "Berry Scary" has a whole bookstore shelf full of "Blockheads Guide to" books, including the one Bloo and Mac are looking for, "Blockheads Guide to World Records". - *Johnny Bravo*: Johnny reads a book titled *Modeling for Dummies* in "Cover Boy". - *Megas XLR* with *The Complete Moron's Guide to Picking Up Space Chicks*. - *My Life as a Teenage Robot*: One episode had a scene where kids are checking out books from a bookmobile, a dopey looking boy with a hillbilly accent asks the librarian for *The Dunderheads Guide to Idiocy*. - In the *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* episode "Look Before You Sleep", Twilight Sparkle hosts a slumber party, but has no idea how, so she relies on a book titled *Slumber 101: All You've Ever Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid to Ask)*. - On *The Simpsons*: - *SpongeBob SquarePants*, in episode "Rodeo Daze", has a book titled *How to Open Things*. SpongeBob can't open Sandy's door, but Patrick brings out the book. It conveniently has a whole page about Sandy's door. Also, SpongeBob claims to have seen The Film of the Book of *How to Open Things*. - It makes sense SpongeBob would have had to see the film. How would he have been able to read the book without opening it? - *Star vs. the Forces of Evil*: One of Star's reasons to believe Gustav isn't a real Scandinavian is the fact he has a book titled "Scandinavian for Doofuses". - *Stōked*: The Big Kahuna owns a book called "The Peabrain's Guide to Fish Funerals", which actually turned out to be "The Peabrain's Guide to Bringing Your Dead Fish Back to Life". - ISIS recruits are often so ignorant about Islam that they have (or are ordered) to buy Islam for Dummies.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodiesForDummies

Parody - TV Tropes *"In case you haven't realized it by now, this is a* Highlander *parody."* A parody is a twisted imitation of another artistic work. An intentional mockery, though often a loving one, it imitates the style of the original in order to puncture its mistakes and point out its flaws. Some aspects may be exaggerated, and others downplayed. Usually comedic, but occasionally dark and deconstructive. Can be sublime, or worse than the original. Sometimes a Homage or Shout-Out doubles as a parody. And sometimes the entire work gets parodied. Lack of knowledge of and/or respect for the source material is the most common danger of parody. Not all parody is satire. As satire is usually pursuing an intellectual point, we expect it to be critical. On the other hand, most parodies are watched by people who liked the original stories, so pointing out too loudly that something is stupid (or that it broadly seems to defy the premise) can subconsciously insult the viewer. In fact, many successful parodies still use the situation or design that they mock. They simply point out that it doesn't make sense, but let the appeal be in the eye of the beholder. Another danger is the assumption that the audience is familiar with the subject matter being parodied; extensive parodies have multiple layers of comic gold. This can be shaky ground, depending on the age of your audience, and writers sometimes resign themselves to broad, widely known characters and situations. The problem is that such things have probably already been parodied to death. Enough parodies can cause a shift to that version of the character becoming the archetype, leading to later subversions of subversions. The most basic idea is, of course, that a parody is essentially something you've seen before in a different form. Your audience hopes you bring something new to the table, and will not be impressed if all you do is regurgitate tropes. The nature of parody can lead to unfortunate Misaimed Fandom. See also Satire, Pastiche, Farce, Meta Trope Intro, Parodied Trope (spoofing a trope). For a list of tropes used *in* parodies, see Parody Tropes. ## Examples: - The album *The Giant Rat Of Sumatra* is a parody of *Sherlock Holmes*, starring Hemlock Stones, the Great Defective. - Stan Freberg's record *Saint George and the Dragonet* is a fantasy parody of *Dragnet*. - *Hetalia: Axis Powers* fanfic *Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità*: Let's just say the author parodied Hammerspace *several* times. From clothes to books to Death Notes to flowers, the characters' backs can store them all. "It's alright Italia-kun. I always bring spare cosplays with me." He reached into some sort of secret compartment behind his back, pulling out an identical outfit to the one the brunet was currently wearing. Seriously, how do anime characters have such an ability? Japan disappeared into a bathroom for a short amount of time before reappearing, now clad in a sharp black suit and tie with a white dress shirt and black pants, taking hexagonal glasses from his pocket or wherever anime characters store all their stuff before putting them on. "Humph." The larger scoffed back. He then reached into the magical space all anime characters have, whipping out a book conveniently titled *How to Catch a Runaway Italian*. Both reached into the magical space all anime characters have, extracting black notebooksJapan's having unidentifiable symbols on its cover as Italy's had 'Death Note' clearly printed on it in gothic lettersbefore taking out pens and colored pencils as well, opening the pages before scrawling in them. Giggling, the auburn reached into the magical space all anime characters have, an exquisite bouquet of utmost grandeur popping out from behind his back. "Tada!" - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Videos. Which is a gag dub of *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*. - *Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space* is a parody of sci-fi tropes, B Movies and Failed Future Forecasts. - *Pokémon: Gospel Version* is a parody of Moral Guardians and pokes fun at them for claiming Pokemon is Satanic. - *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series* and its various spin-offs and imitators are notable for taking up only a third of the time and containing twice the plot of the shows they parody. - The *Scary Movie* series contains countless send-ups of contemporary horror and sci-fi movies, among other films. A few of the creators have also produced similar genre-spoof movies with self-descriptive titles, like *Date Movie*, *Epic Movie* and *Disaster Movie*. Despite their names, they seem to spoof the trailers of the respective year's hyped films instead. - A grand Italian tradition is that of redubbing, which consists in gag dubs of movies ranging from sketches to full-length movies that may not share the film's plot or premise at all (sometimes with extensive new footage shot). Started with *Star Trek II* way back in the 1980s, making the gag dub Older Than They Think. Lots of parodies can be found here (naturally in Italian, and many of which are strictly in local dialects). - A recurring gag in a Gag Dub is to use the original dialogue of certain characters. By simply changing the other dialogue around it, what they said makes them look even stupider than if their dialogue had been changed. - Occasionally, lampshades may be hung on the use of original lines. *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series* is fond of a flashing * ACTUAL 4KIDS DIALOG* label on the bottom of the screen. - *Beverly Hills Ninja* is a parody of Mighty Whitey ninja films. It features a tribe of ninjas adopting an orphan Caucasian boy whom they think will be their clan's long-prophesied "Great White Hope." Unfortunately for them, the boy grows up to be a clumsy, uncoordinated adult (played by Chris Farley) and the only way he can save the day is with the secret assistance of the ninja tribe's best Japanese member. - *Spaceballs* was a parody of *Star Wars*. - *James Bond* was actually intended to be a parody of espionage films, but, ironically enough, it turned out to be held as the quintessential spy series; even getting its own parodies in the form of films such as *Spy Hard*, *Austin Powers* and *Get Smart*. - *Big Money Hustlas*, produced by Insane Clown Posse's label, Psychopathic Records, is a parody of '70s exploitation flicks. Its follow-up, *Big Money Rustlas*, is a parody of westerns. - *Mystery Team* is this for amateur sleuth stories. - The New Zealand comedy *Tongan Ninja* is a spoof of martial arts films in general, and Bruce Lee's *Way of the Dragon* in particular. - Brazilian group Os Trapalhões (also translated as "The Tramps") had this in a few of their movies, in addition to many parodies in their TV show - one of *S.W.A.T. (1975)* even became a full-fledged movie by all but the leader during a short break-up. During the internet's popularization of foreign Mockbusters, they got roped along the way: *Os Trapalhões na Guerra dos Planetas* (The Tramps in the Planet War) is *Brazilian Star Wars*, *Os Trapalhões no Planalto dos Macacos* (The Tramps in the Plateau of the Apes) is *Brazilian Planet of the Apes*, and *Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz* (The Tramps and the Wizard of Oroz) is *Brazilian The Wizard of Oz*. - *Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers* is a send-up of the Dumas novel, * *The Corsican Brothers*, replacing the swashbuckling adventure with Sex Comedy. - Parodies were the *Carry On* movies' forte. It was rather daring at the time because the owners of the films they wanted to parody feared that they were stealing, but Hollywood's paranoia was soon reassured. - *The Silence of the Hams* combines and spoofs the plots of *The Silence of the Lambs* and *Psycho*. - *Baby Jane?* parodies the film version of *Whatever Happened To Baby Jane* by having the roles of Baby Jane and Blanche be portrayed by drag queens and by including a Creepy Doll character that comes alive and haunts Blanche at the end of the film. - Almost ten years before *Spaceballs* sent up Star Wars, Ernie Fosselius gave us *Hardware Wars.* "You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll kiss three bucks goodbye." - *Plump Fiction* parodies violent films of the 90s, mainly parodying *Pulp Fiction*, from the intersecting storylines, to the Anachronic Order. Other films such as *Reservoir Dogs* and *Natural Born Killers* are parodied as well. - *The Adventures of Philibert, Captain Virgin* is a Deconstructive Parody of Hollywood-made and French-made Swashbuckler films from the '30s to the '60s that starred the likes of Errol Flynn, Jean Marais and Gérard Barray. Most of the heroism-related tropes, idealism and drama common to the genre are put into the picture and exaggerated in order to be made fun of. - The *Dragaera* novels include a subseries called the Khaavren Romances that parody Alexandre Dumas. - *Lord of the Flies* is a dark parody of Jules Verne's *Two Years Vacation* - both involve groups of upper-class schoolboys being marooned on a desert island in similar circumstances, but where Verne's kids Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, Golding's descend into primitive savagery. - It's also taking on R. M. Ballantyne's *Coral Island* (lampshaded by the end). - The Harvard Lampoon's *Bored of the Rings* rather viciously skewers *The Lord of the Rings*. - Thematically linked to the above, *National Lampoon's Doon* goes after *Dune* in similar style. - *How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse* depicts the Zombie Apocalypse scenario and often exaggerates the genre's tropes, given it's also a slapstick. - The ancient Greek *Batrachomyomachia* makes this Older Than Feudalism, since the 300-line poem parodies the epic genre by using epic conventions for a rather non-heroic story: a battle between mice and frogs. - *An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews* by Henry Fielding, a parody of the cringeworthy but popular inspirational novel *Pamela* by Samuel Richardson. One of the rare cases where the parody is somehow better than the original. - And then the bustard Fielding went to the well a second time with *Joseph Andrews*. - The modern anti-love story *The Sorrows of Young Mike* is a parody of the classic German romantic piece of literature called *Die Leiden des Jungen Werther* ( *The Sorrows of Young Werther*). Both are tragic and worth reading, whether separate or in conjunction. - The *Barry Trotter* series, three novels parodying the *Harry Potter* franchise. - *Young Adult*, a short web original one-shot, parodies the *Divergent*, *Harry Potter* **and** *Twilight* series. - *Villains by Necessity*: The book is one of the standard "Heroes have to save the world" plot, with some "bad guys" now having to save the *universe* from the "good guys" after they won. It also generally parodies many fantasy cliches, with the *Dragonlance* characters being more specifically parodied through one band of heroes who try to stop these villain protagonists, along with borrowing the idea that if good wins, it must turn evil itself in the end. - *The Power*: The Framing Device explicitly parodies debates about gender roles being innate or learned, along with alleged ancient matriarchal societies, but all the roles have been reversed, so this is now about if men are innately *less* violent, inherently nurturing etc. or a patriarchy ever existed, as it takes place in a future matriarchy. - *Kaamelott* is a French series parodying the Arthurian Legend, where King Arthur is Surrounded by Idiots (though it did become more serious in the last seasons). Ditto with The Movie, *Kaamelott: Premier Volet*. - *Sledge Hammer!* is an over-the-top parody of the Cowboy Cop. - At least in the first season. Then it became too whiny and Rom Com-ish, attempting satire and/or deconstruction where none were necessary. - *Police Squad!* was a parody of 1960s- and 1970s-vintage Police Procedural shows, particularly the output of Quinn Martin Productions, and specifically *M Squad*. - And an Australian version *Funky Squad*. - *Angie Tribeca* is a *Police Squad!*-inspired show with a similar style of humor that mocks police procedurals of the 2010's. - *The Daily Show* uses the parody news format to make satirical points. Its Spin-Off, *The Colbert Report*, does satire as well, but parodies blowhard opinion shows like *The O'Reilly Factor* instead of straight news. - *Brass Eye* parodied the shock-obsessed news media by lifting their style. - *iCarly*: The fake movie trailers. Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie is about cliched teen chick movies, and The Blowing pokes fun at disaster films. - *The Oceanic Six: A Conspiracy of Lies* is a mockumentary on the *Lost* season 4 DVD. Presented as an in-universe documentary, the film is an obvious parody of *Loose Change*, from the music, voiceovers, interviews with questionably qualified scientists, anonymous interviews, wild accusations, and claims of a government coverup in regards to the crash of Oceanic flight 815 and the subsequent ||rescuing of six passengers||. The irony is that the documentary is *right* that the official story is a lie... but its explanation is hilariously wrong (one word: cannibalism). - Each episode of *My Life In Film*, a little-known BBC comedy about a slightly delusional scriptwriter, was a parody of a popular film. - The *Monty Python's Flying Circus* "Science Fiction Sketch" is a parody of British science fiction that comes across nowadays as being a very close parody of the Third Doctor era of *Doctor Who* - ludicrous costumes, Science in Genre Only, Aliens in Cardiff, a suave and painfully serious Science Hero explaining the plot to a Dumb Blonde Watson, The Brigadier... even though it aired six months before that era even started. - *Posh Nosh*: Parody of cooking shows. - *Get Smart* was a parody of the spy shows prevalent at the time. - *Danger 5*, a parody of Sixties adventure shows. Season 2 of The '80s movies, ranging from cop shows to high school dramas. - *Dear White People*: - *When Things Were Rotten* was a Robin Hood parody by Mel Brooks. It starred Dick Gautier as Robin Hood. note : It was quite different than the later Mel Brooks movie, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. - *Quark* was a parody of *Star Trek*, with some * Star Wars* and *2001: A Space Odyssey* added in. It was created by *Get Smart* co-creator Buck Henry. It starred Richard Benjamin as Quark, the captain of a garbage scow IN SPACE! - "Weird Al" Yankovic has made a career out of parody songs; he is unarguably the most prominent artist in this field, to the point where other people's parody songs are often misattributed to Al instead. While most of his songs directly parody specific songs, he also does so-called "style parodies", where he makes light of a band or a singer's overall musical style, rather than a single work of theirs. - Allan Sherman was well known for his parody songs in the '60s. - Bob Rivers is particularly known for his parodies of Christmas Songs. - Also Bohemian Parody, which covers parodies of Bohemian Rhapsody. - Two years after Fiddler's Dram released 'Day Trip to Bangor', Jasper Carrott parodied the song with 'Day Trip to Blackpool', in 1981. While 'Day Trip to Bangor' was about what a lovely time they had there, 'Day Trip to Blackpool' is the exact opposite. - "Star Trekkin" by The Firm, which is a parody of *Star Trek*. - Brentalfloss: - Barry Mann's "Who Put the Bomp" was a parody of Doo-wop. Darling, bomp bah bah bomp, bah bomp bah bomp bomp And my honey, rama lama ding dong forever And when I say, dip da dip da dip da dip You know I mean it from the bottom of my boogity boogity boogity shoop - The Rutles was Neil Innes and Eric Idle's brilliant and uncannily accurate parody following the timeline of The Beatles. The songs were so close to the Beatles' work that Northern Songs (copyright holders of their music) threatened a plagiarism lawsuit against Chappell Music (the Rutles' songs). However, George Harrison appeared in the Rutles' mockumentary "All You Need is Cash." - Noël Coward wrote "There Are Bad Things Just Around The Corner" as a very intentional genre parody of the whole genre of "morale-boosting" songs from World War Two. - *Mission to Zyxx* has many targets, but its most frequent is *Star Wars*. Pleck Decksetter is a farmboy from a backwater planet whose Chosen One destiny is to become a Zima Knight etc etc... - *MAD* specializes in parodies, particularly those of movies and TV shows. Some also have satirical elements...but for some reason, the magazine refers to *all* of them as satires, not parodies, so it's no wonder Keanu Reeves got confused. - At the 1996 *November To Remember*, ECW debuted a parody of WCW's nWo, the blue World order, centered around Stevie Richards, Super Nova and The Blue Meanie in the roles of Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall. When WCW used its partnership with NJPW to create nWo Japan, ECW used its with Michinoku Pro Wrestling to create bWo Japan. - Founded in 1997, the Japanese Dramatic Dream Team promotion is dedicated to parodying American professional wrestling, especially the WWE, as it was born around the then-WWF's height of popularity and financial success. - While Carlitos is a common name, El Sensacional Carlitos, an ignorant illiterate who didn't like shoes, was a gimmick the Puerto Rican branch of the International Wrestling Association came up with in 2005, in mockery of Carlos Colon and Carlito Caribbean Cool of rival promotion, WWC. However, Carlitos became so popular WWC ended up hiring him without changing the gimmick at all, even having him team up with Carlito at points. - The 2006 Chikara Tag World Grand Prix saw the debut of Team WWF, a parody of the Second City Saints: CP Munk, Colt Cabunny and Ace Panda (CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Ace Steel). - *Sesame Street* has sketches based on popular movies, books, and TV shows, such as *Game Of Chairs*, *House Of Bricks*, *Homelamb*, *Sons Of Poetry*, *Furry Potter and the Goblet of Cookies*, *The Hungry Games - Catching Fur*, *Lord of the Crumbs*, and *Star S'mores*. - *The Howard Stern Show* used to and sometimes still will parody television shows and movies, although more frequently song parodies are featured, many of which, sent in by fans, are about being sexually attracted to news anchor Robin Quivers. Thousands of these exist, and one or two are always played before her news segment. - The BBC Radio 4 series *Hordes of the Things*, by A.P.R. Marshall (Andrew Marshall of *2point4 Children* and *The Burkiss Way*) and J.H.W. Lloyd (John Lloyd of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978)* and *Blackadder*) was a parody of *The Lord of the Rings*. It's notable because it was broadcast six months *before* the Radio 4 adaptation of *LOTR*, and manages to predict some of the voice characterization to a spooky degree. (Or they heard about it in the canteen.) - *Dave Hollins: Space Cadet*, a miniseries in *Son of Cliché*, was a parody of *2001: A Space Odyssey* in which the titular character was left as the sole survivor of his ship's crew. The premise of this would later be followed up with a Spiritual Successor in *Red Dwarf*, which was plundering "Dave Hollis" sketches and recycling them for TV as late as the fifth series. - *The Burkiss Way* parodied *everything* it could lay its hands on. - *The X Fools* parodied the then concurrently running *The X-Files* series. Agent Sulky is the Only Sane Woman stuck between her brainless Covert Pervert partner Agent Smoulder and their Wholesome Crossdresser superior Assistant Director Skinhead, confronting such villains as Dancer Man and the Cigarette Sucking Woman. - Brazilian radio station 98 FM remakes songs to mock recent defeats by the football teams of its home city - and sometimes other teams as well. One parody was even in English, turning "Sorry" into "Sorry Olimpiadas", apologizing for the mess that was the Olympic Village (and Rio de Janeiro itself) prior to the 2016 games. - *The Hour of Slack* is the nationally syndicated radio show of the parody religion the Church of the SubGenius. It features sermons from creator Ivan Stang and random soundbites as it sends up radio evangelical shows. In some markets it is followed by a local edition (WREK-FM in Atlanta presents *"Bob's" Slacktime Funhouse*). - *Orpheus in the Underworld* parodies Orpheus opera in general, but a specific target of the work is Gluck's *Orfeo ed Euridice*, with Public Opinion serving as a counterpart to Cupid. Orpheus even sings a bit of the famous "Che farò senza Euridice" aira to be let into Hades. - Each *Destroy All Humans!* game is a parody of Sci-Fi Alien Invasion and the ENTIRE DECADE the game takes place in. - *Conker's Bad Fur Day* and its remake are mostly based on parodies of famous movies and videogames. - The name of the game *Parodius* says it all, period (parody of Gradius)! - *Hollywhoot* is a parody of the Hollywood movie industry. - Homestar Runner's "fake" and now Defictionalized Videlectrix had been producing parody games long before Telltale Games *Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People*. Since point-and-click adventures had become self-parodying since their early years, it was a natural format. - *NotGTAV*, of two games actually. - *Crossy Road*'s Michael Boom is a parody of Michael Bay and the films he has directed, and as such, features Stuff Blowing Up all the time. Michael himself ends up blowing up when he gets hit. - *Mother Chef: The Musical!*: Mother Chef herself is a demonic parody of *Cooking Mama*. - *Pyst* is, on the surface, a *Myst* parody, but is more of a novelty application that barely even touched upon the original game and its surrounding fandom, with one reviewer likening it to a Seltzer and Friedberg spoof film in a somewhat interactive form. - Besides the aforementioned *Pyst*, this has been the staple of Parroty Interactive a subsidiary of Palladium Interactive. While they did produce games, er, novelty applications, which parodied popular fantasy and sci-fi franchises of the day, their efforts were short-lived especially as most of Parroty's titles were critically panned. - *An Adventure of Sheep and Chicken*: AJOSAC(An Journey of Shep and Chiken), created by ILEM Universe. - *A Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes* has a large number of episodes that are parodies. - *Battle for Dream Island* parodies the Nintendo DS with the BDFI DDS, spouting 16 screens. - *Cartoon Hooligans*: - *Super Console Wars* is a parody of *Star Wars* with popular video game characters. On the planet Nintendooine, Lukeegi Pipewalker encounters peripherals GC-PU and VM-U2, who deliver a message from Princess Zeia, who has been captured by Darth Mario (implied to be Lukeegi's long-lost brother) and Moff Bison of the Gamepire on their Xbox-shaped ship (the Princess's ship looks like a Game Boy). Lukeegi and the peripherals find Obi-Wan Shinobi, the last of the legendary Mascot Knights. They eventually find a ship, owned by Han Fox and Kongdacca. They make their way to Segaldaraan, only to find a massive station - the GameCube, which has enough power to render a planet. Obi-Wan starts teaching Lukeegi how to use the Force Feedback (which involves playing *Duck Hunt*). Once they board the station, Obi-Wan Shinobi goes to disable the tractor beam (playing *Breakout*), before encountering Darth Mario. Lukeegi and Han free the Princess and jump into garbage disposal, where they're forced to dodge *Tetris* pieces to survive. They witness the battle between Obi-Wan Shinobi and Darth Mario, with Mario turning fully 3D and using fireballs, pills, and lightning to kill Obi-Wan. The heroes flee. The end. - *DevilBear* is full of parodies. Especially in the teddy bears that end up going to Hell. Parodies of Winnie the Pooh , Kiss , and Pokémon to name a few. - The *Dork Tower* comic regularly features covers (and sometimes entire issues) that parody some aspect of geek or pop culture, often with some relationship to the story inside. Subjects have included *Understanding Comics*, Rice Krispies cereal, *A Brief History of Time*, Harvey Comics, Pink Floyd... - *El Goonish Shive*: Several arcs in EGS:NP parody video games; Fantasy Wasteland parodies *Fallout* and *The Elder Scrolls*, and Parable parodies *Fable*. - *Greg* parodied movies in the early stages of the comic, including Green Lantern and Transformers 3. - Kick The Football, Chuck is a parody of Charles Schulz' "Peanuts" where all of the classic gags (kicking the football, talking on the brick wall, flying a kite, Lucy's "psychiatric booth, etc.) are portrayed in light of Charlie Brown's cancer. - *Irrelevator* has a 'the Doctor' who comes and goes in various incarnations from time to time. Later Irrelevator also has an arc where historic personalities wake up in the elevator and are parodied. - *Sonichu* has "4-cent_garbage.com", a parody and amalgamation of 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica. - Strip 574 of *Brawl in the Family* uses the concept of *Super Mario Maker* to parody *Duck Amuck*. The Alt Text plays with the parody further, using Bugs Bunny's Catchphrase. - *Wizard School* is a parody of Harry Potter, with the cliche magical child as "Chosen One," replaced with a drunken jerk with a tattoo on his forehead. - *My Life as a Background Slytherin* is another Harry Potter parody comic. It's basically a Lower-Deck Episode about a Butt-Monkey Author Avatar who wants to be one of the villains but fails pathetically, while deconstructing the more illogical elements of the Wizarding World. - *Climate Town*: "It's Time To Let Coal Die" starts with a *Weekend at Bernie's* parody, comparing lugging around a corpse and pretending it's alive to trying to keep the coal industry alive by propping up the failing companies with taxpayer money instead of helping the miners get new jobs in actual renewables. - Docfuture's Let's Play of Sonic 2: Special Edition for Sega CD 32X is a parody of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2*, its development, and Updated Rereleases in general. - This video and many, many others parody Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance". Others are parodied, but that song has the most. - *Next Time On Lonny* is a Deconstructive Parody of reality shows. - This video is a parody of unboxing videos. - *Bart Baker* parodies pretty much every major music artist. - The "If Halo 2 On Legendary Was Deemed Canonical" series note : It's best to watch in x2 speed for best hilarious results is a narrated parody of exactly as the title says, exploring the potentially mind-breaking insanity that Halo 2's Legendary difficulty induces for most people, hilariously inputting irrefutable facts such as the incompetent friendlies (barring the invincible allies you rarely/briefly have to accompany you) you have on the missions that has them as well as meme-filled moments galore. A good deal of Halo fans already love it for how it carefully details every mission and just how tough certain parts of each mission are, as well as the infamous Sniper Jackals on said difficulty. - *Sonic The Ghetto Hog* is a series that is exactly what it says on the tin. - *Pokemon Pals* is set 8 years after *Pokémon*. Now that they are older, the fact they are still living the way they were seems pretty sad. - Googlebrains has lots of these, including Caillou Plays Minecraft. - *The Handman's Tale* is *Funny or Die*'s Gender Flip parody of Hulu's *The Handmaid's Tale* series. - Chris Ray Gun: Many of his songs, both full-length and within-episodes, are political-based parodies of pre-existing songs. Funnily enough, he discovered in "Cringe with Chris" that his first attempt at this was back in *2009*, where he made a parody of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" known as "Pretty Fly for a Fat Guy". - Drew Gooden: - A staple of his humor, especially on Vine, is that he likes to make fun of and exaggerate tropes or real-life trends, from his As-Seen-On-TV parody "Water In Your Hands", where the pitch is that water bottles are far too convenient to use, to his sitcom parody where the Laugh Track drowns out the dialogue and acts like the father coming home is the funniest thing ever, and many, many more examples in between. - "Vine: Where Are They Now?" parodies "Where Are They Now?"-style documentaries, with Drew creating fake stories for a ton of infamous, One-Hit Wonder Vine-stars; such as claiming the Deez Nuts guy went onto host his own 12-season prank show. - Many Danny Gonzalez videos revolve around parodying things with the use of music, such as taking on an exaggerated character based on the person he's talking about in the video and singing a silly song about their work and actions.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Parody

Parody - TV Tropes *"In case you haven't realized it by now, this is a* Highlander *parody."* A parody is a twisted imitation of another artistic work. An intentional mockery, though often a loving one, it imitates the style of the original in order to puncture its mistakes and point out its flaws. Some aspects may be exaggerated, and others downplayed. Usually comedic, but occasionally dark and deconstructive. Can be sublime, or worse than the original. Sometimes a Homage or Shout-Out doubles as a parody. And sometimes the entire work gets parodied. Lack of knowledge of and/or respect for the source material is the most common danger of parody. Not all parody is satire. As satire is usually pursuing an intellectual point, we expect it to be critical. On the other hand, most parodies are watched by people who liked the original stories, so pointing out too loudly that something is stupid (or that it broadly seems to defy the premise) can subconsciously insult the viewer. In fact, many successful parodies still use the situation or design that they mock. They simply point out that it doesn't make sense, but let the appeal be in the eye of the beholder. Another danger is the assumption that the audience is familiar with the subject matter being parodied; extensive parodies have multiple layers of comic gold. This can be shaky ground, depending on the age of your audience, and writers sometimes resign themselves to broad, widely known characters and situations. The problem is that such things have probably already been parodied to death. Enough parodies can cause a shift to that version of the character becoming the archetype, leading to later subversions of subversions. The most basic idea is, of course, that a parody is essentially something you've seen before in a different form. Your audience hopes you bring something new to the table, and will not be impressed if all you do is regurgitate tropes. The nature of parody can lead to unfortunate Misaimed Fandom. See also Satire, Pastiche, Farce, Meta Trope Intro, Parodied Trope (spoofing a trope). For a list of tropes used *in* parodies, see Parody Tropes. ## Examples: - The album *The Giant Rat Of Sumatra* is a parody of *Sherlock Holmes*, starring Hemlock Stones, the Great Defective. - Stan Freberg's record *Saint George and the Dragonet* is a fantasy parody of *Dragnet*. - *Hetalia: Axis Powers* fanfic *Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità*: Let's just say the author parodied Hammerspace *several* times. From clothes to books to Death Notes to flowers, the characters' backs can store them all. "It's alright Italia-kun. I always bring spare cosplays with me." He reached into some sort of secret compartment behind his back, pulling out an identical outfit to the one the brunet was currently wearing. Seriously, how do anime characters have such an ability? Japan disappeared into a bathroom for a short amount of time before reappearing, now clad in a sharp black suit and tie with a white dress shirt and black pants, taking hexagonal glasses from his pocket or wherever anime characters store all their stuff before putting them on. "Humph." The larger scoffed back. He then reached into the magical space all anime characters have, whipping out a book conveniently titled *How to Catch a Runaway Italian*. Both reached into the magical space all anime characters have, extracting black notebooksJapan's having unidentifiable symbols on its cover as Italy's had 'Death Note' clearly printed on it in gothic lettersbefore taking out pens and colored pencils as well, opening the pages before scrawling in them. Giggling, the auburn reached into the magical space all anime characters have, an exquisite bouquet of utmost grandeur popping out from behind his back. "Tada!" - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Videos. Which is a gag dub of *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*. - *Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space* is a parody of sci-fi tropes, B Movies and Failed Future Forecasts. - *Pokémon: Gospel Version* is a parody of Moral Guardians and pokes fun at them for claiming Pokemon is Satanic. - *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series* and its various spin-offs and imitators are notable for taking up only a third of the time and containing twice the plot of the shows they parody. - The *Scary Movie* series contains countless send-ups of contemporary horror and sci-fi movies, among other films. A few of the creators have also produced similar genre-spoof movies with self-descriptive titles, like *Date Movie*, *Epic Movie* and *Disaster Movie*. Despite their names, they seem to spoof the trailers of the respective year's hyped films instead. - A grand Italian tradition is that of redubbing, which consists in gag dubs of movies ranging from sketches to full-length movies that may not share the film's plot or premise at all (sometimes with extensive new footage shot). Started with *Star Trek II* way back in the 1980s, making the gag dub Older Than They Think. Lots of parodies can be found here (naturally in Italian, and many of which are strictly in local dialects). - A recurring gag in a Gag Dub is to use the original dialogue of certain characters. By simply changing the other dialogue around it, what they said makes them look even stupider than if their dialogue had been changed. - Occasionally, lampshades may be hung on the use of original lines. *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series* is fond of a flashing * ACTUAL 4KIDS DIALOG* label on the bottom of the screen. - *Beverly Hills Ninja* is a parody of Mighty Whitey ninja films. It features a tribe of ninjas adopting an orphan Caucasian boy whom they think will be their clan's long-prophesied "Great White Hope." Unfortunately for them, the boy grows up to be a clumsy, uncoordinated adult (played by Chris Farley) and the only way he can save the day is with the secret assistance of the ninja tribe's best Japanese member. - *Spaceballs* was a parody of *Star Wars*. - *James Bond* was actually intended to be a parody of espionage films, but, ironically enough, it turned out to be held as the quintessential spy series; even getting its own parodies in the form of films such as *Spy Hard*, *Austin Powers* and *Get Smart*. - *Big Money Hustlas*, produced by Insane Clown Posse's label, Psychopathic Records, is a parody of '70s exploitation flicks. Its follow-up, *Big Money Rustlas*, is a parody of westerns. - *Mystery Team* is this for amateur sleuth stories. - The New Zealand comedy *Tongan Ninja* is a spoof of martial arts films in general, and Bruce Lee's *Way of the Dragon* in particular. - Brazilian group Os Trapalhões (also translated as "The Tramps") had this in a few of their movies, in addition to many parodies in their TV show - one of *S.W.A.T. (1975)* even became a full-fledged movie by all but the leader during a short break-up. During the internet's popularization of foreign Mockbusters, they got roped along the way: *Os Trapalhões na Guerra dos Planetas* (The Tramps in the Planet War) is *Brazilian Star Wars*, *Os Trapalhões no Planalto dos Macacos* (The Tramps in the Plateau of the Apes) is *Brazilian Planet of the Apes*, and *Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz* (The Tramps and the Wizard of Oroz) is *Brazilian The Wizard of Oz*. - *Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers* is a send-up of the Dumas novel, * *The Corsican Brothers*, replacing the swashbuckling adventure with Sex Comedy. - Parodies were the *Carry On* movies' forte. It was rather daring at the time because the owners of the films they wanted to parody feared that they were stealing, but Hollywood's paranoia was soon reassured. - *The Silence of the Hams* combines and spoofs the plots of *The Silence of the Lambs* and *Psycho*. - *Baby Jane?* parodies the film version of *Whatever Happened To Baby Jane* by having the roles of Baby Jane and Blanche be portrayed by drag queens and by including a Creepy Doll character that comes alive and haunts Blanche at the end of the film. - Almost ten years before *Spaceballs* sent up Star Wars, Ernie Fosselius gave us *Hardware Wars.* "You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll kiss three bucks goodbye." - *Plump Fiction* parodies violent films of the 90s, mainly parodying *Pulp Fiction*, from the intersecting storylines, to the Anachronic Order. Other films such as *Reservoir Dogs* and *Natural Born Killers* are parodied as well. - *The Adventures of Philibert, Captain Virgin* is a Deconstructive Parody of Hollywood-made and French-made Swashbuckler films from the '30s to the '60s that starred the likes of Errol Flynn, Jean Marais and Gérard Barray. Most of the heroism-related tropes, idealism and drama common to the genre are put into the picture and exaggerated in order to be made fun of. - The *Dragaera* novels include a subseries called the Khaavren Romances that parody Alexandre Dumas. - *Lord of the Flies* is a dark parody of Jules Verne's *Two Years Vacation* - both involve groups of upper-class schoolboys being marooned on a desert island in similar circumstances, but where Verne's kids Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, Golding's descend into primitive savagery. - It's also taking on R. M. Ballantyne's *Coral Island* (lampshaded by the end). - The Harvard Lampoon's *Bored of the Rings* rather viciously skewers *The Lord of the Rings*. - Thematically linked to the above, *National Lampoon's Doon* goes after *Dune* in similar style. - *How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse* depicts the Zombie Apocalypse scenario and often exaggerates the genre's tropes, given it's also a slapstick. - The ancient Greek *Batrachomyomachia* makes this Older Than Feudalism, since the 300-line poem parodies the epic genre by using epic conventions for a rather non-heroic story: a battle between mice and frogs. - *An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews* by Henry Fielding, a parody of the cringeworthy but popular inspirational novel *Pamela* by Samuel Richardson. One of the rare cases where the parody is somehow better than the original. - And then the bustard Fielding went to the well a second time with *Joseph Andrews*. - The modern anti-love story *The Sorrows of Young Mike* is a parody of the classic German romantic piece of literature called *Die Leiden des Jungen Werther* ( *The Sorrows of Young Werther*). Both are tragic and worth reading, whether separate or in conjunction. - The *Barry Trotter* series, three novels parodying the *Harry Potter* franchise. - *Young Adult*, a short web original one-shot, parodies the *Divergent*, *Harry Potter* **and** *Twilight* series. - *Villains by Necessity*: The book is one of the standard "Heroes have to save the world" plot, with some "bad guys" now having to save the *universe* from the "good guys" after they won. It also generally parodies many fantasy cliches, with the *Dragonlance* characters being more specifically parodied through one band of heroes who try to stop these villain protagonists, along with borrowing the idea that if good wins, it must turn evil itself in the end. - *The Power*: The Framing Device explicitly parodies debates about gender roles being innate or learned, along with alleged ancient matriarchal societies, but all the roles have been reversed, so this is now about if men are innately *less* violent, inherently nurturing etc. or a patriarchy ever existed, as it takes place in a future matriarchy. - *Kaamelott* is a French series parodying the Arthurian Legend, where King Arthur is Surrounded by Idiots (though it did become more serious in the last seasons). Ditto with The Movie, *Kaamelott: Premier Volet*. - *Sledge Hammer!* is an over-the-top parody of the Cowboy Cop. - At least in the first season. Then it became too whiny and Rom Com-ish, attempting satire and/or deconstruction where none were necessary. - *Police Squad!* was a parody of 1960s- and 1970s-vintage Police Procedural shows, particularly the output of Quinn Martin Productions, and specifically *M Squad*. - And an Australian version *Funky Squad*. - *Angie Tribeca* is a *Police Squad!*-inspired show with a similar style of humor that mocks police procedurals of the 2010's. - *The Daily Show* uses the parody news format to make satirical points. Its Spin-Off, *The Colbert Report*, does satire as well, but parodies blowhard opinion shows like *The O'Reilly Factor* instead of straight news. - *Brass Eye* parodied the shock-obsessed news media by lifting their style. - *iCarly*: The fake movie trailers. Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie is about cliched teen chick movies, and The Blowing pokes fun at disaster films. - *The Oceanic Six: A Conspiracy of Lies* is a mockumentary on the *Lost* season 4 DVD. Presented as an in-universe documentary, the film is an obvious parody of *Loose Change*, from the music, voiceovers, interviews with questionably qualified scientists, anonymous interviews, wild accusations, and claims of a government coverup in regards to the crash of Oceanic flight 815 and the subsequent ||rescuing of six passengers||. The irony is that the documentary is *right* that the official story is a lie... but its explanation is hilariously wrong (one word: cannibalism). - Each episode of *My Life In Film*, a little-known BBC comedy about a slightly delusional scriptwriter, was a parody of a popular film. - The *Monty Python's Flying Circus* "Science Fiction Sketch" is a parody of British science fiction that comes across nowadays as being a very close parody of the Third Doctor era of *Doctor Who* - ludicrous costumes, Science in Genre Only, Aliens in Cardiff, a suave and painfully serious Science Hero explaining the plot to a Dumb Blonde Watson, The Brigadier... even though it aired six months before that era even started. - *Posh Nosh*: Parody of cooking shows. - *Get Smart* was a parody of the spy shows prevalent at the time. - *Danger 5*, a parody of Sixties adventure shows. Season 2 of The '80s movies, ranging from cop shows to high school dramas. - *Dear White People*: - *When Things Were Rotten* was a Robin Hood parody by Mel Brooks. It starred Dick Gautier as Robin Hood. note : It was quite different than the later Mel Brooks movie, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. - *Quark* was a parody of *Star Trek*, with some * Star Wars* and *2001: A Space Odyssey* added in. It was created by *Get Smart* co-creator Buck Henry. It starred Richard Benjamin as Quark, the captain of a garbage scow IN SPACE! - "Weird Al" Yankovic has made a career out of parody songs; he is unarguably the most prominent artist in this field, to the point where other people's parody songs are often misattributed to Al instead. While most of his songs directly parody specific songs, he also does so-called "style parodies", where he makes light of a band or a singer's overall musical style, rather than a single work of theirs. - Allan Sherman was well known for his parody songs in the '60s. - Bob Rivers is particularly known for his parodies of Christmas Songs. - Also Bohemian Parody, which covers parodies of Bohemian Rhapsody. - Two years after Fiddler's Dram released 'Day Trip to Bangor', Jasper Carrott parodied the song with 'Day Trip to Blackpool', in 1981. While 'Day Trip to Bangor' was about what a lovely time they had there, 'Day Trip to Blackpool' is the exact opposite. - "Star Trekkin" by The Firm, which is a parody of *Star Trek*. - Brentalfloss: - Barry Mann's "Who Put the Bomp" was a parody of Doo-wop. Darling, bomp bah bah bomp, bah bomp bah bomp bomp And my honey, rama lama ding dong forever And when I say, dip da dip da dip da dip You know I mean it from the bottom of my boogity boogity boogity shoop - The Rutles was Neil Innes and Eric Idle's brilliant and uncannily accurate parody following the timeline of The Beatles. The songs were so close to the Beatles' work that Northern Songs (copyright holders of their music) threatened a plagiarism lawsuit against Chappell Music (the Rutles' songs). However, George Harrison appeared in the Rutles' mockumentary "All You Need is Cash." - Noël Coward wrote "There Are Bad Things Just Around The Corner" as a very intentional genre parody of the whole genre of "morale-boosting" songs from World War Two. - *Mission to Zyxx* has many targets, but its most frequent is *Star Wars*. Pleck Decksetter is a farmboy from a backwater planet whose Chosen One destiny is to become a Zima Knight etc etc... - *MAD* specializes in parodies, particularly those of movies and TV shows. Some also have satirical elements...but for some reason, the magazine refers to *all* of them as satires, not parodies, so it's no wonder Keanu Reeves got confused. - At the 1996 *November To Remember*, ECW debuted a parody of WCW's nWo, the blue World order, centered around Stevie Richards, Super Nova and The Blue Meanie in the roles of Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall. When WCW used its partnership with NJPW to create nWo Japan, ECW used its with Michinoku Pro Wrestling to create bWo Japan. - Founded in 1997, the Japanese Dramatic Dream Team promotion is dedicated to parodying American professional wrestling, especially the WWE, as it was born around the then-WWF's height of popularity and financial success. - While Carlitos is a common name, El Sensacional Carlitos, an ignorant illiterate who didn't like shoes, was a gimmick the Puerto Rican branch of the International Wrestling Association came up with in 2005, in mockery of Carlos Colon and Carlito Caribbean Cool of rival promotion, WWC. However, Carlitos became so popular WWC ended up hiring him without changing the gimmick at all, even having him team up with Carlito at points. - The 2006 Chikara Tag World Grand Prix saw the debut of Team WWF, a parody of the Second City Saints: CP Munk, Colt Cabunny and Ace Panda (CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Ace Steel). - *Sesame Street* has sketches based on popular movies, books, and TV shows, such as *Game Of Chairs*, *House Of Bricks*, *Homelamb*, *Sons Of Poetry*, *Furry Potter and the Goblet of Cookies*, *The Hungry Games - Catching Fur*, *Lord of the Crumbs*, and *Star S'mores*. - *The Howard Stern Show* used to and sometimes still will parody television shows and movies, although more frequently song parodies are featured, many of which, sent in by fans, are about being sexually attracted to news anchor Robin Quivers. Thousands of these exist, and one or two are always played before her news segment. - The BBC Radio 4 series *Hordes of the Things*, by A.P.R. Marshall (Andrew Marshall of *2point4 Children* and *The Burkiss Way*) and J.H.W. Lloyd (John Lloyd of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978)* and *Blackadder*) was a parody of *The Lord of the Rings*. It's notable because it was broadcast six months *before* the Radio 4 adaptation of *LOTR*, and manages to predict some of the voice characterization to a spooky degree. (Or they heard about it in the canteen.) - *Dave Hollins: Space Cadet*, a miniseries in *Son of Cliché*, was a parody of *2001: A Space Odyssey* in which the titular character was left as the sole survivor of his ship's crew. The premise of this would later be followed up with a Spiritual Successor in *Red Dwarf*, which was plundering "Dave Hollis" sketches and recycling them for TV as late as the fifth series. - *The Burkiss Way* parodied *everything* it could lay its hands on. - *The X Fools* parodied the then concurrently running *The X-Files* series. Agent Sulky is the Only Sane Woman stuck between her brainless Covert Pervert partner Agent Smoulder and their Wholesome Crossdresser superior Assistant Director Skinhead, confronting such villains as Dancer Man and the Cigarette Sucking Woman. - Brazilian radio station 98 FM remakes songs to mock recent defeats by the football teams of its home city - and sometimes other teams as well. One parody was even in English, turning "Sorry" into "Sorry Olimpiadas", apologizing for the mess that was the Olympic Village (and Rio de Janeiro itself) prior to the 2016 games. - *The Hour of Slack* is the nationally syndicated radio show of the parody religion the Church of the SubGenius. It features sermons from creator Ivan Stang and random soundbites as it sends up radio evangelical shows. In some markets it is followed by a local edition (WREK-FM in Atlanta presents *"Bob's" Slacktime Funhouse*). - *Orpheus in the Underworld* parodies Orpheus opera in general, but a specific target of the work is Gluck's *Orfeo ed Euridice*, with Public Opinion serving as a counterpart to Cupid. Orpheus even sings a bit of the famous "Che farò senza Euridice" aira to be let into Hades. - Each *Destroy All Humans!* game is a parody of Sci-Fi Alien Invasion and the ENTIRE DECADE the game takes place in. - *Conker's Bad Fur Day* and its remake are mostly based on parodies of famous movies and videogames. - The name of the game *Parodius* says it all, period (parody of Gradius)! - *Hollywhoot* is a parody of the Hollywood movie industry. - Homestar Runner's "fake" and now Defictionalized Videlectrix had been producing parody games long before Telltale Games *Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People*. Since point-and-click adventures had become self-parodying since their early years, it was a natural format. - *NotGTAV*, of two games actually. - *Crossy Road*'s Michael Boom is a parody of Michael Bay and the films he has directed, and as such, features Stuff Blowing Up all the time. Michael himself ends up blowing up when he gets hit. - *Mother Chef: The Musical!*: Mother Chef herself is a demonic parody of *Cooking Mama*. - *Pyst* is, on the surface, a *Myst* parody, but is more of a novelty application that barely even touched upon the original game and its surrounding fandom, with one reviewer likening it to a Seltzer and Friedberg spoof film in a somewhat interactive form. - Besides the aforementioned *Pyst*, this has been the staple of Parroty Interactive a subsidiary of Palladium Interactive. While they did produce games, er, novelty applications, which parodied popular fantasy and sci-fi franchises of the day, their efforts were short-lived especially as most of Parroty's titles were critically panned. - *An Adventure of Sheep and Chicken*: AJOSAC(An Journey of Shep and Chiken), created by ILEM Universe. - *A Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes* has a large number of episodes that are parodies. - *Battle for Dream Island* parodies the Nintendo DS with the BDFI DDS, spouting 16 screens. - *Cartoon Hooligans*: - *Super Console Wars* is a parody of *Star Wars* with popular video game characters. On the planet Nintendooine, Lukeegi Pipewalker encounters peripherals GC-PU and VM-U2, who deliver a message from Princess Zeia, who has been captured by Darth Mario (implied to be Lukeegi's long-lost brother) and Moff Bison of the Gamepire on their Xbox-shaped ship (the Princess's ship looks like a Game Boy). Lukeegi and the peripherals find Obi-Wan Shinobi, the last of the legendary Mascot Knights. They eventually find a ship, owned by Han Fox and Kongdacca. They make their way to Segaldaraan, only to find a massive station - the GameCube, which has enough power to render a planet. Obi-Wan starts teaching Lukeegi how to use the Force Feedback (which involves playing *Duck Hunt*). Once they board the station, Obi-Wan Shinobi goes to disable the tractor beam (playing *Breakout*), before encountering Darth Mario. Lukeegi and Han free the Princess and jump into garbage disposal, where they're forced to dodge *Tetris* pieces to survive. They witness the battle between Obi-Wan Shinobi and Darth Mario, with Mario turning fully 3D and using fireballs, pills, and lightning to kill Obi-Wan. The heroes flee. The end. - *DevilBear* is full of parodies. Especially in the teddy bears that end up going to Hell. Parodies of Winnie the Pooh , Kiss , and Pokémon to name a few. - The *Dork Tower* comic regularly features covers (and sometimes entire issues) that parody some aspect of geek or pop culture, often with some relationship to the story inside. Subjects have included *Understanding Comics*, Rice Krispies cereal, *A Brief History of Time*, Harvey Comics, Pink Floyd... - *El Goonish Shive*: Several arcs in EGS:NP parody video games; Fantasy Wasteland parodies *Fallout* and *The Elder Scrolls*, and Parable parodies *Fable*. - *Greg* parodied movies in the early stages of the comic, including Green Lantern and Transformers 3. - Kick The Football, Chuck is a parody of Charles Schulz' "Peanuts" where all of the classic gags (kicking the football, talking on the brick wall, flying a kite, Lucy's "psychiatric booth, etc.) are portrayed in light of Charlie Brown's cancer. - *Irrelevator* has a 'the Doctor' who comes and goes in various incarnations from time to time. Later Irrelevator also has an arc where historic personalities wake up in the elevator and are parodied. - *Sonichu* has "4-cent_garbage.com", a parody and amalgamation of 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica. - Strip 574 of *Brawl in the Family* uses the concept of *Super Mario Maker* to parody *Duck Amuck*. The Alt Text plays with the parody further, using Bugs Bunny's Catchphrase. - *Wizard School* is a parody of Harry Potter, with the cliche magical child as "Chosen One," replaced with a drunken jerk with a tattoo on his forehead. - *My Life as a Background Slytherin* is another Harry Potter parody comic. It's basically a Lower-Deck Episode about a Butt-Monkey Author Avatar who wants to be one of the villains but fails pathetically, while deconstructing the more illogical elements of the Wizarding World. - *Climate Town*: "It's Time To Let Coal Die" starts with a *Weekend at Bernie's* parody, comparing lugging around a corpse and pretending it's alive to trying to keep the coal industry alive by propping up the failing companies with taxpayer money instead of helping the miners get new jobs in actual renewables. - Docfuture's Let's Play of Sonic 2: Special Edition for Sega CD 32X is a parody of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2*, its development, and Updated Rereleases in general. - This video and many, many others parody Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance". Others are parodied, but that song has the most. - *Next Time On Lonny* is a Deconstructive Parody of reality shows. - This video is a parody of unboxing videos. - *Bart Baker* parodies pretty much every major music artist. - The "If Halo 2 On Legendary Was Deemed Canonical" series note : It's best to watch in x2 speed for best hilarious results is a narrated parody of exactly as the title says, exploring the potentially mind-breaking insanity that Halo 2's Legendary difficulty induces for most people, hilariously inputting irrefutable facts such as the incompetent friendlies (barring the invincible allies you rarely/briefly have to accompany you) you have on the missions that has them as well as meme-filled moments galore. A good deal of Halo fans already love it for how it carefully details every mission and just how tough certain parts of each mission are, as well as the infamous Sniper Jackals on said difficulty. - *Sonic The Ghetto Hog* is a series that is exactly what it says on the tin. - *Pokemon Pals* is set 8 years after *Pokémon*. Now that they are older, the fact they are still living the way they were seems pretty sad. - Googlebrains has lots of these, including Caillou Plays Minecraft. - *The Handman's Tale* is *Funny or Die*'s Gender Flip parody of Hulu's *The Handmaid's Tale* series. - Chris Ray Gun: Many of his songs, both full-length and within-episodes, are political-based parodies of pre-existing songs. Funnily enough, he discovered in "Cringe with Chris" that his first attempt at this was back in *2009*, where he made a parody of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" known as "Pretty Fly for a Fat Guy". - Drew Gooden: - A staple of his humor, especially on Vine, is that he likes to make fun of and exaggerate tropes or real-life trends, from his As-Seen-On-TV parody "Water In Your Hands", where the pitch is that water bottles are far too convenient to use, to his sitcom parody where the Laugh Track drowns out the dialogue and acts like the father coming home is the funniest thing ever, and many, many more examples in between. - "Vine: Where Are They Now?" parodies "Where Are They Now?"-style documentaries, with Drew creating fake stories for a ton of infamous, One-Hit Wonder Vine-stars; such as claiming the Deez Nuts guy went onto host his own 12-season prank show. - Many Danny Gonzalez videos revolve around parodying things with the use of music, such as taking on an exaggerated character based on the person he's talking about in the video and singing a silly song about their work and actions.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Parodies

Parking Problems - TV Tropes I get that parallel parking can be tough, but *perpendicular*? " *Wow, nice parking job.* " — **Asami Sato** to Korra (after finding her car smashed into a lamppost with a pile of tickets on the windshield), *The Legend of Korra* , "Turning the Tides" Sometimes, Rockstar Parking is unavailable to a character. Other times, a space is available but they are unable to maneuver their vehicle into it due to poor parking skills, especially if Parallel Parking is involved. In these cases, they'll have to make do with whatever space is available, or park in a less than courteous manner. Common gags include: - Parking by a fire hydrant - Stealing the Handicapped Spot - Parking in a stall reserved for a superior - Parking on the sidewalk or in another place where parking isn't permitted. Oftentimes, the violation will be treated as a Felony Misdemeanor and the driver will receive a ticket from a Traffic Warden. The car might be towed, or may have a clamp applied to the wheel. Obstructive Bureaucracy may be encountered as the driver attempts to pay their ticket or retrieve their car. Contrast Improbable Parking Skills. Can lead to Parking Payback. # Examples: - There's a Mentos commercial where some jerk pulls into an open parking spot right when Our Heroine wants to leave, sandwiching her in. Cue a Mentos, and a Bright Idea: she recruits the help of some beefy construction workers to pick up her car and ease it out. - A interstitial short on Cartoon Network had Fred Flintstone, Thundarr, and Chicken car-pooling, while Fred struggles to find a parking space in the over-crowded parking lot at CN Headquarters. After some hijinks (including Space Ghost offering his space before remembering "I flew into work today! Silly me." and trying to beat Speed Racer to a spot), the trio are *still* looking late at night, and Fred grouses "That does it! I'm gonna start takin' the bus to work." - One commercial for Kraft Meltdowns featured a principal losing his temper and screaming over the PA system because somebody parked in his parking space. - A "This is SportsCenter" ad from 2006 featured a spot labeled "D. Patrick". A tow truck takes Danica Patrick's race car away, after which then-SportsCenter anchor Dan Patrick (now with NBC Sports) arrives. A confrontation between the two results. - In one *Archie* comic, Archie and his friends find that they have been boxed in by an inconsiderate driver and are unable to pull out. Moose arrives and offers to lift the front end of their car up and point it towards the road. Having done so, the gang thanks him... and he gets into the car in front of them and drives off! - In another Archie comic, Moose complains about the parking situation, saying it took an hour to get his compact car out of a certain lot. When told that isn't so bad (seriously?), he says that it ''wasn't'' a compact car when he'd parked it. - *Guys Being Dudes*: The Team GO Rocket trio end up parking their Creepy Stalker Van at a shopping center next to the park Go Fest takes place at because it's rather large and Sierra refuses to park next to anyone. - In *Snatch.*, Tyrone claims a parking spot is too tight when there's only one other vehicle on the whole block. Naturally, when the others convince him to park there, he crashes into that vehicle, leading to one of the funniest exchanges in the movie: **Tyrone:** I didn't see it there. **Vinny:** It's a four-ton truck, Tyrone. It's not as if it's a packet of fucking peanuts, is it? **Tyrone:** It was a funny angle. **Vinny:** It's behind you Tyrone. Whenever you reverse, things come from behind you. - At the beginning of *GoodFellas*, Henry cites being able to double park in front of fire hydrants as one of the cool things about being a gangster. - In *Delivery Man*, David Wozniak, a delivery person for his family's butcher shop, has his delivery truck repeatedly ticketed for parking improperly. He uses the truck to pick up the shop's basketball team uniforms to wear during a team photo, which his family doubts he can retrieve and deliver in time for the photo due to his unreliability. David manages to retrieve the jerseys, but the truck is towed with the jerseys inside. - *Office Space* gives a twofer: As part of his interrupted-hypnosis new view on life, Peter nonchalantly parks in the space reserved for his human headache of a boss, Bill Lumbergh. This spawns another Parking Problem gag: Lumbergh arrives later and parks instead in a handicap space, which results in his car getting seriously damaged, then towed. - When Mahoney is introduced in the first *Police Academy*, he's working as a parking attendant. An obnoxious customer insists that he find a parking space even though Mahoney points out there are no more spaces. His boss sides with the customer, so he does it anyway... by tilting the car onto its side wheels and parking between two other cars. (Yes, it does look something like the page image.) - *The Last Jedi*: Finn and Rose get arrested on Canto Bight for illegally parking their shuttlecraft on the beach, ruining their chance to meet up with the underworld figure they came to meet. - *Our Miss Brooks*: While Miss Brooks has trouble parking off and on through the series, "Trial by Jury" features a truly Epic Fail. She leaves her car parked on a hill, another driver bumps her car forward. The parking brake is released, and her car rushes downhill and crashes into a fruit stand. Miss Brooks returns just in time to get the blame. - *Parking Wars*: the whole point of the show, which follows parking enforcement officers as they write tickets and apply tire clamps. - *Canada's Worst Driver*: None of the contestants can drive, much less park. - *Malcolm in the Middle:* Francis gets 16 parking tickets in Lois' van, causing Lois to be arrested after she is pulled over for a traffic violation. - In the episode where Stevie's parents arrange to meet Malcolm's parents at a restaurant, Stevie's dad apologizes for being late after someone without a permit parked in the handicapped stall. Hal's reaction indicates it was him. - The Doctor from *Doctor Who* is not exactly an expert when it comes to flying the TARDIS. - "The Rescue" ends with the First Doctor parking the TARDIS on the edge of a cliff. Sure enough, it immediately tips over, kickstarting the plot of the next serial. - In "Fear Her", Ten parks the TARDIS with the door facing a dumpster. He has to take a moment to rotate the TARDIS so that the door actually can open. And technically, he didn't disobey the "No parking in front of gate" sign, because he parked *in* the gate. - In "The Eleventh Hour", Eleven lands (read: crashes) the TARDIS in Amelia Pond's backyard... on its back. He has to use a grappling hook to climb out. - *Harrow*: In "Non Sum Qualis Eram" ("I'm not what I used to be"), Harrow "borrows" Fairley's car without asking. When he returns it, he leaves it in a No Standing zone, so when Fairley comes out to find his car, he is immediately handed a parking ticket. - *The Defenders (2017)*: Jessica Jones is introduced rescuing Trish Walker's car from getting towed after Trish incidentally parks illegally in a loading zone. Trish tries to protest to the parking enforcement officer that she can move it, but he isn't swayed. That is, until Jessica shows up and rips the car off the tow truck's hook and pulls it backwards into a legal space. **Cop:** What?! - A Running Gag in *Better Call Saul* is the protagonist clashing with the parking attendant at the courthouse due to failing to collect the required number of parking validation stickers to have his parking fee waived. At one point, he reaches through the window of the booth to lift the barrier arm when the attendant won't let him out without payment, causing him to be barred from the car park. - In the episode 'Hit and Run', Kim and Jimmy want to damage Howard's reputation by stealing his car, which Jimmy would drive while impersonating Howard, then pushing an unsatisfied prostitute out of his car, all the while Howard's friend/fellow lawyer is witness. In order to do this, they steal Howard's car during his therapist appointment. To prevent someone from parking there before he gets back, Jimmy places a traffic cone in Howard's parking space. When the act is done, Jimmy returns with Howard's car - to see the cone misplaced, and a car taking up the parking space. In his annoyance, Jimmy parks Howard's car in a non-parking spot, then moves the sign "Guests Only" to in front of the car, *just* in time before Howard's return. - When cop-in-training John Nolan makes a traffic stop with his watch commander riding shotgun in *The Rookie*, he fails to park his patrol car far enough from the suspect's vehicle as mandated by department regulations. After being admonished by his supervisor, he spends an excruciating amount of time moving his patrol car forwards and backwards, to the chagrin of the watch commander. - *Reservation Dogs*: During her driver's test, Elora is told to parallel park in a space too small for her car. When turning on the Crocodile Tears gets her instructor to switch places with her, his solution for getting out of the parking spot involves repeatedly ramming the adjacent cars until Elora's Alleged Car is freed. - The Rolling Stones song *Get off of My Cloud* has the singer waking up after sleeping in his car parked downtown to find parking tickets on his windshield. I was sick and tired, fed up with this And decided to take a drive downtown It was so very quiet and peaceful There was nobody, not a soul around I laid myself out, I was so tired and I started to dream **In the morning the parking tickets were just like** **A flag stuck on my window screen** - The video for the Foo Fighters' "Big Me" parodies the Mentos commercial mentioned above, with the band members acting as the construction workers. - The Flanders and Swann song "Parking the Car" is about this. "You feel like Noah in the ark/Afloat o'er what is now Iraq/Trying to find/A place to park." - In *Blondie*, Dagwood parks his car to go pay for a parking ticket where he is pushed around by Obstructive Bureaucracy telling him to go from office to office. When he finally gets to pay his parking ticket, he spots an officer in front of his car writing him a ticket as he had parked in a 20-minute zone. - *Afterlife (1996)* has the "NP-complete Parking Garages" as one of the highest available Wrath punishments, where a SOUL has to legally park their car to get out of it. And everything that can go wrong with parking *will* go wrong here: Spaces reserved for the handicapped and VID (Very Important Demons) that will have the SOUL punished if they try to park there, endless hallways full of used-up spaces, spots that seem empty only to have a motorcycle occupying it, wasted spaces from crappily-parked cars (some even use up three spots), and any legitimate free parking space is quickly stolen by demons in gaudy sports cars driving the wrong way. - *Not Just Bikes* visits a train station where the official bicycle parking lots are entirely overwhelmed with bikes jammed in right next to each other and locked to every available nearby pole and post. Luckily a large new bicycle parking stable was recently opened. - *The Simpsons*: - Homer tries to park the family's station wagon in a stall marked COMPACT ONLY against his passengers' advice. He squeezes the vehicle in, grinding both sides of the station wagon against the parked vehicles on either side and asks Marge in the passenger seat: "How am I doing on your side?" - In "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", Homer's car gets booted after Barney borrows it and parks it illegally at the World Trade Center. The enforcement officer sent to remove the boot and collect the fine takes hours to show up, so Homer enters one of the buildings to use the washroom. The officer arrives just as he reaches the top of one of the towers, and leaves when Homer isn't there. ||Frustrated, Homer drives the car home with the boot still attached.|| - *Family Guy*: the Christmas season brings anxiety to the Griffin home, with Lois upset at having to redo the gift shopping and Peter rushing so he can be home in time to see his special. Another shopper at the mall beats the family to the last parking spot, so Peter loses patience and parks on top of another car. - In *Johnny Test*, the twins' van is towed for being parked in front of a fire hydrant. - *Megas XLR*: While his back is turned, Coop's titular giant robot gets booted and towed for illegal parking. - *Spongebob Squarepants*: A cop is writing a traffic ticket for a car parked by a fire hydrant. A monster eats/destroys the offending car, so the officer picks up the fire hydrant, drops it by another car, and sticks the ticket to that car's windshield. - Part way into season four of *Archer*, Ray, having been paralysed in the previous season's finale, arrives at the ISIS underground parking lot, only to find the two handicap spots blocked by Archer's El Camino. - *House of Mouse*: In "Dining Goofy", Goofy tries to help Max park cars now that he is no longer needed in waiting tables. He ends up "parallel parking" by stacking several guests' cars (including Cinderella's coach and Herbie) on top of one another. - *Kim Possible*: In "The Big Job", while Kim throws down with Shego, Ron ends up fighting Señor Senior Jr. over *a parking space*. - *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command*: One episode opens with the team in their cruiser in a mad race with several other ships for the last parking spot at the local space diner. A single ship leaves the "parking lot", and Buzz maneuvers their (rocket-shaped) ship into it...needle point down. **XR:** Fantastic parking job, Buzz. Say, could you hand me my arm? Thanks. - The main conflict of the *Drawn Together* two-parter Lost in Parking Space is that the group is going to a shopping mall, but because they had to squeeze their rather big van in between two cars at the parking lot, they end up trapped. - *Batman: The Animated Series*: In "Fear of Victory", Batman intercepts a telegram delivery man to prevent the recipient from being dosed with Scarecrow's fear toxin. The terrified delivery man thinks Batman is after him for double parking. - This police officer parked by a fire hydrant, and the fire department needed to access the hydrant immediately after. **Korra:** I made it very clear *I don't know how to drive.*

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParkingProblems

Parental Neglect - TV Tropes *"Mommy just wants to have a little fun, and all you can think about are your empty little stomachs!"* In fiction, we have parents who are nice and kindly to their kids. Then we have those who are downright bastards to the kids. Sometimes, they're not there at all. Or they have no clue what their little ones are up to. Other times they try to be there but it doesn't always work. And, finally, we have the parents who are there, but for the most part, don't seem at all interested in their child. Parental Neglect happens when the parents are shown not to pay a lot, if any, attention or care to their children for some reason. Maybe they're just busy with work. Maybe they and their children aren't particularly emotionally close, or perhaps they're just obsessed with their own attempts to save the world. Nevertheless, for some reason, their children are not the highest on their agenda. This can be set up for a Freudian Excuse. Also an excuse for kids who go off to Save the World not to worry too much about their parents, seeing as they don't give two cents about what they're doing anyway. It should be noted that neglect is in no way a less extreme form of abuse than the forms on the Abusive Parents page; extreme neglect in the care of infants has been known to put dampers on mental and cognitive development, and in children, it can induce severe psychological damage. In regards to the parents themselves, Parental Neglect does not necessarily mean they are terrible or unpleasant people, they may in fact just fall into the category of Parents as People. Obviously can be Truth in Television, though it's *usually* not as extreme as fiction portrays it. A Super-Trope to When You Coming Home, Dad? and Daddy Didn't Show. Compare and contrast with Abusive Parents, Adults Are Useless, Parents as People, and Parental Abandonment. ## Examples: - Present to varying degrees in *Accel World* Haruyuki's mother has barely any contact with him apart from giving him his lunch money every day, while Kuroyukihime is estranged from her parents after ||threatening her sister with a knife|| and implies that their relation wasn't exactly close before that. Kuroyukihime cynically notes that the Neurolinkers that children wear from a young age (which is a prerequisite for Brain Burst) serve to enable this sort of hands-off parenting. - *Bleach*: Yukio felt neglected by his parents because he was a silent child, locked in his own fantasies. His parents were deeply disappointed that he wasn't the child they'd imagined having. In revenge, he decided to drive his parents to suicide. He acts proud of this achievement and that he loved doing what he did, but when Hitsugaya digs a little deeper, Yukio's battered psyche explodes in anger and pain. - In *A Centaur's Life*, Manami's father divides his time between his (part-time) work, his painting, and his children, thus often forcing Manami to look after her younger siblings. Manami politely but firmly tells her father to choose between painting and his job/family, since he can only devote himself to two of those things. - In *Dragon Ball Z*, *GT*, and *Super*, Goku is usually away from his family because he's either dead or off training. On the upside, Goku has a very loving and respectful relationship with his own sons and granddaughter, despite missing something like (by *GT*) fifteen years of Gohan's life, thirteen of Goten's, and six of Pan's, due to training or being dead. Gohan himself doesn't seem too disturbed by his daughter going off into space, either, although he and his wife Videl are seen worrying about her when she's getting into fights. - *Durarara!!*: implied to be how Izaya was raised. According to a journal entry by Izaya's father, despite caring for him very much, Izaya's parents were overseas most of the time. As a result, they know very little about their son and appear to be unaware of the majority of the fights he was in post-high school. Also, as his parents weren't around, Izaya was left in charge of his sisters' upbringing. Yes. *Those* sisters. - Riza Hawkeye's father of *Fullmetal Alchemist* appears to have been so absorbed in his alchemy research he disregarded the well-being of his daughter and the state of his home. Hawkeye said that her father "at least" made sure she got an education. As well, her father's ||tattooing of a massive alchemical array on her back could only be described as physical abuse.|| - Gauron from *Full Metal Panic!* certainly qualifies in relation to ||the twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan||. Not surprising, considering his personality. He cares little for their physical or mental well-being and is shown to mainly care about using them for his plans. There are hints and implications that his relationship with them also might not strictly have been a pure, father-daughter kind. He also didn't seem to care that, by having them work in Amalgam, they were being raped and beaten by Gates (which was apparently happening to them ever since they were young children). Despite all this, they still obsessively love him. - *Full Moon* has this as Izumi's background from his life as a human. His father died when he was a small child and his mother was constantly bringing men home, even being physically abusive towards Izumi ||or Leo, as his name back then||, which eventually ended in Izumi, as a child, committing suicide by stepping in front of a train. ||Goes more into the Parents as People category, as it's later shown that the mother was mostly stricken with grief and overall realized herself that she just *couldn't* be a good mother to Leo to the point that she thinks she has no "right" to stop him from committing suicide and asking for his forgiveness for failing as a mother.|| - *Future Diary*: - While Yukiteru's mother Rea maintains a close relationship with Yukiteru, she is rarely at home because of her work as a video game programmer and approves of Yuno as a potential bride for Yukiteru, even remaining oblivious to Yuno's psychotic and dangerous behavior. Really, when your son is on the run from the law, then disappears for a week after being exonerated and comes back incredibly nervous, you should be at least a little concerned. - Also, his father Kurou. Initially, he appears in chapter 30 claiming to just want to check on his son, but it turns out that he has only returned to destroy Yukiteru's diary in order to fulfill a deal with the Eleventh. Despite his only clear desire being to free himself from his debts, he does try to save Yukki when the latter almost falls to his death but takes the parachute away from Yukki before the tower crumbles soon after. He then stabs Rea when she tries to take him to the police and escapes, though is stabbed to death himself two chapters later by the Eleventh's men, just when he'd realised the error of his ways and was trying to atone. *Ouch*. - And then we learn that ||Yuno's father|| wasn't so different. He was a huge Workaholic to the point that he failed to notice how his wife had become abusive towards their child. - *Great Teacher Onizuka*: - Urumi's mom is focused on her job trading stocks, to the point that she didn't notice when her daughter ||tried to kill herself|| until after Onizuka burst in looking for her, and then her first concern was to get him to leave rather than worry about Urumi. - It takes Onizuka staging a Faked Kidnapping of Miyabi and holding a knife to her throat to get her parents to care. - Out of the girls in *Gunslinger Girl*, ||Jean's charge Rico||, was a victim of this. Her parents simply abandoned her in a hospital due to her very weak health and she languished away there until the Agency took her in. - Giorno Giovanna from *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind* had an extremely bad childhood. First of all, his biological father, a hundred-year-old British vampire, didn't even know he existed after having a one-night stand with his mother, and the only reason Giorno even knows he exists is due to a *single* photo. His biological mother was an extremely neglectful parent who left her extremely young son alone in the house to party, and later married a man who seemed nice at first but turned out to be an extremely physically abusive stepfather for Giorno, along with being a drunkard. In short, Giorno somehow managed to have Parental Abandonment, Parental Neglect, AND Abusive Parents *at the same time.* Is it any wonder, then, that he looks up to a gangster just for treating him with basic decency? - Hayate of *Hayate the Combat Butler* has incredibly neglectful parents—they spend all their money on gambling and steal from Hayate to fund their habits, eventually selling his organs to some "very nice people" to pay off their debts. They also stole a ring from him when he was a child ||given to him by his girlfriend/mentor Athena as a symbol of her love for him. He desperately wanted to trust and love them, but Athena argued that there was no good reason for him to do so, and she eventually dumped Hayate when she found out that his parents sold the ring at a pawn shop.|| - *Honey Hunt* has the protagonist's (Yura) famous celebrity parents Yukari and Takayuki. For one thing, Yura is judged a disappointment by others because she is continuously compared to her celebrity parents and she is used to people trying to get close to her for the sole purpose of getting to possibly meet Yukari and Takayuki. For another thing, Yukari is hardly at home and is very selfish. In all of her interviews, she lies and says that she and Yura are close and spend much time together as a result of Takayuki being abroad so often when in reality, she is a cold and distant parent. Also, immediately after showing up after being away from home for about half a month, Yukari coldly announces that she and Yura's father are getting divorced before telling Yura that she can go wherever she wants. Also, while Takayuki was having an affair she was having one of her own with Yura's neighbor and crush, Shinsuke. When Yura finds out about the affair Yukari's response is to smile, declare that Shinsuke likes her more than Yura, that she's going to allow Shinsuke to live with her in a mansion she had bought, and that Takayuki had a baby with his mistress so neither he nor Yukari will have time to look after Yura anymore. She then demands that Yura leave the house. It's eventually revealed that she and her husband were only together for the sake of their careers and their images, they didn't love each other. The two of them even agreed on a rule with each other that they would stay married as long as they hid their own adulterous affairs. After she decided to divorce Takayuki because the press found out about his affair, however, it is shown that she has no intentions of taking care of Yura and merely cared about repairing her image in the eyes of the public because they had originally thought she was the "ideal mom". Seriously, poor kid. - *Kaguya-sama: Love Is War*: - Kaguya is a Lonely Rich Kid and is forced to live in a Big Fancy House separate from the rest of her family with only servants to look after her. She says that her father never showed her any form of affection and she believes that he wouldn't even care if she died. He neglected to even give her The Talk, and as a result, she didn't learn about sex until she was *sixteen*. - Shirogane's mother was an Education Mama who walked out on the family almost a decade ago, ||temporarily taking his sister with her and leaving him behind because of his poor grades||. - In *Kotoura-san*, there's Haruka's father. His daughter is having *serious* social issues at school caused by her telepathy, and his wife Kumiko is frantically trying to find a cause to no avail since she doesn't know about Haruka's Psychic Powers. His response? Relegate it as "woman's work" and start rarely coming home. No wonder Kumiko eventually snaps. - Yuna of *Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear* is a 15-year-old shut-in and Teen Genius who makes millions off the stock market. She lives alone in a fancy high-rise apartment, playing her favorite VRMMO all day and getting food by delivery. Her parents are only mentioned in one scene when she wires them money so they can continue their traveling abroad before she promptly forgets about them. The only family member who shows any concern is Yuna's grandfather who signed the deed, but even then we only hear about him from Yuna's side of a phone call. - Precia Testarossa started off this way in the backstory of *Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha*, leaving her Familiar Linith to raise Fate while she spent all her time ||researching how to bring Alicia back to life||. Then Linith died, and things got significantly worse. - Meiko Akizuki's parents in *Marmalade Boy* only seem to care about themselves and their marital problems/economic deals, fighting all the time when they're at home while almost completely ignoring Meiko's own needs, only showing some concern when it's obvious it will affect their reputation (like ||their Parental Marriage Veto in the anime||. For worse, they simply *can't* get divorced because if they do, the Akizuki wealth will be divided and most likely lost. On top of it, Mrs. Akizuki is a Lady Drunk who is seen drowning her sorrows on screen while bitching out her much-hated husband. - Dr. Gennosuke Yumi from *Mazinger Z*. While it's true that he has a huge workload based on being the Team Dad of the Photoatomic Institute and helping Kouji with his fight against Dr. Hell, it doesn't fully justify how many times he neglects his teenage daughter, Sayaka. - *Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid*: - Kanna's parents took a very hands-off approach to raising her, under the logic of "dragons grow stronger by themselves". As a result, she started pulling pranks to get attention, which got her exiled to Earth. This is why she clings to Kobayashi as a Parental Substitute. - Fafnir explains in one chapter that this is actually a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance. Dragons lack a concept of emotional maturity or parent/child bonds, and those that express an understanding of it (like Tohru's father or Ilulu's dead parents) are merely imitating humans. - *My Hero Academia*: Enji Todoroki, the pro hero Endeavor, does this. He pretty much abandoned Shoto's older siblings since they lacked the potential to surpass All Might in his eyes. Flashbacks in Chapter 39 show that this actually worked out in their favor since they were spared the abusive training that Shoto was forced to endure. This did not stop Natsuo from hating him even more than Shoto does, to Shoto's surprise. - *Naruto*: - Gaara was horribly neglected by his father who ordered him killed on several occasions. This left Gaara to be raised by his uncle Yashamaru, who initially respected him but Yashamaru ultimately ends up betraying him and being killed by Gaara, leaving the latter to trust no one. ||Though it's later revealed that Yashamaru *did* care—but was ordered to act that way towards Gaara *under the orders of his father*. Naturally, when Gaara finds out from his Edo-Tensei-revived!dad, he promptly goes "Calling the Old Man Out" mode.|| - Considering it's heavily implied he didn't see his own orphaned godson for the first 13 years of his life, Jiraiya certainly appears neglectful to the point of being abusive. He gets (somewhat) better after their initial meeting, though, if you call spending his godson's life savings on booze and hookers an improvement. But supplementary materials reveal Jiraiya's reason for not being with Naruto when he was growing up: He was keeping Minato's old enemies in check, tracking down Orochimaru, and tracking Akatsuki. He was keeping all threats from *outside* the village from getting to Naruto. It doesn't stop fans from resenting him, anyways, not helped by the fact that Jiraiya is fairly wealthy and could easily have hired tutors and caretakers to raise him, and no reason is given why he didn't even arrange for a proper foster family to care for his godson. - Naruto himself is unintentionally running headlong into this territory in *Naruto Gaiden*, with ||his job as Hokage preventing him from spending as much time as he'd like with his children, especially his son, Boruto, who acts out in the same way Naruto did when he was young. It doesn't help that he seems to think being Hokage means taking on every burden himself and the villagers are indulging him, possibly to make up for mistreating him as a child||. - Sasuke is even worse. According to his daughter in *Naruto Gaiden,* she has never seen him even once because he's been away on a mission since she was a toddler. When they met, ||he didn't recognize her and almost gouged her eyes out.|| Sasuke later tries to make up for lost time in *Boruto*. - Hiashi Hyuga was the first example shown in the series. Cold and distant to his firstborn, rather than provide her with needed emotional support and stability, he basically discarded Hinata by sending her to the Ninja Academy, using wording along the lines of "The Hyuga Clan doesn't need someone like her"... while she was listening. While he did wise up after Neji beat Naruto publicly and the clan's dirty laundry with the Cage Bird Seal was aired to everyone, before getting to that point, he had also been indirectly responsible for his nephew Neji nearly killing Hinata in the preliminary matches, by hiding his brother's letter to his son that explained why he sacrificed his life to save Hiashi for *nine years* because he couldn't deal with his own grief, which allowed the hatred of his nephew to fester until he took it all out on Hinata. And we are only *told* things got better in the clan. We have never been shown Hiashi apologizing to his daughter for nearly getting her killed because of his neglect. However, he did allow Hinata to participate in the Fourth Shinobi War and he did not stop her from helping him and Neji protect Naruto during the fight against ||Obito and Madara||. So while he's not the monster often shown in fanfics, Hiashi could never be considered a good father figure at all. - Maya's father from *Occult Academy* spent so much time working on his school and studying the occult that he didn't have time for his family. He didn't even notice that his ex-wife had died until two years after the fact. - *One Piece*: This is why the main character Luffy and his older adoptive brother Ace turned out the way they did. They were put into the care of Luffy's biological grandfather Garp, but Garp, as a famous and very busy Marine, put virtually no effort into actually raising them himself and instead dumped the responsibility onto other people. Ace was raised by Dadan and her gang of mountain bandits, while Luffy is implied to have been raised by the people of Windmill Village up until Garp dragged him off to be raised by Dadan alongside Ace when he was seven. That would be bad enough on its own, but to make things worse, Garp put them in the care of Dadan with the ultimate goal of *making them into Marines*. Therefore, when the mountain bandits quite obviously failed to raise them into being law-abiding Marines their grandfather wanted them to be, whenever Garp showed up he tried to use Tough Love and made multiple attempts to beat the idea into their heads instead. That had the exact *opposite* effect of what he wanted, as it just made both brothers more determined to follow their dreams, if only just to get away from him. - Zai Vessalius from *PandoraHearts* was rarely around when Oz was a child and hardly paid any attention to him even when he was. Gil eventually confronted him about this, leading to Oz overhearing his father calling him disgusting and saying he should never have been born. As if *that* weren't enough, it is later revealed that Zai ||created a whole fake cover story in order to convince the Baskervilles to condemn Oz to the Abyss for the crime of *existing*||. As it turns out, ||Oz isn't even Zai's son but rather the soul of the chain B-rabbit in the cursed body of Jack Vessalius. Jack caused Zai's first child to be stillborn in order to take its place, and this is the reason for Zai's utter loathing of both Jack and Oz||. - *The Pet Girl of Sakurasou*: Drop-In Landlord/Sensei-chan Chihiro just dumps her cousin Mashiro on the co-tenant Sorata — which didn't sound so special, except Mashiro is an Idiot Savant and Chihiro knows Mashiro needs professional help 24/7. - *Pretty Cure*: - Tsubomi's parents in *HeartCatch Pretty Cure!* *started out* like this—they were always away on business and Tsubomi was always being watched over by her grandmother. Took Tsubomi a painful thirteen-fourteen years to break down and finally admit she was lonely. The rest of the series dual-wields this showing her parents willing to make up for all the lost time they had and Tsubomi trying to become a better person after years of accidental neglect. - And previously, in *Yes! Pretty Cure 5*, there's also Karen's parents, though less 'severe'. They're always traveling worldwide as they're famed musicians, and all they could give to Karen was only material stuff, her butler Sakamoto and occasional phone calls. Karen at least tried to be independent and appreciative of what was given, to not make them worry, but deep down, she's always lonely, only having Komachi as her best friend, until she met Nozomi and the others. Oh and she mentioned that her parents usually came back during Christmas for a while... but that turns out to be off-screen: They don't even appear in the respective Christmas Episodes of both seasons. - In *The Prince of Tennis* anime, Kevin Smith's father George is an emotionally scarred alcoholic who heavily neglected Kevin ||by subjecting him to Training from Hell|| *and* not caring if the child was around when he was drunk. Kevin openly tells his teammate Billy that his father is a worthless person and that's why he wants to beat Ryoma, to not be like his dad. - *Psyren*: Sakurako Amamiya's parents are very neglectful, having both basically abandoned her after splitting up and not batting an eye when she vanishes for weeks at a time. - *Reborn! (2004)*: - Although Tsuna's mother Nana loves him, she definitely doesn't really care enough about his future or his self-esteem to count as a very good parent (including not doing anything about his truancy or poor grades, and constantly belittling him in front of his friends and the girl he likes as "No Good Tsuna"—honestly, he's only 14 years old). She eases up a little when the truth comes out, though that could also be argued. And then there's his father, who went missing for most of Tsuna's life, and only reappears suddenly to force Tsuna (without even asking Tsuna if he wants to first) into becoming a Mafia crimelord that will be targeted by countless assassins. (Though considering what kind of parent he can be ) - There's also Chrome's parents, who treated her like she didn't exist and then abandoned her to die after a car accident with half her internal organs missing. - Rei's father in *Sailor Moon*, in the manga and the live-action adaptation. Takashi Hino not only is a very high-ranked member of a leading political party, but he's such a workaholic that he doesn't visit his dying wife Risa *a single time* when she's hospitalized. As a result, Rei refuses to live with him and moves with her maternal grandfather to the Hikawa shrine. - Lain's mother in *Serial Experiments Lain* acts very detached towards her and often looks at her with disdain. Her father isn't that much better but he does talk to her at least, and his behavior can be explained by him being a busy Salaryman. ||It turns out that they're not Lain's biological parents. Lain isn't even human. Lain's entire family was forced to treat her like their daughter, which explains their uninterested behavior towards her||. - *Subaru*'s parents have largely paid little attention to their daughter after their son Kazuma died. They knew for years that Subaru even performed (non-sexually) at a cabaret, they just never cared enough to talk to her about it. It wasn't until Subaru revealed that she isn't planning on going to high school, that her parents began to really interfere again. The sequel shows that her father seems to have absolutely no interest in his daughter anymore, now that he's remarried. Her mother follows Subaru's dancing via articles, though. - Johnny Bolt in *Super Crooks (2021)* was raised by a white trash single mother who was more interested in sleeping around than looking after her son, even openly blaming him for her difficulties in finding a partner. Johnny's life of crime was a direct result of his desire to skip town to get away from her. - Ataru Moroboshi of *Urusei Yatsura*, mostly because of Ataru's mother. In the first manga story, Mrs. Moroboshi said, "Ataru, you be sure to come home for the holidays!" and she always laments "I wish I never had him" throughout the manga and anime (sometimes in hearing range of Ataru). Atop that, there's the "omiai" scene in the movie Only You, where the Moroboshis force join with Lum's parents to force him to marry her officially all so that Ataru's parents will get better lives for themselves on the Oni homeworld. Atop that, Mr. Moroboshi always hides himself behind the newspaper and pretends nothing is happening: when Mrs. Moroboshi tries to provoke him into being a responsible father, he normally replies with some form of off-the-wall comment that does nothing. - In *Wild Rose*, Mikhail's mother raised him without showing any emotion in order that his markings wouldn't show. While this control allows him to live a good life in society, it really psychologically screwed him over and he has no concept of what love even is. This leads to him neglecting Camille, his adopted son, in turn because he doesn't understand Camille's attachment to him or why he needs to reciprocate it. - *Yu-Gi-Oh!*: - Yugi's mother is hardly ever around during the series, as well as being oblivious to the true nature of the Millennium Puzzle or any other activity that her son engages in. Moreover, Word of God stated that the reason his father never shows up is that he's away on business (all the time, apparently). No wonder Yugi was a Shrinking Violet at the very beginning. - The Virtual World filler arc has Gozaburou Kaiba, who abandoned his real son Noa/Noah, who died in a car accident, after he transferred Noa's soul into a virtual world and realized that it was impossible for Noa to be the heir of the company. Gozaburou, who committed suicide and had his soul also transferred to the virtual world, uses Noa to get revenge on Seto. Also, Gozaburou ignored Mokuba for 98% of the time (the remaining 2% bit him in the ass). - *Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V*: - Reiji Akaba believes that his father Leo wouldn't care if Reiji gets kidnapped. On the other hand, his mother Himika averts this trope. - In contrast to this trope and Parental Abandonment, *ARC-V* invokes Good Parents who actually watch the duels of their children. Yuya's mother Yoko and Yuzu's father Shuzou are even supporting characters to balance out the fact that Yuya and Yuzu have a Disappeared Dad and a Missing Mom, respectively. - In *YuYu Hakusho*, Yusuke's mother Atsuko clearly cares about him a great deal, but she's also an alcoholic and does almost nothing to actually look after him. - In *Mushi Shi* Ginko meets a young boy who became inspirited by the titular creatures when his mother tied him to a tree that was subsequently struck by lightning. (He was about five at the time and she couldn't stand the sound of his crying). As a result, He has Nigh-Invulnerability to lightning and spends most of his time in the trees outside just waiting to be struck by it. Ginko warns the boy that if he keeps up that kind of behavior, he could die. The Boy explains that while he isn't well regarded by his mother or father, the lightning always comes right down to him. Ginko tries speaking with the boy's mother and insists that she tell him that she wants him to live so that he'll stop his reckless behavior but in the end, she grabs hold of him and suggests that they die together promising that she'll come back as a mother that knows how to love her son. Just as the lightning is about to strike them both, he pushes her out of the way but even that proves ineffective and after being cured, he is taken in by relatives. - *Food Wars!*: As if Erina didn't have enough with having an Abusive Dad in Azami, the final arc reveals that her mother, Mana, all but dumped her, all because of her whims to try and find food that can please her. She actually set things up in the BLUE to try and get Erina ousted just because she didn't think Erina's God Tongue could "save" her, and she's willing to give her up to a creep like Asahi Saiba to marry her without a second thought. - *The Quintessential Quintuplets*: Maruo Nakano, the quintuplets' stepfather, is shown to be frequently absent from their lives, mostly working in the hospital he runs, to the point he doesn't appear in person until at least halfway through the story and only contacts the protagonists via phone call, and their relationship is somewhat distant (and even strained in Nino's case). In fact, at one point he didn't know about a spat that happened between Itsuki and Nino until Fuutarou told him, which prompts him to quit his tutor job because he refuses to work for such a neglectful father. That said, given that he provides shelter and money for them, he's quite a few steps above ||Mudou, the quints' biological father, who abandoned their mother Rena while she was pregnant with them, leaving her to raise them alone, and doesn't show up in their lives until they're already teenagers||. - *A Crown of Stars*: During a conversation with Asuka Misato admits she failed her and Shinji. She was their guardian and the only mother figure they had, but she neglected them during the war right when they needed her the most, and as a result, their trauma got worse until they broke down. - *Little Bro*—a *DuckTales (1987)* fanfic—takes a look at Gladstone Gander trying to raise an egg until it hatches. And since this is Gladstone we're talking about... - *Ghosts of Evangelion*: Misato took Shinji and Asuka in during the War but she neglected them when things got real bad. Although Asuka forgives her eventually, Misato regretted her inaction for as long as she lived. - *HERZ*: Asukas father stopped looking after his daughter when she was four. She is twenty-six now and he is still absent from her life. He never shows up, never calls and Asuka never ever mentions him. Its telling that she has managed to forgive Gendo but she never talks about her father. - *Evangelion 303*: After his wife's death, Gendo distanced himself from his son. Shinji does not ever remember living with him and grew up thinking that his father was ashamed of him. Ritsuko raised him until he was old enough, and then Gendo sent him away for school. - This moment is the first time that Shinji has seen his father in over ten years... and Gendo started lecturing him just like that. Naturally Shinji was not amused. - In *Laying Waste To Halloween*, Gabe doesn't make food for Percy and sometimes doesn't even buy food for Percy. - *The One I Love Is...*: Misato cared dearly for her wards Shinji and Asuka, but after ||Kaji's death,|| she was so wrapped in her grief, rage, and thirst for revenge that she completely neglected them while they were going through a break-down. She never helped Asuka while she was going through a severe emotional turmoil or after she got mind-raped, and she was not there for Shinji when he was depressed because everyone ||were dying or leaving him.|| Shinji even mentioned she was barely at home those days. - Isabella, Luso's and Frimelda's mother in *The Tainted Grimoire*, was an Alcoholic Parent after her husband died. Her dad decided to take away the kids after this has gone on for too long. ||Her dad was unable to do this because on the very night he announced his intent, there was a fire and Isabella, in her last act to redeem herself of her neglect, tried to warn her dad and her kids but died trying||. - *Brainbent*: "Bro" Strider, who is the sole caregiver to his young brother, often leaves him alone for hours or days at a time, doesn't always feed him, and allows their apartment to fill with trash. And he isn't the best of parents when he is home, either. - *Queen of All Oni*: Jade is shown to have suffered this to the point of bordering on abuse. It eventually turns out to be because her parents were self-admitted towards not being fit to be parents and therefore didn't put much effort into it. - *The Fairly OddParents!* fanfiction *Never Had a Friend Like Me*: The main OC, Amanda Adams suffers this at the hands of her parents, who only care about their money and couldn't care less about their daughter. Even the evil genie who tricks people with their wishes dislikes their parenting skills and thinks they should pay more attention to their daughter. Even Evil Has Standards, indeed. - In *Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race*, the Bonnes' parents are on constant vacations and check in infrequently via communicators. - *Miraculous: The Phoenix Rises* gives us Maximilliam, Max and Haley's father who spends virtually all of his time in bed watching a childish sitcom, even when they're in danger of being evicted and threatens to take his belt off at anyone who interrupts him. - One of the biggest complaints about the lost *Fire Emblem: Awakening* comic *Future of Despair* was how it turned ||Henry||, canonically said to be a member of the Good Parents group, into this. ||In the comic featuring his death, it's all but stated that he left his son Yarne (whose mother Panne fell victim to Death by Childbirth) completely alone *when Yarne was around one year old*, to pretty much get himself killed by fighting to the death against Risen. Henry's train of thoughts during this comic are seen as full of selfish, whiny mangst that is only centered on HIS own pain at Panne's death, with his baby son's extremely uncertain future being only on the back of his mind until the **very** moment of his demise.|| - *Mirror's Image* depicts Diamond Tiara's grandparents on her father's side as this, at least once they hit bad times. Worse than the usual examples, it's directly responsible for the death of their daughter via starvation. ||Because she was a Changeling princess, and needed large amounts of love to survive. An angry Chrysalis arranged things so that both Riches ended up in prison, and by the time the story takes place they're still there.|| - In the *Pokémon* fanfic *Olivine Romance*, Jasmine's parents display this, in different ways: - Jasmine's mother raised her with strict expectations but little support and no guidance on how to meet those expectations. She often berates her for minor misbehavior and is not above hitting her, and it seems she does so not to try to discipline Jasmine, but out of anger for impinging on her own life. - Her father is more kind and caring, when he's around. - *Despair's Last Resort*'s Kumiko Akamine was given this treatment. Her parents have jobs that cause them to work until night, when they are home they never spoke to her, and they don't seem to care what she does. She tries to justify this with the fact that their job keeps them busy, but it's obvious that it's left a mark on the girl. - *Kyoshi Rising*; Fire Lord Mitsuo took his wife's Death by Childbirth very badly, badly enough that he's still emotionally distant from his children ten years later. - *In Brightest Day: The Second Front* gives us Sunset Shimmer, which also covers her reason for being how she is; Sunburst was her older more talented brother and got all their parents' praise, while all Sunset got was "we expected nothing less" or "Sunburst did it better"... until eventually she snapped and cut off all ties to her family after she became Celestia's student. Upon arriving in the Human world Sunset almost immediately ran into her Human family, who were desperately searching for her hoping to make up for their mistakes. Sunset discovered that a similar scenario happened, resulting in her counterpart running away and decided to use this development to her advantage, taking her human self's place. - From *Kill la Kill AU*, we have Ragyou's mother Youko (otherwise known as "Meinu"), who is this, as she mostly preferred to sit, smoke cigarettes, and watch TV, and, to some degree, abusive, and left a then child Ragyou to basically raise herself. Word of God states Nonon's parents are this and that they only pay attention to her when she goes to jail, in which case they bail her out. One of the fanfics states a lesser version of this with Sukuyo's parents who loved her and were quick to give her what she needed, yet were painfully absent-minded, allowing their daughter to be free ranged, going wherever she wanted to, and the fact that they typically didn't call her by her given name, instead calling her "Turtle". - We also have this in the *Kiryuuin Chronicles*, as Satsuki notes that she was always taken care of by Rei, a servant, and has been since birth, the same going for her little sisters, and, apparently, she usually didn't see her parents, seeing as in chapter two (not counting the intro) her mother was very far in her pregnancy and she notes it was a long time that she had seen her. This might actually be justified on her mother's end, considering how her father is and it turns out it was, ||her mother, Ragyou, was trying to protect her and her sisters from her husband by leaving them in the care of Rei|| - Silver Spoon of *Bad Future Crusaders* was neglected by her racist unicorn parents because she was an earth pony. Surprisingly, for all the issues and bad qualities that define her, her borderline abusive parents actually led to one of her few *good* qualities: she likes children and is even protective of ones who are similarly neglected by their parents. - *Thousand Shinji*: After ||Shinji merged with his Eva|| Misato fell apart, resorted to her boyfriend and alcohol to endure her pain, and neglected her remaining ward, Asuka. Asuka — who was also in a very fragile emotional state — resented her for it. - In *The Second Try*, Asuka states during Instrumentality that she is resented her guardian Misato because the older woman neglected her when she was hurt and abandoned her when Asuka needed her the most. - *Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide*: Misato cares about her wards Shinji and Asuka, but her own psychological issues often prevent her from connecting with them, and being obsessed with continuing Kaji's quest for the truth behind NERV, she often up ends neglecting them, though she feels guilty about it. She gets better after a while, though. - Defied in *Once More with Feeling*. When SEELE suggests Shinji that he should move in with his grandfather because Misato is too busy to take care of Asuka and him properly, Shinji replies that at the very least she tries to look after them, unlike his so-called blood relatives. - In *My Mirror, Sword and Shield* Suzakus biological mother was a Refrain addict who spent all her money getting her next fix instead of feeding or clothing her son. Suzaku noted that after he was five he had to run the house and take care of her until she died. - In Lopoddity's Pandoraverse, Tree Hugger and Zephyr Breeze were very bad parents to their natural son Chakra Blossom. Tree Hugger was loving but wildly irresponsible, often leaving her son alone while she went to hippie retreats, while Zephyr never had any real presence in his son's life, feeling parenting would "cramp his style". As a result, Chakra was raised largely by his aunt Fluttershy and grew up to resent both of his parents. It's also implied his neglectful childhood is part of what led him to become the bitter and manipulative pony he is in the setting's present. - In *One Year*, Yu Narukami's parents being a case of this is touched upon, and it's indicated that Kanako(Yu's mother) suspects that her younger brother Dojima is probably more responsible than she is in some ways, such as taking care of Yu during the year-long business trip she and her husband went on. Yu, for his part, tries to understand his parents' perspective, but sometimes, his resentment shows through, such as when Kanako suggests that she'd have likely discouraged him from getting into a relationship with Yukiko if she'd known at the time. - In *Black Sky*, the Prince of Sabina became a shut-in following his beloved wife's death, basically letting his four-year-old daughter be raised by the wider family and refusing to attend various events such as her wedding and her son's birth. ||And that's not even touching what he did to his toddler son...|| - *The Pieces Lie Where They Fell*: Night Blade's parents *really* did a number on him, since he was born so late in their lives and they no longer knew how to relate to a young child. - *Dragon Ball Z Abridged* takes this pretty far, as Goku is shown to be a terrible father. In fact, when Gohan was wondering what his father would do in a dangerous situation, all he could think of was Goku waving and saying "Bye, son!" **Gohan:** I think I have issues. - In *Claire the Kind*, it is established pretty early on that Claire's parents are not always there when she needs them. **Claire:** Um, mom? **Mrs. Nuñez:** Yes, Claire? Is there something you need? **Claire:** I, uh... was wondering if you could pick me up later on Thursday? **Mrs. Nuñez:** Claire, you know we'll be at work all day. **Claire:** I know, I was just- **Mrs. Nuñez:** And why do you need to be picked up later? **Claire:** You don't remember? **Mrs. Nuñez:** No, I can't say I do. - Dexter's parents are implied to be this way in *Invisible Sun*. Dexter intentionally hides his intellect from them, but at the same time they don't put much notice to him anyway: *His parents were five states away? Good lord. "They don't know you're here?" * He shrugged. "I told them I was planning a trip to Townsville while they were away. Whether or not they actually heard what I said is a completely unrelated matter." Utonium paused. Dexter's words were delivered in a matter-of-fact, offhanded manner, as if a fourth grader up and traveling hundreds miles away from home was a commonplace thing. "They don't know you're in Townsville?" "I told them I was coming here if you would allow." Dexter smiled, thought the gesture did not reach his eyes. "The real question, Professor Utonium, is do they care?" "Do they?" he wondered, his horror growing. He sensed the answer as Dexter adjusted his glasses. Already Utonium recognized the gesture as a delaying tactic the boy utilized to buy time to consider. "I have no idea," was the softly-spoken, honest reply. - In *Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!*, Alexis Lois "Lexi" Luthor mentions that her parents are usually too busy getting wasted and playing Russian roulette to pay any attention to her. This also means that she's left to run LexCorp herself, doing so with an iron fist. - *The Outside*: While she isn't Ryuuko's parent, Satsuki plays this as a guardian and seems to be a little inattentive and gullible, along with being busy with whatever she might be doing. Because of this, Ryuuko is made a foster kid when she didn't question how her sister got hurt from a household fall, nor did she get her attention for her injured leg. - In *Amazing Fantasy*, Mitsuki Bakugo is so busy at work that she rarely takes the time to sit down and get to know her son. While she knows that his ego has been ballooning since he discovered his Quirk, she had no idea that he and Izuku have been growing apart, or that Katsuki was essentially friendless. - In the *Pokémon* fic "Ash's Adventure: Girls' Hunter Edition", May left her family to become a PokeGirl- a human capable of using Pokemon attacks and carried around in a human ball- because her father was so distant for years that she is amazed he was even able to maintain enough interest in her mother to have children in the first place. - A key theme in *The Confectionary Chronicles* is Hermione recognising that her older sister, Ness, was more of a parent to her than her own parents before Ness committed suicide. Over the next few years, the Grangers grow increasingly distant from Hermione as they don't truly understand how to help her cope with Ness' death, to the extent that Hermione goes to live with her aunt and uncle full-time after the Grangers can't accept the revelation that she's a witch. - In *Conversations with a Cryptid*, Hisashi Midoriya up and disappeared on his family a decade ago. Izuku doesn't really have any emotional connection to him and doesn't even know what he looks like. ||When he returns in *Kidnapping of a Cryptid*, he does his best to make up for this.|| - *RWBY: Scars*: - After Summer died, Taiyang fell into a depression where he could barely function. This left his oldest daughter Yang in charge of her sister Ruby for a while. Yang still holds resentment towards her dad for that period. - Willow barely interacts with her three children. Weiss has stated that she can literally count the times she's talked to her mother while sober on her hands. When Jacques beat his kids as children, Willow would shoo them away because she didn't want to think about the abuse. Willow's neglect only adds to the Schnee's being a Big, Screwed-Up Family. - *The Many Dates of Danny Fenton*: When seeing Buttons from *Animaniacs* getting punished by Mindy's parents for getting covered in garbage, Danny and Jazz, who saw that he was trying to save Mindy, call them out for not properly watching over their daughter. - *Fallout: Equestria*: Littlepip's mother largely ignored her for most of her life, instead focusing on drinking. When Littlepip finally returns home, after having ||fought her way through the dozens of Steel Rangers who were slaughtering the inhabitants of the Stable||, her mother barely acknowledges her presence, going right back to talking to her friends about how one of her dresses was ruined when her friend died. Velvet Remedy slaps her across the face. - In *Through Their Eyes*, Veruca's parents didn't pay attention to her for days on end when she was younger. After she was taken as ransom, it took them three days to notice she was missing. After Veruca was saved, her parents promised to give her anything she wanted, which is why she became such a Spoiled Brat. - *Let the World Smile*: Zelda's father is very distant and more concerned with political matters. He's more her king than her father. - *The Pokémon Squad*: Played for Laughs in "The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Life of Timothy Green" when Timothy is left in RM's care. This is the result of RM following the advice of a parenting book written by Timmy Turner's parents. - *Unbreakable Red Silken Thread*: - Both Heather and Sammy's parents are guilty of this. - Cody's are as well but not to the same degree, coming off as more along the lines of innocently insensitive most of the time. They might have forgotten his birthday, but when he ended up in the ICU they dropped everything and were there at his side. - *Blackbird (Arrow)*: Quentin failed to realize that Laurel had been kidnapped for *over three years* because he was too deep in his cups with his grief over Sara's (supposed) loss. Knowing what happened to Laurel, it's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for him. - The Lances basically let Sara get away with figurative murder because she was the baby of the family, and completely failed to parent her at all. Notably, this extends even after she gets back Quentin has made no genuine effort to actually build a relationship with Sara and Dinah is willfully ignorant of how her 'favorite' daughter has been slowly killing herself over the last three years due to the guilt over what happened to Laurel. To Quentin's credit that's partially because Sara and Dinah have both been avoiding him. Then, in the last chapter, Sara asks to move in with him, which he happily agrees to, fulling averting this trope. - *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines*: Vedia, one of the girlfriends of Belladonna, is implied in the main story to come from a wealthy family. One of the Holiday Specials reveals that her parents were often absent and hired private tutors to homeschool her. - *Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox*: Minor character Yukata accuses her mother Yui of being this, citing the fact that when Yukata was wrongly accused of theft by Konoha High School's Hall Monitors' Guild (because she refused to go on a date with one of their members), Yui simply took the accusation at face value without even considering Yukata's side of the story; however, Yui counters that Yukata running away from home to join a street gang in another city didn't help her case. ||It's soon revealed that Yui never had much, if any, emotional investment in Yukata ever since the latter was a baby, as Yui wasn't ready to have a child (the condom broke) and then underwent a traumatic birthing process when Yukata was born three months premature; the only reason Yui didn't terminate the pregnancy was that neither she nor her husband believed in abortion, plus the husband had always wanted a child and was excited about the opportunity||. - In the *Danny Phantom* fanfic "Humans and Ghosts", it is made painfully clear that while this version of Jazz and Danny's parents still love them, they also value their lab research above all else. Jazz at one point laments that, while she loves her younger brother, she hates that she's had to act as Danny's caregiver since she was *six* because Jack and Maddie couldn't be bothered to make sure they had food to eat or were going to school. - In *Legacy (DocSuess)*, Tony and Peter's relationship as father and son is virtually non-existent. While Tony and Peter are only ever seen together in convenient PR-related activities like galas and charities, he has his company provide for any of the "personal stuff", with multiple mentions that Tony doesn't even know when Peter's birthday is. - In the *Punch-Out!!* fanfic *Shining and Sweet*, Little Mac's biological parents hardly remember he exists, due to their constant fighting. This is to the point where they can't remember his current age (they think he's 15; he's 18) or his middle name (his mother claims it's William; it's actually Hiroki). - *Ships Ahoy!*: Oprah's adoptive family, comprised of Auntie May, Uncle Chester, and her adoptive cousins Lunette and Molly, never gave her much attention when she was growing up, and in Uncle Chester's case, it's straight-out neglect. Although Auntie May was the kindest out of the family, she still never showed Oprah any real loving affection and constantly pressured her into joining Odd Squad, sending Oprah to her room without dinner when she told her that she didn't want to join Odd Squad and wanted to start up a fruit stand instead. How her adoptive family treated her didn't bother her, however, as she had the wits and common sense to make it through life fine and was completely independent. - *This Is A Wild Game Of Survival*: Na-yeon's parents would rather fire nannies to take care of her than engage in her life. This is because they view her as a way of furthering their wealth and status and quite toxic in their own right. Of course, this does leave Na-yeon feeling quite unloved, especially after falling out with her best friend and having to come home to an empty house. - *Storks*: The plot is set in motion by a young boy whose realtor parents are both Married to the Job, so he writes to the storks to send him a baby brother. - Michael's biological mother Denise in *The Blind Side*. Not necessarily abuse so much as neglect, due to her addiction to crack cocaine. - *Cuties*: - Amy's mother, as she is dealing with her husband's second marriage, which ends up worrying more about her wedding than about Amy's true feelings. - Angelica's parents; according to her, they just work in a restaurant without worrying about Angelica and her brother. The film shows that Angelica and her brother do not get along so well. - *Duck Butter*: Sergio's mother Susana left her wandering in the street as a four old, which she continues to resent into the present, saying it was crazy. - *Europe '51*: Young Michele is the single child of a wealthy couple, and feels extremely neglected due to his parents only caring about their opulent lifestyle of parties and society hobnobbing. In the opening scene, he constantly attempts to talk to his mother and the only time he manages to is when she's in her room getting ready for yet another party. He isn't even able to look at her, since she's getting dressed and she has him turn around. This ends tragically when his feelings overwhelm him to the point he throws himself down a stairwell and perishes, causing his mother to realize how awful she was being. - *The Field Guide to Evil*: Arnold's parents Chris and Macy in "Beware the Melonheads". His mother Macy is always drinking wine and on her phone discussing business, even when she is supposed to be watching Arnold. His father Chris is slightly better but is more concerned with being a 'cool dad' than actually noticing what is going on with his son. - *Gooby*: Willy's parents are too caught up in business to pay attention to him. However, after Willy ||nearly falls due to a Floorboard Failure in an abandoned house||, he and his parents start spending more time together. - ||Neglectful parents are actually what Gooby helps with, as he's passed down from one neglected kid to another to fix their relationships||. - *The Grizzlies*: Russ walks into his student Zach's house to see his parents passed out from alcohol and drug use. It's shown that Zach is the one who primarily takes care of his younger brother Johnny, including hunting for his family. - In *The Hairy Bird*, Verena's parents, who are divorced, dropped her at boarding school, which made her think they don't want anything to do with her. - *How to Be*: Art's parents, due to their own upbringing, have no idea of how to connect to Art or, seemingly, to each other. - In *Ip Man*, this seems to be how the titular character treated his son. However, that changes when ||the Japanese invaded and he was stripped of his properties and forced to scrape a living.|| - In *Let Me In*, one of the major changes to story from the Swedish novel is how the main character's mother is changed from a loving parent who was simply busy with work to an alcoholic who neglects her son. She's seen drinking drunk repeatedly while ignoring her own son whose being horribly bullied at school. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film, after being attacked Owen goes to her for comfort only to discover she's passed out drunk. - *Margarita*: Ben and Gail are both medical professionals highly focused on their careers. As such, six years back they got Margarita (a Mexican in Canada who's undocumented) to be their nanny. Margarita basically raised their daughter Mali ever since, who is quite resentful of them for this. - *Marvel Cinematic Universe:* - Although Odin does love Loki, he found it difficult to forge a close bond with his adopted son and remained distant because Loki isn't a Proud Warrior Race Guy like him and is of Jötunn descent. It's lampshaded by Loki in *Thor:* **Loki:** You know, it all makes sense now, why you favoured Thor all these years, because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard! - Tony Stark complains that his dad was never around for him, and he seriously doubted that his father loved him at all. It is eventually shown not to be the case in regards to whether he loved him. **Tony:** He was cold, he was calculating, he never told me he loved me, he didn't even tell me that he liked me, so it's a bit hard for me to digest that he said the whole "future is riding on me" thing. You're talking about a man whose happiest day of his life was shipping me off to boarding school. - *Matilda*: Matilda's parents verbally berate her and neglect her every need, they have no problem leaving her at home, and they left her in the car when they got home from the hospital after driving extremely recklessly with her unrestrained in the back seat. - MonsterVerse: - *Godzilla (2014)*: Even before the incident at the power plant turned him into an obsessive conspiracy theorist, Joe Brody was already unintentionally dismissive of his family, forgetting to greet his son in the morning and even that it's *his own birthday* today. - The prequel graphic novel *Godzilla Awakening* reveals Dr. Serizawa was on the receiving end of When You Coming Home, Dad?, which led to a reconciliation in his young adulthood when his father revealed the truth of his work for Monarch. - *Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)*: Madison has been on the receiving end in the five years since her brother's death, as her mother became the Workaholic whilst her father turned to drinking and divorced Emma. The novelization confirms Madison coped with the help of her Honorary Aunt Vivienne Graham. Even at the start of the film, Emma retains custody of Madison but is still somewhat distant with her, while Madison and Mark only have sporadic contact note : Mentioned in the novelization. Both parents come to regret the ways they've neglected their surviving child. - *Godzilla vs. Kong*: The novelization reveals that Serizawa had a similar When You Coming Home, Dad? parenting style with his son Ren to the one his own father had with him, but unfortunately Ren didn't respond to it the same way Ishirō did, instead growing to resent his father. The rift between them got particularly bad after Dr. Serizawa's wife died while he was on an expedition and he didn't find out until a week later, while Ren had to organize his mother's funeral himself at age eighteen. Ultimately, when Serizawa died before he and Ren could reconcile, this created a Freudian Excuse which led to Ren becoming a full-blown Evil Genius and an antithesis to everything that his father and grandfather had stood for. - *M3GAN*: A major theme of the movie. Gemma shirks her parental responsibilities, leaving the bulk of childcare to M3GAN. Brandon's mother is also overly lenient and makes excuses for her son's antisocial behavior. - *Mystery Men*: Invisible Boy tells his father "Hey dad, I'm taking three strange men into my room" when he has The Blue Raja, The Shoveler and Mr. Furious over in a testing tone. His dad doesn't even appear to notice a bit of it, indicating this is a long-running feature of their relationship. - *Not Like Everyone Else*: Brandi's dad pays far more attention to her brother, taking him to Cherokee ceremonies with her left behind at home. He apologizes for this later. - *Off the Black* features two cases of this. David's father is entirely emotionally unavailable due to him still grieving over his wife's abandonment of the family two years before. And Ray is badly estranged from his son, claiming that he "just never paid attention" until it was too late. - In *Point Of Origin*, a Bio Pic of serial arsonist/fire investigator John L. Orr, he spends all his time at home in the basement, either working in the investigation or on his writing. His wife Wanda tells him she spends more time with his kids than he does, and she is not even their real mother. - *Santa Claus (1959)* has a family of rich people, with the parents buying their son everything he could ever want... but they're constantly out socializing, leaving him home by himself; they even suggest that he practice his piano lessons if he's ever feeling bored or lonely. His letter to Santa is just him begging his parents to stay home Christmas eve, so Santa meets them at their cocktail party and serves them a beverage that brings their familial love back to the forefront of their minds. - *The Squid and the Whale*: Bernard and Joan are pretty crappy parents. However, at least Joan kind of made an attempt. It turns out Bernard didn't really contribute much to his children's lives. Both parents are apathetic about their son Walt's plagiarism and troubles in school. Most notably, at one point both parents leave their pre-teen son Frank at home by himself for three days, where he proceeds to get alcohol poisoning. - *Spanking the Monkey*: Tom isn't close to either his wife or his son. According to Susan, Tom didn't want Raymond in the first place. Even at the end, when Ray reveals what he and Susan have been doing in order to get his father to intervene and let him leave the home, he just dismisses Ray and tells Susan to get him professional help. - *The Summer of Sangaile*: Neither of Sangaile's parents seem to realize, or perhaps care, that she cuts herself. - *Wasp*: Zoe lives a sad and lonely life, as a desperately poor single mother of four, and if she weren't so terribly poor or if she had some support, she probably wouldn't make the choices she makes. But still, leaving your kids loitering in a parking lot for hours while you play pool and engage in Auto Erotica until it's dark and they are scrounging through garbage for food, that's parental neglect. - *War of the Worlds (2005)*: Due to his ex-wife having primary custody of them, Ray doesn't see his kids that often and barely knows anything about them. His teenage son Robbie is openly resentful of him and calls him by his first name, while his young daughter Rachel clearly prefers her mother over him. However, Ray still loves his kids and is very protective of them, and part of his Character Development is learning to become a better dad, especially toward Rachel. - *X-Men Film Series* - *X-Men: First Class*: Charles' mother is hinted to be emotionally distant towards her son, which is why Raven's maternal act backfires spectacularly. **Charles:** *[telepathically communicates to Raven disguised as Mrs. Xavier]* My mother has never set foot in this kitchen in her life, and she certainly never made me hot chocolate, unless you count ordering the maid to do it. - There's also the fact that she apparently never noticed her son taking in and pretty much raising another girl from who-knows-where. - *X-Men: Apocalypse*: Ben Hardy suggests that a lack of parental nurturing is a major factor in Warren Worthington III turning to the dark side. **Ben Hardy:** People who don't get looked after enough can end up being very angry and I feel like this is where Angel's anger comes from and maybe that gives him the potential to transform and become one of the villains. - Adrian's parents in the *Adrian Mole* series border on neglect, though it is played for laughs. - They don't have much time for each other either, as they are usually busy having affairs with neighbors and people they work with. - *Animorphs*: - Tobias's guardians are an aunt and uncle, who live on opposite sides of the country and pass him off between them at different times of the year. Both are implied to resent having to take care of him, and neither made the slightest effort to look for him when, as far as they knew, he just disappeared (his friends did send each a forged note saying he was staying with the other, which was apparently enough for them). Tobias even casually states in the first book his belief that he has no one who would care if he died fighting the Yeerks. - The second book revolves around Rachel's friend Melissa, who is upset that her parents don't love her anymore. What Melissa doesn't know is that they're Controllers, and her father chose to be infested to keep her safe. - Marco's father, meanwhile, spends the first few books still suffering from depression over the death of his wife a few years earlier, leaving Marco to pick up a lot of the slack around the house. He manages to pull himself together enough at the end of the fifth book to realize what he's been doing and take steps to shape up. - Bambi's mother gradually grows more distant in the novel, eventually abandoning Bambi once mating season arrives. She does come back, though. His father is distant in both the novel and the film, but not in the sequel to the film. Justified, though, as this how it is for real deer. - In *Bubble World*, Freesia's mom is more concerned about her internet blog than her husband and children, and her dad lacks presence because he's wrapped up in the past. - Ricky's father lets him do whatever he wants just to get him out of the way, even to the point of purchasing Bubble World if it will make him go back. - *Cinderella.* Not from the stepmother—that's outright abuse; from her father. While he suffers Death by Adaptation in just about every version, both the Charles Perrault and The Brothers Grimm versions make it clear that he's alive; he just goes along with his wife's actions. In fact, in the latter, he actually introduces Cinderella to the prince as the kitchen-maid, *not* his daughter. - Subverted (sort of) in *Coraline*. Yes, the heroine's parents never have time for her, but the alternative is much, much worse—and we see that the parents **do** care for Coraline when they finally find time. The movie plays it a little differently. While Coraline's parents do ignore her for much of the movie, it's because they're busy getting moved into their new place and putting together a gardening catalogue that needs to be finished as soon as they can. ||When they finish both of those things, they spend plenty of time with their daughter and even give her a present as a thank you for dealing with it.|| - *The Dresden Files*: While his sisters suffer Sexual Abuse, Thomas Raith is generally neglected until it's time to insult somebody by having him appear in his father's place. It's implied that if Thomas hadn't used Obfuscating Stupidity to play the Airheaded Playboy role to the hilt, he would've been offed. - *Ella Enchanted* has Sir Peter, Ella's greedy and selfish father. He tries to use his clever ways to gain riches. He gains much of his wealth through trickery and deceit and loses it the same way. Sir Peter takes pride in Ella for being a brave, sassy child. Once he gets to know his daughter, he notes their resemblance, laughs at her attitude, and seems to grow somewhat fond of her. Yet, he deals little with his daughter and is more concerned for his business than her well-being. They have a distant relationship, as Ella acknowledges his corrupt, greedy nature and finds it unpleasant—especially during his attempts to force her to marry. He marries Dame Olga because of her wealth and cares little when Dame Olga forces Ella to work as a servant. - *Fire & Blood:* King Jaehaerys I. Widely considered one of, if not the, best king Westeros ever has, but as a father... passable? He gets on well enough with the eldest, who are his heirs, but when you've got nine kids kicking around. He was pretty terrible with the girls especially. Saera grew up to become a monstrous little shit, and he had no time or patience to deal with Daela's disorders. - In *Flowers in the Attic* Corrine ignores all of her children's very reasonable protests, even in extreme instances such as when the grandmother starves them. - *Forbidden*: The Whitelys' mother—Lily—disappears to her boyfriend's house for weeks at a time, leaving the responsibility of her five children to the eldest two. *With Dave she can pretend she is young again, free of the restrictions and responsibilities of motherhood. She never wanted to grow up— [ ] the only reason they got married was because she accidentally fell pregnant with me—a fact she likes to remind me of whenever we have an argument. And now that I am just a few months away from being legally classed an adult, she feels freer than she has in years. Dave already has a young family of his own. He has made it very clear that he doesnt want to take on someone elses. And so she shrewdly keeps him away, only bringing him back to the house when everyone is asleep or out at school. With Dave she has reinvented herself—a young woman caught up in a passionate romance. She dresses like a teenager, spends all her money on clothes and beauty treatments, lies about her age, and drinks, drinks, drinks—to forget that youth and beauty are behind her, to forget that Dave has no intention of marrying her, to forget that at the end of the day she is just a forty-five-year-old divorcée in a dead-end job with five unwanted children.* - *The Fragility of Bodies*: Peque and Dientes both have Struggling Single Mothers who don't have time to pay attention to them, allowing the kids to get involved in all sorts of schemes, including the deadly Game of Chicken. - *Girls Don't Hit*: Joss didn't really want to have children, and largely lets her husband Colin raise hers. She therefore is often unaware of what her kids are into, or in her son's case his age and whether he's bathing unassisted now. - In *Gone with the Wind*, Scarlett's children Wade and Ella, suffer from this, Scarlett is always too wrapped up in her own concerns to care about Wade, and especially Ella. Rhett points out that if it weren't for him and Melanie, Wade and Ella would not even know what love is. - In *The Great Divorce*, the Possessive Mother (whose name appears to be Pam) was obsessed with her favorite son to the point of utterly neglecting the rest of her family, including her other children. - *Harry Potter*: - Harry's real parents are absent due to being dead, Harry's aunt and uncle treated Harry like dirt, giving him lousy birthday and Christmas presents, locking him in a tiny closet, and letting Dudley get away with bullying Harry while lavishing all their attention on their son. Dumbledore called them out on this, implying, interestingly enough, that the Dursleys did more damage to *Dudley* than to Harry. That's understandable since thanks to all of their pampering Dudley grew into a cruel and selfish Spoiled Brat who thought he could get away with *anything*. ||Fortunately, he later gets Character Development and reconciles himself with Harry.|| Interestingly, Harry actually *likes* that the Dursleys shift towards ignoring him more and more as the series goes on. He can take care of himself fine and thinks it's an improvement to be left alone in his room to do whatever. Word of God says that Harry and Dudley were able to mend fences for good and are on friendly terms as adults. - Snapes mother was implied to be this way while his father was just straight-up an Abusive Parent. - *Heralds of Valdemar*: Turns up in Herald Jakyr's backstory in *Bastion*. Jakyr's parents belonged to the Valdemaran version of the Quiverfull movement. They not only couldn't remember their kids' names but as of the end of the *Collegium Chronicles* still haven't realized that Jakyr no longer works at the family inn. And since he's a senior Herald at the beginning of that series, do the math. - Tͻgã Pious in *His Only Wife* toward his younger children, who are protagonist Afi's cousins. The kids tell Afi that Pious, who has three wives, does not provide the children's mother with enough for her to feed them appropriately or eats all the meat when he shares meals with them. He also often refuses to pay their school fees so that the school principal sends them home and they have to leave their classes in shame. It has been established that this is not a case of poverty, but rather, being an entitled tightwad. And on top of that, he hits them frequently. - In *Hush, Hush*, Nora's father died not long before the series began and her mother is constantly out of town for her job. Even when her mom is home though, she rarely seems to put much effort into looking after Nora. This conveniently gives Nora a chance to run out and do things her mother would never approve of, with little to no chance of being caught. - Draconus from *The Kharkanas Trilogy* doesn't pay much attention to his kids, and named his three daughters Envy, Spite, and Malice (if he had a fourth, she would apparently be named Venom). On the other hand, their mother, ||Olar Ethil||, urges him to kill them, so he still ends up the nice parent of the two. - In *Needful Things*, Cora Rusk practically forgets she even has children after getting her "needful thing" from Leland Gaunt. - *The Neverending Story*: Bastian's father is well-intentioned, but he has become depressed and distant after his wife died and has ended up pretty much ignoring his son. - David McKee's picture book *Not Now, Bernard* is all about this trope. Little Bernard can't do anything to get his parents to pay him any attention, even when he tells them that there's a monster in the garden and it's going to eat him. So Bernard goes out into the garden and, sure enough, the monster eats him. After this, the monster goes inside, where Bernard's parents even fail to notice that a monster has replaced their son and treat him just as dismissively as they did Bernard. "But I'm a monster," said the monster. "Not now, Bernard," said Bernard's mother. - Played with in *Sabriel*, in the case of Terciel (the titular Sabriel's father). He brings her to boarding school in Ancelstierre when she's young and sees her in person only once or twice a year. (Her mother died when she was born, so she wasn't able to help.) However, he's doing this because it's not safe for her in the Old Kingdom, and he talks with her more frequently with remote sendings. Later,|| when he knows he's about to die,|| he confesses that he hasn't been the best parent. She doesn't seem to mind, and it's clear that he was a loving parent. - Owen Meany's parents in *A Prayer for Owen Meany*. Johnny's mother is pretty much Owen's mom. - In *Radiance*, Percy means well, but his obsession with movies and very busy schedule means that he's often not around for his daughter. He does do his best to give her love and attention but mostly is able to work it in through treating Severin as a part of his movies. One of his wives writes how it's a little creepy watching a child do multiple takes of opening her Christmas presents and thinking nothing of it. - Mr. Bennet in *Pride and Prejudice*. Although he loves and respects Jane and Lizzy, he's completely checked out of parenting the younger three and left it all to his silly, ill-judging wife, with predictable results. Mr. Bennet alternately avoids them or laughs at them and dismisses Lizzy's concerns over young Lydia's flirtatious behavior. When Lydia runs off and brings disgrace to the whole family, Mr. Bennet is forced to acknowledge that his apathetic parenting is a good deal to blame for it. - In the *Schooled in Magic* series, Emily is described as having extremely neglectful parents (especially her alcoholic mother). Upon arriving in her new world they found her to be malnourished and underdeveloped physically for her age because she was left to her own devices when looking for food or clothes. - *The Secret Garden*: Both Colin and Mary, which is a large part of why they're both spoiled brats. Even before Mary's parents died of Cholera, they were rarely there for her. Her mother foisted her off on servants so that she could be a socialite, to the point where many of her colleagues didn't even know she *had* a daughter. Colin's father Archibald Craven basically abandoned Colin after his mother Lillias suffered Death by Childbirth. - Silas and Sarah Heap in *Septimus Heap* are shown to have amazingly little concern for their children, barely ever helping when they are in trouble. - The Duke of Visnya isn't much of a father to Irina in *Spinning Silver*. He is far and away *practical* above everything, and Irina being the very plain daughter of a mother who had no value beyond that he loved her means that he can't use her for a good political marriage, and with two healthy sons, she's not an heir either. As a result, Irina spends most of her time upstairs with her old nurse keeping out of his way. He doesn't take notice of her until he can marry her to the tsar, and only after she proves to be as politically astute as himself does he respect her. - Also played for laughs in the *Teenage Worrier* series, where Letty's parents are rarely at home, refuse to cook or buy groceries, smoke and get drunk in the house, and largely ignore her in favor of their younger son. - In *This Is Not a Werewolf Story,* Raul's father became so depressed after his wife's disappearance that he often forgot to bring Raul to school, and when a social worker came by Raul was dirty, wearing clothes that were too small and eating his bowl of cereal on the floor. After that Raul went to the boarding school that serves as the novel's main setting; after a while, his dad stopped picking him up for the weekend, though Raul fakes going home to satisfy the staff. ||This last part, at least, is Justified: Raul's father has been getting fake letters indicating that Raul doesn't want to see him||. - *Warrior Cats*: - Crowfeather. The only reason he had Breezepelt was to get his Clan to forget about him ||running off with Leafpool||, and it really shows in how well he treats his son. - For that matter, most of the characters ignore their family completely. The families of most of the characters who were born before the beginning of the series are unknown because they never acknowledge being related to anyone. Although this might not be abuse so much as seeing the *entire Clan* as their family. - Rainflower neglects Crookedstar at a young age all because he broke his jaw. - In Kari Maaren's YA novel *Weave a Circle Round*, the main character's mom and stepdad are so absent that when she goes time-travelling for eighteen months and returns home on the same day she left, thus appearing to everyone else to have aged a year and a half (including a growth spurt, a tan, several inches of hair, and a lot of muscle due to her adventures) in about two hours, they legitimately do not notice a thing. While this does make some things easier, as she only has to explain the time travel to people already in the know, it's also incredibly hurtful and later contributes to ||an illusion of a Bad Future in which she becomes estranged from her mother and doesn't even cry at the funeral because they haven't spoken for twenty years. However, the illusion does give her the impulse to talk to her mother about how neglectful she's being, so it's implied they might fix their relationship.|| - *Wicked Lovely*: - Keenan's mother Beira. Since she's the Winter Queen, and he's the Summer King, the fact that they're archenemies has a great deal to do with this. - In *Ink Exchange*, Leslie's older brother Ren. He also happens to be abusive. - Happens in several Jacqueline Wilson books, most notably *Dustbin Baby* where April suffers neglect because her severely depressed mother cannot look after her properly. *Lily Alone* specifically deals with this issue; the 10-year-old heroine is left alone to care for her younger siblings because her mother goes on holiday and the babysitter doesn't show up. - *Wings of Fire*: MudWing dragons don't play parents, abandoning the eggs once they're hatched and leaving the oldest sibling to raise his/her siblings. For example, Clay's mother willingly sold his egg to the Talons of Peace for two cows. - The *Wolves of Mercy Falls Series* shows examples of this with every single main character. Grace is the most obvious case, and her mother has a Freudian Excuse for it, but Isobel openly criticises her parents for ignoring her. Sam's parents, though mainly in the Abusive Parents category, are also neglectful of him after he becomes a werewolf. It's also hinted that Cole's father, before Cole is seen to be taking after him, was ambivalent towards him. This is subverted with Olivia's family, who demonstrably care about her going missing. - *The Marvellous Land of Snergs*: Sylvia's mother barely pays attention to her daughter until Sylvia gets sick. When Sylvia goes missing shortly after, her mother frets for a while, but it is told she got over her daughter's disappearance soon. - Cardan in the *The Folk of the Air* series was completely ignored by his father, the king of Elfhame because of a prophecy saying Cardan would lead the monarchy to ruin. His mother let him be nursed by a cat rather than deal with him, and he essentially grew up running around the palace as a feral child, simultaneously ignored by his family, but still a noble in rank and thus obeyed by anyone who wasn't a blood relation. - Set in the same universe as *The Folk of the Air*, Hazel and Ben of *The Darkest Part of the Forest* were neglected by their parents growing up, as their mother and father were both eccentric artists more interested in their work and in throwing parties for their fellow artist friends. As children, Hazel and Ben often went around in torn/filthy clothes, ate cat food and table scraps, and slept outside without their parents noticing. - In *The Goblin Emperor*, Emperor Varenechibal neglected his fourth son, Maia, his entire life, leaving him to be raised first by his mother, and then by Resentful Guardian Setharis and keeping him away from the imperial court. The only time they ever even spoke was at his mother's funeral when Varenechibal noted unhappily that he looked just like his mother, who he hated. - *Wayward Children*: Parental neglect is a central theme. Neglectful parents leave their children alone more than watchful parents, which makes it much easier for neglected children to find a door to another world that fits them better. - In *Wish*, Charlie's mama is a Sleepy Depressive who spends most of her time in bed, making little effort to take care of Charlie or her sister Jackie. - *Arrested Development*: Maeby Funke. Her parents barely notice she exists—forgetting they have a daughter, even when she's standing next to them. She spends the majority of the series trying (and failing) to get them to notice her. - *Beverly Hills, 90210*: Kelly was initially ignored by her mother Jackie while the latter was The Alcoholic before she went into rehab. However, in the sequel series, Jackie fell off the wagon and neglected Kelly's younger sister Silver leading to Silver moving in with Kelly. It's implied that Steve was neglected by both his father and mother, who once forgot his birthday. - On *The Big Bang Theory*, Leonard's mother treated him more like a test subject than a child, and was so cold and detached that he built a *hugging machine* that his *dad borrowed*. Needless to say, he has some unresolved mommy issues (not at all helped by her continued publishing of psychology books with little gems like "Just because you have kids doesn't mean you'll like them" right on the jacket). - In season 2, Virna Hunter in *Boy Meets World* drives off in the family's trailer home while her son Shawn is at school and doesn't show up or check on Shawn's wellbeing until season 4. Her husband Chet also dumps Shawn at the Matthews' place to chase after her and win her back, without contacting him or giving him any means of support for several weeks. - *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* gives us Buffy's divorced dad, who starts out okay but then slowly weans himself out of her life, and Willow's mother, who is only interested in her work, sees Willow as a statistic, apparently only ever talks to her to impress political viewpoints on her, and is generally so disinterested that she was surprised to see Willow had cut her long hair when it had been like that for *months*. The extent of her neglect verges on Fridge Logic when you consider that the episode establishing their neglectfulness came about a half-season after a bookcase had fallen on her and briefly landed her in a wheelchair. You'd think if anything would make her pay attention...Then there's Xander's parents, who are shown to drink to the point where Xander would rather sleep outside in demon-infested Sunnydale on Christmas eve than listen to them fight. - From what we see during the show, Crystale Bouvier-Montgomery, in *Le cur a ses raisons* was not interested in her kids at all if not downright dangerous. To name a few, she abandoned her daughter to be raised as a mare in a stables, sent them to the laundry room during their holidays pretending to be a beach vacation, tried to abandon them in the wild, and gave them alcohol and cigarettes **while in their crib**. Of course, everything is entirely Played for Laughs. **Crystale**: I've never had any maternal instincts. To me, children are nothing more than a reserve for organ donations. - *Criminal Minds*: It's implied that Emily Prentiss' childhood wasn't that fantastic due to her mother's job as an ambassador. When Hotch asks her if she's leaked information to a local politician, she says that she hates politics and thinks that they "tear families apart and damage people". - *Doctor Who*: - Moira from Series 10 isn't as extreme an example, but she's still obviously neglectful of her foster daughter Bill. When Bill hands her a stack of graded assignments (all with grades above 85%), instead of complimenting her, Moira's only concern is whether or not Bill is sleeping with her private tutor. This leads Bill to sigh that she's not interested in men in a tone that implies she's told her many times before. Moira also gives Bill two very old £10-notes for Christmas (Bill got her a fancy scarf), and only mentions the box full of photos of Bill's dead mother in an off-hand comment. - "It Takes You Away": ||Hanne's father Erik won't be winning any awards for Father of the Year. When he discovers a version of his dead wife in another dimension and doesn't want to leave, he doesn't want his daughter to panic. So he sets up speakers outside the house to play sounds to keep his *blind* daughter inside.|| - Steve Urkel's unseen parents in *Family Matters* are a serious example. Many times over the series, Urkel describes his parents' mean actions. Examples include as pushing *back* in when he was born, a curfew for when he can come home, and using exploding candles on his birthday cake. Finally toward the end, they leave for Russia without him. All of it is Played for Laughs as Laura says that his parent "Took the easy way out" when they moved. - The elder Tams in *Firefly*, though unusually it seems that the *real* neglect as opposed to their children's implied Lonely Rich Kid status only started late in life. When their son became worried that his sister was being mistreated somehow at the boarding school she was attending, they pretty much brushed his concerns off, which is bad enough. But even to be scrupulously fair to them and concede that Simon was making some pretty dramatic claims based on not a lot of evidence, what happened when Simon subsequently got himself *arrested* for probably the first time in his life trying to get hold of actual proof is impossible to make excuses for. Somewhat competent parents might have either started asking some questions of their own or at least encouraged Simon to go and talk to local psychiatric services, but what does dear old Dad do? Threaten to *disown* Simon for *embarrassing him*. Canon has yet to afford Simon the opportunity of Calling the Old Man Out, sadly. - There's also the fact that Simon seems completely certain that if he tried to take River back to their parents, they'd just hand her back over her former captors. - It's implied on *Friends* that Chandler's parents were neglectful. His mother was concerned with her career as an erotic novelist, his father ran off to Vegas to become a drag queen, and he was left with the houseboys and later sent to boarding school. When they were around, they worried more about their messy divorce than his feelings. (They chose *Thanksgiving dinner* to tell him they were splitting up). As an adult, Chandler specifically describes his mother as a "Freudian nightmare" and he hasn't seen his father in years, and comments he 'should probably tell them' when he gets engaged. - *The Full Monty (2023)*'s Destiny gets it from both mom and dad. Mom Yaz is oblivious to her boyfriend ||stealing her twin daughters' lunch money, so Destiny gives them hers and bullies a younger student to get his money||. Yaz also takes his side over Destiny's in any conflict ||including when he spies on Destiny changing||. As for Destiny's dad, Gaz loves his daughter Destiny but continually lets her down due to his idiotic schemes. - *Game of Thrones*: - Robert, especially with Joffrey. He even admits this on his deathbed in front of him. He also ignores his numerous and *real* bastard children. Seeking out contact with them would probably reflect badly on his position, but he doesn't even make any arrangements to make sure they would be provided for in his absence. In the books, this is somewhat averted, as he has Varys send his bastard children gifts in secret and even spends time with them. Unlike in the show, several of his bastards (mainly those of noble birth) are well-known and acknowledged, so they're no secret. In the show, these characters have either been Adapted Out or their story arcs combined with other characters, and only a select few know their identity. - Selyse refuses to even acknowledge Shireen's existence at first. - *House of the Dragon*: Both King Viserys and Alicent Hightower neglected to properly raise Aegon, which contributed in him becoming an unpunished Serial Rapist and the poorest possible choice to be a king (and he's aware of the latter but pushed to take the crown by the Hightower side of his family anyway). - Presented as a Freudian Excuse for several characters on *The Good Place*: - Eleanor's parents were self-absorbed louts who blew her college fund, regularly forgot her birthday, and were generally so inept at taking care of her that Eleanor legally emancipated herself sometime in her early teens. She eventually owns up to using their poor parenting to justify her selfish Jerkass behaviour throughout her whole life. - Experienced to a lesser extent by Tahani, who was The Unfavorite to the point that her parents spelled her name wrong in their will. She spent most of her life trying to earn fame and recognition to spite them. - *Gossip Girl* takes this to new highs with all the parents bar Rufus. Lily used to frequently take off with new inappropriate boyfriends and leave her kids at the Waldorf's, Eleanor criticizes her *bulimic* daughter's appearance and apparently regularly forgets her birthday, Anne didn't even inform Nate she was planning to divorce his father, and Bart kicked Chuck out of his own home and into a hotel suite because he suspected him of pulling *pranks*. - *Gotham*: Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska's father, Paul Cicero, was at the very least neglectful towards Jerome, though it's never mentioned how he treated Jeremiah. When Jerome was nine, Cicero found him hiding from his mother and her lover because they had been beating him, and instead of trying to help him, he told him that the world doesn't care about him or anyone else, and he should get used to it. He also never told him that he was his father until Jerome was seventeen or eighteen, and it's implied that he only had a peripheral role in his life until Jerome was sent to Arkham ||for killing his mother||. After that, though, he seems to have quit the circus and settled down in Gotham so that he could be closer to his son. When he and Jerome next meet, he apologizes for not being a very good father to him, but ||that doesn't stop Jerome from killing him.|| - Potsie of *Happy Days*. Always Played for Laughs. Not as bad as some examples, but his parents seemed overly gleeful to give him money to get away from them; likewise, they dumped him with the Cunninghams to get away from him; and, after his dad said something angrily, Potsie expressed that he was just glad his dad was talking to him again. - *Hercules: The Legendary Journeys* and later *Young Hercules* demonstrate that while the titular character had a loving mother, his father Zeus was never around. Zeus' excuse is he was busy being king of the gods and considered Hercules his favorite child. Hercules considers the answer bull since Zeus hardly does anything related to being king and is usually pursuing his romantic affairs so it's still a sore spot for our hero. - On *Heroes*, it's heavily implied but not outright stated that Angela and Arthur Petrelli actively chose to neglect Peter in favor of battling each other with Nathan as their pawn in their individual grand schemes. This, in turn, led Nathan to become Peter's de facto parent. - Used in *Jam* in a sketch where a couple realize their young son hasn't come home from school. They casually make a phone call to ask if anyone's seen him and, upon being told he was seen getting into someone's car, they decide he's "probably" gone to a friend's house and ignore it. Several weeks later, he still hasn't been found—and the parents continue to do nothing. Even when they're informed that their son's body was discovered, they can't be bothered to identify him (saying that if the police think it's him, "that's good enough for us") and then get annoyed that they're expected to bury him themselves. Their only reaction to being told that a friend has confessed to the murder is to sigh and resolve to "have a word" the next time they see him. - This sketch is a homage to a similar sketch by Victoria Wood about a teenage champion swimmer who's attempting to cross the English Channel. Her parents decide to take a holiday on their own rather than go with her and are oblivious to the fact that she's swimming alone without supervision or adequate provisions. When she hasn't returned more than a week later, they are unconcerned and decide she is just "looking for a nice beach"; they even forget that they have *multiple* other children until reminded about it. - *Keep Breathing*: Liv's mom was an artist more interested in her painting than her. We see that she once even forgot to pick Liv up from school for instance and this made her have to walk home in the rain, which her dad berated her mom over. - *Law & Order* has a few cases, usually relating to some kind of death by neglect. - The victim in "Indifference" was technically killed by her mother, but her father is also held responsible for his role in the events, which included not even checking on his child when he came in to find her bleeding on the floor (in addition to other things, like getting his wife hooked on the drugs that triggered her violent impulses). - "God Bless The Child" involves a variation. The parents at the center of the case were loving, involved parents who took good care of their child in most respects, but they belonged to a religion that didn't believe in modern medicine and therefore didn't seek medical assistance when their daughter became seriously ill, leading to her death from a treatable infection. - The mother in "Aria" is an extreme Stage Mom who completely neglects her daughters' well-being because she's more concerned about them having successful acting careers, eventually leading one of the daughters to commit suicide because she can't take it anymore. - A couple of the killers in *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* are adult children trying to get the attention of neglectful parents, with the best-known example being Jo Gage, the daughter of a famous criminal profiler, who kills several people just to make herself a component in one of her father's cases so he'll spare a little attention for her. Even after she's caught and arrested, this is her primary consideration. **Jo:** Tell my dad everything. He'll come to my cell now. He'll listen to me. However long it takes. - Pops up occasionally in *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*, though it's usually a secondary issue to a more egregious crime. - One of the victims in "Bullseye" is a girl whose mother and stepfather spend all their time playing video games and ignoring her. It's eventually revealed that the mother's neglect is due to a severe mental disorder that causes her not to recognize the girl as her child, but the stepfather is perfectly in his right mind and just doesn't care. - "Institutional Fail" involves a child who died from neglect, despite the fact that she was supposedly getting regular home visits from the department of child services. This leads to a discovery of serious systemic problems in the department. - "Bang" features a Smug Snake lawyer who wants to have as many children as possible and accomplishes this by impregnating women and then convincing them to carry their babies to term by talking about how they'll all be a happy family together, only to turn around and leave them almost as soon as the baby is born, sending money but never actually being a part of his children's lives. Elliot tells him flat-out that he has no idea what it actually means to be a father. - *Malcolm in the Middle*: Dewey, this worsens once his younger brother Jamie is born. It's later revealed that his parents never took any photos of him growing up. - Both Al and Peggy from *Married... with Children*, especially Peggy she isn't just a neglectful mother but a neglectful *everything*. She blatantly refuses to do anything resembling work, including housework, cooking, or anything for anyone who isn't herself. Subverted later on when Seven is introduced and she dotes on him, but *only* him. - *Melrose Place*: Amanda Woodward's scummy businessman of a father neglected her during her childhood (once going on a business trip *on Christmas Day*, leaving her alone). It probably explains why she is the way that she is. - In *The Middleman* Lacey refers to her mother as Doctor Barbara Thornfield MD. PhD., doesn't recognize her voice over the phone, and is surprised at being able to speak to her the same day she tried to contact her after only 40 minutes on hold. - On *NCIS*, the stories of DiNozzo's father are legendary. The most telling story was of how he left young Tony behind in a hotel in Maui and only remembered his son when he received the *room service bill*. Though DiNozzo Senior does try to make amends in later seasons. - *Never Have I Ever*: - Eleanor's mother abandoned her to follow her acting dreams. - Ben's parents can't be bothered to spend time with him. When her mother is introduced, she's keen to leave him to go to various frivolous "workshops." **Andy Samberg narrating Ben's Day In The Limelight** : Ben's mom and dad had a very unique parenting style, in that they did none of it. - *The Nine Lives of Chloe King*: The villain's son has dated/been friends with The Girl he's been trying to kill. if he took a half hour out of his busy day of being evil he might actually know this. - Lampshaded in *One Tree Hill* when the group attends a prom in a different, completely normal town. The students listen horrified to the soap-opera-esque description of their lives, and one ventures to ask how their parents can be okay with this. Brooke happily replies that she hasn't seen her parents for months. She, Peyton, and Hayley all live without their parents, who are all far away or dead, normally not even returning for weddings, childbirth, near death, major traumas, and graduation. - *The Outer Limits (1995)*: - In "Straight and Narrow", Rusty Dobson confides in Charlie Walters that, after his father left a year earlier, he became a troublemaker so that his corporate executive mother would pay attention to him. He says that the plan worked too well given that she sent him to the Milgram Academy to be straightened out. - In "Stranded", Kevin Buchanan is continually neglected by his father Alex, who frequently claims that he has no time for him but seems to have all the time in the world for his elder son Josh. Tyr'Nar takes advantage of Kevin's distant relationship with his father to convince Kevin to help him. Kevin's mother Danielle admits that she likewise spends far more time with Josh than she does with Kevin. - In "Seeds of Destruction", Linda Andrews' mother continually neglected her when she was a child as she was more interested in sleeping with men than in being a parent. - In "Family Values", Jerry Miller is a workaholic who neglects his children Candace and Russ as well as his wife Brooke. He buys the household robot Gideon to pick up the slack but Gideon ultimately replaces him as the head of the family. - *Part of Me*: Mónica would often focus on her career more than her family, a major source of conflict between her and her oldest daughter Camila. - *The Power (2023)*: Margot is the mayor of Seattle, thus she's quite busy with her job, to resentment from her teenage daughter Jos, who thinks she doesn't get any time with her. - *Pushing Daisies*. After his mother died, Young Ned's father dropped him off at a boarding school and never came back. He found a new family, with two new sons And then abandoned them, too. Although the show seemed to be building up to some kind of revelation about Ned's father which might have explained (if not justified) why he abandoned two families. Then the show was canceled. - *Red Dwarf:* While Rimmer Senior was an abusive parent of the madest degree, Mrs. Rimmer seems to have been entirely uninvested in stopping any of this, or even being involved in Rimmer's life at all. The only time we see them interacting, she's lecturing him on his poor performance at school, while totally ignoring he's hanging from a rope trap. A few episodes state that while Rimmer despised his father while still wanting his approval, he regards his mother as totally aloof, while insisting she did love him, but was just "busy". - *Rizzoli & Isles*: When dealing once again with serial killer Hoyt, Maura Isles starts looking into his childhood after he says that the two of them are alike. Maura looks back at her own childhood as well and realizes that, although her adopted parents did love her, they were much more interested in their own things than they were in her. According to Isles, the "less [she] asked for, the less time they had for [her]." Apparently it got to the point that they sent her to boarding school at ten years old. After she *gave them the brochures for it*. - *Supernatural*: - John Winchester was this sort of parent, as he only ever focused on hunting monsters rather than being a father. Among other things, he was often gone for days or weeks at a time, leaving Sam and Dean holed up in weekly motels and schools, and never spent Christmas with his sons. The most stand-out example however is when he leaves his nine- and five-year-old alone in a motel room with a loaded shotgun for *days* while he's hunting a monster that preys on children. - God is one too. Only four of his angelic children had ever seen him in the first place (most likely Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and Gabriel) and most of the angels know damn well that Lucifer was the favorite. Where did that leave the rest of them? He's actually gone so far as to ||neglect all of the angels, ignoring them as they fight and kill themselves in civil war, and evidently not caring that one of his Archangels is dead, two of them are locked in a cage in Hell, and the last is trying to take control of Heaven through brutal force.|| - This seems to be the case with Scott's father in *Teen Wolf*. As an FBI agent, it's likely he was a workaholic with little time for his wife and child. - *The Twilight Zone (1959)*: In "The Bewitchin' Pool", Gloria and Gil Sharewood are both extremely self-obsessed and show their children Sport and Jeb no affection. Gloria has to prompt Gil to dive for the kids when they vanish into the pool. She only worries about them once it looks like they might have drowned. - Though they obviously do love him, the Grimes of *The Walking Dead (2010)* display a ridiculous amount of nonchalance for what their son Carl does, allowing him to just wander off whenever he pleases despite the fact it's the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse. - *Veronica Mars* has horrible parents in spades. - Veronica's mother Lianne was implied to be this. Lianne was an alcoholic, and in the series premiere, straight up walks out on her family without telling anyone she was leaving. ||Lianne returns partway through season 1 wanting to fix her problems, but quickly falls off the wagon again and abandons her family for good||. - Logan Echolls' mother Lynn is this to some degree. Being addicted to pills and alcohol, in one episode she's shown ||drinking and ignoring her husband as he loudly beats Logan in the next room||. - The Vegas from *Victorious* are shown this way from time to time. In one episode, their daughter Trina has her wisdom teeth removed. They take a vacation and leave Trina in the care of their other daughter. - Cat's parents are implied to be this. Most likely because they're too busy taking care of Cat's mentally unstable older brother. ||Cat eventually moves in with her grandmother||. - Andre lives with his mentally unstable grandmother, while his parents are never mentioned or seen. ||From what we've seen it looks like Andre is taking care of his grandmother rather than the other way around||. - *The Wire*: - Jimmy McNulty loves his sons, but repeatedly shows ill judgment when he's with them (e.g. losing them in a supermarket, leaving them alone at home in the middle of the night, etc.) - Frank Sobotka shows little affection and attention toward his wayward oldest son Ziggy until it's too late for both of them. - It is implied in *The X-Files* that Mulder's parents became neglectful towards him after Samantha went missing. It's noted that they divorced shortly after she disappeared and that "no one would talk about it." Nothing is ever explicitly said, but his attitude about it says that he simply waited until he was old enough to leave and then did — he went to England for college. He sees his parents rarely ||before their respective deaths||. In "Sein und Zeit", it's also hinted that ||that Mulder's mother has known for years that Samantha actually died when she was fourteen, and she never told Mulder.|| However, this isn't to say that Mulder doesn't love them — he ||never stops despising Krycek for killing his father, and when Scully performs an autopsy on his mother after she dies and tells him that she killed herself to avoid the suffering that would follow her cancer (that she never told him about) he breaks down crying in Scully's arms.|| - *Young Sheldon*: In "A Stolen Truck and Going on the Lam", Mary and George don't notice Missy having run from home. They notice George's truck missing, and report it to the police. It takes the cop insisting on asking their daughter if she'd heard anything during the thievery for them to go call Missy and realize she's gone. - The titular character of the Melanie Martinez Concept Album *Cry-Baby* has two distant parents keeping up a Happy Marriage Charade. Her mother is an Alcoholic Parent who has had a poor opinion of Cry Baby from the day she was born, though she seems to like her behind her dysfunctional behavior. Her father is distant in general and has a mistress. ||The mother kills both him and his lover, and is implied to have tried to kill her daughter.|| - The narrator of the song "The Mute" by Radical Face suffers from this. ||The song ends with the titular mute running away from home so their parents can be happy without them.|| The music video makes it seem a bit more complicated; while the father visibly ignores the child, ||the mother's visibly distraught when she's gone.|| - Tears for Fears: - "Suffer the Children" focuses on the profound loneliness that a child feels because of his absent parents. *It's a sad affair * When there's no one there He calls out in the night And it's so unfair At least it seems that way When you gave him his life And all this time he's been getting you down You ought to pick him up when there's no one around And convince him Oh just talk to him 'cause he knows in his heart you won't be home soon He's an only child in an only room And he's dependent on you Oh he's dependent on you - Roland Orzabal (the main songwriter) has confirmed that "Pale Shelter" is about the pain and insecurity that stems from not receiving enough (or any) warmth and affection from one's parents. *I'm calling you, I'm calling you * I asked for more and more How can I be sure When you don't give me love You gave me pale shelter You don't give me love You give me cold hands - The Shibasaki siblings have this backstory in *Confession Executive Committee*. Their mother was once a happy and gentle person, but following her divorce from their dad and her taking custody of the children, she changed. She's shown going off with lovers every night, and in "Lonely Boy" the children offhandedly mention that they've grown accustomed to her absence. The times she *is* present in their lives, it's not very pleasant. - One episode of *Sick Sad World* mentioned a mom who left her infant in her car while she snuck onto an inactive roller coaster. - One of the main points of contention during Rey Mysterio's feud with his son Dominik Mysterio is the fact that, as much Rey loved his children, he wasn't around much thanks to prioritizing his wrestling career over being there for their childhoods. Dominik described one story where Rey promised to attend his eighth grade graduation if he got good grades, only to end up missing the ceremony in order to perform at that year's *WrestleMania*. While many of Dominik's complaints about his father were unwarranted, this one was acknowledged as the only grievance that was legitimate, and Rey apologized for it. - The Emperor of Mankind's neglect of his sons, the Primarchs, from *Warhammer 40,000* definitely counts. This resulted in the largest, bloodiest war the galaxy had ever seen. Most of them had better relationships with their adoptive parents than the Emperor. Part of the reason is the Primarchs come from very different cultures and other part is the Emperor is . And because of that he no longer has the same concept of time or relationships as everyone else. For example, The Emperor tells his religious zealot of son Lorgar Aurelian to cease his worship of his father as a god. To The Emperor, once should have been enough. To Lorgar, his most holy Father had told him **old** *once* in a hundred years. What the Emperor did after, while well-meaning, didn't help Lorgar in the slightest. - Of course, the latest novels in the Horus Heresy series revealed the real reason for the Emperor's callousness towards his sons. ||He never considered the Primarchs as sons in the first instance. He only ever saw them as tools to realise his ambitions. Malcador even implies he actually intended some of them to betray him.|| - Roboute Guilliman was brought back from stasis and met with his father. No one knows what they told each other, but Roboute was clearly less than happy with him and his attitude, even though he still set out with a "let's start fixing this dump" attitude after. - *Next to Normal*: Natalie's parents are explicitly neglectful, mostly due to her mother suffering from bipolar psychosis and her father attempting to help her (while also struggling with depression). It is implied that her model behavior and excellent grades were a plea for attention - one that clearly did not work, and she acts out occasionally in anger towards her parents for the way she grew up. When she ||purposefully messes up an extremely important piano recital and begins abusing her mother's prescription medication||, her parents barely notice or react. While it does differ from some other tropes in that they both truly loved Natalie and never intended to do her harm, it was most definitely neglect. - Depending on your point of view, ||Dan and Gabe. The son's ghost seems to desperately want to be seen by the father, but he refuses to even speak his son's name, let alone acknowledge him.|| - The parents in *Tommy* take the cake for leaving their deaf, dumb, and blind son with his abusive cousin and, later, with a drunk child molester. There's also that moment where they attempt to "cure" him by paying a gypsy to feed him acid. - In Mrs. Hawking of the Mrs. Hawking play series, the titular protagonist says she preferred when she was neglected by her father because it meant he left her to her own devices and didn't interfere with her. The first time he actually paid attention to her he forced her into a marriage she didn't want. - Jeremy's father in *Be More Chill* fell into depression after his wife left him to the point of losing all motivation and neglecting his son. Jeremy finally snaps, and at the Squip's nudging, calls him out for seeemingly not caring about him. This makes his father realize that he needs to change and take his role as a father more seriously. - Olive's mom in *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* moved to India for a "spiritual journey," leaving Olive with an emotionally (and in some productions, physically) abusive father. - *Elisabeth*: As a child, Rudolf is the subject of what amounted to a custody battle between his mother on one side and his father plus grandmother on the other. Sisi was not allowed to take care of any of her older children because she was a young mother and as such, according to Sophie, unfit to raise a child. Eventually, Franz Joseph relents and gives Sisi the right to decide how her children are educated at the end of act 1. Only a few songs later, young Rudolf sings of being scared and lonely without anyone to comfort him because his mother is never home. Adult Rudolf continues to adore (borderline worship) his mother, as he did in real life, despite her continued emotional and physical distance from him. The final straw for his being ||Driven to Suicide|| is her refusal to get involved with his increasingly stressful life. - In *Jasper in Deadland*, Jasper's father is an Addled Addict, who cares more about his drugs and alcohol than his son. It's implied that Jasper's mother *was* there for him until she decided she'd had enough, and abandoned him and her husband. - Isaac Clarke from *Dead Space* was never priority number one for his parents, especially not his mother. Data logs reveal the reason he hates Unitologists so much is that his mother used the money he was going to use to go to college on the cult. That didn't leave a good impression of Unitology (or his mother) on Isaac. - *Die Hard: Vendetta* introduces a (non-canon) new villain, Piet Gruber, the son of Hans Gruber from the original *Die Hard*. As it turns out, Hans was quite *the* neglectful dad who barely spoke to Piet, and Piet is actually *glad* his father's dead. - Cid of the Lufaine from *Dissidia Final Fantasy* was originally a very caring parent to ||Chaos|| before starting the cycles of war. However, he was a very lousy father to ||the Warrior of Light||, who shortly after being born, was thrown into the conflict by his *father* without an identity or a childhood to speak of. - *Silent Hill: Homecoming* has this in SPADES. Alex Shephard is practically forgotten by his parents, who are very distant with him, giving him little to no attention at all while absolutely doting on his much younger brother, Josh, even giving the child a family ring that has a great deal of meaning to it. The boy acts like a brat about it to his brother, evidently loving to rub how he's their favorite in his older brother's face. ||This ends badly.|| While Alex is jealous, to his credit he does still love his family and does everything he can, even descending into what seems like hell itself, to find and rescue his brother. ||It turns out his family had a reason for being so distant-every fifty years, the townspeople had to sacrifice one of their children in order to appease their God and keep all hell from breaking loose. Alex's parents purposely remained distant with him, not wanting him to experience or learn compassion, love, or happiness, so the inevitable death of their son would be easier on all of them. Alex's parents seem to realize how wrong this was, however, as they beg for his forgiveness before their deaths-though the realization of how wrong they were seems to only come after Alex accidentally killed Josh out of jealousy brought on by the aforementioned ring.|| - *First Encounter Assault Recon* gets another mention here, considering ||Harlan Wade|| had Alma ||locked up inside a psychically shielded vault and kept in a drug-induced coma for the majority of her life||. - *Tales of the Abyss* has Luke fon Fabre. By the beginning of the game, he had been held captive in his own home for seven years, partially by a distant father and doting mother. ||The conditions improved.|| - The manga adaptation of *Tales of Symphonia* depicts Zelos Wilder's early life as this, with his mother feigning illness simply to get him out of her sight. Being a child, he tries to win her affections. ||it doesn't work.|| Colette Brunel's family is also implied to be distant, but that's more because ||it's better not to get attached to the sacrificial lamb needed to save the world|| than actual contempt. - Angela in *Trials of Mana*; her mom ignored her for the majority of her life and then tries to kill her at the beginning of the game. ||Granted this is because she was being manipulated by the Crimson Wizard, but still...|| - *Pokémon*: - It was stated in a Codec conversation in *Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty* that Fatman's parents neglected Fatman while he was a kid, and as a result, he often hung around clock stores, explaining why he is obsessed with time. - *Persona*: - In *Persona 3*, Yukari's mother, after the death of her husband and Yukari's father, was emotionally broken to the point at which she started throwing herself into shallow relationships with men and hardly ever seeing her daughter. Later on in Yukari's Social Link, Yukari's mother sees the error of her ways, and Yukari herself begins to understand what it means to lose someone you love, so Yukari, albeit hesitantly, decides to start the process of reconciliation with her mother. - In *Persona 4*, Ryotaro Dojima (the protagonist's uncle and guardian) is an example of this to his daughter, Nanako. Despite being just 6-7 years old, she was forced to take care of herself as she was left home alone most days with nobody else to do the housework. Unlike most examples, the reasons for this are explored and Dojima is portrayed as a good guy who just doesn't know how to be a parent. Specifically, his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident, and he's been a workaholic ever since, trying to solve the case while simultaneously running from his daughter because he's afraid of failing her. Fortunately, it's possible for the player to help repair this broken family. - *BioShock* - The prequel novel to the first game, *Bioshock Rapture,* reveals that Fontaine was left at an orphanage when he was young because his father couldn't be bothered to take care of him and that he drinks and sleeps around to keep himself too distracted to think about it. - Zachary Comstock from *BioShock Infinite*' has one of the worst examples: he needs an heir and goes all Henry VIII to get her, and what does he do? Locks her up for nineteen years, no first meeting ever. Granted, she has extradimensional radiation, but he already has cancer and she's immune. Booker has a LOT to say to Comstock about this. - Ellen from *The Witch's House* is a downright depressing example. Ellen's father ignored Ellen's very existence; downright disregarding her and only paying attention to her mother. Ellen's mother struggled to give her attention but couldn't cope entirely with having a terminally ill daughter, and tried to leave her family for a rich man. ||Ellen, in a furious rage, killed them both. It's hard not to see it as a good thing.|| Of course, this is only revealed in the prequel novel; in the game, it's hinted at but not gone into detail. - *Professor Layton*, tends to greatly neglect his adoptive daughter Flora, sometimes completely forgetting about her on occasion being to distracted with a case and leaving her behind to "protect her" when her back is turned. - Luke Triton's own father was neglectful in the Last Specter game but only because he was stressed and preoccupied ||because he was being blackmailed with his Hostage wife||. - In *The Elder Scrolls* series' backstory, the legendary Yokudan (ancestors of the Redguards) hero and Ansei, Frandar Hunding, was not present for much of his son Divad's life. After traveling Yokuda as a Knight Errant and winning 90 duels without a loss in his youth, Frandar considered himself invincible and retired to Mount Hattu to write his treatise on sword techniques, the Book of Circles. Decades later, when the Yokudan Emperor Hira tried to consolidate power by eliminating the Ansei, Divad and the other Ansei came to Frandar to ask him to be their leader in battle. Frandar reluctantly accepted and led them to victory. Despite this, due to being considered "red with blood" by the Yokudan people, Frandar, Divad, and the other Ansei chose to self-exile from Yokuda to Tamriel. Frandar and Divad would finally bond there, and Divad would wipe out the giant goblins of Hammerfell after Frandar fell in battle to them. - In *The Darkside Detective*, Alice's father is rich but neglectful, leaving her entirely in the hands of her nanny and initially completely failing to notice that she's disappeared. - Justified in *We Happy Few*. Sally loves her baby daughter Gwen, but since they're living in a Childless Dystopia where *terrible* things happen to mothers and children, she doesn't have anyone who can help her and has to keep Gwen confined to her attic bedroom at all times to make sure people on the street don't hear her cry. She often has to leave Gwen alone in her crib for hours on end in order to find ingredients for the drugs she makes to keep the Bobbies off her back, and she commissions a feeder from Lionel Castershire to ensure that she can leave Gwen for longer stretches of time without having to come back. Sally absolutely *hates* this, acknowledges that what she's doing is cold and harsh, but also that she has no other choice. She's trying to make a better life for her baby though, as her motivation for escaping town is to ensure Gwen can grow up safely in the countryside. - A random event in *Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town* would reveal that the Doctor's parents were both medical professionals and were always too busy to pay attention to him. - *Yes, Your Grace*: Near the end of the game, Ivo rants about his father Talys acting like he doesn't exist. This is supported by Talys' own behavior early in the game, as he can only tell Ivo has royal blood and has been taught by tutors when asked about him... by the father of Ivo's future wife. During the wedding itself, Talys fulfills only the bare minimum of parental obligations and tries to leave the wedding as soon as he can to continue the research he's been doing. - *LISA*: During the opening sequence, it is shown that Lisa and Brad's childhood home was extremely untidy and dirty, being littered with various stains and empty bottles. Brad ends up following in his father's footsteps with Buddy after he relapses, oftentimes ignoring her and remaining unconscious for the majority of the time, only interacting with her when he prevents her from leaving the house. - *What Remains of Edith Finch* has Kay Finch, who steps away from bathing her infant, Gregory, to speak on the phone with her husband. ||And the result is why a baby should NEVER left be left alone in the tub: He bumps the faucet on and drowns.|| - In *Every Day's Different* Yuika's parents only pay attention to her to scold her when she fails to live her life according to their decisions for her while Katsuki's parents rarely bother to even come home to their daughters. - *The Fruit of Grisaia*: Of the 6 main characters, 5 suffer from this in some capacity (talk about useless adults). - Yuuji's parents ||never cared about him, in fact his father outright despised him.|| - Makina's ||father was a decent man, but her psychopathic mother never saw her as more than a puppet, easily disposable if she could no longer further her interest. She even assassinated her father, after he wanted to come clean about the corrupted family.|| - Yumiko's ||father was incapable of feeling love, only seeing her as an asset, shipping her off to her mother's parents when her presence became a burden. Her mother was better, but thanks to her mentally and physically fragile nature she could never really give her the affection and attention she desired.|| - Michiru's ||mother was whoever her father brought home that night, and while her father genuinely cared for her at the beginning, after her academic, mental and physical shortcomings surfaced, he himself started to see Michiru as a failure and gradually grew distant to her.|| - Sachi's ||parents are the mildest case, as they were genuinely nice and caring people, however they made the misguided decision to bury themselves in work, thinking that their increased income, compared to their previously rather poor finances, would buy their daughter love, while she just wanted to spend time with them. This led to them growing distant from Sachi, who, being fed up with their behavior, ran away on her birthday, which ultimately led to her parents getting run over by a truck and scarring Sachi for life.|| - In *Heart of the Woods*, Evelyn Fischer tends to keep her daughter Morgan at arm's length whenever she isn't emotionally abusing her and controlling her life. Morgan points out that after she learned how to cook, Evelyn stopped making dinner for her. ||Evelyn is much worse than she seems, since she's planning on stealing Morgan's body the same way she stole the body of Morgan's real mother.|| - In *Melody*, Arnold leaves the title character to look after herself when shes still sick after a night of violent vomiting. If Amy finds out the true extent of this, she gets so angry that she disinvites Arnold from her birthday dinner. - In *Shining Song Starnova*, Nemu Akimoto remembers her late birth mother as a kind and loving woman, and she genuinely was... for a time, at least. ||Then her mother suffered a psychotic breakdown and stopped taking care of Nemu, leaving her to grow sickly and malnourished. Haruna, the wife of Nemus father, was so horrified by the poor girls condition when she came to check up on them that she took Nemu away and adopted her for Nemus own safety.|| - *Camp Camp*: - Max claims the only reason he's at Camp Campbell is that his parents didn't want to deal with him for the summer. Though considering his attitude it's not that surprising. ||Played much more seriously in the Season 2 finale "Parents Day"; not only did his parents not show up to the titular event, but it's also revealed that they didn't even bother to sign him up for a specific camp. They just wanted him gone. And despite Max's attempts to act otherwise, it becomes clear that their neglect has been very hurtful to him.|| - To as lesser extent, Nikki's mother, who spends most of Parents Day blowing off her daughter's attempts to get her attention. - Neil at one point plans to invoke this trope by running home to his dad and telling him that his mother sent him to an abusive summer camp in order to get his mother to try and buy back his love. - *Little Pickle Town* has this as Nikolai's backstory in *CHOKE*. While on some level his stepmother cared about him, she mostly distanced herself away and discouraged him from seeing her as a mother figure. Aside from giving him an allowance off of her prostitution job and giving him his late father's inheritance money, she barely makes contact by the time he turns eighteen and outright leaves. It's implied several times that she both can't look at Nikolai without seeing his father's face in him, and that she feels she has no right to take the place of his mother even though she was a family friend before his birth mother died and genuinely loved both mother and father. - *Sandra and Woo*: The trope is played with. Done straight initially because Richard ignores Sandra's protests that she is hungry to focus on his video game. Then subverted because in order to pacify her Richard hands her money to go out to eat but Sandra protests that he gave her $100, which Richard still waves off. The last panel is Sandra ordering steak and lobster at a fancy gourmet restaurant as she tells the reader that parental neglect sometimes works out in your favor. - In *Mayonaka Densha*, Hatsune's mother at first just appears to have an over-the-top case of Parental Obliviousness which seems to be played for comedy, but it is later revealed Hatsune is genuinely emotionally damaged by how much her mother doesn't pay attention to her. She tells Tom a story about how she once broke her leg as a child, had to haul herself up to her apartment, covered in blood, and phone for the ambulance herself, Hatsune's mother simply told her to be quiet because she was distracting her. Tom's in tears by the end. - *The Order of the Stick*: - Vaarsuvius qualifies as a neglectful parent to their adopted children, considering how they left their family to become an adventurer, a fairly dangerous profession, without giving any idea when they would return. And, despite having access to magic that can communicate with them, they do not bother to call home. In over 600 strips, their children are not even mentioned until ||an ancient black dragon threatened to eat them in revenge for Vaarsuvius killing the dragon's child.|| - Eugene Greenhilt is this to Roy but not Julia, favoring her because she chose to follow in his footsteps as a spellcaster, where Roy maintains the *family* tradition of being a fighter. This neglect goes as far at one point as to not realizing he had more than one son. Eugene's epitaph even reads "Devoted Husband, Mighty Wizard, Passable Father." - Zip's parents in *DDG* are strongly implied to be examples of the neglect and emotional abuse types. - Yuki's father in *Ménage à 3* could fall into this category, as he repeatedly allowed her to be exposed to tentacle porn in her preteen days. It seems to be more carelessness than maliciousness on his part, but either way it left lasting mental scars. - *Drowtales*: - Though not universal, this is a very strong tradition among the Val class. The mother will usually raise her first daughter, but any successive children are usually given to elder siblings or even servants to raise so that the mother can play politics. In Val families, fathers almost never have a role in raising their children. It is not uncommon for the children of Vals to feel no bond towards their parents. This is ultimately ||Diva'ratrika||'s undoing. - Quaintana let her only heir be raised by the *aggressively* unfit-to-do-so Syphile, while keeping her away from her real mother, all while keeping her under the belief that *she* was her mother. It's not hard to understand how Ariel has serious mommy issues, up to and including a desire to murder her "mommy not-so-dearest". - Similarly, Snadhya'rune found a way to have a child with surrogates, only to abandon her until she was twenty for not displaying a specific genetic trait (||Anti-Magic||). Kalki is driven by her resentment for being abandoned and treated like a tool no matter how much work she puts into being Snadhya'rune's attack dog. - Ash'waren was shown to be this, since her reaction to hearing that her daughter Faen had returned from exile was a simple "who?" and then asking *which* daughter she was, and after being reminded with the year Faen was born only commented that her father was a bad lay. Though not a justification, the reason for this is that she's implied to have dozens if not *hundreds* of children due to being The Ageless, and she's a bit of a cloudcuckoolander anyway, not to mention that in the above scene, she'd clearly been drinking. Ultimately, her family proves to be disloyal, and she is forced to flee her own clan to avoid the same fate as ||Diva'ratrika||. - *Homestuck*: - Rose and her aloof mother only interact in what Rose interprets as passive-aggressive battles of saccharine affection. Her interpretation of her mother, a classy, successful scientist (and alcoholic), seems either partially or entirely true. Though her mother may care (and how can you argue with that pony?) she is very distant. ||Averted later. Rose's reaction to her death shows that the passive-aggressive stuff was mostly just a charade, and she still considered herself close to her mother.|| - Gamzee's lusus is less ambiguous — he was just never there. Which didn't stop Gamzee from sitting out by the beach sometimes, waiting for "the old goat" to come home. ||It is a very good thing that his lusus was never around, considering it is pretty much Ax-Crazy||. - Dave has to keep food in his closet, his brother seemingly is rarely around, and stuff in their apartment is insanely dangerous or rigged with cameras so Bro can film puppet porn. - In *No Rest for the Wicked*, the parents have, at the very least, not kept careful watch to keep the witch from stealing their children. - In *Dubious Company*, during Elly's homecoming, the crew finds his parents more interested in the newspaper than the return of their long-missing son. It helps explain why he is timid, prone to emotional outbursts, and clingy. At least his sister was happy to see him. - Peter of *Peter Is the Wolf* is viewed as a disappointment by his parents for being born a runt in a werewolf culture that views size and strength as extremely important. He spent most of his life being openly *mocked* by them and generally suffering from every kind of neglect they could dish out. Later, after he is ||Nearly *raped*, dumped by the girlfriend who walked in and mistook it for him cheating on her and a very real chance of being *executed* by his pack for this breakup, he has to move back in with them for a few days. They respond to this Trauma Conga Line by making him sleep in the *literal* doghouse in their backyard because they can't be bothered to make room for him.|| - In *Stand Still, Stay Silent* Torbjörn and Siv Västerström are a milder version of this. While they are definitely caring and nowhere near criminally negligent, their children are unruly enough that the woman who was babysitting them while they were out of town is introduced quitting her job. Promising her more money is not enough to convince her to come back. For most of the actual story, their time is taken up by being Mission Control to the expedition. Torbjörn's brother also seems to have made poor choices when it comes to Emil's private tutors and to have been a frequently absent father to him, which may make this a family-wide problem. - *To Prevent World Peace*: The reason Tiffany's so messed up: - Her irresponsible mother got pregnant out of high school and died in a car crash. - Her Aunt never wanted children, only took care of Tiffany out of begrudging duty, and wasn't sad when Tiffany was believed to have died. ||Or at least, Tiffany *thinks* that her aunt wasn't sad. In the commentary for page 413||: ||"Tiffany once described her funeral to Chronos as, "I saw my funeral years ago. No one even cried at it."|| - The first father figure to actually care for her was a born mage who ended up becoming a criminal in an impulsive act of revenge. - *Kaiten Mutenmaru*: ||It's heavily implied that Pain and Yamai Solitude were neglectful of their son, Sick:|| - ||Pain didn't want Sick involved in his business, so he coldly had their butler send the boy to his room. Sick promptly asked why Yamai never returned home, only for his butler to tell him that he didn't have to know everything. The butler had a good reason for keeping Sick ignorant since the card for Yamai's character in the game◊ reveals that she was away gallivanting to satisfy her unfulfilled desire and out of sloth.|| - ||Sick told Anne that his bouquet for her had no one in his house to see it and that he would rather share her few simple sandwiches than eat luxurious food alone in his house.|| - *My Mamma is In Burned is Out!*: One of the science lovers states that his mamma sucked because she was addicted to heroin and left him at the steps of a science altar. - *Rain (2010)*: Emily's mother neglects her constantly and doesn't even bother to visit her house to check in on her. - *Rebirth*: While Noah and Parish were certainly present in Neo's life, they barely paid any attention to him, focusing all of it on his younger brother, Abel. ||This is largely because Neo is the product of Parish's affair with Noah's brother Ian, leading Noah to neglect him. Parish went along with this as well.|| - *Hark! A Vagrant* plays this for laughs in the comics about *The Great Gatsby*. Since Daisy and Tom's daughter disappears completely after she's introduced, the comic takes this to its logical conlusion. *WHAT * **BABY** - *The Nostalgia Critic*: - The Critic's mother still lives with her son, but while he calls her his world, she doesn't seem to give a shit when he gets Driven to Suicide, has a ragey meltdown, or gets killed by whoever he's pissed off this time. - Though he had mostly nice things to say about *Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea* and his critiques were fairly minor, his one genuine complaint about the film was the Sosuke's mother's blatant neglect for his safety due to her ridiculously dangerous driving and her abandoning him during a hurricane. - *The Autobiography of Jane Eyre*: Mr Rochester is Adele's biological or legal father in this Setting Update. He's rather unconcerned about his daughter other than that he keeps her intellectually challenged because she's an extremely gifted Child Prodigy—so he hires a tutor for her and she has thousands of extracurricular activities. He's probably not intentionally unkind and he might genuinely try to do his best but he comes off as inattentive or bossy, not to mention that he is said to travel a lot and he rarely stays at his home with her. Adele says he always brings her presents and she genuinely likes what she receives in episode 12. She's also rather cheerful in his presence, so he can't be all bad, but the guy has issues. - *Positively Dreadful*: Sideburns' mother is seen brushing him off when he tries talking to her, and flat-out ignoring him as he's chased down the street. - *Video Game High School*: - Brian's mom spends all of her time playing games. While games are a big deal in this universe (it's implied gaming is how she makes money, for one thing), she never acknowledges Brian even when they live in the same house. She didn't notice her son got a scholarship to a prestigious high school until the second he left, at one point she promises to come visit but sends the cat instead, and on parents' weekend, Brian dismisses the possibility of her coming since it's "double xp weekend" in her game. - Jenny Matrix's mother Mary is both completely absent and a controlling Stage Mom dedicated to making sure her daughter is one of the best FPS players in history. This gets worse in the second season when Mary becomes the FPS coach and still refuses to give her daughter the slightest measure of affection. When Mary gets awarded a parent of the year award, she forces Jenny to give a speech, and while trying to write it Jenny breaks down in tears because she cannot think of a single good memory of her mother. Jenny even says her father had to teach her basic girl stuff like doing her hair and talking to boys because her mother was just *never* around. - Ted Wong's parents divorced when he was ten. His mother didn't want him and left him with his father, who bought him a condo twenty minutes away and then ignored him unless he needed something. Ted was basically forced to raise himself (except for a monthly maid and a "wise mailman"), and the worst part is that he doesn't see anything wrong with this situation until his horrified friends point it out. - In *Adventure Time* we have Lemongrab. His "mother" Princess Bubblegum, the ruler of an entire kingdom, apparently didn't want to handle the responsibility of raising a brain-damaged, failed science experiment, so she stuck him in a castle to be raised by servants in near total isolation from the outside world. It's rather common. Finn's parents left him alone in a forest (he was lucky enough to be found by a kindly couple before *too* long), and Marceline's father's primary interaction with her was to steal her french fries at one point. - Stan and Francine Smith from *American Dad!* In the episode where Francine became the surrogate for their gay neighbors, the B plot had Roger and Steve hiding in the attic from Klaus. Stan received a call from the principal saying that his son wasn't in school for *9 months*, and didn't give it a second thought. Francine didn't seem to even care that her son was missing for almost a year. Then there's the incident with the CIA hunting trip, and Steve runs away to live in the woods for a year. Stan lets him go because "he's a man", and Francine assumes that Hayley ran away as well (until she pointed out that she was right there). Oddly enough, at other times Francine is *too* in Steve's life. - *Animaniacs* has Mindy's mother, who leaves her daughter in the care of Buttons, one time even doing so to attend a "Better Parenting class". - *Camp Lazlo*: Lumpus' jerkass attitude is implied to come from the fact his dad didn't give him much attention. - In *The Crumpets*, Ma has a tendency to neglect her 142 children due to her devotion to inventing machines and loving her husband, who is tasked to rear the kids. In "Family Secrets", Ditzy, their daughter whose head can float off from her body, gets her head grounded (from reading a letter that may be proof of Pa having an affair) and approaches Ma for help. Ma, who is busy looking for her missing husband, identifies Ditzy's problem as "very minor", asks her where he is, and leaves before her daughter was going to finish her sentence, possibly on what she suspects of her father. - *Danny Phantom*: Danny's parents border on neglectful, especially his father Jack, because they're so obsessive about ghosts (with a yearly fight over whether Santa Claus existed or not during Christmas that resulted in various problems for Danny). Though the series has also taken into great account that family means as much to them as does ghost hunting, going to great lengths to protect their children and to show how much they love them. - In *Daria,* Jane's Hippie Parents take Hands-Off Parenting to such an extreme that it crosses over into this trope. They're often away for long periods of time, leaving the kids on their own. Her parents clearly mean well, as they believe that they're giving their kids freedom, but they've all grown up to be dysfunctional in some way, though Jane is the most stable. - *Duckman*'s mother forgot her son's name, didn't care that he skipped school because of bullying, went on a cruise when an auto accident left him on the brink of death, and missed his graduation and wedding. Duckman himself isn't much better, often forgetting one of his son's names and consistently distancing himself from his oldest child who desperately craves Duckman's love and affection. - *Ed, Edd n Eddy*: - Ed is implied to have neglectful parents. His mother treats him as The Un-Favourite compared to his spoiled sister, who abuses him, and his father is largely apathetic to all this, as summed up by the following line note : When the Eds attempt to leave school early: **Ed:** The school will tell Sarah, and Sarah will tell Mom, and Mom will tell Dad, and DAD WILL JUST SIT THERE AND WATCH TV! - Edd's parents are an interesting case; they only seem to communicate with him through numerous sticky notes pasted all over the house, but the notes themselves have kind, nurturing words and pieces of personal advice. This may just be a result of the show not showing any adults. - *The Fairly OddParents!*: - Timmy's parents are quite neglectful and extremely selfish. They do love him though; they're more like man children than truly evil abusers. Still, there are times when they put Timmy's happiness after their own, and in the "Wishology" trilogy, they fail to notice he's been in Fairy World for an extended period of time, and don't notice they forgot to take him on *two* family vacations. It speaks volumes when, in part one, Timmy shrugs off the fact that they don't remember they have a son. The mother has even openly spent Timmy's college fund on stuff for herself when viewing the home shopping channel. Also, as a one-line throwaway gag when they notice "fly head Timmy" eating garbage, they refer to how they frequently forget to make dinner for three people (they only make dinner for themselves). - As bad as Timmy's parents are, Remy Buxaplenty's are even worse (and the reason why he has a Godfather in the first place). They spend a minute a day with their son *(literally timed down to the second)* and don't even remember his name (they even called him "Liam" in one scene). If "Remy Rides Again" is any indication, they've only gotten worse: when Timmy tried to fix this situation by taking away their wealth and stranding the family on a desert island so they'd spend time with Remy, they just gathered riches again (his father struck oil and his mother converted the island to a tropical resort) and returned to ignoring Remy. - Timmy himself will become a neglectful parent toward his own children (Tommy and Tammy) in the future, as a possible side effect of the Laser-Guided Amnesia we all know he's going to get when he gets older. He says that the purpose of the time capsule was so that he'd remember Vicky's atrocities to prevent his fate from happening to his future kids... so his memory loss might have wiped the motive away too. - In general, many of the children Fairy Godparents look after are like this. They only go to children who are miserable and unhappy, and many of the ones we see have Parental Neglect who make them that way. - *Family Guy*. Even leaving out Meg, Peter and Lois have gotten to the point where they barely even see their children anymore. Stewie is almost always left alone with Brian while Chris seems to barely exist. In fact, Peter has gone as far as to say that he can't stand his kids. Nowhere is this trope shown better than in the episode where Stewie gets a horrible head injury that only gets worse as he is not taken to the hospital (Meg and Chris try to hide his injury in fear that they'll get in trouble). When Peter finds out, he *commends* the children on trying to hide the problem, and reveals that he did the same to each of them when they were younger ("Sometimes by accident, sometimes when the Patriots lost"). This only gets worse as he tries to get Lois to think she did it by *throwing Stewie in front of the car as Lois backs up over him*. Lois then suggests they hide it and pin the blame on someone else. That's if the kids are *lucky*, by the way. Usually, they are the victims of abuse of all four categories (well, all four for Meg, at least). - Some of the parents in *Futurama* seem to be universally neglectful: - Philip Fry's parents are at first mentioned to be quite neglectful. Fry is pleased he won't see them again when he arrives in the future, and it is later said they kept him out of school as they thought it a "waste of taxpayer's money". However, we later see them in flashback, and whilst they do have their moments of neglect (Mr. Fry is a Conspiracy Theorist and Mrs. Fry is more focused on watching the game than disciplining her sons) they are shown to love and care for both of their sons. The family is upset when Fry "disappears" and does look for him, and never gets over his disappearance. It is later explained that Fry knew he would never see them again after waking up in 3000 and tried to convince himself this was a good thing to spare his own feelings. **Fry:** There's not one thing about this place that I missed. *[sees his dog, Seymour]* Seymour! I forgot about you. Aw, I missed your stinky breath so much. Maybe I do kind of miss this place. Maybe I just convinced myself I hated it because I knew I could never come back. You know, boy, this was the last time I ever saw my family. - And then there's Cubert's "father", Hubert Farnsworth, who shows very little interest in Cubert beyond the fact that he is a successful experiment. - In one episode, Fry is fed up with suffering this trope from Farnsworth (technically Farnsworth is *his* descendant, but Fry views him as the closest to a Parental Substitute he can get). This leads to him seeking out Farnsworth's parents and finding loving parental figures in them, only to learn that Farnsworth himself resents them for ignoring *him* throughout most of his youth. ||Subverted when it's discovered that far from neglecting him, they stayed up with him every night when he suffered night terrors, which left them too exhausted to spend time with him during the day. When Farnsworth finds out, he realizes how much they love him.|| - Helga's parents Bob and Miriam in *Hey Arnold!* They're not *bad* people per se, but Helga was The Un-Favourite growing up (Word of God states that her mother Miriam was an alcoholic), and for a while, it was her Freudian Excuse to be the school bully. The deal is totally inverted with Olga: the excessive and asphyxiating attention from Miriam and Bob shaped her into an insecure, hysteric, overachieving, whiny doormat who breaks down to a ridiculous degree if she makes a wrong step. In her own words, *"[Helga,] you're * To put this in perspective, one episode had Helga change Olga's grade in a class to a B+, causing Olga to lock herself in her room for the better part of a week. She did it expecting to have some attention for herself... but the parents **lucky** they don't even notice you." *still* flocked to Olga, which spurred her to ultimately confess to Helga how sick she was of the whole deal. This is however played straight when Aesop Amnesia kicks in: Both Helga and Olga *completely forget* their heart-to-heart, Olga starts playing the Stepford Smiler *completely straight* and Helga *again* thinks Olga *enjoys* all the attention (since ever since that *one* time, she hasn't shown she doesn't like it). - In *Invader Zim*, Professor Membrane, Dib's superscientist father is portrayed as neglectful, and obsessed with his work to the point of not even recognizing his son in one episode. Dib seems to have responded to this by becoming similarly obsessed with his own pursuits and largely indifferent towards his father, while his sister Gaz seems eager for his company and attention. However, more recently in the comic books and in the TV movie *Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus*, Professor Membrane has been depicted more positively, trying to do his work as fast he can to spend at least some moments with his children and even assuring Dib that he has always been proud of him despite their differences. - In *Jem*, Phyllis "Pizzazz" Gabor's Missing Mom ran off when she was a child and the trauma left her wealthy father distant. He rarely paid attention to her which didn't help Pizzazz's attitude. Even as an adult, he's very aloof towards his daughter (especially in the comic adaptation). The lack of attention growing up led to her Attention Whore and Rich Bitch personality. - *Kaeloo*: Stumpy's mother barely spends any time with her son and only does the bare minimum of parenting, like telling him not to juggle chainsaws because it's too dangerous. Later in the series, we learn that this is because she had to take up three different jobs to keep the family afloat after Stumpy's father left and thus has no time to spend with him because she's so busy. - Ron's parents in *Kim Possible* are barely involved in his life, and barely involve Ron in their decisions either, to the point that the major revelations in their family, moving to Europe in the first movie, and adopting a baby, are revealed to Ron with his parents saying "This is our way of telling you..." after he walks home from school to find a "SOLD" sign on his house, and then by finding that his room has been changed into a nursery. Ron repeatedly gets parental-type advice from his angry teacher, Mr. Barkin and it seems that Kim's family play a bigger role in his life than his own. They also repeatedly dump his baby sister on him so they can go out. This is all Played for Laughs. Comparing the family state of Ron, an only child for most of the series, to Kim, with brothers and extremely involved and supportive parents is quite jarring, and shows up a few times in the show itself, including Ron's "freakout" at losing "everything he ever cares about" which amounts to Kim and a fast food joint. Ron does get a chance at payback when he gets to reveal to his parents that his adopted baby sister Hana is in fact a mystical ninja messiah baby as she innocently wreaks havoc all over the kitchen. When his parents ask why he didn't tell them before? "This *is* my way of telling you." - In a Post-Script Season episode, this neglect haunts Mr. Stoppable again when Ron is given a school assignment to write an essay about his hero, and Ron doesn't take him into consideration at *all.* He then spends the rest of the episode trying to prove to his son that he can be a hero, from doing volunteer work to stopping the Villain of the Week from doing any more harm to him. - *The Legend of Korra* shows that Avatar Aang and Toph Beifong, main characters of *Avatar: The Last Airbender*, were neglectful to their kids: - More specifically, Aang neglected Bumi and Kya, the older son and daughter he had with his wife Katara, in favor of his youngest son Tenzin, who was the only Airbender child in the family — albeit this was to make sure the Air Nation would make a comeback and eventually restore balance to the world. This seriously damaged Tenzin's relationships with his brother and sister, since they came to resent and mistreat him for being "the favorite" in their father's eyes. - Meanwhile, Toph chose to be very hands-off with her two daughters Lin and Suyin so that they would have the freedom to do whatever they want, something Toph herself did not have growing up. However, expecting the two girls to basically raise themselves ultimately blew up in Toph's face as it left both girls feeling unloved by their mother and made them more desperate for her attention, which led Lin to become a Metalbending police officer like Toph in the hopes of gaining some approval (only to be given a cold shoulder for it), while Suyin became a teenage criminal who ended up scarring Lin's face, albeit accidentally, when Lin broke up a robbery Suyin took part in. Toph covered the whole thing up and sent Suyin to live with her grandparents instead of to jail, which hurt Lin even more and resulted in seriously damaging Toph and Suyin's relationships with her, ultimately causing an estrangement that lasted well over thirty years. - *Metalocalypse*: - It's explicitly stated that Skwisgaar's standing as the world's fastest guitarist (in the world's greatest band) is due to the sheer neglect of his mother, who was also Miss Sweden 1956. - Pickles; his parents *still* haven't noticed that he's a musically multi-talented billionaire. Their neglect drove him to run away from home, buy a guitar in a pawn shop, and start a hugely successful glam rock band. Part of it is because Pickles is The Un-Favourite, as they pay more attention and lavish more praise on his deadbeat brother Seth (who actually works *for* Pickles by season three). - Gabriel Agreste in *Miraculous Ladybug* manages the impressive feat of combining this trope with Knight Templar Parent while also being a complete Hypocrite. He obsessively micromanages every aspect of his son Adrien's life, but he's never *there* for any of it, working through video calls and his assistant Nathalie. ||And he spends most of his free time as the supervillain Hawk Moth, causing problems that his son often gets caught up in.|| - *Molly of Denali*: Throughout the series, we don't see Tooey's parents around very often. Granted, this could be because he isn't the main focus of the show, he is still the secondary character. In many episodes, it's implied that Tooey is simply just home alone, as his dad is absent a lot racing dogs and his mom is a doctor that goes in and out of town. This is before we are introduced to his two brothers, but even then it's implied, and later confirmed, that they're never home. "Sticker Shock" eventually revealed that they have been away at college. - Doughy Latchkey on *Moral Orel*'s parents look and act like teenagers, always giving him money to go away so they can have time to themselves (despite that they apparently get plenty of it and Doughy's not that high maintenance). He's quite envious of Orel and his father, though probably not too aware of their situation. - *Phineas and Ferb*: Dr. Doofenshmirtz's backstories often have him as the victim of this... His mom ignored him in favor of his brother Roger and his dad preferred *a dog* (which he called *Only Son*) instead of him. - It is necessary for the show to function and isn't taken seriously, but none of the parents on *Rugrats* seem to keep too keen an eye on their infant children, who normally wander off into situations that could kill them. This is particularly bad in Season 1, where they sometimes leave their kids with Grandpa, who falls asleep while telling the babies a story. The worst offender is the Season 1 episode "Touchdown Tommy," where all the dads are watching a big football game. Because they are too busy watching football, the babies have covered the living room in chocolate milk, and Didi and Betty are rightfully pissed when they get back. - *Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated*: - It features the gang's parents in this light. The gang's parents seem to put their happiness before their kids. Velma's mom (as shown in a picture) cares a lot more about her horses than her own daughter, Shaggy's parents think of him as an embarrassment, Fred's dad was thrilled at the idea of his son dying at the hands of the cicada monster, and Daphne's mother told her right to her face that sometimes she wishes they had a boy instead. Though if you think of it, this could explain why in earlier series the parents never seemed to care that their kids were mystery-solving all over the place. - ALL the parents of Crystal Cove fit in this trope. When their children are "spookified," they abandon them! - ||Mayor Jones just has to be *the worst* out of them. For starters, he's not Fred's real dad. Fred's real father and mother aren't much better, though they are at least doing it for Fred's own good...once the curse corrupts them so that Fred's own good no longer matters to them, they stop the neglecting and pursue a straight up *enemy* relationship with their son!|| - Velma's mother gradually became better than the other parents and played more of a supportive role towards Velma and the gang, to the point that she would help them solve mysteries when they needed advice on the supernatural. - *The Simpsons*: - This can happen, often Depending on the Writer. Homer, especially is too involved in his own schemes, or too distracted by Bart to pay enough attention to Lisa and Maggie. - And certainly Homer's parents for different reasons: Mona was too busy chaining herself to things in protest, and Abe was just not particularly emotionally invested in Homer. - Ned Flanders's parents were *intentionally* neglectful. As beret-wearing beatniks, they believed that children ought to be free and unrestrained and thus provided no guidance or discipline at all. This resulted in young Ned being incredibly violent and destructive. After some time, they finally gave in and had to seek psychiatric help to calm Ned down. On the other hand, as an adult, Ned is an outstanding father. - *Steven Universe*: For as much as she qualifies as Pink Diamond's "mother", White Diamond is notably absent from nearly all scenes of the Diamonds, including the murder trial of Pink's alleged murderer; the other Diamonds themselves never acknowledge her. The only time she intervened at all was to help Yellow and Blue unleash the Corrupting Light on Earth after Pink's ||alleged|| shattering. ||When she eventually reunites with Pink (or rather, the person she perceives as Pink) she is incredibly dismissive, referring to the Gem war as Pink's "latest little game" before whisking "Pink Diamond" off to her room. It's even possible that White was outright abusive towards her "daughter", given her Pearl's battered appearance and robotic mannerisms, and the fact Blue and Yellow Diamond openly fear her. In any case, she certainly doesn't care enough about Pink to attend the ball celebrating her return, sending her Pearl instead.|| - In *Ultimate Spider-Man*, Norman Osborn isn't abusive of Harry, but he does neglect his son in favor of work and in his pursuit of Spider-Man. This all changes when he becomes ||Green Goblin|| though. - Pretty much the main point of FX's *Unsupervised*. - *The Venture Bros.*: - Dr. Venture seems to have absolutely no interest in his sons, and treats them as walking organ banks and largely not caring if they live or die because he can clone them ad nausea. His own father has been shown as unintentionally emotionally traumatizing young Rusty through his womanizing ways. This changes (a little) in season 4, when Dr. Venture begins grooming Dean to follow in his footsteps. On the other hand, he does *not* take it well when Hank turns into a rebellious Emo Teen. - It's been said that Jonas Venture refused to let his son wear anything but shorts until he left for college, so him saying he doesnt want to go on an adventure was simply out of the question. Even though he writes it off as a phase the fact that he allows Dean to stay home says a lot, like the fact that he has shown a lot more interest in their safety since he cant clone them anymore ignoring it might just be his way of showing that he does care. - Rusty's father didn't seem all that concerned about Rusty's desire to live a normal life, instead insulting him for being ungrateful for all the opportunities of being a Boy Adventurer, which include being locked at home or being dragged all over the world, getting kidnapped with great frequency. - The whole series implies that the parents of boy adventurers are by nature very neglectful. Which when you think about what kind of dad would let his son wander around in mummy tombs or look for serial killers, is a good deconstruction. There are even therapy groups for this sort of thing that include parodies of Robin (Wonderboy, who has abandonment issues from his adopted parent Captain Sunshine), the Hardy Boys (who were implied to have actually *killed* their father but were acquitted from charges in court), "Action Johnny" who has deep, deep issues and is a serious drug addict, and Astroboy (Ro-Boy); not much is mentioned about him, but given the original Astroboy was sold to a circus by his own "father", we can imagine he suffered a similar backstory). - In *Young Justice (2010)* Superman's reticence to spend any time with or forge any sort of emotional connection with Superboy (a clone of Supes created by the Light) is portrayed as this (never mind that SB isn't actually his son and everyone just expects him to go along with it without taking his feelings into consideration). Subverted in the following season, where he's come to grips with that (saving the world always works wonders with him) and adopted Superboy as a little brother. - Analyzed in *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*. Scootaloo's parents *finally* show up after at least a three-year absence In-Universe. Very much a case of Parents as People as they're not portrayed as bad parents in the slightest and they and their daughter love each other very much, and it's actually their attempt at averting this that causes problems: they want to bring Scootaloo with them so they can be together note : They claim it's about keeping her safe from all the villains who keep cropping up, but that doesn't hold much water when you consider that she's also living near Equestria's designated heroes. and she is upset that this will separate her from her friends and that her parents are trying to dictate her life after being gone so long. There is, however, the matter that the series was mostly ambiguous on whether Scootaloo's inability to fly was an actual disability, or whether she was just a late bloomer flight-wise. The fact that it wasn't properly resolved in-universe implies that they had never bothered to take her to a doctor about it, which actually *would* be grossly negligent. - In *Elena of Avalor*, Carla has been raised by her father Victor for the past ten years after her mother Ash left them with the promise of finding a way to turn them all into malvagos. Ash falls out of contact with them after three years, so the lack of communication causes her family to believe she's dead, when in truth, she had just gotten carried away with her malvago training. When she finally returns, she blames her husband for depriving her of watching Carla grow up because the plan was for them to wait for her. Meanwhile, she dotes on her daughter, but there are hints through the next few episodes that she seems to prioritize power over her... ||which eventually culminates in Carla almost getting badly hurt from one of her schemes, to which Victor tries to get him and Carla to retire from evil, only for Ash to petrify him for arguing with her one too many times. When Ash asks Carla to come with her, unsurprisingly, Carla tells her to screw off. Though Ash is initially shocked by this, she immediately leaves her behind at the mercy of our heroes.|| - The sooty albatross is an odd example. They're devoted parents, but they can only recognize their chick so long as it's in the nest. If a chick winds up outside the nest for some reason, such as being blown out by a storm, the parents won't recognize it. They'll leave it to die even if it's only inches away from the nest.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalNeglect

Parents in Distress - TV Tropes Kids have this tendency to get themselves in trouble, often requiring their parental figures to bail them out. Sometimes this goes to the point of violence or physical feats, where Mama Bear and Papa Wolf step up to the plate. On the other hand, sometimes it's the *parents* that get themselves in a sticky situation. Then the children will go to any lengths necessary to save their parents (or teacher, older sibling, etc.) from danger. If the characters are just *normally* protective of their parents, it's Extremely Protective Child. Any series with a Kid Hero who isn't Conveniently an Orphan is bound to try this. Compare Adults Are Useless and contrast Mama Bear and Papa Wolf. This trope is often a non-Ho Yay version of The Not-Love Interest. ## Examples: - The titular character from *Beelzebub* has a moment when his wheelchair-bound mother, who has been lied to about her purpose of being with the people she's with, is trapped behind a strong barrier and gets knocked out hard enough to fall out of the chair by a crony for trying to force her way through it. While Oga is no stranger to rage, this is the first time that little Beel has been this angry. Needless to say, Oga's opponent and said barrier did not last long after. - In *Berserk*, Casca, rendered ||almost|| completely helpless after the events of the Eclipse, is protected from danger by her ||miscarried and tainted child by controlling the demons that would normally go after her and using them against those who try to harm her. It also uses its powers to warn its father, protagonist Guts, that she is in danger.|| Much later in the series, a little boy ||with a startling resemblance to Casca and Guts that may or may not be the Child reborn as a human|| whom Casca immediately likes, tries to free Guts of his cursed Berserker armor ||and later gives him a psychic Cooldown Hug when he's in a berserk state.|| - Bumbling Dad Kogoro Mouri from *Case Closed* has had to be bailed out of trouble more than once by his Action Girl daughter and his Kid Detective (sorta) protegé. i.e, in a filler case Conan once uses his super-powered shoes to kick a rock towards a Dark Action Girl who has Kogoro in a makeshift gallows, forcing her to release him. - The live action TV series reveals that ||the reason Shinichi and Kogoro were drugged and locked in the white room was because of Ran. The Big Bad kidnapped her mother Eri, and the poor girl reluctanly went along with his plan to save her, even though she expect Shinichi to hate her for it. (He doesn't.)|| - The London arc relies heavily on ||rescuing the mother of Minerva (a famous tennis player who's playing in Wimbledon and Apollo (a boy whom Ran and Conan befriended). Plucky Girl Minerva herself does her best to relay clues to Conan and his entourage ''without stopping to play in the women's finals)|| - In more than one case, Conan has been followed and helped by his mother Yukiko. When this happens, Conan's determination to catch the culprit tends to be extra-buffed by the prospect of his mother potentially being in danger. - *Corrector Yui*: - In the first episode, Yui isn't very convinced by IR's claims that she is The Chosen One. Then the Com.net is attacked and one of the first targets is a virtual amusement park... designed and handled by Yui's father Shinichi, who is *still* there with his workmates. Yui *immediately* jumps into action and tells IR that she will be a Corrector. - In the second season, Corrector Ai's main goal is to find the conscience of her comatose mother Azusa, which was "separated" from her body in an accident in the Net. ||It turns out it was NOT an accident.|| - In *Dragon Ball Z*, Gohan powers up when his father, Goku, is in danger. He's not too pleased when his Parental Substitute Piccolo is injured either. - In a cruel aversion, when his mother Chichi was killed by Majin Boo, neither Gohan nor his brother Goten could do anything but watch, since both of them were in other dimensions or were going into one. - Future Trunks saved his mother, Bulma, and his past self from an attack of Dr. Gero. Later he tried to save his father, Vegeta, from Android #18, but Android 17 prevented him from doing so. When Future Trunks stood up, he was immediately knocked out by 18 who did Grievous Harm With Vegeta's Body. And when Vegeta was having trouble against Cell, Future Trunks did nothing and waited until his father lost his consciousness because he didn't want to hurt Vegeta's pride - Future Trunks was really, *really* frustrated about this. - Kid Trunks manages to save Vegeta from being beaten to death by Majin Buu by sending him flying with a kick to the head. - One story in *Fresh Pretty Cure!* involved Love Momozono's mother getting taken into a mirror world and temporarily replaced by an evil version of herself. Love's adopted sister Setsuna soon suspects something's going on, but Love is initially fooled, and when she realises the truth (and blows the faker's cover) she has to figure out that what she thinks is her mother is a fake and find the real one. - *Hetalia: Axis Powers*: When South Italy was a kid, his "boss" and Parental Substitute Spain saved him from being kidnapped. Years later, Spain falls sick when his economy goes rotten, so South Italy decides to search for a "cure". - *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure* - In *Phantom Blood* Jonathan saved his father George from being slowly poisoned by Dio, ||unfortunately George still died when he saved his son from a killing blow from a newly born vampire Dio.|| - In *Battle Tendency* ||Joseph saves his mother Lisa Lisa from getting killed by the Big Bad Pillar Man Kars in the Final Battle even cradling her like a baby which is ironically heart warming||. - Jotaro Kujo has been on *both* ends of this trope: - The plot of *Stardust Crusaders* is kicked off when Jotaro's mother Holly Kujo suddenly falls sick and Jotaro starts searching for a way to help her. It turns out she's developing her own Stand, but it's rapidly draining her, due to not having the will power to control it. - Jotaro in *Stone Ocean* is left comatose when the Big Bad ||Enrico Pucci|| uses his Stand to steal his memories and power. His daughter Jolyne's drive to save her father forms the backbone of the plot. - *Jojolion* develops into this later on. When Josuke discovers he is actually ||a fusion of two individuals, Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo, he sets out to find a way to cure Kira's mother (who by proxy is his own mother now and Josuke definitely sees it this way) by chasing a fruit which can grant miracles through equivalent exchange||. - *Judge* reveals this to be the reason why Kazuhiko Asai agreed to become The Mole, after being given a cellphone with instructions and a picture of their mother, whom they haven't seen in years due to personal reasons, held at gun-point and told to follow the instructions lest she be killed. - In the infamous Hentai *La Blue Girl*, Miko Mido has to save her parents several times. (Mostly in the sequels *Lady Blue* and *La Blue Girl Returns*) - *Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS*: - Quattro tells Vivio that her adoptive mother Nanoha is in danger, and all she has to do to get her back is to defeat the demon in front of her. The "demon" in question was Nanoha, but Vivio had been tortured so much in the past few episodes that she honestly thought that she was a monster disguised as her mama in an attempt to deceive her. - Lutecia's motivation to be with the villains is getting a cure for her comatose mother, Megane. ||What she doesn't know is that said villains are the reason *why* she's in a coma in the first place. Caro and Erio convince Lutecia to lay down her weapons, and some time later, Megane recovers.|| - *Pokémon Adventures*: - This happens to Professor Oak twice, first in *RBG* arc and in *FRLG* arc by Team Rocket, leaving it up to Blue to rescue him. - In the *FireRed/LeafGreen* arc of *Pokémon Adventures*, Green has to rescue her parents who were kidnapped by Deoxys ||and by extension, Team Rocket||. - Happens briefly in the *DP* arc when Mars holds Johanna hostage in Lake Verity. - In the *XY* arc, Y's mother, Grace, is taken by Team Flare (along with the rest of the town) to be used as brainwashed labor force. - *Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs*: - Saber Rider is faced with a similar problem when his parents are kidnapped and replaced by evil Vapor Beings. He manages to trap the imposters first (with a little help of his Evil-Detecting Dog) and then goes to save Mom and Dad with the help of his friends and his clansmen. - A good part of the plot is driven by the kidnapping of April's father/the Star Sheriff's leader, General Eagle. - *Sailor Moon*: - Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon are so upset when Hawk's Eye attacks Ikuko (Sailor Moon's mother and Chibi Moon's grandmother) that they get their Super forms in *Super S*. - In the anime, Rei/Mars once had to fight her grandfather, who has been transformed into a demon by Zoicite. (Or more exactly, reverted to the demon form he had in his past life.) - In *Street Fighter II V*, ||Chun-Li's father Dorai is rendered in a coma after a *brutal* beating from Cammy. When Cammy returns to finish the job, Chun-Li's childhood friend and Dorai's favorite disciple Fei Long rises to the challenge and fights her to protect his Parental Substitute, managing to both fulfill this and push Cammy to a HeelFace Turn.|| - In the *Vampire Princess Miyu* OAV, ||the main character Miyu||'s main motivation is to save her parents, ||who are kept in an eternal slumber by the Shinma leaders as catch to have Miyu hunting down the Shinmas who have escaped to the human world.|| - The whole plot of the Duelist Kingdom arc of *Yu-Gi-Oh!* (the first season) centered around Yugi attempting to rescue his grandfather Sugurokou's imprisoned soul from Pegasus. (He and his allies did pick up some other goals along the way later, including rescuing Mokuba (and later Kaiba too) and as a side goal, raising money to pay for Shizuka's surgery). - Whenever Batman gets into serious trouble that he *can't* escape on his own, his adopted kids/sidekicks will go to hell and back to bail him out. The Batfamily including (and especially) Bruce will do the same if anything happens to Alfred. - Almost subverted in the comic miniseries *Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge*. The agents of the Big Bad Libra kidnap the father of Rogues leader Captain Cold. They threaten to kill him unless Cold and the Rogues surrender. But the bad guys don't understand that his father's sadistic abuse and terror was the main factor in shaping Cold's personality. So he tells them that he will hunt them down, kill them, and kill his father himself. The Rogues do kill the bad guys, but Cold does not kill his father. Instead he orders his teammate Heatwave to burn him to death. - *Firefly: Brand New 'Verse*: Emma has to lead the rescue of Zoe after she was wounded and taken by the Alliance. - In the Green Arrow storyline "Quiver", the villain has barricaded his hideout with a Blood Seal that prevents anyone not related to anyone inside the Seal from entering. Good thing Ollie's son Connor Hawke shows up to save his dad. While Connor isn't able to defeat the villain's demons on his own, ||seeing his son in danger is what finally convinces Ollie's soul in Heaven to merge with his Soulless Shell of a body (after the *Shell* tells him to do it). The fully resurrected Green Arrow breaks free, and together with his son defeats the villain.|| - In *Luc Helius the Young Cosmonaut* by Alcatena, the reason why the titular Luc starts his journey despite being barely a teenager is to find and rescue his beloved father, a famous scientist who disappeared in *very* shady circumstances. - When Robin Tim Drake's parents were kidnapped he obediently stayed home in Gotham and let Batman rescue them. Unfortunately Batman was unable to prevent the murder of his mother and the crippling of his father. Later Jack Drake was kidnapped again, and again Tim allowed Bruce to be in charge of his father's rescue. When Jack was cornered in his own home during Identity Crisis Tim raced there as fast as he could along with his mentor but was unable to arrive there in time to prevent his murder. - In *Runaways*, Molly manifests her powers when her mother is struck. She is shown to be the one of the kids who misses her parents the most. - Subverted in the case of ||Victor's mother, who is kidnapped by Ultron just after her son's electric-based powers manifest. He tries to help orchestrate a rescue mission with the heroes, but it ends with his mother getting vaporized in front of him.|| - In *Spider-Girl*, May once had to swing home to rescue her mom from Normie Osborn. However, MJ is a bit of a Mama Bear, so it wasn't really necessary. At another point she had to help save Peter when he was ||possessed by Norman Osborn||. - *Spider-Man*: There have been a couple of times Aunt May was in trouble and while she normally can get out of it, sometimes it's not enough. Namely when she got shot and cue Spider-Man delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle against the **Kingpin**, all while reminding him that while the Kingpin may have impressive human strength, Peter is clearly superhuman and that he will go and *kill* Kingpin if Aunt May died from the assassin's bullet. - *Wonder Girl*: Lashina tries to force Cassie to cooperate by kidnapping Cassie's mother. - *Children of an Elder God*: When a terrorist group invaded NERV's German base, they captured Badass soldier and Mama Bear Misato, and her wards Shinji and Asuka together with Rei had to rescue her. The three kids didn't want to kill people and they were hugely distraught about it afterwards, but they couldn't let those terrorists hurt their surrogate mother. - In *A Crown of Stars*, Asuka rescued her mother Kyoko right when she was about to be executed by a death squad. She shot at them all before picking Kyoko up and hightailing it. - In Discworld fic *Strandpiel*, young witch Rebecka Smith-Rhodes discovers her mother is very likely suffering from a heart condition which she is highly likely to be stubbornly toughing out in the hope it might go away on its own, or else she is simply refusing to accept reality. Bekki knows this has caused women in the family line to die young. note : She's a witch. She gets to speak to them.. Bekki speaks in turn to Assassin friends of her mother and then to Matron Igorina. After a week of peer pressure and urgent advice from her doctor, Johanna grudgingly agrees to the operation. - *Thousand Shinji*: When ||Gendo unfairly placed Misato under arrest,|| Shinji set to busting her adoptive mother out of jail, killing anyone who stood in his way. - In the sequel to *The Touch of Green Fire*, Kim teams up with Shego to help rescue her mother after she's kidnapped for her skills as a surgeon. - *Bolt*: Penny's character in the Show Within a Show is looking for her scientist father. - In *Home (2015)*, Tip goes across the world to reunite with her mother. - In *The Lion King (1994)*, Scar decided it wasn't enough to kill Simba's father Mufasa, he also had to show Simba's mother Sarabi the back of his paw. **Big mistake.** - In the *Pokémon 3* movie, Delia Ketchum is abducted by Entei after Molly Hale, an emotionally broken little girl whose father has just disappeared, wishes for a mother. Her son Ash is not pleased by this turn of events. - In *The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue*, Jenny McBride's parents get captured by NIMH and she goes on a quest, (along with Timmy) to save them. - In *Scooby Doo! Pirates Ahoy!*, Fred's parents are abducted by pirates. He immediately goes to the rescue... with the whole gang right behind him. - In *Spirited Away*, Chihiro Ogino's parents are transformed into pigs, so one of Chihiro's goals is to undo the spell and get them back. - Parental Substitute variant in *Avengers: Infinity War*: Tony would've been bludgeoned by one of the Thanos's minions during the battle of New York had Peter not appeared out of nowhere and pulled a Punch Catch on it. - In *Child's Play (2019)*, Chucky takes ||Karen hostage, with the intent of killing her so that he and Andy can be together, and Andy has to go save her from getting hanged.|| - *DC Extended Universe* - *House of Fury*: In this martial arts film, Teddy, a former martial artist and assassin, retired to raise his children after the death of his wife. But when enemies from his past shows up and kidnaps him, it's up to his children - his adult son Nicky and teenage daughter Natalie - to save their old man. - *The Ice Pirates* combines this, Plot-Relevant Age-Up, and Express Delivery into one for the movie's bizarre climax. The pirates and their enemies boarding the ship are all caught in some kind of temporal vortex that causes rapid aging. The princess that the protagonist *just slept with* has a kid, said kid grows into an adult off-screen and saves the now-aged protagonist from a last bunch of robots. Then the Reset Button kicks in. Yeah, it's weird. (But kind of fun.) - Indiana Jones has to rescue his father more than once, though he's no longer a kid, in *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade*. - *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah*: During his first fight with Destoroyah, Godzilla Junior receives a deep chest wound from the mutant Precambrian crustacean and seems to be down for the count. But when Destoroyah tries to attack the helicopter carrying Miki Saegusa, who had acted as one of Junior's Parental Substitutes in *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*, Junior gets his Heroic Second Wind and enacts a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of his opponent to save Miki. - *Kingsman: The Secret Service* has Michelle, Harry "Egsy's" mother, who is routinely verbally and physically abused by her husband, Dean, leader of a local group of thugs. Egsy is helpless at first, but after coming back home ||when he is dismissed by the Kingsmen||, he has the full intent of using his newfound combat skills to deal with Dean. At the end of the movie, ||its heavily implied that he delivered the same beat down on Dean and his goons that Galahad delivered on them at the beginning.|| - *Logan*: ||When X-24 kills Charles, Laura, who came to view him as a surrogate grandfather, gets *violent* and furiously leaps on his back with claws flashing, even though he's twice her size. He's only able to defeat and subdue her because she had no room to maneuver. Later in the film she does it *again* to protect her *actual* father, Logan, and this time subjects him to a positively brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. X-24 only manages to shake her off when he manages to land a lucky blow (she *is* only eleven years old). She ultimately delivers the fatal blow via an adamantium bullet to his noggin when he tries to finish off the mortally wounded Logan.|| - *Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie*: Ivan Ooze had brainwashed Angel Grove's adults into escavating his war machines, then when that was done he pulled a mass You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and ordered them to jump off a cliff. While the Rangers were fighting said war machines, Canon Foreigner Kid-Appeal Character Fred and Those Two Guys Bulk and Skull had to rally the city's kids to keep their parents safe until the Rangers broke the spell. - *My Life as a Dog*: Ingemars mother cannot handle raising him and his older brother, as they can be troublesome and she is suffering from tuberculosis. This results in the two boys being sent to live with relatives so she can have some temporary peace and quiet to herself. - In *Red Eye*, Rachel MacAdams gets violent to protect her father from Cillian Murphy. - In *Space Mutiny*, the villainous Elijah Kalgan kidnaps the commander's "daughter-mother" (thanks to some bad makeup work on the lead female actor who was 34 at the time of the film's release). - *Spy Kids* features this when the spy parents are in danger and the titular kids, who have just learned that they're not as "boring" and "normal" as they believed, set out to rescue them. - *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*: John Connor risks his life to save his mother Sarah from being killed and replaced by the T-1000. After she's rescued, however, she castigates him for risking his life so much for her. - *TRON: Legacy*: Sam's searching for, and trying to rescue his dad, who got trapped in Cyberspace twenty years earlier. - Even superheroes the size of cities aren't immune to this trope. Case in point: *Ultraman Taiga The Movie: New Generation Climax* has Taiga's father, the veteran warrior *Ultraman Taro*, being possessed and absorbed by the monster Grimdo, and it's up to Taiga and the New Generation Heroes to save his father. - *Animorphs* does this a couple of times. For most of the series, it's Marco's main plotline: he discovers that his supposedly-dead mom is actually the host body of Visser One, and sticks with the group in the hope of one day saving her. In book #45, he also has to protect his father, whose scientific discovery threatens the Yeerks' plans. ||He saves his mom in the same book||. - One book has Jake having to protect his father from his Controller brother, whose Yeerk is determined to kill him. - Book #48 is a Wham Episode where the Animorphs realize that the Yeerks have begun to discover their identities, and have to finally reveal the truth to their parents and evacuate them to the Hork-Bajir colony for their own safety. ||Jake||'s parents, however, are infested before they can save them. Meanwhile, Tobias has finally found his Missing Mom and has to struggle with how to save her too. - In *Coraline* (as well as the movie), Coraline initially escapes the Other World and the Other Mother's clutches. She later goes *back* in order to save her parents, whom the Other Mother has captured and trapped in a mirror. - Somewhat subverted in *Fablehaven* since the children are staying with their grandparents while their parents are away, and their parents have no knowledge of the magical world at all. However, Kendra and Seth are responsible for saving their grandparents and other adults several times through the books ||and at the end of the fourth their parents are kidnapped to be used as leverage against them and their grandparents.|| - Invoked in *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*. Instead of harming children to get parents to obey, the Death Eaters controlling Hogwarts target students' parents/guardians instead, to get the students to behave. When they try to do this ||to Neville and his grandmother, his grandmother escapes, injuring the Death Eaters sent after her.|| - *Legacy of the Dragokin*: Benji declares I Am Your Opponent to ||Kthonia|| when they were moments away from killing his mother, Daniar. - In part of the backstory of *Lord of the Rings*, Elrond's wife Celebrian is captured by orcs. Their twin sons Elladan and Elrohir mount a heroic rescue to bring her back to Rivendell. The mission is successful, but because of what she suffered, she no longer takes pleasure in Middle-Earth and opts to sail to the Grey Havens. - *Percy Jackson and the Olympians:* The whole plot is kicked off because Hades kidnaps Percy's mother as leverage during an early battle in the first book. Percy is not happy. He wastes no time readying himself to *storm the Underworld* to get her back. A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed. I was ready to take him on. Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld ... Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god - In *Race to the Sun*, Nizhoni has to rescue her dad, who was kidnapped by the evil oil magnate Mr. Charles and ends up ||finding and rescuing her Missing Mom, too||. - Mowgli, in Rudyard Kipling's original *The Second Jungle Book,* rescues his *adoptive* parents from the angry villagers, mostly for the sake of Messua - her husband's an ungrateful bastard. - *Septimus Heap*: *Darke* has Jenna and Septimus trying to save their mother Sarah when she gets trapped in the Palace in the Darke Domaine. She eventually is rescued by their older brother Simon, though. - The framing device of Stephen King's non-horror novel *The Talisman* is that Jack's mother is dying, and he goes on an unbelievable quest to other dimensions in search of the title MacGuffin which can save her. - In *This Is Not a Werewolf Story,* Raul spends much of the book trying to protect his mom, who has become Shapeshifter Mode Locked as a wolf, from a cougar shapeshifter who wants to kill her. By the end of the book he's also hoping to get her turned back into a human one day. - *A Wrinkle in Time*. The first half is about Meg and Charles Wallace Murray going up against an interstellar Cthulhu-level evil to save their father. (The second half is Meg and her father trying to save Charles Wallace from its Mind Control.) - Captain Sheridan on *Babylon 5* gets captured taking crazy risks in order to try and save his father. - *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*: The title character's mother Joyce has been used as leverage against her daughter several times. Buffy also has had to rescue Giles, her Parental Substitute, on more than one occasion. - Multiple episodes of *Creeped Out* are about this, especially ""Slapstick", where the main character's parents are trapped in an evil puppet show. - The *Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers* were willing to trade their powers in order to get their parents back in "Return Of An Old Friend". (Doubly so in the case of the Pink Ranger Kimberly, who was in the middle of a Visit by Divorced Dad.) - *MythQuest*: Alex and Cleo are teens searching for their father, who got trapped in a mythic cyber museum. - Emma Swan on *Once Upon a Time* has had to bail her parents Snow White and Prince David out of trouble several times (including breaking the curse they were under during all of Season 1). Her son, Henry, isn't a slouch in the heroism department, either, ||eating a poisoned apple turnover and getting hit with the same sleeping spell that afflicted Grandma in order to save Emma, forcing Emma and the Big Bad to work together to undo the spell.|| - *Psych*: Shawn drops his usually goofy attitude in *Santabarbaratown 2* after his father, Henry, gets shot and needs his help. - A minor example occurs in "Chicken Hearts," an episode of *Roseanne*. Roseanne, who is stuck working for an obnoxious teenager at a fast food restaurant, invites the kid over for dinner and to have husband Dan help him with an auto shop assignment in an attempt to help him see that she can't work weekends. When he fires her instead, her daughters Becky and Darlene step up and start shouting at him, calling him a jerk. Later, as he leaves, they also hand him pieces of his auto shop project, which they helped to destroy. - On *The Sarah Jane Adventures*, the only thing as dangerous as messing with Sarah Jane's son is messing with Luke's mum. Forget shipping, their relationship is the show's real love story. - The made-for-TV *Star Wars* spinoff *Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure* is about two kids going on an adventure (with help from their new Ewok friends) to rescue their parents. ||The sequel... not so much.|| - *Supernatural*: - John Winchester is a badass hunter, but he does find himself captured by demons and needing rescue at the end of the first season. ||He is rescued by his sons, but he's possessed by the yellow-eyed demon and has to be exorcised.|| - Season 10 finds Claire Novak searching for the mother whom she thinks abandoned her. ||It turns out Amelia was captured and being fed upon by an evil angel. With Sam, Dean and Castiel's help, she's able to rescue her mother.|| - Mary Winchester is brought back from the dead in Season 12, and she's a competent hunter capable of taking care of herself, but her sons do need to rescue her a few times. - In the finale of Season 3A of *Teen Wolf*, the parents of the three main characters (Scott, Stiles and Allison) have all been kidnapped for human sacrifice by the Darach. The kids have to sacrifice themselves by allowing themselves to be temporarily drowned so they can find where the sacrifice is meant to take place, then it is a race against the clock to find their parents and defeat the Darach before the lunar eclipse. - Perseus was sent into the almost impossible mission of killing Medusa because the King of Seriphos wanted him outta the way so he could force Perseus's beautiful mother Danae to marry him. When Perseus learned that his dear mommy had been taken by force into the court as soon as he left, he rushed to rescue her *and* got the King as well as all of his courtiers Taken for Granite with the freshly cut Gorgon head he had acquired in the process. - In *The Adventures of Willy Beamish*, at the end of the game, ||Leona Humpford captures Willy's dad and tries to kill him. As the last challenge of the game, Willy has to rescue him.|| - Both *Another Code* games had Ashley ending up saving her dad from the bad guy's clutches. In the first game, she had to rescue her aunt as well. - In *Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure*, Cosmo sets out to save his parents from the aliens who apparently kidnapped them. - *Creep TV*: More like "Owners In Distress", but Muriel and Eustace have been kidnapped by poltergeists and are trapped in the TV, and their dog Courage has to save them. - *Dragon Age*: - Seen in *Dragon Age: Origins* if the Warden comes from the City Elf background. Late in the game, the Warden and friends will return to the alienage where the Warden grew up, and rescue his/her father and other elves from slavers. - Both played straight and subverted in the Human Noble origin, as the future Warden has to protect their mother Eleanor from the invasion of the family castle. ||They do a bang-up job, but when they find papa Bryce bleeding to death, Eleanor opts for a Heroic Sacrifice to buy their child time to escape.|| - In *Dragon Age II*, this happens twice to Leandra Hawke. ||The first time, she's fine. The second... not so much...|| - *Final Fantasy X*: In a *very* sad, twisted way. ||Tidus has to Mercy Kill his estranged father, who has become Sin.|| - In *Final Fight 2*, Action Girl Maki's motivation is to save her father and her older sister. - *Fire Emblem*: - In *Fire Emblem: Thracia 776*, one of Prince Leif's goals is rescuing his Parental Substitute Lady Evayle, ||who has been Taken for Granite by the Loptr Church.|| Not succeeding will ||cause her to be Brainwashed and Crazy into becoming one of the Dead Lords.|| - In *Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade*, Eliwood's main motivation is to find his father Elbert, who disappeared under strange circumstances. ||He finds him... in the lair of the Black Fang, gravely injured and weakened. And then he dies in his arms.|| And before that, Lyn's adventures involved her racing against the clock to both to claim her inheritance as the Princess of Caelin *and* save her ill grandfather Hausen. ||And she has to do the second part again one year later, when the Black Fang attacks their realm.|| - One of the missions in *Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones* involves protecting Pontifex Mansel, L'Arachel's Parental Substitute *and* the leader of the Rausten Theocracy. - In *Fire Emblem: Awakening*, ||the kids from the future decide to time travel to avert the deaths of their parents, which triggered the Bad Future from whence they came.|| - In *Fire Emblem Fates*, the *Heirs of Fates* DLC offers a rather cruel twist... ||since not only it starts with the parents already dead, but finishes with the fathers (or mother, in the case of a Male Kana) forcibly revived by the Big Bad and being Brainwashed and Crazy. The children characters realize that the only way to return them to normal is to *kill* them. (Though after that's all said and done, the kids are sent back to their now healed worlds, where the parents are back to normal and alive).|| - *King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella*: Rosella is taken to Tamir and undergoes a grueling quest to retrieve a magic fruit capable of saving her father's life. Getting the fruit is the easy part; saving Genesta so that she can get a ride back to Daventry, not so much. - In *Pitfall The Mayan Adventure*, the objective is for Pitfall Harry Jr to rescue his kidnapped father, who appeared in the original Pitfall games during the 8-bit era. - *Mortal Kombat X* has ||Johnny Cage|| being captured and horribly tortured by ||an empowered Shinnok.|| The victim's beloved Cute Bruiser of a daughter, ||Cassie||, gets *impossibly* angry when she finds out. - *Sonic the Hedgehog* character Cream the Rabbit's debut in the series has her fighting against Eggman's robots in order to rescue her mother. - *The Stalin Subway* begins with your father, a KGB scientist, abducted in the game's opening cinematics. The entire first half of gameplay revolves around your efforts to locate him, which you eventually did in a KGB cell. - *Survivor: Fire*: You play as a boy who needs to rescue his parents (as well as himself, his sister, and his grandmother) from a house fire. - *TRON 2.0*: Jet is trying to rescue his father, Alan, from kidnappers who put the *hostile* in "hostile corporate takeover." He is also trying to rescue and protect the benevolent AI Ma3a from a viral invasion launched by the same creeps. ||An email implies that Ma3a actually is what remains of Jet's mother, who was killed by a digitizer accident in this timeline, meaning he's spending the game rescuing *both* his parents.|| - In *Daughter for Dessert*, Amanda takes care of the protagonist once when he comes home drunk from the bar, and opens the diner when he sleeps in next morning. - In *Higurashi: When They Cry*, Rena Ryuugu wants to protect her father from two scam artists ||(one of them being Ryuugu's new girlfriend Rina)|| who want to steal one million yen from him. This being *Higurashi* and Rena being Rena... well... - In the remake-exclusive fifth case of *Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney*, a girl named Ema Skye hires Phoenix and serves as his assistant because her older sister Lana (who is basically her mother) is on trial for murder and refusing to deny she did it. ||As the trial goes on, it turns out that Lana's in even worse trouble than initially suspected. She's been blackmailed by her boss, Damon Gant, for the past few years, which resulted in her taking on a cold, distant and standoffish demeanor in an attempt to cope. And one of the blackmailing matters is how, if Lana doesn't do stuff like Gant says, *Ema will be accused of murder instead*.|| - In *Better Days*, Sheila is nearly raped by Principal Longfellow, leading her son Fisk to save her by conking Longfellow on the head with a baseball bat. - In *Phantomarine*, ||when Vanna disappears after becoming Seabitten, Pavel strives to find and rescue her from the Fata Morgana.|| - In *Wake of the Clash*, Ghost's father-figure/mentor, Clash, is taken over by an unknown villain and made to attack the city before disappearing. After some years Ghost takes it upon himself to right what happend and recover his missing mentor. - At some point in *Noob: La Quête Légendaire*, an entity reliant on Body Surf gets set free. After a first host possessed from lack of choice, its second host is the father from a father-son pair that had mostly been the center of a Third Line, Some Waiting plot in the previous movie. The event makes the son become part of a more important plot of the story, that involves trying to destroy the entity. - In *Thalia's Musings*, Leto to her twins Apollo and Artemis. This is the origin of the Pythian Games. - The story "Christmas Crisis" in the Whateley Universe. Tennyo's parents get kidnapped because they're mutants who work for the C.I.A. Tennyo's brothers find out and call her because *they're* mutants who work for the C.I.A. Tennyo and her cabbit (It Makes Sense in Context) fly to the rescue because the villains want Tennyo and she's a Person of Mass Destruction. - *Avatar: The Last Airbender*: - ||Sokka|| rescues his father ||Hakoda|| from the Boiling Rock. - Zuko also rescues Iroh when the latter is captured by Earthbenders. - Beetlejuice has to help Lydia rescue her oblivious parents in a few episodes, such as the one in which her mother is kidnapped by a vampire. Fortunately, Charles and Delia almost *never* realize they're in any real danger. - *Boo Boom! The Long Way Home* In episode 25, Boo-Booms parents, while on their way to finally meet up with him, are arrested by the Germans and put on a train that will transport them to a labor camp outside Italy, suddenly turning Boo-Booms quest to find them into a rescue mission. This leads straight to The Climax of the series, where Boo-Boom and his friends have to pull off a Train Escape to rescue them. - *Captain Planet and the Planeteers* features quite a lot of Parental Substitutes in distress; has anyone even **counted** the times when Captain Planet needed the Planeteers' help? Not to mention the instances where Gaia's life (or at least her immortality) was at stake. - *Danny Phantom* has the titular hero constantly protecting his parents, Jack and Maddie, from the main villain. Vlad keeps trying to woo Danny's mother, which is the lesser of his two evils; he's also constantly trying to kill Danny's father. Complicating the matter, Jack thinks Vlad is his good friend. - Huey, Dewey, and Louie are always rescuing their granduncle Scrooge and/or their uncle Donald Duck from danger. - Has happened several times in *The Fairly OddParents!*, both to Timmy's parents and to his fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda. Either because of the Villain of the Week or some peril caused by a wish gone wrong. - Nick Tatapolous has a habit of encountering all sorts of monsters that require his adoptive son to show up and save the day. Did we mention said "son" is Godzilla? - In *Hey Arnold!*, Arnold's parents had to leave him in the care of his grandparents while they make an emergency trip to San Lorenzo to take care of an outbreak of a deadly sleeping sickness. They end up falling ill themselves and unable to return for years. Arnold himself had little to no idea of what happened to them until the episode "The Journal", and by the events of *The Jungle Movie*, he manages to find and cure everyone affected by the sleeping sickness, his parents included. - Penny has to get her dumbass uncle *Inspector Gadget* out of sticky situations (often caused by himself) all the time. - *Lambert the Sheepish Lion* has Lambert, who snaps into action when his sheep mother is attacked by a wolf. - A couple in *The Lion Guard*: - Kion uses the Roar to save Nala from a group of hyenas. Unfortunately it haunts him because he actually used it in anger. - Simba, Nala and Kiara get stuck on Pride Rock when Ghost!Scars minions set fire to it. Kion and the eagles Anga and Hadithi get them to safety. - *The Powerpuff Girls* often find themselves having to rescue their creator and father figure Professor Utonium, although he's come to their aid at times in return. - *SpacePOP* revolves around five teenage princesses who have to rescue their captive parents from an evil empress. - In the *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)* series, the turtles have several instances where their adoptive father, Splinter, has to be saved because he's captured or injured. - Happened once in *Totally Spies!*, when the girls' mothers were kidnapped and then brainwashed into fighting their daughters. - *Winx Club*: This trope is recurrent across the series. - Predictably for the main character, Bloom's parents are often on the receiving end of this trope. - The first season's main villains, the Trix sisters, endanger Bloom's adoptive parents, Mike and Vanessa, to lure her into a trap since the effort to rescue them would leave her exhausted and in a bad position to defend herself. For context, they throw Mike and Vanessa into a Pocket Dimension-like abyss, so she has to catch them in time and then fly them back to safe terrain. - Bloom's biological parents, Oritel and Marion, are trapped as a statue and inside a sword, respectively, courtesy of the villains who caused their home planet's fall. The plot from late-stage season three to the first movie revolves around finding and rescuing them. - Bloom saves her biological parents again in season five. During a royal ceremony to thank the Winx and Sky for restoring Domino, the Trix wait until the Winx are off on a mission to attack. Marion and Oritel are able to fend the Trix off until they are tricked into surrendering; then they are turned into ice statues. After the Winx defeat the Trix, Bloom de-freezes her parents. - There are quite the examples in the third season: - After the Big Bad breaks free from the Omega Dimension, he defeats the mermaids from Andros' underwater kingdom and turns them into his minions. Except for some fortunate souls who are imprisoned — among them, the queen. Princess Tressa evades capture and alerts the Winx to go and help free her mother, Queen Ligea. Tressa is initially fearful and not the one doing the heavy work but, after some words of encouragement, she frees her mother while the Winx distract the Kraken guarding the prison. - Stella earns her Enchantix by pulling one of these. At the very beginning of the season, Stella's father, the king of Solaria, gets Brain Washed And Crazy by Wicked Stepmother, social-climber Countess Cassandra (helped by Valtor). Some episodes later, in a royal event, she does an Heroic Sacrifice to save her father from being burned by a dragon. Then, the transformation song starts. Bonus points because King Radius seems to recognize his daughter for a brief while. - Later, Stella devices a ploy to sneak into and interrupt her still brain-washed father and Cassandra's wedding. This is when she is finally able to lift the curse on him thanks to one of the Enchantix's powers. - At mid-season, the Portal to the Omega Dimension is about to implode because the Big Bad broke it. As a result, Andros, the planet hosting the portal, will be destroyed, starting with earthquakes and floods that worsen as the portal becomes more unstable. Aisha's parents, the queen and king, fight valiantly against the monsters coming from the portal but get ultimately trapped in the flooding Royal Palace. Aisha saves them before they drown. - As Bloom and Roxy are mirror characters, Roxy has had to save her distressed parents too: - Similar to Bloom's storyline, the plot of the fourth season involves rescuing trapped fairies from fallen realms. In this case, it's the Earth fairies — relentlessly hunted by the Wizards of the Black Circle and sealed away to be forgotten by humanity. Roxy, the Queen's daughter is not captured due to being too young to manifest magic. When she learns the truth, she gets determined to the Earth fairies. With the help of the Winx, Roxy goes to Tir Nan Og and opens its gates. It's kind of a subverted example because Roxy only learns that Queen Morgana is her mother later in the season. - Earlier in the season, Roxy has to rescue her father Klaus because the Wizards of the Black Circle captured and impersonated him to lure her into a trap. She is kidnapped but after her Animal Companion and the magical pets locate her and fool the Wizards, she is able to free herself and her father. They are halted when the Wizards realize their mistake and overpower Roxy even after she triggers her fairy transformation. Fortunately, all of these developments provide enough time for the Winx to go to her aid. - It's not rare for non-human animals to display this trope: - Roman hero Scipio Africanus is said to have first become noted by rescuing his father in a battle. - Rukhsana Kauser and her brother did this to a band of terrorists who were beating up their parents, famously smashing the head of one with a hatchet. It is said that she killed a terrorist with a four thousand dollar bounty on him. - There have been several instances of a parent suffering an accident or injury at home and being unable to call for help, and their child taking the initiative to call the emergency services. - In 1958, Lana Turner's abusive boyfriend, a Mafia enforcer named Johnny Stompanato, was killed by her daughter Cheryl Crane while he was abusing her yet again. - 13-year-old Joe Rowlands saved his father when their kayak capsized at sea and forced them to swim to a nearby island. When his father fell unconscious from hypothermia, Joe pulled him out of the water and gave him CPR until he began to breathe again, then managed to carry him further up the rocks away from the water where they were rescued a few hours later.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentsInDistress

Parody Displacement - TV Tropes Above: A YouTube upload of the song "Jeopardy". Below: Weird Al's parody. Notice how the parody has almost four times the views. *"Spoof films used to be so good that they'd eclipse the movies they spoofed."* When a parody has become more popular than the property that it's a parody of, often to the point where those unfamiliar with the source material will believe that the parody is its own thing. Perhaps the original work loses cultural relevance while the parody has more staying power. Alternatively, the parody could appeal more to a different demographic through its humor or content. Often, people who are only 'familiar' with a work through the parody are surprised when the subject of the parody turns out to be better than they thought. Occasionally this can overlap with Ret-Canon, where aspects of it get associated with the original work, even if the parody is forgotten. Related to the concept of a Forgotten Trope, except it is not tropes but works or personalities that have been forgotten. See also Adaptation Displacement, Pop-Cultural Osmosis, Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure, Older Than They Think, The Coconut Effect, Covered Up, Sampled Up, Revival by Commercialization. Contrast Shallow Parody, when lacking knowledge of the original work merely renders the parody meaningless. Be careful: If the original still has a respectable pop culture presence, then claiming the parody is better known may tend toward Fan Myopia. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples: - The Energizer Bunny, mascot for the Energizer brand of batteries for over 20 years, was originally a parody of an ad campaign by rival Duracell, in which a small and cute bunny with a small drum powered by their battery would last longer than one powered by their chief rival — which in the commercial was Everlast to not name Energizer (owned by Eveready at the time) by name. (Energizer's ad was that its bunny, like its battery, was too large and impressive for Duracell's ad.) In part due to its effectiveness as a campaign and in part due to Duracell not keeping up with the trademarks, the original bunny is all but forgotten in North America (although still active in other continents). Duracell claimed that 40% of the audience thought they were still Duracell ads, but never really tried to back that up. - The phrase, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" has been used and re-used so often (just as often as a parody as not), that it's approached the point where many people have no idea where it actually came from (for the record, it was from a 1970 commercial for a butter substitute called Chiffon). - Similarly, the phrase "that's-a spicy meatball-a" is used in a few places. It was originally from a fake ad for meatballs inside an Alka-Seltzer ad from 1969. - And again for a very distinct, hushed delivery of "We've secretly replaced somebody's 'X' with 'Y.' Let's see if they can tell the difference." Originally from a Seventies and Eighties ad campaign for Folger's Coffee Crystals, but the references to it have far outlasted the ads. - This is, in fact, pretty common with commercials. The endless repetition of them can easily create annoyance, which means writers and creators will see them as ripe for parody in their work, with the end result being the parodies can live on even when the ad campaign itself ends. - You know the funny-but-bizarre slogan from the software Winamp "It really whips the llama's ass!", right? They didn't make it up. Actually, it's a quote from one of many other bizarre songs by outsider artist Wesley Willis. - A 2013 Super Bowl ad set in a library, in which a whispered argument over Oreo cookies escalated into a brawl, prompted the creation of a sign proclaiming, "In light of recent events, NO OREOS will be allowed in the library." In the years since, this sign has frequently circulated on social mediashared by puzzled library-goers who have no idea what it's talking about. - Unless you're a pretty major film buff, chances are pretty good that you've heard of Segata Sanshiro long before you heard of the Akira Kurosawa film *Sanshiro Sugata*. By a similar count, the frequent Actor Allusions to *Kamen Rider* probably flew over the heads of most Westerners. - The song used in the Atari 2600 *Mario Bros.* commercial is actually a parody of the Expository Theme Tune for the 1961 TV series *Car 54, Where Are You?*. - The famous jingle from this Bagel Bites ad ("Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at suppertime...") is actually a spoof of a real song, "Sugartime" by the McGuire Sisters. - Some quite famous or well known people from previous centuries are nowadays better known because they were painted or sculpted by world famous artists. So whenever, for instance, the *Mona Lisa* is parodied, most people aren't aware that she was an actual aristocratic 15th-16th century lady. - *Neon Genesis Evangelion* and *Martian Successor Nadesico* are a Deconstruction and a parody, respectively, of the Humongous Mecha series of their day. Ten years later, who can remember their contemporaries? - *Gunbuster* was actually a parody of *Aim for the Ace!* a *tennis* manga and anime series; as well as Super Robot anime programs like *Mazinger Z* and *Getter Robo*. - *Dragon Ball* originally started as a parody of *Journey to the West*, which, while still popular in Asia, is more or less unknown in many countries *Dragon Ball* was released in except those that had *Monkey!* on their TVs. - The speech "Sometimes I'm a..." is closely associated with *Cutey Honey*, so much so that the original source ( *Tarao Bannai*) that Cutey Honey was parodying with that speech has been long forgotten. - Fandom example: At least on this wiki, it appears as if the use of the term "White Devil" in reference to *Lyrical Nanoha* protagonist Nanoha Takamachi has almost completely eclipsed its original use as a *canon* nickname for the RX-78 and/or Amuro Ray of *Mobile Suit Gundam*. - In the Western world, *Naruto* has completely overtaken terms and names like Fuuma Shuriken, (Kage) Bunshin, Kawarimi note : A real weapon and techniques that existed at least in fiction before; a ninja called Sasuke note : an extremely common "ninja name" in Japanese fiction and folklore, akin to "Kurtz" for villains; and a trio with the names of Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya with powers based on snails, snakes, and frogs, respectively note : a homage to the folktale *Jiraiya Go-ketsu Monogatari*, their names being the literal words for their animal. - *Ouran High School Host Club* appears to be headed this way, with more people watching the show having not seen any of the shojo it parodies. The surface humor and well-developed characters serve to attract people who don't get the joke. - *Sgt. Frog*: The anime commonly includes Shout Outs to older works to entertain some of its older audiences, so naturally for many younger viewers, it's often the first they've ever heard of certain things. Lampshaded by the Dub, in which the narrator tells people to search for *Space Sheriff Gavan* on YouTube. Interestingly, that show actually *was* shown in America, but it's highly likely that most viewers never saw it. - The gaudy clothes, pencil-thin mustache, and uncommonly large overbite of *Osomatsu-kun*'s Iyami is much more well known to Japanese audiences than Tony Tani, the vaudeville comedian who inspired him. Even his trademark "zansu" tic came from Tani's act. - A general example: The sheer amount of references to the *Ultraman* franchise in anime is staggering, ranging from blatant parodies of the entire franchise to extremely subtle nods to specific episodes of specific series, but most are rarely understood by non-Japanese viewers, especially since *Ultraman* is usually brushed off as "that low-budget *Power Rangers* ripoff" by many. A particular case of this is *Neon Genesis Evangelion*, which bears *many* resemblances to *Ultraman*, and whose creator, Hideaki Anno, is a massive enough fan of the franchise that he made his own fan film at one point. - *Pretty Cure* is used in many stock shout-outs to Magical Girls but the references fly over many international fans heads. In most countries, *Pretty Cure* has never had the same mainstream accessibility as *Sailor Moon*, or even anime like *Tokyo Mew Mew*, largely due to Late Export for You and No Export for You. Many English-speaking anime fans know of *Pretty Cure* parodies more than they know the actual *Pretty Cure* characters. - While *Anpanman* is very popular in Asian countries, in the West most people are familiar with *One-Punch Man*, a parody work inspired in said character. - While "Stronger Than You" is the Signature Song of *Steven Universe* and is quite popular, a large number of people think of it as an *Undertale* song due to a fanmade parody of it sung by Sans during his boss fight. If you search the song on YouTube, more *Undertale* versions appear than *Steven Universe* videos and various *Undertale* versions have more views than the Garnet version. There are even several "Stronger Than You" parodies which are based on the Undertale version, with the original's focus on how love is stronger than hate lost in favor of particularly mean-spirited jabs (the original not containing anything much harsher than "I think you're just mad 'cause you're single") and/or a battle to the death (while there was always fighting involved, it wasn't to the death in the original), more akin to the Sans version. That said, it's difficult to tell how many people really believe that the Undertale version came first, and how many are just playing along and/or trolling Steven Universe fans. - *Lullaby for a Princess* is well-known amongst bronies but, because it is a fandom-centric Filk Song, it's prone to this when parodies. For example, many *Warriors* fans know of *Lullaby For A Warrior*, a version about Bluestar and her sister Snowfur, before the original. - "Ready As I'll Ever Be" is *Tangled: The Series*' Signature Song but it's most popular with amateur animators. As a result, many people learn of it from animatics without realizing it's from a Disney cartoon. - Many fans of *Homestuck* do not know the words to "Fergalicious", but *do* know all the words to its fanmade parody "Karkalicious". - MF 217 adopted a serious take on the R-1000 enemies from *Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly*, which are depicted as liquid metal *Velociraptors* who are vulnerable to being frozen and smashed to bits. MF217 had known about these enemies for at least a decade and a half prior to him learning about the T-1000, from whom the R-1000s were meant to be a parody of due to both being cybernetic creatures composed of liquid metal physical structures. - Bowsette originated from a comic parodying Peachette, a Toadette-exclusive power-up form from *New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*. Bowsette's popularity was such that she and other fan characters based on her were directly referenced in the *Neptunia* series, with no mention of Peachette. - Of course, Genie's impressions in *Aladdin* were always meant as a Parental Bonus, but some are getting obscure even for the adults, at least the ones who weren't already adults in the 1990s. You know when Genie says there are provisos and quid pro quos? That's an impression of William F. Buckley Jr., whom you're unlikely to be familiar with if you're either not American or not old enough to remember the Reagan administration. - *Dumbo*'s name is based on the legendary circus elephant Jumbo, something not many people nowadays remember or know (his proper name is given as Jumbo Jr., while "Dumbo" is a mean nickname given to him by the other elephants). - In *Rockadoodle*, Pinky is to Colonel Tom Parker what Chanticleer is to Elvis Presley. Young kids who grew up in the 90's probably knew who Elvis was, but the Colonel, not so much. The name/character of Chanticleer himself is from one of Chaucer's *The Canterbury Tales*, who took it from the body of folk tales about him and Reynard the fox. But you would have to be a medievalist to make that connection. - Many young viewers watching the *Shrek* movies will not realize that Puss in Boots is an Affectionate Parody of the titular character from *The Mask of Zorro*, even being played by the same actor. This applies both to when *Shrek 2* was released, as it came out six years after *Zorro*, and to the present day, where the *Shrek* fandom is still very active despite no new releases in years, while the *Zorro* franchise hasn't been in the limelight for some time. Because of this effect, it can be humorous when fans of the film grow up and realize that Puss, who has become an iconic character in his own right, is so heavily inspired by another classic character. - While older audiences and rock fans likely know of the song, the target audience for *The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie* typically know of "Goofy-Goober Rock" before the original 1980s song "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister. This extends to fans who were kids at the time of release but are now adults. - The 1980s Anime series *Jushin Liger* is likely known in the West because the Japanese wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger based his gimmick on it, even using the show's theme song as his entrance music. - Sting's famous gothic-themed gimmick, first unveiled in 1996, was originally *very* heavily inspired by *The Crow* and its popular 1994 film adaptation (hence why the persona is often called "Crow Sting" by longtime fans). While *The Crow* is decently popular, and the 1994 movie has a respectable cult following, they're nowhere near the *bona fide* cultural icon that Sting was at the height of his fame. - Many of the radio parodies Bob & Ray did. Perhaps the most durable example was their spoofing the then-hit Soap Opera *Mary Noble, Backstage Wife* as "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". The former was a deadly-earnest story of an 'ordinary woman' married to a matinee idol; the latter... culminated, around 1970, in Mary and her family leaving showbiz altogether to open a toast-themed restaurant. The series having earlier openly mocked Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Army hearings. It is still one of B&R's best-known skits. - *I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue*: "The antidote to panel games" was born from the creative minds behind *I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again* and conceived as an unscripted parody of panel shows. *Clue* has been on the air for over 40 years now and is better known than the shows it parodies, as well as itself becoming not so much an antidote but a *template* for the next generation of panel games. - The "mystery voice" who provides answers for the listeners at home is a reference to "Twenty Questions", a venerable old panel game which was still running when *Clue*' made its debut. Everybody would have got the reference in 1972; not so much nowadays. - A lot of 1930s and 1940s American radio shows are totally forgotten nowadays, but live on as punchlines in Looney Tunes and Tex Avery cartoons. The funny thing about it is that even back in the day these jokes were completely incomprehensible to people outside the USA or people who didn't listen to the radio. Modern audiences nowadays will probably be amazed how many of these recurring catch phrases and punch lines actually originate from radio shows, movies and even commercial jingles: - "Turn off that light!" (reference to air raid wardens during World War II) - "Was this/that trip really necessary?" (reference to a slogan used to encourage people not to take unnecessary trips to free up gas and rubber for the war effort and to free up space on trains to ferry troops to their duty locations. ) - "It's a possibility!" (reference to Artie Auerbach's catchphrase as Mr. Kitzle during Al Pearce's radio shows) - "Nobody home, I hope, I hope, I hope" - Al Pearce - "That ain't the way I heard it!" (reference to The Old Timer character from the radio series *Fibber McGee and Molly*) - "'T ain't funny, McGee!" Molly's frequent line in *Fibber McGee and Molly*) - "I love that man!" - (reference to the character Beulah (Marlin Hurt) on *Fibber McGee and Molly*.) - "Operator, give me number 32O.. ooh, is that you, Myrt? How's every little thing, Myrt? What say, Myrt?" - (reference to the character Fibber, whenever he made a phone call to a certain Myrt in *Fibber McGee and Molly*. ) - "Well now, I wouldn't say THAT!" - (reference to the character Peavey (Richard Le Grand) in the radioshow *The Great Gildersleeve*) - "Don't you believe it!" was the title of a 1947 radio show in which popular legends, myths or old wives' tales were debunked. - "Aha! Something new has been added!" and "So round, so firm, so fully-packed. So free and easy on the draw." (reference to Lucky Strike cigarettes) - "B.OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" from a commercial for Lifebuoy soap against B.O. (body odor) - "Ain't I a stinker?" (Lou Costello from Abbott and Costello) - "I'm only three and a half years old!" - From a character named Martha (Billy Gray) on the Abbott & Costello radio show. - "Ah, yes! (Insert statement here), isn't it?", "Yehudi?", "Don't work, do they?" and "Greetings, Gate! Lets osculate!" (Jerry Colonna, sidekick on Bob Hope's radio show.) - "I dood it!", "He don't know me very well, do he?" and "You bwoke my widdle arm!" Red Skelton's radio comedy character Junior, aka Mean Widdle Kid - "Of course you realize this means war!" (Groucho Marx) - "Ain't I a devil?" - Ralph Edwards in *Truth or Consequences*. - "Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?" and "I'm going to hug him and pet him and hug him and pet him..." (reference to John Steinbeck's novel *Of Mice and Men*) - Several dimwitted characters were based on Mortimer Snerd, a puppet character by puppeteer Edgar Bergen, created in 1938. - "Henry! Heeeeeeeeeeen- *RY*!" "Coming, Mother!" (reference to The Aldrich Family, a radio sitcom) - The NBC Chime - "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples." - A catch phrase from Lew Lehr. In parody the word "monkeys" was often replaced by other animals or people. - "Ah say! I'm from the South, son!", "That's a joke, son!", "Pay attention now, boy!" - Kenny Delmar as Senator Claghorn in "The Fred Allen Show". The Looney Tunes character Foghorn Leghorn was entirely based on this radio personality. - "See?" - A verbal tic actor Edward G. Robinson used. When characters in Looney Tunes use it, it's usually in a police or gangster context. - "I'll moida da bum." - A reference to boxer Tony Galento. - "I have a problem, Mr. Anthony!" - Reference to John J. Anthony, who presented the daily radio advice program "The Goodwill Hour". - "Train leaving on Track 5 for Anaheim, Azusa and Cuuuu-ca-mon-gaaa!" - Mel Blanc usually said this, quoting a character he played on "The Jack Benny Show". - "Come with me to the casbah" - Reference to Charles Boyer as Pépé le Moko in the 1937 film *Algiers*. Interesting detail: the line was prominent in the trailer, but not in the movie itself. - The signature station ident of the BBC World Service for decades until 2008 was a jolly tune, dating from the late 17th century, called *Lilliburlero*. People not familiar with the music of Restoration England tended to wonder why Britain's English-language service to the world uses an up-tempo version of the nursery rhyme *Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top/When the wind blows, the cradle will rock...* as its theme tune. - Baba Booey, the nickname of Howard Stern's producer Gary Dell'Abate, is probably more well known than whose name it was a mispronunciation of - Quick Draw McGraw's sidekick Baba Looey. - Double Inversion, as Baba Booey is so commonly screamed after a golf swing on TV that some think it is just something you scream when golfing. - *The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy*, in its various incarnations, is much better known these days than *The Hitch-Hikers' Guide to Europe*, the real travel book that inspired it. - Many episodes of the 80s comedy *Radio Active* are parodies of specific and now long-forgotten shows, though if (as is highly likely) you don't know the original shows, they still work as send-ups of a general *type* of programme. - Many AFL clubs' theme songs are better known to Australians (at least in AFL states) than the songs they are based on. Even where those based on songs that are still widely known (Adelaide: the "Marines' Hymn" (as in the US Marines); Brisbane: "La Marseillaise"; Geelong: Song of the Toreador from *Carmen*; Hawthorn: "Yankee Doodle Dandy"; St Kilda: "When the Saints Go Marching In"), people are more likely to be familiar with the club song lyrics, while once-popular songs used by other clubs (Carlton: "Lily of Laguna"; Collingwood: "Goodbye Dolly Gray"; Essendon: "Keep Your Sunny Side Up"; Melbourne: "Grand Old Flag" (which is very well-known in America); North Melbourne: "Wee Doch an Dorus"; Richmond: "Row, Row, Row" (not to be confused with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"); Sydney: "Victory March" (the University of Notre Dame fight song); Western Bulldogs: "Sons of the Sea") are now known almost exclusively as the club songs. Here are some of the original versions. - Brian Posehn, a Weird Al fan, brings this trope up while talking about how he is unsure of the proper way to introduce Weird Al's music to his kids. **Brian:** Should I make him listen to the original song first, and then go "Okay, here's Weird Al's parody of it"? Or should I pretend they're all completely original songs? That would be easier, but it might mess him up a bit, like when he's 16 and at some party and Michael Jackson starts playing, and he goes "Wait a minute! What the hell is this?! 'Beat It'?! Well it sure sounds a hell of a lot like 'Eat It'! *Somebody* needs to get sued." - Hardly anyone realises that the willow song in *The Mikado* was actually a parody of the song Desdemona sings in *Othello*. - Which itself was a well-known tune at the time, a fact that is lampshaded in the play when Desdemona accidentally starts singing the wrong verse and catches herself. - *Ruddigore* is mostly a parody of a kind of melodrama no one watches anymore. - The famous quote from *Twelfth Night*, "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em" is a parody of Matthew 19:12: "For there are some eunuchs, which were so borne of their mothers belly: and there be some eunuchs, which be gelded by men: and there be some eunuchs, which have gelded themselves for the kingdom of Heaven." (From the Geneva Bible, a modernized version of the translation Shakespeare would be most likely to have read, omitting the annotations telling to take it metaphorically.) Between the Squick of this verse and Shakespeare's importance, the first quote has become *far* more familiar than the second. - And many people associate it with Joseph Heller's *Catch-22* (his version substituting "mediocre" and "mediocrity" for "great" and "greatness" respectively) rather than Shakespeare. - A few Shakespeare scholars suspect that this effect accounts for a lot of puzzling things the Bard wrote. Several parts of his early comedies and later romances (the ending of *Two Gentlemen of Verona*, Posthumus' notorious vision in *Cymbeline*, most of *Titus Andronicus*, etc.) are not just generally deemed bad ... they're bad in bizarre, far-out-in-left-field ways that have left centuries of readers stumped as to what Shakespeare even thought he was doing. However, these scholars argue, many of these plays fall into focus if we picture Shakespeare writing them as merciless parodies of other popular Elizabethan plays, which are now lost to history. - It cuts both ways. Many people have searched the Bible in vain for the line *"The devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek."* not realising the provenance is Shakespeare: *The Merchant of Venice*, Act One, Scene Three. Shakespeare is referencing something that actually happens in the Bible, at least (the Temptation in the Desert, which appears in three Gospels). - "Whatever Lola Wants" has been used in so many commercials like this one for Levis Jeans: (NSFW) [1] that many people don't know that it was used in the musical *Damn Yankees*. - Everyone remembers Harry Houdini, but the man whose name he stole as his pseudonym, magician Jean-Baptiste Houdin, is nowadays very obscure. - Indeed, the parody sometimes outlives the original, as many of the plays by famous Greek tragedians which were made a mockery of in Aristophanes's plays are now lost. - Aristophanes was also parodying and making satirical references to comedy works by his rivals, such as Eupolis and Cratinus. He is the only writer of Old Comedy whose works survive to the present day, and we know little about his contemporaries. - Some of the politicians and generals satirized by Aristophanes suffered the same fate. Lamachus was a real-life general of the Peloponnesian War, and was killed in combat (along with most of his unit) in 415 BCE. But he is mostly remembered because he is the antagonist in *The Acharnians*, one of the most famous among Aristophanes' surviving works. Cleonymus of Athens was a real-life general and politician, who reportedly threw away his shield during a battle and run for his life. Aristophanes often mocked him for his cowardice. More that 2000 years later, most people (including scholars) know Cleonymus due to Aristophanes' jokes about him, rather than anything he did in life. - A number of scenes in works by Euripides seem to satirize or point at plot holes in the older works of Aeschylus. Modern readers often have to read annotations to get the references. - *My Singing Monsters*: Shugabush Island has become more popular than the song it is based upon, "Love or Money" by Sugarland. - *Metal Gear*'s Solid Snake (and to a lesser extent, his predecessors Naked Snake and Venom Snake) has become a more popular character than Snake Plissken, the character he was originally a pastiche of. - Duke Nukem was not the first guy to make a One-Liner regarding the kicking of asses and the chewing of gum. In general, a *lot* of lines thought of as Duke Nukem lines came from various 80s and 90s action films, most notably *Army of Darkness*. - Dan Hibiki from *Street Fighter Alpha* (and following *Street Fighter* games) was a parody of the two main characters from *Art of Fighting*: Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia. This was a result of the original *Street Fighter* designers jumping ship to SNK and helping create *Fatal Fury* and *Art of Fighting*. Suffice it to say, Capcom was not happy, and the two companies shared a deep rivalry throughout the 90s. However, *Street Fighter* is much better-known in North America than *The King of Fighters* and has moved much further into the mainstream due to several separate factors, so it is not uncommon for an American fan of the series to not know that Dan is a parody of anyone specific, or to assume that he is just a parody of Ryu and Ken. - While it is very well known in Japan, not many Western fans of *Touhou* know that the title of the "Marisa stole the precious thing" meme is a parody of a line by Inspector Zenigata from *The Castle of Cagliostro*. Possibly because the original line was translated differently in official *Lupin* material, with the wording of "He (Lupin III) stole something outrageous — your heart." - Sure that Stop Motion animation from the *Cuphead* trailer for PS4 looks kind of creepy, too bad almost no one knows that this is an Affectionate Parody of the stop motion animations from The Golden Age of Animation such as *Puppetoons*. *Cuphead*, in general, can yield quite a lot of this trope, especially among people without exposure to Golden Age of animation cartoons. While some parodies are more obvious than others (such as the titular character being partially an expy of Mickey Mouse), many of the cartoons *Cuphead* references throughout the game are completely obscure for modern audiences. - Most people today will probably be more familiar with Morrowind, an area in *The Elder Scrolls*, than they will be with Morrowindl, an area in *The Heritage of Shannara* that it was likely named after. - In the memetic exchange between Richter Belmont and Dracula from the *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* localization, the line "What is a man!? A miserable little pile of secrets!" is actually a quote from the preface of André Malraux's *Antimémoires*. - The Koopalings from the *Super Mario* series are all named after many long-forgotten 80s personalities, like Morton Downey Jr. and Wendy O. Williams. And, in one case, a classical composer. The tie-in book *Dinosaur Dilemma* did something similar with a bunch of officials named after real people whose last names were "Cooper" or "Koop" that the target audience probably never heard of, like C. Everett Koopa. - *Dr. Slump* was one of the most popular Anime & Manga of its era in Japan, but it had has had little to no exposure outside of Japan. Early games in the *Super Mario Bros.* and *Sonic the Hedgehog* contain quite a few nods to *Dr. Slump* (such as Mario running with his arms raised by his sides and wearing a winged cap in *Super Mario 64*, and Sonic peeking out of a star-studded bannered ring on the title screens of his first two games) that Westerners have come to consider original to those franchises. - Shulk's "Now it's Shulk time!" quote in the 3DS and Wii U editions of *Super Smash Bros.* is a reference to the character Reyn from Shulk's home game, *Xenoblade Chronicles 1*. Reyn would frequently say, "Now it's Reyn time!" during battle, and the line became a common in-joke among players. Because the *Smash Bros.* series is much more mainstream than any of the *Xenoblade Chronicles* games (the original Wii release and 3DS re-release of Shulk's game sold a combined 1.5 million compared to *Smash 4*'s collective 15 million), Shulk's version of the line has become much more well-known among the general gaming audience. - *Undertale*: - Sans and Papyrus, a pair of skeleton brothers, are a parody of a webcomic called *Helvetica* and its eponymous skeleton protagonist. The joke was that Helvetica is a font that is beloved by typeface aficionados, while (Comic) Sans and Papyrus are fonts that are widely derided. But *Undertale* became far more popular than *Helvetica*, and Sans and Papyrus are two of the most popular characters in the game, to the extent that even people who have never played the game know about them. - The line "you're gonna have a bad time" was a preexisting meme from *South Park*. - According to Twitter, kids who grew up after the 2000s don't know about *Tokyo Mew Mew* and believed that Mad Mew Mew was an original concept. - The "here lies andy. peperony and chease" tombstone joke from *The Oregon Trail* is a reference to this '90s Tombstone Pizza ad. - *beatmania*: The song "Bloomin' feeling" is known as the "Jack Black Octagon Remix" due to a Voice Clip Song of Jack Black's appearance on *Sesame Street*, seen here, which isn't even the original upload. - *Tokimeki Memorial* has so many parodies, pastiches, and satire due to it being the Trope Codifier of Dating Sims, but due to its No Export for You status, many people outside of Japan have only seen those parodies without ever knowing what it was they were parodying. The dating sim genre, in general, gets this a lot to the point where certain modern dating sims are confused for a parody, a Stealth Parody, or even a Deconstruction, when they're actually straight takes on the genre just with an unorthodox cast ( *Hatoful Boyfriend* being a notable example). - Hat Kid's "smug dance" in *A Hat in Time* is based on a similar animation from *Animal Crossing*, with the "Peace and Tranquility" screen that prominently features it being a direct reference to this video. However, the dance became so heavily associated with Hat Kid that when another game, *Blue Fire*, included it as an unlockable emote it namedropped her specifically. - Neco Arc of *Nasuverse* fame is a goofy joke catgirl version of the relatively serious Arcueid Brunestud, one of the main characters of *Tsukihime* and its fighting game spinoff, *Melty Blood*. Neco Arc is a tiny gremlin-like catgirl creature compared to regular Arcueid and her moves are basically as comedic a take on Arcueid's as you can get. It was around late 2021 that Neco Arc suddenly exploded in popularity not just among *Nasuverse* fans but video game fans and memers in general, and before long, Neco Arc started popping up everywhere. It got to the point that, true to this trope, memes now exist that consider Arcueid to be Neco Arc's alternate "humansona" or generally referring to her as "human Neco Arc" (she's a vampire but still). It is rather hard to tell whether the memes are just memes or if some people really do consider Neco Arc the original and Arcueid the spinoff. - *MS Paint Adventures*: - This strip of *Luke Surl Comics* points out how knowledge of classic literature is gained not from reading it but from seeing it referenced in cartoons. - One *Shortpacked!* comic mocked a Batman figure from the *Justice League* toyline that, for some reason, had a helmet that didn't cover the top of his head◊. It claimed that this is because "I'm Batman, and I can breathe in space." Due to being an inherently funny line, it caught on among Batman's Memetic Badass following, and even named a trope. Many people don't even realize it's talking about a specific action figure, and the figure in question is long forgotten even among toy collectors (it's a rather generic Environment-Specific Action Figure in a line full of them). - Brian Clevinger's *8-Bit Theater* has had this effect on the original *Final Fantasy*. Many of the concepts featured in the comic (the White Mage being female, the Black Mage being non-human, the Fighter being an Idiot Hero, etc.) are either totally invented by it, or are references to/parodies of longstanding *Final Fantasy* Fanon and memes, but many people assume them to be canon to *FF1* even though they're really not. A lot of this can be blamed on the fact that *FF1* is both a very old game (one that younger readers are less likely to be familiar with) and a very bare-bones one compared to later entries in the series; Clevinger wasn't twisting the personalities of the characters for humor, he was inventing personalities for them where they had none before. - Even among people who *do* remember the original *Final Fantasy*, or at least know about it through various spinoffs and tie-ins, some characters are still better-remembered as their Clevinger versions. Characters like Sarda or the unnamed king of Corneria have little dialogue and even less discernible personality in the original game, and their role in the plot is just to give you an item or open up another part of the world. They became major recurring figures in *8-Bit Theater*, and consequently, when you say, for example, "Sarda" to someone, they're much more likely to think of the Clevinger version. - There was a popular AMV called "Euphoria". It combined the song "Must Be Dreaming" with the anime *RahXephon*. Rather better-known these days is a parody from *AMV Hell 3*: "Osaka Must Be Dreaming" (same visual effects, same song, but with clips of Osaka). - Atop the Fourth Wall: - Linkara's Catchphrase " **I** am a **man!**" followed with a punch is actually a reference to infamous comic *Superman: At Earth's End*, one of the first titles he reviewed. - Another phrase of his, "It's magic, I don't have to explain it." is a reference to Joe Quesada's disliked explanation for *One More Day*. - Inverted whenever '90s Kid appears. Many people assume that's Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" playing in the background, but Lovhaug actually uses the Weird Al parody "Smells Like Nirvana." - Speaking of Channel Awesome, how many people do you suppose get Doug's repeated references to the TV show *One Step Beyond*? Most people are far likelier to have heard of The Nostalgia Critic and therefore assume the catch phrase originated with him. - The Biting Pear of Salamanca, also known as the LOLWUT Pear. - There's a *CollegeHumor* video in which someone tells a story of Amir ordering "Gangsta's Paradise" on karaoke only to sing "Amish Paradise." The owner of the bar later said that they actually had "Amish Paradise" in the machine. - The Kitsune^2 song, Avast Your Ass is a popular song for remixes. One such remix, Avast Fluttershy's Ass (or whatever title the author has changed it to by now) is more often searched for than the original, and has over twice as many views. The fact that it's about Fluttershy is most likely a huge contributing factor to this. - One case that somewhat depends on whether you're a bigger fan of hip-hop, or *Game of Thrones*. If the latter, you're likely more familiar with Backflip Wilson's version of Black and Yellow than the original. - Green and Purple by Kritikal is so wide-spread by Internet memes, most don't know it's a parody. It's popularity is mostly from the titular colors, rather than the subject of smoking marijuana. And in an even stranger version of this, this *Team Fortress 2* music video has almost double the views than the song on *Kritikal's official YouTube channel* (the former video). - Quite a few people are only familiar with the relatively obscure anime *Irresponsible Captain Tylor* because the Empress Azalyn character is the Author Avatar of YouTube Pooper RootNegativeSixteen. - *Weiss Reacts* was actually an Affectionate Parody of an older, moderately well-known fic the author happened to like based on a similar premise about the characters of RWBY reacting to fanfiction. Nowadays, the former fic is so famous and well-known that the latter was actually called a rip-off of Weiss Reacts, even though *it came first*. The authors of both fic take it in stride, as the latter fic, *Dear Fanfiction* is actually featured in the former. - In a bizarre case of the parody artist himself getting this treatment, very few fans of NintendoCapriSun are aware his Catchphrase "IN THE BATHROOM" comes from a "Weird Al" Yankovic song. ("A Complicated Song", to be exact.) - Many younger fans of *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* tend to believe that Luna's song in "Children Of The Night (Duo Cartoonist)" is an original song rather than being from *Hocus Pocus*. Complicating things is the fact that "Children" uses original lyrics not featured in the original movie that were added years after *Hocus Pocus*' release in a fanmade cover of the song. - One comment in the comment section of the obscure song The Midnight Tango by Herb Alpert said it better. - Mike Stoklasa of *RedLetterMedia* based the character of Mr. Plinkett on a character in one of his earlier films, where Plinkett was played by Rich Evans. The Plinkett reviews have proven so explosively popular that Stoklasa's version of the character has far eclipsed Evans's, to the point that Evans's reprising of the role for *Half in the Bag* was mostly met with They Changed It, Now It Sucks! - even RLM has come to call Evans's version "Fake Plinkett." - The Twitter parody account *@seinfeldToday* got very popular in 2014-2015 sharing imaginary *Seinfeld* plots based around modern technology, and was widely criticised for being lame and uninspired (including by Larry David). One of its critics started a parody account of the parody account, *@seinfeld2000*, which contained dreadful spelling and grammar, surreal and horrifying plotlines, and very well-produced parody Mashup videos and music. *@seinfeld2000* has outlived *@seinfeldToday* and made *Seinfeld* a popular meme. - These days, it's nearly impossible to find references to the original 4 Non Blondes song "What's Up?". It has been almost entirely supplanted by the He-Man parody remix, "HEHEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA" (part of a larger parody, "Fabulous Secret Powers, by Slackcircus created in 2005). - In one of The Reacts Channel regular segments "Do Teens Know 90s Music", Gangster's Paradise was played. At least one teen recognized it as "The song Weird Al parodied". He couldn't actually name the song beyond that. - In a case of a work doing this to itself, memetic *Homestar Runner* song "Trogdor" features the line "And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIGHT!", a Call-Back to the Strong Bad Email "guitar", where Strong Bad improvised a song that included the line "And the dragon comes in the NIIIIIGHT!" As "guitar" is a fairly early email that's on the obscure side, and the Trogdor theme is popular even outside the site, chances are very likely anyone who heard the original heard the Call-Back first. - There are quite a few people who have never heard of Dr. Dre's "What's the Difference" before hearing the Bill Cosby Pokémon rap using that song's background music and audio samples of Cosby from *The Simpsons* and *Family Guy*. - Those who saw the viral video "She Blocked Me" from Albino Blacksheep may be hard-pressed to find that it's a parody of the lesser-known song "She Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd. - In 1953, German playwright Max Frisch published *Biedermann und die Brandstifter* (or *The Arsonists* in English), a stage play about a pair of psychotic arsonists who pose as simple traveling salesmen, and use their charm and wit to persuade a perfectly ordinary man to help them in their arson spree; written when Adolf Hitler's rise to power was still in recent memory, Frisch intended the fire as a metaphor for fascism, and used the play to demonstrate how otherwise good people can be taken in by evil. If you're below a certain age, though, you're probably more likely to know the Philosophy Tube episode that was inspired by the play (and the subsequent episodes where "The Arsonist" became a recurring character). - In the Game Grumps episode on *Mickey Mousecapade,* Arin spends the entire episode speaking like an AVGN wannabe, with deliberately bad jokes and a ton of off-color scatological humor. A lot of viewers just enjoy the bizarrely-specific Toilet Humor at face value without realizing it's based on a specific video (this riff of the same game), especially since AVGN copycats aren't as prominent as they were in the early 2010s. - Happened to "Weird Al" Yankovic on This Very Wiki. Most tropers may be more familiar with the tropes named after the song "White & Nerdy", (Asian and Nerdy, Black and Nerdy, and Jewish and Nerdy) than the song itself. - CaptainSparklez's "Revenge" Minecraft Parody of Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love. For a while it had more views that the official upload of the original. Despite Executive Meddling from Usher's label taking the video down and forcing Captain Sparklez to change the sound, the original is back up with still more likes than the original. The original has since, however, overtaken the parody in terms of YouTube views. - The "Out Of Your Friends, Which Are You?" meme originated from an earlier image◊ that played all four roles fairly straight as a vaguely redneck-ish portrayal of a friend group. This was then given a parodic edit◊ which swapped out the third position for an eerie-looking image of a Deathclaw and the text "друг", creating a surprisingly creepy effect. The edit became far more popular than the original ever was, and nearly all permutations of the joke are based on the "друг" version. - The Rickroll is supposed to be a variant of Duckroll◊, which had a similar premise involving tricking people into looking at a picture of a duck on wheels. Rickrolling is still popular to this day and helped "Never Gonna Give You Up" achieve 1 billion views on YouTube while Duckrolling never really caught on outside of 4chan. - The phrase "Unholy Alliance" is commonly used in a wide variety of contexts, but almost nobody remembers that it was originally a parody of the "Holy Alliance" of Russia, Prussia, and Austria that formed in the early 1800s. - You always remember people based on the physical features and characterisations that are different than others. As a result people you know are remembered as caricatures of their physical features or behaviour more than how they actually look and behave. For instance: - King Charles' ears have been exaggerated in cartoons so often that many people often imagine them to be Dumbo-sized. In the BBC documentary series *The Human Face* they used him as an example by first simply tracing the lines of a photograph of him into a realistic drawing. As a result he was unrecognizable. Only when they exaggerated his features into caricature you instantly recognized him as then-Prince Charles. - The vocal patterns and mannerisms of George H. W. Bush are much more remembered through Dana Carvey's exaggerated impression of him than by video recordings of his actual voice and physical presence. Indeed, once Carvey's impression gained traction, anyone else's impression of Bush Sr. was most often an imitation of Carvey's impression. - Many dictators like Adolf Hitler, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein... have also been caricatured as Ax-Crazy lunatics. This is also how they live on in people's perceptions, even though if they were all as nuts as some parodies make them they would have never been able to remain in power for so long. - The widespread belief that Adolf Hitler was a hyperactive madman is derived from his highly threatrical speeches, where he deliberately shouted at the top of his voice and rapidly waved his fists around in a dramatic, passionate manner to excite crowds. - Elvis Presley's greasy quiff has been elongated to such absurd lengths in caricatures that people may actually be surprised to learn it was actually not five feet long in reality. - Ringo Starr has been caricatured as a dimwitted Manchild in so many parodies that people may be surprised to realize that he actually is a smart, normal-behaving adult. - Napoléon Bonaparte was caricatured by 19th century British cartoonists as a small dwarf with a large hat. This is also how he lives on in our minds. In reality he was of average height for his time. - Bill Cosby did a retelling of a sketch from an old radio drama called "Lights Out" about a chicken heart that ate up New York City. Since he was a kid, he thought the chicken heart was coming to eat him, and he promptly smeared Jell-O all over his floor and set his sofa on fire to discourage the "monster." Cosby's routine is now much better known than the original sketch. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump... - The Chicken Joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side". Despite being used as the mascot of joke-telling, it's really a parody of other jokes. Where most jokes end with some kind of pun, "To get to the other side" is a straight answer that only works if the listener was expected something absurd. - This joke in turn has been the source of thousands of parodies. - Plenty of modern media references "Do Not Adjust Your Set" to mean "this weirdness is real". The phrase was first used in this sense in *The Outer Limits*, but it originated years earlier as a warning to viewers that the station was experiencing technical difficulties. "Do Not Adjust Your Set" meant "the problem's on our end, not yours, so don't go fiddling with the antenna". - The expression "technical difficulties" is now highly likely to be used as a euphemism for a person (or even a society) going insane, or even for something disastrous or off-color (as, most hilariously, in *Problem Child 2*), rather than something as mundane as a problem with a broadcaster's equipment. - Any cartoon, video game, film, etc. made prior to The '90s that wasn't Disney-popular that was parodied in and after The '90s will get this effect in Eastern Europe due to that region locked away from Western pop-culture for 50 years (where only the very best of the West passed the border). - The name "Barcalounger" (the brand of reclining chair) is a play on a the name of a type of sailing ship, the Barca-longa. No one but naval historians and readers of the *Aubrey-Maturin* series (which are not such distinct populations) would know that now. - Any denizen of the Internet knows about demotivational posters. On the other hand, the kind of motivational posters they're based on aren't nearly as well-known, especially outside the USA. - Anyone who's worked in any kind of office environment is likely to recognize them, or at the very least take a closer look to see if it's a demotivator or the real thing. - Chef Al Yeganeh, the New York proprietor of "Soup Kitchen International" (later "The Original Soupman"), and the real life inspiration for *Seinfeld*'s Soup Nazi was in business about ten years prior to the episode that made him famous. Despite his insistence to the contrary, prior to Seinfeld, Al Yeganeh was an obscure New York figure known mostly to certain circles of affluent late 80s/early 90s Manhattan yuppies who were willing to pay $30 for a pint of soup. Nearly everyone else knows of him because of the Soup Nazi episode. In one TV interview, he seriously claims that he made Seinfeld famous. In an interesting subversion of the trope, many feel that the *Seinfeld* version is relatively tame compared to the real man who has been known to use profanities such as calling a female reporter a "bitch" on camera in one instance. Woe betide the person who mentions the parody to him-he once cussed out the real Seinfeld for it, and hates this generally. - *Seinfeld* also popularized the "Dingo ate my baby!" meme. Outside of Australia, it's largely forgotten that this joke references a real event, the death of Azaria Chamberlain, the (false) accusations that her parents murdered her and the media circus surrounding the case. note : Further, *Seinfeld* was likely referencing a then-recent film about the case, *Evil Angels* (or *A Cry in the Dark*), starring Meryl Streep. This is lampshaded in *Tropic Thunder*, where the Australian Kirk Lazarus reminds another character making these jokes that it was a real case and he doesn't see the humor in it. - Conservative cultural critic Rod Dreher came up with the term earwabbit to describe when you can't hear a traditional song or piece of classical music without thinking of a pop culture spoof. He chose earwabbit as a reference to the Looney Tunes spoof of Ride of the Valkyries, which is discussed elsewhere on this page. - Brown Windsor Soup is a by-word for disgusting British cookery at its early-to-mid-twentieth-century nadir. Problem is, there are no reliable references to it existing before the mid-1940s, and the majority of references for the first few decades afterwards are Self-Deprecation jokes about horrible British railway/hotel/restaurant cuisine. In fact, it appears to have originally begun as a comic reference to a real, but now forgotten product called Brown Windsor so **a**p, obviously the reverse of anything made for human consumption. Despite this, some "traditional British" cookbooks and websites, including Jamie Oliver's, have attempted to reverse engineer an (edible) Brown Windsor Soup, usually involving some kind of meat consomme. - German comedian Otto Waalkes (just think of his Pfefferkuchen epos parodying the Neue Deutsche Welle) but in general, this is less pronounced in Germany. - The term "Bazooka" for rocket launchers began as a reference to their visual similarity to the instrument of the same name. Now, the name has become far better known for the weapon, with the instrument itself largely unknown. - Jonestown, the Jim Jones-led Peoples Temple commune in Guyana that ended in a political assassination and subsequent mass suicide, has a near-legendary reputation and its name is often shorthand for "cult gone horribly wrong". Oddly, Jonestown is more famous than Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, upon whose name Jonestown was a bit of a pun. - New Math was a very short-lived, much-derided US education trend of The '60s, based on teaching children abstract mathematical theory rather than basic arithmetic. It's basically forgotten outside educational circles, but has a minor place in pop culture for inspiring Tom Lehrer's song "New Math" and a 1965 *Peanuts* series where Sally struggles with it ("ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS HOW MUCH IS TWO AND TWO?").

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyDisplacement

Parodies of Fire - TV Tropes *Have you seen this movie?* *Our guess would be no* *But this famous theme song* *You probably know* *We'll show you how this song is used* *In movies and shows (all your favorite shows)* *The character's always in a race* *Running in slow-mo* A Stock Parody where a character is in a rush to get somewhere on foot and the iconic theme music from *Chariots of Fire* starts playing. It has become standing "running" theme music in general much like the *Jeopardy!* theme song (or in Britain, the jingle from *Countdown*) has become standard "thinking" music, to the point where "this music plays while people sprint" is all that many people know about the original film. Often the scene using this trope will start to go in slow-motion when the *Chariots* theme begins (despite slow-motion being rather sparingly used in the original film; most often the music played during race scenes in regular speed), and sometimes the character will start to mimic Eric Liddel's long strides, loping gait, and/or head tilt as well. Not surprisingly, *Chariots of Fire* is the name of this piece of music. The original was composed and performed by Vangelis, who also did a lot of the music for *Blade Runner*. The use of their tune as a parody or as generic running music has become well known even among those who have never seen *Chariots of Fire* or even who couldn't identify it by name - see also Parody Displacement. ## Examples - This commercial for Duracell batteries features marathon runners running through New York City to the *Chariots of Fire* theme, with the one powered by the then-newest Duracell battery lasting the longest. - The first Nike Free commercial plays this song while some men run barefoot through an environment that combines elements of the beach and a cityscape. ||When the song pauses, the ad reveals the scene as a fantasy that one Nike Free wearer has while running through a city.|| - This Six Flags commercial. - Used in the Halloween Episode of *Time Bokan 24* when Bimajo and her minions trip Calen and Tokio and are about to reach the goal. ||The correct answer is actually Tottori, not Shimane.|| - In the film *Madagascar*, the theme plays when Alex and Marty find each other after getting shipwrecked in Madagascar, and run towards each other in slow motion. Then Alex gets angry and starts chasing Marty... still in slow motion. - Done in *Are We Done Yet?*, as the doctor power-walks to the family's house. There's no slow motion here since he is speedwalking and not running. - *Bruce Almighty* does this as Bruce runs in front of a line of kids and pours milk over their heads. It Makes Sense in Context. - Happens in *Happy Gilmore* during one of the slow-motion running golf swings. - The live-action *How the Grinch Stole Christmas!* has this as the Grinch participates in a potato-sack race. - A version of this music plays in *Mr. Mom* during the company picnic which includes a short footrace with everyone wearing diving flippers. True to form the entire race is shown in slow-motion. - *National Lampoon's Vacation* uses this, as the Griswolds run toward the entrance of Wally World. - *Good Burger* uses this when Ed and Dexter deliver a burger to Shaquille O'Neal. - Used in a trailer for *MarleyAndMe*. - A rare literary example occurs in *Bloodsucking Fiends*. During the turkey-bowling event at Tom's night job, one of the bowlers imagines the theme to *Chariots of Fire* playing as he lines up his shot. Then it all goes wrong. - Neil Patrick Harris and Max Casella are involved in this in an episode of *Doogie Howser, M.D.* - *The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer* featured a brief sketch spoofing the film, consisting of Vic and Bob running across Scarborough beach, where Vic is overtaken by Bob, who is revealed to have asparaguses for legs. - *Who's the Boss?* plays this while Tony is in a swimming race. - *Sesame Street* had a parody named *Chariots of Fur*, with Grover running to the theme until he dropped from exhaustion. - In the *Alvin and the Chipmunks* episode "Dreamlighting" (which itself is a parody of *Moonlighting*), Jeanette/Ms. DaPest runs to catch a bottle of explosive rocket fuel before it hits the ground; the sequence is played in slow-motion and is accompanied by a very slight rearrangement of the *Chariots of Fire* theme. - In *The Smurfs (1981)* cartoon special "The Smurfic Games", Clumsy strains to reach the finish line at the end of the Smurfathlon while a slight rearrangement of the *Chariots of Fire* theme tune plays. - *The Simpsons*: In the *Itchy and Scratchy* cartoon shown in "Lisa's First Word" the theme can be heard while Scratchy is running during an Olympic game. - Seen in the *Rocko's Modern Life* episode "From Here to Maternity," as Filburt attempts to beat a stork to the O-Town Hospital, when running to the main entrance, everything then goes into slow-motion as a sound-alike of the *Chariots of Fire* theme plays, as Filburt manages to run ahead of the stork. But then the music stops (with Record Needle Scratch) and the speed returns to normal when the stork catches up and swipes Filburt's glasses so he can't see where he's going. - The opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games included the theme being played by the London Symphony Orchestra, with Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) on synthesizer. As Bean gets bored of having to play the same note for the main beat, he has a fantasy of the scene, with himself in Eric Liddell's place and wins the race by taking a ride in a car note : Something that notoriously *did* happen in the marathon at the 1904 St Louis Olympics. He then wakes up in confusion as the whole orchestra has stopped playing except himself as he was falling asleep.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodiesOfFire

Parity Product Paradox - TV Tropes According to US government regulations, certain products are considered commodity items (in technical jargon, *parity products*), with no noticeable variation in quality from manufacturer to manufacturer. As far as the government is concerned, there is no functional difference between one product and another in a given parity class. Aspirin, toothpaste, toilet paper and a host of other consumer goods fall into this category. Economists call these items homogeneous products. This presents an issue for the manufacturers, since they have to differentiate their product from competitors to sell their brand. Paradoxically, this allows a manufacturer of any of these items to legitimately and legally claim in advertisements that their product is "the best". The logic behind this is that if all varieties of aspirin on the market are equally good, then they are all the best by definition. The really counterintuitive part is that the makers of these products are not allowed to claim that theirs is "better" without substantial proof that it is somehow an improvement upon the commodity level. The result is, in American advertising at least, that "better = best" and "best = mediocre". In German television, this problem is often solved by claiming a product of some category is better than "ordinary" products from the same category, which is basically a way of saying "better than crud". A similar phenomenon is the extinction of moderate adjectives. No longer are drinks available in small, medium and large; now you have a choice of large, huge, gargantuan and colossal! Compare Absolute Comparative — when "better" is liberally spread, without saying what it's supposed to be better *than*. See also, Damned by Faint Praise.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParityProductParadox

Parody Magic Spell - TV Tropes *"Loquentia, Imbruglia, Precipitous, Saraleecheesecakea, Denouement!"* When a magical spell is invoked in a cartoon, comedy show or during a comedy sketch, the words needed to be spoken are often in-jokes, brand names, or famous surnames. Pig Latin and Canis Latinicus are also commonly used. They often sound weird enough to only be spotted on a second viewing. ## Examples: - Every single spell in *Bastard!! (1988)* sounds like a mix between magic and the Power of Rock since they are all based on famous heavy metal lyrics. - The English Gag Dub of Ghost Stories uses these for almost all the rituals to seal the various ghosts roaming the school. - In Swedish children's comic *Pellefant*, all spells were nonsense rhymes of this kind. Interestingly, one spell was consistent: the one to undo other spells. *Retura, reverta, bicka backa bick-back-buck!*. - John Constantine has done this on occasion. - In one issue of New Mutants, the girls are having a sleepover with several of their regular friends. During a pretend seance, Ilyana uses the incantation from Bullwinkle (see below) with Dani providing some special effects. It makes sense: who would know better than a demon-trained sorceress what *won't* work? - *Vampirella*: Pendragon occasionally, depending on writer and alcohol level. (Of Pendragon, not the writer.) - In *The Wizard of Id*, the title character's signature all-purpose spell is "Frammin' on the jim-jam, frippin' at the krotz!" Cartoonists Parker and Hart derived this from the Chris Sharp jazz instrumental, "Frimmin' on the Jim-Jam." - *A Very Potter Musical*: - The spells are performed not by casting an actual spell, but by saying the name of the spell. "Jelly Legs Jinx!" - Also subverted occasionally when characters will not even say a spell, but do a normal action such as leave a room and saying "Magic!" - *Potter Puppet Pals* features spells like "Pantaloonius Poopicus" and "Ronicus Explodicus". - Bit of Bilingual Bonus in *The Cabin in the Woods*: the "ritual incantation" used by the Japanese grade-school girls to seal the Sadako-ripoff is actually a preschool song about an acorn falling into a pond and befriending a fish. - In *The House With a Clock in Its Walls*, Lewis casts a spell to find the location of the doomsday clock by shouting out the definitions of "Discover", "Location", "Secret", and "Clock" while waving his Magic 8-Ball around vigorously. It works. - In *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Harry threatens his Jerkass and magic-phobic cousin Dudley with the words "Hocus pocus! Squiggly wiggly!". - In *Bored of the Rings*, Goodgulf has quite a lot of these, e.g.: "Hocus-pocus / Loco Parentis! / Jackie Onassis / Dino De Laurentiis!" His magic is completely based on parlor tricks and funny incantations. - In *The Dresden Files*, Harry Dresden's candle-lighting spell is "Flickum Bicus." (Flick my Bic.) - And in one of the short stories, when interrogating a thug, *"Intimidatus dorkus maximus!"* - For creating an iceberg he uses "Rexus Mundus." ("King of the World") - For creating illusionary duplicates, "Lumen, camerus, factum!" ("Lights, camera, action!") - In other words, this trope can come into play, literally depending on the caster's sense of humor. Because, for safety, reasons spells are explicitly either made up words or in languages the wizard *doesn't* speak. - In Robert Asprin's *Myth Adventures*, all incantations are fake trappings meant to impress muggles. Quite a lot of them fall under the trope, including "Alakazam-shazam" and the perennial favourite "Walla Walla, Washington". - The spell in *Wyrd Sisters* is a parody of the one in *Macbeth*, with such phrases as "tongue of boot and glow-worm glimmer, stir and then allow to simmer." - Also from the Discworld series, the spell to summon Death (to ask him questions) is called the "Rite of Ashk Ente", pronounced similarly to "Ask Auntie". - In *Lest Darkness Fall*, Padway gets exasperated with a quack who is trying to heal him of a bad cold, and sends him running by threatening to put a curse on him and spouting a stream of random modern-day words. - *Bruce Coville's Book of... Monsters*: In *The Thing That Goes Burp in the Night*, John Thomas reads a bunch of terms out of an index in one of his father's medical books, making it sound like he's doing a spell that will conjure up a monster to come and get his brother. - Used in an Italian comedy, where at one point the main characters make a fake Satanic ritual, including gibberish incantations as "Satan... Satanasso... Tapioca!" - *Doctor Who*: - In an episode, Shakespeare, the Doctor, and Martha Jones perform a magic spell that's mostly sci-fi garble, with JK Rowling. - in "The Daemons", "Reverend Magister" gets his Satanist dupes to chant "Mary had a little lamb" backwards, likely after the Hollywood Satanism practice of reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards. - On *Wizards of Waverly Place*, most of the spells are either the last name of one of the show's creators and a made up word that rhymes, or exactly what the spell does, with a Latin suffix such as "ius" tacked onto the end. - The spell word needed to use a certain witch's Magic Wand in an episode of *El Chapulín Colorado* is *Parangaricutirimícuaro*, a tongue-twister in Mexico (and the name of a town that was once destroyed by a volcano). - *Puffs*, being a spoof of the *Harry Potter* series, has several parody versions of spells from the series, including "Stupidify" (Stupefy), "Olive Gardium Leviosa" (Wingardium Leviosa), "Avada Kedabra" (Avada Kedavra), "Asio" (Accio), Snake Spell (Serpensortia), "Rickmansempra" (Rictusempra), "Locomotor Legs" (Locomotor Mortis, despite having a different effect as noted in the script), and "Tarantula Jelly" (Tarantallegra). - In Mozart's opera *Bastien Und Bastienne*, the sorcerer Colas recites a "magic spell" to make Bastienne fall in love with Bastien. This aria, "Diggi, daggi, shurry, murry," is really just a collection of nonsense words and random Latin (e.g., "fatto, matto, quid pro quo"). - Ashley's theme in *WarioWare* includes the incantation "Pantalones Giganticus!" - The invokation for the Create Gold spell in *Dungeon Keeper 2* is "Esspressus Americanus". - The old adventure game *Keef the Thief* was full of these; e.g. two healing spells were "Bandus Aidus" and "Takus Tylenus". - The random words wizards speak when casting in *Sacrifice* include "Klaatu", "Barada" and "Nikto", though not necessarily in the same incantation or in order. - In *Barbarus: Tavern of Emyr* the magic scroll which is supposed to fix Emyr's knee injury says "Lorem ipsum". - The *Homestar Runner* cartoon *Halloween Potion-Ma-Jig* has Homestar gathering ingredients for a Halloween potion, including one of three possible incantations: - "Loquentia, Imbruglia, Precipitous, Saraleecheesecakea, Denouement!" - "Bettah axe somebod-ay!" - "Do you even have half a brain!" - The Language of Magic in *Arthur, King of Time and Space* is English written with Greek letters. If you go to the trouble of translating them, the spells are famous quotes, often from children's literature (the chant to get more power for the *Excalibur*'s engines is "I know I can, I know I can...") - *The Order of the Stick*: the Harry Potter parody/Take That! invokes "Stoppus Badguyus!" when trying to repel Thog. - Much later, Blackwing needs some pretend magic words to intentionally miscast a spell, and uses this. - *Wizard School* has "Bastardized Latinium," among a variety of others. - These are rife in *Erfworld*; a cure spell is the names of the members of The Cure, a Dirtamancy spell is the same except with famously "dirty" athletes, Shockamancy spells are usually Shock Site names, with Hat Magic you say "Hoffa" to make something disappear and "Livingston" to make it appear again, "Trioxin" is used by Croakamancers to raise the dead, and so on... - In a Treehouse of Horror episode of *The Simpsons*, Bart reads a spell from a magic book that's basically a list of odd brand names and famous surnames. "Trojan, Ramses, Magnum, Shiek!" - Done in a *Robot Chicken* parody of *Harry Potter*. Example: When Snape tries to seduce Hermione in his "magical jacuzzi", he calls it forth with the spell, "BarryWhiteus, candlelightus, girl-exciteus!" She dispells his lecherous advance with the counterspell, "Pedophilius repelus!" - *Animaniacs*: - A *Pinky and the Brain* episode had "Charlie Sheen, Ben Vereen, Shrink to the size of a lima bean!" - In the same vein, one of their skits "translating" William Shakespeare covered the Three Witches scene from Macbeth: **Witches:** Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. **Yakko:** Loosely translated, "Abracadabra". **Dot:** Fillet of a fenny snake, in the cauldron boil and bake. **Yakko:** "Let's cook a snake." Start with my agent. - There was a Bugs Bunny cartoon ( *Transylvania 6-5000*) where Bugs meets a vampire. He starts reading a book about magic words that contain the words "Abracadabra" and "Hocus Pocus." Unknown to him (at first, anyway), "Abracadabra" turns the vampire into a bat, and "Hocus Pocus" turns him back into a person. He starts singing the words in a song, transforming the vampire back and forth (Hilarity Ensues)... then starts mixing them up in the song, "Abraca-Pocus" and "Hocus-cadabra", making half the vampire transform, i.e. a human body with a bat's head, then a bat's body and human head. Then he throws out, "Newport News!" which changes the vampire into a look-alike of Witch Hazel, and finally, "Walla Walla Washington!" which turns him into a two-headed vulture. - The episode of *The Venture Bros.* "Everybody Come to Hank's" invoked this. When assisting Orpheus casting a spell, an incantation was apparently required, and The Alchemist decided to have a little fun with it. - In *The Spectacular Spider-Man*, viewers who take the time to translate Mysterio's spells from Latin will find that most of the longer ones are non sequiturs. note : Mysterio appears to have sourced them from Henry Beard's *Latin For All Occasions* books. Denique diatem efficacem inveni! (Translation: ||I have finally found an effective diet!||) Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas! (Translation: ||Thank you for not smoking!||) - *Rocky and Bullwinkle*: "Eenie-meanie, chilly beanie! The spirits are about to speak!" - The Animated Adaptation of *Soul Music* gives words to the Rite of Ashk-Ente. These include Canis Latinicus descriptions of Death himself ("Wan Equestrus Chiv im Curlus. Homme Qui into Blotteau Hurlus" note : Pale rider with a curved blade. Man who hurls us into oblivion) and the ceremony ("Ovum Crackus, Totale Knackus" note : the egg is broken and totally knackered). - *Pink Panther*: "Transylvania Mania" - The Inspector fights Dracula (crossovered with Frankenstein) and his Igor, who want his brilliant brain for the newest creation. The Inspector overhears the spells (teensy-weensy and biggy-wiggy, for adjusting Igors size) and uses them to dish out Amusing Injuries by the ton. - Subverted in the *Kaeloo* episode parodying *Harry Potter*. Kaeloo says that there are lots of spells ending in "us" and "or", but it turns out that they really sound like magic spells and aren't made up of English words. - The *Yogi Bear* cartoon "Touch And Go-Go-Go" has a magician visiting Jellystone Park. He uses his magic wand to make Yogi and Boo Boo disappear with the magic words "nome de plume" (which is actually French for "pen name"). - The classic Donald Duck cartoon "Trick or Treat" has a witch(voiced by June Foray) brew a potion to help Huey, Dewey and Louie bedevil their uncle Donald: - In *Gravity Falls* most incanatations (which aren't English sentences played backwards) are genuine Latin, but they slip a few jokes in: - One spell, involving dream visitations, snuck the phrase "Inceptus Nolanus overratus" in among the real Latin. - "Northwest Mansion Mystery" gives us a spell to banish ghosts that goes "Exodus demonus, spookus scarus, aintafraidus noghostus". - Spells in *The Owl House* normally don't require any sort of incantation (barring some very rare exceptions). However, Luz's attempts to get Owlbert to fly in the first episode before she's been properly introduced to how magic works in the series has her shouting "Expecto... flying? Magicus... escapicus!" - The "magic words" Hocus Pocus were generated as a parody/modification of the Latin "Hoc Est Corpus" (This Is The Body), which was used to denote the Eucharist in Christian ceremony. - In Scandinavia and Russia, there is a third word for this "magical" formula. It is "filiokus" or "filipokus", and is derived from "filioque" (a theological dispute between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, involving the Holy Spirit... it's a long story).

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyMagicSpell

Parlor Games - TV Tropes Before Board Games, Card Games, Tabletop Games, Video Games, and Web Games came along, people just had their own persons to play games with guests. These are known as Parlor Games. In the past, these were used in fiction for the same purpose as Board Games are these days. Nowadays, it's either a Discredited Trope used to show how boring or geeky the people playing are, or it's used as an actual Plot Device. They frequently involve Player Elimination and have No Unified Ruleset. - **Simon Says**, a children's game where someone gives orders (usually silly things like "clap your hands" or "jump up and down"). Everyone playing has to follow the commands as long as they're preceded by "Simon says". So if "Simon says clap your hands" you have to clap, but just "clap your hands", you don't. You're out if you either follow the command without the "Simon says" or don't follow it when they do say it. One variation has Simon do an action in addition to saying one, but you must do what "Simon says". Usually, Simon will do and say the same thing, but it could lead to situations where "Simon says clap your hands" but he physically jumps up and down as a trick; the proper action is to clap your hands. Last of the group still in usually gets to be the next one to call out the orders. This game can be challenging enough that it can still be used legitimately in fiction. - **Twenty Questions**, a game where, counting the first question (usually if it's animal, vegetable, or mineral), the players can ask no more than twenty questions to guess what the active player is thinking of, and all questions after the first must be the "yes or no" kind. Usually parodied now instead of played straight. Computers can play it quite well, e.g. 20Q and Akinator. - **Who Am I?** is an inverted variant where each player has a post-it note on their forehead and take turns to ask the other players questions to figure out what's written on it (normally a famous person's name). Often played straight and used for the silliness of everyone having post-its on their heads. The names on the notes will often reflect or contrast with the person they're given to. - **I Spy**, a guessing game similar to but even more basic than Twenty Questions. The active player thinks of something within their line of sight and tells everyone else its color or first letter. They try to guess what it is. Only ever played by really bored characters. - **Musical Chairs**, is usually just played in children's parties now. Someone sets up enough chairs for all but one of the players to sit on. They walk in a circle while some music is played for a short time. As soon as it stops, everyone tries to sit in a chair, often resulting in a Big Ball of Violence. The one who can't is out, and one chair is removed for the next round, until one chair is left, and the one sitting is the winner. - **Charades**, nowadays the lowest of these games in fiction. Unless it takes place in the past, it rarely is portrayed for any reason other than to show what losers the players are. It is played by acting out the words the active player is thinking, puns and homophones allowed. The only other clue was to hold up a finger for each word in the answer, and fingers for which word is being played. Such improvised Hand Signals are sometimes used by a character to attempt to convey information which for whatever reason, such as being mute, they cannot simply say aloud. - **Blind Man's Bluff**, is usually seen in portrayals of older times. One player is blindfolded, while the others hide. The blind man has to find the other players. This game is sometimes depicted as a flirtatious man looking for giggling young women in a parlor. - **Marco Polo** is a variation on Blind Man's Bluff, with three differences: a) It usually takes place in water, such as a pool. b) The hunter doesn't wear a blindfold, but rather just keep their eyes shut. c) Most importantly, the hunter can call out "Marco!" as often as they like, and if the hunted ones hear it then they must respond with "Polo!". It's pretty much a miniature version of submarine warfare, sonar and all. - **Truth or Dare** is stereotypically most common at a slumber party, but can take place in other situations as well. The very point of this game is to elicit personal revelations if someone picks "Truth," or wacky hijinks if someone picks "Dare"; therefore, just by playing the game normally, it's quite likely that the events of the game will generate results interesting enough to be the plot of a story. Fan Fic writers know this very well, and Truth or Dare fics are practically a genre. - **King's Game** (王様ゲーム) is the Japanese equivalent, tending to involve larger amounts of alcohol. Players draw straws (usually disposable chopsticks) marked with either a number or "king". The king then reveals themselves, and (blindly) declares both a number and a command which the player holding that number must follow. - **I Never**, also known as **Never Have I Ever**, is a similar game to Truth or Dare. Usually played more as a drinking game, although other forfeits are common. The premise is for one person to say something which (hopefully truthfully...or not, as the case may be) they have never done, and all the other players have to commit the forfeit if they have done that thing. - **Spin the Bottle** and **Ten Minutes in the Closet** (or whatever variation) are the classic young-coed-teen-party games. In the first one, sit in a circle, take turns spinning a bottle and kiss the first member of the opposite sex (or not) it points to. In the second, pull names/number out of a hat to form couples and go into the closet for two minutes and... amuse yourselves in some fashion. This is often a way to trap/nudge a character into his/her First Kiss, to set up/exacerbate romantic jealousies or to contrast different levels of sexual activity among a bunch of kids of the same age. There will be much awkwardness, blushing and wiping of sweaty palms. - **Mafia** divides the players into two teams. One team is initially much smaller than the other, but the composition of the teams is unknown to the members of the larger team. The game alternates between turns during which the larger team keep their eyes shut, allowing the smaller team to communicate in secrecy, and turns during which all players claim they belong to the larger team. The elimination of a player is debated every turn. Paper sheets or cards are often used to create the teams at the beginning and to "unmask" any player who was just eliminated. A referee is normally required. Furthermore, a single player of the larger team has a hidden turn of his own, during which he learns the true allegiance of another player. Additional roles and teams can be introduced, potentially leading to at least one Double Reverse Quadruple Agent. In fictional works, Ten Little Murder Victims will sometimes play this kind of game right before it becomes the plot. - **Shiritori** (しりとり) also known as **Last Letter, First Letter**, is a word game played by two or more people that challenges their vocabulary skills. Players take turns stating words beginning with the final syllable or letter of the previous word. Once a word has been used, it cannot be used a second time. Variants of the game expect players to limit their vocabulary to a specific category. This game is very popular in Japanese media (thus, we've listed it in Romanized form), which has no words beginning with the "N" syllable, so anyone who uses a word ending in "N" loses. - A similar vocabulary game, more popular in the anglophone world, is called **Alphabet**. In this game, players take turns stating words in alphabetical order ("apple," "board," "cart," etc.) until only one player remains. - **The Minister's Cat** is a version of Alphabet where the words are all adjectives, expressed as "The minister's cat is a [adjective] cat". - In **Wink Murder** (or **Wink Killer** or **Assassin**), one player is randomly assigned to be the killer without the other players' knowledge. This player then tries to eliminate the other players by making eye contact and winking, while the other players try to determine who the killer is before being eliminated. - A variation called **Fuse Murder** has the players sit in a circle and hold hands. Only the killer can start a "fuse" by squeezing the hand of a neighbor multiple times. If a player's hand is squeezed multiple times, then the player must pass the fuse along by squeezing his/her other hand one less time. If a player's hand is squeezed once, then that player is eliminated. ## Instances by medium: - An advert showed children playing musical chairs with subtitled predictions on what they'd be when they grew up. A child jogging round the chairs with an intent expression was 'Future track athlete', a kid throwing a tantrum was 'Future Chief Executive Officer', and a smiling girl who let someone have her chair was predicted to be a stewardess for the advertised airline. - A version of shiritori played with catch phrases, one-liners, and assorted strange sentences is used for the Eye Catches for *Hayate the Combat Butler*'s first season. It's one of the quirks of director Keiichiro Kawaguchi. - A version of shiritori played with catch phrases, one-liners, and assorted strange sentences is used for the Eye Catches for *Psychic Squad*. It's one of the quirks of director Keiichiro Kawaguchi. - The first episode's Post-Episode Trailer for *Sola* presents a Shiritori game where Yorito keeps coming up with names of clouds. - In an episode of *Hidamari Sketch*, the group are sitting around watching Miyako's apartment leak and playing Shiritori. - Yuuichi and Mai are playing Shiritori in *Kanon* (both the game and the anime). Since Mai keeps adding "-san" to animal names, she always loses. - In the final episode of *Planetes*, ||Hachimaki proposes to Tanabe ("Kekkon shiou")|| during a Shiritori game. ||She accepts ("Un!"), losing the game in the process.|| - The titular club plays shiritori in the Beach Episode of *Genshiken*, and it swiftly derails into a fight because Madarame refuses to refer to a *Gundam* character (Sayla Mass) without the suffix "-san". - In *Sgt. Frog*, Keroro, Tamama, and Giroro play shiritori in the episode where they visit Grandma Hinata at her house in the country. - In an early episode of *Excel♡Saga*, Excel and her opponent are trapped in a well, playing Shiritori to pass the time. Since they're both hungry, all the items they name are foods. - In *Eyeshield 21*, the Deimon Devil Bats' party to celebrate ||their victory over the Hakushuu Dinosaurs and the fact that they made it to the Christmas Bowl|| includes a game of shiritori. - In *×××HOLiC*, Shiritori is revealed as a method for warding off evil spirits, but only after Watanuki is "tricked" into playing it while being chased by said evil spirits, making this a sort of reverse Chekhov's Gun example. - In the *.hack//Legend of the Twilight* manga, Shogo plays shiritori with an AI, discovering that you cannot beat someone who can instantly look up every word that exists. - One episode of *Digimon Adventure* has the characters split into teams and play shiritori with song lyrics. - *Imouto wa Shishunki*: Kanami starts a shiritori game with her kindergarten class and their teacher starts to say reezun (raisin) but then she realises that means she would lose and changes it mid-word to rezubian (lesbian). The other teacher is shocked but Kanami just cheerfully points out that she loses. - In *Ray*, Ray's mentor is immune to mind reading - he constantly plays shiritori in his head whenever a telepath is in range. - In an episode of *Gintama*, when the Yorozuya trio are playing hot potato with a time bomb, they suddenly begin playing shiritori. - In *Bleach* , Pesche tries to get his party to play siritori as they are trapped by Szayel in Las Noches - In *Futari wa Pretty Cure*, Nagisa and Mepple end up playing shiritori while hiding from the goon squad on a subway station after the villains manage to separate them from Honoka. Due to Mepple's Verbal Tic ("mepo") Nagisa has to come up with words that start with "po", until Mepple tells her that "ho" is okay too. Of course, the only word Nagisa can think of is "Honoka"... which leads to major ass-kicking. - In the *Ah! My Goddess* TV series, Belldandy loses a game of shiritori against Keiichi when she calls eggs "Tamago-san". - In *Nichijou*, Yuuko is particularly bad at shiritori, often falling afoul of the N rule. - In a drawing-based variant while passing notes to Mio during class, she draws the *Superman* character and notices that she will lose since it ends with N. She tries to correct this by changing it to Superman *s*, but Mio doesn't buy it and crosses out the "s" and the extra Supermen she drew in a hurry. - While the girls are trapped inside an elevator, they start playing shiritori to pass the time: Yuuko's *first* word is *Mika* (Orange). It takes their isolation-addled minds several seconds to realise that there's a problem. **n** - The third episode of *Daily Lives of High School Boys* had a shiritori game, where Tadakuni, who hates the game, accidentally joins in several rounds *completely by accident*. - Kane, Millie and Canal play shiritori in the *Lost Universe* episode "The Bathroom Disappears". After a while, they reach a point where any word Canal suggests causes the other two to come up with a word that reminds them of the fact that the bathroom has disappeared. - The main cast of *Toradora!* is playing shiritori on the bus to the ski resort, at least until Minorin drags it way off track with yet another non sequitur. - *No Game No Life* has *materialization* shiritori, where any word said materializes if it isn't there. If it is already there, then it disappears. - One episode of *Chronicles of the Going Home Club* has a very intense shiritori game between Sakura and Natsuki. They play a "taboo" variant, where in addition to losing if you can't think of a word that starts with the last syllable of the previous player, and losing for saying a word that ends with the "N" syllable, you can also lose by saying the word written on your or your opponent's card. Mundane Made Awesome kicks in and a Narrator appears to call the action. - In *Samurai Deeper Kyo*, the last Berserker Haira starts his "fight" against Bontenmaru with a game of Shiritori using the words as names for his attacks. At first Bontenmaru can't think names fast enough to attack himself and is at Haira's mercy, but eventually he cheats and starts using whole idioms instead of words, which ends up confusing Haira so much that he repeats himself, losing the game and receiving a Megaton Punch for his trouble. - Various gadgets of *Doraemon* are based Shiritori, such as しりとり変身卵 *shiritori henshin tamago* allowing a user to change into various objects through the game (for example,ねこ *neko* Cat->こい *koi* Koi Fish->イド *ido* Well->ドラえもん *doraemon*). - In *Shirokuma Cafe*, Panda tries to pass his time at the zoo by ringing up Polar Bear to play shiritori over the phone, starting with *ringo* (apple). Polar Bear, who actually works for a living, replies with *goukon* (group blind date) and immediately hangs up. - *Student Council's Discretion*: - Ken and Elise, Lilicia's little sister, play a round of shiritori when she invades the council room in episode eight. This gets annoying for Ken when Elise keeps ending up at the names of rival light novel publishers. - Lilicia and Elise play shiritori, by using the "mono aluminum strategy". Since the game only ends when you run out of words, and each of them just come up with a new chemical compound of aluminium (so the word ends with "m") that starts with "mu", the game keeps going... - One of the extras for volume 6 of *The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You* depicts Kusuri and Mimimi playing Shiritori before falling asleep. Since the last words they say are their respective Verbal Tics, the only answers they can come up with all start with either 'P' or 'Y'. - *Komi Can't Communicate*: In Chapter 164, Tadano, Komi and their friends play Shiritori. - One of the *Scott Pilgrim* volumes includes a short game of shiritori played between Scott, Ramona and Wallace. Scott is praised when he transitions *Donkey Kong* into *Don Quixote*, until Wallace points out there's nowhere to go from there. - In the *Young Justice* #7, during a campout, the kids play Truth or Dare. Truths includes the team learning that Superboy can't grow up, and Secret's horrifying response to "Have you ever kissed a boy?" (an Innocent Inaccurate account of how a lab assistant at the containment facility attempted to assault her, and her subconcious vengeance spirit powers sent him screaming). Impulse immediately goes for "dare", with Arrowette lamenting that there's no fun daring him, because he'll just do whatever it is without thinking, so Robin dares him to stay still. And Superboy dares Robin to take off his mask, which he does ... to reveal another mask. - *FoxTrot* had a comic where Roger and Andy played *Pictionary*. Andy drew what was very obviously a boat, but Roger struggled to figure out what it was, suggesting such things as "a Christmas tree in a cereal bowl". When she wrote "boat" at the bottom of the page, he thought it was some kind of " *Pictionary* shorthand". - In *Amazing Fantasy*, Peter assumes there's a Language Barrier between him and Izuku and uses charades to try to communicate. It's for naught when Izuku reveals that he has a rudimentary understanding of English. - *The Bolt Chronicles*: - In *Not Completely, Altogether Here*, a game of Truth or Dare at a slumber party is what ultimately led to Galinda's death. Her friends dared her to snatch Dr. Dillamond's coat and draw on it as a prank. Galinda went to do just that but ||ended up walking into a murder scene. Madame Morrible had killed Dillamond. She also killed Galinda in order to keep her silent.|| - The villain of *Die Hard with a Vengeance* used Simon Says in his games. His name is Simon, so he has a lot of fun with it. - Twenty Questions was parodied in *Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey*, which the now-dead protagonists decided to play to pass the time during their fall into hell. It was a tank, and Ted guessed it in two questions. **Ted:** Are you a mineral? **Bill:** Yeah. **Ted:** Are you a tank? **Bill:** Whoa! Yeah! - Common in adaptations of *A Christmas Carol*, which has a scene where Nephew Fred and his Christmas party play parlor games, though adaptations sometimes change up which games are being played: - Nephew Fred and his party play Twenty Questions in the 1951 version of *Scrooge*. - In the 1984 *A Christmas Carol*, the party is playing "Similes". Fred would say the first part of a common expression, such as "Quiet as..." or "Tight as...", which the player would then have to fill in (in these examples, 'a mouse' and 'a drum', respectively). The answer given, though, is "As tight as your Uncle Ebenezer's pockets." - The Blind Man's Bluff appears in the 1999 *A Christmas Carol* with Patrick Stewart playing Scrooge. - In *Young Frankenstein*, Frankenstein is strangled by the monster, and tries use charades to tell Igor and Inga to administer a "sedative". Their guesses include "said-a-give" and "said a dirty word". **Frankenstein:** SEDA- *GIVE?!* - *Demolition Man*: Big Bad Simon Phoenix references Simon Says as a sort of Catchphrase: **Phoenix**: Simon says bleed! **Phoenix**: Simon says die! - In the 1990 film iteration of *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*, when Donnie and Casey are fixing the truck, they play a variation of "Alphabet" where they take turns insulting each other. ("Atomic Breath," "Barfaroni," etc.) - Mozart and his wife play Musical Chairs at a party in the film version of *Amadeus*. - The original script of *The Cabin in the Woods* included a modified "Truth, Dare or Lecture," which apparently Joss Whedon and his friends used to play. The lecture bit was cut for time, but the Truth or Dare stays in the final cut of the movie. - A trailer for *Monsters, Inc.* (that played before *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* in theaters) has Mike and Sulley playing a game of Charades where Sulley tries to act out "Harry Potter" to Mike, to no avail. At the end, it's Mike's turn and Sulley correctly guesses "Star Wars" almost instantly. - In *Since You Went Away* (1944), the Hiltons like to play Charades. Uber-dignified Col. Smollett has to act out "bottoms up". - An Overly-Long Gag in the Marx Brothers film *A Day at the Races* has Stuffy (Harpo) spend an entire scene using charades to explain the villains' Frame-Up plot to Tony (Chico). - In *Inglourious Basterds*, Bridget von Hammersmark, a German spy for the Allies, plays Who Am I with a group of enlisted Wehrmacht soldiers in a bar while waiting for her American contacts. Later, an SS officer invites them to play the same game in order to confirm his suspicions of them. - In *About Scout*, Gloria plays charades with some friends. One of them mimes rocking a baby and then stabbing it, and Gloria struggles to remember the word for "infanticide." - *Jane Eyre* features what is most possibly the most elaborate game of Charades ever. They make *sets*. - Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present observe Twenty Questions being played at Fred's Christmas party in Dickens' *A Christmas Carol*. The "animal" in question turns out to be "Uncle Scrooge". There is also a game of Blind Man's Bluff, in which the Lemony Narrator expresses the opinion that one guest, who unerringly pursues Fred's sister-in-law, could probably see through the blindfold. - In Thomas Pynchon's *The Crying of Lot 49*, Oedipa and Metzger play a game they refer to as "Strip Botticelli" while drunk, but they don't actually get that far and Metzger ends up taking his clothes off anyway. - Dorothy L. Sayers uses parlor games in several of her short stories. In one "the Prime Minister's Speech on the Wireless" was ruled out of order in "Twenty Questions" as there was a dispute about its being 'animal' or 'a kind of gas.' - *Discworld* - In *Guards! Guards!*, the Librarian (an orangutan) has to resort to Charades to explain to Carrot about a stolen book, while resenting the fact that dogs, horses and dolphins don't have nearly as much trouble getting a message to humans. - In *Hogfather* interminable parlour games, and the inevitable rows over them, are part of the wizards' litany of complaints about Hogswatch. - *The Brand New Monty Python Bok* contains the rules for a parlour game based on the Cheese Shop sketch, with one player as the Customer and the other as the Shopkeeper. - *Heralds of Valdemar*: At one point in the *Collegium Chronicles*, Mags plays several parlor games with his new friends. This is one of the rare occurrences where someone finds "I Spy" to be fun; to be fair, this is pretty much the first time Mags has ever been able to play games. - *The Big Bang Theory* has an example of shiritori being played by Sheldon and Penny while on a (short) car trip. Sheldon limits the game to only elements on the periodic table, and since Penny isn't interested, he plays for her, allowing her to win the game. - In another episode, Amy has a Christmas party featuring extremely boring Victorian era party games. - At one point in *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*, Spike and Harmony play Twenty Questions. First question: is it bigger than a breadbox? Second question: is it smaller than a breadbox? ||It's a sodding breadbox.|| - *Doctor Who*: In "The Unicorn and the Wasp", the Doctor has been poisoned with cyanide, but can cleanse his system with only a few ingredients. Unfortunately, his mouth is full when he needs to tell Donna what he needs and a hilarious game of charades ensues: **Donna:** I can't understand you... How many words? One! One word! Shake... milk-shake... milk?! No, not milk. Shake, shake, shake?! Cocktail shaker! What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger? **The Doctor:** HARVEY WALLBANGER?! **Donna:** Well, I don't know! **The Doctor:** *How is "Harvey Wallbanger" one word?!* - In one episode of *Frasier*, Frasier and company try to pass the time during a blackout by playing "I Never". Daphne objects to the assumption that the examples of things one has never done should be sexual, listing off a number of examples she assumes that no one will have done causing Roz to repeatedly forfeit. - In the *Friends* episode "The One With All the Poker", Monica says Ross is ridiculously competitive, and Pheobe brings up "the *Pictionary* Incident", where a plate (according to Monica) slipped out of her hand while she was gesturing. During the closing credits, they're playing *Pictionary* again, and when everyone fails to get Monica's clue and she reaches for her glass, they all dive behind the sofa. - Shiritori shows up a few times in *GoGo Sentai Boukenger*, the first instance being when four of the five team members are trapped in a snowfall in their mecha. They were so confident Satoru was going to rescue them that they figured they may as well pass the time with a game. - Truth or Dare is used as a bonding exercise in *The Kicks* episode "Choosing Sides". It starts out fun, but one Armor-Piercing Question from Mirabelle turns it into an argument. - Kate and Sawyer play I Never in a Season 1 episode of *Lost*. - *Married... with Children* has an example of shiritori being played using place names. It gets derailed when Kelly thinks Alabama ends with R ("Alabammer"). - Two games of Charades were played in a courtroom sketch in a *Monty Python's Flying Circus* episode. Go here and search for "We have, m'lud." We find the defendant Not Guil-cup. - Michael on *The Office* plays Charades in "Dinner Party", but he can't resist cheating. "Rhymes with Parnold Schporzenegger." - He and the client also play Truth or Dare with an unwitting Jan. - *Our Miss Brooks*: In "Parlor Game", Miss Brooks invents a complicated parlor version of Calvinball, in order to push Mr. Conklin into taking his family out for the evening as a more palatable alternative. - There was an episode of *Sabrina the Teenage Witch* wherein in order to undo the wacky spell-gone-awry of the week, Sabrina had to get someone to say a certain phrase — but of course, Sabrina wasn't able to actually say it herself, because that would make things too easy. So instead, she initiated a game of charades and tried to get the person to say the phrase that way. - The *Three's Company* episode "Jack Bares All (aka Oh Nurse), Part 2" has Mr. Furley introducing a game where each player makes up a question one word at a time. They don't like it, so they play a game in which everybody has to imitate another partygoer. Hilarity Ensues. - On an episode of *Veronica Mars*, in a Flashback, we see Veronica, Duncan, Lily and Logan play "Truth or Dare". Then they play "I Never". Hilarity Ensues. - *First Wave* features a very dark example. The protagonist ends up in a game of "Truth or Dare" and dares one of the young women involved to flash her tits. She agrees with only a bare minimum of fuss. However, the next time, the protagonist asks her for the truth about where the suspiciously knuckle-shaped bruises on her torso come from. - The *QI* episode "Noel" involves the panel playing several parlor games, such as Taboo (where they have to answer questions without using the letter "N") and "Are you there, Moriarty?" (where two people are blindfolded and one has to hit the other with a rolled-up newspaper). They're a British Christmas tradition. - *Suburgatory*: Ryan and Tessa first kiss when Ryan is dared to kiss her during a game of truth or dare. - *Red Dwarf*: The Cat decides to inform the crew of "bad news" by playing a game of charades with them in "Dear Dave". After many misguesses (including many a mention of giant death worms from Rimmer), it is eventually revealed that the bad news is that the mail pod has crashed into his clothes. - Various parlour games are played in *I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue*. The most famous is Sound Charades, which has been adapted to be more suited to an audio medium. For others like Blind Man's Bluff, Musical Chairs and Hunt the Slipper, the joke is that they *haven't*, and for all the audience at home know it's possible (perhaps likely) that the teams aren't doing *anything*. - Now-defunct Los Angeles market Classic Rock station KSWD 1003.3 The Sound was a mostly Boomer-targeted station (except they really liked Van Halen) that would play Siritori with listener requests during the weekday morning show sometimes. On 100.3, since it was an English speaking station, they called it "The Last Letter Game" They would take the last letter of (the last word in) each song title and a listener could request a next song beginning with it. E.g., if the first listener request Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" it could lead to the next listener requesting The Doobie Bros' "Listen to the Music." Which is the same as siritori. - The July 5, 2004 episode of *WWE Raw* featured Eugene, whose gimmick was of a child-like wrestling savant, as the General Manager for the night. He started the episode by having Ric Flair, Stacy Keibler, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Tyson Tomko, Jonathan Coachman and Jerry Lawler play a game of Musical Chairs to determine who got a title shot that night. Jericho won, earning a shot at Randy Orton's Intercontinental Heavyweight Title. - Lenny Henry had a routine that distinguished a *PARTY* from a "party". At the latter, people are sitting around drinking wine, and there's one guy who insists on playing Charades. - In *Evita*, Juan Peron and other generals play a game of Musical Chairs to the music "The Art of the Possible," symbolizing Juan's rise to power in the chaos of post-revolutionary Argentina.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParlorGames

Parodic Table of the Elements - TV Tropes **Mrs. Krabappel:** Who can tell me the atomic weight of bolognium? **Martin:** Ooh! Delicious? **Mrs. Krabappel:** Correct. I would also accept "snacktacular ". The periodic table of the elements is one of those mysterious things that everyone sees in science class and almost nobody actually understands, so parodies of it are common. These generally break down into these categories: - Puts non-elements into locations in the actual Periodic Table, so that their names reference the names of the original elements. Generally, this ignores the actual point of the Periodic Table (namely, the fact that elements are not *arbitrarily* placed, but placed based on their common characteristics). This may overlap with Artistic License - Chemistry, and sometimes E = MC Hammer. - Tables that put new "elements" in columns based on common characteristics. You know, like the real thing. More often than not, these will have a shape unlike the real Periodic Table. For a similarly irreverent take on the classical elements, see Bizarro Elements. ## Examples: - There is a periodic table of M&Ms with elements defined by their colour and personality. For example, Ye (yellow) is Clumsy. - *Cars 2* has the Automotive Table of the Elements. - In one of Gary Larson's *The Far Side* comics, a Caveman creates a periodic table of the elements consisting of: Dert (De) - Very popular for T-shirts in online stores: - This poster. - Uncyclopedia has the Idiotic Table, the Canadian Periodic Table, and the Occasional Table (now deleted). - The Periodic Table of Typefaces. - The Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad - The periodic table of *Star Wars* elements. - The Periodic Table of Swearing. NSFW. There's also an interactive version. - The word table wasn't meant to be taken literally... - Made of Evil, on this very wiki. - The Periodic Table of *Final Fantasy* Characters. - The Periodic Table of◊ *Super Mario Bros.* Characters. - The Periodic Table of Anime◊. - The Periodic Table of Imaginary Elements. - *Homestar Runner* has The Periodic Table of Candy Elements. - The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense. - The Periodic Table of Periodic Tables, containing many parodic tables in addition to variations on the real thing. - The Periodic Table of Awesoments◊. - The Periodic Table of Storytelling applies this trope to TV Tropes itself. - An updated version has been released. - The Periodic Table of Contra Dance◊. - The Periodic Table of Atheists◊. - The Periodic Table of Baseball Hall of Famers◊. - Periodic Table of the [Perl 6] Operators. - The Periodic Table of Planets, which classes different types of planets, both in our Solar System and out, by size, composition, temperature, and habitability. - The Periodic Table of Smellements. - The Periodic Table of STC-O◊. Element versions of the forum's user handles, complete with atomic post counts. - Periodic Table of Internet... *one* of them. - The Disney Songbook Table of Elements, divided into 18 groups (Villain Song, "I Want" Song, Disney Acid Sequence, etc.) - The Periodic Table of Imaginary Elements - *The Simpsons* has the Oscar Mayer periodic table (which is mentioned in the page quote) as seen on the season 10 episode, "Lisa Gets An A." Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers are showing Lisa what the basic assistance grant money that she won for the school (by cheating on a test) can do for Springfield Elementary: get them a real tetherball set instead of a cinderblock tied to a bent pole, get them real working computers instead of the ones Gil is trying to sell, and get them real periodic tables instead of ones that were given to them by Oscar-Meyer as part of a promotional stunt. - Its been mentioned that Springfield Elementary can only afford periodic tables with 20 elements. - *Aaahh!!! Real Monsters* does it with phobias: Ickis has to go on some quest while the Gromble keeps the class busy by going over a chart of human phobias that's a direct parody of the periodic table. - The Periodic Table of the Elements of Harmony◊ is a Parodic Table for *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*. - The *SpongeBob SquarePants* episode "Its A Sponge Bob Christmas" has the plot-important element Jerktonium represented by the symbol Jt. - The MacGuffin in the *Phineas and Ferb* episode "Vanessasary Roughness" is an element called Pizzazium Infinionite, which is located at the bottom right corner of the table, has the symbol PzI and an atomic number of 104 note : referencing the theme tune; curiously, the actual element number 104, Rutherfordium, is also in the table .

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodicTableOfTheElements

Le Parkour - TV Tropes Parkour (and its similar offshoot free-running) is a physical discipline originating in France, more specifically, a suburb of Paris called Évry (although it's worth noting that the inventor's father/teacher was born in French-controlled Vietnam). It can be summed up as either acrobatics meets assault courses or skateboarding *without a board*. Parkour (the name is a variant of *parcours,* meaning a course or route) is based on general principles of survival: Should one ever need to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, the shortest distance is always a straight line. The goal, therefore, is to get past, over, under, or through various obstacles without wasting any time. And it just happened that Évry's central agora is an incredible mishmash of stairs, decks, catwalks and roofs at different heights — and thus, the best way to go in a straight line from A to B in downtown Évry was jumping and running through obstacles. (As of today, the nearby suburbs of Courcouronnes and Lisses have "parkour parks", like skate parks made for practicing parkour). Parkour practitioners (called by gender-specific nouns, following the original French; a male Parkour runner is a *traceur*, a female is a *traceuse*; referring to multiple practitioners uses *traceurs*) run their environment like an obstacle course: vaulting obstructions, leaping gaps, running up walls, wall jumps, and otherwise taking wild shortcuts. Although commonly associated with cities, Parkour can be used to navigate any type of environment. Traceurs will tell you their discipline becomes a mindset over time. They learn to unconsciously scan their surroundings for routes and movements. Think of *Assassin's Creed* or *Mirror's Edge*. Plus, it not only looks damn cool, but is practical, and may prove to become a more widely practiced discipline similar to martial arts. The obvious example of Parkour usage is moving from point A to B, but the core idea is simply to make yourself more practically agile and more able to overcome physical obstacles. A mundane example is accidentally throwing something (e.g. a football) on a rooftop and needing to recover it. A practitioner of Parkour would be able to get onto the roof, get the object and get down safely. The practice of Parkour actually predates the use of that term to describe it. It is a refinement of human movement rather than a brand new skill, the movements have been practiced in various ways for a long time. For example, stuntmen and martial arts film actors have been doing similar things for years, a good example being Jackie Chan. Not to be confused with its counterpart, "Free Running", which is similar but with a difference of "form" over "function." One of the central "rules" of Parkour is that it is not a competitive sport, and emphasizes efficiency, self-discipline, and oneness with the surroundings, whereas "free-running" is based on stunts and acrobatics that can be done in one location, just for the hell of it, and may include extra flips and spins that are functionally superfluous (and energy inefficient) but look damn cool. Note that often, traceurs will be able to and will perform flips and the like and can be considered both a traceur and a free-runner. The main distinction of traceur and free-runner is in the mindset of the person. Parkour has begun to appear more frequently in TV shows, owing to its growing popularity. Its moves are commonly employed by martial artists, notably Ninja and practitioners of She-Fu. With special effects and wirework, it becomes an even more impressive feat than it already is. That could be considered proof positive that movie producers are dedicated to missing the point, because Parkour is cool because it is *real*. Many new video games employ it to expand a player's platform hopping repertoire. A realistic version of Roof Hopping — most Parkour is done at or near ground level, because that's where one encounters the most obstacles. If used well this can be a great help to a person running a Mobstacle Course. For the use of parkour in combat, see the subtrope Combat Parkour. ## Examples - A commercial for AT&T High Speed Internet shows a man learning Parkour via online videos. - Austrian Army TV-Ad. - One of the first things to introduce Parkour to a mainstream British audience was a stunning BBC 1 ad featuring David Belle Roof Hopping home to watch his favourite show. - The government of Mexico launched at the end of 2012 (not without some controversy) an spot featuring Parkour practitioners to emphasize the youth and strength of the new administration. No, seriously. - There was an old Nike commercial that aired around 2000-01 or thereabouts where a traceur blasted across rooftops to avoid... a chicken. - A GO! promo from 2010 features people doing parkour while multicolored streaks associated with their then-current on-air branding appear on-screen. - Used in *Attack on Titan* as a means of fighting the Titans, given their height and their one weak spot being on the base of the neck. - The characters Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Heiwajima from *Durarara!!* practice Parkour, or something very much akin to it. The former learnt it to avoid Shizuo's many attempts to kill him very much dead, and the latter in order to catch the former and kill him very much dead. - A much less flippy- and martial-artsy-version occurs in *Eyeshield 21*. Sena, and a few other running backs, have the ability to foresee the quickest and safest abilities to get to the goal. Thus, it involves running in between people, cutting back, slowing your speed, etc. One of Sena's contemporaries, Patrick "Panther" Spencer, is fond of running across rooftops as his morning exercise. - In the *Gundam 00* movie, Hallelujah uses Parkour to defeat alien-possessed vehicles. He knew he was screwed when the helicopter came after him, though. - The opening of *K* implies that Saruhiko Fushimi is able to do this. It shows him jumping from street light to street light, with his sword between his teeth no less, and the anime proper shows him to be very quick and agile. - There's some of this from Izumo Kusanagi in season 2, as well. - Kaku from *One Piece* is particularly skilled in this. Even his nickname that the people of Water 7 gave him, "Yamakaze" refers to this trope. - The magical girls in *Puella Magi Madoka Magica* are implied to be able to do this, as several scenes in the Main Story of *Magia Record* imply that they can jump from roof to roof without getting hurt. The reason why preteens can do this, is because ||their bodies are contained in a Soul Gem, and it grants them agility, also because they won't die unless their Soul Gem is hit||. - Langa of *Sk8 the Infinity* does this in the illegal skate park S *with* his skateboard...because he has a habit of slamming his skateboard against the likes of tree branches or leaping from boulders, et cetera, to utilize snowboarder moves, getting from point A to B even quicker than usual. By episode 11, ||his best friend Reki picks up his tricks.|| - In *Snow White with the Red Hair* both Zen and his aide Obi prefer to get places by trying to take the shortest route, often jumping over balconies instead going around to the stairs or using other potential obstacles like trees to get around faster. Zen isn't able to get as much practice as he'd like as being a prince his antics are not put up with by his superiors. - On the DC Comics side, *Batman* is a bit of a trope codifier for superhero quasi-parkour. Being Badass Normals, he and his sidekicks and students (Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Robin, Robin, Spolier) essentially use parkour (along with a *lot* of Building Swing) when they're flying around rooftops. And now Batman has selected Bilal Asselah, an actual French free-runner, to take up the mantle of "Nightrunner" as part of the Batman Incorporated program. - A major talent of Jaeger, the protagonist of many story arcs in *Finder*. - Both Paul Patton Jr. and his son Shinji practice this in their superhero identities in *The Fox Hunt*. - Warren Ellis' *Global Frequency* centered one story around it. - Pretty much any non-flying, athletic comic-book superhero (or villain) is sure to end up using parkour-like techniques, including a lot of Roofhopping, along with Building Swing moves, to get around the urban environment. Some notable examples from Marvel Comics include: - *Captain America* villain Batroc does this, combined with the French martial art *savate,* as his shtick (he's called Batroc the Leaper for a reason). This is played up in the one-shot issue "Captain America and Batroc", where he comes to identify as a *traceur* after befriending a group of young practitioners. - Spidey's pal Daredevil tends to do this kind of thing *even more,* though. His radar sense gives him perfect 360-degree awareness of his environment, and his blindness protects him from vertigo. - Gambit is famous for this, as part of his rep as a stealthy and extremely skilled master thief and close quarters fighter - heck, he's the literal King of Thieves in the Marvel Universe. - The current Ms. Marvel has occasional friendly encounters with Laal Khanjeer (Red Dagger), a Pakistani Badass Normal superhero who combines this sort of skill with precision knife throwing. Ms Marvel explicitly calls what he does parkour; he says that he's self-taught, and learned most of his best moves by watching YouTube videos. He's clearly a very naturally talented *traceur*. - Spider-Man. Because when you can jump four stories, swing on webs, and stick to walls, the fastest route from A to B can change significantly. Doesn't change that parkour is essentially one of Spidey's powers. - There is a famous Spidey story where he is forced to track a villain to suburbia and basically relies on free-running to get around because web-slinging doesn't work well on one-story houses. - The Spidey villain Screwball has no powers but her skill in parkour. - *Mirror's Edge*, based on the video game of the same name. - *The Wizard of Id* once revealed that Humpty Dumpty has been taking parkour lessons. Notably, it shows him surviving his infamous fall. - In *The Bridge*, Monster X turns into a human when transported to the Equestria Girls universe. He uses ninja-like parkour to get around, complimented by the fact he still has a degree of super strength. - In *Crowns of the Kingdom*, Mickey and Minnie get around this way. - In *Friendship Is Magic*, the human Rainbow Dash practices this as a hobby and aspires to join the Wonderbolts, a team of professional parkour practitioners. The villain gang the Shadowbolts also practice this. - In *Friendship Is Magical Girls*, this is Lightning Dust's preferred form of both getting around and fighting. - Being a The Matrix and Supernatural crossover *Hunting Series* naturally uses a little bit of this. Particularly, in part 3 - Hunting and Saving when John Winchester uses it to save a kid that's being held ten feet off the ground by a vampire. - In *Zootopia 2 The Movie*, displaced human Bart Torres uses this to try and escape from Judy and Nick. - In the DVD commentary for Shane Acker's *9* — the feature film — it's stated that the movements of resident badass 7 were heavily inspired by this, as well as skateboarding and watching female athletes perform other various sports activities. It shows. - *Batman: Under the Red Hood* has some of this while Batman and Nightwing are chasing Red Hood. - *Brave*: Right before Merida's day out on horseback, she does a couple of very traceur-like moves, which underscores her athleticism. - *Happy Feet Two* has Boadicea pulling off parkour moves to move swiftly across the landscape of Antarctica. - In Disney's *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*, Quasimodo pulls off a lot of neat parkour-style moves on the rooftops of the cathedral. - *Resident Evil: Degeneration*, a CGI movie based off the *Resident Evil* series, has Leon do an incredible Parkour sequence near the end of the movie to escape a Self-Destruct Mechanism. - Probably an example before this style, but in the stop-motion Rankin Bass cartoon, *Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town*, Kris Kringle uses some fairly sweet moves to escape the Burgermeister Meisterburger's troops. **Burgermeister Meisterburger:** Oh, look! He climbs like a squirrel, leaps like a deer, and is as slippery as a seal! - Although the animators based it more on surfing and skateboarding movements, Disney's *Tarzan* movie has the title hero do lots of Parkour-style movement through the jungle. - Parkour seems to be the main mode of locomotion for the stray boys Black and White in *Tekkonkinkreet*. - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles always had a bit of Parkour in them, but *TMNT*, the CGI movie, has them doing full-on parkour runs of the city. Even more impressive is that each turtle has his own preference and style of moving. - Shows up, weirdly enough, in *Toy Story 3*, with Woody, Buzz and Jessie pulling off borderline ninja moves. When you're the size of a toy, you have to get creative to move in a human-sized environment. - A notable mention is Buzz's first flying sequence in the original movie. ## Actors: - A staple of Jackie Chan movies, though outtakes show that being able to leap up a wall in three bounds does take just the right amount of momentum and angle, and failures range from hilarious to painful (or both). - Keaton could be considered a comedic successor to Douglas Fairbanks Sr., the first Hollywood actor to portray Robin Hood and Zorro. (Keaton even played a role originated by Fairbanks when the latter's 1915 film, *The Lamb,* was remade as Keaton's first feature, *The Saphead,* in 1920.) - Buster Keaton was the master before Parkour was defined. Climbing around buildings and jumping from ledge to ledge with no safety restraint was a big part of his Silent Films in the twenties. Ninja building climbing stunts in early martial-arts films are also Ur Examples. - There are a number of movies where Will Smith plays the main character, that have him showing off his Parkour skills — as an introduction to his character to show off just how much of a badass he should be thought to be. See: *I, Robot* and *Men in Black*, in particular. ## Individual films: - *Assassin's Creed (2016)*: As in the games, Assassins run, jump and climb over quickly traverse city rooftops and evade pursuing crusaders. - *Alita: Battle Angel*: Alita often uses flashy moves during battles and to get around using any part of the enviroment that comes in hand. Of course, having an advanced cybernetic body is a major help for all those jumps and cat leaps. - *Babylon A.D.* Darquandier's men show these skills when tracking the protagonists through a Russian train station and refugee camp. - *Blood and Chocolate*, a seamless blend of werewolves and Shakespeare-style romance set in Bucharest, features a female protagonist and her wolf pack who uses Parkour to evade all pursuit. - The eponymous lead of *Boone: The Bounty Hunter*, played by John Morrison, utilizes a lot of parkour in his pursuit of bail-jumpers. His more acrobatic stunts are partially justified by that he's playing it up for his reality show. - In *Breaking and Entering (2006)*, the teenage burglars Miro and Zoran are talented traceurs. When the police chase them across the roof of Miro's housing development, they escape ||for the time being|| by jumping down about twenty feet from one roof to another without getting injured. - In *Colombiana*, Cataleya (even as a little girl!) and a random mook chasing her use this. - In the movie adaptation of *The Crow*, Eric Draven uses Parkour-like movements to cross the city rooftops. - The French movie *District 13* makes liberal use of Le Parkour. David Belle, a co-founder of Parkour, features in the co-main role. - *Brick Mansions* is the US remake, with David Belle again in his same role, with the other lead played by the late Paul Walker. Walker doesn't do any Parkour in the film, there's a clear division of labor with Belle in the running role and Walker in the shooting and driving one. - In *Enchanted*, Prince Edward has no problem navigating either the forest or Manhattan this way. - Seen in *Exit Through the Gift Shop*, when an apparent graffiti artist in France escapes from two policemen by quickly scampering to the roof of a building. - *Freerunner* features a group of eight parkour practitioners who routinely participate in a race across the city before it gets turned into a Deadly Game. - Bruce Banner shows off a little Parkour while running from General Ross in the *The Incredible Hulk* movie. A Parkour expert choreographed the Hulk's movements. - *James Bond* - Spoofed in *Johnny English Reborn* when English is chasing an assassin with these skills; English runs him down by doing mundane things like squeezing between air-conditioner units instead of running over them, using a crane instead of jumping between buildings, and taking the elevator instead of climbing down the scaffolding. Some would argue that he's simply taking the pragmatic approach, which may or may not tie into the true spirit of the discipline (i.e. getting from A to B the most efficient way possible). - *Juice*: Bishop and Q successfully evade the cops doing this, leaving said cops dumbfounded. - In *Kingsman: The Secret Service*, Eggsy won the local gymnastics championships twice and was considered Olympic material, but now only uses his athletic talent to evade pursuers. He uses it to great effect in the final battle against Valentine's men and Gazelle. - *Live Free or Die Hard* has Gabriel's henchblond, played by Cyril Raffaelli, employ Parkour and bouncy dexterity throughout the movie. Rafaelli was also in *District 13*, in which he co-starred opposite a co-founder of the discipline. - In *Lupin III 2014*, Pierre demonstrates his Parkour ability during the opening heist, sliding and flipping through a Laser Hallway, and hopping around the walls and columns to avoid setting off a weight-sensitive alarm. - In what must be one of the earliest cinematic examples, the 1920 film *The Man from Kangaroo* contains a scene where John Harland chases after a mugger, and the two of them hurdle fences, climb up sheer walls, climb up lampposts and pipes, drop off a bridge, etc. - In *New Town Killers*, Sean's skill at free-running helps him to stay ahead of Alistair and Jamie who are Hunting the Most Dangerous Game with him as the prey by going over and across thee historic architecture of Edinburgh. - Parkour on film is definitely Older Than They Think, with instances and influences traceable to at least the 1930s with the crowning backstage sequence in *A Night at the Opera*. - All the mall thieves of *Paul Blart: Mall Cop* can do some Parkour tricks along with using bikes and skateboards to get around. - In *Pool of London*, Vernon is an acrobat who scales a bombed out building and then leaps across the street on to the domed roof of the building opposite in order to break into it. - The 2010 movie *Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time* has Dastan doing Parkour, of course. - A trio of "traceurs" serve as couriers for mobster Billy Russoti in *Punisher: War Zone*. One of them learns the hard way that the discipline doesn't cover how to dodge rockets in mid-air. According to the DVD Commentary, this was meant as a Take That! aimed at just about every movie on this list. - *Resident Evil Film Series*: - Alice uses this at times. - In *Resident Evil: Afterlife*, Claire runs up a wall (in a wet bathroom!) to evade the Executioner. - The trailer for *The Spirit* shows him doing this over rooftops. Of course, he was also good at this in the comics. - The Bollywood movie *Tashan* features parkour in a couple of action scenes, courtesy of star Akshay Kumar's fascination with the pastime. - Featured in *The Tournament* focusing on a group of assassins, competing in an underground fighting tournament put together by The Omniscient Council of Vagueness. One of the characters, "The Frenchman" used Parkour to good effect. - In *Transformers: Dark of the Moon*, Sam Witwicky does some Parkour moves as he's running through a debris-and-wreck-laden street near the climax of the movie. When being interviewed after filming the first movie, Shia LaBeouf revealed that he spend many months up to the shooting building up his muscles only to find out the hard way that agility was more important for the role. - During *TRON: Legacy*, Sam briefly does a few vaults over police cars near the start of the film. Attention isn't called to it, and it could easily be missed by someone who doesn't know what to look for. Parkour features much more heavily in *TRON: Evolution*, and may appear in *TRON: Uprising*. - *The Twilight Saga: New Moon*: When Jacob climbs through Bella's window. - *Undercover Brother*. While fighting Mr. Feather, Undercover Brother briefly jumps up on and runs along a wall to escape being sliced by Feather's Blade Below the Shoulder. - *Watchmen*. Rorschach shows some skills in this area when infiltrating the Rockefeller Military Research Centre. - Briefly seen, in an effects-exaggerated way, in the late-1980s feature-length adaptation of Mike Jittlov's *The Wizard of Speed and Time*. - In *The Wolverine* Logan uses a very messy variation, which is still very effective. One of the shirtless Yashida Yakuza uses this, as well as Harada and his Ninja, although it veers into Freerunning here and there. They're Ninja after all. - The French film *Yamakasi* revolves around a group of *traceurs* stealing from rich people's houses, in an attempt to pay for a young imitator's surgical operation. The film itself is a big showcase of Le Parkour — it starts straight out with the eponymous troupe climbing the Aubervilliers town hall with absolutely nothing but their feet and hands. - Toward the end of the first *Lone Wolf* book, *Flight from the Dark*, you can use the "Roofways" to reach the king's citadel while avoiding the crowded streets. It is mentioned the citizens of Holmgrad were familiar with this way of travel before a royal decree forbade it because of too many accidents. Indeed, an unlucky roll can result in yet another untimely death for Lone Wolf. - This meme pokes fun at the fact that the French of all people came up with the world's most elaborate technique for running away. - In *Chasing Shadows*, all three kids are parkouring experts, and Holly and Savitri use the skill to their advantage in trailing Wiry. - In the *Discworld*, students of the Guild of Assassins' school are taught this skill as a means of quickly and silently moving between points using unorthodox and unexpected routes. Combined with *edificeering*, best thought of as a sort of urban mountaineering, this is a major part of the student Assassin's Final Exam, and invariably incorporates an Emergency Drop - a moment where the *parkour* is engineered to go catastrophically wrong and the student has to rescue the situation quickly or die horribly. - In the *Dresden Files* book *Skin Game*, Harry Dresden takes up the sport. His friends are somewhat embarrassed by his habit of repeatedly shouting "Parkour!" as he runs and jumps. - In *Spook Country* by William Gibson, Tito, a member of a Cuban-American crime family, practices la systema, which is apparently rooted in the pragmatic martial art of that name from Russia, and enriched by the presence of Afro-Cuban orishas and some acrobatic movement. He knows some "free-runners" in Washington Square Park; they are university students and just in it for fun, and he picks up some of their moves, but seems to think of them as less than serious. This makes Tito a recruit for "the Old Man's" plot to contaminate an illegal container (of truck size) by shooting it with radioactive bullets. To disguise the entry holes, Tito runs along a slack-rope, covering the holes with magnetic discs. - *Agent Carter*. Agent Sousa has a You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! expression when an agent of the Black Widow program escapes down a stairwell by leaping down the balcony rails. It is 1947 after all. **Sousa:** She's...she's coming down the stairs and she's coming fast! - *Alex Rider*: The first of Alex's particular set of skills, showcased as he sneaks back into school to retrieve Tom's confiscated phone. Next up is lockpicking, as he opens the desk drawer. - *Arrow* gets around via Parkour in the first season. Later he relies more on trick arrows. - A criminal uses it to evade Booth in an episode of *Bones*. ||Then when he tries it again at the end of the episode, Booth is waiting for him, and just smacks him in the face. "Not hoppin' around now, are ya?"|| - In the *Broad City* episode "The Lockout," Abbi has red eyes from being maced, but tells Trey it was a parkour injury. He makes her go outside and practice while he watches, ruining her opportunity to shower in the locker room. - Bryce Larkin uses this in the pilot episode of *Chuck*. Chuck picks up some Parkour skills in the intersect 2.0. - In an episode of *Covert Affairs*, Ben Mercer and Jai engage in a short chase through a shipyard that has them both employing some parkour type moves including Ben doing recognizable vaults. - Figured in *CSI: NY's* season 1 episode "Tri-Borough" where the team investigates the death of a traceur. - *Daredevil (2015)* is occasionally shown maneuvering through the city via parkour. Given he doesn't have a motorcycle or fancy car (because he's blind and people might find that odd), we have to assume this is the only way he has of getting around when he's wearing the mask. - An episode of ABC's *The Forgotten* focuses on this with the Victim of the Week being a murdered traceur. - *Game of Thrones* uses elements of this in Bran Stark's climbing in the first episode. - *Gotham* has Selina Kyle using this to not only get around Gotham City but to skirt the police when needed. - *Houdini & Doyle* has Houdini use this to shoot down a police officer's claim that no human could've broken into the walled property where one of the "Springheel Jack" attacks took place. - An episode of *House* opens with police chasing an unnamed fellow who navigates the alleyways using this technique. One of the cops pursuing him discovers Parkour isn't as easy as the suspect on the run makes it look. - Parker of *The Kicks* is an expert at parkour. In "The Best Defense Is A Good Offense", she easily climbs a tall trophy case without any help. Her skills also come in handy as a goalkeeper. - The mysterious "Super Hoodie" from *Misfits*. - *Ninja Warrior*: Promoted Fanboy Levi Meeuwenberg is a professional free-runner, whose skills have made him one of the most successful non-Japanese participants in the history of the program. - Callen is seen chasing a slippery traceur in the cold opening of a *NCIS: Los Angeles* episode. Then he wakes up, and it's revealed this a recurring dream of his. - Mocked on *The Office (US)* when Dwight, Andy, and Michael have just discovered the existence of Parkour, which Jim describes as a fad from several years ago. The trio excitedly jump around the office shouting "Parkour!" and generally just knock things over. **Jim:** The goal is to get from point A to point B as creatively as possible... so technically they *are* doing Parkour, as long as point A is delusion and point B is the hospital. - Has also appeared in the opening of an episode of *Rush (2008)* and several recent episodes of *The Bill*. Needless to say, they were being chased by the police at the time. Not only that, the villain of the first episode is actually an instructor of Parkour in Melbourne. Part of the Australian Parkour Association. - *Teen Wolf*: Just about all the wolves use this, but Derek most commonly. - Featured in one episode of *Top Gear*, where James May races a couple of traceurs (May's in a car, obviously) across a city. ||The traceurs win comfortably||. Video here. - *Treadstone*, being set in the same universe as The Bourne Series, naturally has a lot of scenes of characters running and leaping through urban environments. - Subverted in one episode of *The Unit*, where Sam McBride, ||on the run after attempting to rape Bridget|| runs across a row of parked cars. One of them pulls out just before he reaches, causing him to fall and break his ankle. - Numerous parkour clips are featured on *World's Dumbest...*, usually with gravity screwing things up for the practitioners. - *Xena: Warrior Princess* uses Parkour acrobatics frequently. - Ken Shamrock would run on the wall of his "lion's den" cage to get into more favorable positions. - John Morrison and Kofi Kingston do this at times. Like when Kofi ran up a closed ladder at Wrestlemania 25. - Morrison did a Parkour training segment prior to a Falls Count Anywhere match with Sheamus. The match itself also made great use of Morrison's Parkour abilities, as he constantly stymied Sheamus by using the environment to his advantage. Sadly, Morrison did not yell "PARKOUR!!" each time he one-upped Sheamus in this manner. - Taken to CMOA levels during the 2011 *Royal Rumble*, where Morrison was knocked out of the ring, managed to cling to the security barrier, climb up it, leap to the ring steps, and get back to the ring without touching the floor. - Then there's Morrison *climbing* up the inside of the Elimination Chamber just so he could land *on top of Sheamus*. Then later he climbs up on the sides of the chamber just to kick Punk in the face. - Kofi one-ups Morrison in the 2012 *Royal Rumble*. Miz has just thrown him over the top rope and Kofi's on his hands. So Miz just pushes him... only for Kofi to actually do a handstand and *walk backwards* until his feet touch the steel steps. - *Dungeons & Dragons* 3.5: - Any character with high scores in the Jump, Tumble and Climb skills can do some impressive stunts, especially at epic levels. - The supplement *Cityscape* introduces the tactical feats "roofwalker" and "roof-jumper", which are clearly inspired by Parkour. - Freerunning is the "acrobatics" equivalent skill in *Eclipse Phase*; justified as it's apparently quite useful when the majority of transhumanity is crammed into habitats, and since many of those habs are on Mars or spun to Martian gravity some rather impressive stunts are possible. - *GURPS* has the parkour ability in the 4th edition. Which when added to martial arts makes it more along the lines of Combat Parkour. - *Ironclaw* has a "Parkour" Gift that enables running up, down, or along walls. - *Mutants & Masterminds* has a power called "Sure Footed" which reduces speed penalties from obstacles and other uneven terrain. Take enough ranks in it, and any gauntlet of traps, tripping hazards, handrails, obstacles, buildings, etc. etc., is as easily run through as a wide open field. Sound familiar? - *New World of Darkness* has Parkour as a five-dot general "Athletic Style" Merit, not unlike the Fighting Style Merits, with each dot centering around a new technique or degree of mastery. *Werewolf: The Forsaken* likewise has the Lodge of Spires that gains a discount to buying up dots in Parkour due to a mindset that treats the city as just another hunting ground to be mastered. - A bizarre variation occurs in *Ambition*: after ||Ted escapes police custody||, he starts bouncing off the walls as he runs. - *Assassin's Creed* - Le Parkour-like moves appear in the action game *Assassin's Creed* and are practically the game's main selling point. Which is sensible, given that it's from the team responsible for the *Prince of Persia* examples above. While it's called free-running (thus not making the distinction on this page's main article), in general the player characters practice *Parkour* whenever they need to get around quickly, and the game's racing/courier missions tend to enforce efficiency as the focus. Strangely enough though, somehow every Thief, Agile guard, Robber and Borgia Courier seems to practice *Parkour*, and Francesco de' Pazzi demonstrates amazing proficiency for a presumably non-athletic man, much less a non-Assassin. (It's implied that for the player characters, their physical aptitude is a "family thing.") - The third game introduces the ability to do this with trees instead of just buildings. However, your first controllable character, Haytham Kenway, can't do it, despite being trained as an Assassin. Only his son Connor can, since he couples the Assassin training with his skills gained growing up in a Mohawk tribe. However, at least one other character is shown to be able to do this, namely Myriam the Huntress. Later, she gets pre-wedding jitters and runs away by effortlessly navigating tree branches... in her *wedding dress*. - Haytham appears to have acquired this skill during his years in New England, however, as in later sequences he is able to follow Connor through the treetops without problems. - Haytham's father Edward was able to do this as well, likely picking up the skill in the Caribbean. - The official Strategy Guide's portions on free-running and climbing are clear on the importance of efficiency, suggesting that one adopt the *traceur* mindset in the game world, "appraise your immediate environment quickly, identifying all potential points of interactivity," and that "the real challenge lies in picking the most efficient route to your destination." Once the player has a grip on that scaling building will become faster even than climbing the various ladders scattered about. - The entirety of *Beton Brutal*, an indie first-person game where you're a parkour climber scaling a series of increasingly-higher platforms. - *Beyond Good & Evil*: Jade uses this frequently, but its most apparent in two instances when escaping from Alpha bases. - Some of the swinging/roof-jumping sequences in the 3D *Bionic Commando* sequel have this feel. - *Brink!* is a first person shooter with what's called SMART; "Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain". It has a dedicated "Parkour" button, as well as more precise manual controls. Look up at a ledge, hit the SMART button, and you jump and climb onto it automatically. Look down and press the same button, and you slide. Approach a railing and hit the button, and you climb over it. - *Champions Online* has makeshift Parkour "tracks" on rooftops in Millennium City. - Mercs in *Dirty Bomb* can walljump to get to their destination faster or to climb on to ledges and other areas that can't be reached by just jumping. Notably, the three heaviest mercs are capable of doing this. The *Springy* augment allows them to do three consecutive wall jumps. - *Dustforce* is built off this, and has a clever mechanic whereby the dust you are sweeping hints at routes and what acrobatics are required to progress. - *Dying Light* is basically *Dead Island*'s first-person zombie bashing with an infusion of Mirror's Edge-style parkour. During daylight hours, this skill is indispensable at evading the clumsy, shambling hordes. During the night, it's even more so: the zombies gain the ability to free-run too. - This is Monkey's primary mode of transportation in *Enslaved: Odyssey to the West*. - *Fancy Pants Adventures* has Fancy Pants Man preforming much of this throughout each stage, thanks to Benevolent Architecture. - Hermes from *God of War III*. Kratos gains this skill after he kills him and steals his Boots of Hermes. - *The Hidden: Source*, a mod for *Half-Life 2*, has the IRIS paramilitary team hunting an invisible, super-strong genetically modified human, Subject 617. 617 has the ability to pounce long distances as well as cling to surfaces, allowing him to easily bypass almost any obstacle and climb surfaces as long as his strength holds out. - Speaking of Marvel Universe games, *The Incredible Hulk* can also pull the same wall-running/climbing, sprinting and jump-charging tricks in *The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction* to largely the same effects. He performs air dashes instead of web-swinging, though. And his variation of Le Parkour is more or less going through everything in his way. - *inFAMOUS* is largely realistic in its use of parkour, aside from Cole never taking falling damage and eventually throwing gliding, grinding and turbo-jumping into his repertoire. There are side-missions based around getting to a series of points in order as quickly as possible, and if you want to complete them you *will* have to hone your *traceur*-sense (and your reflexes). - *Kingdom Hearts II* has this to some extent with the reaction commands, but it's then there's the "flowmotion" mechanic introduced in *Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]*, and elevated further still with refinemenets to those mechanics in *Kingdom Hearts III*. The latter even includes a section during the final level that's purely a test of the player's parkour skills, with no combat at all as they navigate a large and complicated three-dimensional structure. - *League of Legends*: Talon can quickly traverse the map thanks to his third ability, *Assassin's Path*. Using it will make him quickly jump over terrain, be it part of the map (like walls or turrets) or created by players (like Ornn's *Volcanic Rupture* or Taliyah's *Weaver's Wall*). While the skill has a very short cooldown, it can't be used on the same piece of terrain for a long duration. - The Hunter from *Left 4 Dead* not only moves in this style and can even be made to do Parkour moves by the more skilled Versus player, but was given the duct tape on its arms and legs not just because it looked cool, but also because it was apparently based on Parkour style. (It's to eliminate the air pockets that would naturally occur in the jacket, making the person more aerodynamic, and prevents the jacket from getting caught on things.) - Speaking of *Metroid*, Samus herself can be can be considered a free-runner with all the flipping she does. She also wall jumps, and does one-handed cat-leaps to get to where she needs to be. The physics of *Super Metroid* make it possible to do some actual Parkour stuff with what you have, especially with Mock-Balling which lets you get places really fast, especially really small places. - *Minecraft* has entire adventure maps centered around this, up to and including at least one *Assassin's Creed* themed map. You can also try it during a normal game, though it's not recommended. - The whole point of *Mirror's Edge* and *Mirror's Edge Catalyst* is Parkour. The plot and other game elements are built entirely around it. It's also done completely in first-person. It even has the crane scene from *Casino Royale (2006)*. - *N* is nothing but this, since you play as a Ninja whose only power is wall-jumping. - The Xbox *Ninja Gaiden* series. It gets rather over-the-top when Ryu can chain wall-runs by jumping from wall to wall so that he can ascend a tall shaft, but hey, the titles are adherents of Rule of Cool. Also, Ninja. - In *Ninja Pizza Girl*, due to massive urban congestion, the only way Gemma can deliver the pizza to its destination on time is by running, jumping, and sliding across building scaffolds and rooftops. - *Persona 5*: Dungeon traversal now has you jump between chandeliers, leap out windows, launch yourself over Bottomless Pits, and leap and dash between various forms of cover. - The *Prince of Persia* series since *Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time*. - In fact, Sands Of Time sparked a whole slew of games with more realistic platforming elements (as realistic as running on walls and endless wall-jumping can get, anyway) that rely heavily on parkour. - Even the original sidescroller sometimes had elements of this, such as a section where you need to rapidly navigate three rooms filled with traps, tricky jumps, and spikes (which you'd probably navigated in the other direction over the course of several minutes) at a dead run in the space of about ten seconds, then leap down to a door three screens below and dash through before it closes. - *[PROTOTYPE]* is the Spiritual Successor to the *Hulk* game and often involves running up whatever surface will accommodate you. While Alex can climb up on vertical surfaces Spider-Man-style, simply sprinting vertically upwards on the same surface is generally faster, even if he's carrying someone in one hand. He can even run sideways on vertical surfaces in complete defiance of gravity. Then there are the numerous smaller tidbits like backflipping off walls, vaulting over cars, *dodging sideways in mid-air*... And while the soldiers react to him playing Spider-Man almost instantly, they don't even bat an eyelid while he's doing Parkour tricks, even if he's disguised. In fact, their reaction can be summed up as pointing in Alex' general direction and exclaiming "You seeing this shit?!" - *Resident Evil*'s character Leon seems to be capable of this to an impressive extent, almost always waiting for the climax of the Film/game to pull off some tricks. Check this out - This is the main mode of travel for *Sly Cooper*, along with Roof Hopping. - Quite a lot of *Sonic The Hedgehog* characters can do this, especially Sonic himself. Wall Jumping, Roof Hopping and In a Single Bound are also invoked, but are much less capable in gameplay. Sonic certainly is a traceur in spirit. He wall jumps, wall-runs, runs and leaps at amazing speeds... all the while choosing the one path (among several choices per level) that may potentially get him to the finish line as quickly as possible. In some recent titles, Sonic will move forward on his own and will only stop if the player makes him, so you only have to keep him away from obstacles. - In *Sonic Lost World*, Sonic gains some new gameplay elements that resemble Parkour, such as running alongside walls on the side and straight up walls facing him to get to ledges. - The *Spider-Man 2* video game gives Spidey and the player plenty of moves to run around the city with. Aside from the obvious web-swinging and Wall Crawling, Spider-Man can run up walls, swing on poles and, with a combination of sprinting and his chargeable jump, easily leap from roof to roof without even needing to use his webs. The game actively encourages you to be creative with how you move around the city. - Not necessarily used by *Splinter Cell*'s Sam Fisher, who prefers silent approaches, but slowly added to the repertoire of the Shadownet spies throughout the series. - The Snorks from *S.T.A.L.K.E.R.* for a more mutant example. - *Sunset Overdrive* has this as one draw to the game. You can scale buildings and navigate rooftops with ease. - *Super Mario Bros.*: - The titular hero was already the running and jumping master. So, when *Super Mario 64* came around and they decided to expand on his repertoire of feats of agility, it was natural that a bit of parkour was thrown in with wall-kicks, slides, long-jumps and the like. In more recent games, Galaxy especially, this trope is played very straight. Mario's mastered the wall-jump, hops over lower ledges to keep momentum, flips off of poles, scales walls, etc. There's also a Mockumentary advertisement for *New Super Luigi U* called Finding Luigi - Legend of Parkour. - *Mario Party Advance*: The minigame Flippin' Out has a solo player moving rapidly across a dungeon by hopping between pegs in each section to reach a gold-colored peg that grants access to the next section. The other pegs are either static (green), prone to appear and disappear periodically (red), or subject to move among rails (blue), so learning to deal with each of them is vital to avoid falling into the lava. Each time the player reaches a new section, extra seconds are added to the current time limit. If that time expires or the player falls onto the lava, the minigame ends (it's endless, however, so the challenge is based on how far the player will go). In Shroom City mode, the player simply has to clear a section by reaching its gold-colored peg. - *Torin's Passage*: Dorky as he is, the titular protagonist Torin has some pretty amazing acrobatic skills. He can swing, leap and shimmy his way past just about anything. Emphasized on the central tree in the Lands Above. - In *Urban Dead*, the Free Running skill lets you enter normally inaccessible buildings, and move from building to building without having to go outside. - *Vector* is built entirely around using parkour to move through a futuristic city and evade an armed pursuer, with special moves that are accurate reproductions of actual free-running tricks. - The Tenno from *Warframe* can all use parkour to slip past obstacles and find alternate routes in the event that raw firepower doesn't carry them to victory right away. Gratifyingly, "Rescue targets" in Escort Missions all have basic parkour training as well, so there's not much risk of leaving them behind on accident. - Marcus, the protagonist of *Watch_Dogs 2* is quite the traceur in addition to being a world-class hacker. - *Yakuza 0*: In his Establishing Character Moment, Chinese assassin Lao Gui does this after shooting at ||Kiryu and Tachibana|| from a rooftop, using a series of stylish walljumps to quickly reach street level to pursue his targets. - Elliot of *El Goonish Shive* apparently knows a few parkour techniques. For example, he was once seen performing a wall run to get around a crowd of people and return a dropped cell phone to its owner. - Robot S13 of *Gunnerkrigg Court* does this in his temporary body in Ch 25. The author's comments lampshade S13's outfit's resemblance to the Hunter from *Left 4 Dead* (see Videogames, above), though this was unintentional. - Max of *Paranatural* has shown prowess in this art, having grown a passion for it by watching a TV show, and skill by training with his friends. - Kareem and Ciro's movements in *Project 0* are based off of Parkour moves. Ciros' character bio even describes him as a traceur. - In *Sandra on the Rocks*, when Aaina mentions using parkour in passing, and subsequently demonstrates *formidable* skill, it's one of the first hints that the lady has significant Hidden Depths. - *Schlock Mercenary* features a martial art called "Parkata Urbatsu", which is described as a descendant of Parkour, free-running, and "Youtubing". It appears in "Mallcop Command". However, since it's on a space station, you have to take into account the fact that the station is rotating whenever you jump. Inevitably, to catch their targets ||(who turn out to be pro Parkata Urbatsu enthusiasts illegally filming their stunts)||, the mercenaries have to master it via a crash course by Commander Shodan. With emphasis on the *crash* part. Schlock got really good at it, and now he sometimes uses it just for general moving around. Shodan actually asked one of the Mallcop Command perps to help him "un-teach Schlock Parkata Urbatsu" (she declares Schlock an artist and refuses). - In *Snow By Night*, Blaise does this to evade three disgruntled rooks. His pursuers are rather taken aback. - Avril's preferred method of travel in *Soul to Call*. - Wren of *White Noise* uses a Parkour Tic-Tac to leap from one wall to the top of another, amongst other Parkour movements. - Rhiys of *Woo Hoo*! demonstrates Parkour skills throughout the comic and is identified by others as "Vegan Parkour Guy". - In *The Zombie Hunters*, at least one "hunter" zombie is depicted in this way. The author described them as "urban ninjas" but without human inhibitions, like pain, tiredness, or fear of death. - In *5 Second Films*' "Quick Moves", a guy and his girlfriend are held up by a robber. He then reveals to his relieved girlfriend that he knows parkour, and then uses it to get away himself. - Jace from *Deagle Nation* is obsessed with parkour, despite having little knowledge of what it actually is. - In *Enginesof Creation*, the character of Boomer is quite adept at Parkour. - Parodied with *Pourquoi*. - *Survival of the Fittest* - Guy Rapide and Montezzo Valtieri of version three are described as having been avid Parkour practitioners, Guy as a sport while Montezzo does it to work on his speed. - Many v4 characters, for some reason, also tend to have an interest in Parkour. It's reached the point where it's starting to become a profile cliché right alongside knowing martial arts and having fired a gun before. - *Whateley Universe*: the Parkour Hooligans is a semi-official club on campus, founded by Badass Normal range instructor Erik Mahren. The story "Parkour Jam Hooligans", covers their trip to an actual *public* Parkour event in a Boston. Interestingly, they baselines at the Parkour Jam had no problem with them, even though they knew that they were mutants. The city's Lawful Stupid superhero, Lamplighter, was a different story. - Mentioned a couple of times in Joss Whedon's heartfelt 2012 endorsement of Mitt Romney here. - In *X-Ray & Vav*, X-Ray claims that he's a parkour master. He's not. - Some examples for your entertainment. - And for the crueler of us (Or for those who need to see why you need to be careful doing this), The top 10 Parkour fails. - Older Than They Think? This article talks about how knights would practice "wall running", which means running and leaping through various obstacles at the same time. - Daniel Ilabaca. Has been called the most complete Parkour athlete. - Banned in parts of great Britain because it may be a cause of concern and duress to people who see it in action, as well as for the more mundane reasons that a) it's technically trespassing if you're doing it in most urban areas, and b) people can and frequently do injure themselves while doing it, and retrieving maimed *traceurs* from improbable places several storeys off the ground gets old quite quickly. - Cats don't seem to care about the law of gravity that much. - Parkour Dog from Ukraine will give them a run for their yarn. - Squirrels are also naturals at Parkour, which makes sense for tree-dwelling rodents. If anything, they put most species to shame at it since they can wall-run indefinitely on rough enough surfaces. - Goats, whose wild ancestors lived on rugged mountainsides, can clamber up canyon walls, climb trees, and jump up to perch atop slat fences with an agility that's almost unbelievable, particularly in an animal with hooves. - *Draco volans*, the Flying Dragon, is a lizard that can climb up surfaces, then glide across gaps by unfolding skin flaps, like a flying squirrel. Geckos are also decent at wall- and ceiling-running, but don't do much jumping.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Parkour

Parasite Zombie - TV Tropes The Parasite Zombie is a subtrope of the Plague Zombie and of Parasitic Horror. These zombies are created specifically via exposure to a form of parasitic lifeform, be it the only stage or part of a series of life stages. Good for video games, as the advanced forms allow for advanced enemies and bosses to still be zombies. Also can be used to justify why the heroes are miraculously uninfected: It's generally easy to avoid the parasites that cause this type, once you know what they are. See also Puppeteer Parasite, for when it's a living creature being controlled by a parasite rather than a corpse. ## Examples: - *Cells at Work!*, being an Anthropomorphic Personification of the cells of the body, has quite possibly the most literal depiction of this trope—viruses, the most fundamentally basic parasite. They latch on to the heads of cells, causing the equivalent of a Zombie Apocalypse. - The Nightshift in *Dawn Tsumetai Te*, which take over a host's body and slowly eat it from the inside out. - *Franken Fran*: - The series of course, has a stab at this in chapter 39. The Twist, which is either hilarious or horrifying, is that instead of zombies, the infected victims turn into ||rabid living amusement park mascots|| - *Franken Fran* gets in on this again in chapter 47, with more traditional-style Romero zombies and a small parody of *Dawn Of The Dead*. Notably, after being bitten by a zombie and examining the effects (by decapitating herself and remotely dissecting her own body, because that's how Fran rolls), Fran discovers that ||the victims are actually alive and entirely aware during their zombie condition but unable to control themselves, and that the zombie plague is easily reversible with the right treatment — *but nobody knows this,* and have used the zombie outbreak as an excuse to go on rampaging kill-sprees.|| - One chapter in *The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service* had a variation of Leucochloridium paradoxum, a parasite that normally affects snails (more details in the Real Life folder). In this case, the parasite infects *people*, grossly distending their eyes and leading them to climb power poles and other tall structures so birds can feed on their eyes. - The Parasites in *Parasyte* infest a host's brain and proceed to Kill and Replace them. They're not obviously nonhuman unless they're feeding or fighting, in which case their heads turn into Combat Tentacles and mouths with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. - The creation of the Black Lantern Corps in the *Blackest Night* storyline sees wide swaths of DCU characters being transformed into zombies by Black Power Rings. They are nearly unkillable, vaporizing them proves to be only enough to stop them for a few seconds. Also, unlike most other kinds of zombies, these zombies are massive dicks who like to point out all the flaws and shortcomings of the people they are attacking while they are attacking them. - *Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse* is actually an extra-dimensional alien larva that can use human corpses as puppets. Unlike most examples, he's a fairly moral individual with no interest in reproducing himself in large numbers or attacking random humans. - *Child of the Storm*: *Unfinished Business* features magical *cordyceps* zombies as one of the horrors of Project Pegasus, which transforms the human host's entire body. Even *Deadpool* isn't immune. And it's worth noting that this is one of the comparatively *lesser* horrors that Pegasus created - Alan Scott destroyed the worst things when he sealed it away, and Doctor Strange guides the heroes around the worst of what remains. - The "Zombie" plague Iruel unleashed on Tokyo-3 qualifies in *Shinji & Warhammer 40K*. - *Nightwish*: Someone who was previously killed shows up again without explanation. It turns out that his body was taken over by alien parasites who need human bodies to germinate their young. - *The Last Days on Mars* (2013). An expedition discovers proof of life on Mars; unfortunately it's a fungus-like growth that infects the Dwindling Party and makes them act exactly like zombies. - *Night of the Creeps* features alien brain-invading slugs. - *Shivers*. Sex zombies as Squick rather than necessarily fetish appeal. The infection itself is caused by a worm-like parasite designed by a Mad Scientist that requires human bodies to procreate. - *Slither* similarly to *Night of the Creeps*, features alien slugs that enter into their victim's orifices (either human or animal) and are controlled by a Hive Mind. - The "zombies" from *Splinter* are infested with a type of creature that resembles black spikes. The infection hijacks the host's circulatory system and uses the muscle tissue of the body to move around and infect others, typically breaking bones in the process. Horrifyingly, it leaves the nervous system alone, meaning the victim is both fully aware that their infected limb is no longer following orders, and in considerable pain from the grisly contortions of the invading organism. One poor bastard we see is infected all the way through, and is just alive enough to beg for death before his body attacks the person that found him. - *The Suicide Squad*: ||The people possessed by Starro the Conqueror are depicted this way. Unlike the comics where it's possible to free Starro's minions by removing the drones from their face, if someone is captured by him here, then they're already dead and are just extensions of his Hive Mind.|| - In *The Thing (1982)*, the moment Thing cells get inside a host, it's doomed. The Thing cells quickly kill and replace the host's cells, until nothing is left but a colony of Thing cells that still looks like the victim. Especially creepy because Things can access their victims' memories, allowing them to mimic them perfectly. - *Trench 11*: The place is overrun by German soldiers infested with worm colonies that turn the infected into a mindless raging murderer. - The Bas-Lag Cycle has the Handlingers, magical disembodied hands that parasitise people and turn them into zombies. - In *The Beyonders*, the goma worms were created by an ancient wizard as revenge on any who dared violate his tomb. The worms are tiny creatures which drink blood. They can burrow into and infest a human body, turning it into a Plague Zombie who is compelled by the worms to drink blood, preferably human blood. To make matters worse, goma zombies are virtually indestructible, as the worms knit the bodies back together given time. Luckily for the world, they were specifically bred with certain weaknesses. They can't abide water, don't care for sunlight or extreme temperatures, and can be killed by fire. - In David Wong's *This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It*, Spiders from another dimension that are invisible to most people infect their human hosts by crawling into their mouth or... another cavity, and fuse with them. They then take over their bodies and morph them into monstrous forms. - Taken in Jim Butcher's *Codex Alera* series are created by the Vord sending small creatures to kill and take over hosts. They're faster and stronger than they were when alive ||and the Alerans can use furycrafting.|| - In *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Voldemort creates a variant by reanimating a corpse and leaving his serpentine familiar to occupy its insides and lay in wait for the heroes. - Infected in *Infected* are infected by alien spores, which embed themselves in the skin and dig their roots into the bone (and eventually, to the brain), causing massive mental shifts (such as insanity and uncontrollable rage). - In Mira Grant's *Parasitology*, the title parasite is a genetically engineered tapeworm used to keep people healthy that mutates ||and moves from the gut to the brain||. Unfortunately, when this starts happening millions of people across the world have them inside them. - The Walkers in the *Joe Ledger* novel *Patient Zero* are humans infected with a combination of prions, parasites, and viruses that shuts down parts of the body while keeping other organs working. - In Clark Ashton Smith's *The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis*, the vortlup, an ancient Martian leech that consume brains and use the bodies for their own purposes. - *Doctor Who*: In "The Witchfinders", the Morax are sentient aliens basically reduced to living mud, who seep into dead bodies and possess them. The Queen however, infects a living host by lashing said host with a tendril. - The pilot episode of *The Sarah Jane Adventures* involved the Bane, aliens who turned humans into zombies with a parasitic life form that took the form of a sports drink. - *Dungeons & Dragons*: - Yellow Musk Creepers are vines that create these by growing into their victims' skulls, digging out most of their brains, and implanting seeds in the empty space. The resulting yellow musk zombies are just intelligent enough to defend the parent plant, until the seed compels them to wander off somewhere for it to germinate. - Hell Wasps are intelligent wasp swarms that have the ability to reanimate the body of anything they kill as a zombie to serve them as a temporary mobile shelter. Upon killing the zombie, the wasps swarm out and attack. - The Dusanu from Mystara looks like a typical rotting skeleton, but in fact is a fungal colony that had taken over a corpse. The haunting blue lights coming from its eyes sockets are in fact caused by the waste fumes of the fungus. - *Red Markets*: The Blight grows black fungus-like tendrils into the bodies it infests. Most people infected with the Blight are driven into a cannibalistic rage where they try to bite and spread the Blight to everyone else in sight, fortunately this "Vector" stage where they're super strong and fast only lasts a day or two before they keel over. But it doesn't stop there, the Blight continues to grow throughout the corpse and within a few days the tendrils are pervasive enough to puppet the body around as a shambling "Casualty." - *The End of the World's* *Under the Skin* scenario has an unusually dark variant of this, which is rife with Paranoia Fuel. - *Bloodborne*: - The aptly named Snake Parasites appear as headless bodies with multiple snakes sprouting from their open neck holes. The first one you see shows exactly how they get this way... with the snakes bursting horrifically from the head of a seemingly normal human, - There's also the Bloodletting Beast, which at first looks like a "normal" if huge werewolf-like beast. Every time you encounter it, however, the creature gets more and more visibly injured until it's finally missing its head completely. Once it takes enough damage in this state, a *giant worm* erupts from the stump to fight you. - The Far Shore area of *Brutal Orchestra* is plagued by fish that are inhabiting corpses and puppeteering them to attack you. One of the NPCs speculates on how they figured out how to do this. - *Bug Fables* has ||in Snakemouth Labs the zombie bug enemies, the failed results of a group of Roaches that experimented with Cordyceps in an attempt to find eternal life without the Everlasting Sapling.|| It also has a rare heroic example in ||Leif||. - Most of the monsters in *Castle Red* are people that have been infested with the resident Eldritch Abomination worms. They more or less behave like zombies, and become more deformed and damaged as the game progresses, eventually culminating in enemies who are less this and more examples of The Worm That Walks. - *Code Vein*: The Revenants are animated by the BOR parasite in their hearts, which allows them to constantly regenerate despite the parasite technically making them walking dead. However, the parasite needs to be constantly fed with blood or else it will start to erode both their body and mind, causing them to become the mindlessly violent Lost, which are a more straight example of the trope. - Zombies from *Cold Fear* have Exocell parasites nesting in their cranial cavity, which puppeteers their bodies about. - *Dark Souls II* has Spider Drones, which are Hollows whose bodies have been taken over by the spiders that overran Brightstone Cove Tseldora. The spider legs are latched on to the backs of the Undead by their fangs and most of their legs, ripping away the skin on the stomach and chest, while one limb punctures the body through the back of the neck, dislocating the jaw so it can poke out from the mouth. - *Darkwood* features Centipedes of the Swamp, a giant centipede that burrows into a human corpse replacing the head with its top portion and one of the human bodys arms with the bottom portion that aggressively attacks anyone who wanders near the hole its buried in as well as invading the Protagonists hideout randomly at night. Theyre one of the few enemies in-game with a ranged attack, slinging rocks from a considerable distance in a spray pattern, plus theyre fast and will bull charge the Protagonist if hes far away from them. Fortunately, despite their speed and range of attacks theyre rather fragile. - A rare heroic example in *Dead Cells.* The hero is a Slime fused to a beheaded human corpse at the neck. - In the Stilt Village, parasite zombies appear as enemies. They spawn a horde of worms on death. - *Dead Rising* features a subversion: a group of mutated wasps lay their eggs in humans and deposit the zombification virus to ensure the host's immune system doesn't kill the egg, although the zombies themselves can still spread the virus through bites. - *Dead Space*: Necromorphs. Shooting them in the head just annoys them. You have to shoot off a limb or three. This is because they "operate" due to a very virulent virus that animates and mutates its victims, however it only affects dead flesh note : If the body has no limbs, it's of no use to the virus, so it stops. However it takes effect very quickly (as in: immediately) and a bite *does* have a high chance or turning a person into a Necromorph...not because of any sickness, but because said bite has probably taken the head off their shoulders. - The Adsecula Cerebrum creatures in *Endoparasitic.* After the containment breach, the entire station is populated with slow but numerous "shamblers," tiny lab rat "rushers," highly audiosensitive "listeners" and "chasers," and one(?) teleporting "charger." note : Keep in mind these are likely not the official terms for the enemies you face. The only thing stopping Cynte from joining the hordes is modified toxoplasmosis vaccines scattered about. Even so, that Adsecula won't die from it... - *EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce*: The bem are parasitic organisms from space who propagate by infesting and assimilating other lifeforms. While certain individuals like Franciska or Zweihander have individual personalities and agency, the standard bem soldiers are no better than mindless zombies. They infest humans, take them over, and throw themselves into combat. - *Fallout: New Vegas* has the spore carriers, which were once humans who were infected by a fungal disease. After the disease kills its host, the fungus takes over the body and causes it to attack people and spread more spores. - *Fire Emblem*: The Risen of *Fire Emblem: Awakening* are revealed to be this in *Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia*; they're corpses animated by swarms of natural parasitic bugs called Thanatophages that reside in their masks. The alchemist Forneus perfected the process which Grima and his minions use to make them into their armies. - *Half-Life*: - The various games in the series all have small creatures named Headcrabs that attach to people and turn them into "Headcrab Zombies". In this game, again, unless you immolate or seriously damage the body or kill the headcrab, the zombie keeps on going. If you hit the body wrong, you can kill the zombie but leave the headcrab alive, which has a long jump as well as a crawl. Or the zombie's body is cut in half, and the torso continues to crawl at you. There is also the Zombine, a Combine Overwatch Solider infected with a Headcrab, which is a fast armored zombie that has a grenade he can *try to clobber you with*, making him an unwitting suicide bomber. - The *Poison* Headcrab Zombie, bloated and swollen with toxins and carrying *four* venomous headcrabs, as well as the *Fast* Headcrab Zombie, which climbs up drainpipes to reach you on rooftops, can jump across streets and entire buildings as it hunts you, and pounces with a pants-wetting scream. Oh, and all its skin and most of its organs and muscles are missing, most probably self-inflicted. ** Twitch* . * Tremble* .* - The most terrifying part: well, at least normal zombies seem to keep awareness of their condition. That's right, those rotting, mutated, living bodies still house human minds. *Which beg for mercy*. - *Halo*, while Not Using the "Z" Word, has the Flood, an alien parasite who can use small squid-like 'infection forms' or airborne spores to turn dead or living bodies into highly-mutated zombies with Combat Tentacles. Once the infected are too damaged or decayed to fight, they begin to bloat and explode, releasing more parasites, which go on to infect other organisms and so on and so forth. After the Flood infect enough bodies, they form a Hive Mind known as a Gravemind, as well as a variety of other creatures and environments that is comprised of pure Flood biomass. They are highly adept, if somewhat suicidal, in their tactics and strategies, and are perfectly capable of utilizing all sorts of advanced technology, from plasma rifles to teleportation grids. The most recent Gravemind incarnation even enjoys speaking in trochaic heptameter. The only organic sentient beings that seem truly immune to direct infection are those lacking a central nervous system, though they can still be killed and converted to Flood biomass. To top it off, the Flood are revealed in *The Forerunner Saga* to be ||the malevolent remains of an ancient and highly-advanced species known simply as the Precursors.|| - *I=MGCM*: According to Kamisaman, ||Zombified Magical Girls a.k.a. heroines' Zombified Selves|| in Demon's Tower dungeon, are ||heroines' alternate selves|| who are infected by Earworms (a parasitic fungus from Demon Realm). Earworms infect the hosts' brains through their ears and gradually corrupt them into zombies, both physically and mentally. - The "Infected" from *The Last of Us* and *The Last of Us Part II* are hosts to a particularly virulent strain of the *Cordyceps* fungus. Note that while the fungus does exist in Real Life, it does not affect humans: the fungus in the game is a mutant variant that does. - *Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain* has the SKULLS Parasite Unit. As the name implies, they're a group of soldiers infected by a parasite that shamble around like zombies... until they see you, then they reveal the powers the parasite gives them. One of their abilities is to turn any other soldiers in their vicinity into parasite puppets who they can command to attack Snake. - *Metroid:* - The X Parasites in *Metroid Fusion* are something like this, consuming both the memories, appearance, and abilities of their hosts. Though instead of keeping the original form of the victim, they morph into a clone with whatever abilities the X want from them or previous victims. - In *Metroid Prime 2: Echoes*, the first thing Samus goes to do is find the members of the Galactic Federation that went down in the area. She finds them dead... and they're still shooting at her. As it stands, the Ing have somehow infected them and turned them into meat puppets, but the Ing also run about the planet of Aether doing the same to living creatures as well and taking them over like puppets. At least any infected ones are always purple which makes them easy to spot. - One Neurax Worm symptom from *Plague Inc.* has infectees show aggression towards healthy people. - *Resident Evil 4* has plague-bearing individuals with creepy crawlies in their heads who are certainly not zombies, despite having loads of zombie tendencies. The main difference between the Plagas-infected Ganados and the T-Virus zombies seen up to that point are their ability to work together and plan strategies other than "shamble forward and attack", as demonstrated near the start of the game when the player has to Hold the Line against a horde of them, where they start getting inventive on how to get at you. Compounded in *Resident Evil 5*, with improved Las Plagas, making them even more aggressive, and with a boost in strength and speed, to boot. Later on, they know how to wield assault rifles. - *StarCraft*: Averted in *StarCraft*, in which the Parasite ability only serves to give you permanent vision of an enemy unit. *StarCraft II* has the Infestors, who mind-control units via a big fleshy tentacle implanted in the target's brain (including, somehow, vehicles and spaceships). - *System Shock 2*: Humans infected by the Many have been taken over by worm-like creatures known as annelids. The annelid controls the human body, but it's clear that the actual human is still alive and partially conscious, as many of the infected will actively shout at the player to run away from them or beg to be killed. In later stages of infection the human host's mind appears to disappear completely as their body is mutated into first a "Rumbler" and finally a Psi-Reaver. - Squirg Zombies from *WildStar* are dead critters who have mutated Squirg (mind-controlling octopi) latched onto their heads. If this sounds bizarre and silly, it's because it's intentional. - Some aliens an turn their victims into parasitic zombies in the *XCOM* series. They tend to be Demonic Spiders since the zombies can release more of them. - *Girl Genius* has Revenants of varying forms. Depending on the generation of wasp creation they could be mindless servants to the Other (this is the type everyone knows the warning signs of) or they could be completely normal after infection, apparently a "sleeper agent" subject to the Voice of the Other. - The Thornback Clan in *Goblins* have been enslaved by a demonic plant called a Yellow Musk Creeper, which implants seedlings into the heads of living creatures; the seedling then compels the host to seek out other creatures, capture them and bring them back to the creeper's nest so it can continue to reproduce. - Piper form *Intragalactic*. She's actually a large, leech-like parasite driving around a woman's corpse. The parasite is completely sentient; and has a Guilt Complex from killing its host. - In *El Goonish Shive*, "mutant mind control fungus" is mentioned as one of the possible ways a "zombie" could be created similar to the real life examples listed below. - *Trevor (2020)*: This is ||Terry's|| fate after ||Trevor|| gets ahold of him. - *Unsounded*: The First Silver Weapon winds its way through Toby's corpse and puppets him to kill Stockyard, with Stockyard's worst fears and insecurities about his father made real through the khert's echo of his father's voice coming from Toby's mangled corpse. - An episode of *Mighty Max* had green insect-like creatures that latched on the neck of their victims and turned them into zombies. This being a kids' show, splatting the bug would cure the victim. - YES, Real Life! Scary as it sounds, there are certain parasites and other critters that can take over another critter, making them effectively their own personal zombie. See The Other Wiki for a list of examples. - Of particular note is Leucochloridium paradoxum, which completely turns a snail into its slave. It first fills the snail's body cavities so it can't retract its antennae/tentacles, then forces it to move out into the open where birds can find it. Since the infection also makes the antennae look like tasty caterpillars instead of nasty snail bits, this ensures the bird eats said antennae - and then gets infected itself. Though not mind controlled, of course. - There are also fungi that make zombies. *Cordyceps unilateralis* is one that takes over ants and, after a short time, has them climb as high as they can so the fungus can germinate and spread its spores onto more ants. To comfort the paranoid (and players of *The Last of Us*), *cordyceps* has no such effect on human brains... indeed, certain variants of the fungus have very useful medicinal properties. - Another fungus nicknamed the "Insect Destroyer" does the same thing to flies. - In fact, there's fungi like this for most insect species. It's a major part of rainforest ecology. - There's also the nematomorph *Gordius robustus* which infects crickets as part of its lifecycle and mind controls them into jumping into water so the worm can lay its eggs (drowning the cricket). It's of particular note because the worm is actually several times longer than the cricket. - Too many parasites to list here cause dramatic behavioral shifts in their hosts that enable part of their lifecycle. Consider Rabies and Distemper: the only reason they aren't a zombie plague is that the infected animals don't die. - If they had the two-day incubation period of a cold, they would be zombie plagues. - Zombie ladybirds, controlled by a parasitic wasp. Around 25% of victims can actually survive the experience—which is unusual, as most parasitic wasps inevitably kill their victims. note : Parasites that kill their hosts are properly called parasitoids. - There's another species of wasp that does this to caterpillars. Some of the wasps larvae eat the poor thing from the inside-out, while others control its brain. The caterpillar attacks anything nearby by violently flailing at them with its own body. When the wasp larvae exit and pupate, the caterpillar spins webbing around them, and then dies. - Toxoplasma is a parasite that has a lifecycle that involves moving from mice to cats and back again. Cats are infected when they eat infected mice. The mice have their minds warped by the parasite so that they are *attracted to cats*. This decreases their life expectancy considerably. There's a theory that this is the reason the Crazy Cat Lady exists. It is unproven if the parasite is capable of affecting human behavior to any large extent, but if it does, the supposed changes to behavior the parasite causes in humans (surrounding themselves with cats) increases the likelihood that they will be *eaten by cats when they die*.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParasiteZombie

Pariah - TV Tropes Pariah can refer to: If an internal link led you here, please change it to point to the specific article. Thanks!

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Parody Assistance - TV Tropes *"When is Weird Al gonna do 'Like a Surgeon'?"* A great honor for anyone working on a parody is when the creator or anyone else involved with the original goes beyond granting the parodist permission (and even *enjoying* said work) and instead actually helps them out with their parody. This can be as simple as lending sets or as drastic as directly working with the parodist, such as singing in a duet. Related to Adam Westing, an actor's Self-Parody of either his most famous role, his Old Shame, or his Typecasting. Also related to Approval of God, when a work's author approves the fandom's parodies (although that applies to Fan Works as well), and to Actually Pretty Funny, when a parody's target thinks the parody itself to be just that. See also Meme Acknowledgment and Official Parody. ## Examples: - Walter Williams, creator of *Mr. Bill* and the producer of his sketches on *Saturday Night Live*, produced the *Pizza Head Show* commercials for Pizza Hut in the 1990s, which were a parody of the *Mr. Bill* sketches. - Kristian Nairn parodied his role as Hodor on *Game of Thrones* on a commercial for the KFC Ricebox. - Willie Rushton, who in the 1980s was seen as very much "the voice of A. A. Milne" following his popular appearances on *Jackanory*, narrated an ad for Golden Churn margarine which spoofed "The King's Breakfast" from *When We Were Very Young*. - Rachael Leigh Cook, in addition to spoofing her famous "This is Your Brain on Drugs" PSA for *Robot Chicken* (as noted below under Western Animation), did a more serious subversion of it in the form of "This is Your Brain on Drug Policy" for the Drug Policy Alliance, which describes America's harsh anti-drug laws as having fueled mass incarceration and destroyed millions of people's lives with no real benefit. - In 1992, a series of advertisements parodied *Inspector Morse*, with Mel Smith taking John Thaw's role as the Inspector. In the last advertisement, he tracked down and arrested the perp... who was played by John Thaw. - In *Code Geass*, Emperor Charles makes a big speech early in the show about the inequality of mankind. Some joker of a Japanese fan took the manga version of the speech and edited it so that it was instead a speech extolling how awesome breasts are. Norio Wakamoto, Charles's voice actor, found out about it and made an official recording of it in the Emperor's voice. - Some fans wrote a parody of the *Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan* theme song, revolving around Sebastian Michaelis. Then Daisuke Ono found out about it, and recorded it. - *Dragon Ball Z*'s Buu Saga has an infamous scene where the characters see a "re-enactment" of the Cell Games, a painfully cheesy film that paints Mr. Satan as the hero who saved the world. When Funimation got to this episode in *Dragon Ball Z Kai The Final Chapters*, they hired Team Four Star to dub the sequence, which was packed full of references not just to *Dragon Ball Z Abridged* but also to a number of infamous *DBZ* memes. The scene only aired on Toonami once due to Toei (who aren't too fond of TFS, or parodies and fanworks in general) ordering Funimation to get rid of it, but it can still be found on YouTube. - *Yu-Gi-Oh!* inspired the popular Spanish meme known as "Trampas locas" (Mad Cheats), where Yugi cheats against any character he can encounter. One meme showed him fighting against Freeza. Irwin Daayán and Gerardo Reyero, Yugi's and Freeza's official voices in Latin America, respectively, released a dub of that exact parody for people to edit it. - Some members of AKB48 performed a *Yo-Kai Watch* ending theme as parody group Nya-KB. - KEI Garou, the official illustrator of Hatsune Miku and her box art, drew a parody of his original Miku box art for one of the blu ray covers◊ to *GDGD Fairies*. - Stan Freberg received permission to use the *Dragnet* theme and orchestra for the parody *St. George and the Dragonet*, as Jack Webb was a fan of Freberg's comedy records. Several takes had to be redone because the orchestra members were laughing too hard to play their instruments properly. - Artist Steve Dillon knew of the "Frankface" meme surrounding his habit of giving everyone a stone-faced glare and was evidently entertained enough by it that he deliberately perpetuated it by drawing that face as much as he could. - The issue of the *Animaniacs* comic that parodied *The X-Files* had the artists of the Topps Comics title of said show contributing the cover and the pencils of the wraparound story. - *Big Bang Comics* sometimes got assistance from the creators of the works they were pastiching, such as Curt Swan drawing a cover featuring two incarnations of Ultiman, or Dave Cockrum drawing the cover for the *Legion of Super-Heroes* pastiche the Pantheon of Heroes. - "Tomb of Goofula" in *Goofy Adventures* #16 (1991) was written by Marv Wolfman, drawn by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, coloured by Michele Wolfman and lettered by John Costanza. That's *the entire creative team* of classic *The Tomb of Dracula*. - *Garfield* creator Jim Davis has contributed a few strips to *Garfield Minus Garfield*. - When *Bloom County* finally confirmed that Garfield was Bill the Cat's father in the 2015 relaunch, Jim Davis drew the first three panels of the appropriate strip (where Garfield refuses to take Bill's call). - One *Garfield* strip had Garfield joining the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with the turtles being drawn by co-creator Peter Laird. - George Lucas has done this a few times. - He has allowed original music from *Star Wars* to be used in parodies (such as *Spaced*) and has actually appeared in parodies, as in *Robot Chicken*. - Industrial Light & Magic contributed effects to Mel Brooks' *Spaceballs* and the "Jews in Space" segment of *History of the World Part I*. - After the release of the first movie, Lucasfilm's lawyers wrote a cease and desist letter to *MAD* over their parody. George sent a letter of his own saying to ignore *his own company* and keep on making the parodies, as he was a *MAD* fan. - The *Star Wars* site has supplied sound effects and quotes to fans to use in their homages and parodies. - When Mel Brooks made *Young Frankenstein*, he was able to film in the original studios, on the original sets, and using the original props of the classic movies he was spoofing. - In *Beverly Hills Cop III*, the Wonder World theme park's song, which spoofs the Disney Land song "It's a Small World After All", was written by "It's a Small World"'s original composers Richard and Robert Sherman. - Similarly, in *Iron Man 2*, Richard Sherman co-wrote the Stark Expo theme song "Make Way for Tomorrow Today", a spoof of the theme to Disney's Carousel of Progress attraction which was originally seen at the 1964 World's Fair. - A rather interesting reverse-assistance took place for *Scary Movie 4*. The *Saw* parody set was so well made that the filmmakers from the *Saw* films asked to use it after filming was complete! The movie also played this straight by actually having Bill Pullman appear as a parody of his Peter Kirk character from *The Grudge*, one of this movie's main targets. - When *Hot Shots! Part Deux* moved from parodying *Top Gun* to *Rambo* instead, they managed to get Richard Crenna to essentially reprise his iconic role as Colonel Trautman. - George Harrison makes a cameo in The Rutles' mockumentary film *All You Need Is Cash* - as a news reporter who interviews the Rutles' press agent while their boutique store is being looted. - MTV, creators of the reality show *My Super Sweet Sixteen*, went on to make *My Super Psycho Sweet 16*, a Horror Comedy parody of the series in which an Alpha Bitch stages a decadent birthday party straight out of that show, only for it to get interrupted by a Serial Killer and turn into a Slasher Movie. - Italian ensemble comedy film *Grandi Magazzini* features among the various sketches one where comedian Paolo Villaggio plays the part of an advanced android. The sketch parodied the character of Mr. Zed the robot which was quite popular in Italy at the time. David Kirk Traylor, Mr. Zed's performer, was Villaggio's consultant and choreographer for the sketch. - *Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers* had Moving Picture Company recreating some of their old effects in a mocking way, like Baloo, the Bat-Armor, the cats from *Cats*, and most notably, ||the "Ugly Sonic" that was tossed out of *Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)*, which the director noted as MPC having to "repeat their mistakes on purpose this time."|| In addition, the brief scene with the *My Little Pony* cast was done by Top Draw, who worked heavily on that incarnation of the show. - This trope was actually subverted in the film adaptation of *Bye Bye Birdie*, where Elvis Presley expressed interest in playing Conrad Birdie, a pretty transparent caricature of Elvis, but was vetoed by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, who didn't want Elvis to be playing a role that parodied him. The part of Conrad would eventually go to Jesse Pearson instead. - Larisa Oleynik played the title character of *All That*'s parody of *The Secret World of Alex Mack*. - When *The Drew Carey Show* was going to do an episode making fun of sci-fi conventions and the fans who go to them in costume, they wanted to have a couple of characters dress up as aliens from *Babylon 5*. The creators of B5 agreed, and sent their own makeup people to do the alien makeup effects. (It helped that both series were produced by Warner Bros..) - Chris Ballew, lead singer of The Presidents of the United States of America, showed up on *Bill Nye the Science Guy* to sing "Farm Food", which spoofed the POTUS song "Peaches". - Anneka Rice of *Challenge Anneka* made a cameo appearance in the *KYTV* spoof *Challenge Anna*. - *Saturday Night Live*: In general, whenever somebody hosts SNL, they'll participate in sketches that riff on their roles or works. - Parodies of *Jeopardy!* and/or Alex Trebek were often accompanied by Alex himself. The *Saturday Night Live* one, for instance, has the real Alex meeting the Will Ferrell Alex — and they both get mocked by Sean Connery. **Connery:** Well, well, well, two Trebeks. I feel like I'm in a Raisin Bran commercial — two scoops of fruit! **Real Trebek:** Back off, Connery. I don't have to take that from you. **Connery:** I guess it's true what they say — old married couples do start to look alike. - Jimmy Fallon's parody of *Breaking Bad* on *Late Night with Jimmy Fallon*, "Joking Bad", features cameos from Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Bob Odenkirk, the last actually playing the same character he does on the show. - It happens again when Jimmy does a parody of *Riverdale* (a dark adult take on *Peanuts*), which features a cameo appearance from the actual cast of *Riverdale*. - In the 1989 series of UK game show *The Krypton Factor*, the Observation round, in which contestants' perceptive skills were tested by showing them a comedy sketch with six intentional continuity errors for them to spot, featured in the first episode a spoof of *Treasure Hunt UK* in which "treasure hunter" Anneka Rice and her studio-bound assistant (and former newsreader) Kenneth Kendall appeared as themselves. - An interesting inversion — three years after Shelly Winters appeared in an episode of *Batman (1966)* spoofing 1930s gangster Ma Barker (and the infamous Barker family shootout), Roger Corman cast Winters in the film *Bloody Mama* as Ma Barker. - *The Big Bang Theory* has an episode where the characters celebrate May 4th, *Star Wars* Day, and Sheldon has a dream sequence where a recently deceased character plays Obi-Wan as his Spirit Advisor. Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic gave support and helped them with building a Dagobah set as well as lightsaber effects. - The British Saturday Morning Kids Show *TISWAS* had a regular skit with Lenny Henry as "Trevor McDoughnut", a parody of famous ITV newsreader and noted Stoic Trevor McDonald who would act as The Comically Serious while getting Covered in Gunge. The actual Trevor McDonald apparently thought this was Actually Pretty Funny and made at least one cameo appearance on the program... and then *he* got Covered in Gunge, as per *TISWAS* tradition, as well. - *The Hollywood Squares* has had a few parodies made aimed at them over the years, and given the show's comedic bent, it's natural the crew would want to parody themselves. Perhaps the most notable of these would be a series of skits from the final season of *In Living Color!* called the *East Hollywood Squares* with all-black celebrities; in this case, the skits were hosted by the original Master of the Squares himself, Peter Marshall. - *How I Met Your Mother* has the tie-in video of "Best Night Ever" which parodies "More Than Words" by Extreme and features Nuno Bettencourt. - A *French and Saunders* sketch parodying *Doctor Who* (featuring two extras playing alien guards having a Seinfeldian Conversation while the set is redressed) was actually shot on the set of "Trial of a Time Lord", the *Doctor Who* serial being made at the time. - When *The Jack Benny Program* parodied *The Twilight Zone*, Rod Serling played a dual role. First, Serling appears As Himself while Benny complains how far-fetched *TZ* is. Then, Benny winds up in the actual Twilight Zone, an Alternate Universe where no one knows who he and is Serling plays the mayor, who lives in Benny's house and has named the realm after himself ("You can call me 'Twi'"). - *Roseanne*: - The wild popularity of parodies of *LazyTown*'s "We Are Number One" song led to the production releasing versions of the song with all audio channels separated, to facilitate further parodies. - The first season of *The Late Show (1992)* had a recurring Gag Dub sketch called *The Olden Days*, based on *Rush (1974)*. In the season finale, the stars of *Rush*, Brendon Lunney and John Waters (1948), appeared in the studio for a brief scene where they dubbed over Tony Martin and Mick Molloy. Similarly, the second season had a Gag Dub sketch called *Bargearse*, based on the cop show *Bluey (1976)*, whose star Lucky Grills appeared in the studio audience at one point to call them out on taking the piss out of him every week. - *Dead Ringers* had some fake CBeebies segments as sketches. The animatronic heads for these were supplied by Neal Scanlan, who did the same for actual CBeebies shows such as *Tweenies*. - *The Twilight Zone (1985)*: "A Day in Beaumont" extensively parodies 1950s science fiction films. Four of the guest stars, Warren Stevens, Kenneth Tobey, Jeff Morrow and John Agar, were well known for their roles in such films. - Jerry Springer frequently parodied his own show. For example, he participated in a *MADtv (1995)* parody of his show, intentionally trying to get people to fight but being repeatedly frustrated. Eventually, he takes one of the audience members hostage to force them to start throwing punches. - *Get Smart* did two parodies of other Spy Fiction series that featured unbilled cameos by the actual stars of those shows. - "Die, Spy" (based on *I Spy*) had a walk-on by Robert Culp as a Turkish waiter. - In "Pheasant Under Glass" (based on *Mission: Impossible*), Maxwell Smart's identity as a spy is exposed, so a doctor uses "instant spray-on plastic surgery" to disguise him as Martin Landau. When the Chief points out that Landau is better-known than Max, Max (played by Landau, but dubbed over with Don Adams' voice) replies, "Never heard of him." - The 1962 CBS musical special *Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall* had Andrews in the sketch "The Pratt Family Singers," preemptively parodying her appearance in the movie version of *The Sound of Music* (which was then in preproduction). - *La Télé des Inconnus*: In 1992, French comedic trio Les Inconnus made a parody sketch of the long-running gameshow *Fort Boyard* titled *Fort Boyaux* ("Fort Bowels"). Which was filmed... entirely at Fort Boyard, with the help of the usual team responsible for the show, including then-current show host Sophie Davant As Herself. Recreating such an iconic set elsewhere would have been very hard (and costly). - Jaye Griffiths, who played Ros in *Bugs*, appeared in *The Imaginatively Titled Punt and Dennis Show* parody *Plugs*. - *TV Funhouse*: In a segment of "The X-Presidents", SpongeBob SquarePants is hired to promote propaganda endorsing The War on Terror, until he ends up backing out due to how crude and xenophobic the script is. SpongeBob in the sketch is voiced by his actual voice actor from the original show, Tom Kenny. **SpongeBob:** And what about this part? You want me to sponge up all of the urine in America, and then... *squeeze* myself over Saddam Hussein 's mouth? - For the *Doctor Who* Series 4 wrap party, the cast and crew recorded a video of them all miming to "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers. The choruses were all David Tennant flanked by two companions or other main characters, captioned in the style "Billie, David & Camille - Actors" ... except one clip which was "Craig, David & Charlie - The Proclaimers & their Biggest Fan". - *MAD* has done this a few times: - In the 70s, Jack Davis was drawing official *Sesame Street* art *and* working for *MAD*, so naturally he did *MAD*'s *Reality Street* and *Mafia Street* spoofs. - Chris Houghton, who has drawn for the *Adventure Time* comics, also drew the cover for issue 520, which included two riffs on *Adventure Time*. - Dick DeBartolo, a fixture of the magazine, had to go uncredited for a *Family Feud* parody he wrote. Why? Because *he was working for Goodson-Todman at the time*, and had been since the 1960s, including the original run of *Match Game* and the 1970s revival. - Happens with "Weird Al" Yankovic a lot. - His music video for "Fat", a parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad", uses the subway set for a parody from *Moonwalker* called "Badder" (basically the same video, but with kids playing all the parts), which Jackson granted Al permission to borrow. - Similarly, the "Smells Like Nirvana" video was filmed on the same soundstage as the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, with the janitor, cheerleaders, and some of the extras from the original making appearances in Al's version. Al's team also consulted the original producers of the "Teen Spirit" video (including director Samuel Bayer, who was reluctant about the situation). - "I Lost on Jeopardy!" ("Jeopardy" by the Greg Kihn Band) has Art Fleming and Don Pardo (the host and announcer from the original 1960s version) reprise their respective roles in the video for it, and even Greg Kihn himself appears in the end, as the man who drives the car. - Madonna asked a friend in conversation why "Weird Al" hadn't come out with a parody of "Like a Virgin" called "Like a Surgeon" yet. The friend was a mutual friend of Al's manager, who passed the idea onto Al. It's the only artist parody Al has ever done where the parody idea came from the original artist. - Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits agreed to allow Al to parody "Money for Nothing" on condition that Knopfler himself play his guitar parts from the original song in the parody and Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher played synthesizer. - He has similar success with his unfocused pastiches, in which the song evokes the artist's style without having the same tune. Examples include Ben Folds playing piano on "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?", Dweezil Zappa playing guitar for the Frank Zappa-esque "Genius in France", The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek contributing to "Craigslist", and Taylor Hanson playing piano on "If That Isn't Love". (and while Tress MacNeille contributed to "Ricky", Toni Basil stated she'd gladly do the Lucy there). - James Brown arranged for Al to use the same stage set and backup performers from when he performed "Living in America" in *Rocky IV* for the parody version "Living with a Hernia". - Similar to Mark Knopfler listed above, Imagine Dragons helped Al compose "Inactive", a parody of their own "Radioactive", by making sure the opening of the song recreated the original as close as possible. - In the music video for the song "UHF", one segment parodies the video for Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love", in which a group of emotionless women mime playing the song (the main difference between the Palmer version and the "UHF" version is that the women are wearing glasses and fake moustaches). Robert Palmer arranged for the exact same women that appeared in "Addicted to Love" to be in the "UHF" video. - George Harrison appeared in *The Rutles*, playing a reporter (he also gave ideas for the film and gave the filmmakers access to a then-unreleased Beatles documentary). - Country Music parodist Cledus T. Judd often involves the original artist in videos of his parodies. - "She's Got a Butt Bigger Than the Beatles" ("Bigger Than the Beatles" by Joe Diffie): Diffie opens the video by saying, "Folks, I just want you to know that I had absolutely nothing to do with the making of this video." - "Every Light in the House Is Blown" ("Every Light in the House" by Trace Adkins): In the video, Trace hits Cledus with a fire extinguisher and shouts, "That's what you get for making fun of the way I dance!" He also sings about half the verses. - "Did I Shave My Back for This?" ("Did I Shave My Legs for This?" by Deana Carter): Deana beats him up at the beginning of the video for mispronouncing her name. - "Christ-Mas" ("This Kiss" by Faith Hill): Steven Goldmann directed both Faith's video and Cledus's shot-for-shot parody of the same. - "Coronary Life" ("Ordinary Life" by Chad Brock): Chad plays the doctor in the video. - "More Beaver" ("Me Neither" by Brad Paisley): Brad plays lead guitar. - Billy Gilman can be heard shouting "That's not funny, Cledus!" at the end of "My Voice", a parody of his own "One Voice". - Phil Vassar mumbles a line at the end of "Just Another Day in Parodies", a parody of his own "Just Another Day in Paradise": "Aw man, I'm not mad at you, Cledus. You're nice. Nice hair, I like that." - "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Pop" ("I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" by Barbara Mandrell and George Jones): George sings guest vocals. - "Paycheck Woman" ("Redneck Woman" by Gretchen Wilson): Gretchen appears at the beginning of the video. - "Garth Must Be Busy" ("God Must Be Busy" by Brooks & Dunn): Ronnie Dunn, one-half of Brooks & Dunn, sings guest vocals. - He appears to have a really good relationship with Toby Keith, as Toby appeared in the video for "How Do You Milk a Cow" (a parody of "How Do You Like Me Now?!") and sang guest vocals on "I Love NASCAR" ("I Love This Bar"). Toby's go-to director, Michael Salomon, also directed the video for "Where's Your Mommy?" ("Who's Your Daddy?"), and Toby wrote a song on *Bipolar and Proud*. - In 1995, a Twin Cities DJ recorded a parody of Shania Twain's Breakthrough Hit "Any Man of Mine" titled "Any Gal of Mine". Twain herself provides a spoken-word intro at the beginning. - *Forbidden Broadway Vol. 3* had the real Carol Channing interrupting an impersonator of herself to provide advice. - Fred Schneider of The B-52s guested on Richard Cheese's parody of "Love Shack". - Ramonetures are a band who cover Punk Rock songs In the Style of instrumental Surf Rock. When they tackled the X (US Band) catalog for the album *Johnny Walk Don't Run Paulene*, they had the assistance of X members Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake replicating their original guitar and drum parts. - The Dead Kennedys: - *In God We Trust, Inc* had cover art by Winston Smith, depicting Jesus crucified on a cross made out of dollar bills. Smith has parodied this image for other bands' albums twice: One was Dread Kennedys' *In Dub We Trust*, which replaced the crucifix made of dollars to one made of cannabis leaves. The other was Duckmandu's *Fresh Duck for Rotting Accordionists*, which replaced Jesus' head with that of a duck and added an accordion strapped across his chest. - Jello Biafra makes an appearance on Blowfly's "Holiday in Cambodia" parody, "R. Kelly in Cambodia". The song was released on Alternative Tentacles, the record label owned by Biafra. - Paul Hardcastle's 1985 hit "19" was parodied with the cricket-themed "N-N-Nineteen Not Out" by The Commentators, a musical project of impressionist Rory Bremner. An uncredited Hardcastle co-produced the parody, much against his label's objections. - For Red Nose Day, Coldplay brought the cast of *Game of Thrones* for "The Musical" of the series. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) singing "the first romantic ballad about incest on Coldplay's career", Emilia Clarke (Daenerys) doing "Rastafarian Targaryen", Peter Dinklage crooning on how Tyrion Lannister is "a man for all seasons", and others, including Iwan Rheon's "I Am" Song for Ramsay Bolton ("I am a real bastard, and a little more mean..."). - Alanis Morissette appeared in *The Late Late Show* singing a parody of "Ironic" — which even mentions how there are no ironies in the original song. She also appeared in *The Tonight Show* singing an all-cluck cover of the same song alongside Jimmy Fallon and Meghan Trainor. - For the video of "Irresistible", Fall Out Boy decided to it a riff on *NSYNC's iconic "It's Gonna Be Me" music video. Not only did they get Wayne Isham, who directed the original video, to handle directing duties, but *NSYNC members Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone cameod in it. - The *Sesame Street* disco album *Sesame Street Fever* has an original Title Track which, as the name suggests, is a parody of "Night Fever" from *Saturday Night Fever*. Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees provided lead vocals. - Elio e le Storie Tese parodied Patrick Hernandez' "Born to Be Alive" with their own "Born to Be Abramo". Not only Hernandez shows up in the song and sings a couple verses, he also appears in the video (at about 1:35), one of his rare appearances. - LCD Soundsystem has a really popular fan-made music video featuring Kermit the Frog singing their song "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" throughout the streets of New York, with the ending twist revealing that he's being puppeteered by the group's frontman James Murphy himself. The video came about as a stroke of luck as the fan met Murphy during a party, and the fact that he's present at all led many to think that the video was somehow official. - The Baha Men recorded a parody of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" for the Disney album *Mickey's Dance Party* called "Who Woke Snow White Up?". - Kyle "TV's Kyle" Carrozza and The Great Luke Ski provided backing vocals and the original music for Devo Spice's parody of their song "Pumpkin Bread", "Pumpkinhead". - The Chalkeaters: - Gabe Newell recorded video clips for "Count To Three", as shown at the opening and closing of the song. According to a community post, he also recorded some verses, but requested that they be cut due to his dissatisfaction with his performance. Ellen McLain also reprises her role as GLaDOS. - Crush 40 vocalist Johnny Gioeli himself did the vocals for the *Sonic the Hedgehog* parody song "Crushing Thirties", which is itself an upbeat rock piece styled after Crush 40's other songs for the franchise, only with a cynical undertone commenting on Sonic's miserable life going into adulthood. - Nanowar of Steel's "Pasadena 1994" is an Affectionate Parody of Sabaton, a Swedish Power Metal band known for anthems about military history. The song is an anthem about the 1994 FIFA World Cup match between Italy and Brazil, with Sabaton vocalist Joakim Brodén singing in the song and visibly trying not to crack up in the music video. - TAKA Michinoku's gimmick is a parody of The Great Sasuke's original Masa Michinoku gimmick. Despite this, TAKA was allowed to work on the shows of Sasuke's Michinoku Pro Wrestling promotion. - Following the decline of FMW, IWA Japan and the rest of the garbage circuit, Kikutaro took up a gimmick of parodying wrestlers who managed to retain their popularity. All Japan teamed him up with Abdullah the Butcher and New Japan had him beaten by Jushin Thunder Liger but it really crossed into this trope when Mick Foley brought him out as "Ebessan Jack" to challenge Samoa Joe at Ring of Honor's third anniversary. - IWA Puerto Rico debuted a wrestler known as El Sensacional Carlitos in 2005, a parody of the island's famous Colón family. In 2008, WWC, the company owned by the Colón family patriarch, hired Carlitos and paired him up with Carlito Caribbean Cool, the most famous Colón still active on the island. - Most performers seeking "Sesame Street" Cred will do this. For instance, R.E.M. singing a *Sesame Street* parody of "Shiny Happy People" called "Furry Happy Monsters". - When Stan Freberg saw how Jim Henson was having puppets lip-sync to his records on *Sam and Friends*, he not only gave full approval, he also cameoed in one episode to complain about them using his records (only for Kermit to whack him with a baseball bat). - Following its Channel Hop to HBO, *Sesame Street* created two PSAs about respect, one an Affectionate Parody of *Game of Thrones*, the other of *Westworld*, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Evan Rachel Wood, and Jeffrey Wright all reprised their roles from their respective series for the ads. - Les Guignols de l'Info: For the twentieth birthday edition, real celebrities came, said they looked nothing like their puppets... while acting like them. For instance anchorman Marc-Olivier Fogiel kept the same hyena and Evil Laugh, and sport anchorman Nelson Monfort his puppet's Gratuitous English. Some politicians also commented on their alter ego. - *The National Lampoon Radio Hour* did a bit called "Prison Farm" note : later released on the *Gold Turkey* album. The sketch, which satirized how the Watergate criminals were given slap-on-the-wrist sentences in Luxury Prison Suites, was done In the Style of an Blaxploitation movie trailer — so the Lampoon got Adolph Caesar note : later known for *A Soldier's Story*, who was the most prominent announcer for the actual trailers, to be the narrator. - Brazilian radio station 98 FM has a sports program that uses defeats of their city's football teams to do mocking Song Parodies about said games the next day. At least two times they got the original singer to perform them. - Many performers for the various productions of *Avenue Q* have been Muppet alumni (notably Rick Lyon). - After a trailer for *Final Fantasy XV* featured Noctis and company driving around in a car, memes began to sprout up of Noctis and crew driving past or admiring other things. The game's director liked it, and Square Enix released a transparent PNG of the most common shot of the car and crew to help out with the meme. - Capcom has provided assistance for the *Ultimate Assist Me* series by supplying funds so the creators wouldn't have to pay for the costs out of their pockets like they normally do. ||Also, at the end of *Retro Assist Me*, Yoshinori Ono makes a cameo||. - *Red vs. Blue* was discovered quite early on by Bungie. Rather than shut Rooster Teeth down for copyright infringement, Bungie gave them official permission to keep making the videos, and to this day Rooster Teeth continues making humorous content, not just for *Halo*, but for several other Microsoft-owned franchises as well. - After *My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic* recieved a cease and desist from Hasbro, Lauren Faust decided to join the development team, offering to design them original characters to use for a new game. - Michael Giacchino, the composer of several *Medal of Honor* games, also provides the level music for "Medal of Homer" in *The Simpsons Game*. - Hyakutaro Tsukumo, the composer for several *Thunder Force* games, composed the soundtrack for *Broken Thunder*, a Fan Sequel. Unfortunately, it's strongly speculated that this is why he was left out of the soundtrack for *Thunder Force VI*. - When planning their next project for the Switch, Brace Yourself Games expressed how cool it would be for them to include *The Legend of Zelda* characters as DLC for their debut game. Nintendo liked the idea so much that they gave the devs their full blessing, which is what led to the creation of *Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer*, a full-fledged *Zelda* spin-off. - Jesse Cox's "Gentleman's Gaming Club" video on *Control* features an intro done in the style of the game's cutscenes, and includes Courtney Hope herself reprising her role as Jesse Faden. Given that *Control* already makes heavy use of live-action cutscenes, it looks and sounds almost exactly like the real thing. - The series of animated spoof trailers (here is Episode 1) Capcom made to promote their *Resident Evil 4 (Remake)* is not just made In the Style of *World Masterpiece Theatre*, it was actually produced with the help of Nippon Animation themselves. - For *Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged*, Team Four Star is allowed to sell albums of the remixed music because they have a contract with Square Enix and they pay SE a cut of the profit. - Toy reviewer CookieSwirlC voices "PukieHurlC", a parody of her channel's mascot, in *The Grossery Gang* webseries' 2017 Christmas episode. - *Half Life: Side Story: Gaiden: HUNT DOWN FREE MAN*, a YouTube parody of the infamous Half-Life 2 mod *Hunt Down the Freeman*, had the intro cutscene of the second part of the story showing ||Colonel Cue having his head blown open by a dead meme (AKA: Lanky Kong) while Adam is piggybacking it||, which was provided by Deremix Productions (who created the original cutscenes for *Hunt Down the Freeman* as well). - *Madoka Abridged*: Episode 7 parodies the casting of Cristina Valenzuela as Homura by photoshopping her face over Homura's during several scenes. Cristina herself voiced Homura for the episode, and then commented on the video, to voice her approval, too. - The episode of *So This Is Basically...* which covered *Danny Phantom* had Butch Hartman, the creator of *Danny Phantom*, designing and voicing an Original Character named Rebreather in the style of *Danny Phantom*'s usual Monster of the Week villains. - *Steam Train*: Ross and Barry's reactions to visiting Temmie Village in *Undertale* were taken and animated by none other than Temmie Chang herself. - *Joueur du Grenier*'s special on *Scooby-Doo* uses Scooby-Doo's official French VA. - The staff at Funimation are good friends with Team Four Star, and a few of them have even cameoed in *Dragon Ball Z Abridged*; for example, Kyle Hebert plays Santa Claus in *Christmas Tree of Might*. They've also hired some of the TFS staff for their work, most notably Takahata101 playing one of the Create-A-Character voices in *Dragon Ball Xenoverse* (where he essentially plays DBZA's version of Nappa). TFS was also brought in to provide the voices for a cheesy low-budget movie recreation of Mr. Satan's "victory" over Cell during the Cell Games in an episode of *Dragon Ball Z Kai*, though Toei Animation made them take it out for the broadcast. - George R. R. Martin appears in an episode of Funny or Die's recap of *Game of Thrones*, *Gay of Thrones*, in a scene that parodies *The Princess Bride*. - *Honest Trailers*: - *Eleven Little Roosters* ends in a scene mimicking the *Metal Gear* codecs... where one of the parties is Agent Kojima. - *GTA... but with talking trains!!* is narrated by Mark Moraghan, the narrator of Seasons 17 to 21 of *Thomas & Friends*. - Mega64 had a sketch where they were reenacting Super Mario Bros. on the streets of Los Angeles. In their own words... - MonteFjanton's final six reviews of the Swedish-dubbed Dingo Pictures, which were combined into a full-length movie called *Dingo's Inferno*, features two of the dub actors from the films reprising their old roles. (One of them, Dan Bratt, had also helped out with their earlier review of *Djurens konung*.) - *The Nostalgia Critic*: - At the end of the review of *The Purge*, there is a Brick Joke where an animated Pinky and the Brain split up. They actually got Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche to voice their respective characters. - When the Critic listed the "Top 11" worst and best episodes of *Avatar: The Last Airbender*, Dante Basco reprised and parodied his role as Prince Zuko. - And once more in his review of *Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas*, where an animated segment with Penny near the end was voiced by Cree Summer, reprising her role from the series after so many years. - One of the commercial specials contains a parody of *The Room*, with Greg Sestero reprising his role as Mark. - After ripping on numerous Mara Wilson films, she actually appears in his video to take a few shots back at him by dredging up some of the terrible home movies he mad as a child. - Not to be outdone, *The Angry Video Game Nerd* has had his own share of guest stars: - In his episode dedicated to dunking on various *Toxic Avenger* video game adaptations, all of them bad of course, he actually got Lloyd Kaufman himself to help him rip them apart. Lloyd is *even more critical of them than The Nerd*. - The *Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie* features Howard Scott Warshaw, the actual developer of the infamous *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial*, As Himself no less. - Macaulay Culkin shows up at his door in one episode, disguised as a pizza boy, in order to pressure The Nerd into playing a bunch of terrible *Home Alone* video game adaptations. - When reviewing *Pepsiman*, he gets Mike Butters (yes, *that* Mike Butters) to reprise his role as the TV game guy from the game and show up to save him from Pepsiman. - When making fun of *Jurassic Park: Trespasser*, he actually gets Seamus Blackley, the game's producer who would go on create the Xbox, to not only answer some questions about it, but to help poke some fun at the game's infamously Troubled Production. - His *DOOM* video guess stars John Romero to reprise his roll as The Icon of Sin. **the** - Postmodern Jukebox did a version of the *Pinky and the Brain* Theme. Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche reprise the roles, though there the mice wear "human suits" and are disguised as some old bartenders... - The *Supernatural* cast joined both the Hillywood Show and Kings of Con - For the *Supernatural* parody, they also got the band Twenty One Two to record an extended parody of their previous rock cover of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" for them, using the original instrumentation but rerecorded with the parody lyrics and extended for the outro of the song where the cast of the show dance to it. - YouTube comedy channel Super Deluxe had a recurring series wherein Nick Lutsko takes quotes from a celebrity or work and sets them to music In the Style of a genre or performer, with titles formatted something like "(Person/Work) as a (Genre/Artist) Song": "Jerry (Maybe We Should Get Married)" is basically "Elaine Benes as a Best Coast Song", with actual Best Coast vocalist Bethany Cosentino singing lead. - GilvaSunner, owner of the video game music channel of the same name that SiIvaGunner parodies, allowed a "High Quality Rip" to be uploaded for April Fools Day 2016. - "Lo Pan Style", a *Big Trouble in Little China*-themed parody of Psy's "Gangnam Style", had James Hong reprising the role of David Lo Pan during the video. - A couple of minor *Kaamelott* actors play roles in the fan web-series *Brocéliande*, notably Guillaume Briat (the Burgund King) and Bô Gaultier de Kermoal (Attila's bodyguard), although they don't reprise their roles from the main series. - Tennis player Iga Swiatek posted a parody of *The Lion King*, which counts with the guy who dubbed Mufasa in her native Poland! - Sean Gerardi's hypothetical *The Mandalorian* Chapter 21 epilogue includes Emily Swallow playing the Armorer again. - *Big Hero 6: The Series*: Gordon Ramsay voiced "Bolton Gramercy", a Caustic Critic who participates in an *Iron Chef*-like competition. He essentially plays himself as portrayed in *Hell's Kitchen*. - *Schoolhouse Rock!* actor Jack Sheldon has done this many times. - *The Simpsons*: - "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)", The B-52s parody their own "Love Shack" as "Glove Slap", while later episodes featured Jackson Browne and the Baha Men parodying their own respective work. - In "Angry Dad: The Movie", not only did Nick Park voice himself in the setup to the *Wallace & Gromit* parody *Willis & Crumble in Better Gnomes and Gardens*, the stop motion animation team included Teresa Drilling, a regular member of the Aardman Animations crew who was a key animator on *The Curse of the Were-Rabbit*. - "Steal This Episode" contains a gag where the government hires Judas Priest to get Homer into their custody for digital piracy, with frontman Rob Halford singing a piracy-themed version of "Breaking the Law". - The layout artists from *The Ren & Stimpy Show* worked on the *R&S* parody scene in "Brother from the Same Planet". - "Sideshow Bob Roberts" has a scene where Bart plays with a Flintstones toy phone, which features Henry Corden as the voice of Fred Flintstone. - "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" includes a *Coraline* parody in which Neil Gaiman voices Snowball II. - "Homer at the Bat" features the song "Talkin' Softball", a parody of "Talkin' Baseball" sung by the original artist, Terry Cashman himself. - "Three Men and a Comic Book" has Bart having an Inner Monologue moment ala *The Wonder Years*, with Daniel Stern as the narrator. - "Bart the Bad Guy" is centered around a parody of *Avengers: Endgame* and has multiple people who work with the Marvel Cinematic Universe guest starring, such as *Endgame*'s directors The Russo Brothers as the Marble Studios executives, Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige as Chinnos (the Marble version of Thanos), and Cobie Smulders as Hydrangea, one of the main characters of *Vindicators: Crystal War* and its sequel. - "Little Big Mom" has the Virtual Doctor software, with the titular doctor speaking in the same manner as America Online's famous voice notifications ("You've got mail"), voiced by the actual America Online voice guy himself, Elwood Edwards. ("You've got... leprosy.") - In "Large Marge" and "Thank God It's Doomsday", The Baha Men have appeared performing a parody of their hit song "Who Let the Dogs Out". - "Bart's in Jail" features a cameo of Bill Cipher voiced by his creator and voice actor, Alex Hirsch. - "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII" features the *Death Note* parody "Death Tome", whose Animesque animation was done by DR Movie, who worked on the anime (specifically, they did background art, clean-up and in-between animation). - In "King-Size Homer", the producers hired Joan Kenley, the actual voice actor behind countless automated phone messages, to provide the prerecorded response we hear when Homer tries to call the nuclear power plant ("The fingers you have used to dial are too fat"). - *Family Guy* has had several actors lend their voices to parodies of shows or movies they were in. - The *Bob's Burgers* episode "The Belchies" features a song in the end credits that's a send-up of "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" sung by Cyndi Lauper. - *Futurama*: - "The Deep South" is set in Atlanta, Georgia, which is now a submerged city filled with mer-people. Helping to explain this is Donovan, parodying his own song "Atlantis" as "Atlanta." - "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" fires a full salvo of photon torpedoes at *Star Trek: The Original Series*, its fans, and the actors who played the main cast. Said cast was voiced by their original actors, who are *not* shy about poking fun at themselves or each other. **Nimoy:** Hey! We've done heroic things too! - *Robot Chicken* gets a surprising number of actors and actresses to reprise their famous roles for skits that parody their films. Among *some* of them them are: - Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill, Ahmed Best, and even George Lucas himself for *Star Wars* sketches. - Bob Bergen, the current voice of Porky Pig, reprises his role as Porky for at least two sketches. - The main cast from the *Scooby-Doo* live-action films. - Frank Welker voicing Megatron, Soundwave, and Doctor Claw. - Cree Summer reprised her role as Penny for an *Inspector Gadget*/ *The Terminator* crossover skit. - Jon Berg, who did much of the stop motion effects for the original *Star Wars* films, did the stop motion animation for the Nerd in his Tauntaun costume in the second *Star Wars* special. - Christopher Lloyd played Doc Brown in a couple of the *Back to the Future* sketches. - Stan Lee appeared as himself several times. - Dave Foley voiced Flik again in a *Bug's Life* sketch. - Patrick Stewart occasionally appears to play Captain Jean-Luc Picard in *Star Trek* sketches. - Dante Basco voiced Zuko again in an *Avatar* sketch. - Rachael Leigh Cook, who starred in a famous anti-drug Public Service Announcement in the '90s where she smashes a kitchen up with a frying pan, voiced the same character in a parody of such where she turns into an unhinged psychopath. - Tom Hanks's brother Jim Hanks, who is the official understudy voice actor of Woody reprised his role for the *Toy Story Meets Pinko* sketch. - Blizzard gave *South Park* a number of their in-game assets for the creation of "Make Love, Not Warcraft". More audaciously, they did filming *on the Burning Crusade alpha server*. Those people in the background jumping around and doing whatever? Real players blissfully unaware of what was being filmed near them. - *MAD* gets some Parody Assistance in a few episodes. For example, Tara Strong lends her voice to a unicorn in the sketch "My Little War Horse" and "Adjustment Burro", Raven in "Teen Titanic" and Bubbles in "2 Broke Powerpuff Girls", and they got Will Friedle to reprise his role as 2011 Lion-O in "ThunderLOLcats". The sketch "McDuck Dynasty" also has Jeff Bergman reprising his roles as Daffy Duck (from *The Looney Tunes Show* and *Tiny Toon Adventures*) and Elmer Fudd (also from *Tiny Toon Adventures*). - The *Rugrats* episode "Sour Pickles" contains a *Rocky and Bullwinkle* parody that features June Foray as the expies of Rocky and Natasha. - The *Duck Dodgers* parody of *Samurai Jack* had creative consultation from creator Genndy Tartakovsky (who also makes a voice cameo) and features Mako as the voice of the Aku parody. - In addition to the Jack Sheldon example above, *Johnny Bravo* also featured a cross-over episode with *Scooby-Doo*, with almost all of the original voice cast. note : This marked Hadley Kay's first and only time to voice Scooby. BJ Ward first voiced Velma here, and would for 5 more years. They also got Joseph Barbera as a story consultant and character designers Iwao Takamoto and Ed Benedict to do the character layouts and background designs. - *Freakazoid!*: For the *Jonny Quest* parody "Toby Danger", they got Benton Quest's original voice actor Don Messick to voice Benton Quest's counterpart and "Race" Bannon's second voice actor Granville Van Dusen (who voiced "Race" Bannon in the revival shows *The New Adventures of Jonny Quest* and *Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures* as well as the television films *Jonny's Golden Quest* and *Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects*) to voice "Race" Bannon's counterpart. - Hanna-Barbera layout artist Ed Benedict, one of John Kricfalusi's biggest influcences, worked on the two *Yogi Bear* shorts that he made. - Art Babbitt, one of the key animators on *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, animated on the *Merrie Melodies* short *Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs* which is a parody of the former. - The *Wander over Yonder* episode "The Cartoon" featured a parody of fellow Disney series *Gravity Falls* with Jason Ritter, Kristen Schaal and Alex Hirsch voicing the expies of their respective characters. Said parody was also partly a *Scooby-Doo* cartoon, hence why Frank Welker voices the narrator. - The *Amphibia* episode "Wax Museum" features frog versions of Grunkle Stan, Soos, and Schmebulock, all voiced by Alex Hirsch. - For the premiere of the *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* episode "A Canterlot Wedding", which was based heavily on the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, The Hub aired special bumpers featuring Tori Spelling, who co-hosted E!'s coverage of the wedding. - Klasky-Csupo animated a *Rugrats* parody in *The Fairly Oddparents* special "Channel Chasers".

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyAssistance

Kent Brockman News - TV Tropes To be fair, it is a pretty awesome graphic. *"Ladies and gentlemen, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over 'conquered' if you will by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."* If TV writers need cheap exposition, the easiest way is to have a news Show Within a Show do it. Usually, the news anchors provide a Practical Voice-Over. Sometimes, they do more than that (see Coincidental Broadcast and News Monopoly). Of course, it gets boring having bland talking heads give information, so animated shows spice up their Practical Voiceover with a little parody. On any show including a fictional newscast intended for adults, you are likely to see anything *but* a news anchor simply telling the news. Instead, you will see anchors who: - Bring way too much of their personal life into their discussion of the news. - Feud with each other, or with the field reporters. - Have a blatant political bias, and bring it to every story they cover. - Indulge in bizarre (usually sexual) habits when they think the cameras aren't on. - Sometimes mutter what they truly think of their audience (thoughts that are downright nasty). - Try to make their stories more interesting with tortured metaphors and unfunny jokes, with bonus points when it's about something that isn't at all funny. - Speak in a weirdly smarmy monotone that never changes no matter what the story is (they say "eight hundred people died in an earthquake" and "happy new year" in the same way). - Similar to the above, react inappropriately, usually with slightly smug laughter, to any sudden (and usually horrific) developments in a way that suggests either sociopathy or a lack of attention being paid to what's going on ("And the beast is coming up Fifth Avenue oh my God, it's on me! AGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! OH FU-" "Hahaha, that's great, Eddie.") - Snap into an outrageously thick accent when mentioning a foreign proper noun, then return to their normal accent immediately without missing a beat. - Segue without a beat from a horrific or bizarre story to a "lighter side" one. Especially if we only hear the wrap-up of the horror story. (As in, " which if true, means death for us all. And now, 'Kent's People!'") - Facetiously comment on fashions, cooking or other "lifestyle" matters in front of stills or footage of an ongoing war, or on location in the war zone itself. - Give some or all of their air time to weird, random stories instead of anything important. - Ask leading questions to a few favored guests on their show, and ask randomly hostile questions to everybody else. - Skew any "human interest" stories to allow the most blatant emotional manipulation of their audience. - Suddenly interrupt the newscast with frivolous new stories, often leading in with "This Just In! " - Are unable to finish their story because of sudden crises within the newsroom. - Very visibly could honestly not give two shits about the news, the audience, professionalism or anything to do with their job except for their ego. - Directly address the specific character watching. Though live-action comedies do them occasionally, these routines are much more common in animated shows. This may have to do with the fact that animated shows usually use multiple characters per actor, and can afford to have a diverse supporting cast (and also, of course, because it's infinitely easier to have Canon Discontinuity in a show which everyone already knows isn't supposed to be realistic). A regular feature of the Immoral Journalist. ## Examples: - In *Simple Samosa*, the Garma Garam newslady usually avoids the comedic trappings of this trope, but in the episode "Mayor Gaayab", she has no problem with outright declaring she should be the mayor and making a run for the town hall, abandoning the news program as she does so. - *Transmetropolitan* has enough examples of this to cover the inside of a barn. Just to give an idea, one of the most straightforward and reputable shows in future America is built around its host being a giant, grim, stern, intense, scar-faced, concealed weapon-carrying Violent Glaswegian who's not afraid to bully the president to his face. - In February 2012 DC Comics' New 52 introduced a line-wide backup strip called *Channel 52*, about a rolling news channel focusing on superhero-related news. While anchor Bethany Snow seems to be fairly normal (although in previous continuity she was a Brother Blood cultist who hated superheroes), the rest of her team is comprised of Ambush Bug (roving reporter), Calendar Man (lifestyle) and Vartox (alien affairs and sport). In reverse order, that's one Boisterous Bruiser, one apparently reformed Idiosyncrazy villain, and one guy who's just completely weird. - In the near-future America of *Prez*, news anchor/talk show host Amber Waves is not that weird in herself if you ignore her penchant for an Improbable Hairstyle, but enables all kinds of ludicrous goings-on from her guests. - *The Ultimates*: *USA Today* said that Thor took down the big mothership, but *People* says it was Iron Man. Jan points that Tony Stark owns a 52% stake in *People*, so she would believe in *USA Today*. - *Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy* had one of these as its main character, although he was a consummate professional until the events of the film take place. - *The Kentucky Fried Movie*, where between skits a newscaster would pop up with oddball news flashes like "I'm not wearing any pants, Film at 11." And again when he says in the same deadpan tone "Moscow in flames, missiles headed towards New York. Film at 11." - The 1989 *Batman* featured newscasters on a Gotham City news show, talking about a recent rash of killings by The Joker, when a female newscaster starts laughing uncontrollably and her astonished partner looks on in disbelief, trying to ignore her, before she collapses dead on the ground. Turns out she'd been given a dose of the Joker's poison. - *RoboCop (1987)*: The anchors are obvious shills for OCP. **Casey Wong:** On the international scene the Amazon nuclear facility has blown its stack irradiating the world's largest rainforest. Environmentalists are calling it a disaster. **Jess Perkins:** But don't they always. - *Starship Troopers*: The media are owned by the Federation, so the line between "news" and propaganda is non-existent. See our brave boys and girls on the front line of the bug war! Research on captured Bugs informs us about the enemy! [Censored shot of a bug tearing apart a cow]; Army representatives visit schoolchildren and let them try live ammunition! Join the forces: service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know MORE? - *Bananas* begins with Howard Cosell himself presenting the "live, on-the-spot assassination" of the dictator of San Marcos for *Wide World of Sports*. - One of the news anchors in *Die Hard* speculate that the hostages have developed "Helsinki Syndrome, named after Helsinki, Sweden," and the other corrects him - Helsinki's in Finland note : They're talking about Stockholm Syndrome. Then the cut back to Nakatomi Plaza shows quite clearly that they're talking out of their asses. - *Bruce Almighty*: - In the Live-action/cartoon movie *Osmosis Jones*, cellular newscasters get into a brawl against each other as the film peaks into the stressful climax. When the ordeal was over, we see them again, but this time with bandages as a comedic result of their feud. - *Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird* has a scene where an anchorman, played by Chevy Chase, reports on the disappearance of Big Bird from his foster family's home in Illinois. He responds to a question by Grover (who is watching the broadcast), has to be corrected by someone offscreen on the pronunciation of the word "sesame", and finally gives the weather report as "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?" in a completely deadpan tone. It then cuts to Kermit the Frog reporting on the scene, and things just get more Kent Brockman-esque from there... - In *Groundhog Day,* this is usually Phil Connors' style of reporting. He has nothing but contempt for Punxsutawney, its people, its festival, and anyone in his TV audience who actually cares about the festival. Part of his Character Development involves him growing out of this, and he eventually gives a genuinely heartwarming speech. - Not quite "news", but the commentators in the *Pitch Perfect* films perform much the same role with some amusing dialog. - Played for Drama (or at least *very* Black Comedy) with Howard Beale in *Network*, a veteran newscaster whose on-air downward spiral is milked to the fullest by the executives at UBS once they realize that his unhinged rants are bringing in better ratings than "serious" reporting ever was. They wind up turning their news department into a three-ring circus and retooling their nightly news program into an opinion/Variety Show hosted by a Hot-Blooded Beale, while the rest of UBS' programming is taken over by increasingly trashy reality shows ( *avant le lettre*, as this movie was made in 1976). - Vanna White and George Hamilton play news anchors in *Double Dragon (1994)*. In one broadcast, George laments the end of the (fictional) relationship between Madonna and Tom Arnold. - *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*: The news anchor states that there must be something going on in the world besides chocolate, but he can't think of anything. - In *Incarnations of Immortality*, Purgatory's news always relates to the listener. The newscaster also editorializes from a highly moralistic Christian viewpoint, objecting to people's actions based on their sinfulness or lack thereof, because that's the kind of place Purgatory is. And at one point, Death's horse is interviewed, and after making a pun about the horse's mouth, the newscaster takes a moment before remembering he needs to translate Mortis' neigh for the audience. - Dave Barry, in "You'll Look Radiant," imagined that the Emergency Broadcast Network, in the event of an actual nuclear war, would try to cheer listeners up by staying upbeat: **Announcer:** Hi there! You're listening to the Emergency Broadcast Network, so don't touch that dial! It's probably melted anyway, ha ha! Weatherwise, we're expecting afternoon highs of around 6,800 degrees, followed by a cooling trend as a cloud consisting of California and Oregon blots out the sun. - In the mid to late 1970s, Ted Turner's then-tiny TV station, WTCG-17 in Atlanta was required by the FCC to produce a newscast. Not having the resources or drive for it, he assigned station employee Bill Tush to anchor a pre-recorded newscast, taped late in the evening and aired around 2-3AM between movies. Though it started as a straight newscast, *17 Update Early in the Morning* as it was eventually called soon evolved into more of a comedy show, featuring the antics of Tush, co-anchor Tina Seldin, the off-camera crew, and various others while they read the news. It became relatively popular, especially after WTCG went coast-to-coast with satellite transmission in 1976. However, in 1979 (after the station became known as SuperStation WTBS, which would evolve into today's TBS), they had to end it after a Congressional investigation was launched into if Turner was fulfilling his FCC requirements with this show; not only that, he was about to launch CNN and having a thing like this would present credibility issues. Tush stuck around for a long while after, hosting a sketch comedy show on WTBS (simply named *Tush*) from 1980 to 82 (with Jan Hooks and Bonnie and Terry Turner among the cast), and later became CNN's senior entertainment correspondent. - On an episode of *The Armstrong and Miller Show*, there is a sketch wherein a reporter in the Middle East speaks over satellite, while the presenter in the studio uses the delay as an opportunity to accuse him of various unsavoury things. - *Arrested Development* has actual Los Angeles Fox News anchor John F. Beard (who also appears in several other Fox shows in the same capacity in a landmark **15** episodes, which ties him with Henry Winkler/Barry Zuckercorn for the most appearances of a cast member/character not featured in every episode. - "Next up; weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Find out what this means for your weekend, after the break." - *Attention Scum* had a recurring skit starring Johnny Vegas: 24 Hour News, As Read By a Man Who Has Been Up for 24 Hours. It started as a reasonably coherent, if tired and slightly drunk sounding location anchor, but gradually devolved until it was just Johnny Vegas in a rumpled and soiled business suit with a bottle of cheap booze yelling "NEWS!" over and over again. - The cases on *Boston Legal* are occasionally commented on by outspoken legal analyst Gracie Jane, a parody of Nancy Grace. One episode also featured a reporter named Wolfgang Blitzkrieg (Wolf Blitzer). - *The Daily Show* and *The Colbert Report*, spoofs of "traditional" news shows, use these tropes frequently. And were naturally delighted to discover a Real Life example on MSNBC, when anchors segued from footage of a cute jumping squirrel to *the Columbine school shooting* using the words "On a serious note..." - They featured another news anchor who detested the silly gimmicks his coworkers kept using - but fell back into this trope from another direction by openly loathing them, and complaining about them on air. - The spoof news show *The Day Today* and its documentary spin-off *Brass Eye* both used pretty much every single one of these tropes. - *Detroiters* has Mort Crim, longtime real-life news anchor— who among other things was cited by Will Ferrell as an inspiration for Ron Burgundy— playing a version of himself. Crim delivers his lines professionally, although the copy for his news segments is often absurd and/or inappropriate. (Example: "And the proof turned out not to be in the pudding, but in the murderer's blood and semen.") And then there's his "Chump of the Week" segment, where Crim highlights a local who's offended, pissed off, or just annoyed him in some way; viewers respond to the segment by mailing the Chump of the Week *boxes of shit*. - *Drop the Dead Donkey* was mostly about the chaos *behind* the cameras, but occasionally Henry's temper or Sally's neuroses would manifest while broadcasting. There's also Damian's sensationalist field reports (which always resulted in the cameraman being injured). This parodies the Real Life situation involving *News At Ten* anchor Reggie Bosanquet, an erratic and unpredictable anchor who could usually be relied upon, by ten at night, to be at the very least interestingly drunk. It is thought the reason Bosanquet escaped the sack and remained a newsreader for so long is that the public loved him and his appearances guaranteed high ratings. He could be relied upon to be, er, *gallant* to his female co-anchor, and the bit at the end of the news where the two anchors are seen chatting to each other - without sound - was usually a case of Reggie sexually propositioning her, and she trying to take it with a smile on her face, as if they were merely exchanging small-talk. This was further parodied by *Not the Nine O'Clock News* as the Reggie Bosanquet Song - the high-functioning alcoholic had a sizeable Estrogen Brigade fan-club who adored him. - *The Fast Show* had a repeating sketch where a news reporter would appear to offer a special report, which was always something inane such as her American friend pronouncing "yogurt" differently. They also had "Chanel Nine" news, which seems to use some elements of this trope. It's hard to tell, since it's done entirely in Foreign Sounding Gibberish. - "HI, I'm Ed Winchester!" "You're standing in a woodchipper, Ed." - An episode of *The Flip Wilson Show* featured Flip and George Carlin in a newscaster skit that allowed Carlin to use this bit "Scientists discovered a new number between 6 and 7. They're calling it bleem." - Robin on *How I Met Your Mother* has done numerous silly things on the air: ridiculous Could This Happen to You? stories, Incredibly Lame Puns, and bizarre fluff pieces, especially when Barney's getting her to do a bet. When she transferred to Japan, Robin got to report actual news — with a chimpanzee. Also her job on the morning news show, in which she gives CPR to the weatherman after he and the green screen catches on fire. Then she helps deliver the child of her guest that goes into labor. - *Jimmy McDonald's Canada* portrayed a 1960s-era conservative pundit gradually going mad because of the liberalism of the time. The last episode ended with "technical difficulties" as Jimmy went Ax-Crazy on set. - In the pilot episode of *Just Shoot Me!*, Maya gets fired from a news program after rewriting the teleprompter so that a pompous anchorwoman says that a decrease of gang violence was due "to the removal of the frontal lobe of my brain. And in related news, I wet myself." - *Lexx* had a recurring anchor for the season set on present-day Earth, whose twin obsessions were fluff pieces and the US stock market. **Bob:** Here are some of the stories we're following for tonight's edition of News Plus. The Dow Jones is up 456 points. Firefighters have been called in to retrieve a cat stuck in a power line along I-95 — film at eleven. And Cuba was nuked off the face of the Earth late this afternoon by President Priest, in retaliation for yesterday's evil attack on Orlando. There has been no reaction so far from Havana. - Miranda Veracruz de la Jolla Cardinal from *Married... with Children*, who really didn't like her job. - *Mock the Week* has done "Things a newscaster would never say" as an improv sketch, naturally almost entirely composed of examples of Kent Brockman News. - In the *Monk* episode "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa", Monk shoots and severely wounds Michael Kenworthy, a retired parole officer who was dressing up as Santa to throw toys off a roof, in self-defence (with Kenworthy's own revolver). The details are ambiguous, but Captain Stottlemeyer cringes upon seeing news reporter Brandy Barber (played by Gina Phillips) show up on scene. He calls her "a vampire with a press pass" and for good reason: most of her reports are emotionally charged rather than done rationally, and often has her skewing the story to humiliate the interviewee. Her story skews the events and makes it seem like Monk is some kind of Grinch with a grudge who deliberately shot Kenworthy, which is out-of-character for the description of a 48 year old detective with OCD who served on the San Francisco Police Department for 14 years with a badge, and has solved numerous high-profile cases as a consultant for that same department. For whatever reason, pretty much every civilian in town - except officers in the SFPD - seems to believe this broadcaster. - *Monty Python's Flying Circus* sent up BBC News in a great many ways. This is helped by the fact that Richard Baker, an actual BBC newscaster, often appeared in this role on the show. - In *Parks and Recreation*, the local Pawnee news programs are often a source for comedy. Joan Callamezzo, host of the morning show *Pawnee Today*, is extremely catty and will try to humiliate her guests for ratings and for grudges. News anchor Perd Hapley is a Captain Obvious and all-around doofus. - Minor version on *Pushing Daisies*, where after the Coincidental Broadcast, the follow-up is bizarre: "Up next: kittens on parade!" and "Can apes drive? We'll find out!" - *Red Dwarf* used 'Channel 27' News to explain the Better Than Life game. Featured subtle jokes such as having a month called 'Geldof'. - In classic first season episodes of *Saturday Night Live*, Chevy Chase was responsible for the "Weekend Update" news segment. It would always begin with him on the phone with an unidentified lover, saying things like "No, lots of people scream." This is unique in that the implied perversion is at the start of the report, rather than interrupting it. - *Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!* has a carryover from their previous show *Tom Goes to the Mayor* in Jan and Wayne Skylar, the "Channel 5 Married News Team". They added John C. Reilly as Dr. Steve Brule (who has since gotten his own bits—and eventually his own show) who provides useless health information. - On *The Weird Al Show*, while flipping through channels, Al would always pass by a newscaster (also played by Yankovic) who would be reporting on a mundane, nonsensical, or just plain pointless "story". ("This just in...Ping-Pong spelled backwards is Gnop-Gnip.") - The improv show *Whose Line Is It Anyway?* features the game "Weird Newscasters", where the actors perform a quick bit of Kent Brockman News. Not to mention "Newsflash", where the twist is that the 'reporter on the scene' has no idea what he's reporting on. The two "anchors in the studio" usually open the sketch with a vaguely sexual comment before they "realize" the cameras are rolling. - Also used for the suggestion "Worst segues following tragic news stories". **Chip Esten:** ...And everybody died. Speaking of dying, I've been dying to see the new Bruce Willis flick. **Wayne Brady:** It was a big, big loss. Speaking of big, after this, *The Drew Carey Show* ! **Drew Carey:** You are all gonna pay. - Frank Zappa's "Billy The Mountain" from *Just Another Band from L.A.* has running commentary from (a parody of real-life) "right-wing fascist radical creepo pig" newscaster George Putnam: Word just in to the KTTV News Service undeniably links THIS MOUNTAIN and HIS WIFE to drug abuse and pay-offs as part of a San Joaquin Valley SMUT RING! However, we can assure parents in the Southern California area that a recent NARCOTICS CRACK-DOWN in Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lomita, will provide the SECRET EVIDENCE the Palmdale Grand Jury has needed to seek a CRIMINAL INDICTMENT, and pave the way for STIFFER LEGISLATION, increased FEDERAL AID, and AVERT A CRIPPLING STRIKE of Bartenders and Veterinarians throughout the INLAND EMPIRE. But it is This Reporter's Opinion that ETHELL is a FORMER COMMUNIST! - Body Count's "Now Sports" from *Body Count*: *This weekend, seventeen youths killed in gang homicides * Now sports - Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" from *I Can't Stand Still* is rife with the trope: *We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond * Who comes on at five She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye It's interesting when people die Give us dirty laundry - Promotions such as Valkyrie lucky enough to have Ashley America also get *The All American Report*. - The French puppet show *Les Guignols de l'Info*, running since 1988, is entirely about this trope. The anchor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor never misses an occasion to make snarky comments just after interviews or shows naïve agreement when explained horrible things by "officials" (like the marketing plan to sell...the War in Irak). He is not above bullying (puppets of) journalists of other channels who have been fired or suspended for some reason, like David Pujadas or recently Harry Roselmack, treating them like trainees who must learn from him. And sometimes, we switch to this *inside* the show, presented this time by Jean-Pierre Pernaut, the anchor of the 13 o'clock news on TF1 (a channel considered blatantly rightwing, pro-government, anti-strikers and anti-public servants) which has a tendency to show anecdotes about the "deep traditional France" or the holiday departures rather than important news. - *The Muppet Show* had the recurring "Muppet News Flash" sketch, where a myopic commentator would deliver some odd bit of news, for example a downpour of anvils or localized tidal waves hitting people, and then snidely comment on how ridiculous it was. Whatever it was would then happen to him. An alternate version had him interviewing some eccentric character played by that week's Special Guest. **Newsman:** Well, whenever big news breaks... you certainly won't hear it here. - In the '70s *Sesame Street* would frequently send reporter Kermit the Frog to cover the re-enactment of some classic fairy tale or nursery rhyme; these would never go as planned. - All newscasts in *Dinosaurs* are done by the same caster, Howard Handupme. While he would try to be professional, sometimes his skewed basis would be seen, or perhaps he would be just a little too candid. For example, in "Monster Under The Bed", when Baby Sinclair figures out a way to resolve the crisis without it having to devolve into a firefight, he keeps trying to downplay it until it becomes apparent that the situation will end peacefully, and not in a juicy bloodbath like he clearly hopes. Also, this bit from the first episode: **Howard:** A meteor three times the size of Earth is headed on a collision course that will result in the extinction of all life as we know it. *[is handed a paper]* This just in, "No, it's not." - The 'weird, random stories instead of anything important' version was a staple of radio satirists Bob & Ray, usually personified by inept roving reporter Wally Ballou (Bob). Sent to meet interesting people at the airport, Wally manages to find the guy who was headed to Paris to lobby for tunafish as the traditional meal for Bastille Day. Even when Ballou found himself pursuing an actual legitimate story, it quickly lapsed into absurdity - as when he discovered that a paperclip company was able to keep costs down because they only paid their workers 14 cents a week. ("How in the world could they live on that?" "Well, we don't pry into the personal lives of our employees, Wally...") - Additional amusing touch: Wally's broadcasts always started in mid-spiel. "-lly Ballou here..." - This sketch was parodied at least once on *The Al Franken Show* on Air America Radio. Wally Ballou is interviewing a British Airways passenger whose flight has been delayed, and Ballou remains oblivious that the person he's talking to, Muhammad al-Khazmani, is implied to be a terrorist hijacker. - The "News from Lake Wobegon" section of *A Prairie Home Companion* is based on this premise. - In *The Men from the Ministry* there's Newsreader John Curle/Bryan Martin, who often delivers the news of the problems One and Two's bungling has caused, always with complete serenity no matter how insane they are, and Forth Robinson, a Welsh reporter who often ends up witnessing the chaos the General Assistance Department causes first-hand. - Satirized by Bill Hicks in reference to the War on Drugs. (No prizes for guessing where he stood on the issue.) How about a *positive* news story on LSD, that would be newsworthy, don't ya think, just once? "Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy reduced to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather." - *Isaac Asimov's Robots*: After the Opening Narration, a newscaster for channel Galaxy 99 provides information on recent events, such as rioting in Boston and the arrival of Kelvin Amadero to Spacertown. - *Transformers* has "Around Cybertron", an Official Fanclub mini comic about the eponymous in-universe newscast. It features the various journalist characters from the franchise, typically reporting humorously on the major events of whatever the latest Fanclub storyline is. The comic (and show) thus spans several different universes in the franchise. - Shattered Glass Rook probably hews closest to the Kent Brockman model. Being a mirror-universe Autobot, he's actively psychotic and offered highly propagandistic reports where he expresses his disgust at the dastardly Decepticons saving orphanages. He also frequently cuts to reporter Punch giving exposes on the deeds of himself in a Paper-Thin Disguise. - *Mixels* has the Newzers, a whole tribe *themed* around newscasting. - In *Double Homework*, a news story about the class's escape from the avalanche signifies how the news media are changing their tune with regards to the protagonist: they mention the lives he saved, whereas they blamed him for 12 deaths after the incident from before. - A newscast from the "Multipimpcity" episode of *Pimp Lando* has shades of this, especially in the sports and weather sections (the sportscaster is more excited about his awesome wallpaper than reporting the sports). - *Hazbin Hotel* has 666 News, which is presented by resident Hate Sink Katie Killjoy and her much-abused co-anchor Tom Trench. They report on various gang wars, Tom makes lewd remarks and Katie nails him in the groin with hot coffee, there's a cannibal cooking segment with Jeffery Dahmer, and the crawl quickly segues from explaining a bad pun to the writer complaining about his personal life, his affair with a cleaning lady, and an orangutan at the zoo he hates. Of course, it's a news station in Hell, so this is to be expected. - This is pretty much the whole point of *Bird Town News* by Piemations. They insult people they are interviewing to their faces and start fights between them and they are blatantly more interested in getting opinions that are negative of the mayor. - *Penny Arcade* occasionally features stories by anchorman Randy Pinkwood, who will report on gaming news with the comic's characteristic farcical style. He ends each one by making some sort of reference to his incredible, and often bizarre, sexual escapades. (His name itself is, of course, a Double Entendre.) - *Something*Positive* had one strip starting with a news anchorwoman saying: "... And that's all for the Baby Pageant Massacre" and then segues into a report about Kharisma getting arrested. - The Nifty News 50 team from *Sluggy Freelance* fits this trope pretty darn well (one of them is even named "Qwirky"). **Reporter:** We have just received word that news is breaking on the set of *Sluggy Freelance*. We are not sure what the news is at this time, but we wanted to beat the other networks to it. I'm sure we will have more information *any* moment. *[pause]* **Reporter:** Well, while we are waiting, let's speculate wildly. Is Torg forming a cult? Is Riff a lesbian in a man's body? And what happened to that annoying "Sam" character? Foul play? - This *VG Cats* strip. **Anchor:** In other news, I'm not wearing any pants. More on this after the weather. - *The Onion*: - While reporter Carol Brown from *El Goonish Shive* is typically a bit more professional than this trope implies, she does occasionally deliver a proper silly news broadcast. Some examples: - She once proposed that reports of an "evil monkey" attacking a high school could be the work of an evil monkey trainer determined to terrorize our children. She then quickly dismissed this theory, and admits it was only an excuse to show a silly graphic of a Dastardly Whiplash. - After reporting on an attack on a public school she quickly managed to convey all of the information that she had access to, as many details of the incident had been covered up by The Men in Black. At this point, she openly admits that she is out of things to report on, and is only interviewing random bystanders as an attempt to fill time. - A news anchor in *Tales Of Gnosis College* shifts from a national security story to a discussion of deep issues about the meaning of human life to the local sports report, treating all as being about equally serious. - Fox News in *Ansem Retort*. "More on this, at eleven. What, it's eleven? Now? What the fuck? Do we have a crackhead running the teleprompter or something?" - Following a daring mission in which a Dalek Conquest Army General invades *Skaro* in an attempt to assassinate the Emperor, which *considerably* thins the Praetorian Guard and enormously damages Skaro City, the next day's biggest spot of news is the announcement of Skaro's Largest Kwalorblmn Fruit. - Act III of *Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog* gives us two rather hammy TV news anchors whose coverage of Captain Hammer's "inspirational acts of heroism" segues neatly into the following gem — "Next up, who's gay?" (For extra humor, the next line is sung by Captain Hammer's Camp Gay Fanboy.) They are later shown weeping uncontrollably on the air over ||~~Penny~~ What's-her-name's death||. - *Economy Watch*: News programs are used to provide exposition from time to time, often featuring different channels and hosts. 3 news hosts featured are Jimmy Garcia, Pepita and Frederick Jones. - Segments on the *Onion News Network* tends to run with this, especially *In The Know* and *Today Now!*. - *Manitowoc Minute*: The Manitowoc Minute Man frequently digresses into anecdotes about his personal life, which are all usually stereotypically Midwestern things to do(ice fishing for walleyes, hunting deer, drinking Old Fashions, etc.) He's also not the most professional of newscasters, often adding his personal opinions into the mix. - Cecil in *Welcome to Night Vale*, who reports the constant horrors of the town calmly and almost cheerfully and frequently interjects personal opinions. Things he's dropped the smooth radio voice for include whenever Steve Carlsburg, Desert Bluffs, or the Apache Tracker (who he hates with a passion), reacting to cat videos, and waxing lyrical over Carlos the scientist, who he is in love with and describes as perfect, beautiful, etc whenever he comes up. ||Whenever something big happens, such as Carlos calling him in episode 16, almost dying and then returning his affections in episode 25, and their first date in episode 27, then it will invariably hijack Cecil's attention and subsequently the focus of the episode.|| Even when he's not dropping his radio voice, he'll imitate the original speaker if he's quoting someone, and frequently waxes poetic seemingly at random, which frequently comes across as extremely creepy. - End of the world, from CollegeHumor - The LoadingReadyRun podcast Qwerpline has this as its central premise. - The Character Blog "The Diary of Ralph Dibney" portrays the Daily Planet as this, with Clark Kent's obituary for Dibney being mostly off-topic rambling about how, from Superman's point of view, it would really suck if he didn't have his powers anymore—hypothetically, anyway, because he's not Superman. Also, they apparently do basically nothing but articles about Superman, to the point that they published items with titles like "Superman Gets In Fight, Again" and "What Superman Had For Breakfast." Most of the currently-depowered Clark's output currently consists of articles like "Ouch, I Stubbed My Toe" or "I'm Depressed." - The central conceit of *Some More News* is that The News Dude (played by Cody Johnston) constantly presents Real Life news in this manner in order to provoke laughs from the audience. The News Dude is constantly disheveled, presents news in an over-the-top, bombastic manner, speaks to inanimate objects, has no sense of (or pretense of) objectivity at all and frequently dives into sarcasm, crude sex humor and petty insults towards the subject of the week's broadcast. - Stan Blather from *Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers* is a parody of both Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite. - Tovah Hernandez Carlson on *Clerks: The Animated Series* is a newscaster of the monotone variety. - The *Codename: Kids Next Door* episode "Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.O.U.R." featured Nick and Chip, annoying, pointlessly judgmental reporters whose voices are reminiscent of Howard Cosell and Harry Carey no matter what's happening — until they get scared, which promptly reveals that at least in Nick's case, the monotone isn't his real voice. - They appeared in quite a few episodes after that, providing commentary the bowling tournament in Operation: M.I.S.S.I.O.N., the Vaseball game set up by the bullies in Operation: B.R.E.A.K.U.P., the butt-busting contest in Operation: S.A.F.E.T.Y., and even the scavenger hunt in Operation: I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S. - *Cow and Chicken* had an instance when everybody in the world believes the planet is about to get hit by a comet (it's actually a golf ball suspended in front of an observatory's telescope). With only a short time before the comet "Dad's Ball" flattens us all into pancakes, people all over the world are doing things they always wanted to do. Today, a man married himself (cut to the Red Guy marrying himself). And I always wanted to do THIS! (climbs on the desk and takes off his suit to reveal a weenie costume underneath) Look at me! I'm Weenie Suit Man! - *Darkwing Duck* features news anchor Tom Lockjaw, arguably inspired by the same real-life personality as Kent Brockman, the famous Tom Brokaw. Lockjaw is considerably less often used than Brockman, but is nonetheless very much a whimsical addition to the show. - *Drawn Together*, of course, has several versions which, like *every other* aspect of the show, is deranged and nonsensical. The anchors usually state something that either Crosses the Line Twice or inexplicably correlates to the characters directly. - *DuckTales (2017)*: While Roxanne Featherly maintains her composure during a report on first contact with an alien civilization (who, at this point, haven't made any hostile moves), the news crawl across the bottom of the screen urges viewers to panic. Roxanne notices this and sighs, "C'mon, Carl!" A few minutes later, once the invasion proper begins, the news crawl reads "Carl was right, we're doomed!" - A recurring character in *F is for Family* is Jim Jeffords, who is not only a local news anchor but also hosts multiple television programs, including the Hobo Jojo show. - *The Fairly OddParents!* has Chet Ubetcha, who like all the other grown ups, is very dim. He's also very short, and has size issues. He often reports on the aftermath of Timmy's wishes. He has a daughter called Yvette who takes his job when the kids take over the world. In the episode, "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker!", his mother, Nanette, was also an anchorwoman, and in the episode "The Good Old Days!", his grandfather, Chester, was a radio announcer. - *Family Guy*: - The reporters are constantly blurting out odd things that they would never say if they remembered that the cameras were still on. They also have a blatant hatred for one another ("We now go live to Diane being a bitch. Diane?"). During an early episode where Death was incapacitated, they took the opportunity to get violent with each other. - Also poked fun at is the tendency of news organizations to relegate minorities to support staff, with "Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa", and black weatherman Ollie Williams and his "Blacku-Weather Forecast," where he just yells out a succinct description. ("ISS GON' RAIN!" "ISS RAININ' SIDEWAYS!") Apparently he talks like that all the time, as demonstrated in his cooking segment ("EGGO!"), his helicopter traffic report ("EVERYBODY LOOKS LIKE ANTS!") and his adopt-a-pet segment. ("WHO WANTS THIS DAWG?!") One episode "explains" Ollie's speech patterns as the result of alcoholism. - The second episode of *Family Guy* involves the TV transmitter getting destroyed, taking out TV for all of Quahog. This results in the following situation: **Tom:** With the cable out in Quahog, it doesn't really matter what we say. I'm the Lord Jesus Christ. Think I'll go get drunk and beat up some midgets. What about you, Diane? **Diane:** Well, Tom, I just plain don't like black people. *[the two chuckle]* **Camera Operator:** Uh, guys, we're still on in Boston. *[cut back to Tom and Diane, who have Oh, Crap! looks on their faces]* - Then there was when the transmitter was fixed: **Tom:** Well, Diane, that last news report was so good, I'm going to give you a spanking. **Diane:** *[playfully]* Oh, Tom, I don't think your wife will appreciate that. **Tom:** Come on, Diane. That frigid cow lives in Quahog. She can't hear what I'm saying. **Camera Operator:** Actually, we're back on the air in Quahog. *[Cut back to Tom and Diane, who have Oh, Crap! looks on their faces again, but this time, Tom has a wooden paddle in his hand and Diane is bent over]* - Drunk Billy was the Quahog 5 News Traffic Cam helicopter pilot. In the episode "Dial Meg for Murder", Drunk Billy tragically dies in a fatal collision with a highway overpass. In anticipation for this moment, colleagues Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons present a pre-prepared collection of accidents and near misses from Billys career. - When Meg got an internship at the news studio, Tom showed her how they put together "interviews" with celebrities who are too busy to come to the studio. They cut between Tom in the studio asking questions and almost-appropriate clips of various films the actor has appeared in. The Dustin Hoffman "interview" is already bad enough, but it ends with a clip from *Hook* where Hoffman demands "Bring me Peter Pan!" in response to Tom asking if there's anything he could ever do for him which only warrants a chuckle from Tom. - There's also the fact that Neil and Meg each get to present a report of their own. Neil's is just footage of Meg kissing him when they thought they were going to die in a newscopter crash. Meg's is her rebuttal, insulting him and interviewing various people to prove that she never would have kissed him if she didn't literally believe she was about to die. The anchors (and producers, who either didn't prescreen them or didn't care) treat them as any other human interest piece. - One episode shows Tom backstage practicing in front of a mirror. Granted, there's no indication he's practicing for a *real* news story, but after trying out a few more serious takes, he settles on "What's the President doing in this casket? Find out after the break!" - *Futurama* has co-anchors Morbo and Linda. Morbo claims to be a scout for his species' upcoming alien invasion, and regularly voices his hatred and contempt for all things - especially humanity - on air. His co-anchor, Linda, always responds to his threats with an empty-headed laugh. **Morbo:** *[all the time]* Morbo WILL DESTROY YOU! **Morbo:** *[presiding over a presidential debate]* Morbo will now introduce tonight's candidates. Puny human #1. Puny human #2. And Morbo's good friend Richard Nixon . - *Generator Rex* has the tabloid news show "Ultimate Exposure", which is also the focus of the episode "Exposed." - Hector Ramirez, the parody of investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera from *G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero*, *The Transformers*, *Jem* and *Inhumanoids*. - *Gravity Falls*: - Toby Determined who owns, reports for, and edits, a local newspaper called the *Gravity Falls Gossiper*, and does work for TV and radio from time to time, but is widely considered too inept for his chosen career. In his first speaking role, he tried to interview Stan only to be told "Your microphone's a turkey baster" and a headline for his paper reads "Reporter calls mom". - On the opposite end of the spectrum is Shandra Jimenez, "A real reporter", who covers all of the events that happen in town. The problem is that Shandra's a normal newscaster who's stuck a weird place like Gravity Falls. When the mayor dies in "The Stanchurian Candidate", she breaks down in tears because it's the first piece of real news she's had to report in a while. - *Jellystone!*: Snagglepuss is the local news anchor. Depending on the Writer, he's either the Only Sane Man or is part of that week's shenanigans. When reporting on escaped convicts who simply dug out of jail, he ends his report with "Our town is truly the worst." - Hank Anchorman from *Johnny Test*. - In an episode of *Legion of Super Heroes (2006)*, two announcers cover the 343rd Intergalactic Olympics fairly well... but when a brawl between the winners, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Fatal Five break out, they cover it with no change in tone at all, even stopping for commercial breaks midway through the fight. - In *The Oblongs*, the local TV news show is completely biased in favor of the mayor, who in turn is completely biased in favor of the town rich. - In an episode of *Rugrats*, the television breaks. The babies get a hold of a large box and cut a hole in it to substitute it. Chuckie hosts the evening news show, but ends all of his reports with "Why did this happen? Nobody knows." And then it gets better as Phil and Lil whisper insults about each other to Chuckie. - *Sheep in the Big City* had two anchors, one of whom would give "unrelated" stories that were obviously related, once repeating the same story. - *The Simpsons* provides the Trope Namer, anchorman Kent Brockman, who pretty single-handedly popularized the trope. He blatantly skews reports to fit his political or personal interests, and always brings his personal views to a story. He's been fired mid-story *and* quit mid-story at least once. *Everything* he does falls into unprofessionalism. - He often exhibits the Worst News Judgment Ever: - Sometimes we only see the tail end of a report, which gives just enough information to leave you wondering what the hell just happened. - Sometimes he can't help himself from overhyping otherwise boring news stories: - In "Homer Loves Flanders": **Kent:** Tonight, on *Eye on Springfield*: Just miles from your doorstep, *hundreds* of men are given weapons and trained to kill. The government calls it the "army", but a more alarmist name would be... *The Killbot Factory*. - *Springfield Action News* achieves this through use of Cue Card Pause: "Tonight's top stories: A tremendous *explosion*! ...in the price of lumber. President Reagan *dyes!* ...his hair." Kent then hypes up a "killer storm" bearing down on Springfield; the death count is actually zero, but it's "ready to shoot right up." - In "Das Bus", after the family watches a ridiculously protracted epic film about Noah's Ark, Kent decides to do a little Credits Pushback — and does it before the credits even *start*: **God:** The secret of life is — **Kent:** You've seen the movie — now meet a real-life Noah! Only this Noah has been accused of *killing* two of every animal! Coming up next, on *A.M. Springfield* ! - Sometimes he's just plain unprofessional: - And sometimes he's actually pretty professional, but his editors and crewmates screw up: - In "Lisa the Beauty Queen", Kent tries to pull up footage of Lisa losing her Little Miss Springfield crown, but instead gets a baby goat getting fed a bottle of milk. He then tries to pull up an interview he did with Pope John Paul II — and gets the baby goat again. This is what causes him to quit mid-broadcast. - Kent has an ongoing feud with his helicopter newsman Arnie Pye in the Sky. Sometimes Kent can keep it together, only for Arnie to pull the feud on air: - In "You Kent Always Say What You Want", Kent had made a hard-hitting editorial on the Iraq War, but the network forces him to shelve it because one of its sponsors had just sold its millionth ice cream cone (to Homer, of course) and instead makes him interview Homer. Then Kent shows his unprofessionalism when Homer spills coffee on his lap and he shouts a swear word on the air. - *Sonic Boom* has achorbird Soar the Eagle, who loves to complain about his private life while reporting news: - This is how he begins a report in "The Evil Dr. Orbot": **Soar**: Breaking news. Villainy, like my blood pressure, is on the rise. - While doing a report about Justin Beaver, he complaints about his daughter finding the singer cooler than him: **Soar**: Girls everywhere are going gaga over this teen heartthrob. They just can't get enough of him. And suddenly, "Dad the Anchorbird" isn't cool anymore. Well, maybe Justin Beaver will foot the bill for private school instead of buying those golf clubs he really wanted! - He also took the opportunity to take a potshot at his ex-wife while reporting the beginning of the race in "If You Build Them, They Will Race": **Soar**: And they're off! Sonic takes an early lead! And in other unsurprising news, grass is green, winter is cold, and my ex-wife is taking the beach house. - *South Park*: - Johnny Elaine, the realistic fish head from *SpongeBob SquarePants*. Also the regular newscasters (Bob and Barbara), who tend to laugh at whatever they report the few times they've shown up. *[picture of a box of kittens in the corner of the screen, sound clip of a cat meowing]* **Barbara:** *[smiling]* ... and there were no survivors. Back to you, Bob. **Bob:** Thank you, Barbara. **Barbara:** Thank *you*, Bob. - *The Tick* - events on the show are often reported by news anchor Brian Pinhead (pronounced 'Pin-ADE'). - *Ugly Americans* has a young, attractive, female news anchor who is always smiling cheerfully, even when reporting the most horrific things. - The Trope Namer is based on Jerry Dunphy, the well-known Los Angeles newscaster who spent forty-two years (1960 until his death in 2002) as an anchor and reporter in California. Appropriately, Dunphy fulfilled this role in a few movies As Himself. Dunphy was reportedly flattered by what he considered an Affectionate Parody and even jokingly introduced himself as Kent Brockman to friends after *The Simpsons* started airing. - There should have been a pause in here somewhere: "Dana is off tonight, he was murdered and set on fire while celebrating his birthday." note : However, the Dana he was talking about, co-anchor Dana King, is a woman. Still probably could've been phrased better, though. - Of the Worst News Judgment Ever variety, we have this Wild Teen Party. Obviously, it sucks that a house was trashed by some punk kids, but it doesn't become national news worthy of editorials and multiple headlines just because the house had belonged to Robert Frost. - This reporter outs herself as the owner of the medical marijuana store she just covered, then comes out with this: "Fuck it, I quit." (shrugs and walks off) - In an incident that fits this trope, but is not funny at all, on July 15, 1974, Christine Chubbuck, morning host for WXLT in Sarasota, Florida, began her show by covering three national news stories and then a local restaurant shooting from the previous day. The film reel of the restaurant shooting had jammed and would not run, so Chubbuck shrugged it off and said, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first attempted suicide." She then drew a revolver from her pocket and shot herself behind her right ear, killing herself. - Possibly an urban legend, but the story has it that a British newsreader once reported that a royal visit to Cyprus could "fill the Greek community with concern", having bet a friend that he could work the phrase "Phil the Greek" into a story about the Royal Family. - Matías Prats Jr, legendary Spanish news anchor, is made of this trope, due to his now toned-down habit of throwing puns around and an open mic catching him yelling "BUT WHAT IS THIS!!??" when he couldn't hear a coworker (an event that you can watch here). Never Live It Down, indeed. - MSNBC anchorwoman Mika Brzezinski refused to read a story about Paris Hilton. Brzezinski also laughed after learning about a chlorine gas attack at a furry convention. - Dave Scott of local station KUSI in San Diego is notorious among viewers for his segments that often manage to go bizarrely and self-indulgently off the rails: - "Hundreds gathered today to say their final goodbyes to this fallen Louisville police officer... Deedee Megadoodoo." *"Well, this reporter was... possibly a little hasty earlier and would like to... reaffirm his allegiance to this country and its human president. It may not be perfect, but it's still the best government we have. For now. Oh, yes, and by the way, the spacecraft still in extreme danger, may not make it back, attempting risky re-entry, blah blah blah blah blah. We'll see you after the movie."*

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyNews

Satire/Parody/Pastiche - TV Tropes There seems to be confusion here, elsewhere on the internet and in the wider world about what *satire* actually is. To help make things a little less complicated, here's a handy-dandy breakdown of three useful words for you to cut out and keep. **Parody** (also "Spoof") Parody is the practice of copying the mannerisms, style or appearance of a work or its author's voice to make a point about that work (or sometimes unrelated other works). By adopting the guise of the attacked work, the artist reveals its inherent ridiculousness. Parody is generally gentler than satire and less venomous. Indeed, it is often good-natured or affectionate. It only attacks the style and content of a fictional work and not real-life events. It is possible to use a parody as the basis for a satire, however. See also Parody Tropes. **Pastiche** A pastiche (from Italian *pasticcio*, which is like a cross between meat pie and lasagna) is something that copies or mimics elements of another work's style, possibly in a humorous way, but usually just as an affectionate nod to another artist's work. While the artist may have made the pastiche in homage, the work itself does not necessarily make any points, favorable or unfavorable, about the original. In a sense, it is a collection of references. See also Musical Pastiche. Not to be confused with Parodied Trope. If a parody, satire or pastiche is merely copying something line by line, scene by scene, image by image, then accusations of **Plagiarism** will quickly arise.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodySatirePastiche

Parodied Trope - TV Tropes Sometimes it's just fun to make fun of a trope. It's fun to screw around with it or find the humor in those tropes. Thus we have the Parodied Trope. Writers can even spoof their own tropes as a form of Self-Deprecation. Sometimes this comes in the form of an Exaggerated Trope, or even a Downplayed Trope. Sometimes it overlaps with Zig-Zagging Trope, Inverted Trope, Averted Trope, or Subverted Trope (if the context makes it clear the aversion or subversion is a joke). If the trope is called on by the author, but still used, it's a Lampshade Hanging. Compare other kinds of Playing with a Trope, Satire/Parody/Pastiche, Parody, Played for Laughs, Spoof Aesop. Not to be confused with Parody Tropes (a list of tropes that are parodies themselves). ## Tropes that are direct parodies of other tropes. Parodies go on the left, original tropes on the right. ## Examples: - About anything and everything that's referenced in and is not part of *Deadpool's* main, or more serious story arcs. A notable thing is that *Deadpool* not only spoofs and parodies every single comic book trope and cliche known to mankind, but anything that's pop-culture relevant, *including* pop culture itself is jabbed at. - In *Nightwing (Infinite Frontier)*, one issue has Barbara Gordon tossed into a refrigerated van in order to get at Dick Grayson. When she contacts Dick, she grumbles that they "fridged her". - The *Hetalia: Axis Powers* fanfic *Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità*: Let's just say the author parodied Hammerspace *several* times. From clothes to books to Death Notes to flowers, the characters' backs can store them all. "It's alright Italia-kun. I always bring spare cosplays with me." He reached into some sort of secret compartment behind his back, pulling out an identical outfit to the one the brunet was currently wearing. Seriously, how do anime characters have such an ability? Japan disappeared into a bathroom for a short amount of time before reappearing, now clad in a sharp black suit and tie with a white dress shirt and black pants, taking hexagonal glasses from his pocketor wherever anime characters store all their stuffbefore putting them on. "Humph." The larger scoffed back. He then reached into the magical space all anime characters have, whipping out a book conveniently titled 'How to Catch a Runaway Italian'. Both reached into the magical space all anime characters have, extracting black notebooksJapan's having unidentifiable symbols on its cover as Italy's had 'Death Note ' clearly printed on it in gothic lettersbefore taking out pens and colored pencils as well, opening the pages before scrawling in them. Giggling, the auburn reached into the magical space all anime characters have, an exquisite bouquet of utmost grandeur popping out from behind his back. "Tada!" - *Those Lacking Spines* loves to parody tropes as much as it loves deconstructing them. - *Tropic Thunder* spoofed loads of moviemaking tropes and some war movie tropes. - Everything Mel Brooks does. - Since *Soapdish* is a parody of Soap Operas, many of their tropes also get spoofed: Back from the Dead (a decapitated character is brought back courtesy of Magic Plastic Surgery), Soap Opera Disease (the mysterious illness making a character mute is revealed as Brain Fever), Luke, I Am Your Father/Absurdly Youthful Mother (one character is revealed to be the mother of a character only a few years younger than her)... and those are just the ones parodied in the Soap Within a Show. The performers' personal lives include an unwittingly incestuous Love Triangle (an actress, her ex, and the daughter she bore him without telling him), Luke, I Am Your Father/Family Relationship Switcheroo (said actress told her daughter she was her niece until she unwittingly started dating her own father)... and more. - *Bad Boys II* spoofed Flashed-Badge Hijack when Marcus waves down a car (driven by Michael Bay in a Creator Cameo), and Mike says that car would suck for a Chase Scene, so they should get a better one. - *Starship Troopers* parodies War Is Glorious. The film is an in-universe propaganda movie about a futuristic society locked in a brutal war against a faceless, implacable enemy. It's a fascist utopia *as a fascist would envision it*, so to modern audiences, the result is vacuous and horrifying. - Every *Discworld* novel ever written parodies a common fantasy trope or six. - "Muffin the Vampire Baker", the most shameless parody to have appeared in *Sluggy Freelance* up until that date, went so overboard for much of one strip that the trope it was actually parodying has to be identified as *parody itself* (especially of characters). - *Glitch Techs* spoofs I Know Mortal Kombat in the episodse "Karate Trainer". When Miko tries to help her little sister become better at karate, she uses an over-the-top fighting game that naturally has nothing to do with real martial arts. While Lexi does improve a bit, she is ultimately unable to use what the game showed her in an actual match. **The Master**: Your Karate is weak! **Lexi**: I assure you, chicken man, this is *not* karate! - *Kappa Mikey* spoofs the Impractically Fancy Outfit trope in one of the last episodes, "Fashion Frenzy". Mikey and Lilly go overboard with all kinds of crazy clothing designs when trying to get their ideas bought by a well-known clothing designer. This included a cement dress and clothing made of garbage and food. - *South Park* of course makes fun of loads of tropes and plots from All Just a Dream to Zombie Apocalypse. - *The Simpsons*, too, makes fun of plenty of tropes, and in fact one of its sendups of Retirony is where the trope name comes from. - *The Tick*: - *Star vs. the Forces of Evil* spoofs Magical Girl Queenliness Test. Star is sent to Earth precisely because she's proven she can't handle the inherited wand very well. This is more for her education than anything. Once she loses Glossaryck, her mom had to resort to calling in Baby as an alternative means of evaluating her. After defeating Toffee, Star has proved herself worthy to return to Mewni, and can finally move on to the next chapter as future Queen of Mewni. - *Ed, Edd n Eddy* spoofs "Join Us" Drone. Nazz invites Ed and Edd to a barbecue; Edd accepts the invite first, and he and Nazz try to persuade Ed, who thinks Edd is experimenting on the kids, to join them by saying "Join us, Ed" over and over again.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodiedTrope

Parodied Trope - TV Tropes Sometimes it's just fun to make fun of a trope. It's fun to screw around with it or find the humor in those tropes. Thus we have the Parodied Trope. Writers can even spoof their own tropes as a form of Self-Deprecation. Sometimes this comes in the form of an Exaggerated Trope, or even a Downplayed Trope. Sometimes it overlaps with Zig-Zagging Trope, Inverted Trope, Averted Trope, or Subverted Trope (if the context makes it clear the aversion or subversion is a joke). If the trope is called on by the author, but still used, it's a Lampshade Hanging. Compare other kinds of Playing with a Trope, Satire/Parody/Pastiche, Parody, Played for Laughs, Spoof Aesop. Not to be confused with Parody Tropes (a list of tropes that are parodies themselves). ## Tropes that are direct parodies of other tropes. Parodies go on the left, original tropes on the right. ## Examples: - About anything and everything that's referenced in and is not part of *Deadpool's* main, or more serious story arcs. A notable thing is that *Deadpool* not only spoofs and parodies every single comic book trope and cliche known to mankind, but anything that's pop-culture relevant, *including* pop culture itself is jabbed at. - In *Nightwing (Infinite Frontier)*, one issue has Barbara Gordon tossed into a refrigerated van in order to get at Dick Grayson. When she contacts Dick, she grumbles that they "fridged her". - The *Hetalia: Axis Powers* fanfic *Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità*: Let's just say the author parodied Hammerspace *several* times. From clothes to books to Death Notes to flowers, the characters' backs can store them all. "It's alright Italia-kun. I always bring spare cosplays with me." He reached into some sort of secret compartment behind his back, pulling out an identical outfit to the one the brunet was currently wearing. Seriously, how do anime characters have such an ability? Japan disappeared into a bathroom for a short amount of time before reappearing, now clad in a sharp black suit and tie with a white dress shirt and black pants, taking hexagonal glasses from his pocketor wherever anime characters store all their stuffbefore putting them on. "Humph." The larger scoffed back. He then reached into the magical space all anime characters have, whipping out a book conveniently titled 'How to Catch a Runaway Italian'. Both reached into the magical space all anime characters have, extracting black notebooksJapan's having unidentifiable symbols on its cover as Italy's had 'Death Note ' clearly printed on it in gothic lettersbefore taking out pens and colored pencils as well, opening the pages before scrawling in them. Giggling, the auburn reached into the magical space all anime characters have, an exquisite bouquet of utmost grandeur popping out from behind his back. "Tada!" - *Those Lacking Spines* loves to parody tropes as much as it loves deconstructing them. - *Tropic Thunder* spoofed loads of moviemaking tropes and some war movie tropes. - Everything Mel Brooks does. - Since *Soapdish* is a parody of Soap Operas, many of their tropes also get spoofed: Back from the Dead (a decapitated character is brought back courtesy of Magic Plastic Surgery), Soap Opera Disease (the mysterious illness making a character mute is revealed as Brain Fever), Luke, I Am Your Father/Absurdly Youthful Mother (one character is revealed to be the mother of a character only a few years younger than her)... and those are just the ones parodied in the Soap Within a Show. The performers' personal lives include an unwittingly incestuous Love Triangle (an actress, her ex, and the daughter she bore him without telling him), Luke, I Am Your Father/Family Relationship Switcheroo (said actress told her daughter she was her niece until she unwittingly started dating her own father)... and more. - *Bad Boys II* spoofed Flashed-Badge Hijack when Marcus waves down a car (driven by Michael Bay in a Creator Cameo), and Mike says that car would suck for a Chase Scene, so they should get a better one. - *Starship Troopers* parodies War Is Glorious. The film is an in-universe propaganda movie about a futuristic society locked in a brutal war against a faceless, implacable enemy. It's a fascist utopia *as a fascist would envision it*, so to modern audiences, the result is vacuous and horrifying. - Every *Discworld* novel ever written parodies a common fantasy trope or six. - "Muffin the Vampire Baker", the most shameless parody to have appeared in *Sluggy Freelance* up until that date, went so overboard for much of one strip that the trope it was actually parodying has to be identified as *parody itself* (especially of characters). - *Glitch Techs* spoofs I Know Mortal Kombat in the episodse "Karate Trainer". When Miko tries to help her little sister become better at karate, she uses an over-the-top fighting game that naturally has nothing to do with real martial arts. While Lexi does improve a bit, she is ultimately unable to use what the game showed her in an actual match. **The Master**: Your Karate is weak! **Lexi**: I assure you, chicken man, this is *not* karate! - *Kappa Mikey* spoofs the Impractically Fancy Outfit trope in one of the last episodes, "Fashion Frenzy". Mikey and Lilly go overboard with all kinds of crazy clothing designs when trying to get their ideas bought by a well-known clothing designer. This included a cement dress and clothing made of garbage and food. - *South Park* of course makes fun of loads of tropes and plots from All Just a Dream to Zombie Apocalypse. - *The Simpsons*, too, makes fun of plenty of tropes, and in fact one of its sendups of Retirony is where the trope name comes from. - *The Tick*: - *Star vs. the Forces of Evil* spoofs Magical Girl Queenliness Test. Star is sent to Earth precisely because she's proven she can't handle the inherited wand very well. This is more for her education than anything. Once she loses Glossaryck, her mom had to resort to calling in Baby as an alternative means of evaluating her. After defeating Toffee, Star has proved herself worthy to return to Mewni, and can finally move on to the next chapter as future Queen of Mewni. - *Ed, Edd n Eddy* spoofs "Join Us" Drone. Nazz invites Ed and Edd to a barbecue; Edd accepts the invite first, and he and Nazz try to persuade Ed, who thinks Edd is experimenting on the kids, to join them by saying "Join us, Ed" over and over again.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Parodied

Parody Tropes - TV Tropes Parodies, also called spoofs, imitate the mannerisms, style or appearance of a work in a silly way for comic effect. Of course, there's more than "pun" type of comedy... See also Meta Trope Intro for a comparison with many other ways that a trope can be used. **Categories:**

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyTropes

Parody Commercial - TV Tropes *"FUCK YOU, BALTIMORE! If youre dumb enough to buy a new car this weekend, youre a big enough schmuck to come to Big Bill Hells Cars!* This comedy trope is a kissing cousin of both the Show Within a Show and the Commercial Switcheroo. Typically placed immediately at the end of a segment, it seems like the show you're watching has just cut to the mid-show commercial break. However, it quickly becomes evident (ideally in about the time it takes most folks to start getting out of their La-Z-Boy) that the commercial is actually a fake-out, for an absurd or grotesque product. It may also figure into the plot, especially in shows about people in Show Business who would do anything for a break. When done as part of a Sketch Comedy show, the product can be pretty much anything. When done as part of a more typical comedy, the mock product usually ties into the plot of the show in some fashion. In any case, the commercial itself is a practical field guide to various Advertising Tropes, although this tends to be more pronounced in the case of a Sketch Comedy. Compare/contrast with Show Within a Show, Commercial Switcheroo and Trailer Spoof. Real Trailer, Fake Movie is a subtrope. For more parodic content, see what The Other Wiki has to say about parody commercials. ## Examples: - Orangina has made a series of commercials that parody various commercial types - for instance, Orangina body deodorant. - This infomercial for Steampunk rayguns from Weta Workshops. - Believe it or not, the legendary (in the Los Angeles area, at least) Cal Worthington "And his dog, Spot" ads began life as this. There had been a competing chain of used-car dealerships that had the host of the ads bring his dog, Storm, into every commercial, usually sleeping on the hood of one of the featured cars. Worthington, to take the mickey, go the other chain one better and make something memorable, had a parade of different animals that he all claimed to be "his dog Spot". - The *Black Butler* bonus episode has a parody commercial for Funtom Company dog food and a parody preview for "The Black Sushi Chef" (based off of a parody image in volume 5). - *Magikano* and *My Bride is a Mermaid* (both directed by Seiji Kishi) parodies commercials reminiscent to the way it's done in Western Animation to get a joke across. Goes something like this: Have a problem? Then, have we the product just for you! See "Before" and "After"; This Product Will Change Your Life so well that you've just gotta have it! But Wait, There's More!: If you call now, you'll get a useless Free Prize at the Bottom! And all of this for only 9980 yen! So, what are you waiting for? Operators Are Standing By! Call now! To order, please dial 0000-4155-XXXX-55XX-0000 today! Side Effects Include... sneezing, coughing, vomiting, fainting, zit faces, heart attacks and turning into a green-skinned monster and may vary according to its user. Unreadable Disclaimers or Rattling Off Legals may apply. - *Blend-S*: The end of the second commercial break for episode 4 of the anime has a commercial advertising for a new series in *Manga Time Kirara* called *The S-dere Maid and the Weakling Butler*, using the same format that Anthology Comic usually advertises for series. But when Dino interrupts the end of the commercial, viewers starts to recall that plot is what Miu has in mind before the commercial break. - *Himouto! Umaru-chan R* episode 5 opens with an ad for Diamond Service, the company that Umaru's brother Taihei works for. At the end of the ad Umaru drops in to deliver the traditional "Our program was brought to you by this excellent sponsor!" message; Taihei asks if his company is really sponsoring the anime, and a caption appears overhead reading "Nope." - Brazilian comedy shows are famous for including such commercials. Most notably, the comedy group Casseta & Planeta, which initially made fun of actual commercials, eventually created fictional products sold by the "monopolist megaconglomerate" Organizações Tabajara. At a certain point, a rival company, Grupo Capivara, appeared. Since it was essentially the same thing as the original, they were sold to a working-class man, "Seu Creysson" (parodying the fact that a Brazilian airline was sold by $1) and started selling products focused on poor people, such as a "palmtop" which consisted of writing on the person's hand. - The most recent examples of the trope in Brazil, long after the end of Casseta & Planeta's show, are featured in *Tá no Ar*, a show that mocks tropes commonly used in current Brazilian television. - The local MTV comedy show *Hermes e Renato* also featured sketches parodying television programs and commercials. - Tim Wilson's *Hillbilly Homeboy* album ends with a fake commercial advertising an album called "Love Songs for Losers". - The Firesign Theatre's albums are full of these. - On "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger", Lieutenant Bradshaw gives a commercial for Loosener's Castor Oil Flakes "with real glycerin vibrafoam! It doesn't just wash your mouth out—it cleans the whole system, right on down the line." - Their commercial for Bear Whiz bear, from *Everything You Know is Wrong*, is considered a classic: "As my daddy says, 'son, it's in the water—that's why it's yellow'" - Boobie Chew is a hormone-filled gum that's supposed to make your breasts grow. "Even works for men!" - Cheech & Chong's "Peter Rooter" from *Los Cochinos*, which parodies the Roto-Rooter commercial jingle. - Chris Ware's "Acme Novelty Library" comics contain tons of fake ads, most of which look like old-time comic book or magazine ads. - The characters of Rusty Brown and Chalky White originally appeared in ads for the "GI Jim Collector's Club". In later books, they became main characters of extended stories. - The Simpsons comics have had quite a few fake ads over the years. Each one usually has had a small something give it away, such as "THIS IS NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT" appearing in small print above an ad of Frosty Krusty Flakes (in place of the standard "ADVERTISEMENT"), an ad for Krusty's Three-Fingered Fireworks stating the offer is not valid in the following states and goes on to list all 50 state abbreviations of the USA, or some having an "This offer void after September 1968" disclaimer or similar. - The very first DC Comics issue of *The Powerpuff Girls* (Cartoon Network Starring #1) was an issue length commercial for Mostess Snack Cakes, a spoof of some of the genre's serious superheroes shilling for Hostess in 70s comics. - *Beauty Queens* is full of parody commercials for products like Breast in Show, "Because, 'you're perfect just the way you are,' is what your guidance counselor says. And she's an alcoholic,'" and TV shows like *Captains Bodacious IV: Badder and More Bodacious*. - *MARZENA*: Transhuman Ambrosia has a whole chapter dedicated to this, we got Tresisda vs Spartan (Dragon vs iWin OS), Famous entrepreneur J-Mark Applebaum and his digital son Barry telling you that Tresisda cares about family, and Santa Claus turning velociraptors into long dead rockstars using the new Tresisda Sunglasses. - *Newstopia* always included a fake commercial in the middle of the real commercial break, as well as a fake preview of an upcoming show such as *Inspektor Herring* just before the second half. - The *Babylon 5* episode "And Now For a Word", done as a series of interviews and reports from a visiting journalist, features an ad from the Psi Corps, complete with Subliminal Seduction. - *The Colbert Report*: Stephen made his own version of an anti gay marriage ad. - *That Mitchell and Webb Look*, like many sketch shows, have done a couples of these. Notably cressps; **Webb:** Once you cressp, you just can't splessp! **Mitchell:** That doesn't *make any sense*! **Webb:** *[spits out the food]* Oh, god! They're horrible! - KYTV, being a spoof on commercial satellite TV, featured a handful of parody commercials in every episode, as did its predecessor, *Radio Active.* - *The Rick Mercer Report* always has one or two an episode, often riffing on current political or business situations. - The first episode of *Six Feet Under* included some parody adverts for mortuary products. - Each episode of *The Aquabats! Super Show!* has one of these, usually advertising something silly from Gloopy (P). - This idea was at the core of *Sesame Street*. Its creators realized TV commercials were more memorable for their target audience than either school or the children's programming of the day, and that there was a specific set of "useful things" that could be taught effectively in a mock commercial. Everything else the show has become known for evolved out of that note : This entry was brought to you by the letter T and the letter V and the number 6. - *The Peter Serafinowicz Show* was fond of these and would feature them at least Once an Episode. - Probably the most well-known series are the ones starring Brian Butterfield. The first one is a direct parody of the PI Helpline adverts before spinning off into other subjects like dieting and karaoke. - *The Fast Show* had some of these, mostly featuring Cheesy Peas. - *Portlandia* takes these to a whole new level of Mind Screw in its third season by airing parody ads for the Portland Milk Advisory Board *in between actual commercials*. - Making matters worse, Geico frequently runs an ad during the show that is disguised to look like a *Portlandia* sketch and even features the waitress character from the pilot episode. - *Father Ted* had a spoof ad for a priests' chatline that was a dead-on parody of a real-life ad for a gay chatline. - Just like the movies, *RoboCop: The Series* has at least one of these per episode. It's one of the main comedic draws of the show, usually advertising deadly Commander Cash toys, but oftentimes other things as well. - *Horrible Histories* likes to parody well-known (usually British) commercials; its sketches have included "We Sell Any Monk" and "God Compare." It's also had a recurring Infomercial character called The Shouty Man. (Their parody commercials really wouldn't be mistaken for out of show ads, though.) - *Full Frontal with Samantha Bee* had parody commercial breaks during the 2020 Election episode. One parody car commercial boasted how great their cars were for driving out of the country into the Canadian border. Another advertised commemorative plates with Republicans' faces on them, with a voiceover by Will Arnett. Yet another advertised a scented candle that smelled like men for women alone in quarantine. - *WandaVision*: Wanda creates fake commercials built around Genre Throwbacks to classic sitcoms, all of them tying in to various traumatic events in her life. - The first episode advertises a Toastmate 2000 by Stark Industries. The toaster being advertised sounds like one of Tony's repulsors enaging when it's turned on, and it has a blinking red light reminiscent of that on the Stark Industries-built missiles that killed Wanda and Pietro's parents. - The second episode advertises a fancy Strücker wristwatch. Strücker was the HYDRA scientist whose experiments on Loki's scepter gave Wanda and Pietro their powers. - The third episode features a spoof of the 1970s Calgon bath soap commercials for a product called Hydra-Soak ("Find the goddess within!"). ||It's revealed that the HYDRA experiments ended up greatly amplifying Wanda's existing magical powers, essentially setting her on the path to becoming the mythical Scarlet Witch.|| - The fifth episode has Grey DeLisle narrating an advertisement for Lagos paper towels, the most absorbant paper towel available. In Lagos, Wanda accidentally killed several people, including Wakandan humanitarian workers, in the course of trying to relocate an exploding Crossbones. The UN used this in turn to bring down the Sokovia Accords onto the Avengers. - The sixth episode sees a claymation shark approach a red-headed castaway on an island, telling the castaway that he used to always be hungry before he started feeding on Yo-Magic! yogurt ("The snack for survivors!"). This is followed by a timelapse of the castaway slowly withering away to a skeleton. ||Agatha Harkness seeks to drain and steal Wanda's powers and leave her a withered husk.|| - The seventh episode promotes an antidepressant called Nexus. The segment of the ad listing the side effects is directly calling out Wanda for withdrawing into a false reality that is only making her problems worse. - *The Boys*: In "Glorious Five Year Plan", with A-Train rebranding himself as a symbol of social justice and African culture, Vought decides to capitalize on this by creating a new commercial for his Turbo Rush energy drink. The commercial is a shot-for-shot remake of the infamous Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial, just with A-Train using his super speed to separate the riot police and protesters as they're about to clash and handing a can of Turbo Rush to one of the cops. - *Short Ribbs* has done too many to list, but they include Fad trash bags, Creepy Crawlers Motel 7, "Blisterine" and a spoof of coffee ads, in which Patty Maloney and a cross-dressed Billy Barty drink coffee that apparently is made from garden soil. - *MAD* frequently does the print version of this, satirizing magazine ads. Things got interesting in this respect once the magazine started carrying *real* ads... which is why longtime editor Bill Gaines wouldn't carry ads. - *GAMES* magazine used to run a fake ad in every issue. It was listed in the table of contents with the tagline, "Which of the pitches is full of hitches?" - *Computer Games Magazine* frequently runs ads for fictional game studio Schadenfreude Interactive. Because, honestly, who can resist Survival Horror karaoke, Mecha-assisted fishing, and racing against elder gods? - The pornographic magazine *Hustler* would carry parody ads, usually to express Larry Flynt's opinions and beliefs. - The Osborne 1 luggable computer had a print ad captioned "The guy on the left doesn't stand a chance," listing its advantages versus an ordinary non-computerized briefcase. The June 4, 1984 issue of *InfoWorld* included a parody of the ad's text, here attributed only to "one of the munitions magazines," which gave the advantage back to the guy on the left by placing an Uzi submachine gun inside his briefcase, making the point that the Osborne's processing power is no match for the Uzi's 9 mm firepower. - "Divers Ayres On Sundrie Notions" by P.D.Q. Bach, a series of 18th-century style singing commercials. - The music video for Foo Fighters' song "Big Me" gives us "Footos: the Fresh Fighter" as a parody of Mentos ads. - *The Who Sell Out* by The Who is a Fake Radio Show Album that includes fake commercials (for real products), most of them written by John Entwistle. (It also includes real jingles from Buccaneer Broadcaster Radio London.) - *The Commercial Album* by The Residents is a Concept Album where each and every song is about a minute long because the band felt that pop songs and commercials could be combined into one for a bigger financial benefit. Each song on "The Commercial Album" is therefore only about a minute long, much like a radio advertising spot. Listeners are instructed to play them three times in a row to get the feeling of a typical pop song, if they want that experience. - The Arrogant Worms' first album included a send-up of advertisements that shamelessly boast of their incredible deals with "No Sale / No Store". - The video for "Dangerous", by *Big Data*, features advertisers pitching an ad to the executives of an athletic shoe company. The ad starts out fairly normally, with attractive women jogging while wearing the company's shoes, but then it gets violent. - Due to their lack of TNA bookings, The Motor City Machine Guns ran a pitch offering their services, which amounted to using your stuff, to anyone willing to pay $2000 dollars an hour for them. Oh, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley would throw in two free Shamwows to those who called in early! - After she beat Ivelisse Vélez for SHINE's Title at *SHINE 21*, Leah Von Dutch planned to open the LAHM House Of Champions, an awesome Hawaiian mansion where you could learn to be as awesome as her. But she needed your help to get it finished! Dutch agreed to say hi to you when you bump into her at a show for the starting donation of $1000, just as long as you didn't touch her. $50,000 got you an autographed picture of her looking at your face book page. $55,000 dollars a night earned you a stay at a motel down the street from the mansion once it was finished! ||It wasn't to be, the successive onslaught of Su Yung, Amazing Kong and Nevaeh ensured she would not get that title shot.|| - (StephenPNewStephenPNewStephenPNew) Call Stephen P New (StephenPNewStephenPNewStephenPNew) If You Need To Sue (StephenPNewStephenPNewStephenPNew) An Outlaw Mudshow Or Two (StephenPNewStephenPNewStephenPNew) Cause They're All Ass! - Do you think today's wrestling is too politically correct? Are you tired of seeing super kick, after super kick, AFTER SUPER KICK...well ANX hears you, and that's why in 2016 they're vowing to make wrestling great again. What, 2016 is too far gone? Don't worry, as long as Kenny King is great and Rhett Titus is great they can and will make wrestling great, even if it kills them. - Every episode of *Roland Rat The Series* had a parody commercial for something like a My Little Warthog toy with realistic smell, or a brand of chocolate that would prevent people stealing them because "They melt in your hands, not in your mouth!" - *A Prairie Home Companion* does these regularly, for a range of products including Bee-Bop-A-Ree-Bop Rhubarb Pie and Powdermilk Biscuits. This is part of the Genre Throwback to the old radio variety shows that had prominent sponsorships. To wit: the show's house band is even named after a fictitious brand of shoe. - *That Mitchell and Webb Sound:* What sounds like a typical advert for a brand of bread or butter eventually turns out to be an advert for... petrochemicals, complete with a voice cutting in to proclaim "BUY MORE PETROCHEMICALS!" - *Rush Limbaugh* often uses parody ads in bumpers (including the aforementioned "Spatula City" spot from *UHF*); but also had an original spot focusing on the Barnacle Brothers and their 60-Second Sale. - A regular feature on *Martin/Molloy*, despite it airing on commercial radio. Many were one-offs, but Tony and Mick became so enamoured of some the characters/products involved that they returned multiple times, such as 'The Martin/Molloy Pay TV Network'. - *Round the Horne* had these in profusion. Staid BBC announcer Douglas Smith would go seriously off-script to shill the miracle product *Dobberoids* (rejuvenation for the tired horse). When called to heel by Kenneth Horne, Smith would anxiously point out that a BBC salary is too pitiful and meagre for a man to live on, and the opportunity to make a bit on the side by slipping in some covert advertising was simply too good to miss. - *Bells Are Ringing* opens with an ad for Susanswerphone, the answering service the heroine works for. This ends with a Description Cut to the Susanswerphone offices, which are considerably less glamorous than the ad. - In the opera *Paul Bunyan*, the One Note Cooks' "I Am" Song leads to anachronistic sales pitches: **Sam**: Do you feel a left-out at parties, when it comes to promotion are you passed over, and does your wife talk in your sleep? Then get our nearest agent to tell you about Soups for Success! **Ben**: You owe it to yourself to learn about Beans, and how this delicious food is the sure way to the Body Beautiful. We will mail you a fascinating booklet, Beans for Beauty, by return of post if you send us your address. - Some series of *Wacky Packages* include "Wack-O-Mercials", fake advertisements for products, on the back of some stickers. Some will be for previously-released Wackies, while others have been for wholly original creations. Some series instead create fake coupons as parody advertisements. - The *Grand Theft Auto* series is rife with these spoof commercials: - An ad in *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas* from Cluckin' Bell, a fictional KFC and Taco Bell look-alike, which stresses how processed and disgusting their food is, as well as the inhumane manner in which the chickens are treated. *"The chicken is a bird with a tiny brain, * So we assume he doesn't feel any pain, We shrink their heads and we breed 'em fast, Six wings, forty breasts, then they're gassed!" — A fragment from the first commercial *"Filled full of hormones, so they get fat, * At least we no longer slip in a rat, I love chicken with a shitty smell, And that's why I love Cluckin' Bell!" — A fragment from the second commercial - *Grand Theft Auto III* features an advertisement for Eris Running Shoes, an obvious Nike look-alike, which stresses the alleged worker abuse in their factories in southern Asia. **A young boy:** It's fun! We get to play with knives! My friend Joey sewed his hands together! Yesterday, I made a dollar! - *Grand Theft Auto 2* also has parody ads on the radio: You might be surprised to learn than 93% of investments are ethical, eco-friendly, and wide open to market collapse. A crash can strike without warning, wiping clean a lifetime of work and saving to destroy your future, and the future of your family. The people at Third World Bank have different ideas, capturing the earning potential of underdeveloped countries and spreading your money across a wide range of tobacco, defense, and pharmaceutical investments. Third World, keeping your money safe no matter the cost. - The *Saints Row* series also features plenty of parody commercials on the radio: - *Saints Row* and *Saints Row 2* feature commercials for Freckle Bitch's, a chain of fast food restaurants that is an obvious parody of Wendy's. In the first game, a promiscuous young woman talks about the restaurant's offerings almost entirely in double entendres. In the second game, she sounds like an elderly woman and coughs throughout the commercial. - *Saints Row 2* features two parody commercials for Ship It, a boat dealership, starring Vladimir, an Eastern European man voiced by Jason Zumwalt (aka Roman Bellic). He talks about how useful the boats are for trafficking and threatens to kill the listener's family if he doesn't buy boats from the dealership. - *Saints Row: The Third* has a number of hilarious commercials, including promos for Nyteblayde that pretty much sum up the plot of the show (and the quality of the acting). - The trivia computer game *You Don't Know Jack* played parody commercials at the end of each game. These were so popular that one of the games in the series ( *The Ride*) even included an audio CD of some of the more memorable parodies. In newer revisions of the game, the parody is brought to the start of the game as it ties in to a new game mechanic note : *Wrong answer of the day*, where getting an answer wrong will score you points. The parody-ad is a hint as to which question you must answer wrongly. - *Streets of SimCity* and *Sim Copter* both featured similar radio commercials for things such as bottled water ("some waters taste, well, watery"), car-mounted weapons, and other Sim games. - *Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines* had radio commercials for, among other things, a restaurant called Frickin' Chicken ("That's some f***ing good chicken!") and a sitcom about a banker whose late wife comes back as an ATM. These were also advertised in billboards around town. - *Twisted: The Game Show*, a Party Game for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, was done up like a game show and features (extremely short) fake commercials every few rounds. Some of the minigames have the same fake commercials appear on miniature TVs. Needless to say, most of the products being advertised are ridiculous beyond reason ("It's both a shoe polish *and* a toothpaste!") - *Mass Effect 2* is chock full of these - ads for everything from a production of Hamlet with an all-elcor (heavyworlder aliens with a Starfish Language) cast to plastic surgery on asari head-tentacles ("Your scalp is so beautiful! Mine's so gangly and asymmetrical") to indentured servants ("Indenture Tech. You've been a slave to your employees for far too long. Shouldn't it be the other way around?") The creepiest ones are like Facebook ads taken to their logical stalker-ish extreme - face-recognition ads that call your character by name as they walk by and incorporate details of their life presumably drawn from databanks ("Commander Shepard! It has been (robot voice) two years (normal voice) since your last paycheck.") Many of them are hilarious. - An advertisement for *Lollipop Chainsaw* has a live-action Juliet promoting "Zom-Be-Gone", a laundry detergent that washes off zombie blood. - *Escape Velocity* has a few commercial messages. Most are simple variations on "Brought to you by Mega-Corp," but there are some sillier ones, like: Ever have that "not-so-fresh" feeling? Try our new product — SOAP! "It's clean!" This month only, buy one Soong android and get an evil twin free! - Of all games, one appears in *StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty*, advertising the albums of the fictional band note : Actually, Blizzard's in-house band *Level 800 Elite Tauren Marines* - A remake of *Spectre (1991)*, *Spectre VR CD*, has cutscenes featuring parody ads bashing Microsoft (called MacroSoft in the game). - *Borderlands*: Radio ads for Engorge, a male enhancement pill, in the DLC *The Secret Armory of General Knoxx*. You don't get to hear much of them, because your contact, Athena Pierce, is using them to mask her transmissions from the Crimson Lance, but what you do get to hear is extremely over-the-top and hilarious. - Beginning with the release of the *Natural Disasters* DLC, *Cities: Skylines* has radio stations that feature humourous ads from the in-game commercial companies that talk about their products and services in a manner similar to *Grand Theft Auto*, during intermissions from the in-game music being played. - This is also a common device on the *Homestar Runner* toons. - Senorial Day cuts between two different Parody Commercials, both focusing on the "holiday sales events" of car (?) dealerships. - The Strong Bad Email "candy product" ends with a commercial for the candy bar SBlounchked!, sending up Mentos-style Bottled Cool pitches. - "Family Resemblence", a bonus email included on one of the Strong Bad Email DVDs, featured Pom Pom and his hypothetical family doing a commercial for Jurvy Skat, "the classic game of Oh-No-You-Don't", that riffs on ads for family board games. - The Blubb-O's commercial parodies many devices used in fast food commercials. - "Coach Z's 110%" is a mock infomercial for a fitness training video series pitched by Coach Z. - Commercials are a Running Gag in Battle for Dream Island. Starting from *Battle For Dream Island Again*, these commercials can sometimes be interrupted (at first by Golf Ball), but one of them in Battle for BFDI was interrupted by Four. - Parody commercials are a staple of *Less is Morgue*, where the mid-episode ad breaks are all inspired by the bizarre, often intrusive sponsorships you're likely to hear on a regular podcast. So far, these have included Zeus selling condoms, Satan selling condos, an ad for a cannibal restaurant, and an ad for an unethical mobile game about making unethical mobile games. - A *real* commercial example: PayAttention.org puts out political ads with stereotypical images of waving flags, eagles, happy families, or whatever - only to reveal that the candidate being promoted is, say, a bag of leaves. - In the Whateley Universe story "Tales of the MCO", the characters are sitting around watching said television show and MSTing it. It has parody commercials for upcoming movies. The Ivory-Merchant production of "Hulk 1809" and the Oliver Stone-directed "Foucault's Pendulum". And fake cereal ads. - Banana-nana-Ninja!'s Feast Master story arc has Sudoku giving an infomercial-style riff about the Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget on a colosseum big-screen. - Ursula Vernon got a section in her gallery for this stuff. Behold "Red Wombat Tea Co.". - Ursula Vernon's podcast *The Hidden Almanac* ends each episode with sponsor messages, usually one from the show's major sponsor (Red Wombat Tea Co.) and one from a sponsor of the week, such as the Silent Nightclub or Suzy's Seasonal Assassins. A common joke is for a sponsor message to be a response to the previous episode's sponsor message, such as when an episode sponsored by the city library ("Have you gotten lost in a book lately?") was followed by an episode sponsored by a company selling edible bookmarks ("Lost in a book? Already eaten your shoes? Now you can use your bookmark as a handy source of protein"). Some of these, such as the rivalry between Bob's Discount Car Lot and Steve's Used Cars, have turned into long-running story lines. - The **Powerthirst** series of commercials, now Defictionalized. - The Lucky Candy commercial Easter Egg at the end of *Bowser's Kingdom* episode 5. - Tobuscus does a lot of parodies of various commercial and commercial themes, from coffee ("Eight O'Clock Coffee") to clothing ("You're Not a Bottle, Boot") to pistachios ("Trapped in a Pistachio Ad") to Axe body spray ("How To Get Women"). Many of these are sponsored by the companies themselves. - Stuart Ashen has Breakfast Mess, during his Huge Screen v.2 review, a few minutes after the "There are no advertisement breaks. This is the Internet" title card. - Frilly Shirt includes a number of parody vintage commercials, particularly for the author's own Patented Leopard Oil. - Just before the midway point of *PONIES The Anthology II*, we get a series of clips putting various real commercials to the characters of *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.* - The Nostalgia Critic has begun doing this occasionally in his new set of reviews (post-Review Must Go On). - *DK Vine* has these all over the side of the main page, with parodies of things like Evony, male enhancement ads and travel ads with *Donkey Kong Country*, *Banjo-Kazooie* and *Conker's Bad Fur Day* characters and places standing in for the real world ones. - A regular feature on *The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show*, often for K-Tel products. - *Who Back When:* - For a brief period, Ponken would stop the show for an ad break, only to announce that *Who Back When* is brought to you by... *Who Back When*. - A few Bonus Episodes have featured trailers for fake *Doctor Who* audiobooks, featuring Doctor sound bites and the screen names of people who provide reviews for the show on iTunes. - The Angry Video Game Nerd made one for *Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing*. - Big Dog Eat Child features parody commercial *Jones Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage* in 2008, starring Robert L. Hines as Toby Jones. This is followed by *Jones Good ASS BBQ and Foot Massage* and *Jones Cheap ASS Prepaid Legal and Daycare Academy*. The former was popularised by Stephen Curry, who performed the jingle as part of his pre-game ritual. - *StacheBros* has a parody commercial for 1-UPs, in which Wario advertises a new brand of drugs with the ability to resurrect people. - Veterans for Peace UK once criticized the British military's policy of recruiting 16-year-olds by creating the video "Action Man: Battlefield Casualties", which showed faux commercials for three *Action Man* figures that represented the downsides of enlisting in the military at a young age, albeit in ways played for Black Comedy. The figures are PTSD Action Man (who drinks and does cocaine in an attempt to escape the trauma before he eventually resorts to hanging himself), Paralysed Action Man (who is permanently wheelchair-bound because of his spine getting shattered and ends up having to struggle stacking cans at the grocery store to make ends meet after his benefits are cancelled) and Dead Action Man (who is reduced to a bleeding, limb-less corpse from being blown to bits, is said to have died at 19 years old by the coroner examining his remains, recieves a posthumous medal and ends his commercial with two kids acting out his funeral). - ProtonJon has a stream alert that is a made-up advertisement for the Glitchen Gun, which causes glitches in video games. The game displayed in the mock-up ad is randomly chosen, and the list of possible games shown is based on games that have glitched on stream. According to him, it is also inspired by a parody commercial from the BBC, advertising the Kitchen Gun. - The third *McBusters* video has a faux commercial break where we are shown an ad for McBusters Cereal, which is really just burger and fry fragments with enormous marshmallows. - *Big Bill Hell's* is a particularly ruthless parody of car dealership commericials. The announcer freely admits that they sell overpriced cars that are total pieces of crap, but they know you're such a damn schmuck you'll buy them anyway. Wife-fucking threats, challenge pissing note : That's right, *CHALLENGE PISSING!*, and lots and lots of cussing are thrown in for extra spice. Special mention goes for the fact that this was made by *actual marketing agency employees* in Baltimore. It was created in 1990 for an "Ad Follies" contest held by several Baltimore-based marketing companies. Despite effectively putting their jobs on the line for this, the creators went through with it anyway.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyCommercial

Courier - TV Tropes *"A courier came to the battle once bloody and loud * And found only skin and bones where he once left a crowd" — **Remember the Alamo** You need something delivered to or across a barren Polluted Wasteland, deadly jungle, or simply a dangerous urban environment. The Internet or phone isn't going to cut it, either because a physical item (signed document, USB stick or priceless jewelry) has to be delivered or to reduce the risk of hacking. Regular Snail Mail won't cut it because it's slow and there's security risks, or because mail isn't delivered where you want it to go (a war zone or the lair of a Big Bad). You're going to need something special: a Courier! A Courier is essentially a mercantile mailman/woman, delivering messages through cities and towns on foot or other single-person conveyance. There are several varieties. A mainstream commercial courier is fast and reliable, but they won't transport illegal or contraband items (a Finger in the Mail) or goods that Fell Off the Back of a Truck. A Black Market courier, who either works freelance or for The Syndicate, is willing to take riskier or illegal parcels, for a commensurately high fee. The mainstream commercial courier is unarmed, but a Syndicate courier probably is packing heat, and moreover, they have the enforcement powers of their organization behind them. Another type of courier is one who works for the military or for a secret agency; they too are armed and backed by a powerful organization. Both Syndicate and military/spy couriers may travel in disguise with a cover story. A diplomatic courier is a subtype of the government courier. They deliver sealed pouches with secret documents. By international agreement, diplomatic couriers cannot be arrested and their pouches cannot be opened. In fiction this often comes with some level of danger involved, either from the environment the courier crosses, the package they're delivering, people who may be after the package they're delivering, or simply through the courier's own recklessness. The courier may have to elude tails, spies, and assassins to get their package safely to its recipient. If the package is highly valuable, the courier may have their own security detail. Another element of risk is the trustworthiness of the courier themselves; Syndicate or spy couriers may be double agents who work for both sides. Even if your courier isn't working for the enemy on the side, their curiosity may drive them to peek at your secret message. Couriers who look inside the Big Bad's sealed package may be "permanently retired" if they open the package and see the contents. Even if there's not an element of danger, there will usually be a tight deadline the parcel must be delivered by, forcing the Courier to bust their hump getting it there on time. Le Parkour, shortcuts through dodgy neighborhoods, Drives Like Crazy and other tricks may be employed to get quickly from Point A to Point B (the words *parkour* and *courier* both derive from the French for "to run"). Since it's a romantic spy type of job that still allows cynicism with money, combined with the fact that it's an easy way to bring characters to new places or into contact with interesting people, it's ripe for protagonist-hood, but this is not always the case. Can often turn up even in futuristic settings where you'd imagine advanced technology would make human Couriers obsolete, generally as a form of commentary on the presence of a Shadow Dictator in the setting. Less serious versions may include a silver plate delivery or a Singing Telegram. Even though most Real Life couriers today use a truck or car, depicting couriers using bikes or motorcycles are Truth in Television, at least for highly time-sensitive, important deliveries in dense, congested urban centers, because cars and trucks are too slow in these settings. See Pony Express Rider for the 1800s mounted variety and Unstoppable Mailman for the government-employee version. May involve Deadly Delivery, Shoot the Messenger or You Got Murder. A courier may use a bike, motorcycle,Cool Car, a flying courier may have a Cool Plane or, in science fiction, a Cool Star Ship; if they drive a vehicle, they may be a Badass Driver. A Venturous Smuggler specializes in illegal deliveries and they know how to avoid police and customs inspections. Given their occupation and its inherent risks, a courier is often used to undertaking a Product Delivery Ordeal, making it a Sub-Trope thereof. ## Examples: - *Akudama Drive*: Courier is a serious man known for transporting products with high efficiency. He'll deliver any packages or even get involved in insane, history making heists. - The crew of the *Black Lagoon* call themselves couriers. Smugglers, pirates, and mercenaries would also fit. - *Bleach*: Ryuken's role is in the Final Arc in the present storyline outside of the flashbacks in which he delivers the Still-Silver Arrow to his Uryu. - In *Cells at Work!* and its spinoffs such as *Cells at Work! CODE BLACK*, which is about a human body depicted as a city populated by anthropomorphized cells, red blood cells are depicted as workers in a package delivery service. They deliver oxygen and nutrients to various parts of the body and then carbon dioxide to the lungs. - *Dragon Ball Super*: Monaka's occupation is being a delivery man in space. - In *Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet*, this is what Amy and her friends do for a living. They make heavy use of gliders in order to get around the fleet in good time. It's also portrayed as completely normal and non-dangerous (though Amy's sometimes reckless use of said gliders might prove otherwise). - *Get Backers* mixes in super powers and takes it to the logical extreme. - The *Gunsmith Cats* manga has Bean Bandit (from spiritual predecessor *Riding Bean*). His line of work in general is getting things to their destination guaranteed, *almost* no questions asked. His reputation comes from being a Combat Pragmatist as well as being a Badass Driver. - *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*: - *Diamond is Unbreakable*: Over the course of the story, Jotaro has meetings with agents from the Speedwagon Foundation who pass information to assist him during his time in Morioh. - *The JoJoLands*: As a child, Jodio was invited to be a gofer to deliver objects to their recipients. It wasn't long until the praise and receiving pocket money made him embrace his mechanism. - *Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans*: Takaki's job is to procure supplies for the Tekkadan group while also acting as a messenger. - A filler episode of *Naruto* introduced courier ninjas, shinobi trained to deliver their packages and defend them against any ninja who might attempt to steal it. - Koguma, the protagonist of *Super Cub*, starts to work part-time as a courier by transporting documents between schools. - *Sword Art Online*: Tomo/Argo is friend and fellow beta tester of Kirito. Within SAO, she works as a Knowledge Broker and messenger. - The profession of the central characters in Brian Wood's series *The Couriers*. - In *Drowntown*, Gina Cassel works as an aqua-courier in flooded London. This can be dangerous when we first see her, she's being chased by a gang of thugs. (She's rather annoyed at the end of it when the supposedly important package is just a rich guy's clothes which he could easily have waited for or replaced.) - The subject of the story "The Courier" in *Flight* volume five, by Kazu Kibuishi. - Ramona Flowers' job in *Scott Pilgrim*. The fact that she has the ability to open subspace tunnels to use as shortcuts comes in handy for this job. - Paul and George get thrust into this role by the Guardians in *The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World*. After the debacle by George and John the previous day, the only mission that the Guardians will give them is a boring courier mission to a distant coastal town. (Though things get a lot livelier when the recipient of their delivery turns out to have been missing for several days.) - The four find being couriers desperately boring and pointless, and they make it clear later on that they will not accept such missions any longer. - *Back to the Future Part II*: The Western Union. Upon receiving a letter in 1885 with specific instructions to deliver it to somebody, at a spot in the middle of nowhere, the company sees to it that a representative is on that spot, with that 70-year-old letter. - Cloud becomes one in *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* under the business Strife Delivery Service. He delivers the items while Tifa manages client calls. - *Johnny Mnemonic* is about a digital information courier who is pursued by killers from the Yakuza. - In *The Postman*, a drifter in post-apocalyptic America puts on a scavengered US Postal Service uniform and mailbag and starts a courier service. When the scattered inhabitants of the wastelands were able to send letters to friends and family, it strengthened their sense of connection and it gave them hope that society could be rebuilt. Eventually, the charismatic Postman was able to recruit others to help deliver messages. - *Premium Rush* with Joseph Gordon-Levitt is all about bike couriers, and the rush of navigating a busy city like New York. In the movie, he is transporting a priceless MacGuffin that a Dirty Cop is obsessed with stealing. As a result, there is a cross-city chase between the bike courier and the car-driving cop. - The protagonist of the *The Transporter* series of films is an ex-special forces soldier who has a new career as a Badass Driver for hire. He gets the package to the delivery point no matter what the risks or obstacles, by violating numerous traffic laws and safe driving practices. - *Ronin (1998)* is a spy thriller about a team of retired spies who take on a mission to steal a priceless MacGuffin in the possession of a Big Bad's team. The MacGuffin is always transported by an armed courier who has it in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. The courier is always protected by a heavily armed security detail. - William Gibson's works: - The short story "Johnny Mnemonic" is about an underworld courier who transports digital information in a brain implant. - Chevette Washington, the protagonist in *Virtual Light*. - Fiona from *Zero History* has this as her regular job. - *Snow Crash*'s Y.T., although she often delivers through ~~suburbs~~ burbclaves. - *The Books of Ember*: Lina Mayfleet, who is excited about being a messenger in *The City of Ember*. - *The Hardy Boys*: Bart in the Casefiles book "A Killing in the Market". As the office assistant of a person of interest in the case, he's assigned to serve as a Courier to the Hardy Boys, but while he's trying to meet them, he aborts the meeting and makes a beeline out of there when he spots a couple of mooks who had beaten him up earlier. - In the *Vorkosigan Saga*, a courier position is the cover story for Miles Vorkosigan as opposed to his real job as head of the Dendarii. A mistake during the rescue of a *real* courier is what eventually ends his military career. - In Umberto Eco's *Loana*, the protagonist remembers reading a fascist children's book about a hero trying to smuggle an important message to Italy's then-colony Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This being a serial novel, in Real Life Abyssinia is liberated from the Italian fascists long before the story ends. And at the end, the oh so secret message delivered essentially boils down to: "Hold out!" - Matty from *Messenger* by Lois Lowry pretty much embodies this trope, minus the money-making aspect (though he does crave the admiration and prestige that comes with doing a dangerous job). - In The Company Novels book *Black Projects, White Knights,* Kalugin has a run-in with a brain-damaged immortal *literally* named Courier, who goes berserk if he spends the night in one place for more than one night in a row. - In Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's book *Good Omens*, a courier is tasked with informing the Horsemen of the Apocalypse that Armageddon is imminent. He tracks down all of them including Death, despite having no apparent powers of his own. - In the *Warrior Cats* series, apprentices play this role during the battle against the Dark Forest cats - traveling through a battle-filled forest where any enemy will kill them on sight so that the Clans can send messages to each other on the status of their warriors. - In the *Honor Harrington* universe, there are no Subspace Ansibles, so messages are instead run between starsystems via specially designed Courier Boats, which are basically some cramped living spaces and a very powerful hyperdrive crammed into a hull with not much else. Occasionally, characters will hitch rides on these as the most expeditious way to get to a location quickly. - "The Ultimate Rush" by Joe Quirk: Protagonist Chet Griffin is the only rollerblading messenger at a San Francisco courier service. - Several secondary characters in the *Temeraire* series: - In Europe, Couriers hold the rank of captain, because they each have their own dragon. But they're low-status captains, because their dragons are of the smallest breeds and they don't have a crew to manage. - The Chinese Jade Dragons are a breed so small they cannot hope to take off with an adult human, but their great speed and endurance means a network of them are employed for high priority correspondence. Since the series avoids Easy Logistics, the Jade Dragons are a huge tactical advantage. - In *Guns of the Dawn*, Penny Belchere is an official military courier for the kingdom of Lascanne, and is the first woman most of the characters have seen in army uniform. It's an early sign that Lascanne is running out of male conscripts and is thinking about how women can be put in military roles, which presages Emily's own conscription. (Penny Belchere herself shows up again a number of times, including once when ||her supposedly non-front-line role doesn't stop her getting captured||.) - *The Wandering Inn*: Being a courier is a very prestigious and well-paid job, as only few meet the requirements to become one. The setting is *much* bigger than our world and is inhabited by countless monsters, so a courier has to be strong to make their deliveries. - In *Ranger's Apprentice,* Couriers are a mixture of Ambadassadors and Badass Bureaucrats, with a healthy dose of Silk Hiding Steel. They bring important messages around the nobles of the Kingdom of Araulen and work on treaties with other nations. Though not warriors, they're definitely not weaklings to be pushed around, either. Especially since both of the ones we see end up married to Rangers. - *The Two-Headed Eagle* by John Biggins. The Chief of Staff of the Austrian military gets Otto Prohaska to transport a package of top secret documents in his aircraft. Otto is proud to be selected for such an important mission, but his airplane crashes in a storm and his pilot is seriously injured; Otto has the chance to save him if he surrenders to Italian troops, but realises they will find the secret documents and evades them instead, losing his direction and any chance of leading a rescue party to the crash site. Turns out it was All for Nothing as the 'top secret documents' were just love letters the Chief of Staff was delivering to his wife by airplane as a Grand Romantic Gesture. - The job of half the cast of *Dark Angel*. It's a bike messaging service called Jam Pony that pays minimum wage and has high turnover. Max and Alec particularly like the free sector passes and opportunity to case joints. - While it's just a throwaway gag, Vince in *The Mighty Boosh* subscribes to hyper-cutting-edge fashion magazine *Cheekbone*, which has to be delivered by ninjas to avoid being obsolete by the time it's read. - Because of the way Faster-Than-Light Travel works in *Andromeda*, messages have to be relayed by couriers, so courier ships are a common sight. - On *Babylon 5*, this is one of the roles taken on by the Anla'Shok, also known as the Rangers. Due to the density of conspiracies that happen to pass through Babylon 5, a wide variety of one-off (and often killed-off) minor characters will also fill this role for various parties. - In season 3 of *Star Trek: Discovery*, The Burn crippled Casual Interstellar Travel so much that many colonies are dependent on couriers to bring them supplies. Unfortunately, many of these couriers work for the Emerald Chain and exploit their customers. - *Our Miss Brooks*: The bicycle-riding telegram delivery boy, in "Telegram for Mrs. Davis". Hilarity Ensues when Mrs. Davis is too superstitious to open the telegram, or allow Miss Brooks to open the telegram on her behalf. The boy won't leave until he gets the requested reply . . . . - *New Horizon*: While all the major cities have communication links to each other as well as railroads and ports, smaller towns need couriers to deliver goods and messages, and sometimes, it's better to send someone to ensure the package arrives. Also, this is a background that can be selected, allowing the player to smuggle and depending on the type of courier, better movement in areas or the ability to operate certain vehicles with ease. - *Shadowrun*: Runners sometimes get hired to do a courier job. One memorable one was to deliver a dragon's egg. Some characters can even be specialized in the job, with headware designed to carry data that can only be extracted by someone with the proper key. - I.C.E.'s Cyberspace: The Skateboys is a gang that carries messages and packages while riding motorized skateboards. - *Dying Earth* RPG supplement *Scaum Valley Gazetteer*. The River Skaters use ice skates to carry messages along the frozen Scaum River during winter. - *Traveller*: Justified in that FTL communications are not possible so messages have to be carried through jump space on a starship before being transmitted. - Likewise seen in the *BattleTech* setting. Here, FTL communications do exist... but they do so primarily in the form of large stationary installations called Hyperpulse Generators (or HPGs for short) run by the same ostensibly neutral monopolist throughout the Inner Sphere, so all the alternatives remain alive and well. After Grey Monday, when most of the HPG network went permanently offline and started the Dark Age, "pony express" style courier services became the primary means of getting information between star systems. - *Mirror's Edge*: Runners, including the player character, have a valuable job for La Résistance 20 Minutes into the Future, because it's virtually impossible to send secure messages over the net. Thus, they give physical packages to fearless *parkour* runners. - *inFAMOUS*: Cole is couriering the Ray Sphere when it activates. There are also side missions in which Cole must spy on enemy couriers. - *The Legend of Zelda*: Throughout the series, Link is asked to transport/protect an item while delivering it to its destination. - *Mega Man ZX*: Vent and Aile are couriering the Biometals when they activate. In *ZX Advent*, it depends on which main character you choose: Grey meets Model A because he's delivering it to Legion, while Ashe meets it because she's trying to *steal* it. - *Fallout: New Vegas*: - *Fallout 4* has the entire Cabot House questline fired off by one of their couriers being killed and his package stolen. You are sent to retrieve that package and deliver it to the Cabots. - *Unlimited Saga* has the Carriers' Guild, which Ventus joins at the start of his scenario. Parts of his quest involve him making deliveries; in addition, he can take several optional Side Quests of this nature. While other characters can recruit him during their stories, they still can't access these special quests themselves. - The game *Courier Crisis* has you playing as a bicycle courier, delivering packages through multiple levels, dealing with angry dogs, traffic, and the occasional gunshot on the bad side of town...all while being berated and insulted by your boss. - Couriers are absolutely critical in *Dota 2*, typically being animals who deliver items from the shop to heroes across the map. Using couriers is the more efficient play instead of returning to the shop each time, and professional games have been won or lost on sniping enemy couriers carrying valuable items. - In *Red Dead Redemption* the series of hidden missions at the end of the game has John Marston ||Junior|| pretending to be one. - In the upcoming MMO *Star Citizen*, information runners are basically couriers in space and functioning part of a vital line of communication that keeps the Human civilizations together in an universe where Faster-Than-Light travel is hazardous and/or unstable. There are ships either dedicated or better-equipped out of the factory for this role although many plain-vanilla civilian ship models with sufficient internal capacity can presumably be configured for info runner duties as well. - In *Transformers: War for Cybertron* Bumblebee is acting as a courier because the communications in Iacon City aren't safe from the Decepticons. Ironically, the one he's trying to get a message to (Optimus Prime) is the one that saves him from a Deception ambush. The message he's delivering (that ||Zeta Prime is assumed dead||) is disturbing enough that Optimus decides to step up and take "temporary" command of the Autobots. - Jake Armitage in the SNES *Shadowrun* game is almost killed on a delivery run in the intro of the game and part of the plot revolves around the information he's supposed to deliver. - Keith can take on quite a few courier or passenger transport missions in *Galaxy on Fire*. Often the better paying gigs have him traveling far and into dangerous pirate infested places. - *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*: Letters and packages are delivered across the province of Skyrim by a network of couriers. Amusingly, since the couriers are randomly spawned in when conditions are ready for you to receive a package, a bug in some versions of the game could cause the couriers to turn up deep in zombie-infested tombs, ancient Dwemer ruins, or even the *planes of Oblivion*. Occasionally, due to an unrelated bug, they would do so wearing nothing but a loincloth. This has led to Skyrim's couriers achieving Memetic Badass status. - *Death Stranding*: Couriers became extremely important to what's left of society after the Death Stranding... with the collapse of infrastructure and the loss of the mail system and Internet, people hand-delivering packages from place to place became the only method of long-range communication left. The player character, Sam Porter Bridges, has this for a job. It's particularly dangerous due to the Timefall (rain that rapidly ages whatever it touches) and the ghostly BT's (which could possibly cause a nuclear-level explosion if they manage to catch a living human). There are even gangs of rogue couriers known as MULEs, who have become "addicted" to package delivery and will steal packages from legitimate couriers to hoard them for themselves. - The protagonist of *Daughter for Dessert* disguises himself as a courier to break into Mortellis office when he suspects that the detective isn't telling him everything. - *Ys IX: Monstrum Nox*: Silhouette's duty is to buy and deliver items to Adol. - *Phineas and Ferb* have an episode starring Paul the Delivery Guy, the guy who always delivers Phineas and Ferb's supplies. - On one episode of *The Simpsons*, Bart and his friends get stranded halfway across the country, so he gets a job as a courier in an attempt to get back home. - Postmen are basically Government Couriers. The existence of laws specifically against Mail Tampering are there to deter people from interfering in these couriers job. - Courier businesses have existed for thousands of years.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParKourier

Parent Service - TV Tropes **Frollo:** "Look at that disgusting display!" **Phoebus:** "Yes, sir!" *"It's a show that the kids can enjoy because of the cartoony action, and Dad can enjoy because he's a big ol' pervert!"* Parent Service is a G-rated form of fanservice, where an all-ages work throws in a bit of mild sexiness to provide extra entertainment for parents and older siblings. Writers know that moms/dads adore watching shows with hot men/women in them, so they throw it in, in case they have to watch it. It's also what separates family shows/movies from children's shows/movies: While in both cases kids are the primary target, the former is specifically designed to retain elements that will keep all members of the family entertained, so the creators try to sneak some sensuality in past the Moral Guardians at the studio or ratings board. How far can creators go in a family format? A character can bathe in a tub with Censor Suds, dance in a sultry way, do a Supermodel Strut, wear bathing suits or other scanty attire at the beach, male or female characters may wear tight pants, women may wear low-cut dresses, or wear shorts or skirts that give a Leg Focus, and characters may unintentionally get soaking wet while clothed. A Sub-Trope of Parental Bonus. Compare Multiple Demographic Appeal. Rarely Played for Laughs, but if it is, it's often Demographically Inappropriate Humour. ## Examples: - Parodied by *Crayon Shin-chan*, in the episode where Shin's mom, Mitzi, develops a crush on the Bishōnen villain of Action Bastard. - The *Pokémon* anime does play around with the concept with the Team Rocket trio, The Sensational Cerulean Sisters and Ash's mother, who have more than once come off like this. There are also a pretty good amount of one-shots that can apply as well, though the Orange Islands arc had a couple of very blatant examples with Professor Ivy and Lorelei/Prima. (But the show itself is generally tame compared to how certain *Pokémon* manga can be, especially Toshiro Ono's handiwork.) - All *Time Bokan* series feature this (because, well, *Time Bokan*'s villain trio is essentially always the same, just with different hairdos and names): - Doronjo of *Yatterman* is a scantily-clad woman who constantly suffers Clothing Damage, sometimes ending up naked. The live-action incarnation of Yatterman-1 (portrayed by Sho Sakurai) has his own Estrogen Brigade. - *Itadakiman* probably takes this the furthest and has the villainess strip in the opening. - *Yotsuba&!* has Asagi and Fuuka. Also, Yanda for the female audience. - Discussed in *Action Heroine Cheer Fruits*, where Genki encourages Roko to play her villainess character as The Vamp in order to appeal to the fathers in the audience, saying that this is something Toku does all the time. The discussion is even accompanied by images of three such villainesses: *Juken Sentai Gekiranger*'s Mele, *Kamen Rider OOO*'s Mezool, and *Gogo Sentai Boukenger*'s Shizuka of the Wind. However, Roko can't pull it off so Genki tells her to play a shy character instead. - Disturbingly parodied in *F-Minus*, where a family is walking out of a showing of a kiddie movie, and the father comments that "That movie had something for everybody, talking animals for the kids, and tasteful nudity for the adults." - In-canon example in *Love and Rockets*, in which Big Beautiful Woman Doralis becomes the hostess of a Hispanic-channel children's TV show and the focus of a drooling Periphery Demographic. - Archie Comics has always been well-known for the Male Gaze sometimes used on its curvaceous, sometimes bikini-clad teenage girl characters. - A Disney Princess is sometimes this (unless she's clearly underage and, depending on how one defines "underage", sometimes even then). - Ariel of *The Little Mermaid (1989)* is the first princess whose design evokes sexuality, as she's much curvier and scantily clad (in her mermaid form anyway). Word of God is that she was originally going to have Godiva Hair, increasing this further. - Esmeralda of *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* gets a pole dance. - Shang in *Mulan* is a Walking Shirtless Scene, and Mulan herself ends up naked in a lake. With *three other guys*. - For another male example, *The Princess and the Frog* brings us the delectable Prince Naveen (also the first Disney prince who seems to really get around), who is tied up with snakes at one point. - Pocahontas' clothing seems to be this. It's certainly nothing an eastern woodlands tribal woman would wear note : In reality, Pocahontas probably would have been topless but she also would have been only twelve years old. And there's her fiancé at the beginning, who seems to have spent a bit of time at the gym, and her friend's midriff-baring outfit. - Aladdin has a scene where Jasmine acts quite seductive and sexy towards Jafar in order to distract him from Aladdin. Also, she's the first Princess who wears a midriff-baring outfit note : not counting Ariel, who wears only a Seashell Bra in her mermaid form. - Elsa from *Frozen* is put in a stunning dress and given a Supermodel Strut in her song. This is lampshaded in the sequel where during a game of charades with Olaf reenacting her dance and Kristoff giving Elsa as an answer, Anna angrily says "I don't think Olaf should get to re-arrange". - A lot of the Carnival outfits in *Rio* count as this, especially when Linda puts on a midriff-baring sexy bird outfit. - A Disney example that's not a princess (and must have been gotten past the radar at gunpoint) is the burlesque mouse (Miss Kitty) from *The Great Mouse Detective*. - Tinker Bell of Disney's *Peter Pan* is an out and out Fairy Sexy, to the point where one of the most persistent rumors about the movie is that Tink was modelled after Marilyn Monroe — though this isn't actually true, as she was actually modelled after actress Margaret Kerry, who provided live-action references for the character. - *The Road to El Dorado* has main female character Chel, a cute and very curvy young woman who wears only a boob tube and loincloth. - The boys in *The Chipmunk Adventure* participate in a fiesta in Mexico City. The human women they dance with are wearing very low-cut blouses, the Carmen Miranda number they perform has Alvin getting full-on smooched after asking a little girl whether she likes his hips, and "Cuanto le gusta" is Spanish for "she really likes it!" - *Scooby-Doo*: - In the live-action films (and perhaps *Scooby-Doo* as a whole), the outfits worn by Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) are pretty clearly Parent Service. The first movie was originally going to be more adult, with things like overt references to marijuana and the suggestion that Velma was a lesbian (with the hots for Daphne). They eventually decided not to go in that direction, although there's still some pretty blatant weed gags like a leftover of that idea. A Deleted Scene rather infamouly showed a possessed Velma dancing while wearing a bikini, which was cut for being too suggestive (and apparently because it looked like she was dancing in her underwear). - The vinyl Spy Catsuit Velma wears briefly in the second film is even more so, and the cameo of Pam Anderson in a slightly sheer white top is nothing but. Roger Ebert, an admitted "cleavage fetishist", pointed this out in his review as a way of coping with the movie: As for myself, scrutinizing the screen helplessly for an angle of approach, one thing above all caught my attention: the director, Raja Gosnell, has a thing about big breasts. I say this not only because of the revealing low-cut costumes of such principals as Sarah Michelle Gellar but also because of the number of busty extras and background players... *Scooby-Doo* could have been a comedy about how a Russ Meyer clone copes with being assigned a live-action adaptation of a kiddie cartoon show. - In *Labyrinth*, sex symbol David Bowie wears a pair of *extremely* tight leather pants that leave nothing to the imagination. - *Please Don't Eat the Daisies* was a light comedy movie about a family and, with moments like Doris Day as the mother leading a bunch of children in the title song, presumably intended for family audiences. One of its subplots, though, concerns the father's opinion of an actress' bottom. You can't get much more literal Parent Service than that. - For those who view the *Transformers* movies as merely properties based on toys and an '80s cartoon that they are being dragged to by their kids, the casting of Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley are this. - *Elf*. Zooey Deschanel's shower scene. - *Free Willy*: Rae's sexuality and attractive appearance aren't emphasized, but she wears a sports bra while working at the Aquarium in a few scenes and the outlines of her nipples are briefly visible through her tank top in another. - Shay Stanley's presence in *Blank Check* definitely qualifies for this. There's even a scene where she's dancing with the young protagonist in a series of water fountains. - Loni Anderson in *3 Ninjas Knuckle Up*. (Though, this was just as she was reaching the peak, so the extra content? Not so much.) - Vivica A. Fox as the fairy godmother in *Ella Enchanted*. Additional Parental Service (by way of panty shot) in her third appearance, providing you have the DVD version. - Asian Pretty Boy ninja Storm Shadow in the *G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra* movie, who wears blindingly white tailored suits and has a shirtless scene at the end with authentic battle damage. - When Sharpay of *High School Musical* gets food spilled on her shirt, Gabriella frantically paws her chest. Mocked in the RiffTrax. - Fathers stuck watching *The Metro Chase* with their kids probably won't complain too much when they see Lindsay Felton dressed like this◊. - The 1994 live-action *Jungle Book*; the kids get the cute animals. The adults get Jason Scott Lee in a loincloth. - The live-action *Thunderbirds* movie uses Lady Penelope in this way. Her character introduction is walking into Alan's classroom done up to the nines and saying "Hello boys". Plus there's a lengthy scene with her in the bath later on in the film. - In *Oz the Great and Powerful*, Mila Kunis wears some pretty tight pants, ||and later a fair amount of cleavage after she turns into the wicked witch of the west||. - *Night at the Museum:* - *Battle of the Smithsonian* has Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) spend the entire film wearing very tight leather pants. (She's actually that trope's page image.) - Pharaoh Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) wears an elaborate midriff-revealing outfit in all three films. - *Aquamarine* is an otherwise G-rated kids' movie. But Sara Paxton plays a mermaid with Godiva Hair - who is dressed very flatteringly when she's a human on land too. - Captain Hook is this in the 2003 *Peter Pan*. He's played as villainous but handsome. - *Paddington (2014)* and *Paddington 2* are a little more adult friendly than most, but even without that, there's still Sally Hawkins' Mary Brown...particularly in that tight sweater early on... - Dulcea in *Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie* is not only incredibly attractive but wearing little more than a bikini. - Studio100 K3 is considered an example hereof in The Netherlands and Belgium. Three women jumping up and down in cute dresses while singing songs marketed towards children, though the parents, especially the fathers tend to be a bit of a bonus audience. there is quite a lot of parental bonus in the texts as well. - And Djumbo from The Netherlands would also◊ count◊. - S Club 7 was a kid's band, but had a very attractive group of members.◊ Compounding this is the fact that their TV show (on CBBC, remember) was set in Miami, Los Angeles, and Barcelona, meaning the group was frequently in swimsuits and other warm-weather clothing. - The very sport of professional wrestling is this to some but for those who needed a little more, wrestling porn star Val Venis would rub his back with a towel. - Angel Rose would pull off her shirt for a Cheap Pop in U Know Pro, even though the gear she wore underneath it covered just as much. - On the Boers and Bernstein show (a sports radio show in Chicago), the host Dan Bernstein regularly explains that he enjoys watching Giada De Laurentiis with his daughter. His daughter likes the show because she explains cooking in a way that she can easily understand. He likes it because a decent percentage of the shots in the show are of Giada's chest. - The 1904 play *Peter Pan* was a source of Parent Service in that young women generally played the title role. Remember, a woman in leggings was *very* racy in Edwardian times. Then there's Tiger Lily, a Nubile Savage in a tight, short, leather dress. - Most Pantomimes (where the Principal Boy is always played by a woman) are a source of this, even today. This goes back at least as far as the nineteenth century, where letting an actress crossdress in pseudo-Elizabethan doublet and hose was the only non-scandalous way of allowing her to show off her legs. - Let's go back even further when the laws loosen up to allow women to perform, they were often put in roles that includes 'disguising oneself as a boy' for this reason. - *Pokémon Live!* had several dancers in the background wearing skin-tight leotards. - James delivers a joke about employment benefits and "Don't Ask Don't Tell". - About halfway through the song *Be Prepared* in the theatrical version of *The Lion King*, there's a dance sequence performed by half a dozen male dancers. The parent service comes from them being topless apart from their hyena masks. - The Dark Queen from the *Battletoads* series. It's no wonder that people play these games. She gives the words Nintendo Hard a whole new meaning. - *The Legend of Zelda*: Apparently, one of the developers' wives had some say on Link's character design: **Aounuma:** So Link is your wife's type? **Koizumi:** Yes. - Heck, *Miyamoto's wife* had a say in his design for *Ocarina of Time*, saying their original boyish teen Link with a "distinctive button nose" wasn't attractive enough. Shigeru jokingly asked if she'd play the game if he was better looking. She seriously said yes. - *Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker* was intentionally designed for a younger audience than most previous Rated M for Manly series entries, incorporating bright comic book colours, a Lighter and Softer tone with much milder violence, J-Pop tie-in singles, and several Kid Appeal Characters. It also had a Japanese-only tie-in audio drama CD, aimed at a middle-aged female demographic (Japan's primary audio drama demographic), with a *much* more steamy and homoerotic tone than the games (and that's saying something). The *Peace Walker* game has some cheesecake when Paz describes Snake and Kaz fighting naked in a sauna; the *Peace Walker* audio drama turns this into a scene of Snake forcing Kaz to strip, touching his butt, then gasping over the size of Kaz's penis and stroking it. - In *Rayman Origins*, Betilla the Nymph has been retooled from being conventionally pretty to drop-dead gorgeous, with a noticeable bust and pair of hips. Her sisters have similar proportions. - For the *Crash Bandicoot* series; Tawna was intended to provide this, but she got quickly jettisoned out of the series in favor of Coco, who appealed more to the Japanese demographic's general affinity for cute girls. It didn't help that most of the other women with this kind of appeal only made a single appearance each (the Trophy Girls in *Crash Team Racing*, and Pasadena O'Possum in *Crash Tag Team Racing*), although this was compensated for by upping Coco's cup size and giving her a more radical wardrobe later on. Fortunately, not only did Tawna came back for the *N. Sane Trilogy* (with a few adjustments), she was also allowed to be in *Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled* alongside the other aforementioned ladies. - Sonic: With most Sonic games being aimed at kids, the design of Rouge the Bat stands out like a sore thumb. She's a Classy Cat-Burgler with Hartman Hips, high-heeled thigh-high boots, and a cleavage-revealing Spy Catsuit. She's also a serious flirt who regularly makes suggestive passes at her rival Knuckles and her friend Shadow. - In *Animaniacs* has two principal characters: - The sexy blonde nurse, called Hello Nurse. Hello Nurse's appearance almost always prompts Wakko and Yakko into exclaiming "Hellooooooo, Nurse!", (one of the show's well-known lines) and jumping into her arms. She also appears in some short as hostess, maid, Femme Fatale, etc. - Minerva Mink, an attractive, beautiful and sexy anthropomorphic mink (so beautiful and sexy in fact, it's the very reason as to why the censors found her cartoons Too Hot for TV and scrapped them after only two were made). In her first short, she appears in a Modesty Towel and has a Shower Scene (with Sexy Silhouette). - *Avatar: The Last Airbender*: In the first season, when the main cast was at its youngest and most childish, the creators gave us Commander Zhao, introduced with a Shirtless Scene, and voiced by Jason Isaacs. - The villainesses in *Batman: The Animated Series*. Extra points go to Harley and Ivy's blatant (and canon!) Homoerotic Subtext, and, in later episodes, Harley's attempts to seduce the Joker, which involved pies and nighties and were about as risqué as they were unsuccessful. - *The Brak Show* had an in-universe example with Brak's favorite show, *Señor Science*. His dad has quite a fondness for the title character's assistant, Chikita. However, given that she's never on screen, we viewers have to take Dad's word on how sexy she is. - *Danny Phantom* is not immune, such as with Desiree. There's also Vlad for a male example — he even gets a Shirtless Scene at one point. Also, pay attention to how the Fenton parents often react to each other. - *The Fairly OddParents!* has the likes of The Tooth Fairy and Princess Mandie. - Baroness spends the entire *GI Joe* episode "The Gamesmaster" in a bikini. And it's a Baroness-heavy episode. - It's December, you're sitting around with your kids during Christmas Break who are watching Cartoon Network, the special *Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer* comes on, and Cousin Mel is dancing in a coconut bikini top singing a Villain Song about suing Santa Claus. - Ms. Sara Bellum in *The Powerpuff Girls (1998)*. The camera *never* strays upward from her cleavage — not even to show her actual face! - *ReBoot*: - Adult AndrAIa wears a top that that shows off most her torso and a lot cleavage - And, despite the crazy, Hexadecimal had to be the original Parental Bonus. - Daemon's skimpy clothes and several "rebooted" attires for Dot Matrix (Elvira comes to mind) also qualify. - Lampshaded hilariously when Dot and Bob find themselves in a *Tomb Raider* like game, and Dot Reboots as a hot Egyptian chick, checks out her new form and accessories for something she doesn't find and, at Bob's enquiry, replies **"Well, I was hoping for a couple of Forty-Fives."** - For that matter, so's Bob, Ray, and even Megabyte to a select few. They all had their moments. - Mouse as well, always wearing pants that were little more than a texture map and swaying her hips suggestively. Even Megabyte notices. - Red, a character originally from *Red Hot Riding Hood*. She appears in some *Tom and Jerry* Direct to Video films with this role. Particular mention to *Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure* where she is a Fairy Sexy with a few butt shots. - Has happened a couple of times on *Steven Universe*, mostly with Garnet as the subject: the most memorable examples include a scene in which the viewer follows Jamie's eyes as he watches Garnet sultrily stepping out of the ocean, as well as... well, pretty much all of Garnet's fusion dances. In this case, however, there's a good chance this isn't aimed towards the dads. - Babs Bunny in *Tiny Toon Adventures* had a habit of adding a load of curves when she did some of her costume changes. The two most blatant being the Elvira costume when trying to get an acting gig from Shakespeare, and the time she (somehow) disguised herself as a human to get a role in the "live-action" series "Thirteen-something", and spent half the episode with a pair of double-D's (on a two-foot body, no less!). - *X-Men: Evolution*: - Rogue fulfilled this role. Sure, you could make a claim for others, but Rogue was, Word of God even admitting such, always drawn and designed in the show to show off as much skin as she could without actually going overboard. - Then there's "Walk on the Wild Side" which gets all the X-girls into black leather pants and halter tops as they prepare to fight crime. Oh lord.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentService

Murder in the Family - TV Tropes Familicide, or the killing of one's own family members, especially your spouse, progeny, or parents, has always been viewed poorly in most societies, though in some cases there were exceptions. For instance, in Ancient Greece and Rome the practice of leaving a newborn child to die of exposure if they were born physically deformed was considered perfectly acceptable. It has also served as a method of gaining greater power via getting rid of competition, or for conserving resources in extreme cases during hard times (if the bodies didn't also end up becoming the resources). Obviously, this is a sub-trope of Domestic Abuse, and is the most extreme version of it. For other (non-lethal/violent) instances of family tension, see the Dysfunctional Family Index. Examples that don't fit into any of the below tropes should only be listed on their respective works pages.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Parricide

Parody Product Placement - TV Tropes **Bugs Bunny:** Is this [Wal-Mart] a mirage? Or just product placement? **Daffy Duck:** Hey, who cares? With shopping convenience at such low prices! Product Placement is a fixture in media, for good or ill. Like any pervasive concept, especially one that is criticized so often, writers love to play with it. The result is Parody Product Placement, which can take several forms: - A work promotes a made-up product, which sometimes exists In-Universe, using over-the-top or absurd claims that would never pass modern advertising standards. "Drink Boka Bola! It cures hangovers, takes off weight, and cleans your teeth!" - A work promotes a real product in a way that is blatantly *not* complimentary or representative of the product's actual marketing claims. "Big Macs: For when you aren't fat enough already!" - A work goes over the top in promoting a product, sticking brand labels on everything from street signs to the characters' clothing to the Fourth Wall and having characters mention it in every other sentence. - A work takes a tongue-in-cheek ad break to shill a product in a way intended to poke fun at real advertising campaigns. - A work makes a big deal out of how it refuses to indulge in product placement while simultaneously blatantly advertising things. (It only counts if it's intended to be humorous or ironic.) Obviously, these aren't the only ways to accomplish the trope, but all share an essential aspect: poking fun at product placement. See also Bland-Name Product, Product Displacement, Prop, Shoddy Knockoff Product, and Trade Snark. ## Examples: - Two Sprint commercials have made fun of this, presenting their commercials for the Instinct phone as movie trailers. They're actually called something like "the finest product placement movie this summer", with "finest" often replaced for a more genre-appropriate word (such as "scariest" or "heartwarming"). - A Budweiser commercial featured a movie director wondering why there was a bottle of window cleaner on the set of his medieval-period sword fighting scene. He's informed that if he shills products in the movie, the company will give him free stuff. Cue everything on set being branded with the Budweiser logo. - Before the ban on product placement was lifted, UK watchdogs ITC ran an advert to publicize the ban; it ran as a parody of an Australian soap with two blokes opening a fridge to reveal it crammed with Kanga Brew beer, and leaving a can directly in front of the camera for twenty seconds while taking a ludicrously melodramatic phonecall. - A Barclaycard advert was set in Venice so that Alan Wicker could say from a gondola that Barclaycard was accepted there more often than "certain charge cards I could mention". As he said this, a passing gondolier snatched his ice cream and began singing "Just one Cornetto, give it to me...", leaving a bemused Wicker asking "isn't this the wrong commercial?" - *Happy Heroes*: In the Season 4 finale, as the race is about to begin, Mr. Lightbulb tells the competitors to prepare... to advertise, and then interrupts with an advertisement for a drink. He is then informed that the drink was made by Sweet S. and faints, and the race begins. - An issue of *E-Man* comics had an ad for "Hostess Tweakies" featuring Cutey Bunny, a parody of *Cutey Honey*. She defeated the villains by force-feeding them so many Tweakies that they could barely move. - Alan Moore's *First American* strip, being a parody of both superhero tropes and American culture, also did a take-off of these. - *Green Lantern: Secret Files and Origins* featured "the tastiest Green Lantern/The Flash team-ups ever!" First, the Golden Age GL and Flash defeat Nazi saboteurs with the aid of Secret Files candy bars and their secret ingredient. Then the Silver Age incarnations use the "space age taste" of Secret Files bars to expose alien criminals disguised as alien policemen (the real policemen absorb energy). Finally the Modern Age versions (Kyle Rayner and Walter West note : Not Wallace "Wally" West - it's complicated but involves parallel universes and Abra Kadabra) are halfway through an ad for Secret Files Powerbars, before Kyle starts complaining it doesn't make sense. "We defeat the bad guy by giving him *food*? And why is he standing at ground zero of his own weapon anyway? Who wrote this?" While Kyle argues with the director of what now turns out to be a TV ad, and learns they're still working off Alan and Jay's contracts, Walter learns that the "secret ingredient" is *sugar*. - *2000 AD*: - The first issue of *Limekiller at Large* opens with an ad for "Lil' Dolly Fruit Pies". - Marvel Comics loves to spoof the old Hostess Fruit Pies ads they did: - In the issue of *Marvel Team-Up* released as part of the infamous mid-80's "Assistant Editor's Month", entitled "Aunt May and Franklin Richards vs. Galactus", Galactus took Aunt May as his new herald (under the name "Golden Oldie") after which she halted his latest attempt to devour the earth by serving him "Grosstest Twinkles". - In the early-90's comedy title "WHAT THE..?!", a hero offers "Stinkies" cupcakes to The Blob, whose whole gimmick is that he's fat. The Blob is initially overjoyed, but after reading the full list of ingredients of the wrapper and seeing that the treat is full of saturated fats, he proceeds to beat the stuffing out of the hero. "I'm trying to lose weight, you're not helping!" - Marvel again in *Age of the Sentry*, with advertisements for Marvel Fruit Pies with Fruit-like Filling. - An issue of Deadpool set in 1970s (thus fitting with the original ads) had him distract a mugger in this manner with bottles of "Party Time Fruit Liquor". ("It's refreshing, and delicious, and allows me to talk to women.") As the mugger is distracted, Deadpool apprehends the mugger and prepares to turn him over to the authorities. Then he remembers that he's on a strict time limit to finish another job and simply kills him instead. - Dan Slott's *Spider-Man/Human Torch* mini-series had a scene in one issue where Spider-Man distracted the Red Ghost's Super Apes (who had stolen the infamous Spider-Mobile) by snagging a store display of fruit pies with his webbing and yanking the display into the street. The apes immediately attacked the fruit pies and forgot about Spider-Man and the Torch. Spidey immediately calls the ad agency that gave him the car and tells them that the deal's off, but he's got an idea for an ad campaign they can use... - One early issue of *Thunderbolts* features a parody ad where Citizen V/Baron Zemo is convinced to abandon his plan to take over the world when he's given fruit pies instead. (it was actually written by fans and eventually redrawn by actual Marvel artists!) - During *Spider-Verse*, Morlun encounters a Spider-Man who attempts to give him fruit pies. It... doesn't end well for that Spidey. - Mentioned by Gwenpool in the retro-style ads attached to 2017's Marvel Legacy one-shot. She urged readers to buy her comic so that she wouldn't be forced to shill fruit pies. - One issue of *The Powerpuff Girls* comic ends this way. After several pages of the girls fighting Mojo Jojo in a power suit, the girls get him to surrender with 'Mostest Fruit Pies' in a finale that pretty much rips off the *Dexter's Laboratory* example. - One *Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)* story features Tails reading a comic within the comic that casts the Freedom Fighters as parodies of the Fantastic Four, with Robotnik serving in the Galactus role. Parodying the ads, Sonic manages to keep from Robotnik from eating the planet by giving him "Twinkles," which has the tagline "You avoid a fight with every bite!" - A collection of *Watchmen* Delicious Fruit Pies parodies. - *Welcome to Tranquility* gives us an ad for Minxy Millions Mini-Pies. In "Maxi Man vs. the Vampire," Maxi-Man helps some disco-loving teens escape a vampire's bite by giving the vampire Minxy Fruit Mini-Pies (oh, and also by knocking out the vampire's fangs.) "It tastes similar to real fruit!" note : *Welcome to Tranquility: One Foot in the Grave* #3 - An interlude ad in the *Wildguard: Casting Call* TPB shows Four-Teen stopping a robbery by Speeding Skull with Hostris Fruit Pies. - A 1943 comic book ad for Wheaties included a single-panel comic with a variation on the theme: "Look, Fritz! Dose Americans are capturing our storm troopers mit free samples Wheaties again!" - Inverted in a different ad: "The Japs are getting smart - they're putting Wheaties in the boobytraps." Most commentators are more concerned with how the commander's assistant is apparently trained to spout Wheaties adlines on command than how the Japanese are baiting traps with cereal. - Surprisingly played straight in one of the *Famous Friends* Subway ad insert comics from 2011, when the possibility of getting a sandwich distracts Black Manta from his actual plan. - One of the characters in *Lethargic Lad* always attempts to stop the villains by throwing snackfood cakes at them, and is always baffled when this fails to work. - There is a parody strip where Omaha the Cat Dancer is accosted by a mugger and notices he has his head wrapped in a towel to hold an ice pack to a toothache. In response, she pulls out an unwrapped Twonkie from her purse and (after picking off some of the lint) shoves it in his mouth. As he is writhing in pain, Omaha makes her escape while you see the slogan "You get an oral blight in every bite of 'Hotsizz Twonkies'" - *Twisted Toyfare Theatre* featured a parody in which the Punisher gives the Green Goblin a Hostess Fruit Pie that's rigged with a bomb. - In an example of What Could Have Been, Patton Oswalt once wrote another parody where The Punisher uses Pink Pants Fruit Pies to stop a villain called the Hooker Hacker. Fans later turned his script into a fan film. **The Punisher:** I'm going to cauterize your rectum, sealing it shut, so when you turn those delicious Pink Pants Fruit Pies into waste products the bilirubin in your feces will leach into your bloodstream and you'll die screaming! And I'll watch while having sex with this grateful prostitute! **Prostitute:** Cherry is my favorite! - In the sixth issue of the Joe Books revival of the *Darkwing Duck* comic book, Darkwing Duck defeats the revived Splatter Phoenix by trapping her inside an ad for Mostess Veggie Pies. It plays out exactly like any superhero comic-endorsed Hostess ad you've ever seen. - The DC Comics series *52*: - Booster Gold, a superhero with a reputation for being self-interested, tools around Metropolis with a dozen logo decals stuck to his costume. (He later learns his lesson. And then explodes. But gets better.) - In the early '90s, Booster headed up a corporate superhero team called The Conglomerate as competitors for the Justice League. The members wore jackets over their regular superhero outfits that featured various DCU-native companies such as Star Labs and Lexcorp. The companies then made the mistake of insisting that The Conglomerate start looking after the companies' interests over the welfare of the world in general, which ultimately backfired on them. - *Transmetropolitan*: At one point, the main character, Spider Jerusalem, very newsworthy, goes on a booze-fueled rant. As shown in other points, one can clearly click over to buy the booze Spider is holding as he does his thing. In another aspect, Spider, naive to the ways of City life, is hit with an advertising bomb that unloads ads in his sleep. Society isn't completely insane; chemically induced ad visions cause mucho neurological disasters and are illegal...until they aren't for about five minutes every few legal cycles. Guess what the citizens get sprayed with then? And last but not least, the TVs in your home don't seem to have an off switch... Spider's TV might be an exception, though. He explicitly programs it to change channels every twenty seconds in the first issue and leaves it on. Constant information overload probably goes with the territory of being a journalist. - In one of the issues of *The Simpsons* comic, Homer mentions that during an interview you should mention products "Such as Chips Ahoy! cookies!" so they have to pay you. - Another issue featured a straight-up parody of the old Hostess Fruit Pies strips, where supervillain Crab (who is a crab) plots to steal Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy's basket of "Krusty Snak Kakes", with the intention of using their yumminess to bribe local authorities into selling him weapons-grade plutonium. **Fallout Boy**: Mmm! I can't get enough of that fruit-flavored filling — apple, rhubarb, cherry, and my favorite — *plain*! **Radioactive Man** : I only wish we had some national forum with which to share this information and tell kids to buy, buy, buy Krusty Snak Kakes! - An issue of the *Red Dwarf Smegazine* featured Kryten promoting "Smeggo" washing liquid, only to get interrupted by Lister finding out that he cleaned his favorite shirt, which he did not want to be washed. - *Foxtrot*: **Paige:** I hate how the *American Idol* judges always have those Pepsi cans in front of them. **Peter:** It's called product placement, Paige. **Paige:** Well, it's tacky. **Peter:** Get used to it. Altoids(TM) Brand Mint? **Paige:** Yes, thanks! I find They're Curiously Strong!(TM) - One *Pearls Before Swine* strip had Larry secretly eating Kentucky Fried Chicken in the closet because he's too lazy to catch a zebra. Pastis said in the *Pearls Sells Out* commentary that people ask him if he's paid by companies to mention their products. He says no, and that he's never been approached. - Though *Calvin & Hobbes: The Series* is a non-commercial work, and it often plays this trope straight, it still manages to lampshade it: **Narrator:** A season of... product placement? **Hobbes:** Who's up for the *What About Bob?* movie! **Calvin & Socrates:** I AM! - From one of the authors of the above, *Attack of the Teacher Creature* has a more obvious parody. "It tastes like a cup of heaven!" he whispered. "And it goes down smooooooooth," added Hobbes, quoting the soda ad. Sherman was confused. "Is this just an example of product placement?" he asked. "Who cares?" Calvin said, taking another gulp. "Fresh, delectable beverages at reasonably cost prices is enough to win me over." - The live-action adaptation of *Josie and the Pussycats* was deliberately littered with Product Placement as part of Evil, Inc. Mega Records' Social Engineering. They not only decide who's hot and who's passe, but what brands, colors and styles are trending, and which are lame using subliminal Mind Control. - *The Shadow* features a tense standoff between Big Bad Shiwan Khan and the titular hero that, completely out of nowhere, turns into an extended run of the two having a civil conversation about Lamont's exquisite tie and the in-universe tailor's shop which sold it to him. This was done as a parody of classic radio programs often having in-character advertisements for the show's sponsor during its intermission, including the Shadow himself, as voiced by Orson Welles, who shilled for Goodyear Tires during a summer broadcast season in 1938. - *The Truman Show* has Truman's wife including product placement blurbs in her everyday speech. Later in the film, Truman asks who she's talking to. - In *Looney Tunes: Back in Action*, the main characters are wandering through a Nevada desert until they find a Wal-Mart smack dab in the middle of it. When D.J. remarks how stupid it is, Kate simply replies "Product Placement. No one notices that anymore" and no one else cares, since they are thirsty and tired. When they leave, they are loaded with stuff and Bugs Bunny says "It was very nice of Wal-Mart to give us all of these Wal-Mart products for saying 'Wal-Mart' so many times." - *Spaceballs* runs on "Moichandizing, moichandizing! Where the *real* money from the movie is made." **Yogurt:** *Spaceballs*: the T-shirt. *Spaceballs*: the coloring book. *Spaceballs*: the lunchbox. *Spaceballs*: the breakfast cereal. *Spaceballs*: the flamethrower! *(FWOOM)* The kids love this one. Last, but not least, *Spaceballs*: the doll. *(holds up a Yogurt doll)* Me. **Yogurt doll:** May da Schwartz be with you. **Yogurt:** Adorable. - There's a scene in *Wayne's World* where Wayne and Garth say it's wrong to sell out, all while making nearly half a dozen product placements. - *Killer Tomatoes Strike Back:* The film starts with every used product being literally black-and-white generics, but then the director appears on-camera and announces that they need more money, so they're selling product pitches.. which leads to ever-more-blatant examples as the movie progresses. - *Idiocracy* has product placement everywhere, and it is parodied to show just how shallow and dumb the future is: - In Carl's Jr., the most common or popular portion size is 'Extra Big-Ass', such as their fries, and their motto has devolved into "Fuck you, I'm eating!". - Fuddruckers is shown devolving into "Buttfuckers", but is actually one of the few businesses to keep their function as a burger place. - Costco has grown to the size of a small city, with its own subway system and law school. The guy welcoming people says "Welcome to Costco. I love you." - Crocs shoes are made for prisoners. - Fox News Channel is still a news network, but has devolved into pure entertainment, with its newscasters dressed like porn stars. - Starbucks, H&R Block, and several other places have become brothels. - It seems that in the future, parents will name their kids after food companies: Joe's lawyer is Frito (Pendejo), the star of *Ow, My Balls!* is named Hormel (Chavez), the president's middle name is Mountain Dew, and there's even a reporter named Velveeta. And one named Formica. Essentially every named character from the future has some kind of Product Placement in their name. - One Cabinet member constantly drops ad slogans (most notably "Brought to you by Carl's Jr.") into his normal conversation, because they pay him each time he says it. - All clothes consist entirely of logos (usually foods). - Then there are the misspellings, that seem to accumulate over time due to mankind getting stupider. To list them, they are Buttfuckers, Nas-Tea, Uhmerican Exxxpress and St<A>r8ucks, along with some others. - In *Space Beasts*, during a chase scene, Big Bad Bimbolurlina stops chasing the Fellowship crew for....Delicious Big Johnny's Ham Sandwiches - In *Rally Round the Flag, Boys!*, a bunch of advertising executives representing a breakfast-cereal company meet with the producer of a Bible Times drama series sponsored by their client to debate the question: "How do we identify King David with Crackle-Crunchies?" They variously propose having David Time Travel into the twentieth-century to eat Crackle-Crunchies and David having a vision of God presenting him with a bowl of Crackle-Crunchies. The producer's own idea is to have King David invent the delicacy of Crackle-Crunchies and write down the secret formula in the Dead Sea Scrolls. - *How to Be a Superhero* lists this as one of the downsides of having a corporate sponsor: They [the sponsor] insist that you use their products in the fight against crime. - (This may be OK if they manufacture napalm, titanium plating or radar equipment, but it's not much use if they make children's clothing, toothpaste or sanitary napkins...) - In *Moving Pictures*, C.M.O.T. Dibbler notices that if a single frame advertising the local eatery is accidentally left in and causes people to think about eating there for lunch, sticking *five minutes' worth* of the frame right in the middle of the movie will work even better. Dibbler adds increasingly blatant product placement for Harga's House of Ribs into *Blown Away* (set during the Ankh-Morpork Civil War, 300 years before Harga opened his doors) in a desperate attempt to break even, much to his nephew Soll's disgust. **Sol:** Hey, you there! Fifteenth knight along! Would you mind unfurling your banner? Thank you. Could you pop along and see Mrs Cosmopolite for a new one? Thank you! **C.M.O.T.:** It's ... it's a heraldic device. **Sol:** Crossed ribs on a bed of lettuce? **C.M.O.T.:** Very keen on their food, these old knights. **Sol:** And I liked the motto. "Every (k)night is gourmay night at Harga's House of Ribs". If we had sound, I wonder what his battlecry would have been? :: And later, as the city-set burns: **C.M.O.T.:** I hope Gaffer's concentrating on the tower. Very important symbolic landmark. **Sol:** It certainly is. So important, in fact, that I sent some lads up it at lunchtime just to make sure it was all OK. **C.M.O.T.:** You did? **Sol:** Yes. And do you know what they found? They found someone had nailed some fireworks to the outside. Lots and lots of fireworks, on fuses. It's a good thing they found them because if the things had gone off it would have ruined the shot and we'd never be able to do it again. And, do you know, they said it looked as though the fireworks would spell out words? **C.M.O.T.:** What words? **Sol:** Never crossed my mind to ask them. Never crossed my mind. *[Beat]* "Hottest ribs in town!" Really! - In *Bubble World*, ads for Tracey's Famous Coffee are everywhere in Bubble World. *There's nothing like a coffee cloud to start your day the Tracey way!* - In *The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles*, there's a shoe store that only offers movie tie-in shoes. Tim Tebow gets a pair of *Hitch* sneakers; they don't cost him anything, but in return he has to tell everyone about *Hitch*—the romantic comedy with a twist, starring Will Smith! Now available on DVD! - *The Cry of Mann*: On the parody after-show *Tanking Mann*, Becca and Rebecca get sponsored by a coffee-company called Colombe and "subtly" show off their drinks to the audience, complete with a zoom. Despite this, they don't even seem to enjoy the product, endorsing it just for the money. This meant to be another clear sign that *Tanking Mann* is *not* a good show, and that the people behind it don't actually care about what they're doing. - *The D-Generation*: In one sketch, the director of a historical drama about Caroline Chisholm refuses to compromise his vision by resorting to an absurdly anachronistic product placement deal with Burger Palace. Gilligan Cut to a scene containing exactly that, with one of the characters quite obviously turning a soft drink cup to face the camera. - *Jane the Virgin* skewers its Post sponsorship by having it appear as *In-Universe* product placement on Rogelio's telenovela, which leaves the creators wondering how to insert Honey Bunches of Oats into a climactic episode of a dramatic historical telenovela. - *Marvel Cinematic Universe*: - *Monty Python's Flying Circus* loved this, from a sketch which speculated on The BBC having to take on advertising (resulting in a costume drama sponsored by "Trim-Jeans" with hilariously inappropriate Product Placement) to an animated fairy-tale segment wherein the terrible dragon starts plugging Crelm toothpaste. - *Muppets Now*: Miss Piggy's final segment of Lifestyle is brought to you by... Leaky Bucket! Which appears to be a garden variety bucket. Piggy gets increasingly irate with how it has nothing to do with the topic of her show, eventually taking it out on the bucket, only to find it's actually surprisingly durable. - *Stargate SG-1*: In "Space Race", Carter joins up with an alien to participate in a spaceship race. The TV broadcast covering the race is half commentary and half cheesy shilling for the products of the Mega-Corp that sponsors it. - *Studio C* uses Dasani sponsorship ads as a running gag. - In *The Gary and Carl Show* sketches, Gary and Carl claim to be ad free while blatantly advertising Dasani. Eventually they start stealing the taglines from other companies. - The vlog-running mafia member from *The Vlogfather* is sponsored by Dasani. He makes a victim hold a water bottle for product placement, and pauses to give a pitch while breaking into the house of a rival gang. - In *The Office (US)*, one of the signs of Michael Scott's ignorance towards New York despite his repeated visits there is the fact that his "favorite New York pizza joint" is a Sbarro. - "Subaru Crosstrek XV" by Hobo Johnson is a Car Song that goes into so much detail about the specifications of the car that it's practically a commercial for the car, particularly in a spoken outro that in the video is overlaid by text disclaiming that it's not a commercial or sponsored by Subaru in any way. - "Dream Girl" by The Lonely Island starts with the announcement "The following song is brought to you by Chex Mix", which initially comes off as a Non Sequitur as the lyrics go on to describe the narrator's crush on an unattractive, unhygienic, possibly violently insane woman. This turns out to be a Brick Joke when the last verse goes out of its way to mention Chex Mix three separate times, then the last chorus turns into a full-on jingle for the product. - *Welcome to Night Vale* will feature "a word from our sponsors" in every episode, all of which are the creepiest of DadaAds or just the announcer making weird noises into the microphone for two minutes, followed by a disturbingly peppy announcement of the company and their slogan. - In-universe in *The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air)* the eponymous radio Variety Show's "Guest vocalist" Romica the Singing Saw appears to be the Circus' blatant in-show promotion of its sponsor, Samuel Saws, who are reaping the benefits of the Circus' popularity. - *Behind the Bastards*:In addition to his incessant Biting-the-Hand Humor, Robert will frequently announce before ads that some supposed major corporate sponsor is doing something horrible, like buying a private island to hunt children for sport. - *Wizard*: - One ad issue featured Jesse Custer and the cast of *Preacher* in a mock-Hostess fruit pies ad. - Another issue featured the 'heroes' of *Marvel Zombies*. Instead of fruit pies, they find two kids. Two *tasty* kids. - In the *MAD* parody of *The Matrix*, MoreForUs explains how artificial intelligence has been using human beings as an energy source, and he holds up a battery to show where that energy is stored. The protagonist asks if it's an ordinary battery, and MoreForUs says that it isn't: "It's a Duracell Ultra! It contains at least 20% more humans than any other battery!" - A Running Gag in *A Very Potter Sequel* is Ron's love of Red Vines, which takes the form of him stopping scenes to offer people Red Vines, usually turning to face the audience and prominently displaying the logo. Ron seems to view them as a panacea and shills them as such. - In *Grand Theft Auto V*, the Show Within a Show *Fame or Shame* features Imran Shinowa, a judge who plugs various products whenever he gets the opportunity to do so (or is prompted to, whichever comes first). - In *Poker Night at the Inventory*, Strong Bad may get Max to plug Telltale Games' online store during a game, directly to the camera, **Strong Bad:** Other than HOMESTAR RUNNER DOT COM, do you have any other favorite websites, Max? **Max:** Huh? Ive got some favorite sites for laying in wait for criminals and general neer-do-wells around the city, if thats what youre asking. **Strong Bad:** I *said*, do you have any favorite websites, Max? *[sotto voce]* Youre gonna cost me fifty bucks! **Max:** Oh! *[stilted tone]* When Im on the inter-net, I cant stay away from double-u double-u double-u dot telltale games dot com slash store. *[grin]* - Mentioned in an April Fools' Day announcement for *Katawa Shoujo*, which would insert "sponsored lines" at random intervals, and subscribers could turn them off. - *Shadowgirls* also get in on the fun. - Used in *Shortpacked!* to set up a joke about Hostess going out of business. - In *Something*Positive*, Davan created stats for a villain from one of those Hostess ads and managed to capture his players, making Jason want to know the saving throw to commit suicide so he wouldn't be killed by such a pathetic villain. - A postmodern dadaist version of Delicious Fruit Pies - Played for Drama in *Spinnerette*, when Spinny visits her hometown and discovers that her childhood bully is mind controlling the whole town using drugged fruit pies. - For a brief while, John Campbell claimed that *pictures for sad children* was being sponsored by the Long John Silver's restaurant chain. He made these two pages during that time, and for the duration of the joke, the pages in question were colored blue and yellow and the plain white background of the website was replaced with a splash ad for LJS. - *Nuzlocke Comics* poked a bit of fun at the concept after his site introduced ads. - Oreos, saving squirrels from being eaten since 1912. At least according to the squirrel Sid from *Sandra and Woo*. - *Neglected Mario Characters* is absolutely plastered with ads for a poker playing website, so they mocked this with both a poker machine being the "comic president" and the entertaining quote at the bottom of the page: *Just as a note, Jay wrote these articles as a Mario fan. Unfortunately, he did not play poker. That is why we had to get rid of him. Some of parts of his writing come from factual Nintendo information. Which gets in the way of the gambling. The rest was his own imagination. After Jay left, others continued in his stead, until becoming addicted to poker.* - *Homestuck* has some jokey references to Betty Crocker (with Gushers being used as health items) and Doritos (with Bro's shitty, glitch-filled licensed skateboarding game.) The former company factors more and more into the story until it's revealed that ||Betty Crocker herself is Her Imperious Condescension, the ruler of the trolls, and rules the earth (as well as Derse) in the kids' Alpha timeline. Jane is also the heiress to the company in said timeline||. - In *Knights of Buena Vista*, the game "FantasiaLand" (used for the settings in the Campaign Comic) has some product placement. Or at least Bill guesses that's why Haagan-Dazs is included in settings that take place well before that company existed. - In a strip from *The Petri Dish*, Dr. Thaddeus Euphemism drinks Coca-Cola with a human-sized Coke can behind him. Bob says, "So we're making money with not-so-subtle product placements now?". The next strip reveals that it was their boss Gordon Noble's idea and it was indeed an idea to make money. - *Italian Spiderman* parodies this trope, with the "Il Gallo" (a fictional label, mind you) cigarettes often smoked by the main character — he even blatantly exhibits them during one episode. - *The Irate Gamer*: In his *Yo! Noid* review, he notes at the beginning that the game's developer sold out by making a bad game based on a Domino's Pizza mascot. As he reviews the game, he wonders why Domino's would do such a thing. He then gets a check from Domino's and decides that selling out isn't a bad thing and starts promoting and namedropping random products ("After all, a logo can go a long way.") while praising the game. He finally stops when he sees how bad the ending is and decides that he'll only sell out to himself. - Tobuscus manages to parody this trope and play it straight at the same time. His schtick is to get paid by advertisers to produce parody videos about their products, under the theory that humor creates buzz. On the other hand, some of his videos are straight parodies, such as the *FarmVille* series (which almost got him in copyright trouble due to an overzealous Zynga employee). As if that weren't enough, any time a brand name appears in any of his videos or he mentions one in passing, he yells "Sponsor!", whether the appearance is sponsored or not. - The Nostalgia Critic's review of *Star Trek: The Motion Picture*: **Critic:** So to put it bluntly, he'll be back after these messages. *[lights start dimming]* No, hey what are you doing? That was a joke. It wasn't serious. It wasn't serious. No, hey, what are you doing? STOP! *[a real blip ad plays and then the lights come back on]* Chester, report! **Chester A. Bum:** We are being intersected by a word from our sponsor! **Critic:** Dammit. These advertising execs are getting more and more clever. *Raise our shields against anymore commercial plugs!* **Chester:** Yes sir. Incidentally, this swing of the shields is brought to you by the delicious taste of Diet Coke. **Critic:** *Chester!* **Chester:** Sorry, sorry. - RedLetterMedia in their Half in the Bag series ended their *Jack and Jill* review by purposely shoving various products in front of the camera, mocking the movie's overuse of it. - Some of the challenges in *Desert Bus for Hope*. "This episode of Qwerpline is brought to you by Jack Flank's Plank Flank Blank Shank." - The product placement for U by Kotex feminine hygiene products is relatively subtle in Season 1 of *Carmilla the Series* and quite subtle in Season 2, before returning with a hilarious vengeance in the first episodes of Season 0 in the form of a mountain of pads and tampons. - CDZA and The Key of Awesome did a crossover video parodying the overuse of this trope in hip hop songs, entitled "Hip Hop Shopping Spree". - *The Spoony Experiment*: In the review of *The Dungeonmaster*, Spoony jokes that the villain's name Mystema "sounds like some sort of hemorrhoid infection, or some sort of tropical disease" and then we see commercial-style testimonials from some of the other Channel Awesome contributors who are "suffering" from mystema. Dr. Insano then presents "XCALIBR8" (the name of the artificial intelligence/technology created by the hero) as a medicated lotion that can cure mystema, followed by more Channel Awesome testimonials. - *El Bananero*: - His most famous videos and the reason he becomes a referent for Latin American youtubers is thanks to his Infomercials that parody existing products, as well creating new ones, all of them with the "call now" placement. Some of his most famous "products" are *Sofa-natico*, *Kit MacGyver*, *Gas-T-Rico* and *Gaytorade*. - The most notable case of Continuity Nod about the above is *Muñeca System*, an inflated sex doll that can do a lot of things apart of being just a sex doll which Infomercial became El Bananero's first success. Well, with the time, Muñeca System became his girlfriend (a Yandere one, by the way) and appeared in a lot of videos and even has a dedicated Halloween Episode as the Fetishized Abuser. - He also made his own beer, *Cerveza Melorto* ("Beer Metheasshole"), with a proper ads with an Ode to Intoxication (parody of Argentinian beer ads that use this resource). - Parodied by CollegeHumor in "Wait: Is This Video BRANDED?!" in which the four characters deny accusations from the others that they're being a corporate shill while shilling products themselves. This includes Trapp holding a potato chip bag so that the logo is prominently visible, Grant hawking his phone's capabilities like he's being filmed, and Katie getting a Dramatic Wind to blow back her hair when she drinks a soda. - Bennett the Sage has done these as occasional gags in his anime review series *Anime Abandon*: - At the end of a gory scene in the " *Genocyber* Part I" review note : in which a scientist wakes up to find that he's handcuffed to a bed and his torso has been flayed down to the skeleton, a "Not going anywhere? Grab a Snickers!" "ad" pops up. - In the *X* review, he calls out a blatant scene where the main character drops down in front of a Coke billboard. Subtle product placement there, Potzi. Well, you can count on me to keep artistic integrity and keep corporate sponsorship at a bare minimum...just like the prices at your local Sizzler. * *cut to a Sizzler "ad" that ends with "At least we're not Denny's!"** - While reviewing *Burn Up!*, Sage notices that one of the bit bad guys looks a lot like Wilford Brimley, which leads to an extended parody of Brimleys memetic plugs for Liberty Medical. - In Todd in the Shadows' review of 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj's "Trollz," he pauses the video to announce his videos are now sponsored and begins to shill Pop Tarts, covering up Nicki's breasts in the music video with two boxes of Pop Tarts. Then he gets a text that no sponsors want to be associated with the video, all his sponsorships are cancelled, and he's banned for life from eating Pop Tarts. - *Dexter's Laboratory* had a segment with Captain America expy Major Glory and his "Justice Fruit Pies". **Mathemagician**: Not Justice Fruit Pies! The Delicious treat you'd have to be *crazy* to hate! Oooh, I give up! - The *SpongeBob SquarePants* episode "Mermaid Man vs. Spongebob" had ad with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy advertising the "New Krusty Kids Meal" at the Krusty Krab. **Man Ray**: How can I be evil with flavors this good? - Van Beuren Studios "The Sunshine Makers" was originally made as a promotional film for a long forgotten product called Borden's Milk, which is used in the cartoon as "Sunshine Milk" to make the evil gnomes happy. - In an episode of *Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law*, Harvey Birdman's drink suddenly turns into a can of Tab. Then there is an extended live-action sequence where Birdman and a 5-foot can of Tab frolic on the beach. - *Sealab 2021*: - A few episodes are choked with fake ads for Grizzlebee's, a riff on the Kitschy Themed Restaurant. "Grizzlebee's: You'll wish you had less fun!" - And at that, the episode "Tinfins" was itself one long advertisement for a fake movie, interspersed with advertisements for a fake restaurant. - Not to mention during the interviews with the makers of the movie, they clearly had Grizzlebee's. - As Captain Murphy learns, you don't mess with corporate sponsors. - *Frisky Dingo* had some fun with this, as an entire episode simultaneously hawked and mocked the Scion TC: Killface plans to spread his plans for world domination on *Live with Mitzi & Verl*, but his first segment got bumped because the hosts were so caught up in discussing the car, then it takes up a good chunk of his second segment as well, before he sarcastically screams that once he takes over the world, "you won't have much use for 17-inch alloy wheels". The studio crew takes this impetus to show ad footage of the Scion behind him as he rants about everyone falling victim to "Scion fever", which the hosts and crowd also take and run with. He then storms out of the studio, and gets splashed with mud by a passing Scion TC. - *Futurama*: - The *Aqua Teen Hunger Force* episode "Boost Mobile" features the titular cell phone as an actual character who has moved in with the core cast after Shake took an in-universe product placement deal, much to everyone else's annoyance. - *American Dad!*: - Parodied in "Black Mystery Month", when Steve and Stan stop at a Burger King: **Steve:** Why did we have to come to a Burger King to read the map? **Stan:** Because the economics of television have changed, Steve. *[awkwardly, towards the camera]* Have it... your way! - Ironically, Burger King was the first sponsor *American Dad* ever had, and just a few episodes before "Black Mystery Month", two characters visited Burger King with absolutely no trace of parody whatsoever. - *The Venture Bros.*: - In one episode, the favored cigarettes of notorious badass Brock Sampson is revealed to be Marlboro cigarettes — which in the Venture Bros.-verse are called "Manboro". - King Gorilla, one of Monarch's jail buddies from the last part of Season 1 and beginning of Season 2, makes his return in the second half of Season 4. At the welcome back party King Gorilla is now ||suffering from lung cancer|| and the gift Monarch gets him? You guessed it — a carton of cigarettes. - "The Rusty Venture Show, brought to you by... Smoking." - An episode of *Arthur* had Francine filming a music video. When asked why she put a bottle of tomato ketchup on top of a tombstone, she explained it was product placement. - In *The Proud Family*, Oscar Proud managed to get his Proud Snacks onto product placement in the ending of the episode (after his attempts at getting his commercial aired resulted in it being interrupted, the first time due to a pointless breaking news story about a TV show getting cancelled, the second due to Penny protesting). It airs on a TV show, and... well, let's just say that the snacks apparently killed one of the co-stars upon ingestion on-the-air. Also counts as a subtle Take That! to *The Parkers*. - The school principal from *Mission Hill*, after reading the announcements, gives an obviously mandatory shill for Clearasil: she says the slogan awkwardly and looks left and right as she does it. "Help stamp out... *Zitsophrenia*... with *Clearasil*." - In *Kim Possible*, one of Dr. Drakken's schemes to Take Over the World is to distribute a mind-control shampoo. When nobody buys it for obvious reasons — namely, the label *tells people what it does* (Dr. D believes in truth in advertising) — he tries to get a famous rapper to plug it in a song, reasoning that people will buy *anything* if it's plugged in a song. When that doesn't work, he tries to *become* a rapper via winning an *American Idol* Expy in order to plug it himself. - In *The Amazing World of Gumball* episode "The Money", Gumball's refusal to sell out to Joyful Burger has the rest of the Wattersons resort to increasingly less subtle means of Joyful Burger product placement to convince him. - In *Barbie: Video Game Hero*, besides the movie being about Barbie herself, she rewrites the final level of the game as a *Just Dance* game. - *Neo Yokio*: The show has a bizarre fascination with giant Toblerones, appearing in multiple episodes. At one point, a big Toblerone is even used as a bludgeoning weapon. - *Kaeloo*: In Episode 135, the show's budget runs low (in-universe), so Kaeloo makes a deal with a sausage company to sponsor them in exchange for product placement. For the rest of the episode, Kaeloo, Stumpy and Mr. Cat stop whatever they're doing every five seconds to say something about sausages. ||The show's director finds this an excellent idea, so he ends up making them advertise products for several different companies.|| - *Rocky and Bullwinkle*: In the "Wossamotta U." story, the chancellor of the university bemoans the fact that the Coke machine is being removed from the faculty lounge. - Subverted in *The Critic* when Orson Welles, while in the middle of recording Franklin and Eleanor's video will, suddenly starts shilling a brand of Ms. Pell's Fishsticks. **Welles:** And remember, there is no fish stick like Mrs. Pell's. **Lawyer:** *(Off-screen)* This isn't a commercial. **Welles:** *I know* , that was just a declaration of love . *(Eats one)* Yes. Oh, *yes!* **They're even better raw!** - In the *Rick and Morty* episode "Total Rickall", a flashback parodies product placement with special edition 3DS consoles. **Rick:** You guys, we gotta hurry! I just got back from Wal-Mart; they're selling Nintendo 3DS systems for $149.99 on sale, plus every time you buy one you get a $50 gift card! Brings the total price down to $110 after tax! Now listen: we can flip those sons of bitches for 230 bucks apiece easy! They're all limited edition Zelda ones. Hurry! Hurry, come with me! We can be rich and we also get all to keep one and we can play Nintendo games! Nintendo, give me free stuff ! - *Total Drama*, being its own Show Within a Show, occasionally engages in product placement from its sponsors, which are just as questionable as everything else it features. Examples include Mary's Lambburger ("Mary had a little lamb. Had."), Humpty Dumpty's Meat Shack ("At Humpty's, all the king's horses feed all the king's men!"), and Chef's Roadkill Café ("You hit it, we spit it!"). - In a *Bugs Bunny* cartoon, a singing commercial proclaims, "Crumbly Crunchies are the best,/They look good upon your vest!/Feed them to unwanted guests;/stuff your mattress with the rest!" It seems to be in the cartoon strictly for *Rule of Funny*. - An episode of *Beany and Cecil* had Cecil doing a plug for "Herrings, the only smoke ge-filtered to my distaste!" - *Its Oppo* initially presents itself as a fictional Nick Jr. program. The first sign of things being off occurs when partway through the short, Chester Cheetah shows up to share Cheetos with Oppo. Then things get weirder and creepier from there.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyProductPlacement

Parody Religion - TV Tropes Touched By His Noodly Appendage. I am a Ronald Reagan-Carl Sagan-San Diegan-Pagan. Every other Tuesday though, I worship Israels Begin. My sect is quite a singular one, my feelings are devout. I want my group known round the school, I want to have some clout. — A Filk Song named Ronald Reagan-Carl Sagan-San Diegan-Pagan Blues A made-up religion that exists to parody some specific existing religion, a group of religions and religious beliefs, organized religion in general, or just any kind of religious belief. It often takes the form of a Cargo Cult, a God Guise, some bizarre Crystal Dragon Jesus cult, or a pastiche of a Real Life religion with Serial Numbers Filed Off. For extra laughs, a Churchgoing Villain may follow this faith devoutly, or someone who's Hiding Behind Religion may use it as a smokescreen, perhaps also invoking Against My Religion to weasel out of some unpleasant obligation. It can be a risky move sometimes, since, religious freedom being what it is, people are generally allowed to believe in whatever they want. At times, a specific belief just might dovetail with a parody. See also Path of Inspiration, which is this with evil instead of funny; Corrupt Church, which is against organized religion; and Church of Happyology, which is a subtrope that parodies a very specific religion. *See also:* Anvilicious, Religion Is Wrong; the secular version is the Brotherhood of Funny Hats. An Animal Religion or a Robot Religion can parody an actual religion. Contrast Saintly Church, Religion Is Right. If the parody is used to actually deceive people—which, considering Poe's Law, is far from impossible—it becomes a Scam Religion. ## Examples: - A huge amount of those from *Transmetropolitan*. According to Spider, new cults pop there every hour, therefore, any religious belief does not make any sense. - In *Boba Fett: Enemy Of the Empire*, Boba Fett tracks the eponymous enemy to a secluded hermitage on a volcanic planet, which is home to a stereotypical crazy sect called ||the Ancient Order of Pessimists, who are eventually wiped out by Darth Vader's Star Destroyer immediately after the High Hermit commits heresy by embracing optimism||. - The *Oversaturated World* has the Church Of The Divine Bacon Horse, which is essentially a parody of itself. The COTDBH is dedicated to worshipping Sunset (or more specifically her unicorn aspect) in the most ridiculous, melodramatic way possible, thus simultaneously allowing the members to express their genuine faith and reverence, allowing Sunset to dismiss them as a bunch of loons and continue to pretend that she's not actually a goddess, and acknowledging how utterly ridiculous the whole situation is. - The movie *Bowfinger* features a cult called Mindhead, which parodies Scientology. - *The Last Guru* by Daniel Pinkwater has the Silly Hat Order, with a side order of Blong Buddhism, which is like Zen but more pickled. - Chutengodianism in *Godless* starts as a joke by a few teenagers, but takes on a life of its own (complete with its own heretics and fundamentalists.) In the end, ||the narrator is the only one left who still follows it—he doesn't really believe in it, but he wishes he did.|| - *You Can Be a Cyborg When You're Older* by Richard Roberts: The Enchanted seem to be a religion entirely devoted around biologically modifying yourself to live like *World of Warcraft* characters. - The *Monty Python's Flying Circus* "Crackpot Religions" sketch. - A tie-in book to the *Mr. Bean* series stated that Mr Bean had at one point followed a religion based around the "God of Lemonade." - *A Bit of Fry and Laurie* featured a school headmaster who, upset with the religious intolerance between his pupils, had forced them to follow a new religion of his own invention, taken by combining many different religions, and entitled "Lip-whip-whip-whip-whip". - In an episode of *Last Week Tonight with John Oliver* exposing shady televangelists who allegedly exploit US tax laws, John Oliver revealed that he had started his own satirical religion, "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption," for the express sole purpose of getting people to send him money. note : The money was then donated to an actual charity. The kicker: Oliver's parody religion is *totally legal* under current IRS tax code, and John Oliver is now a legitimate 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. At the end he closed the "church" due to some people sending him sperm. But up to that point, he never broke any law. - The "Ang Dating Doon" ( *What Used To Be There*) sketch in *Bubble Gang*, which is a parody of the Filipino religious programme *Ang Dating Daan* ( *The Old Path*) by the Members Church of God International (MCGI). Besides its use of the *Voltes V* theme, the sketch substituted Bible expositions with parodic interpretations of nursery rhymes, folk songs and lyrics from popular music. While some expressed concern about the show being irreverent if not outright blasphemous due to it parodying a religious movement, MCGI leader and *Ang Dating Daan* televangelist Eliseo Soriano was flattered by the sketch, stating it helped popularise the original programme "Ang Dating Doon" was based on. - *Miracle Workers*: In "Meet the Noonans" the wagon party, heading west on the Oregon Trail, meets...the Noonans, a religious group also on the trail west. The Noonans are an obvious Bland-Name Product version of the LDS Church aka Mormons, what with their leader Jedediah's claims to talk directly to God, the identical dress of male and female members (and particularly the women with their neck-to-ankle dresses and upswept hair), and specifically that they're headed west in the 1840s (the real Mormons migrated to Utah in 1846). - Robin Williams' stand-up comedy album *Reality, What A Concept* has a segment where he plays the character Reverend Earnest Angry, imitating popular televangelists of the day and promoting the religion of Comedy. - In *Transhuman Space*, Adam Stein, the unofficial leader of a group of transhumanists who believed in The Singularity, despite the growing evidence it wasn't going to happen, responded to 2070s criticism that "singularitanism" was a cult by sarcastically applying to register it as a religion. He was very surprised when his application was accepted, and even more surprised when he started getting new followers who seemed to take the religious aspects seriously. As of 2100, half of the Singularitists are true believers, and Stein is still trying to explain to them that it was a joke. - Xavism in *Sengoku Basara* is a rather overt parody of the Catholic Church with elements of Church of Happyology; its leader is a delusional (but well-meaning) Love Freak who believes in the power of blowing the crap out of someone to convert them, all its adherents get bizarre baptismal names, and the "commandments" are all Broken Aesop versions of Christian dogma. - *BioShock Infinite*: Comstock's religion is based of Christianity, but it revolves around American Exceptionalism with the Founding Fathers treated as saints, and Comstock making himself the Prophet of Columbia. And he has ||Elizabeth|| as his "Lamb" (of God) and successor of the title of Prophet, the latter of which ||she|| becomes in a Bad Future. - Hubology in *Fallout 2* is a very unsubtle parody of Scientology. - The Epsilon Program seen in * Grand Theft Auto* is an equally less-than-subtle take on the Scientologist cult. - the RECYCULTIST'S HQ in *OMORI*. - Ceiling Cat. - The ClickHole Clickventure "Join this Cult!" begins with an invitation to join the Sentinels Of Paradise, who worship a fellow known as Mischief Man, who created the world and your guts but not your bones. It is very Surreal Humor. - Some articles from the Venezuelan News Parody *El Chigüire Bipolar* portray chavism as a religion so as to mock president Hugo Chávez' personality cult. - The Nostalgia Critic features the Church of the Heavenly Proton Pack, a religion of diehard *Ghostbusters* fans. It is later revealed there are other sects including an orthodox one (which doesn't believe in the canonicity of *Ghostbusters II*) and Ghostbusters of Latter Day Saints (which is for fans of Filmation's Ghostbusters series). - Inglip is a joke religion based around interpreting the random text in CAPTCHA widgets as divine instruction from a being named "Inglip", whose name comes from a CAPTCHA reading "Inglip summoned", which started the whole thing. - *Futurama* has the recurring Robotology, Robot Judaism and The First Amalgamated Church, as well as occasionally mentioned Oprahism, Church of Trek, et cetera. - The Simpsons are members of The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism, which split from the Catholics in 1573 over the right to go to church with wet hair, which the Presbylutherans have since abolished. - In *South Park*, Dawkins mentions the Flying Spaghetti Monster while talking to Mrs. Garrison during a lunch in the episode *Go God Go*. - The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, or Dudeism. However, the founders actually take it quite seriously. - Most recently, there is The Cult of Kek. An occultist sect composed mainly of Internet Trolls, 4Chan users, and Occultists who supported Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. election; dedicated to worship of an Ancient Egyptian chaos god For the Lulz (also deriving from the Korean equivalent of "LOL", "ㅋ ㅋ ㅋ" note : pronounced "kekeke"), and was formed partially due to the aforementioned 4Chan users noticing similarities between Pepe and Kek, and partially out of protest of Hillary Clinton and CNN proclaiming that Pepe was a symbol of White Nationalism and Neo-Nazism. They practice "Meme Magick", observe repeating digits, and see Pepe The Frog as Kek's prophet. For more check those links. - And many, many, many more. - Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping is the anarchist version of this concept, in which the titular reverend gives warnings about a consumerism-driven apocalypse. Billy and his "church" typically show up at locations synonymous with said consumerism, such as banks, stores, and corporate headquarters, where they perform exorcisms against the ills of capitalism.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyReligion

Parody of Evolution - TV Tropes And it took you thousands of years to notice? Being something of a hot topic, evolution has been a popular target for satire and parody. The easiest way to do this is to take Rudolph Zallinger's illustration: March of Progress and draw something else over it. Instant Parody! The other way to do it is a montage of creatures morphing into each other. This type is more common in animation. Considering what we now know of *Ardipithecus ramidus*, this trope is an example of Science Marches On; chimpanzees and gorillas probably developed knuckle-walking after their genetic split from human beings. Advertising - A poster for Flight of the Gibbon has a tourist riding the zipline as the final stage in evolution. - A computer company inverted the parody which ends with the nerd slumped over his computer, by having them evolve from the desktop computer to standing upright thanks to the laptop and finally the tablet computer. Anime & Manga - *Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto* has the titular character do this as a *run* in physical education. His aim was to run in the ideal way each of the evolutions would run in, then devolve back into the oldest and loop until he was done. And despite this nonsense he *still* runs faster than most kids. Comics - The cover of *MAD* #238. The most short and simian version of Alfred E. Neuman has a thought bubble saying, "What... me furry?" - The first comic book based on *Oggy and the Cockroaches* has a segment wherein Oggy goes from shaggy sabre-toothed quadruped to his modern-day appearance. For added laughs, partway through, he smells food and searches for it, ultimately leading him to a fridge. - *The Far Side* did this, going from monkey to hunched ape-man to neanderthal to seven-foot-tall muscular giant-jawed shaved Rahan-type man to short wimpy Bob from Accounting-looking guy waiting at the bus stop. - Gary Larson also presented us with the evolution of the stickman. - An installment of Paul Kirchner's surreal comic strip *The Bus* shows a series of creatures, from monkey to caveman, boarding a bus. The caveman stops to politely allow the main character (a balding office-worker type) to board before him. Film - Animated - Seen in *Ice Age*, with Sid the Sloth as the apex. - The movie poster for *The Croods: A New Age* shows the cast of the original movie in order from least to most erect coming face to face with the fully upright Bettermans. Film - Live-Action Literature - Most covers for Darwin Awards books have spoofs on this concept, usually with the "evolved" man suffering a comically fatal injury like being crushed under a safe or falling off a cliff. - The inside front cover of *The Now Show Book Of Records* shows Jon Holmes as hunched ape-man, Steve Punt as neanderthal and Hugh Dennis as modern man. The inside back cover shows them in reverse (obviously, Dennis has to hunch a lot more than Holmes does). - *Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School*: Greg illustrates how humans have come to depend on the comforts of modern life with a parody of "The March of Progress", in which the upright-walking human is followed by Greg wrapped in a blanket playing video games. - *Discworld*: - The vampire-themed edition of the *Discworld Diaries* contains an illustration of the evolution of Igors. It starts with a normal-looking human butler and gets progressively more hunched and grotesque with each subsequent image. - Mentioned in *The Science of Discworld* where the picture is compared to someone getting out of bed in the morning. The wizards who are looking at the picture state that the ape/human's main achievement is getting from one side of the page to the other without showing any genitalia. - The cover of *Unnatural Selection* by Katrina van Grouw, a book about how human breeders shape animals, shows a series of skeletons documenting the development of the common duck into the more upright Indian Runner Duck. The picture is called "Ascent of Mallard". Live-Action TV - On an episode of *Mock the Week*, while the players were standing around waiting for "Scenes We'd Like To See" to start, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis and Greg Davies reenacted the picture. Frankie (the shortest) was completely hunched over at the back, while the incredibly tall Greg was at the front. - The two "Myth Evolution" episodes of *MythBusters* used a cartoon of this on the initial blueprint shot. - *Caprica*. The "Evolution of a Cylon" poster starts with a kitchen toaster and ends with Caprica Six. Music - The Supertramp album cover for *Brother Where You Bound* is a multi-colored straight example, but the inside artwork shows an Abbey Road Crossing pose by the members of the band, all not too dissimilar to how the "man" figure is walking. - The the album The Evolution of Robin Thicke features this in both its cover and name. - Daniel Amos: The *Doppelgänger* liner notes feature a picture of "the evolution of mannequin". It's four mostly-identical mannequins, the leftmost one bending over at the waist, and each subsequent one standing up a bit straighter. The last one has sunglasses and a smarmy grin. - *Not Any Older*, The second album by the Buffalo NY indie rock band The Press Tones, features this progression on the cover, with the final man carrying a Press Tones guitar case and approaching a mic. - The cover art◊ for Take That (Band)'s "Progress" album plays this completely straight with each member of the band as one of the stages in the sequence. Theatre - In Kurenai Enishi, one of the Harpo Does Something Funny moments happens when the members of Procella have been captured by ninja, and as they're lined up in the back of the stage, about to be taken into the dungeon... well, it's these dorks, so they can't pass up the opportunity to do silly poses. In one performance, they did these poses. Video Games - One of the images shown when you complete the *Super Smash Bros. Melee* single-player mode with Donkey Kong is four progressively larger DKs and one Samus arranged like this. - A common piece of graffiti in *Half-Life 2* shows the usual, three part progression; but a fourth part shows a human-turned-combine that looks much like the second part. - The first *Splatoon* depicts this in ||Sunken Scroll #10, with a squid gradually evolving into an Inkling, after humanity was washed away 12,000 years prior to the game.|| - One of Kat & Ana's microgames in *WarioWare: Twisted!*, "Survival of the Quickest," begins with the ape on the far left and has you button-mash A to create more transitional images until you reach the human at the end. The medium-difficulty version features a dog turning into an anthropomorphic dog, and the hard-difficulty version begins with the monkey as usual, but it becomes a robot monkey instead of a human. Web Comics Web Original Western Animation Other - This picture◊ about the HD remake of arcade classic *Toki*. - A caricature parodying evolution in the different parts of the world, depicts Evolution in Korea using the original sequence, but including a Hydralisk at the end. - The same is done for Japan, but the Hydralisk is replaced with a Gundam - A T-shirt design for a Threadless competition to create a The Muppets shirt shows the evolution of Kermit - starting with a green coat and a couple of ping-pong balls. - A Fun T-Shirt (worn by one of the sign-holders in Mitch Benn's "Proud of the BBC" video - appropriately enough the one holding the sign for *The Ascent Of Man*) has the line of protohumans on the Abbey Road zebra crossing. - Transhumanists, fans of the famous futurist Ray Kurzweil and other supporters of the technological singularity are often seen wearing shirts with a cyborg or robot coming after the upright human as the next logical step in evolution of mankind will be likely deliberate and a result of humans augmenting themselves with artificial biological and technological components. - A common parody has the last man sitting down at a computer, hunched over his keyboard. Variations also include being fatter and slightly smaller, but carrying a coke can instead of a spear. - Another common parody is to show a man slumped and wearing a backward cap, with the "evolved" human saying that humanity screwed up and that it's going backward - As shown in this◊ *Lab Initio*. - This satirical picture◊ from Italy that combines the concept of evolution with the de-evolution of Italy's leaders and statesmen. Julius Caesar is seen as the pinnacle of evolution, and it's all downhill from there. Advertising - Guinness's "Noitulove" (aka "Rhythm of Life") commercial, as the name suggests, shows backward evolution. Comics Music Theatre - *The Adding Machine* has a version of this in dialogue, when Charles is telling Mr. Zero what his forthcoming reincarnation means in terms of the evolutionary process: "For millions of years the nebulous gases swirled in space. For more millions of years the gases cooled and then through inconceivable ages they hardened into rocks. And then came life. Floating green things on the waters that covered the earth. More millions of years and a step upward—an animate organism in the ancient slime. And so on—step by step, down through the ages—a gain here, a gain there—the mollusk, the fish, the reptile, then mammal, man! And all so that you might sit in the gallery of a coal mine and operate the super-hyper-adding machine with the great toe of your right foot!" Video Games Web Original - One version of Humans had an intro scene that animated evolution among the various pre-human periods. The penultimate was a tall, large creature wearing sneakers, pants, and a shirt, and took a bite from an apple in a tree. This form then morphs into a human. Western Animation - Used very, very strangely in *Oggy and the Cockroaches: The Movie*. In the intro, Oggy evolves from a microbe into a cat. The problem? He evolved straight from a fish into a cat. However, the earlier segments are somewhat more accurate, which he evolved into a *Pikaia* (?) and then an early fish. - *The Simpsons* did it on the season 18 episode "Homerazzi" note : The one where Homer becomes a paparazzo after one of the staged family pictures Marge takes has Duffman cheating on his gay lover with Boobarella parodies this (showing Homer as a single-celled organism and progressing through many pre-historic and historic eras until he enters the present and comes home to Marge, who asks him, "What took you so long?" note : On at least one version, the line was replaced with, "Did you bring home any milk?") in what is now considered the longest (and, in some viewers' eyes, the most epic) Couch Gag to date. - The Dilbert television intro shows a full version, from microscopic life, to proto-dinosaur walking out of the water, ending in Dilbert himself. All of which are wearing his trademark glasses - An animation short mixed the two, showing primates evolving into men in the exact position as the March of Progress image, only to revert to a hunched-over Three-point Football stance. - Done beautifully (without parody) in Allegro non Troppo in one section. Set to Bolero, it starts with a coke bottle. Video Games - The fossil section of the museum in *Animal Crossing: New Horizons* manages a less-used variant based on the presence of many humanoid animals in the setting. Guidelines on the floor trace the prehistory of evolution from the Paleozoic (first room) to the Mesozoic (second room) and finally the Cenozoic (final room). In that final room, the various evolutionary lines lead upward to a series of silhouettes based off many of the various animal villager types it's possible to get, with an empty spot for humans on the right (allowing for a photo op for your villager or any visitors to the island).

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyOfEvolution

Redundant Parody - TV Tropes *"This is one of those moments where I think, 'Oh, is my stock joke about one of the strips I cover really accurate?' and then realize 'Yes, its more horribly accurate than I could ever have wanted it to be.'"* Parodies are hard to write if you're unfamiliar with the original work. Sometimes, you'll make points that the work itself refutes. Sometimes, you'll treat tongue-in-cheek works like they're serious. But some spoofs make an even more serious error. They try to mock the original work with their own humorous spin but reproduce the original instead of parodying it. The original included the exact same material, perhaps as a self-aware joke, which renders the parody superfluous. As a result, the parody doesn't actually twist or exaggerate the original work. People unfamiliar with the original may laugh at the joke, but others will be put off by the spoof writer's ignorance and the redundancy of the resultant parody. Some comedy writers avoid this trap by limiting their targets. *RiffTrax*, for example, refuses to mock comedies, fearing their commentary will sound too much like the original. For parodies that do this *deliberately*, to send the implied message "We can't make this any dumber than it already is", see Spoofed with Their Own Words, which may be accompanied by a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer. Compare and contrast with Shallow Parody. Not to be confused with Spoofing Spoofiness, which is when a work being parodied is already a parody. ## Examples: - In Spain, saying you're "turning black" means you're getting angry, much like a video game boss Turns Red, but black. A *Dragon Ball* parody comic had Mr. Popo (who has black-colored skin) say he was "turning black" as a joke... except he actually says that in the Spanish anime dub at one point. - *Sailor Moon*: - Many parodies supposedly mocking the conventions of Sailor Moon's ditzy and at times ineffectual behavior, ridiculously idealistic and energetic nature, flashy but impractical transformations, melodramatic and long-winded speeches about love and justice, and blatantly terrible attempts at keeping her identity secret largely repeat what the original work lampshaded. Although most of these things are more or less played straight and accepted as genre conventions, truth be told the Magical Girl formula was far from new when *Sailor Moon* debuted. Usagi very much started out as akin to an Affectionate Parody of magical girl heroines at first: she was not nearly as competent as she was believed to be, which earned her no small amount of snark from her teammates. Her first attempts at heroism usually left her falling flat on her face. And her extremely girly personality was consistently Played for Laughs. Indeed, the cornerstone of her early Character Development was learning to be a competent hero and properly take on her responsibilities as Princess of the Moon. - Many of the villains both one-off and arc-based often looked terrifying as well as acting equally horrific, at times causing enough suffering that they'd not look out of place in a much Darker and Edgier deconstruction. - The prequel manga *Codename: Sailor V* has a famous scene where Sailor V makes a speech so elaborate and long that it runs for two pages, to the point where the enemy cuts her off in annoyance. - An anime episode wherein Usagi has trouble transforming when in her house, to the point where the angelic wings are long enough to knock dishes over when she turned around, and in general would have been more effective had she not transformed to begin with. - The hilariously terrible attempts to keep her identity safe are played so straight as to be a Stealth Parody. - Parodies that like to play on Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask being Usagi's Useless Boyfriend often forget that this was a major character arc for his manga counterpart, and he already acknowledged that he's weaker than Sailor Moon would ever be, with even some villains mocking him for it. That doesn't stop him from developing his own signature move and becoming one of the most important fighters in that continuity. His reputation for being useless largely comes from the anime, where he's weaker and his role is more downplayed since two of the anime's directors (Junichi Sato and Kunihiko Ikuhara) famously disliked him. - *Kirby* parodies inevitably bring up the fact that the titular character eats people (and everything else). This has, to an extent, been brought up in official media - the anime series has some jokes about the idea of him eating other characters, including a scene where he randomly tries to eat Knuckle Joe's hand and an episode where he swallows King Dedede by sucking up one of his dolls. - *Naruto* parodies tend to mock Naruto's childishness and loudmouth attitude as unfitting for a ninja. It doesn't take a very close reading of the early series to recognize that these traits were intended to be negative, and something he'd grow out of, and most characters call him out on it. - There are numerous irreverent parodies of the works of Thomas Kinkade that insert various characters from pop culture (Marty and Doc Brown, Cthulhu, the Nazghul, etc.) into his paintings. In fact, Thomas Kinkade Studios actually *does* sell paintings of characters and scenes from popular culture, including paintings of DC Comics superheroes and various Disney characters. Amusingly: one of the most popular subgenres of parody features characters from *Star Wars* "invading" Kinkade's famously saccharine nature scenes. There's a whole selection of *Star Wars* paintings available for purchase on Kinkade's website, many of which aren't *that* different from the parodies. - Parodies of *Uncle Scrooge* will inevitably make a joke about how diving headfirst into a pool of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck is a terrible idea, and that it would probably lead to a concussion in Real Life. But the actual *Uncle Scrooge* comics have acknowledged this multiple times, going all the way back to the first *Uncle Scrooge* issue, "Only a Poor Old Man", which ends with the Beagle Boys knocking themselves unconscious after Scrooge convinces them to try it themselves. In the same story, Scrooge just coyly replies "It's a trick" when asked how he himself can do it. Indeed, most of Scrooge's stories portray him as a Memetic Badass who regularly pulls of improbable feats that leave his friends baffled; swimming in gold is pretty basic for him. In another issue, Scrooge notes that he needed *lots* of practice to be able to do it, after using it as a Spot the Imposter test. - DC's Redtool, from the *Harley Quinn* solo series, is a parody of Deadpool. The problem is that Deadpool is already a parody himself (his original inspiration being DC's own Deathstroke), and his personality and humor style are very similar to Redtool's, making the latter come off less as a parody and more as a pure Captain Ersatz. Making this more redundant is that Harley (especially around the New 52 and Rebirth eras) is already treated as an Alternate Company Equivalent to Deadpool anyway in some of her solo books thanks to her Meta Guy attitude. - John Byrne once commented that it's virtually impossible to write a parody of the Fantastic Four, because any and all attempts at writing parody Thing dialogue end up sounding like something the real Ben Grimm would say anyway. - Parodies or lists mocking "lame comic characters" have a habit of including characters that were always intended to be jokes. Arm Fall Off Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes in particular often gets spoken of in "what were they thinking?" tones, when he made exactly two very brief appearances where the entire gag was that this idiot thought his ability to detach his arm made him Legion-worthy. (In fact, his presence was essentially an early Ascended Meme in the fandom.) - *Ruins*, a parody (in the vaguest sense of the word, given everything in that comic is Played for Drama) of the series *Marvels*, seems to be based primarily on subverting the premise of how wonderful it would be to watch the Marvel Universe unfold by making it out as a massive Crapsack World where everyone is either an asshole or dying. Except the ideas that the Marvel Universe is kind of a Crapsack World and it would be nervewracking and disillusioning to live in a world of superheroes were both major themes of *Marvels*; even the opening issue ends with the narrator being caught in the middle of a brawl and losing his eye in the process. - One common joke about Batman is "what if Batman was inspired by something else when he decided to become a superhero?", which usually leads to some kind of jokey theme like "Shards of Glass Man" or "Curtain Man." There was a tongue-in-cheek What If? story that delved into the idea as early as 1974 (where various alternate Bruce Waynes take on the monikers of Scorpion, Owl, Shooting Star, Stingray, and Iron Knight), and it was rendered (sorta) canon in *The Multiversity*, where characters going by those identities who are clearly the local Batman equivalents show up. - *Mother Goose and Grimm*: - There was a comic once of a man watching TV with a woman behind him looking shocked, and the caption, "Scully discovers the XXX Files." But in The X-Files, it was well-established that Mulder really did stash porn all over the office, and that Scully was perfectly aware of it and didn't care. - Another strip featured *Edward Scissorhands* playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with a little kid, and continually losing. This joke especially falls flat considering it was used in the movie as a running gag. And he did it again. - Inverted and Hilarious in Hindsight in an *Off the Mark* comic making fun of *The Simpsons*. Bart goes to a barber who is confused as to where his head ends and hairline begins. This joke was made on the show years later. - *Bizarro* (along with *Mother Goose and Grimm* and *Off the Mark*) did a strip with the theme of "wouldn't it be funny if Kermit the Frog got an x-ray, and we saw the puppeteer's hand?" The Muppets love that joke almost as much as comic strips do. - Bill Watterson barely dodged this with a few *Calvin and Hobbes* strips in which Calvin tries to get Hobbes interested in the magazine *Chewing*, which is completely devoted to bubble gum. All the various gums are profiled like baseball stars, with "stats" and attributes. All Hobbes could say was, "What kind of nut would care about all this?" But Watterson later admitted that at the time he had drawn those strips, there were already a huge number of absurdly detailed magazines about freakishly specific topics, and so a magazine about bubble gum documenting "flavor retention" and such (which is itself just one of a number of such magazines aimed at varying demographics) was only a slight exaggeration of reality. ("It's hardly satire.") To Watterson's credit, there's no known example of a magazine focused on chewing gum specifically. - *MAD*: - In its 1950s Comic Book incarnation, it sometimes ended up committing this trope. In their Disney parody, for example, much of the humor derived from Donald Duck losing his clothes and getting captured by a duck farmer who could barely understand him. Pretty funny in itself, but Donald winding up naked and coming off as incomprehensible due to his quacking voice happened in quite a few *actual* Donald Duck cartoons (though not necessarily at the same time). - Inverted and Hilarious in Hindsight with a *Shrek*-scenes-we'd-like-to-see comic written when the first movie was released. It shows Donkey with dragon/donkey hybrid babies, which became a reality in the sequels. - *MAD* also had a comic in which the Disney version of Pinocchio stomps on Jiminy Cricket. Although such a thing never happens in the Disney version, something similar *did* happen in the original book the movie is based on. - In the magazine proper, in an article about the comics section of the Vatican newspaper, they make a joke in a *FoxTrot* parody about Jason pointing out that George Lucas could sue God for stealing the plot of *Star Wars*. The actual strip had done the same joke in reverse(in that Jason suggested God sue George Lucas) years before. - *The Dilbert Future*, a 1997 book featuring Scott Adams' cartoons and musings about the future, has a part about the holodeck from *Star Trek*. The central joke is that people in real life would use the holodeck for sex. This isn't very funny if you've watched much *Star Trek* (especially *Deep Space Nine*) because that's actually what it's used for pretty often. - This joke is also used in the copypasta "10 Things I Hate About Star Trek." - A common joke made about *Garfield* is that it doesn't make sense for Garfield to hate Mondays since he doesn't do anything. This has already been acknowledged in the comic strip. Earlier comics also had a Running Gag of improbably bad things happening to Garfield on Mondays, such as a piano falling on his head or getting a Pie in the Face out of nowhere, which he would go to extensive lengths to avoid. - The April 30 2020 *Hi and Lois* strip had Dot and Ditto watching "a new crime show for kids" called *CSI: Sesame Street*. The joke is the contrast of adult crime drama with kiddie puppets. Except those kiddie puppets spoof adult crime dramas all the time, and had done a *CSI* bit way back in 2007. - At the height of Pottermania were many out-of-touch parodies that focused around the idea of Harry and his friends growing up and becoming teenagers with all the foibles that entails such as sexual attraction and social awkwardness ("Harry Potter and the Onset of Puberty"). This is what much of the series actually concerns itself with. Apparently, they stopped reading after the first book and assumed later entries continued the "kid in a candy store" sense of wonder (perhaps combined with Not Allowed to Grow Up) instead of maturing along with the target audience. - *Avatar: The Abridged Series*, due to parodying a show that's a dramedy to begin with. For example, its parody of the episode "The Storm" has a scene where Katara says: "Aang would never run away! [Aang gets on his glider and flies off] Aang, stop running away!" The original was exactly the same, only with different wording. - *Hellsing Ultimate Abridged* has much the same problem, as *Hellsing* was already an incredibly silly show. Jan Valentine, in particular, is virtually identical to his original incarnation — you could probably switch out his scenes with the ones in the actual dub and barely notice. - *Dragon Ball Z Abridged* ran into this a couple of times - Mr. Satan and the Ginyu Force are probably the biggest examples, as they were already comic relief, and had to have a lot of new jokes written for them. Tellingly, while other characters were either hyper-exaggerated or entirely rewritten, Satan and the Ginyus are extremely similar to how they were in the originals, with only their context and some minor quirks changing (in Satan's case because everyone's even dumber so his lies can get even more ridiculous). Averting this trope was also the reason for almost completely cutting out Master Roshi from the abridging of *Broly*, as all his scenes were already comedic. - *Eiga Sentai Scanranger* had a chapter that attempted to parody spy movies, with each of the heroes becoming a pastiche of a well-known character in the genre. The thing is one of them becomes Boston Powered, New England Man of Mystery, and the villain is even outright compared to Dr. Evil. During the big fight at the end "Boston" uses his powers to turn into Fat Bastard, too. It also takes the "don't be a dick" scene from *xXx* but doesn't sound any more ironic than the real one, note : It's kind of hard for it to be taken as a joke when you argue for more physical activity for kids really just swapping out the word "dick" with "twit" to keep it family-friendly. The chapter was noticeably left out when the story was reposted elsewhere, with even the chapter numbers and teasers deliberately moved around to exclude it. - Many parodies of Disney animated classics mock the fairytale tropes like falling in love with someone you just met or True Love's Kiss, calling them shallow and unrealistic. This was only played completely straight in their earliest films; most Disney animated films with romance plots either avoid these tropes or at least have someone in-universe acknowledge the absurdity, in addition to movies like *Enchanted* and *Frozen* having their entire narratives dedicated to lampshading and deconstructing those tropes. - Seltzer and Friedberg, masters of the Shallow Parody, typically parody trailers rather than actual films; as such they have no idea if their "jokes" will actually be in the final films (which inevitably come out before their own movies do). Highlights include: - *Epic Movie* decided to parody *X-Men* by having Wolverine position his claws to look like he was Flipping the Bird, even though this same joke was used at one point in the original movie. And it was a pretty memorable moment, so it just goes to show that nobody involved had seen *X-Men* even once. And just to add insult to injury, as the page image shows, the original did it *much* better. - Not much better than that is a parody of *Borat* — and by "parody", the film means "direct lift of an exchange from *Borat*, almost word for word, acted out by a man imitating Borat." And needless to say, *Borat* is already a comedy. - Before them both, *Scary Movie* was a parody primarily of *Scream*, a movie which was already a satire (sort of) of the Slasher Genre. - *Vampires Suck* includes gags about how often Jacob is shirtless, something which the *The Twilight Saga* adaptations already poked fun at. ("Does he even own a shirt?") - *Loaded Weapon 1* is a parody of the *Lethal Weapon* series, which, by 1993 (when *Loaded Weapon 1* was released), contains a toilet blowing up while being filmed on national television (though granted, the first two are more serious action films). The movie itself sideways acknowledges it with that very scene; they set up like there will be a parody of the scene and the whole joke is that nothing notable happens. - *The Avengers (1998)* tries to be a self-aware parody of the original series when the series was *already self-aware*. - *A Samba For Sherlock* features a scene where the straight-laced detective *tries drugs*. Except he did this in the books too: it's quite well-established that Holmes uses cocaine and morphine to balance his emotional state. - *Deadpool 2* features a case in a scene where Wade tries to calm down ||the Juggernaut|| by telling him "Sun's getting real low", only for it to fail miserably. This is mocking how the Black Widow calmed the Hulk down in *Avengers: Age of Ultron*. The Marvel Cinematic Universe beat Deadpool to the punch by using the same joke six months prior in *Thor: Ragnarok*. (This is a rare case where it was completely accidental, as the films were in production at around the same time, and *Age of Ultron* itself played the whole thing dead straight.) - Many parodies of *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory* have the Oompa-Loompas be slaves owned by Willy Wonka. Trouble is that the Oompa Loompas were African pygmies in the first version of the original book, before Bowdlerization. - *Spot's Third First Christmas,* according to author Kibo, was "a parody of those crappy "Choose Your Adventure" books" with many bad endings and only one happy ending which is unreachable from any path. One actual book in the CYOA series, "Inside UFO 54-40," the best ending was deliberately unreachable (and not unreachable by oversight, as it was in plenty of others). - One 1955 issue of *MAD Magazine* features a parody of *Popeye* where the title character is renamed "Poopeye". The authors of said parody were apparently unaware that there's a character with that name in the actual *Popeye* comics: he's Popeye's nephew. - There's a parody out there of "The Blue Tail Fly" in which the chorus is changed to "Jimmy drinks corn, and I don't care", meaning that Jimmy is drinking corn whiskey. Apparently, the would-be parodists were unaware that the most common interpretation of the lyric "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care" is that of "cracking corn", which is to say, *making* corn whiskey. They not only failed to parody it, they watered it down a notch... - The full version of the song makes this explicit: "Jimcrack corn and I don't care, my master's gone away." The song is about a slave who is happily relaxing with a bottle of whiskey, no longer having to work since the slaveowner just died. - It's common to joke that the narrator of "Every Breath You Take" by *The Police* sounds like a creepy stalker. Except this is *exactly the point of the song*. - The YouTube meme of taking isolated vocal tracks of classic songs and running them through Microsoft's Songsmith program has led to some hilarious musical juxtapositions ("Crazy Train" as bluegrass, "Ace of Spades" as folk-pop). The lounge jazz version of "Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen is amusing, but David Lee Roth did several loungey Cover Versions in his solo career ("Just a Gigolo", "That's Life"), and he even released an album of Van Halen hits rearranged as bluegrass versions in 2006, so it's not really that outlandish of an idea. - The Lonely Island are probably the biggest victims of this in music history, with every one of their comedy songs (some of which are parodies themselves) having at least a dozen spoofs. Usually, ones that only change a few words and don't actually change the jokes. On top of that, they usually distort the actual joke of the song — for instance, ignoring the Sanity Slippage Song aspects of "Like a Boss" in favor of just blandly listing things, and ignoring that "I'm on a Boat" is already a parody of glitzy rap videos. - Though Monty Python is a household name in comedy, their "Lumberjack Song" is regularly singled out for song parodies that take the refrain *"I'm a(n) _________, and I'm okay!"* and run with it, turning it into a straightforward "I Am" Song about one's chosen vocation or esoteric subculture. Though the catchy beat of the song is quite well-known, many people seem to forget its later verses, where the supposedly wholesome lumberjack proudly confesses to ||being a crossdresser||, which surprises his backup singers so much that they stop singing the song in disgust. In the TV show, it's also sung by a deranged barber who inexplicably bursts into song and sings about how he's actually always wanted to be a lumberjack. note : Many of the Pythons' albums and live shows feature some variation on that set-up when they do the song—introducing it into the middle of a seemingly unrelated sketch, with some unhappy worker proclaiming that being a lumberjack is actually his dream job. It's not just a catchy tune about chopping down trees; it's very much an example of the Pythons' trademark Surreal Humor. - Many different bloody and grotesque parodies of the popular children's song "On Top of Spaghetti" have circulated among children at least since the 1970s, most them beginning with some variation of the line, *"On top of Old Smoky all covered with blood, I shot my poor teacher with a .44 slug..."* (parodying *"On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed..."*). As noted by Playground Jungle, many of those children don't seem to be aware that "On Top of Spaghetti" is itself a parody of the American folk song "On Top of Old Smoky", which begins with the line *"On top of Old Smoky all covered with snow, I lost my true lover for courting too slow..."*. This seems to be largely dependent on age: "On Top of Old Smoky" was once a legitimately popular song that played frequently on American radio stations, but many younger children now seem to know the parodies much better, likely because they grew up with them. - Parodies and modern versions of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" often invert the genders (having the man wishing to leave and the woman trying to convince him to stay) believing this subverts the original. This is clearly ignorant of the fact that the song was introduced by the film *Neptune's Daughter* where it's performed twice, *the second of which is gender-inverted*. - Bruce Springsteen is occasionally pigeon-holed as an artist who only writes about "cars and girls", which became the subject of a Prefab Sprout song. Not only are these not his only themes, cars and highways are often examined from multiple angles. From admiring them as opportunities for escape, to seeing cars as dead ends. - Eminem appeared as Elvis for the music video in "We Made You", and in behind-the-scenes footage, sings a parody of "Jailhouse Rock" to make it about gay men sucking dicks. While Elvis uses a lot more innuendo than this, the song is about this already. In fact, "Jailhouse Rock" had been made in response to a moral panic that Elvis, as a Pretty Boy making black music, was trying to turn the youth of America gay and criminal, note : while forgotten now, 1950s racists conflated blackness and homosexuality due to stereotypes about black criminality and hypersexuality and the song spoofs this by being a Homoerotic Subtext-riddled Queer People Are Funny jam about how much fun it is to be a gay criminal. It's only the use of innuendo rather than blatant statements that separates it from much of Eminem's own work on his Moral Guardian-baiting *The Marshall Mathers LP*, in which he bragged about being a diabolical corruptor of children causing school shootings and mass delinquency. - Parodies of Avril Lavigne's "Sk8r Boi" have the relationship not work out for the titular character and his crush, or make whomever are taking their place have similar traits ("He was a boy/He was a boy", "He was a punk/She was a punk"). The Girl doesn't see anything in the Boy until long after he's moved on and made it big, and he ends the song in a happy relationship with someone more on his wavelength. - *The Bob & Tom Show* likes to cast its hosts and/or characters in wacky variants on recent hit movies, and fell victim to this when they cast white trash caricature Donnie Baker in "Funeral Crashers" — apparently unaware that the concept of picking up women at a funeral had already been explored in the third act of *Wedding Crashers*. - Lampshaded in *Mitch Benn is the Fat Pink Duke*; at the end of his "Laughing Gnome" parody, the gnome itself questions the point of parodying a humorous novelty song. It also complains the jokes are worse than the original. - A BBC radio sketch show in the 90s had a regular monologue by an impression of Alan Bennett, which would always begin "I was sharing a pot of Earl Grey with Thora Hird..." and then move into a bizarre and sometimes dark direction, with the joke being the perceived "coziness" of Bennett and the chatty mundanity of the set-up, juxtaposed with where it ended up. Except a lot of Bennett's work (especially *Alan Bennett's Talking Heads*, which seemed to be the inspiration for the monologue format) traded on exactly that juxtaposition, and since it was often Played for Drama, could go a *lot* darker than the sketch ever did. - Lampshaded/parodied by *Forbidden Broadway*'s take on "The Song That Goes Like This" from *Spamalot*. The song starts out using the exact same lyrics as the original, then points out that fact, and then accuses the show of stealing from *Forbidden Broadway*. - When the cast of *Wicked* appeared in a German talk show, the host joked about Elphaba: "That's what happens if you eat too much spinach as a child." In the musical, Elphaba does in fact sarcastically remark to the other students: "No, I'm not seasick. Yes, I've always been green. No, *I did not eat grass as a child*." - The Purple Prose in Shakespeare has been the subject of many, *many* parodies over the years, but some of the most parodied examples were already intended to be overwrought and narmy in-universe. Examples include Hamlet's "Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move...", which he writes as a letter as part of an Obfuscating Stupidity ploy, most of the things said by Polonius, who is intended to be a pretentious Old Windbag and Upper-Class Twit, and everything Romeo says. Most parodies forget that even Shakespeare's tragedies tended to have a high joke count. Parodies of the crossdressing also fall into this, given that *Twelfth Night* is dedicated to lampshading this. - There is a somewhat common joke among the *Sonic the Hedgehog* fandom concerning the fact that *Sonic Drift* (and later on, *Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing*) has Sonic, whose defining trait is his Super Speed, driving in a race car. While this seems justified, it ignores that the manual for *Drift* clarifies that Sonic does dislike cars, and it's clear in both games that he's only using a car to keep the competition balanced for all the other racers. *Racing Transformed* also has Ralph note the irony of Sonic using a car. - *Pokémon*: - Most non-satirical attempts to make the franchise Darker and Edgier fall kind of flat, considering that even the main series installments (to say nothing of spin-offs and other official adaptations) have had everything from terrorist bombings, to child abuse, to multiple accounts of attempted genocide. In most cases, these ideas could be the plots of actual Pokémon games if you removed the added sexual content, violence, and profanity of questionable necessity. - Comparisons between Pokémon battles and cockfighting fall into this category: the plot of *Pokémon Black and White* outright *revolves around* the questionable ethics of catching the eponymous creatures and having them battle each other. Most blatantly, PETA made this the focus of one of their parody games... while specifically parodying the exact game which already examined the topic... and praising and comparing themselves to the villainous Animal Wrongs Group from said game. - Another theme in dark parodies is humans eating Pokémon or Pokémon eating each other. Pokémon edibility has been canon for years, with Pokédex entries remarking on how certain species eat one another (sometimes violently) or are eaten by humans, and in *Pokémon Gold and Silver* the poaching of Slowpoke to eat their tails is a plot point. - When *Pokémon Legends: Arceus* was leaked, Typhlosion's Hisuian form was the subject of jokes that it was The Stoner due to its facial expression. According to the official website, it's supposed to have a stoner-like personality. - The stock jokes about *Final Fantasy* are: - Stupidly big swords. Cloud's sword in *Final Fantasy VII* was deliberately designed to look ridiculous (if in a Campily cool way), to reflect that Cloud is a cocky showoff and overcompensating. The remake further parodies its impractical size when Cloud tries to pull it out when standing under a door frame. He hits the frame. - Spiky hair. Cloud's outrageous hair was already occasionally mocked in the original *Final Fantasy VII* (for example one NPC refers to him as "pokey headed") as well as spin-off titles like *Dissidia Final Fantasy* (Such as Shantotto calling his hair a "distraction"). Much like his sword, Cloud's hair was meant to emphasize a sense of compensatory flamboyance. Due to Cloud's recognisability, Spiky hair is often stereotyped and parodied as being a typical thing for the series as a whole, when actually it's not really that common outside of FFVII related media. - Emo teens. Much of the humour in *Final Fantasy VIII* derives from what happens when you put stupid and immature teenagers in charge of saving the world, like when Squall storms out of the room in a huff about some perceived slight and the other characters are clueless about his attitude. - Bishounen. From a man in a hostess club mistaking Cecil for a waitress in *Final Fantasy IV* to Faris making Galuf doubt his sexual orientation in *Final Fantasy V* to Cloud's appeal to gay and straight men alike in *Final Fantasy VII* to Noel being called 'even prettier' compared to his female sidekick in *Final Fantasy XIII-2*, this is mocked nearly every time the subject comes up. - The main character having Laser-Guided Amnesia. *Final Fantasy X* makes an extended joke out of Tidus *faking* it (claiming he was exposed to Sin's toxins), since his actual backstory is just as unbelievable, and even *he* has trouble saying any of it with a straight face. - Since one of the notable things about the *Metal Gear* games is its ability to combine dark storylines with bonkers, absurd comedy, a lot of bad parodies just repeat humorous elements in the original games, like the idea of a cool superspy hiding in a cardboard box, or the hilarious naked people and sexy posters, or Otacon's garbled proverbs, or what have you. Note too that the games *themselves* poke fun at these goofy elements as well: Meryl is outright *flabbergasted* to learn Snake hides in a box as she believed her uncle was pulling her leg when he told her about such a tactic, Snake and Raiden are called out for gawking at sexy posters, and Snake is clearly baffled by Otacon's awful proverbs and remarks that he misses Mei Ling. Even the series goofy over-the-top action setpieces, which are generally played seriously in the game and mocked by parodies, are dually mocked by the games themselves: Snake's flippant remark about "taking down the helicopter" is Played for Laughs with Otacon outright fanboying over it, they note that attempting to take out an M1 Tank *with hand grenades* would be mere suicide if it was actually attempted in real life, and they repeatedly lampshade how Awesome, but Impractical the series namesake walking nuclear tanks really are. - *Animal Crossing* parodies usually have Isabelle as the jaded, overworked Hypercompetent Sidekick to the *New Leaf* player character's bumbling mayor. This was already joked about in-series with two completely different characters: Phyllis, the jaded, overworked, nightshift-running pelican at the town hall/post office, who picked up the slack from Tortimer, the bumbling mayor from the Nintendo 64 game to *Wild World*/ *City Folk*. The idea of a normally cheerful character turning out to be a Stepford Smiler has also been Zipper T. Bunny's gimmick since his debut. - *Persona*: - Many parodies of *Persona 3* focus on how weird and disturbing the Evokers are, gun-shaped devices that allow the user to summon their Persona by shooting themselves in the head. The weirdness of Evokers is commented on a few times in *Persona 3* itself, and crossover spinoffs will *always* have a member of another game's party point this out. - Parodies of the Social Link system and the protagonist being The Casanova. *Persona 4: The Animation* had Episode 13 and 14 as a two-parter that mocks how weird a day of Social Linking (and other in-game activities like fishing) looks to an outside observer, and both it and spinoffs frequently parody the protagonist's Casanova reputation. - Parodies about the car bonus stage from *Street Fighter II* often feature jokes about how the poor shmuck who owned that car will be horrified once he comes back and sees you've junked it. Except... this is based on a similar minigame from *Final Fight* (which *Street Fighter* shares a universe with), which makes exactly this joke at the end. - To capitalize on the release of *Mortal Kombat (2021)*, the erotic gacha game *Crystal Maidens* featured an event introducing several new maidens who were gender-flipped parodies of *Mortal Kombat* characters, including Raiden, Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Their female version of Sub-Zero was called "Frost"... who has been an actual character in *Mortal Kombat* ever since 2002's *Deadly Alliance.* - The notorious *Fallout: New Vegas* mod *The Frontier* came under fire for a scene where the player character can ||forcibly enslave a mentally ill woman||. The developers, when called on it, claimed that they were trying to subvert the long-standing Fallout tradition of dialogue options requiring a Speech check being the best option, since blindly going for the Speech check ||is how you enslave America||. The problem is that not only is the dialogue option that *starts* the ||enslavement|| sequence *not* a Speech check, but the original game already *had* a sequence that did the same thing better - during the Bomber sidequest, choosing the Speech check in one section *talks someone into blowing themselves up*, failing the sidequest on the spot. - *How It Should Have Ended*: - Their video for *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)* remake has Erin beat Leatherface by just kicking him in the balls. She does kick him in the balls in the actual film (in the meat freezer scene) and it barely slows him down. - Their video for *Moana* pokes fun at the fact that the Ocean could have just ||returned the Heart of Te Fiti itself|| instead of going through the trouble of presenting this task to Moana. The movie itself actually has Maui comment on this, with Moana reluctantly admitting that she has no idea why. Maui later deduces that the ocean believes it would mean more if a human, like Moana, accomplished the task, as it would inspire ocean travel once again. - *The TV Land Awards* featured a skit that combines *Sex and the City* with *The Golden Girls*, or at least were aimed in that direction. Problem is, 70% of the humor in *The Golden Girls* already derives from these aging women unashamedly talking about their sex lives. - The same punchline was attempted by *Robot Chicken*, though they ramped it up with Refuge in Audacity (by which we mean on-screen, barely-censored sex) as a back-up punchline. As frank as *The Golden Girls* was about sex, it never had Sophia courting an entire high school basketball team (dressed as a cheerleader). - *The Simpsons* - The episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" feature segments taken from *Pulp Fiction* that are played almost straight, with little original humour. It's less of a parody and more a near shot-for-shot remake. - The segment about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in "Margical History Tour" is a parody of *Amadeus*—a film that was already pretty comedic (albeit darkly so) to begin with. Since Mozart is portrayed by Bart, most of the jokes revolve around Mozart being an immature and irreverent jokester with a naughty and juvenile sense of humor, which is...the entire premise of *Amadeus*. Furthermore, if you know *anything* about history, the real life Mozart was reportedly *more* immature, irreverent, naughty, and juvenile than Bart's take on him. - A *MAD* skit showed Bluto gaining massive strength and beating Popeye up after a waitress inadvertently switches their lunch orders and he gets the sailor's spinach. The problem is, this was done way back in the classic era at least once. Why it doesn't happen more often is usually explained simply by saying Bluto hates spinach, and when he does partake, it's because it's either forced on him, or he makes the supreme sacrifice to help Popeye fight against a common enemy (such as a group of Japanese soldiers in one of the WWII-era pictures). - Another episode included a parody of ShamWow called "SpongeWow", showing a Vince Offer parody using SpongeBob SquarePants to clean all manner of gross or harmful surfaces, causing SpongeBob much discomfort. However, a prior episode of *SpongeBob* itself, "Model Sponge", featured a scene with the same basic premise as the skit, involving SpongeBob being hired as an actor for a cleaning sponge commercial when he thinks he has lost his job at the Krusty Krab and is forced to have to clean a ridiculously filthy bathroom, much to his increasing displeasure. - *South Park*: The episode parodying *Pet Sematary* has the Jud Crandall expy warn Stephen Stotch not to resurrect his (not actually) deceased son via a cursed burial ground in a way that simply puts the idea in Stotch's head and gratuitously provides him with instructions on how to pull it off, ostensively sending up how easily the events of parodied story could have been avoided if Jud had kept his mouth shut. However, the original book and its film adaptations make it clear that part of the burial ground's power is in compelling those who know about it to reveal it to others, with Jud Crandall himself acknowledging that he should have realised he was being manipulated. - *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* has been subjected to its fair share of parodies since its heyday in the 1980s—as befitting one of the most popular multimedia franchises of the 20th century. As any fan will tell you, the cartoon was pretty damn tongue-in-cheek to begin with, essentially being a buddy comedy with action and sci-fi thrown in. Even the original Darker and Edgier comic book was just as much an Affectionate Parody of superhero comics as it was a superhero comic in its own right. The central premise (temperamental young mutants fight crime in New York City) was something of a take-off on *X-Men*, while their origin story (a runaway truck full of radioactive waste gives birth to superheroes with martial arts training) was a clear parody of *Daredevil*. Even the Turtles' wise mentor "Splinter" was a parody of Daredevil's mentor "Stick", while their enemies "The Foot Clan" were based on Daredevil's "The Hand". - A somewhat common criticism of *Family Guy*'s Cutaway Gags post-cancellation and revival is that they come off as this sometimes. Compare, say, a gag from Season 2's "The Story on Page One" (Peter works as a Ghostbuster, but ends up busting the completely benign Sam Wheat) to one from Season's 7 "Baby Not On Board" (a direct recreation of part of the opening to *Back to the Future*, just with Peter in place of Marty McFly). - Many parodies of *SpongeBob SquarePants* go the Bloodier and Gorier route, featuring intense violence. However, *SpongeBob* arose from the *Ren & Stimpy* grossout era, and as a result, is no stranger to Family-Unfriendly Violence through the occasional Black Comedy Burst, many of which aren't too far off from those parodies. - *Futurama* - The episode "War is the H-Word" parodies the general premise of *Starship Troopers*, depicting Earth's military invading a deserted alien world and getting its ass kicked until the climax. In the episode, the human forces (led by Zapp Brannigan) are portrayed as a bunch of violent, jingoistic morons who are outclassed in every way—and despite propaganda about the evils of their opponents, *they* turn out to be the aggressors in the conflict. But nearly all of this is the case in *Starship Troopers* as well: director Paul Verhoeven very openly intended it as a satire of militarism, with the story depicting a fascist government underestimating a more powerful opponent. Even the idea that the humans are the aggressors (with the apparent inciting incident being a False Flag Operation) is one of the most common readings of the film. In a lot of respects, the *Futurama* parody just made the original satire more obvious. - The parody of *The Wizard of Oz* in "Anthology of Interest II" ends with the Wizard (portrayed by the Professor) giving Dorothy and her companions a handgun for self-defense ( *"Who needs courage when you have...a gun!"*), as if the idea of a character in *The Wizard of Oz* carrying a gun is inherently absurd. Except the actual film features exactly that: the Scarecrow carries a revolver while traveling to the Witch's castle to kill her. It's even implied that the Wizard gave him the gun, just like in the parody. note : *The Wizard of Oz* was made in 1939, when it wasn't considered taboo to depict firearms in family films. - The *Game of Thrones* spoofs in *Disenchantment* got some accusations of this, ignoring that the show itself and the original novels are already such a brutal Genre Deconstruction of high fantasy that they often border on satire. Luckily, this mostly stopped after the first season. - According to the writers of *The Venture Bros.*, this proved an issue with trying to parody *G.I. Joe* in one episode. The episode has a sequence where a group of agents charge into battle, with the joke being that they all have incredibly stupid codenames. As it turned out, they'd regularly come up with joke codenames and then discover that there were actual Joes with those names, forcing them to scrap those names and make new ones. (To their credit, they managed to avert this in the final episode, with all the agents to feature having original names.) "The hardest part about inventing *GI Joe* guys is that they all exist already . No matter how dumb of a name you come up with—a compound word or a pun of any kind that involves any kind of military thing or sport or weapon—you'll find that there's already a *GI Joe* guy with that name."

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyFailure

Parrot Pet Position - TV Tropes Ash's shoulder should be killing him by now. *"She flaunts it on her shoulder, like... like an exotic bird! By tonight, * all of Paris * will be * wanting one! *"* A Loyal Animal Companion who rides on its human companion's shoulder. Though it can hitch a ride on its human companion's head or even in their arms from time to time, its most prominent location is the human's shoulder. Both the Pirate Parrot and Shoulder-Sized Dragon are found in this position. In Real Life this can be somewhat dangerous with larger parrots, since they like to nibble things and it tends to put their beak at eye-level. With trained birds of prey such as hawks and falcons, it is borderline suicidal — Go for the Eye is a natural predator instinct that cannot be wholly suppressed, perhaps explaining all those pirates with eyepatches. Hunting birds should always be held *away from the face* or perched on a staff or pole. Compare Head Pet, Feather Boa Constrictor. For (tiny) people being carried this way, see Shoulder Teammate. Hopefully has nothing to do with the position of a dead Norwegian Blue parrot. ## Examples: - In *07-Ghost*, a dragon-like creature rides on Teito Klein's shoulder. - *Digimon*: - In *Digimon Data Squad,* Kudamon adopts a Feather Boa Constrictor position around Sampson/Satsuma's shoulders. - Often, it's the human partners who take this position on the Mons when they're in their giant combat forms. Of course, they (generally) have the good sense to stay out of the direct line of fire. - *Dragon Ball*: Dr. Briefs often has a black cat clinging to his shoulder. Its name is Tama ("Scratch" in the dub), and its only real purpose is to hover around him and at one point prove Android 16 isn't all that bad. - Shippou the young Kitsune from *Inuyasha* will usually ride on one of his companion's shoulders during their travels. More often than not, Kagome is the one to carry him around. - In *Jewelpet Sunshine*, whenever Kanon lets Titana the squirrel hitch a ride on her, it's usually on her shoulder. - *K*: Neko (in kitty form) sits on Shiro's shoulder like this. To take the cuteness further, they tend to do things in unison (e.g. hand/tail waving, blinking). - *Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha*: Yuuno Scrya often perches on Nanoha's shoulder like this when in ferret form. He only really does this in the first season as he spends less time in that form in the second season and then gets Demoted to Extra in the subsequent season. - As part of her part as an evil witch in the Non-Indicative First Episode of *The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya*, Nagato gets a shoulder-mounted cat. It tends to slide off, so she has to keep pushing it back up throughout the episode. Kyon's sister has the cat on her head in the opening sequence. - *Moyashimon* has a weird example: Tadayasu Sawaki is often seen with an anthropomorphic spore of *Aspergillus oryzae* sitting either on his shoulder or on his head. It's often seen chatting up other microorganisms, or making comments on the craziness in Sawaki's life (even though Sawaki and the audience are the only people who can see or hear it). - *One Piece*: Rob Lucci carries his pet pigeon Hattori this way, though Hattori knows to fly off before his master starts fighting, keeping his distance until it's over. - *Pokémon: The Series*: - Pikachu often rides on Ash's shoulder. However, he's heavy enough to tip him over, which may have been lampshaded once when it takes James a bit to get used to the sudden weight of the amnesiac electric mouse. - "Chikorita's Big Upset" ends with Chikorita riding on one of Ash's shoulders and Pikachu on the other. It was only by the grace of cartoon physics that he remained standing. - Similarly, Iris's Axew pops out from her hair to form this appearance on her shoulder. And despite being smaller than Ash, Axew weighs *three times as much* as Pikachu. When Iris returns in *Journeys*, her Emolga has taken this position, ||due to her Axew having evolved into a Haxorus||. - Lillie usually carries her Alolan Vulpix, nicknamed Snowy, around in her arms. - In *Record of Ragnarok*, Odin is typically seen with his talking crows, Huginn and Muninn perched on his shoulders. - Luna and Artemis from *Sailor Moon*. Both have passed themselves off at least once as a fur stole. - *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann*: - In the *Tokkô* manga, Kureha's pet phantom can be seen sitting on her shoulder in one panel. - *×××HOLiC*: After much experimentation (including up Watanuki's shirt, and probably once or twice in his pants), Mugetsu appears to have found his(?) niche as a shoulder pet. - *Munchkin* has the Cute Shoulder Dragon, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a cute little dragon that sits on your shoulder and gives a higher bonus to women than to men (is Dragons Like Women a trope yet?). - *Sleepless*: Lady Poppy's vulpine pet (and personal poison detector) Bini is often seen perched on Poppy's shoulder. - *Transformers*: In the early G1 comics/cartoons, Decepticon leader Megatron would routinely have his bird-like subordinate Laserbeak perch on his shoulder. Whenever someone else (such as Shockwave) claimed the position, Laserbeak would sit on them instead. (The character bios establish that he's an extremely opportunistic coward who sides with whoever looks like the best choice at the moment.) The TF Wiki refers to him as "The Decepticon Matrix of Leadership". - *Wonder Woman*: - The Amazon Aella has a falcon that is most often found perched on her shoulder. - *Wonder Woman (1987)*: Natasha's space lizard/tiny dragon Yuri hangs out on her shoulder at times. - In *X-Men*, Lockheed the dragon often rides on Kitty Pryde's shoulder, though in a twist on this trope he actually considers her to be *his* pet. - In *Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality*, Dumbledore frequently carries Fawkes The Phoenix on his shoulder. Once, he has both Fawkes *and* his Phoenix Patronus on his shoulders. Then, ||at one time Fawkes gets especially upset at Dumbledore, the phoenix spends an entire evening riding on Harry Potter's shoulder||. It is later discussed whether having a phoenix on your shoulder is a sign you're a "good" person or not. - In *This Bites!*, Soundbite, the Devil Fruit-powered Transponder Snail, usually sits on Self-Insert Cross's shoulder when he's not being held in his hand to launch sound attacks. - *Aladdin*: - Iago is often perched either on Jafar's shoulder, or scepter. - Abu does the same with the title character. - *Sleeping Beauty*: Maleficent's raven (later Ret-Named "Diablo") takes this spot. - *Tangled*: Pascal is usually seen riding on Rapunzel's shoulder, or failing that, her head. - In *Turning Red*, three kittens climb up and perch on Mei's shoulders. - It gets played straight once Tim lets Pikachu perch on his shoulder out of habit, and it comes to the point where, when searching through the abandoned lab, he tells Pikachu that he can perch on his shoulder if he wants to. - *Prehysteria* features a miniature *Pteranodon* that likes to perch on a girl's shoulder. In one scene, said girl even calls her to perch on her finger like a trained parakeet. - In the early scenes in civilisation of *Sands of the Kalahari*, Grimmelman has a small pet monkey that rides on his shoulder. The monkey must have perished in the plane crash as it is not seen after this. - *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*: In a case of What Could Have Been, Judge Doom was going to have a Toon vulture perched on his shoulder. Interestingly, a licensed toy set included him with Doom. - In *The Chronicles of Narnia*, Reepicheep occasionally rides on someone's shoulder. However, he does *not* appreciate being mistaken for a pet. - *Corinna Chapman* mysteries : Lucifer, a smallish but very active and bold kitten, litter-mate to "Fluffy" Tori and dignified Nox, often rides on the shoulder of Trudy the gardener. Trudy greatly admires his rather slapstick enterprise. He is often described as looking as if he has eaten a parrot and taken its place. - *Diogenes Club*: In "Swellhead", Stacy arrives at Richard's house to call him out of retirement and finds him walking around with a Siamese cat perched on his shoulder (and a Persian kitten peeking out of his coat pocket). - *Discworld*: In *Guards! Guards!*, Lady Sybil Ramkin is seen training swamp dragons to sit on one's shoulder, as shoulder-sitters are in fashion. However, the would-be fashionistas often don't consider the consequences of having a volatile creature on your shoulder, as Sybil details: "... next thing you know, you've got crap all down your back and a singed hairstyle." - *Dolphin Trilogy*: In *Dolphin Boy*, John tames a small octopus by feeding it pieces of lobster. The octopus can't swim fast enough to keep up with him, so it rides on his shoulder with a tentacle wrapped around his neck. - *Dragonriders of Pern*: Beauty, Menolly's queen fire lizard, reserves this position exclusively for herself. - The titular feline Bond Creatures of the *Ghattis Tale* series sometimes do this, although having a 40 pound creature in such a position does seem a bit of a stretch. In fact, they're TRAINED to assume this position, should they need to get out of the way quickly. - *Heralds of Valdemar*: Some but not all Tayledras bondbirds ride on their bondmate's shoulder. The determining factor appears to be the size of the bird; Darkwind often carries Vree this way, but Starblade doesn't even *try* carrying the much larger Hyllar on his shoulder (he can barely carry Hyllar on his arm). One book notes that carrying a bird this way is a sure sign that it's a bondbird and not an ordinary raptor. - It is a centuries old tradition in *Honor Harrington* that treecats ride on the right shoulder of their human, necessitating that a treecat's person include padding in their wardrobe to accommodate their claws, and wear hats with the brim rolled up on the right side so they don't get in the way. On occasions where Honor doesn't have access to her regular wardrobe, she simply carries Nimitz. This also goes for those adoptees who aren't quite strong enough to go walking about comfortably with a 30+ pound cat riding on their shoulders. - *Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves*: Capping off Hunter Maas's ridiculous outfit is a rat-bird perched on his shoulder that mutters nonsense phrases in several languages. ||After he is killed, it starts eating him.|| - *The Sword in the Stone*: Merlin's pet owl, who is very stuck up, can be shut up by lowering your hand he's perched on, forcing him to run up your arm to your shoulder, thus demonstrating to him that he is only a bird and thus subject to a bird's instincts. - *Tortall Universe*: Faithful, the black cat in *Song of the Lioness*, likes to be on Alanna's shoulder. While he's happy being picked up by her friends, he won't go on their shoulders. - Captain Flint, Long John Silver's parrot in *Treasure Island*, may be the ur-example. - *Dungeons & Dragons*: - *The Complete Ranger's Handbook* specifically averts this trope in its Falconry section, pointing out that hunting birds are *never* carried on the shoulder. As their natural instinct is to take out an ear or eye blinding-fast, even the most well-trained falcon cannot be trusted so close to the face. Thus, seeing any bird of prey riding on someone's shoulder is a sure sign that it isn't a natural animal, but more likely some sort of magical beast or familiar. - Pseudodragons are described in several editions of the game as being fond of this trope, when bonded with a humanoid companion. - *The Traveller Adventure*, section "Pysadian Escapade". It's mentioned that the alien anolas can ride on the Player Characters' shoulders. - The pirate themed Maneater model from *Warhammer* and *Warhammer: Age of Sigmar* has a pet Gnoblar/Grot wearing a parrot costume sitting on his shoulder in place of a Pirate Parrot. - In *ARK: Survival Evolved*, the smallest critters, such as monkeys and Dimorphodons, can be carried on the player's shoulder after taming them. - The fairy familiar in *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* will land in this pose if Alucard stands still for long enough with her out. (She'll also fall off hilariously if he backdashes while she's there.) - After obtaining the familiar version of ||Midgarsormr|| in *Final Fantasy XIV*, he will perch on your shoulder from time to time. A number of other pets now do this as well; mostly flying ones, from a hawk to a butterfly to a winged cat, but the red panda and chipmunk pets will also scamper up their owner to perch. - The eponymous Daxter from the *Jak and Daxter* games has this as his default position. Jak's shoulder, while probably made of iron itself (Daxter weighs 48 lbs/22 kg and Jak literally does *everything* with him there), most likely gets saved from being shredded by his claws thanks to his single shoulder pad. - In *Lunar: The Silver Star*, Nall is frequently seen on Alex's shoulder, same with Ruby and Hiro in *Lunar: Eternal Blue*. - *Pokémon GO* allows some tiny Pokemon to ride the player avatar's shoulder when assigned as a Buddy Pokemon. - *Puyo Puyo*: When Carbuncle is at his tiny Compile-era size, he's small enough to ride on Arle's shoulder. Not the case in the Sega games, where he's so big it takes an arm's length to hold him. - In *Puzzle Pirates*, the player can get a "familiar" pet that perches on the player character's shoulder. Originally they were all parrots or monkeys, but later updates to the game have added octopuses and seahorses (which nonetheless like a shoulder perch) and serpents (which go the Feather Boa Constrictor route). - *Team Fortress 2*: - The Medic can equip his pet dove Archimedes like this, for the low, low price of $12.99! It even mirrors his facial expressions. Also, if he's on RED team, it's covered in blood. Cute, huh? - The other classes eventually all got their own shoulder pets, with Chucklenuts the squirrel, an eagle for the Soldier, a Halloween-restricted dead bird for the ever-creepy Pyro, an actual parrot for the Demoman, a tiny robin for the Heavy, Ein the canary, Sniper gets *three* with the Cobber Chameleon and Steel Songbird and Sir Hootsalot, and Spy gets his own Spycrab and possibly a snake as well. The snake is debatable, as it wraps around his arm, though its head rests on his shoulder. And that's not even counting the pocket pets. What with them being in pockets and not on shoulders. - *DSBT InsaniT*: - Chilly the chinchilla is almost always on Autumn's shoulders. - Hoora, Portica's pet owl, is seen doing this at the end of episode 7. - *Plan 3*: The cursed pirate has a pet duckling that sits on his shoulder when he makes his entry and introduces himself, although it suddenly disappears right before he dies. - In *Bugged Run*, Elle and Viral routinely ride around on various parts of Chrys's body as Caterpie and Weedle, most usually her shoulders. Viral even gets to ride around like a living backpack after evolving to Kakuna. - In *El Goonish Shive*, Jeremy likes being on Susan and will sometimes ride on her shoulders. - Discussed, but never actually done, in * Freefall*. When contemplating piracy, Helix says that they need to include Florence, because she's the only one with shoulders for the parrot to ride on. Later, Helix gets an emu, which he believes will command more respect. Sam agrees, "I know I'd be respectful of a pirate with an emu on his shoulder." Note that they plan to be space pirates, and there's no artificial gravity, so this might be less intimidating than intended. - In *Godslave*, this is Anpu's favourite method of travelling, in contrast to being picked up. - Blackwing, Vaarsuvius' raven familiar from *The Order of the Stick*, has started riding of V's shoulder once the wizard started acknowledging the bird's existence consistently. This can sometimes look weird, since stick figures in this comic have heads bigger than their shoulders are wide. - *Schlock Mercenary*: - Bun-Bun and Kiki of *Sluggy Freelance* regularly rides some shoulders. Kiki is just a cute Weasel Mascot, but for Bun-Bun... it isn't like anybody would dare saying "no" to the little bunny psychopath. - Both Iago the parrot and Abu the monkey in *Aladdin: The Series*. - *Avatar: The Last Airbender*: - Momo the lemur-bat rides on Aang's shoulder a lot. - Then there's also the pirates from "The Waterbending Scroll", one of whom has a "reptile bird" instead of a parrot. - In *The Legend of Korra*, Pabu tends to wrap himself around the shoulders of whoever he's most attached to at the moment. Usually it's Bolin, but occasionally the other members of the new Team Avatar. - *Jana of the Jungle*: Jana sometimes has Tiko sitting on her shoulder. - *The Owl House* - King has a habit of climbing on Luz's shoulders, or clinging to her back like a backpack. - Most Palismen do this with their owners on occasion. Flapjack is the only Palisman who routinely sits on his witch's shoulder, though he also occasionally chooses to sit on Hunter's head, hand, or knee. - In *Perfect Hair Forever*, Young Man's parrot must be lazy, as it doesn't so much ride than sit on his shoulder. - *She-Ra: Princess of Power*: Imp will often take up this position when around Hordak, particularly when they're in a battle. This not only affords the little guy protection, but also leaves him handy in case Hordak needs him to change into something. - *The Simpsons*: - The illustration on the cover of *Treasure Island* that Bart was supposed to read for a book report, but didn't. **Bart:** Fellow students, prepare to be dazzled! *[walks to the front of the room]* Well, as Mrs. Krabappel already mentioned, the name of the book that I read was *Treasure Island* . It's about these... *[describing the book jacket]* pirates. Pirates... with patches over their eyes... and... shiny gold teeth... and green birds on their shoulders... *[pause]* Did I mention this book was written by a guy named Robert Louis Stevenson ? And published by the good people at McGraw Hill. So, in conclusion, on the Simpson scale of one to ten, ten being the highest, one being the lowest, and five being average, I give this book... a nine. Any questions? *[hands go up]* Nope? Then I'll just sit down. - Played With in the episode "Simpson Safari", where they take a trip to Africa and meet their guide, Kitenge who first appears with a bush baby on his shoulder. Lisa comments on it being cute. Cue Kitenge being surprised it's there and shooing it away. - In the *Timon & Pumbaa* episode "Two for the Zoo", when the animals Timon and Pumbaa tried to rescue are freed from their cages and confront them following Pumbaa's bumbling, the buzzard is sitting on the gorilla's shoulder similar to a pirate's parrot. - In *The Transformers*, Laserbeak often assumes this position with either Megatron or Soundwave when he's not being stored in Soundwave's chest. This is such a well-known trait of his that some modern toys include slots on their arms or shoulders so that Laserbeak can sit there. - Traditionally, the African basenji dog is carried over rough terrain by laying it across its owner's shoulders, with its legs extending forward like a canine Feather Boa Constrictor.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParrotPetPosition

Parody Names - TV Tropes Who knows how the idea got started that, when making The Parody, it is innately funny to replace each character's original name with a silly one that rhymes or sounds similar. But get started it did. This does make sense from a certain vantage point. After all, if — for copyright and/or trademark reasons — a publisher can't use the characters' real names, they might as well replace them with something funny. However, some writers make the mistake of thinking that doing this makes their parody automatically funny. It doesn't. It may also be done to make it absolutely clear just *what* is being parodied since Viewers Are Morons. At its very worst, this is done when the writers don't know what they're parodying and thus making fun of the characters' names is the only joke they can think of. Can be combined with Parallel Porn Titles. ## Examples: - *The Bolt Chronicles*: Real brand names are almost never utilized in this series. - Used for the stores in The Mall: Office Despot, Spenders Gifts, Moronicas Secret, Gloomingdales, etc. as well as the social media website Farcebook. - Used for the social media websites in The Car: Bumblr, Dreddit, Twiddler. - Used for the franchises referenced in The Coffee Shop: Queequegs, Dippy Donuts, and Joe Ortons. - Used for the franchise referenced in The Protection Payment: Krusty Kreme. - *Reimagined Enterprise*: An exaggerated version of the canon show's Jonathan Archer note : the fic uses a version with different characterization called Abner Bowman appears as the captain of the USS *Dauntless*. Abner being a relative and colleague of Jonathan in The Bible and bowman being another word for archer. - Combined with Parallel Porn Titles in *Hardcore Entertainment presents: Seven Does Voyager*. The crew of the Suxfleet ship *Voyorgy* includes Sexy of Nine, Captain Analway, Commander Cumtoday, Tom Penis, Ballbuster Torres, Ensign Kum, Bootlix, the Vulcans Toufock and Vorprick, and the Dicktor. - Sunky.MPEG practically runs on this trope. The titular Sunky the Game, Tlels the Fix, Knickknacks the Enchilada, Silly, Eemie, Cweam, Mitty... The list goes on. - In Mel Brooks' *Spaceballs* (which parodies, among other sci-fi franchises, *Star Wars*), Yoda becomes "Yoghurt", the Force becomes "The Schwartz", Jabba the Hutt becomes Pizza the Hutt and Darth Vader becomes "Dark Helmet." - The *Austin Powers* series is packed with these. - "Alotta Fagina" is derived from Pussy Galore in the *James Bond* movie *Goldfinger*. This one is actually making fun of something about the original name, not just going for similar-but-silly. - "Goldmember" appears in the third *Austin Powers* movie (and its title). - "Random Task", who's a parody of Oddjob. - Austin's sidekick in *Austinpussy*, Dixie Normous. - The Finnish *Star Trek* spoof film series *Star Wreck* gives parody names to all its characters, including James B. Pirk (James T. Kirk), Fukov (Chekov), Spökö/Spook (Spock), Plingons (Klingons), Vulgars (Vulcans), Shitty (Scotty), Dwarf (Worf) and Info (Data). The feature-length film introduces *Babylon 5* parodies such as Sherrypie (Sheridan) and the genuinely hilarious Karigrandi (Garibaldi - Garybrandy in the English version). - A number of pornographic parodies of big-name movies have done this, to both the title and the character names borrowed from the original source. - *Muffy the Vampire Layer*, anyone? - Or 1974's *Flesh Gordon*? - *Boys In the Sand* is generally credited as the first poen parody name although it does not parody the source, *The Boys in the Band*. - *An American Carol* has "Rosie O'Connell," "Michael Malone" (Michael Moore), and a composite character called "George Mulrooney." Do they have something against the Irish or something? - Probably just incidental, since Mulrooney sounds like it's filling in for *Clooney*. - The 1978 *Star Wars* parody *Hardware Wars* has names such as Fluke Starbucker, Augie 'Ben' Doggie, Ham Salad, Darph Nader and Artie Deco. - *Star Wars* also got this from *Thumb Wars*, including such characters as Loke Groundrunner, Beboobeep (R2-D2), and Oobedoob Benubi (Obi Wan). - Done throughout the *Scary Movie* series. The main character's name, Cindy Campbell, is relatively subtle, playing on *Scream*'s Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell). - Seltzer and Friedberg have a habit of taking this trope and running it into the ground. - *This is Spın̈al Tap*: Nigel Tufnel is actually a very subtle one of these, being formed on the same template as Eric Clapton: "boring first name and place in London." - Occasionally used in the *Carry On* series; for instance in the Foreign Legion spoof *Follow That Camel*, the equivalent of Cigarette in *Under Two Flags* is called Corktip, as well as the lead named Bo West from *Beau Geste*, and in *Don't Lose Your Head*, the counterpart of The Scarlet Pimpernel is The Black Fingernail. - *The Silence of the Hams*: Billy Zane's FBI Agent is named Jo Dee Fostar. - *Fatal Instinct*: The main character of this erotic thriller spoof, a lawyer/cop named Ned Ravine, is a take-off on William Hurt's character from *Body Heat*, a lawyer named Ned Racine. - One of many "supernatural Threatening Shark" movies that followed *Sharknado* was *Sharks of the Corn*, which to show a possible inspiration is billed in the cover as "Steven Kang's Sharks of the Corn". - *Cecil B. Demented*, named after Cecil B. DeMille. - Michael Gerber's *Barry Trotter* (a parody of *Harry Potter*) features such winners as "Muddle" for Muggle, "Philosopher's Scone" for Philosopher's Stone, "Hogwash" for Hogwarts, "Lord Valumart" for Lord Voldemort, "Earth Eaters" for Death Eaters and "Measlys" for Weasleys. - In *Bored of the Rings*, The Harvard Lampoon's parody of *The Lord of the Rings*, pretty much every location and character gets a parody name. Wizards Gandalf and Saruman become "Goodgulf" and "Serutan." The parody tale starts in "The Stye" (The Shire), home to the "boggies" (hobbits), four of which are named "Frito" (Frodo), "Spam" (Sam), "Moxie" (Merry) and "Pepsi" (Pippin). Minas Tirith becomes "Minas Troney," and the equivalent of Mordor is the post-industrial wasteland of "Fordor," ruled by "Sorhed" (Sauron). Bilbo Baggins becomes "Dildo Bugger", Aragorn, son of Arathorn becomes "Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt", Legolas and Gimli become "Legolam" and "Gimlet", and so forth. - *Doctor Whom*, by Adam Roberts, was a parody of both *Doctor Who* and the punctuation manual *Eats, Shoots and Leaves*. Parody names included "Prose Tailor" (Rose Tyler), "The TARDY" (The TARDIS), "Garleks" (Daleks), "Cydermen" (Cybermen), "Stavros" (Davros), "Master Debater" (The Master) and "Time Gentlemen" (Time Lords). - Adam Roberts has done several other parody books under variations of his name. *The Soddit* and *The Sellamillion* as A.R.R.R. Roberts, *The Va Dinci Cod* as Don Brine, *Star Bores* as A3R Roberts, *The McAtrix Derided* as the Robertski Brothers, and *The Dragon With the Girl Tatto* (as, surprisingly, Adam Roberts and not Adiem Robertsson or something). Naturally, all of these are filled with Parody Names. - *The Legendary Ram in Buggery*, a parody of you know what, made extensive use of these. As can probably be inferred from the title. - *Star Wreck* (the 1990s book series, not the Finnish film series) had James T. Smirk and Mr Smock on board the *USS Endocrine* plus Commander Zulu, Ensign Checkout, etc, etc. Also their new replacements on the *Endocrine-D*: Jean-Lucy Ricardo, Commander Piker, Counselor Dee Troit, etc, etc, etc... - And in the later books they were all joined by the crew of Station Geek Space Nine: Bungeeman Crisco, Constable Dodo, Major Vera, etc, etc, etc, etc... - *Discworld* novels don't have much of this stuff, but Gimlet, the dwarf with famously piercing eyes who runs a deli on Cable Street, may be intended as a reference to Gimli, son of Glóin. - It's not as rare as you think; this is the same guy who gave us *Cohen* the Barbarian. *Ghengiz* Cohen, in fact. - Most Discworld parody names are Genius Bonuses; Salzella, the music director in *Maskerade* is a play on Antonio Salieri, whose surname means "seller of salt". Less esoteric is that "gimlet" is also the name of a cocktail. - The original pun deserves explanation. A brief Running Gag was for a character to describe some supernatural or otherwise creepy person as having "Eyes... Like Gimlets!". To which another character would respond "...You mean the Dwarf what runs the-" "I mean he has bloody creepy eyes that's what!". Eventually Gimlet and his delicatessen appeared in a later book. - Another subtle one, Fliemoe, the parody of Flashman in *Pyramids*, has a name that doesn't parody Flashman but his henchman Speedicut, who happens to share his name with a make of lawnmower. - *The Adventures of Samurai Cat* does this as a cover for all the copyrighted characters it parodies, although it's rarely so much funny as it is a simple aversion. During the Star Trek section of "Samurai Cat Goes to the Movies" (a mashup-parody anthology, in which the crew is attacked by Xenomorphs, a parody Predator, and a "Terminationer" that's been dogging the main characters for a few chapters), for example, Sulu becomes Sununu, and Chekov becomes Tolstoy. Not quite as clever as how the Terminationer was sent back from an alternate future in which the main character had never existed. - *The Hunger Pains* is another book by the Harvard Lampoon, which parodies *The Hunger Games* by Suzanne Collins. You have Kantkiss Neverclean, skilled archer, Effu Poorpeople (Effie Trinket), Pita Malarkey, and so on and so forth. Some names are obviously made up for the book, while others (namely, Carol Handsomestein) aren't as obvious to figure out, to most. note : It seems that the Lampoon wanted to make fun of the fact that Gale's name sounds like a girl, so they named him Carol. - In *The Toothpaste Millionaire* by Jean Merrill, when Toothpaste's competitors, Sparkle, Dazzle and Brite, are losing a price war and the presidents of their manufacturers are trying to arrange an industry meeting, the first-person protagonist writes a script for a Roman à Clef movie whose antagonists are three Corrupt Corporate Executives named Sharkle, Snazzle and Slyte. "Sharkle looks mean, Snazzle looks greedy, and Slyte looks sly," the script notes. - Sherlock Holmes parodies and pastiches: - One of the earliest, from 1892, features "Sherlaw Kombs" and "Whatson." - P. G. Wodehouse had "Burdock Rose" and "Dr. Wotsing." - Various authors (including Maurice Leblanc in an Arsène Lupin story) have used the Spooneristic name "Herlock Sholmes" (or Shomes or Sholmès). - O. Henry had "Shamrock Jolnes" and "Whatsup." - One of the most overtly mocking examples (fittingly applied to one of the broadest parodies) is Robert L. Fish's "Schlock Homes." - Some of the more obscure Muppets on *Sesame Street* had such names, including Sherlock Hemlock, Plácido Flamingo and Meryl Sheep (probably meant as Parental Bonus). - Plus Monsterpiece Theater, with Alistair Cookie! - Along with Pat Playjacks, Velma Blank, Ross Parrot, and Vincent Twice Vincent Twice. - *The Electric Company (1971)* had Julia Grownup and J. Arthur Crank. - Really 80% of the jokes of the German "Funny Movie" series. - Since the program only had the rights to Spider-Man himself, in an episode of *Spidey Super Stories*, Spidey watches himself fight the Green *Globlin* in a movie. - *Saturday Night Live* parodies *MacGyver* as *MacGruber*. (The sketch is having less and less to do with *MacGyver* as it goes along, however. Oringally, it made fun of MacGyvering, but later the joke turned to the title character being a slovenly Jerkass with a host of personal problems.) - In the Pepsi ads, MacGyver shows up, at it is later discovered that MacGyver is MacGruber's father. - *Most Extreme Elimination Challenge* usually uses these for the names of the contestants when they're based on real people/characters ("Country Music Superstars vs. The World of James Bond" had "Girth Brooks", "Codger Moore", and "Timothy B. Dalton" among others). Since the show is an example of Rapid-Fire Comedy, this isn't too painful. - *Muppets Tonight* had Spamela Hamderson and David Hoggselhoff, the stars of *Bay Of Pigs Watch*. - An episode of *Life with Derek* focused on the controversy surrounding the game *Babe Raider*. - *Boy Meets World* did a Self-Parody in one episode in the form of a Show Within a Show called *Kid Gets Acquainted With the Universe*, in which Cory became Rory, Shawn became Shane and Eric became Derek. Ben Savage, the actor who played Cory in real life, became "Ben Sandwich", and Rider (Strong), who played Shawn, became "Schnieder". However, the most punny name came when they mentioned that Ben Sandwich has a brother named "Bread Sandwich", a reference to Ben Savage's brother Fred Savage. - *The Revolution Will Be Televised* does this with most of its characters, such as having the far right, politically incorrect journalist be named "Dale Mailey", a pretty blatant Take That! to the Daily Mail. Others include Raffe van der Koont, the sex-obsessed, Camp Gay host of "Double Fist TV". - In *The Goodies*' parody of *Roots (1977)*, all three of the gang's ancestors have names that pastiche Kunta Kinte; Bill's is Kinda Kinky, Tim's is Kounty Kutie and Graeme's is Keltic Kilty. - Eric Idle and Neil Innes created The Beatles parody group The Rutles for BBC's *Rutland Weekend Television,* which made an appearance in the U.S. on *Saturday Night Live* and later an NBC special *All You Need Is Cash.* - *Disasterpiece Theatre* was a 1980 precursor to *Mystery Science Theater 3000* that aired on local San Diego TV. The name was also used in the *Beetlejuice* episode "Moby Richard". - A favourite gag of *Punch!*. For instance, Sir Robert Peel was dubbed "Sir Rhubarb Pill" and Lord Randolph Churchill (Winston Churchill's dad) was called "Grandolph" for his egotism. - *Private Eye*, being a Spiritual Successor to *Punch*, followed suit, with examples such as Piers Morgan becoming "Piers Moron" and Carter-Ruck, a law firm that has prosecuted in many of the *Eye*'s libel cases, is always "Carter-Fuck" (except when it is "Farter-Fuck"). - Any opera by P.D.Q. Bach is likely to have several Parody Names based on characters from Mozart's operas. Donald Giovanni and Schleporello from *The Abduction of Figaro* and Don Octave and Il Commendatoreador from *The Stoned Guest* are all named after characters in *Don Giovanni*. - Bobby Pickett (of "Monster Mash" fame) also recorded *Star Dreck*, a parody of a certain well-known TV show. Characters included Captain Jerk, Mr. Schlock, Chief Engineer Snotty, Helmsman Mr. Lulu, Lt. Manure-a, and a Negative Space Wedgie. **Jerk:** Into the elevator, Mr. Schlock, let's beam down to the planet's surface so I can find an alien to fall in love with before the program's over. **Schlock:** (Wearily) You usually do. **Jerk:** (Chuckles) Ain't I somethin'? - Anything by Allan Sherman ("The Twelve Gifts Of Christmas," "Pop Hates The Beatles," etc.) and his latter-day disciple, "Weird Al" Yankovic. - One of the albums The Rutles (as mentioned in the Live Action TV tab) put out was "Tragical Misery Tour" with songs like "W.C. Fields Forever," "All You Need Is Lunch" and "Your Mother Should Go." - The BBC Radio 4 comedy series *The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere* applies this trope to Romantic poets. The main characters are William Wordsmith, his sister Dorothy Wordsmith, and their friend Samuel Taylor Choleric. Other characters included Percy Jelly, the rakish Lord Biro, the spooky William Bloke, Walter Spott, John Sheets, and so on. Gorsemere is a parody of Grassmere, the village the Lake Poets were based in. - The BBC Radio 4 comedy series *Gloomsbury*, by the same writer, does the same thing for the Bloomsbury set. The main characters are Vera Sackcloth-Vest (Vita Sackville-West) and her it's-complicated Ginny Fox. Others include D.H. Lollipop (author of *Lady Hattersley's Plover*), T.S. Jellytot, James Joist and Dr Sigmund Void. - Another Radio 4 comedy, *Bleak Expectations*, gives Dickens this treatment. Given how ridiculous Dickens' original names often are (Wackford Squeers, anyone?), they have to go pretty over the top to do so, so most characters' names are just two-word encapsulations of their entire personality (eg Miss Sweetly Delightful) or subversions of the same (eg the Big Bad, Mr. Gently Benevolent). - *Mutants & Masterminds*, among other characters with names referencing famous superheroes and their writers, had a subtle multi-layered example in Police Commissioner Barbara Kane, a homage to police Commissioner Barbara Gordon from *Batman Beyond*... and a play on the name of Bob Kane, the writer who created Batman. - Clare Boothe's play *Kiss the Boys Good-bye* involves people trying to produce The Film of the Book of an American Civil War romance glorifying the South, whose heroine is a Southern Belle named "Velvet O'Toole," who might have a few things in common with Scarlett O'Hara. - *College Wars*, a *Star Wars* parody set in an Oxford college, features names such as "Qui-Gon Gin and Tonic", "Don Juan Kenobi" and "Ali G Jar Binks". And the spaceship, the Millennium Bug. - *Dream Girl* has several mentions of a trashy but Critic-Proof historical romance novel called *Always Opal*, which is selling out at bookstores—a transparent reference to the contemporary bestseller *Forever Amber*. - In *Forbidden Broadway*, this is frequently applied to show titles ("Grand Hotel? Grand Hotel? No, this is the *Grim* Hotel"), but very rarely applied to characters ("Rafreaky" being one exception), and never to actors. - *M Scramble*, a hentai Dating Sim knockoff of *Haruhi Suzumiya*, is the story of Asamiya Haruka and her UFO-dan; the rest of the cast follows suit. Not only that, but the characters themselves are Palette Swaps of the *Haruhi* cast.[1] - The national leaders in *Nuclear War* have names like Ronnie Raygun, Infidel Castro, Gorbachef, Colonel Malomar Kadaffy, or Mao The Pun. - Racing games released under the Magnetic Fields brand ( *Lotus* series, *Super Cars* series) parodied the names of real-life race drivers: Ayrton Sendup, Alain Phosphate, Crashhard Banger, T. Hairy Bootson, Nijel Mainsail, M. Carburettor, Nelson Pickets, Rissole Brooks, Mickey Louder, Stag Bloomvest, James Haunt, Sterling Mess, Derek Werek, Ricardo Pastry... - *Rock Star Ate My Hamster* has a plethora of music stars whose names were knock-offs of real musicians: Wacky Jacko, Maradonna, Elvin Dwight, Rotton Johnny, Dick Knackered, Tina Turnoff and so on. (This also extended to the names of rival charting bands, such as The Rent Shop Boys, Deaf Leper and Bazoomarooma, and the names of directors, such as Busby Berserkely and Wrigley Scott.) Some make sense in context, as you can see. But this is taken to extremes with Kylie Minogue's ersatz, who was baptized as *Bimbo Baggins*. - Delta 4's text adventure games *Bored of the Rings* (not based on the book of the same name) and *The Boggit* applied this to character names. - In *Mutant League Football*, a number of players have names that parody those of famous football players of the mid 80s to early 90s, while at the same time conforming to the game's general Theme Naming of monsters, violence, and gross stuff. Thus, Scary Ice (Jerry Rice), Bones Jackson (Bo Jackson), and Reggie Fright (Reggie White). *Mutant League Hockey* follows suit, with names like Jamina Dagr (Jaromir Jagr), Buggy Skull (Bobby Hull), and Maim Zitzky (Wayne Gretzky). In *MLH* this extends to almost every team as a whole, minus the ones returing from *MLF* — to name just one example, the St. Mucus Ooze lineup is entirely made up of players whose names parody the St. Louis Blues lineup circa 1993. - *Mutant Football League*, the Spiritual Successor to *MLF*, naturally sees this trend continue with players like O'Hell Wreckem, Jr (Odell Beckham, Jr), and Ghoulio Bones (Julio Jones), and teams like the Cracksumskull Jugulars (Jacksonville Jaguars) and Grim Bay Attackers (Green Bay Packers). The lead announcer, Grim Blitzrow, has this for his own voice actor Tim Kitzrow, better known as the voice of *NBA Jam* - *Discworld Noir*: Mundy for Thursby; Jasper Horst for Casper Gutman; "Mount" Malachite for "Moose" Malloy; ||Nylonathotep the Laddering Horror for Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos.|| - The bizarre horse-dating game *My Horse Prince* had the title no Prince-sama in Japanese. Don't be fooled, though; this game has next to nothing to do with horse-based idols. *Uma* - *Hollywhoot* is a parody of Hollywood actors, characters, and tropes in general. For example, it has its own version of the Rotten Tomatoes's Tomatometer, called the Potatometer. - *Irregular Webcomic!* had a parody of *xkcd* titled "xkcq". - *Sluggy Freelance* featured a parody of *Buffy* called "Muffin the Vampire Baker". She was joined by characters such as Biles, Will-Os and Banter. Fair enough, as it seems that the character's names are all that the writer seemed to know about the show. - That story was practically a parody of parodies in general... *hopefully* intentionally. - The same comic has also done parodies of "Torg Potter and the Sorcerer's Nuts", "Torg Potter and the Chamberpot of Secretions", "Torg Potter and the President from Arkansas", "Torg Potter and the Giblets with Fiber"... - There are so many parody names used in general that inevitably some end up being good and some others bad. A third class in this case is those that you just don't get. - The Author has a running storyline parody of The Batman, aptly named "The Fatman". So far the Fat Knight has run across parodies of Batman antagonists like The Kidder, The Fiddler and Carmine Sockoni. - The loser super hero, Samarium Skier, from Stubble Trouble. - *The Order of the Stick* provides another *Harry Potter* parody with Larry Gardner studying at Warthog's academy. - The *Star Wars* fan comic *Diary of a Crazed Mimbanite*, among other Parody Names, replaces "Skywalker" with "Nerfherder." - In the early 2000s, an Italian Star Trek parody web comic had characters such as Long-Luc Dickhard, Master Beta, Doyouwanna Try, Whoref, Geordi TheLarge and Chestly Crusher. - The short comic that led to *The Adventures of Dr. McNinja* and is now listed as its "chapter zero" was about how the titular Dr. McNinja got revenge on Ronald McDonald for creating and marketing a "McNinja burger," which was designed to cause flatulence. ("Silent but deadly, like a ninja.") Later, when writer Chris Hastings wanted to reintroduce the McNinja burger into the story, he retconned the name to Donald McBonald, citing the fact that it would be much more straightforward to get the comic published without having to deal with legal issues over the name and logo. But since the comic is ruled by Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny, the humor value of the parody name can't be overlooked. - *My Roommate Is an Elf* has a recurring character named Fruita, who is a parody of Vegeta. - In *El Goonish Shive*, one strip parodies *Man v. Food* with a host named Andy Debtman instead of Adam Richman. - In DAOA, instead of Doormat, we have Dootmat. - In the *Friendship is Witchcraft* episode "Read It and Sleep", this happens In-Universe: Twilight has written a Ship Fic starring thinly-disguised versions of her friends named "Applesack" and "Charity." - Taking a cue from *MAD*, The Editing Room always has one of those for the movie discussed (but usually not the characters, who go by the actor names). One is even a line on the movie ( *Argo Fuck Yourself*). - "Titragic", a parody of *Titanic (1997)*, does this with everything, from the characters to the ships to the diamond. - *My Little Pony in a Nutshell* renames most of the characters from *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*. Twilight Sparkle is Twinkle Sprinkle, Applejack is Aple jack (pronounced with a long A), Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pink, Fluttershy is Flitterfloosh, Rainbow Dash is Rainbow Dish, Rarity is Rariry, Starlight Glimmer is Stoplight, Princess Celestia is Princess Celerystick, Zecora is Zechariah, Cozy Glow is Crazy Glue, Queen Chrysalis is Queen Christmas, the Flim-Flam brothers are Flip and Flop, and Star Swirl is Star Squirrel. Tirek's name is mangled in several ways much to his annoyance. - The Filmation cartoon *M-U-S-H* from *Uncle Croc's Block* had pretty much no connection whatsoever to *M*A*S*H*, the series it was supposed to be parodying, other than the names of its characters. - *Johnny Test* had one episode that featured Tinymon creatures, featuring such winners as "Blast Ketchup" for Ash Ketchum. There's also a Tinymon that parallels the Magikarp/Gyarados power jump. - The former is especially humorous if you are aware of Pikachu's love for ketchup. - The otherwise unmemorable 1970s cartoon series *The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty* featured in one episode a villain named "Ping of Pongo". The series title itself is a parody of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". - The "Goodfeathers" segments of *Animaniacs* parody Robert De Niro's, Ray Liotta's, and Joe Pesci's characters from *GoodFellas* as "Bobby", "Squit", and "Pesto." - *The Simpsons*: - Episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" features Shary Bobbins, an obvious clone of Mary Poppins. She claims she is not Mary, but an original creation, like Ricky Rouse or Monald Muck. - Episode "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" is a pun on the movie title *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*. - In one episode, this is lampshaded when the Simpsons visit "SPRAWL * MART", with the slogan "not a parody of Wal-Mart". - Also in the episode where the family goes to Ireland ("In the Name of the Grandfather"), when Lisa mentions how the country became home to many of the world's biggest technology companies, they pass by the offices of "Mick-rosoft", "Hewlett-Fitzpackard" and "Cisc O'Systems". - *The Fairly Oddparents*: way too many to count, starting with Britney Britney. - *The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy*: - *Kaeloo*: One of Kaeloo's favorite book series is "Happy Rotter", a story in which a young wizard named Happy Rotter (Harry Potter) and his friends "Red" (Ron) and "Morpione" note : The name "Morpione" is a pun on "morpion", means "crab louse" in French, the show's original language (Hermione) who go to a wizard school and face off against the evil dark wizard "Voldemob" (Voldemort), who murdered Happy's parents when he was a baby. - The Bob Clampett directed Looney Tunes short "A Tale of Two Kitties" featured the feline comedy duo of "Babitt" and "Catstello", a clear and unmistakable parody of the decidedly more human comedy duo Abbott and Costello. - And an episode of the Bob Clampett cartoo-oon *Beany and Cecil* featured the singing Dinah Saur (who was, of course, a dinosaur as well as a parody of Dinah Shore). As a Parental Bonus, she lived on No Bikini Atoll. - The children's series *Arthur* parodies a lot of kids' TV and toy crazes, almost every time one pops up. Some examples are "Dukemon" (possibly "Pukemon" because Pikachu was renamed Stinkachu), "Polly Locket" (a doll with a storage compartment in her face), "Henry Screever," and "Vegimorphs;" not to mention, TV series like "The Dark Bunny" and "Spooky-Poo." - *Stroker and Hoop*: **C.A.R.R.:** "On Dashiell, on Danzig, on Randolph, on Blitzkrieg, on other non-copyrighted names!" - CARR itself is probably a parody of KITT, which twice featured an Evil Twin of the Trans-Am named K.A.R.R.. This doubles as Viewers Are Geniuses since CARR is a sociopath. - *Darkwing Duck*: One minor villain's name, Taurus Bullba, was a Shout-Out to the novel and film *Taras Bulba*. - The name of another villain, Tuskernini, is a parody of conductor Arturo Toscanini. - Jay Ward was sued by (now pretty much all-but-forgotten) comedian Durwood Kurby when *Rocky and Bullwinkle* started a story arc involving the mystical hat the Kurwood Derby. **Ward (responding to the suit):** Sue us. Please. We need the publicity! - "Don't Touch That Dial," from *Mighty Mouse The New Adventures*, featured "The Jetstones," "Ringading, Where Are You," "The Adventures of Rocky and Hoodwinkle" and "The Real Gagbusters", among others. - *Special Agent Oso* from Playhouse Disney (now, "Disney Junior") uses a *James Bond* parody for the name of every...single...episode (for example, "Gold Ringer"). - The Beets in *Doug*. Also, a big chunk of the ''Quailman "franchise". And if you look closely, you may discover the Worst Eastern hotel. - *Teamo Supremo* had a few. Possibly the most prominent was teen singing sensation Tiffany Javelins. - Earlier episodes of *South Park* did this, like HBC, Cartoon Central, and Okama Gamesphere. - *Spongebob Squarepants* gave us Dr. Kelp, a parody of the Dr. Pepper drink. - *A Goofy Movie* has Carl's Butt (Carlsbad) Caverns, which Max and Goofy visit on their road trip after Max secretly changes the route. - *Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers* has these aplenty. - Moby-Dick went through numerous parody names, including Dopey Dick ( *Woody Woodpecker*), Dickie Moe ( *Tom & Jerry*), Moby Hick ( *Popeye*) and Moby Richard ( *Beetlejuice*). - A cafe inside a library named 'Starbooks'.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyNames

Parody Sue - TV Tropes The Mary Sue trope is the butt of a lot of jokes, and it's not hard to see why: it's *fun* to make fun of. Who doesn't love to pick apart these indulgent, immortal and blessed Author Avatars? But wouldn't it be even *more* fun to create an intentional Sue and play it for comedy? A Parody Sue intentionally evokes a generic Mary Sue storyline with one of the following resolutions: - The character succeeds and the whole universe ends up falling to her buxom charms, usually being made into her all-encompassing harem, except for maybe one snarky guy who knows exactly how stupid this is. - The character fails, either because there's just too many *other* stock Mary Sues competing for that position or because the other characters see how genuinely shallow and uninteresting the character really is. - The character is perfect in ALMOST every way. The ways she's not perfect affect her life the most. This character can overlap with any of the other Mary Sue types, so long as it's fairly obvious the story is basically a big Take That! at Mary Sue. One good sign of a Parody Sue is when the story points out the Canon Defilement caused by Sue's presence and actions. However, it takes the steady hand of a skilled writer to make this kind of character work, even if they're playing it for laughs. Don't be fooled if somebody claims this is what they were aiming for once they suffer the backlash of their storyline. And of course, just because somebody intends to make their story a hilarious parody doesn't mean they'll actually succeed — sometimes Parody Sue can end up just as tedious as the original. After all, a character that is intentionally poorly-written is still poorly-written. One could argue that it's even worse, considering how bad the character comes across can't be blamed on accident or inexperience. There is also the issue of the mimicry of Sueishness being a little *too* accurate; Poe's Law is a genuine problem with Parody Sues, and it is quite easy to make a Parody so close to a true Mary Sue that it's impossible to distinguish between them. This is especially an issue with outsiders to certain fandoms, more so if that fandom is a common Acceptable Target. Sure, you might see your Parody Sue as a biting criticism of the common wrongdoings in character creation. But a non-fan is going to see, at best, just another Mary Sue, adding directly to the pile that you created your Parody specifically to rail against. See also The Ace, which does much the same thing but with a supporting character - though obviously this character archetype also has *some* drawbacks to their skills. The non-comedic exposure of how someone who seems to be perfect actually isnt often falls under Broken Ace and may lead to a Broken Pedestal for their admirers. The author may choose to create a Parody Sue by having their fictional character create a very obvious Mary Sue character for themselves — if so, this will be a case of Her Codename Was Mary Sue. If you come across a piece of blatant Sueishness in fanfiction and feel the need for some justified cruelty, it can be wiser (or at very least, a whole lot more fun) to assume that it's a parody. If you're right, you're right, and if you're wrong, you've insulted the author far more than any accusation of poor writing ever could. ## Examples: ### Fan Works - *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series* turned Shogo Aoyama, the one-shot movie character in the first *Yu-Gi-Oh!* movie, into a straight parody of this named "Gary Stu". In practice, he was more like the Only Sane Man when it came to everyone's obsession with card games. ("I just don't see the appeal.") He learned. - Lelouch from *Code MENT*. He's a prince who's also related to Death the Kid and Alucard with incredible power and influence over others, gets away with stuff that can only be described as *batshit insane*... and yet he spends most of his time just being a Jerkass, scoring drugs, blowing stuff up, and contributing nothing but menace to society. - His solution to C.C. holding him at gunpoint is to ||attempt suicide, since a dead body can't be harmed by being shot.|| And it gets worse from there. The best bit? He did it in canon, Code MENT just made it look far sillier. - Princess Cadance in *Friendship is Witchcraft* is a Purity Sue and Only Sane Mare in a Crapsack World where such beings have no chance to survive. ||She dies a horrible death at the hooves of the Villain Protagonist, Twilight Sparkle.|| - *Ultra Fast Pony*: - The episode "Now with a Sound Effect" introduces Snuggle Berry, an alicorn Purity Sue. She's the only pony nice enough to attend Rainbow Dash's birthday party, and she wins an award for being such a "cutesy-wootsy cuddlepie". ||Then she gets killed by a rabbit stampede, and a caption assures the audience that it's totally okay that she died.|| - In "Stranger than Fan Fiction", the show's usual writers are indisposed, so Yellow Twilight (no relation to Twilight Sparkle) fills in for them. She writes herself into the story as a Villain Sue, and the twin sister of a popular canon character, to boot. In her script, she defeats Twilight Sparkle in a magic duel (with plenty of romantic subtext), then has a HeelFace Turn and immediately befriends everyone. Her script ends with her flying into space while everyone talks about how awesome she was. - *Dragon Ball Z Abridged* gives us Mr. Popo, who is said to be the ultimate evil force in the series. The heroes are too weak to face him and are terrified of him, Shenron essentially bows down to him, he's the Man Behind the Man with Kami, absorbs the immortal Garlic Jr., can cross into the real world and treats everyone like utter crap. *And the fandom loves him for it!* - The *term* Mary Sue actually comes from Lt. Mary Sue of *A Trekkie's Tale*, a parody of Sues in *Star Trek*. - *The Vampoife Dood Who Lifed* Mega Crossover story famously parodies the Mary Sue trope, with a heavy dose of snarkiness. - The main characters of anything by Squirrelking of *Half-Life: Full Life Consequences* fame. They are always the brother or son of the canonical protagonist and usually ridiculously overpowered. However, as the fics ended up being written intentionally-badly by Mortimer, it's obvious in hindsight that they were meant to be taken as seriously as a duck taped to a lemon. - The *Knights of the Old Republic* fic *Marisu Saves the Day* neatly skewers the tendency for fanfic writers to make female Revan into a Mary Sue. (Note the character's first name.) - *Arwen, the Warrior Babe* takes to a ludicrous extreme the Action Girl change that some feared the movie version of *The Lord of the Rings* would bring. - *The Game of the Gods* has not one but **thirty** *Lord of the Rings* Parody Sues, all of whom meet their end via the invoking of Logic. And it's pretty darn funny. - Don't Let A Mary Sue Into Titans' Tower A *Teen Titans* fic that hilariously parodies traditional Mary Sues, with the titular Mary Sue (who has the required super-long, super-stupid name) being incredibly lame and all the Titans trying to get rid of her but being unable to. - Sakura-Rose Sunblossom Orange Juice Annie-Marie McFate, who is part of an entire subspecies of Gutless called Mary Sues. In the same set of chapters, there's also Xuxastell (a parody Relationship Sue) and Jeffx (Totally Not Sephiroth), who later evolves into **JEFFIROTH** who is so badass, his font is bolded. - Maridah Sumaya, a parody of bad *Aladdin: The Series* fanfic (especially Mozenrath fanfic). ||It ends with Mozenrath absorbing some of her power and using it to take over Agrabah.|| - *Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores,* a parody of *Transformers* fanfiction with all the usual: twins of opposite factions with awe-inspiring powers who refuse to fight, forcing (almost) everyone to fall in love with them, freaking out and accusing others of being sexist for little remarks, and even making characters that don't fit right into "their" world vanish. Followed by *Return of the 50 Foot Eyesores,* which revives them and adds a mysterious long-lost sibling with a mysterious dark lover, and also turns Megatron into a Canon Sue on purpose who immediately makes Starscream fall in love with him. - The whole point of the *Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society* is to get rid of such Parody Sues (because none of the authors want to pick on a real life Sue and incur wrath of the Sue's author). Some of the Society agents themselves are Parody Sues. - *JUST THE BEST MARY SUE, EVER!* is possibly the jewel of this trope in the fandom for *The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen*. The author, Bamfwriter, deliberately set out to create a character about whom she could answer "yes" to every question on the LXG Mary Sue Litmus Test. The entire first chapter is little more than a description of her improbable beauty. The rest of the story includes a lot of sex (including a five-way), some swearing, two characters coming back from the dead, and a cameo by Harry Potter. note : This is now Hilarious in Hindsight given what Harry turns out to be in *Century* - There exists a tiny sub-genre of stories wherein the characters of a series find and read a Suefic. Results vary by author, but are usually hilarious as the canon characters attempt to explain what the hell is happening. One of the most famous may be *Never Leave Fanfiction Lying Around*, where the characters from *Lord of the Rings* read a Mary-Sue Legomance, Legolas included. Hilarity Ensues. - *At World's End* is not a comedy, but it *does* have the character Don James, who is introduced in chapter eight and appears to be a Marty Stu, until ||he dies at the end of the chapter,|| and then at the very beginning of the *next* chapter it's revealed that ||he's been a traitor the entire time,|| and later on it is revealed that the reason for this is that ||he was actually *driven to madness by his own Marty-Stuness!*|| Though it doesn't say that last bit in as many words, obviously. - *John Su's "My First Fanfic"* is the ultimate example of Parody Sue. Don't look directly into the Man Wave. - *Latias' Journey* portrays "Berry Stoo" and "Mariah Susanson" as darkly humorous Humanoid Abominations. - More specifically: ||they are, during the Tournament Arc, revealed to be another hideous result of the Big Bad residual evil; a Team Rocket experiment with human and Pokemon psychics that involved a piece of the shattered crystal core of the Big Bad backfired, killing the psychics horribly, and in their dying moments, the psychic backlash was pulled together by the crystal and created Mariah Susanson, who became a Reality Warper and was influenced by her combined psyche's desires and wish fulfillment fantasies. Barry Stu was a random guy she tore the soul out of and remade to fit her desires; when the first Stu was defeated in a battle, she destroyed him and turned his opponent into her next Stu, and so and so forth. In other words, a more twisted take on the Sue problem.|| - A story arc in *Invader Zim: The Series* (a fanfic adaptation of *Invader Zim*) involves a group of these, the leader of whom is named Sue, and murders Jhonen Vasquez for the cancellation of the original series, then becomes the girlfriend of Nick Grey (an admitted Fixer Sue) after his old girlfriend leaves him. During this, she also assists both Dib and Zim from behind the scenes, using her assistance to partly brainwash them into loving her to some extent. This leads to the two becoming vampires through having them eat something during the process of becoming vampires. Naturally, Zim and Dib become vampires that feed on Chinese food and corn, respectively, as well as taking on mutations related to what they feed on. After this, she reveals to Nick that her full name is Relationship Sue, a half-Irken, half-human with the power to draw an infinite amount of guns out of thin air, and that she plans to enslave Zim so that the two can conquer the universe as king and queen. She then kills him. This ultimately leads to an epic battle between the Sues and Zim, Dib, Gaz, GIR, Johnny C, and White, which concludes with Gaz crushing Relationship Sue to death with a monster truck. - And she still comes back later on, becoming a recurring villain onwards to the end of the story. In one chapter, Zim uses some of her DNA to create a date for the school dance, for some reason mixing it with Dib's DNA. Said date has huge "tracts of land", and it's pointed out that Zim is so enamored with her that he starts acting completely out of character to impress her. Then she becomes so obsessed with him that she tries to kill him to keep him, at which point Zim begs Gaz and White for help in dealing with her, which leads to her being killed by Gaz and flushed down a toilet. - In the *Ouran High School Host Club* story *Too Perfect to Be True*, the canon characters plead with the audience to stop replacing their beloved Haruhi with Mary Sues. - *Nine Men and a Little Lady* by Kielle neatly skewers *The Lord of the Rings* Sues. **Galadriel's Journal ** Lothlórien, February 15, 3019 Today the Fellowship moves on. A great evil passes from my domain, and a vast dank shadow lifts from the hearts of my people. Oh, and the One Ring is leaving, too. - Perfectua Bellenina, star of a grotesquely exaggerated *Star Wars* Suefic that the canon characters themselves are unlucky enough to stumble upon... - A brief but delicious *The Order of the Stick* Parody Sue fic, from the Crack Pairings thread at the Giant in the Playground forums: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7748704#post7748704 - The spectacular adventures of Miz, Bid and Rig! Now with Zag! Parodied Relationship Sues for everyone! - Danielle in *Total Drama Chris*. She may be considered more of an Anti-Sue than a proper Parody Sue. - Chapter 4 of *Though a Bird Can't Fly, That Doesn't Mean It Never Will* (a *One Piece* Alternate Universe Fic in which Kuina survived her accident but was instead left blind) features Kitty Raven the Hunter, a Loony Fangirl of Captain Kuro whose exaggerated opinion of her own charm and skill leads to Kuro sending her on a fools' errand to take out Captain Morgan... and also leads to Kitty getting her ass handed to her by Kuina, who by this point has been developing into a Distaff Counterpart of Zatoichi. - The *Pokémon* fanfictions ''Gash, or, There Once Was a Beautiful Young Pokémon Trainer Called Gash'' and *Kanto Quest* by Darkblade701 feature these characters. - Deconstructed in *Be The Seadweller Lowblood* with Hakuba Dahaag. She's graceful and beautiful and mysterious and graceful and a Rainbow Drinker, and was first introduced during a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. However, the other characters see fully well how creepy and annoying her mannerisms are, despite not being too much different from some real Mary Sues. - *Never Leave Fanfiction Lying Around* features two Parody-Sues, Starr and Celeste. It uses the real characters reading the fiction the parody-sues are in as a framing device. Hilarity and pain ensue. - *Mary Mary? Quite Contrary!* starts as an advice guide to avoid making a Mary Sue. Then in Chapter 14, it becomes an actual story featuring a rather blatant Mary Sue, who is even *aware* that she is a Mary Sue (named Christiana Sophia Maysalee Thomas). More recently, there's Dark, who is a parody of the kind of Villain Sue commonly found in *Fullmetal Alchemist* fanfiction. - The *Harry Potter* fic *Sapphire Eleanor Rose Suzette de Mont vs Canon* has, well, Sapphire Eleanor Rose Suzette de Mont. The prequel, *Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way vs Canon* did this as well, parodying the hell out of *My Immortal*. - *¡Quiero ser una Mary Sue!* ( *I want to be a Mary Sue!*) is a *Naruto* Spanish fanfiction about a real world girl who is suddenly teleported into Naruto's world. As she has been reading a lot of fanfiction she thinks she can manage this new world and become a Sue pretty easy. She quickly sees she's wrong, Hilarity Ensues. It also plays a lot with the Mary Sue traits as the main character aspiration. Sadly, it's incomplete and we don't know if the author is going to continue it. Really funny and sarcastic. - In one *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* fanfiction, Pinkie Pie (whom the fanon holds is a Fourth-Wall Observer) tries to alert her friends to the creation of two Type 1 Parody Sue ponies at the same time. Hilarity Ensues. - A oneshot fic in, of all things, *The Addams Family* fandom (oh yes, there is one) parodies the in-fandom tendency towards Sues. The full name of the character in question? "Lilac Ellisia Veronica Dr. Sparkles Mars Willow Rosalie Isabella Mimi Maureen Sookie J-Woww Leprechaun Fairy Wendla Cosette Ilse Faberry Glenn Coco Amy Lee Galinda (with a GA) Lucy Zoomba Fonteeso Mario Lita Rogers T-Swizzie Hermione Christine Bartok the Magnificent Streeper Cordelia Barbie Debris Meyer Way-Addams." She tries to seduce Wednesday, despite being her cousin, later decides the latter's fiance Lucas is more appealing, and eventually is destroyed by the family's pet squid. - Author ShakespeareHemmingway has written a series of stories in which an over the top Marty Stu comes to the aid of the British royal family, fights Nazis, and seduces the ladies. His name: Garfield. - Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from the infamous *Harry Potter* fanfic *My Immortal* *might* be one (despite inspiring quite a few Parody Sues mentioned on this very page), but we may never know for sure. - This fanfic gives us Raven Tw'light-Moon, who is the best at everything and everypony loves her the moment they see her...except Twilight, who is protected by her cynical personality. In the end its revealed that ||she's an Eldritch Abomination called a Mare E. Sue who grows stronger by carrying out the general Mary Sue role and her goal is to become strong enough to Take Over the World. Her one weakness is criticism, so Pinkie takes Twilight beyond the Fourth Wall to do an MST of the fanfic, criticizing and deconstructing every way in which Raven is a Mary Sue until she finally loses it, destroying her in the process. Unfortunately, a Mare T. Stu shows up in the end.|| - The prototypical *My Little Pony Mary* Sue is a black-and-red alicorn with great magical powers. *The Saga of Dark Demon King Ravenblood Nightblade, Interior Design Alicorn* features a super-powered black-and-red alicorn who is always distracted from the crisis at hand by his delusion that he is a master interior decorator, while his unremarkable gay lover solves the crisis. - *The Life and Times of Firecat* drops a Parody Sue into the G.I. Joe universe. - The *Pony POV Series*: - According to Word of God, General-Admiral Makarov — the Big Bad of Shining Armor's side story — is a parody of the Villain Sue. It kind of shows in his full name (Supreme Marshal of the Imperial Armed Forces, General-Admiral Solomon Azure Raven Makarov) and some of his traits, as well as his tendency to claim his back up plans were his plan on all along so he can act like he didn't really lose at all. ||He turns out to be a Reality Warper and Equineoid Abomination called the Shadow of Chernobull, which was created by Pandora (the Draconequi of Imagination) to be a creature of her realm that could retain its fantastic traits in the real world and sealed away in her Box until a Hooviet experiment set it loose. The reason she imprisoned it in the first place because it turned into a Black Hole Sue and attempted to become the hero of *every* story in existence.|| - It turns out Makarov is not unique in the sense of being this: 'insertions' created by inexperienced Shadows Who Make are classic Mary Sues with similar abilities to Makarov and potentially devastating results for the universe. However, the difference is these insertions are often devoured near instantly upon entering the universe by the Blank Wolf, who swiftly erases whatever damage they caused, making it a Mary-Sue Hunter. Makarov shows what happens when such a creature is not swiftly annihilated by the Blank Wolf ||and slipped through the cracks under being Pandora's creation and thus initially avoiding being found by the Wolf. Once it *does* find him it swiftly puts an end to him|| - The *Harry Potter* fanfic *Stranger than Mary Sue Fiction* is a comedy story from the POV of Draco Malfoy with Blaise as his best friend in which he's haunted by the voice of a narrator, a la Stranger than fiction, but his narrator is a Mary Sue. It deconstructs some of the common traits of Harry Potter Sues, but without being an out and out parody. - *Happy Endings* is a *Harry Potter* fanfic that pits a newly resurrected Severus Snape against Andromeda Merlina Francesca Tiffany Morningstar Brighteyes, a Sue who undid many of the tragic events of books 6 and 7 to write her own happy ending. - *My Metal*, a *My Immortal* Heavy Metal parody by Monica Gilbey Bieber features a Gary Stu named Rainblood Öystein Cross Vülture White. - *The Human Whose Name Is Written In This Fanfiction* has Yumi Toyota Nintendo Sushi-Fuji, "A Tragic OC who becomes a slut." - Electra note : Rozelyn Sakura Belladonna Tokasha Emiya Brunestud Tono Nanaya Einzbern Pendragon, a recurring character in the MST series *Jake English's Mysterious Theater of Scientific Romance from the Year 3000*. She's implied to be just a crazy girl whose deluded herself into thinking she's the daughter of Saber and Gilgamesh from the future. - In *Perfection Is Overrated*, the cast goes up against the SUEs, a group of girls with powers similar to the Himes, who represent various Mary Sue archetypes and effects on the plot. In the former, Mariko Suou is a girl with the ability to make everyone fall in love with her immediately after meeting them. In the latter, Shizune's powers make those of everyone in the vicinity much weaker, about how Mary Sues are typically overpowered and overshadow the canon characters. The fic explores whether the SUEs can win against the Himes without Plot Armor. They ultimately don't, for a variety of reasons. - In *Harry Potter and the Something Something* the most perfect girl ever appears in Voldemort's lair offering him a shot at redemption. Voldemort is entranced by her pretty eyes... ||the Sue ends up dead like all the other sues that keep showing up on Voldemort's doorstep but Voldemort kept her pretty eyes to play with.|| - In *The Sue Rules*, a *Mortal Kombat* fanfic, a Mary Sue was created to eliminate Scorpion with his own elements. The Mary Sue is basically poked at, and Kitana and Kung Lao set out to find her, only to have several Mary Sues fall for the latter, including Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. - It also teaches you (step by step) how to make a Mary Sue and how to obliterate canon with them. - The *Transformers* fanfic *The Recruitment Office* features an assortment of Transformer fan characters (some author creations, others belonging to friends and used with permission) attempting to pass a rigorous test to determine if they're Mary Sues. All is going fairly well until a genuine over-the-top Sue, Titania Prime, waltzes in... and Hilarity Ensues. - In the *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* fanfic "Fanfic Is Crapsack" a Gary Stu makes a (very) brief appearance in Twilight Sparkle's library and attempts to seduce her. She ||blasts him, sending his *flaming severed head* rocketing out of her upstairs window.|| - ''My Little OPony: Twilight Is Magic'' is a story where Twilight Sparkle (the main protagonist of *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*) is a perfect Mary Sue: she's flawless, she solves almost every problem by herself, everypony loves her, and she's a princess from the very beginning. (To add a little more conflict, Rarity later turns out to be an evil vampire who steals her princesshood and brainwashes other ponies into obeying her, as well as making them think that Twilight isn't as pretty as Rarity.) While the writing is proper, the story reads as though the author used the Mary Sue Litmus Test as a checklist. - "Mister Black" in *Make a Wish*. The Wizarding World sees him as a godlike immortal Chick Magnet super-wizard, when he's really Harry Potter using an illusion and an alias. Most of Mister Black's feats are thanks to coincidences, ||a family of Seers providing him useful tools and advice||, and people misinterpreting Harry's words and deeds based on his previous "accomplishments". Then Harry finds out about Mister Black's new reputation and nearly exhausts himself trying to live up to it. - *Kindred Spirits*, an AU of *Pokémon: The First Movie*, features Amber Juniper, who has quite a few Mary Sue traits. Possesses the same first name as the author? Check. Has a team of powerful and exotic note : all from Unova, in a fic set during the first movie Pokémon? Check. Has some of Mew's abilities? Check. Befriends the protagonists immediately? Check. Contributes nothing to the story, but simply provides an excuse for the author to rewrite canon scenes (though with her receiving a single line every so often so the readers don't forget about her)? Check. Lasts longer in battle than anyone else? Check. Literally does not have a father? Check. Her very presence causes Mewtwo to want to get to know her better? *Check.* ...But the reason for all of this is because Amber isn't actually an OC, but Amber Fuji, a minor character who dies in the first ten minutes of the movie (who never met the heroes in canon). She only uses Mew's powers once, to save her life when her clone body fails the way it does in canon, and forgets everything that she experienced while a clone, including the psychic powers. Her presence on New Island does make things change... for the worse, as Mewtwo's obsession with her causes him to throw everyone else in the dungeon while he tries to learn more about her, thereby deconstructing what usually happens with Sues who exist to redeem the villain. - *Consequences of Unoriginality* is a *My Little Pony* fanfic based upon the premise of someone being forced to be a Gary Stu—and then takes every single thing associated the Mary Sue concept and points out how absolutely horrifying they would all be in-universe. And then he becomes a normal pony, but the rest of Equestria remembers their minds being twisted into loving him. - *Say It Ain't Sue!* is the story of Best pony, a pink alicorn who's friends with/related to all of the Mane Six, excellent at everything, and loved by all. Except... not. Everypony knows that she's a delusional fake who literally came into existence a short while ago, isn't connected to them in any way, and is utterly inept at practically anything she tries, despite being convinced of the opposite. She's treated with pity more than anything. ||She ultimately realizes this and sets out to start a new life as a proper pony.|| - In *Why Everyone Hates Starshine Perfection*, the Equestria Girls (minus Twilight) find a story starring one of these — the titular Starshine Perfection. She's dressed in pink, white, and rainbow colors, she automatically befriends the girls (except Rarity, who got the Ron the Death Eater treatment) and they become little more than plot devices (minus Sunset, whose main personality trait is to cry a lot), her half-pony form is an Alicorn, and she's dating Ben Tennyson, which isn't explained. Nobody likes her. *Especially* not Rarity. - Sue Mary, a Troll Fic author, was originally conceived as a Parody Sue, featured in a *Danny Phantom* fanfic that is no longer available, named *Oh Gosh No! Not Another Oh Gosh No! Story!*. - *Touken Ranbu* fic *You Are My Sunshine* features Nikkō Ichimonji, a Yamato Nadeshiko Bishōnen sword who has the saniwa falling in love with him at first sight and causes others to "willingly go OOC just for him without even knowing it until it was too late" (yes, that's a direct quote) by *smiling*. Most of the plot entails Tsurumaru, Hasebe and Nansen teaming up to make him look bad. ||Out of all the Sue traits he has, his desire to be treated like a normal sword is *not* played for any laughs.|| - In the *FusionFall* fanfic *Let Me Tell You Something*, the B-plot centers around a group of three female (and one male) EFC troopers who steal Ben's hoverboard. Said troopers (named Moondove Glowwwyrm, Rose Raven, Ruthinia Bludrayne, and Ryuusetto Marumoto Akahito Fireant) all claim to be super close to Bensaid claims ranging from "best friend" to "we're getting married"and that he gave them the hoverboard of his own free will. Much to Dexter's surprise and horror, once the four find out what state Ben's in at the moment, sole male Fireant is the one who starts acting uber-sappy and concerned over his well-being. - The *Animaniacs* fanfic *A Horrible World of Plot Holes and Spelling Errors* has the Warner siblings deal with *four* different Sue variations: a fourth Warner sibling that appears out of nowhere, two Relationship Sues (one human, one of the same species as the Warners) who fight over Yakko, and a pedophile who can't understand *why* that's a bad thing. Of the four, the Relationship Sues are Played for Laughs the most, the sister Sue has the worst spelling and ends up being the most sympathetic, and the pedophile turns out to be the worst of the bunch when ||he tries to rape Dot, believing he's in a story where adults having sex with kids is perfectly acceptable — fortunately, Yakko and Wakko intervene before he can do anything. Ultimately, that turns out to be the last straw for the siblings, who promptly threaten the author to get rid of the Sues. She complies, and the Sues end up getting crushed by the Satellite of Love.|| - In the *Supernatural* fic *The Angelic Mary Sue*, Castiel — who is an angel not overly familiar with humanity — concludes after doing some online research that if he makes himself into a "Mary Sue", he'll be able to win Dean's heart. This fails hilariously with his attempts to give himself Common Mary Sue Traits like clumsiness, color-changing eyes, and great beauty only weirding Dean out with his bizarre behavior of suddenly tripping over things, wearing freaky-looking contact lenses, and putting on makeup. When Dean finally learns what Castiel has been trying to do, he tells Castiel that most people actually hate Mary Sues and Castiel doesn't need to try to change himself to get Dean to love him. - An example that defies classification: There was a German radio drama series with fanfictions parodying fairy tales. One was about the sufferings of an ugly punkling ("punk" as in the music/life style). It ended with Kim Wilde crashing the scene, blinding the punkettes with her beauty and dragging him off to pop music ever after. - *Mhairie Sioux Escrivain and the Dracula of Hogwarts* is an Interactive Fiction game where you play as a Mhairie Sioux in the *Harry Potter* world who's half-unicorn, has a faerie dragon as a pet, is so speshul that she becomes a member of *all* four Hogwarts houses at once, gets Harry and Draco to moon over her, *and* saves the entire school from Dracula by being so pure that drinking her blood causes the vampire to reform on the spot. In case you haven't figured out by now, this game is not meant to be taken seriously in the slightest. - From the *Friday Night Funkin'* mod *VS Sky*, Sky herself can count as this. Her design makes her a Distaff Counterpart to Boyfriend, minus her purple eyes. She is a reality warper who has a (unrequited) crush on Boyfriend and wants to be with him by any means necessary, despite the fact he already has a girlfriend (named, well, Girlfriend). She is also meant to be a parody of people who make Mary Sue-like OCs and ship them with canon characters. - The flash cartoon *Most Original Sonic Fanfic Evr* features several of these. - The Silly Filly Studios cartoon The Adventures of Donut Steel has one. Named Donut Steel. - *If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device*: - the Ultramarines are portrayed as overly polite and honorable and *ludicrously effective* at everything they do. Even so, the Emperor still thinks they are "a stupid fucking smurf village", and even their own Chapter Master is sick and tired of their perfectness. ||It's been all but said that the Ultramarines are getting help from outside forces; whatever's going on, the Chapter Master knows and feels really guilty.|| - Sly Marbo, an Imperial Guardsman and Rambo expy becomes a maybe even bigger example of this trope than the *Ultramarines* in one of the shorts he flies across space unshielded and singlehandedly frees a planet from the Dark Eldar in the most over-the-top manner - beating his enemies with their own *subtitles*. Also, his only vocalization is the scream from the Dawn of War trailer. - Kaldor Draigo is a deconstruction of this trope. His canon incarnation has often been criticized for his Incorruptible Pure Pureness that renders him capable of surviving the Warp for untold years. However, being trapped in the Warp for so long made Draigo turn completely nuts. His combat prowess is just as ridiculous though, as he beats up a furious Daemon Primarch in a matter of *milliseconds* before anyone can notice. They two actually converge, in an odd manner: The Warp allows for Clap Your Hands If You Believe, and since Draigo is too fucking crazy to ever doubt his own prowess, and also believes he's as skilled as in canon, it becomes true. - From the *Homestuck* fandom in general, the Build-A-Mary-Sue thread on the MSPA forums is dedicated to coming up with as over-the-top Suish characters as possible. - *Bite Me!*: The reveal of ||Claire's backstory ||probably makes her this. - *xkcd*: Gnome Ann from strip #1704. Take every quote with "no man" in them, replace "no man" with "Gnome Ann", and you get what Gnome Ann is like. "Time and tide wait for Gnome Ann." "The wicked flee when Gnome Ann pursueth." "Time ripens all things; Gnome Ann is born wise." ### Canon - Nabeshin, the Author Avatar of director Shinichi Watanabe from *Excel♡Saga*, *Puni Puni Poemi*, and *Nerima Daikon Brothers* who even has his own ongoing B-Plot in the former. Not that these shows take themselves seriously anyway.... - The eponymous character from *Hayate the Combat Butler* skirts this. He's fast, near-perfect in all regards, liked by almost every major female character who meets him (though he doesn't really understand how to return their love), but is counterbalanced by the fact that the universe loves to screw around with him. He also seems a little Book Dumb, especially compared to a Teen Genius like Maria and Nagi. - Ditto Hinagiku Katsura, the 15-years-old Student Council President and fencing expert, who's also fallen in love with the hero ||and in later manga chapters, is revealed to have a home life and past that's almost as screwed up as Hayate||'s. Some tropers have once remarked that Hina "has Mary Sue written all over her, in several languages, with glowy marker". Even her character description in the manga is extra-flowery compared to the other characters. She *is* rather popular in the real world, though, so... - She gets an ending theme all to herself, too. Hinagiku is *definitely* a Parody Sue... And is loved because of it! - Punie from *Magical Witch Punie-chan* would most certainly be a normal Mary Sue under most circumstances: she's cute, strong, has magical powers, and everyone loves her. It's just that little bit about ||being truly and disturbingly evil, complete with a Stepford smile, to the point where even her adorable mascot Paya-tan is out to kill her.|| - ||Then again, Paya-tan is a dick too, not to mention a Vietnam veteran and a Yakuza boss.|| - From *Dragon Half* comes Princess Vena, daughter to the king, with the obligatory tragic backstory, she's only half human, and gains Nigh-Invulnerability because of that, she's a master black mage, with the ability to create golems and use powerful spells, She's the main heroine's romantic rival for Saucer, and she's pretty on top of that. She even has a *freaking pair of servants who follow her around and sing her praises whenever she tells them*. She is even *called* "The Perfect Princess". However, her non-human half is *slime*, and the only reason she doesn't look exactly like a slime is because she uses a polymorph spell to keep a human shape, and although she won't *die* from say, a sword in the chest, she'll turn back into a slime. She and her father hate each other, and this has been to their detriment in fighting Mink. Her bitchy behavior is not excused, and she's pretty weak by the standards of the story, mostly being thought of as a nuisance. Saucer doesn't really care for her, and when she expositioned her tragic backstory, giving her some chance of being sympathetic, she immediately followed it up with "Surely for a super beautiful girl like me, burdened by a tragic past, Saucer is the right man!" Yeah. - Miko Shirogane/Shirogane Z from *Powerpuff Girls Z* is a *Villain Sue* parody, being multi-talented in many areas and forms a plan that successfully humiliates the Powerpuff Girls. And she does this all in an over-the-top fashion. - Medaka from *Medaka Box*. As a freshman in high school, she becomes the Student Council President with 98% of the vote... and single-handedly executes the duties of the entire student council, with some help from her childhood friend. She's absurdly rich, trained to near- *Naruto* levels of martial arts (everyone else is pretty much normal), is a master of deductive reasoning, and that's just for starters. She's also *completely* out of touch with normal people: she once ran a tutoring session for an entire class that consisted of tips on how to make sure your handwriting was clear enough, because she couldn't conceive of actually getting a wrong answer that wasn't because of a handwriting mistake. (Things like this cause her childhood friend to remark, at one point, "She's so smart that she's come back around to stupid.") - The series actually exaggerates this — being a Sue is *a genuine superpower* (called being an abnormal), and the school is part of a government program to artificially create Mary Sues. The way they test if someone's an Abnormal? They have them roll a cup of dice — Abnormals get all 6s. When they have Medaka do it *her dice make a tower on the table*. Medaka is so Sueish that *she's more sueish than the sues*. - This continues to be played with as the series goes forward — dealing with the "Minuses" takes up the biggest arc so far, which are God Mode **Anti-Sue** characters with psychotic (negative, or *minus*) personality traits. (The standard Mary Sue characters are called "Pluses.") A later arc has two "Not Equal" characters show up, which are heavily insinuated to be so far beyond human mentalities that they're actually of Eldritch Abomination level of psychosis and power — the main one shown so far has been clocked at having over 13 **quadrillion** various superpowers (normal Abnormals get *one*). Worse, they're Medium Aware — they're waiting out the main character and her True Companions, as they'll graduate in a few years and thus not be there to stop their plans; they know to do this because they know they're in a *Shonen Jump* manga and the hero always wins in *Shonen Jump*, even against impossible odds. - ||Most of them lose their Sue-ish traits and powers after growing up, becoming (mostly) normal adults.|| - Haruhi Suzumiya has probably become the definitive deconstruction/parody of the God-Mode Sue in Anime. She's brilliant and gets top grades without having to study (though also prone to doing stupid things regularly), she's noted to be stunningly beautiful, she's also in incredible physical shape (having in a short period of time been in, quickly excelling, and gotten bored with, every school athletic club, who are pining to have her back), and an entire organization exists with the sole purpose of keeping her happy and making sure that she never loses at anything (because they are afraid of her). She is also ||a *literal* God Mode Sue.|| In fact, she only doesn't count as being a Mary Sue because she's ||totally disillusioned with reality due to her childhood|| and faced with a completely unflappable Deadpan Snarker. There's also the fact that her ||"literal" God Mode|| is a direct *obstacle* to one of her main goals — to experience the supernatural; much of the series involves the others running around trying to keep her in the dark. Her presence also makes their lives of the club members, as well as many others, harder instead of better, with no actual upside. It also really complicates her relationship with Kyon. She'd probably be mortified if she knew that Kyon can effectively read her mind at times based on ||what her reality warping powers do||. - Not to mention Jerk Sue. She only gets away with as much stuff as she does because no one wants to cause The End of the World as We Know It. - Though Kyon isn't afraid to call her out on it, even coming dangerously close to hitting her when she goes particularly over-the-line at one point. - The most powerful weapon in *Soul Eater* is Excalibur, a sword that can turn any Meister into one of the greatest meisters of all time (a loser meister uses it to defeat three of the top students). He's also really obnoxious, has 1,000 provisions that a person must follow, calls everyone a fool, and constantly talks about how awesome he is. The result is that no one can actually stand him enough to use him. - *D-Frag!* presents us Funabori, an adorable little tenth-grader who is also a good cook and housewife... who is forced to bear with being the object of worship as well as the general insanity of her schoolmates (save Kenji, the only person who often repays her kindness). - A story arc of *Gintama* focuses on Gintoki being replaced by a fellow named Kintoki Sakata, who's essentially him, but without any of his negative qualities (His natural perm being considered one of them), gold hair, and the black and white of his outfit being inverted. He turns out to be a robot who was created to be a substitute for him whenever he wasn't around, but he decided he'd rather take over his life completely by brainwashing everyone into thinking he was him with hypnotic radio waves (Save for Tama and Sadaharu, who were immune due to not being human). Ultimately, it's recalling the flaws that Gintoki had that enables the rest of his friends to snap out of their hypnosis and help him put an end to the problem. - Mako Mankanshoku of *Kill la Kill* has a lot of Common Mary Sue Traits; a quirky, buxom every girl who always manages to defuse dangerous situations, is the first and only friend of the protagonist, is incredibly powerful, and has the odd friendship (later crush) and leniency of the ultra-strict disciplinary committee's chair. The parody? She's also a clueless Genki Girl who seems totally out of touch with reality and generally comes off like more of a bizarrely lucky idiot than The Ace. - *One-Punch Man*: - Saitama, the protagonist, is a parody God-Mode Sue. The title is due to how long it takes him to finish a fight once it finally interests him enough to actually fight back, he's completely invulnerable to harm, all other heroes look like chumps next to him, and he does this all as a minor distraction from his actual job. He's also so powerful his hobby is mind-bendingly boring and actively tries to evade the spotlight since he doesn't feel he deserves it concerning other heroes, who are actually risking their lives. - Saitama's friend and apprentice, Genos, approaches Parody Sue from the other direction. Genos, unlike his bald, average-looking Heterosexual Life-Partner, is a handsome and extremely cool-looking Cyborg with a tendency to brood, a Dark and Troubled Past, and a seemingly endless array of weapons he uses to catapult himself to the S-Class elite heroes almost immediately after he makes his debut. He's also a Butt-Monkey who regularly gets his arms torn off due to his inexperience and recklessness, usually serving as The Comically Serious Worf Barrage to Saitama, who cut Genos off in the middle of his exposition about his past due to its length. - Garou is the latest addition to the series' array of Parody Sues, but is unique in that he's a Parody Villain Sue...Played for Drama. ||Like the "overpowered" kind of Villain Sue, he's a godlike, handsome martial artist known as the Hero Killer who seems to nearly invincible, toying with heroes who barely get near his Super Weight, which increases every fight, and has a ruthlessly intelligent mind that he does not actually use for scheming at all, only outwitting his opponents. Like the "sympathetic" kind, he has a regular Tear Jerker of a Freudian Excuse that justifies all the things he does under the ideology of being one side of the Balance of Good and Evil...because he really didn't do that many bad things to begin with. As Saitama forces him to realize, the very reason he wants to be the Evil side is that he desperately wants the Good side to rise and stop him, uniting humanity and stopping any other children from going what he went through. A desire that, as it turns out, makes his reputation as an overpowered villain somewhat fraudulent-he's genuinely powerful, but has racked up a (human) body count of precisely zero, thus explaining why the heroes he fights somehow manage to always survive (he honestly wants them to live), and while he has killed members of the Monster Association, it wasn't to increase his Villain Cred but to stop them from killing innocents. Ultimately, Garou is what would happen if a Villain Sue was actually as sympathetic as the writer wants the reader to think he is — i.e., a hero in denial that he is a hero.|| - The protagonist of *Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto* is a guy who seems incapable of doing things without stylish flair, thus earning a reputation as The Ace among his classmates. Understandably, his unflappable nature causes other classmates to hate him and try to humiliate, only for him to trump them through being even more ridiculous. - *Rebuild of Evangelion*: Mari Makinami is possibly this as a Take That! and Deconstruction toward a certain type of characters created by the fandom: a brave, cheerful and *sane* protagonist who helps the other Children in saving the day typicallly seen in Evangelion Fix Fic. However, the movies make sure to show us that, just being a cheerful Determinator is not enough to turn the plot into the positive direction, and that a Genki Girl who is a bit too... passionate in ripping apart Angels in the NGE world can come across as very unrealistic and creepy. Even more, her Dissonant Serenity can actually be interpreted as just another kind of mental instability like her fellow Children. - Reinhard van Astrea from *Re:Zero*. He's unquestionably the greatest swordsman in the setting, and is blessed with a miriad of abilities such as super speed, a power boost for every time of day and weather effect, the ability to see in the dark or unhindered by fog, the ability to walk on clouds and water, the guarantee that all attacks will miss him, all magic damage is reduced to only 20% of its normal power, curses can't affect him, he never mixes up salt and sugar, everything he cooks will be delicious no matter what, any clothes he makes will look good, and so on. Not only is he no holds barred the strongest character in the series, as well as the most competent at virtually any other physical task, but the light novels make a point of letting you know how graceful he looks while he does everything as well. He's also explicitly referred to as being handsome in case anyone following the series happens to be blind. His only shortcoming is that he's not good at resolving social conflicts, but he's so gosh darn amicable that he doesn't have to deal with this often. The only thing that keeps him from breaking the story is that he doesn't show up in most arcs. - *The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.*: - Teruhashi is a Sue on the surface — she is so impossibly beautiful men can't help but stutter at her looks, so kind that she is seen as a saint, intelligent enough that schoolwork is no issue, and easily the most popular girl at school. However, when Saiki reads her thoughts, he learns that the whole persona is carefully fabricated; Beneath the Mask, she's fully aware of the many benefits she reaps from her perfect image and is determined to maintain that image at all costs. When Saiki resists her charms, she becomes obsessively fixated on him because of it. - Saiki himself as well, of the Parody God-Mode Sue variety. Despite being the most powerful being in the world, helike Saitama aboveis completely depressed from the tedium and lack of challenge in his life, and while he has the love and admiration of many, he usually sees it as a bother more than anything. - Kobachi Osaragi of *Kaguya-sama: Love Is War*. Originally introduced as Iino's very plain friend, it was later revealed that she's one of the most popular girls in her grade and has a steady stream of boyfriends without even trying. However, the joke is that unlike Stock Shoujo Heroines who claim to be average but are attractive and social enough to get everyone in school to love them, Osaragi really is plain-looking, unremarkable in talent, and dresses frumpily, and her popularity is just as inexplicable to the characters in-universe as it is out of it. - *Osomatsu-san*: - Godmatsu, from his self-titled episode. Made from the collective goodness of the sextuplets, he's kind, helps out his parents, and even gets a job to support the household. The brothers plot to kill him so he can't raise the low standards their parents have of them and force them to do something with their lives. ||Luckily for them, their collective evil is an even bigger Villain Sue and squishes him flat; too bad it's so huge it's a threat to the rest of them all on its own.|| - F6, the sextuplets' Bishōnen counterparts. They're literal School Idols, excel in everything they do, regularly save the world, and equally share the affections of their crush Totoko. One of them is even actually Santa. They were also initially created as part of a larger parody setting to drum up interest in the anime itself, most episodes featuring them also play up how ridiculous they are, and one episode implied their "beloved by all" trait is so enforced that the narrator was scared witless into complying. - Catarina from *My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!*. On the outside, she is a Purity Sue who saves everyone from their inner demons, has a whole harem of rich, attractive men and women, and is called a saint for her kindness. While she does live up to her reputation and genuinely cares for everyone, she's also a dimwitted Genki Girl who thinks that her harem consists of very good friends. For example, when accused of bullying, her friends defend her by saying that she's not just too nice, but too *dumb* to pull off the complicated Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics she was accused of. - Varhram from *Avesta of Black and White* plays this for drama. Throughout the story he is portrayed as a typical God-Mode Sue and Black Hole Sue, someone who accomplished the most insane feats to perfection and who is endlessly popular and well liked to the point that anyone who doesn't is looked at with suspicion or even pity. ||As the story progresses however it is made clear that this popularity is closer to some kind of madness, a Cult of Personality centered entirely around Varhram like a blind religion fueled by pure zealotry. And when the man himself finally makes an appearance it is clear that his perfection have caused him to become detached from humanity, unable to see people as anything more than characters in a book with himself as the reader, free to do with them however he pleases. But underneath all these layers it is revealed that he has been chained by his own perfection, endlessly feeling forced to accomplish greater and more insane feats in order to live up to the outlandish ideals everyone has of him just so that he can feel that he has a reason to exist. More than anything, he just wants to be as flawed as everyone else, tired of the loneliness his perfection has brought him||. - Squirrel Girl is canonically the most powerful character in the Marvel Universe. The fact that her powers relate to *talking to squirrels* makes the parody aspects of this all the more obvious. - *Ultimate X-Men* had the character of Elliot Boggs, a.k.a. the Magician, who was brought to Professor X after accidentally killing his parents when his powers manifested, at which point he is promptly invited to join the X-Men, defeats the Blob in front of reporters causing the media to embrace the X-Men for the first time, starts dating Shadowcat, and even singlehandedly takes down a group of attackers that had already beaten the rest of the X-Men. Eventually it is revealed that he actually has vaguely-defined reality-altering powers that he'd been subconsciously using since they manifested to make all of this happen. Once he realizes that his powers are shaping the world and the people in it into what he wants, he fakes his own death while acting like a villain so that nobody would come after him or feel bad about his death. He vanishes after saying goodbye to Kitty, then wiping her memory of it, remarking that he'll be staying somewhere extremely remote until he can control his powers, like Antarctica. Apparently omnipotence isn't so great when you can't control it. - The DC Comics universe has the legendary Rex the Wonder Dog. He's a decorated veteran World War II experimental supersoldier. He's an investigative journalist. He can drive vehicles. He can speak every language that exists, has eternal youth, and has ill-defined magical powers. He once nuked a T. rex. He almost certainly knows more than Batman and Mr. Terrific combined. He's also a dog, who gained the ability to talk *after* he had already accomplished most of his impressive stuff. - DC also has Lobo, who is sometimes a Parody Sue by way of being an overpowered parody of hyper-masculine '90s Anti-Hero characters during their peak time period. His accomplishments includes getting kicked out of heaven and hell (becoming immortal), fighting toe-to-toe with Superman, genociding his entire race and Santa Claus too, and wadding up and eating an entire city that ticked him off. His sense of smell lets him track *across space*, and he's genius with any science involved in making weapons. On the other hand, his powers run on Rule of Funny mixed with Unstoppable Rage, so sometimes he's chumped *hard* instead. - Henrietta Hunter in *X-Statix*, a world-renowned mutant pop star and philanthropist with a tragic past and a constantly-chipper demeanor, who due to her fame is instantly made leader of the team once she joins despite having absolutely no qualifications. She's so annoyingly-perfect that the other team members actively start *trying* to get her killed on missions. - *Transformers: More than Meets the Eye*: Thunderclash, who is nice, sociable, well-read, polite and considerate, dashingly heroic, incredibly smart, A Father to His Men, and almost terminally selfless. In other words, everything Rodimus isn't (and both he and Getaway are hilariously salty about it). Even the Matrix of Leadership likes him better than it does Optimus Prime, and even in *Transformers: Last Bot Standing*, a comic set an incredibly long time after *any* Transformers continuity, the Visitors - who have been surviving on Human Resources for so long that half of them barely remember that there *was* a war, let alone what it was about or who led the sides - still remember who Thunderclash was. Comparisons to Ace Rimmer by the fans came pretty quickly. This was also something of an oblique reference to his old bio, which gave him nothing but 9's and 10's in his stats and contained lines like "Commands the instant respect and loyalty of every Autobot" and "just his fearless presence on the battle field quells any Decepticon fightback." - The infamous "His Code Name Was The Fox" arc in *FoxTrot*, where Roger Fox wrote an abominable novel that cast himself as a generic Tuxedo and Martini superspy. You can read it starting here (although the arc it's a part of starts earlier). Created its own trope. - Another example is Andy's mother, who's so amazing that the *New York Times* said she was perfect and Martha Stewart has literally been begging her to share her recipes. The first storyline to feature her actually deals with the long-standing inferiority complex Andy developed from living in the shadow of such a perfect person, and they end up having a serious heart-to-heart that helps smooth things out (at least until a later plotline where Andy seemingly developed Aesop Amnesia and those feelings of inferiority returned). - In *Curtis*, the main character's favorite comic book features "Supercaptaincoolman", a superhero who seems able to have every super-power in the book and is almost invincible. (Almost; bad guys in the comic often edge into Villain Sue territory themselves.) - Metroman from *Megamind* is seen as a cocky, handsome, and powerful Expy of Superman. Everyone in the world loves him and there are shrines for him pretty much everywhere. However, the subversion is that he believes that being a Invincible Hero is what's *expected* of him, and his true passion is to be a musician. - *You Don't Mess with the Zohan* has a main character who can do impossible wire-fu martial arts, feels absolutely zero pain, has a massive budgie stuffed down his trousers note : that bulge is revealed about a third into the movie as not his penis, but just a veritable jungle of pubic hair. "The bush! It's like a cushion for them.". All this is played for laughs. Also, he is shown to be attracted mainly to (besides the main romantic interest) old and/or fat women, whom he very loudly bangs after giving them a haircut. - Didier, the French exchange student from *Son of Rambow* is a sexy, young Johnny Depp-lookalike who is so cool that he has two unwanted harems, one of girls, and one of boys. Yet underneath his cool and bored exterior he is just another sweet and innocent pre-teen boy who wants to have fun and make believe with other children his age. It also becomes evident at the end of the film that he's not even remotely popular back home. - The title character of *The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension*. Neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, multi-instrumental rock star and comic book hero — he also saves the human race from an alien invasion effortlessly. And then there are all the Shrouded in Myth moments such as references to his former wife. All of this is very intentionally over-the-top and meant as comedy. - The character was originally not intended as so much of a parody, described as more of a renaissance man by the actor who played him. - The film *Her Alibi* is an overlooked gem for parodying this concept. The main character writes almost nothing but books featuring his Author Avatar, and rewrites events in his life to fit this character, making him look like an over-the-top James Bond. - The French movie *Le Magnifique*, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, uses a very similar concept: an unassertive book writer is famous for writing spy novels which look like James Bond parodies, where he appears as the main character, his overbearing boss as the main villain, the perky girl next door as a fellow spy and love interest, and so on. - In *American Dreamer*, a woman has a concussion and wakes up believing she's a character in her favorite pulp novels: a sort of over-the-top female James Bond. - *Rushmore* begins with Max Fischer dreaming he's popular and can solve an unsolvable math problem. - *Pleasantville* took a subtle jab at this. When the main characters, a brother and sister are transported into a fictional 1950s-era sitcom in which everything is (apparently) perfect, the sister is forced to assume the role of the daughter in the fictional sitcom family, who is, of course, loved by everyone. The name of the character she is forced to become? *Mary Sue*. - Furthermore, it was her who took the initiative in messing up the Sugarbowl Utopia, by introducing them to sex. - Secret agent Derek Flint of *Our Man Flint* is an over-the-top hyper-talented parody of James Bond. - Austin Powers is, like Derek Flint, a Parody Sue of secret agents. - Similarly, Dr. Neil Connery (played by Sean Connery's brother) of *Operation Double 007*. - *Rustlers' Rhapsody*, itself a parody of western films, features the protagonist Rex O'Houlihan, a heroic cowboy with impressive gunslinging skills and an absurd amount of Genre Savvy. - *The Other Guys* has a type 2 example with two Cowboy Cop characters played by Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock. In universe, both are definitely in the Jerk Sue category, loved by all and chick magnets, routinely creating massive property damage, and huge jerks to the "little people" at the station. They kill themselves early in the film in what is clearly a case of believing too strongly in their own hype/assuming too much that the world works the way it does in cop movies. - Gary from *The Muppets (2011)*. He's basically your most cliched feel-good movie hero, but Played for Laughs. The fact that he's played by Jason Segel, the co-writer and executive producer, helps. - He also has a Parody Sue girlfriend named Mary. - The Disney Channel made for TV movie *Read It and Weep* had Iz, the wish-fulfillment Mary Sue from the main character's diary who seems to just be a Sue doing Sue things: winning the guy the author wants, humiliating expys of people the girl dislikes and so on. Then the diary gets published...and becomes a best seller with Iz coming to life in the author's mind to supposedly help her through he new-found fame. Only for the deconstruction to seriously set in, *especially* once people find out the diary's characters are based off actual other students when the author slips and calls the villain by her rival's name. Iz is then revealed to be self-centered, vain, and a total sociopath who doesn't care who gets hurt to get what she wants, and the author realizes that acting like a Sue in Real Life turns you into a total jerk and loses you all your friends. - Oh, and Iz also has superpowers for no reason other than to abuse people she dislikes. Also causing problems when people realize the book's characters are based off real people since, well, you're writing about "zapping" people just for being mean in a normal, high school way. - *Born To Be Bad* (1950) is, in essence, a Joan Fontaine movie for people who can't stand Joan Fontaine. The lead character's entire persona is based on making everyone around her *think* she is a sweet, perfect, butter-wouldn't-melt-in her mouth Mary Sue ... when in fact she is a cold-blooded, scheming, manipulative vixen. - Maureen in *Ricki and the Flash* is beautiful, kind, caring, makes the best food and characters can't say her name without mentioning how great she is. This is all because she's a Foil to Ricki, who wasn't there for her kids growing up. Part of the film puts her in comparison to Ricki as the perfect mother. Ironically a common Mary Sue trait is a beautiful singing voice, and Maureen *doesn't* sing in the film at all - despite being played by Broadway powerhouse Audra McDonald. - Smolder Bravestone in *Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle*. He's a famous Adventurer Archaeologist who has amazing strength and speed, looks like Dwayne Johnson, and is listed as having *no* weaknesses unlike the other characters who all have at least one weakness. The parody part comes from him being a video game character "played" by Spencer who's a germophobic and socially awkward teenager in real life, which leads to this incredibly buff and tough-looking man cowering in fear from squirrels and repeatedly whining that he doesn't want to do the dangerous stuff the game expects him to. - *Dungeons And Dragons Honoramong Thieves*: Xenk is inhumanly perfect a righteous and knowledgeable fighter whom everyone fawns over. Edgin, the snarky protagonist, is unwilling to take him seriously and tries repeatedly to undercut him, but Xenk never falls for it...making him seem even holier and the situation even more humorous. - H. P. Lovecraft, of all people, wrote a clever skewering (metaphorically speaking — none of his Eldritch Abominations appear in the story) of the Purity Sue type called "Sweet Ermengarde". - *Dearly Devoted Dexter* pulls this on a God-Mode Sue in typically vicious fashion. When a Mad Doctor inflicts terrible revenge on one of his former Special Forces coworkers, the feds send in Agent Kyle Chutsky. He's an Adonis, physically fit, expert at most everything, swiftly gets into a Slap-Slap-Kiss relationship with Dexter's sister Deborah, and has a personal history with the villain. So is our Villain Protagonist about to be pushed out of the book? Not quite. ||Remember that personal history? The mad doctor grabs Chutsky, and by the time Dexter finds him he's lost two of his limbs and *all* of his composure.|| - Donald Ogden Stewart's short story "How Love Came to General Grant", a parody of novelist Harold Bell Wright, establishes in this paragraph the purely pure pureness of Miss Ella Flowers: A hush fell on the crowd as they caught sight of her face — a hush of silent tribute to the clear sweet womanhood of that pure countenance. A young man on the edge of the crowd who was on the verge of becoming a drunkard burst into tears and walked rapidly away to join the nearest church. A pr-st---te, who had been plying her nefarious trade on the avenue, sank to her knees to pray for strength to go back to her aged parents on the farm. Another young man, catching sight of Ella's pure face, vowed to write home to his old mother and send her the money he had been expending in the city on drinks and dissipation. - The character Donna Inez in Lord Byron's Narrative Poem *Don Juan* may well be an early example. The Lemony Narrator spends many verses praising her beauty and accomplishments in an overblown manner, describing her as so morally perfect that "her guardian angel had given up his garrison". She is also an Insufferable Genius and has absurdly high moral standards. - Jerzy Kosinski's *Being There* has most everyone becoming fascinated by and even in awe of Chauncey Gardiner, a brilliant-yet-humble socio-political thinker who brings hope and clarity to a complex world with his simple sayings, looks described as a cross between Cary Grant and Ted Kennedy's, and elegant manners. No one can dig up a single bad thing about his past; he's a man with nothing to hide...of course, the audience knows that his real name is Chance the Gardener, who is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, mentally challenged, was isolated from the world until middle-age, picked up what little he knew of it from TV, and happens to look like someone intelligent because of his nice clothes and manners. The poor guy is passive by nature and while he's a good person at heart, the things the other characters love about him are all based on their preconceptions and misinterpretations of what he says and does, which he is virtually incapable of correcting due to his mental shortcomings. - Major de Coverley from *Catch-22* does almost nothing at the Air Force squadron but play horseshoes and rent apartments, and his few lines of dialogue paint him as very simple-minded, but everyone in the book holds him in godlike reverence. In a novel full of Deadpan Snarkers, no one dares turn a bit of snark his way; in fact, they're all so terrified of him that no one's ever even asked his first name; that's why he's Major de Coverley. - Aliera in the *Dragaera* series has been seen by fans as one of these. While she has several Sue-ish traits, being a strikingly beautiful Action Girl, but she is very far from being a Sue, instead presented as a hot head with morally questionable beliefs (admittedly this is her House's hat). - *Discworld*'s Captain Carrot. (Presumably) Royal blood? Relentless charisma? Godlike physique? Check, Check and Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!! It can be said that Carrot would have been a blatant Mary Sue character, were he not a gentle parody of the "Action hero" archetype. - Carrot's Sue-ness is more apparent in his reality-bending powers than in any superficial trait. He has the inexplicable ability to turn bad people — or at least, ordinary people in bad moments — into *good* people, because he believes so earnestly that all people *are* good at heart that nobody can bear to disappoint him. People are aware of this reality-warping ability, and it's commented on several times in the text, but somehow it still keeps on working. It's temporary, though; enough to quell a riot but not to so enthrall that underlying conflicts won't reappear unless Vimes and others remove the cause. - Indeed in one book it's implied had Vimes not left to address the problem at its source the entire watch, Carrot included, would have died in the rising turmoil. - Laddie from *Moving Pictures* is a Parody **Dog** Sue. Gorgeous, athletic, iconogenic, instantly admired and trusted by any humanoid he meets... and a brain the size of a flea. - *Goosebumps*: The protagonist's sister in "I'm Not Scared Of You!" is so annoyingly perfect at everything (and loves to rub it into the protagonist's nose, willingly and unwillingly) that the poor kid decides to try to toss a swamp monster at her out of sheer desperation. ||It doesn't works — she manages to nag it to (apparent) death and becomes a national hero, leaving the kid and his friend to be apparently attacked by the revived monster while she goes take a call by the President.|| - Stanisław Lem's Ijon Tichy character, hero of *The Star Diaries*, strays into Parody Sue territory at times; typically with sharply satirical results. - Captain Benjamin Avery, square-jawed hero of *The Pyrates*, Master Swordsman, Cunning Linguist, Chick Magnet and Celibate Hero, is one of the most blatant — and enjoyable — in history. In short, Captain Avery was the young Errol Flynn , only more so, with a dash of Power and Redford thrown in; the answer to a maiden's prayer, and between ourselves, rather a pain in the neck. - James Meyer in the *Torchwood* novel *Border Princes* by Dan Abnett. He's Torchwood's best agent, the team's banter and social life all revolves around him, and Gwen dumps Rhys for him. It turns out that he's a *victim* of his own Reality Warper powers; he can't *help* changing the world into the one he wants, and the realization this *isn't* the way things should be terrifies him. - In Jane Austen's *Love and Freindship* (sic), Laura. Also Sophia, Edward, and Augustus. Perhaps the Ur-Example. - Two examples occur in the *Dear Dumb Diary* series: - The first is main character Angeline, who is constantly described as The Ace: she's pretty, smart, the most popular girl in school, and gets a lot of (metaphorical) screen time. However, she comes to resent being treated as a goddess, and just wants to be a normal kid. It's also clear that much of her focus comes from protagonist Jamie's obsessive hatred of her perfection. - The sixth book in the series also gives us Colette, a temporary student who manages to upstage Angeline in popularity, which Jamie enjoys. Then we find out that ||she's nowhere *near* as popular at her regular school, thanks to an embarrassing incident that Jamie had heard about earlier. She's also the reason the exchange happened in the first place: desperate for a fresh start, she hit her school with a powerful stink bomb that lead to it having to get fumigated, sending her to Jamie's school for that time period.|| - *Brooding YA Hero* has Broody McHottiepants (that's his actual name, not a mocking nickname), a parody of the Troubled, but Cute bad boy characters prevalent in young adult fiction. He's so gorgeous that his looks are constantly described in the purple prosiest of terms, he has a past so mysterious and dark that it requires hundreds of pages of build-up to properly convey, and he effortlessly charms every YA heroine he comes across even when he's being a total jerk. All of this has the natural consequences/drawbacks of him having an ego the size of Asia and being unable to comprehend that other characters, like his Token Black Friend who exists only to be his funny sidekick or his ex-girlfriend who's tired of never getting to be anything other than "bitchy ex who always loses the guy to the Not Like Other Girls heroine", resent how their entire lives revolve around him and how his sheer popularity with YA authors and readers mean that more diverse characters like them rarely ever get to be the stars of their own stories. - The aptly-named Mr. Perfect from the *Mr. Men* books, who lives up to his name and plans his own birthday party perfectly, including bringing out a huge platter of cupcakes for every guest except Mr. Greedy, as this was for the inevitable event that he completely eats the big cake. At the end, the only thing that Mr. Uppity can nitpick about him is that because he doesn't have any flaws to nitpick about. - The 1980s satirical magazine *Yaahting* featured an article supposedly by the glamorous couple Lint and Berry Nurdee, who can accomplish any shipboard task with ease, spend their lives sailing the world between exotic ports, and helpfully offer their advice and assistance to other cruising sailors. From the reactions of the other characters, however, its clear the Nurdees are really just insufferable narcissists who annoy everyone else with their insistence that they are perfect and that much of their help is unwanted and irritating. - On the outside, Catarina Claes of *My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!* is a Purity Sue who saves everyone from their inner demons, has a whole harem of rich, attractive men and women, and is called a saint for her kindness. While she does live up to her reputation and genuinely cares for everyone, she's also a dimwitted Genki Girl who thinks that her harem consists of very good friends. For example, when accused of bullying, her friends defend her by saying that she's not the type; not only is she too nice, she's not bright enough to pull off the complicated Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics she was accused of. - The *Torchwood* episode *Adam* opens with what very well might be a bad Self-Insert Fic. The Torchwood team suddenly has a new member, the titular Adam, whom everybody remembers having always been there, and whom everyone adores. Additionally, everyone is acting very Out of Character. It quickly becomes clear that all is not as it seems when Gwen arrives and doesn't remember Adam... until he touches her arm and psychically inserts Fake Memories of himself. Three guesses as to who the Monster of the Week turns out to be. - *The Good Place*: - Tahani's sister, Kamilah. Her name is Arabic for "perfect" for a reason. She is the youngest person to graduate from Oxford, an awarded and world class painter, activist, iconoclast, Olympic archer (who got gold), BAFTA award winning documentary maker for the documentary she made on her Grammy award-winning album, person voted "Most likely to be Banksy", and so unbelievably desirable that at least two women profess their undying love to her during their first meeting with her before she even utters a single word to them. And that's not even getting on the fact that she became the youngest person to ever get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because the critics were so impressed by her album that they decided to add it to the hall only six months after it was released and ignore the mandatory 25 years. No wonder Tahani developed such an inferiority complex from constantly living in her shadow despite being very successful herself. - Everyone in The Good Place is absurdly kind and selfless, to the point that nearly everything that comes out of their mouths is some beautiful, successful humanitarian act. Eleanor is justifiably freaked out by this. ||It is also intentional, as they aren't really in the good place. They are really in the bad place and the pefect community is designed to torture them. When they enter the real good place, this is not the case.|| - The appropriately named Cousin Susie in *Sabrina the Teenage Witch*. She's a living saint who helps the poor, heals the sick and inspires Character Development. Zelda says of her "she can make anyone feel inadequate", and she likewise spends the whole episode trying to invent a machine that will solve a major problem - all so Susie will be proud of her. She's also there to teach Sabrina An Aesop about how true beauty is on the inside. - One *Saturday Night Live* sketch is a fake trailer for a movie called *The Group Hopper*, a parody of movies like *The Maze Runner (2014)* and *The Hunger Games*. The main character is an ordinary boy refuses to conform to a category, instantly gets the girl because of this, has a powerful ancient weapon called a "zoomerang", draws parallels to God ("I'm a virgin pregnant with your baby!"), and is outright stated to be The Chosen One. Also, his name is "Thehero", which he says is tattooed on his back; it actually reads "The Hero". - The *Castle* episode "Hong Kong Hustle" has Beckett get jealous of a Hong Kong police captain involved in their case (she was friends with the Body of the Week). She outranks Beckett (who is stalled at detective first grade), is the leader of an organized crime task force and also works with INTERPOL and the Hague, is married to an action movie star and has two gorgeous kids, she's got everything! ||Actually, she's Married to the Job and is separated from her husband and never there for her kids, and went to investigate her old friend's death hoping to get *one* thing in her personal life to go right.|| - *Black Mirror*'s "USS Callister" plays it for horror with programmer Robert Daly's "Captain Daly" persona, which he plays in his Game Mod for his Cyberspace game, *Infinity*, based on his favorite TV show, *Space Fleet* (it even works as a bit of a Shout-Out to the original Mary Sue, seeing how *Space Fleet* is an obvious stand-in for *Star Trek: The Original Series*). In the game, Captain Daly is an archetypal overpowered, idealized Self-Insert, who is at first seemingly beloved and respected by his crew, who constantly extols his great skills and intelligence, until it is revealed that ||all the other characters in the game are sapient AIs based on Robert's real co-workers, and he is essentially using the game to enact petty revenge for mostly imagined slights against him in his everyday life. Also, the crew don't really respect or love Captain Daly, or even care all for the space adventures he drags them along on, but are just playing along and kissing up to him because they are deeply afraid of him, as he has god-like powers (he is the programmer of the game after all), which he often uses to frighten or even torture them into playing along with him if they just step slightly out of line||. - Patana in *31 Minutos* was introduced as this, she was a better reporter than the rest of the cast, everyone but Tulio liked her immediately and noticed how much better she was than him, in her first field work she got to interview a robber in the middle of the crime and he stopped just to answer her questions even when he got caught both by the owner and the police and everyone stopped to have a meal and be part of her interview, at the end of the episode she even became a cast member in a real life news show all while being arguably still a teen. Why? Just to to humiliate Tulio further. - *Wooden Overcoats* has Eric Chapman. Impossibly handsome, charms the pants off of everyone he meets, a total Chick Magnet, impeccably polite and kind to everyone, and so perfect, he somehow manages to bring *literal sunshine* everywhere he goes. Save for our protagonists, everyone in town loves him, and on the rare occasion something actually goes wrong for him, it usually turns out to be for the best. He also has an ever-growing Dark and Troubled Past that has allowed him to become ridicuously skilled at *everything*. All this makes him a perfect foil to our hero, the cantakerous, universally disliked Doom Magnet Rudyard Funn, who hates Eric's guts. - *Vampire: The Requiem* parodies the Villain Sue of its previous series, Caine, with Vampire-As-Jesus Longinus and Vampire-As-L. Ron Hubbard Dracula. Both are mythic founders of magically inclined covenants, both are dead convinced they are the Best Vampires Ever and both are hilariously deluded as to the universality of their creations. Caine would swat both of them with a pinkie toe, but their advantage is that Caine doesn't exist in this scenario. - That doesn't stop the Lancea Sanctum from INVENTING the Cainite Heresy in the Camarilla Fan Club supplements, just to add a level of meta on top that nobody seems to really be "getting". - Dracula's "Rites of the Dragon" is a supplement prop book specifically designed to parody "The Book of Nod". - And let's not forget the Jack Chick parody Bible tract in the Daeva clanbook... - White Wolf released a "new translation" of *The Testament of Longinus* on PDF, which reads like other holy scriptures if the narrator (of the first part) were a raving egomaniac. Including repetitions, contradictions, and historical inaccuracies... and translator notes which argue with each other about the significance and authorship of various verses. It's a hoot. - *Dungeons & Dragons*, as usual, has a handful of everything. - *Witch Girls Adventures* includes a "Mary Sue" trait specifically intended for playing a Parody Sue. - Princess Winnifred the Woebegone in *Once Upon a Mattress* has one defining character trait: she's *spunky!* Luckily, the play is a madcap comedy, so we're not asked to take her (or anybody else) too seriously. And a good actress can make the character fairly endearing. - Arguably, Johanna in *Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street*. She's set up as The Ingenue to a ridiculous degree, the shrinking maiden figure who the plot revolves around, and who is fancied by every man who sets eyes on her. Hilariously subverted when she grabs a pistol and proceeds to blow the head off someone at point-blank range. - Since *Urinetown* is a parody of musical theater, it makes The Ingenue, Hope Cladwell, one of the most over the top parody Sues ever, bordering on a Deconstruction. One could also say that The Hero, Bobby Strong, is also a Parody Sue. - The *Disgaea* games give us Kurtis. He's handsome, he's badass, he is a genius, a cyborg, has a quite tragic backstory *and* is The Rival... And then he ||does a Heroic Sacrifice and ends up transformed into a Prinny||. Hilarity Ensues. - Duke Nukem, though the "parody" part was subverted in *Forever*. Word of God has said that in that game he's meant to be taken completely seriously, and that he is supposed to be the coolest thing and center of his world. Most people who played the game seem to have thought it was a parody regardless of the intent. - *Friday Night Funkin'* gives us Senpai, the main enemy of Week 6. He's a parody of shallow Dating Sim protagonists who effortlessly win over the hearts of their love interests. Since Boyfriend doesn't follow the rules of the game, he's able to easily defeat Senpai in a singing contest, at which point Senpai flies into a rage because he didn't effortlessly get Girlfriend. - *Hyrule Warriors* has a rare cross between this and a Big Bad. Cia is a strikingly beautiful and powerful sorceress who is in love with the hero Link, defeated the perennial *Zelda* villain Ganondorf, and bends the antagonists of other games to her will. The deconstruction comes with the gradual relevation that Cia is a Psychopathic Womanchild who was driven insane over being forced into the thankless task of maintaining the timelines for eternity, and for all her power, is completely unable to change the *Zelda* canon on her own. ||By the end of the game, her followers grow sick of her and makes way for Ganondorf to return||. - *Kid Icarus: Uprising* features Dark Pit, an edgy, brooding Palette Swap of Pit who claims to be his inner darkness personified, has all his powers, and can fly without divine intervention. He has all the makings of a Villain Sue from an uninspired fanfic... and the rest of the cast know it, and mercilessly mock him for it. In part due to how the original Pit is already a Cloudcuckoolander that doesn't have an evil bone in his body, Dark Pit eventually realizes he isn't actually *evil*, just slightly more sarcastic than the other characters (which admittedly is a lot), and so he begrudgingly ends up becoming a good guy. ||And to add insult to injury, he was only able to fly because Pandora was possessing his wings, so as soon as she ditches him, he can't do anything that Pit can't already do.|| - In *Mary Skelter 2*, we get Otsuu, who can do basically everything the other Blood Maidens can with the exception of stuff tied to their Blood Abilities, and who's mere presence in the plot saved the dead-by-backstory-in-the-first-game Little Mermaid (oh, and also, they're an Official Couple) on top of generally making everything seem better. And *then* the illusion crumbles a little with the destruction of the Liberated District, causing the deaths of many a first game Reasonable Authority Figure and quite a few of the girls having fallen to Blood Skelter before even getting into the party. *And then* ||Alice is revealed to be the Mysterious Nightmare that destroyed the Liberated District in the first place, everybody aside from Otsuu and Little Mermaid ends up outright *dead*, and Otsuu reveals that she forced herself into a sue-esque role via the Witchcraft to save Little Mermaid from her first game backstory death. She is then convinced by Little Mermaid to let go of this for the sake of letting everyone *else* be happy and alive, which makes her reset the timeline to the first game...'s Updated Re-release, which's expanded postgame allows Otsuu to bring Little Mermaid back with far less sue-ness involved.|| - Infinite from *Sonic Forces* has many Villain Sue traits. He's faster than Fastest Thing Alive Sonic and effortlessly curb stomps him, beats up powerful heroes like Silver and Omega easily, recruits a Legion of Doom consisting of some of the franchises most powerful villains subservient to himself, is single-handedly responsible for Eggman's takeover of the world, and every other sentence he speaks is about how awesome and powerful he is. Fans have also noted he checks off a lot of boxes for edgy OC villains produced by the fandom from broad ones like his dark color scheme and asymetrical design to fandom specific ones like being a species of animal not seen in the series yet, a common fan character trait. ||He's actually nothing more than a sadistic bully whose one *real* power is Your Mind Makes It Real illusions that make him *appear* all powerful and the other villains are just illusionary copies. Once ways around it are found, he's not nearly as invincible as he likes to pretend he is and Eggman could dispose of him whenever he saw fit, which he ultimately does.|| Notably, he spends a lot of the game in direct opposition (and as a Foil to) the Avatar, a much more straightforward (and far less extreme) Original Character archetype and one who has flaws and a character arc. - *Tales of Monkey Island* has Santino, one of de Cava's crew members. Possesses a multitude of great skills (including brawling, cross-stitching and speaking the language of the giant manatees), is utterly fearless, and is so attractive even the (straight male) captain is affected. He's also long dead, although the rest of the crew seems not to have noticed. - *Tales of Vesperia*: In the PS3 version, Flynn Scifo is a Type 3 that is Played for Drama. His best friend and eternal rival, Anti-Hero/Vigilante Man Yuri Lowell constantly snarks about how he gets the treatment of a God-Mode Sue in-universe when it comes to combat and politics. However, Yuri is also aware that his friend is the single most Lawful Stupid human being in existence. When his devotion to the rules cause him to screw up, Yuri *really* lets him have it... and Flynn reluctantly realizes that he's in the wrong for once when he does. - *The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure* has KeA as a darkly deconstructed example. She's mentally a young 9-year-old girl Happily Adopted by the protagonists, *everyone* she meets loves her unconditionally and thinks she's the cutest thing in the universe, she's an Instant Expert at everything she tries, including cooking, she's able to read and learn concepts *far* beyond elementary school level (i.e studies even some *adults* struggle with), and she's actually an attempt at re-creating a goddess from 500 years ago. The deconstruction comes in two ways: firstly her age is treated very realistically and that limits her Story-Breaker Power a lot, and secondly she's only Loved by All because her latent Reality Warper powers have been unwittingly *forcing* everyone to like her. ||The Big Bad exploits this by revealing it right as the protagonists are getting through to her; KeA is justifiably horrified at what she'd been unconsciously doing, sending her into a Heroic BSoD so severe she becomes the Final Boss.|| - In *Undertale*, the True Final Boss is ||Asriel Dreemurr. He takes the appearance of the Obviously Evil "God of Hyperdeath" with Villainous Fashion Sense, Black Eyes of Evil, and Horns of Villainy. Throughout the battle, he makes Straw Nihilist remarks and explains his intention to undo everything so you can struggle forever. He really is as powerful as he thinks, after absorbing all the other SOULs in the Undergroud||. The problem is that ||this is not Asriel's real character — and when you understand that, it becomes painfully obvious that he is using this power to assume the form of a sort of self-insert edgelord Villain Sue. Asriel is a kind-hearted child who is concealing his kindness and childhood. He makes himself appear older, cooler, and more badass — or at least he tries: his attempt is so over-the-top it falls flat. note : "God of Hyperdeath"? It's the sort of thing a little boy would think is cool. He reveals how immature he is when he throws a tantrum because you refuse to let him win the "game." Despite the parody, the whole exchange is Played for Drama. The way to overcome Asriel is to see him for what he is: a child who is frightened, in pain, and lashing out. Instead of defeating this boss, you let him know he has a friend.|| - Zed from *Wild ARMs*, more so in the remake *Wild Arms Alter Code F*. He is a demon who sees himself as the incredibly awesome protagonist of the story and claims that the main characters are villainous, until he finally ditched Ziekfried and, in the remake, can eventually join the party. In the original game he also dropped the "Doom Bringer" sword which was very powerful but reduces Jack's luck the worst possible value when he uses it - which sort of explains Zed's comic ineptitude throughout the game. - Mai Waifu in *Yandere Simulator* is a girl with long pink hair and color-changing eyes who's promised her heart to an overseas game developer (who most definitely isn't YandereDev). In the game, she's basically an ordinary student. - The final romantic rival, Megami Saikou, is described as "impossibly wealthy, a certified genius, has extensive self-defense training, has excelled at everything she has ever attempted to do in her entire life, and has been trained to possess all of the qualities of a perfect leader," as well as the most beautiful and popular girl in school, the sole heiress to Japan's most powerful business company, *and* the Student Council President. To top it all off, she's the only rival with foreknowledge that there's a potentially dangerous stalker at school and will be designed to be the main character's toughest opponent as her final rival. Her name is even entirely about how perfect she is: "Megami" is Japanese for "goddess" and "Saikou" for "the best". - Erika Furudo in *Umineko: When They Cry* is a Black Hole Fixer Sue of an Amateur Sleuth who *just so happens* to wash up on Rokkenjima so ||Bernkastel has her own piece when she takes over the anti-fantasy side of the game||. She proceeds to wander around being an insufferable Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, attempts to supplant the protagonist, ||helps Battler find the gold just to make the chaos worse, and frames Natsuhi for the murders.|| She's basically ||Bern||'s self-insert Sue, and she's virulently loathed by both the fanbase and *the other characters*. In short, Parody Sue Played for Drama = messy Deconstruction. - *Magical Diary* does a mild jab at the archetype as the default name for the main character is "Mary Sue." - In the Kickstarter demo for *Monster Prom's* sequel, *Monster Camp*, Billy the Backer creates one of these depending on what choice you make in the Lake area. She goes from a regular orc girl to a buff, tattooed rainbow-haired orc magical girl with chainsaw hands and "a PhD on stepping on [Billy]". - Strong Sad's fanfiction character, Twelve Times A Day Man, from *Homestar Runner*. - Shadowleggy is very aware of playing this trope when she appears in her videos. - *Barbie Life In The Dream House* plays Barbie's ridiculous over-the-top perfection note : in some people's eyes completely for laughs. She's got a mansion that she lives in with her sisters, three pampered pets, and a limitless closet. She's got an adoring boyfriend, loyal friends, and a legion of in-universe fans. She's beautiful and glamorous and this cannot be tarnished. Any attempt at undermining this perfection will backfire hilariously. - Rathergood.com has the Crab of Ineffable Wisdom, a giant omniscient crustacean with the face of the owner of the site who appears as a frequent Deus ex Machina in its cartoons. - Apple White in *Ever After High*, she is very much a parody of the Princess Classic. Everyone fawns over her, all the boys are head over heels for her, and she does genuinely want to help people. - *RWBY* gives us Pyrrha Nikos, whose main problem is the unfailing, completely justified admiration of everyone around her...well, okay, it's played more realistically than *that*, but it still qualifies for this trope. The writers avoided the obvious problems with this trope by making her a second-string character ||and killing her off in the story's third volume.|| - The *Girl Genius* webcomic has an Affectionate Parody (guestwritten by Shaenon Garrity, the creator of *Narbonic*, *Skin Horse*, and *Smithson*) called "Fan Fiction" where a girl tells a Heterodyne Boys story with a self-insert character that mines all the Mary Sue traits including eyes that change color, and coming back from the dead. **Bill Heterodyne:** Ah, Marietta! You're as bold and beautiful as you were the day we rescued you from the bandits who kidnapped you after your mysterious yet famously powerful Spark tribe was completely wiped out, leaving you the only heir to its secrets! **Maria Antonia Fantasia Philomel:** Oh, enough about my traumatic past! (I was also a princess.) - Though while the story mocks the Mary Sue, it ends up sympathetic to her author — her siblings are sick of her ridiculous self-inserts and whine that she's telling the story wrong, but their mother defends her and tells her she made her own Mary Sue stories when she was a girl. **Mom:** Kids, kids, your sister *loves* telling you those stories. And when you get down to it, what's more important — what the Heterodyne Boys actually *did*... or the *dreams* they inspire in us? *[...]* **Mom:** *[to the girl]* I used to have them *both* fall for a girl named *Raven Moonsdaughter*. - In the actual main comic, we have **Othar Tryggvassen, ** He's a world-renowned hero who is virtually impossible to kill. People who hear stories of him love the guy, but just about anyone who actually *Gentleman Adventurer*! *met* him finds him terribly annoying. The twist, however, is that he's one of the *antagonists* and sees the world through Black-and-White Insanity, leading him to be a rather Horrible Judge of Character in regards to our actual heroes. - In this strip of *The Non-Adventures of Wonderella*, the author claims in the Alt Text that his Mary Sue character is an annoyed elderly rooster. - *Terror Island*: - Lewis Powell took the above idea even further, claiming in this strip that his Mary Sue character was *a fake magic cube*. ||Ben wrote Lewis's commentary that day, for what it's worth.|| - Within the strip itself, there's Bartleby. Every time he appears, he immediately finds a flawless solution to all of the ongoing story arcs. His only weakness is that ||if the current strip number isn't a multiple of 100, he ceases to exist.|| - *Mary Sue Academy* is about a school for Mary Sues, and is appropriately full of these. It's right here. - Shadow and Chug of *Powerup Comics* are (stealth) parodies of the Jerkass Stu model. Since they represent all of the authors' viewpoints, it's deemed acceptable for them to dismiss the recurring strawman character with a bullet to the forehead simply because he has the "wrong" opinions. - Dave Anez has admitted (and lampshaded) the fact that Bob is *Bob and George*'s Marty Stu. He dresses like Proto Man (easily the coolest *Mega Man* character), he's able to beat the main cast in combat and able to out-program Dr. Wily. He's the mastermind behind the events of *5* and *6* parodies, and a demi-god to boot. Since *Bob And George* was a Gag Series, he ends up as the butt of jokes a bit more often than your average Marty Stu and other characters get the better of him more than once, though they usually end up regretting it. Given the often ridiculously exaggerated things he's done (like *killing a ghost/hologram*), he may even qualify as The Ace. - In terms of raw power, however, Bob ranks fourth (at best) among the cast. The two author characters (literal *Reality Warper* gods both surpass him. It's also implied his brother, George, is actually more powerful than he is, but is too much of a *Nice Guy* to fully utilize this power. - In *Homestuck*, half of the central cast could be considered Parody Sues in some respect - nearly all have unique and bizarre personality traits, abilities and circumstances. Additionally, due to the mythical nature of SBURB/SGRUB, the world-ending video game that acts as the central plot driver, all the central characters are some sort of The Chosen One. What the comic typically does to keep them in the realm of parody rather than straight examples is by making them either ultimately irrelevant, developing them out of their Sue-ish traits, or simply lampshading the fact that they are absurdly competent. - There's still some debate among fans as to whether Jade was intended to be a Parody Sue. She *does* have a ludicrous number of quirky hobbies, skills, and "cute" flaws (narcolepsy and general ditziness). She also has a magical pet, crazy supernatural powers, future technology, a grasp on the unfolding plot, and she lives under the wing of her equally talented and rich Grandfather ||who is deceased, making her Conveniently an Orphan in addition to everything else, and she's taken care of by her ridiculous *Reality Warper dog*.|| What makes her seem like a Parody Sue instead of a straight example is the fact that her Sue-ness (like every other trope used in the series) is exaggerated to the point that it becomes funny. ||Then she loses her powers, her gear and her pet, and spends so much time dozing that all the other main characters zoom past her. Time to start earning your keep, miss.|| - ||Jake, the Alternate Universe version of Jade's adoptive grandfather/biological father, deconstructs this. Like Jade, he lives alone on an island, along with Dirk's robot clone and a myriad of dangerous and exotic alien monsters, has multiple quirky or strange hobbies and personality traits, all while having a tragic backstory through the death of his beloved grandmother who was murdered for being a threat to an all-powerful villain. Additionally, all his friends in his group are vying for his affections and allegedly he holds an insane amount of hidden potential, despite seeming like a dunce. However, his own lack of self-awareness and general obliviousness ultimately backfires on him when his friends grow tired of his behavior after dealing with him in a vacuum for 6 months, culminating with his boyfriend breaking up with him and his best friend (who had been in love with him) suddenly becoming an evil, physically and emotionally abusive mind controlled tyrant, showing that Mary Sues just wouldn't work in real life.|| - The parody really ramps up when the comic introduces the 12 trolls. Just about *every one* of them exhibits a few blatant Mary Sue traits, some of which double as a Shallow Parody of pop-culture. Most are promptly played for laughs, and some subverted or developed to reveal Hidden Depths. - Aradia and Sollux. Each has incredible Psychic Powers combined with precognition. To boot, Sollux works technical wizardry while Aradia ||comes Back from the Dead||. Both of them could easily qualify for God-Mode Sue if they tried, but they simply don't want to. - Tavros. He is the Extreme Doormat and The Woobie of the group. He initially seems a shoo-in for Sympathetic Sue, but he's not. Not to mention he can ||commune with Bec.|| - Karkat. He is secretly ||a mutant||, the only one of his race who ||has red blood||, which causes him much angst. He also insists that he's The Leader of the group despite his apparent lack of leadership ability. The plot ||renders his mutant blood totally irrelevant, and he gradually cultivates a real knack for leadership||. - Nepeta. An enthusiastic Fangirl who likes dressing up as a cat, drawing colorful comics and Shipping her friends, she resembles the protagonist of a Self-Insert Fic written by a fan of the very comic she's in. Unlike a conventional Self-Insert Sue, she ||gets side-lined pretty consistently||. - Kanaya. She has much in common with Jade, including stylish clothes and the same special house. Instead of the "magic princess", Kanaya's depiction riffs on the "beautiful vampire" traits of some well-known Sues. Just count how many times the phrase "one of the few of your kind" recurs in her introduction. - Equius. He is a freakishly-STRONG Perpetually-Frowning mess of restrained aggression, and everything he does is Rated M for Manly. Like Nepeta, he ||mostly occupies the background. What's more, his superlative STRENGTH is comically-useless against the greatest threats||. - Eridan. This edgelord carries a BFG and combines Anime Hair with the fashion sense of a hipster. His obsession with conquest and genocide makes him a Sociopathic Hero or Anti-Hero at best. Eridan seems to *think* he qualifies as a Sympathetic Sue due to his many troubles, but other characters (and the audience) instead see his self-pity as mere Wangst. - Feferi. She has all of Jade's special qualities amplified. She is a Princess Classic and, with the highest and rarest blood color, heir-apparent to become Empress. She wears bright clothes and gold accessories where almost everyone else is decked out in blacks and greys. She is a Friend to All Living Things and is very nice, considering the rest of the troll race are a bunch of murderous bastards. And, of course, her beloved Guardian can kill the rest of the troll race on a whim. She ||fails to bring about the bright future she dreams of, and despite a royal pedigree she shows no leadership||. - Gamzee. ||a Joke Character who turns into a Lethal Joke Character, his murderous rampage kicks off an entire story arc and his behind-the-scenes machinations are explicitly or implicitly responsible for many plot details. However, instead of a Chessmaster Mary Tzu, he's a gullible idiot. By the end, he is little more than a Butt-Monkey and Cosmic Plaything of the real villains.|| - Vriska. Most of all, Vriska, because she actively *tries* to be a Mary Sue. She has a FLARP character named "Marquise Spinneret Mindfang". She can put people under Mind Control to manipulate them. She cheats, lies, steals and evades consequences. She inserts herself into major plot events just to seem important. She even makes romantic moves toward The Hero! She strives to fill the role of Mary Tzu, Jerk Sue, Villain Sue, God-Mode Sue and Black Hole Sue *all at once,* because that's her idea of "winning." Sometimes she succeeds, but ultimately she fails ||and dies||. She seems to learn a lesson from this setback... ||then she unlearns it and tries again||. While the rest are parodied for fun, Vriska is a thoroughly Deconstructed Character Archetype and metafictional examination of the Mary Sue. What kind of person would behave this way? ||An insecure, unhappy one.|| How would others respond to her? ||They consider her a dangerous, abusive manipulator.|| Word of God also declares that Vriska is an intentional attempt to establish a Base-Breaking Character — a resounding success, because she certainly is. The other characters have very divided opinions on Vriska, and so does the audience. - The Sue-ness is surpassed again by ||Calliope, AKA uranianUmbra||. She's critical to almost everything about the ||Alpha universe|| session, having given the kids their special chat client, introduced them, and told them about and encouraged them to play the game. She's a Sailor Earth character as well, since an Ophiuchus-themed troll has long been speculated (especially one with the initials UU), and she fills in the gap in the hemospectrum ||where Karkat would be if he wasn't a mutant||. Oh, and she's apparently the Last of Her Kind, since the Empress exterminated the limebloods because they had much stronger Psychic Powers than the other castes and posed a threat to her reign. ||As it turns out, UU is not, in fact, a troll. She's an entirely different species and is cosplaying as her fantroll||. - She's also ||the smarter, more talented sister of the Big Bad Caliborn/Lord English||, and foreshadowing suggests she will be instrumental in stopping Lord English. Which would all be very Sueish except for the fact that ||he Out-Gambitted her and killed her dreamself, leaving him permanently in control of their shared body and Calliope's ghost hiding from him in a secluded corner of the Furthest Ring, with no idea how to fight back||. - ||Then we get Alt!Calliope. She's Calliope from a timeline where she managed to get past Caliborn and gain power equal to his. She manages to do what the kids have been trying to do for most of the story: destroy the Green Sun. She has realistic emotional troubles, though, because her whole timeline was never meant to happen. || - ||Caliborn||'s no slouch in this either, Villain Sue-wise: While he is a grating, petulant brat, ||He played and won an impossible session that not even his ultra-talented sister was allowed to complete (with direct help from the author, to boot), defeated said sister, gains command of a group of powerful enforcers, and when he's an adult, beefs up and becomes an all-powerful entity that can only be defeated by messing with reality itself. He also uses these powers to mow down anything he doesn't like, *including* the author for putting him through everything.|| So what's the parody? ||His jacked persona is based on his own Marty Stu OC, he's annoyed by Hussie's help and hates how the narrative messes with his mind (which is likely why he became so crazy as Lord English in the first place), and pretty much everyone he encounters hates him. The enforcers he gets are also a bunch of chumps when pitted against the right people.|| - *Living with Insanity* features a parody on bad writing as a whole, starring a character actually named Marty Stu who can convince nazis to stop being evil just because he is sexy. - Tsukiko from *The Order of the Stick* is this to an extent. She has several Mary Sue traits — name meaning "Moon Child" in Japanese, heterochromatic eyes, great beauty, skimpy clothing, unusualy skilled for her young age, oppressed by a stuck-up society not understanding her greatness.... Parody comes in two aspects. First, she is terribly Wrong Genre Savvy, acting like she is in her own self-insert romantic fanfic and can do whatever she wants to get Xykon to fall in love with her and others are just obstacles for her to dispose without consequences ||— which gets her killed once she tries to get rid of Redcloak||. Second, that "oppressed by a stuck-up society not understanding her greatness" part? She was jailed for necrophilia and her entire reasoning for that behavior is based on Insane Troll Logic. - *Chainsawsuit* got a few entries, including "Brightshadow Academy for Mary Sues". Its newest student is Jane Peters, who "had no unique powers and a very normal past": - *Pokémon-X* has an April Fools Day comic where the author shows why he doesn't allow fanmade characters, introducing a Marty Stu (allegedly based on actual suggested characters) who saves the world with his oddly-colored and decorated Mewtwo, effortlessly saves the day, and becomes May's immediate boyfriend for instant sex (which May's in-comic semi-love-interest Brendan has no problem with, in this scenario). - *League of Super Redundant Heroes* has a super-heroine literally called Mary Sue, who is clearly the most perfect example of a human being (or superhuman being for that matter), but still points out her "defining flaw" that goes hand-in-hand with her perfection to define the trope. - Mary Sue Wish Fulfillment Guy, by Kevin Bolk (author of Ensign Sue Must Die), who is a thinly-veiled parody of Rayne Summers of *Least I Could Do*. - *Pilot* has numerous in-universe games. One of these games, Edgelord, is a parody of pretty much all Mary Sue Tropes. As such, *everyone* (aside from Father Figure) is a Parody Sue. - Doobies, a creation of 4chan's /tg/, are a parody of Mary Sue races. They see themselves as perfect divine beings that everyone should worship (and some crazy people actually do), when in reality they are absolutely hideous, disgusting, stupid, incompetent, and clumsy creatures that look like horribly deformed lizard-rabbit people with two eyes on ones side of their face and no eyes on the other. The only thing special about them is that they are almost impossible to kill and don't age. - Marine Todd, a Twitter meme based on the Designated Hero of a right-wing Strawman Political Urban Legend doing the rounds on the Conservative Twittersphere. The parody versions riff off it by amplifying the wish fulfillment and the writer's ignorance to staggering levels: ...he had already engaged in real battle with real Atheists: Muslims . - *The Quintessential Mary-Sue* was intentionally written to hit as many points on the litmus test as possible. Before the story even starts, she has turned the setting into Cosmic Horror. It only gets *worse* in later chapters, especially since there is a Hope Spot before her complete and total victory. - The SCP Foundation has several flavors of this: - SCP-10101-J is of the "blatant author-insert that's better than everyone" variety handled in an over-the-top manner. He's *ridiculously* overpowered, his containment procedure amounts to "give him everything he wants," and he helps capture or redeem "evil" SCPs while refusing to help the Foundation with "good" SCPs (in a series that normally falls closer along the lines of Black-and-Gray Morality with some tragic characters). At some points, the article even goes in to first-person to highlight his self-insert nature. - SCP-777-J is along the lines of an animesque protagonist being added to the world of the website. His abilities are not as over-the-top as 10101-J's, but he's still immune to all damage, cannot be contained by the Foundation, able to take down several powerful SCPs, (including SCP-343, a Reality Warper that may or may not be *God*, by saying that he doesn't believe in him) and he turns everything around him in to some incomprehensible fan fiction-like story. - SCP-496-J, a blatant Purity Sue who's in a relationship with Dr. Clef and given complete access to two other SCPs, limited supply panacea 500 and machine that can alter objects 914. - scp-056 is a more realisticly written Parody Sue. It is a shapeshifting being that turns into a better version of whatever observes it and also has a completely insufferable personality. - SCP-732 turns Foundation documents into bad fanfic, which makes for a handy excuse for the periodic Sue-purges. - SCP-6101 is a more sympathetic take on this, being the persona of a nine-year-old boy from the Make-A-Wish Foundation who wanted to be an SCP. The article describes him as "the most powerful SCP" and a nearly omnipotent superhero that the Foundation considers one of its greatest allies, though it's all but stated that in real life, he's just a regular kid with a terminal illness. - A Running Gag in *TwoSet Violin*'s videos concerns a guy called Ling Ling, the perfect violinist who can do anything and everything, up to and including stretching the duration of a day to 40 hours just so he can practice his playing for that entire amount of time. - *Whateley Universe*: setting aside any Alternate Character Interpretation one might have of the members of Team Kimba, there are a few of these around. - The Lit Chix are the Author Avatars for the Canon Cabal, and were deliberately designed to poke fun at the writers' foibles. This didn't stop Loophole from becoming a main character later. - 'Captain' Bravo and his main squeeze Pucelle are an unsubtle parody of two classic superheroic archetypes. - *The Adventures of Figaro Pho*: Figaro's rival in the "Fear of Rivals" episode. Even the *action figure* based on him is indestructible! - Ice King of *Adventure Time* turns into one of these in the episodes "Fionna and Cake" and "Bad Little Boy", which makes sense since these episodes are parodies of badly written Fan Fiction, with every narrative focus on Fionna and Cake being less about adventure and more about shipping. - *The Amazing World of Gumball*: Alan is an impossibly gentle, selfless and kind person who is Gumball's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. His focus in "The Saint" has him act untroubled by whatever awful thing Gumball does to him and automatically forgive him easily. At the end of the episode, Laser-Guided Karma grants him not only everything he lost, but also more, including 20 million in cash because he gave a homeless man 20 dollars. The single time he is angry is just to make Gumball feel better about himself. ||However, this status temporarily goes away when he is in "The Vision" accidentally made into a Knight Templar who wants to force smiles on everyone and make the world a better place by force due to hearing Gumball's ideas of what he thought his life goals were, Gumball pops him at the end of the episode for good measure subverting him being a possible Villain Sue parody as well.|| - In the *American Dad!* episode "American Fung", Chinese billionaire Fung Wah buys the show and inserts himself into it as a Black Hole Sue. - *Animaniacs*: Hello Nurse, according to the song about her, her list of accomplishments includes winning the Tony, Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer, obtaining several P.H.Ds, playing Chopin without rehearsing, singing opera at the Met, solving math equations, winning a scholarship to Yale, starring as the lead role in King Lear, becoming the ambassador to China, and not smoking. - In *The Boondocks,* one-shot character Ebony Brown can be interpreted as being an Affectionate Parody of invokedMary Sue Fan Fiction (regarding both this show and others) because, by this show's standards, she's just so damned perfect. First of all, she's Robert's latest girlfriend, but miraculously bucks tradition by being genuinely more kindhearted, sane, and levelheaded than anyone else around her; as well as being so strikingly beautiful, that even Uncle Ruckus puts a lid on his racism for once, and falls arse-over-tits for her. Second, she repeatedly leans on the fourth wall, and expresses a desire to become a major part of Robert's life (similar to a Self-Insert Fic character joining the main cast out of nowhere). Third, Robert falls completely in love with her, and becomes madly obsessed with their relationship together, even though they only met a short while ago (a satire of invokedshipping stories where characters are Strangled by the Red String); and their relationship is played up for all the hamfisted melodrama that can be wrung from it (satirizing the Romantic Plot Tumor nature of the aforementioned shipping stories). As a bonus, Ebony shares her name with one of the most infamous Mary Sues in fan-fiction history. It's not known if this is an intentional reference or not, but it would make it all the more blatant if it was. - The *Brandy & Mr. Whiskers* episode "Sandy & Mr. Frisky" is a parody of the Copycat Sue and Black Hole Sue tropes. Brandy and Mr. Whiskers meet doppelgangers of themselves with eerily similar interests and appearances, who even got stranded in the jungle in the exact same way... and turn out to be better than them in practically every way, and become instantly popular. However, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers become jealous of their doppelgangers' perfection and popularity, especially since all their friends are spending more time with the new duo than with them. In order to get their lives back, they first try to ruin Sandy and Mr. Frisky's reputations, then when that fails, they create a Rube Goldberg Device to fling the doppelgangers far, far away. Just before using the device, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers regret their actions and reconcile with Sandy and Mr. Frisky, who agree that our protagonists have every reason to feel this way since they've accidentally been effectively replacing them. However, the device is then set off by accident. When this turns out to have caused Sandy and Mr. Frisky to get rescued from the Amazon and potentially get their own TV show, our protagonists become jealous again and vow to never speak of the episode's events. - In *Code Lyoko* episode "Kadic Bombshell", Brynja Heringsdötir is an obvious parody of the Relationship Sues so prevalent in the show's Fan Work. This one-shot character has every trapping of a Mary Sue and Odd (and Ulrich, and Jérémie, and every other boy in the school) falls for her, but she's quickly revealed too shallow to be a serious love interest. She leaves at the end of the episode without having any lasting effect on the status quo (the heroes not even bothering with a Return to the Past). - One episode of *Code Monkeys* has Dave and Jerry quitting Game-A-Vision and starting their own "Stonervision" firm, and are replaced by Mike and Shawn, who not only look similar, but are dedicated to their jobs, make cookies for everyone, and Mary falls in love with Shawn (and moves into their office). It turns out they're *actually* Federal agents out to arrest Mr. Larrity on tax evasion charges (and not for any of the other crazy crimes he's done); when Dave and Jerry come back, in deep debt to their drug lord financier Tony Dakota, they all cooperate to arrest Dakota, and both him and the Feds end up killed in the ensuing shootout (while Dave and Jerry are forced to Crossing the Burnt Bridge by having to play *Dungeons & Dragons* with Todd as the other employees point and laugh at them. - Daria Morgendorfer writes stories about a Communist-fighting agent named Melody Powers, intentionally depicted by Daria as if she was an enhanced self-insert within an otherwise extremely bloody spy story. The two times she's shown reading a Melody story to an audience, she's either trolling her peers ("Cafe Disaffecto") or said audience is completely deaf ("The Old and the Beautiful"). - *Darkwing Duck* plays with this in the episode "Comic Book Capers." When Megavolt discovers Darkwing's manuscript for a licensed comic book based on his exploits, he completely rewrites the plot to make himself the star and give himself the ability to turn into a 50 ft. giant, which sends Darkwing fleeing for his life. - Appears in *Doug*. When Skeeter helps with one of Doug's Quailman comics, his character is a blatant God Mode Stu, gaining whatever power most quickly solves the situation at hand (said character is also an Expy of the Silver Surfer, who is in comics at Story-Breaker Power). This is heavily lampshaded in Doug's dislike of the character. - An episode of *The Fairly OddParents!* has Timmy wishing up a big brother named Tommy. He was so perfect that he actually got Tootie to lose her crush on Timmy. This, of course, backfires when Tommy wants to take Timmy on a long charity trip to a third world country. - The final season initially sets up Chloe to be this, with her being a universally beloved child prodigy whose only character flaw being that many of the good deeds she's been praised for have had unforeseen negative consequences (which tend to be glossed over anyway). This is quickly downplayed in favor of having her simply be a more neurotic do-gooder in contrast to the more laidback and selfish Timmy. - *Family Guy*: The Griffins bring in a new dog after Lois points out that Brian's getting old. "New Brian" is polite, perfect, multi-talented and instantly befriends everyone ( *sans* Stewie), who rightly realizes that he's Brian's "replacement". New Brian goes on to improve everyone's lives and supplant Brian completely. However, he makes his fatal mistake when he... gets a little intimate with Rupert the teddy bear. Stewie is not pleased... - Don't forget Derek, Jillian's (late) husband. He's depicted as a parody of a Relationship Sue. - In the episode of *Futurama* parodying *Star Trek* fandom, they produce an episode of *Star Trek* based on an alien energy cloud's fanscript, wherein members of the regular cast fall in love with and are overwhelmed with admiration for the alien energy cloud. - There's also Barbados Slim, who won Olympic gold medals in both *Limboing* and *Sex*. His pecs also wiggle by themselves. He has been described as both an adonis, and a 'mahogany god'. - He gets some minor comeuppance in Bender's Big Score, when after Hermes steals back his wife from him, Slim tries to storm out of the room, being forced to limbo underneath a malfunctioning automatic door...which then shuts on him partway through. - Lila from *Hey Arnold!* is effectively a Sickeningly Sweet parody of a Mary Sue, as is Helga's older sister Olga. Interestingly, both of them started as deconstructions of the idea (Lila was smart, funny and charming but had a horrible home life and poor self-esteem, while Olga was a Broken Ace who was both neurotic and naive), before the writers evidently realized that ramping up their cutesy perfection was funnier. Given "Big Sis" - the episode that puts them both together - it's hard to disagree. - *Home Movies*: You let Fenton play in your movies at your peril. "You're the dirty villain, and I'm the hero, and you suck. A-and you're really stupid and I'm really smart. OK? And you're fat and have bad skin, and I'm thin and I have small pores." - In *Invader Zim*, Tak has some Sue attributes: arrives at the Skool out of nowhere on an incredibly cool and expensive-looking jet, gets Dib's attention (while shooting down Zim's futile courtship attempts), turns out to be another rogue "Invader" like Zim — only incredibly more competent, and so on. And yet, she's still so Genre Blind as to put a Big Red Button to disable her master plan and gets defeated by the very people she denounced as worthless. - Ultimately counts as a subversion when you remember you are comparing her to *Zim*, the Empire's biggest and most legendary fuck-up. Tak's competency is likely the *norm*, or at least not unexpected for a *real* invader (which Zim is not). One episode had Zim spying on some of his fellow Invaders, and we see most have already taken over the worlds. It's later revealed the first one was by *Skoodge.* Much later, a "Freaky Friday" Flip plot in the comics has Gaz-in-Zim's body use just a fraction of his resources to take over the world in only three days. Tak isn't overly competent to make fun of Mary Sues; she's overly competent to remind us just how genuinely *dangerous* the Irken Empire itself really is when they're not screwing around and eating snacks all day. - One episode cast Dib as a God-Mode Sue. After throwing a muffin at Zim in school, he's visited by Energy Beings that sought him out to be their champion against the Irken Invaders. They give him superpowers that allow him to do pretty much anything he wants, which he proceeds to use to talk Zim into turning himself in to the authorities, expose every single paranormal mystery, singlehandedly fought and defeated the Irken Armada, and "even got to ride a moose". As it turned out, ||it was all a virtual reality simulation orchestrated by Zim to get him to admit he threw the bran muffin.|| - *Kaeloo*: Quack Quack the duck. He's "smart", a good athlete, very talented at everything and is also indestructible. As a result, he wins everything, and all his successes are Played for Laughs as well as being the reason Mr. Cat hates him so much. - *LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles * has Jek-14, a Force-sensitive Sith clone of a basic clone trooper who's better than everyone at everything, making most of the main characters jealous. Not helping matters is when he defects to join the side of good. - *The Life and Times of Juniper Lee*: The one-shot character Ashley has all the hallmarks of being a Sue, being ridiculously nice and upstaging the titular character when it comes to magical skill. However, when she temporarily takes over Juniper's spot as The Chosen One, she's *instantly* overwhelmed by the duties attached to the title. - An episode of *The Little Mermaid* cartoon has an old acquaintance of Sebastian who has the same problem. In a last-ditch effort to beat him at *something*, Sebastian challenges him to pretty much tell Sebastian's life story. The old acquaintance not only does so, in perfect detail, (which, in itself is pretty damn creepy) but also manages to mix a heaping helping of The Reason Sebastian Sucks while doing so. Cue the Flat "What" from everyone. Including the viewers. Though like the Tree excess example he admits the one thing he's not better than Sebastian at is making friends, because everybody would rather try to knock him off his high horse with contests than be his friend. - Kyle from *Looped*. He's a handsome, popular, intelligent, and kindhearted Chick Magnet and All-Loving Hero admired and beloved by everyone in school (to the point where he is allow to freely visit the teachers' lounge), as well as The Ace who spends his spare time doing good deeds around town out of charity. His impossibly over-the-top flawlessness is completely Played for Laughs, and is also the reason why Luc considers him his archenemy. - The Mary Sue concept in general, as well as Always Someone Better, is parodied in the *Recess* episode "Here Comes Mr. Perfect", in which a Marty Stu from out of town shows up whose sympathetic character flaw is *literally* the fact that he's Marty Stu — his perfection always makes the people around him immediately hate him because he's so much better at the stuff everyone else is known for, and he actively tries to *avoid* showing it off for this reason. - He also gives a speech in his own defense that, in a meta sense, can be taken as a sort of defense of the Mary Sue — not that they're good characters, per se, or not annoying, but that it isn't *the character's* fault — *they* didn't decide to be perfect. - Susie's mother Lucy in *Rugrats* appears to be a Parody Sue, judging from her first episode. She repeatedly stuns Didi with just everything she's accomplished in her life - aside from being a qualified doctor with four kids, she's also a chef who studied in France, a talented artist, a certified pilot and is almost perfectly sweet. The parody part comes from how she casually drops all these talents to a dumbfounded Didi. - Poochie on *The Simpsons* is a good example of a Stu character played as a parody of new characters who are just stuck into stories and then they annoy the fans. But the reason Poochie annoys the fans isn't just because he's new, it's because of his Gary Stu traits. He comes in with a whole rap song about why he's so cool, Itchy and Scratchy's usually violently comedic characters are changed into oohing and ahhing over him, and he throws the story off course to show off how cool he is (cue Milhouse moaning "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!"). Also, like with many Gary Stu type characters, the fans are annoyed by him, except for his voice actor, Homer, who acts like a fan who is overly protective of their Mary Sue character. Homer's idea of how to improve the show is to make Poochie louder, angrier, have access to a time machine, and to make the other characters say "Where's Poochie?" when he's not on-screen, which could also go under the Creator's Pet trope. - This is, of course, why he was the former Trope Namer of Shoo Out the New Guy. - Luckily, the Marketing Executives who created him in the first place wised up quickly and killed him off when he had to go back to his home planet. Following the brodcast, Krusty shows off an affadevit that legally forbids Poochie to be used in future shorts. - With Bart Simpson's favorite comic book, *Radioactive Man*, its eponymous hero can be this sometimes; one issue has him traveling back in time, competing against Jesse Owens in the Olympics, and *winning*, something Bart views as a good thing. Although, there's another special issue where Milhouse claims he and Fallout Boy are killed on *every* page, which may be an aversion to the Trope. - Swifty the Shrew from *Sonic Boom* is a walking play on this trope. He wows the cast, shows up Sonic himself, and basically crowd-pleases... at first. As time wears on, the entire main cast join Sonic in finding him irritable, and with how regularly he appears in front of Sonic during their race, it becomes clear he's also a cheater. ||There's also the fact he's just one of a line of mass-produced drones Eggman made to help facilitate the construction of his new amusement park, which is how he was able to cheat in the first place. After peer pressure from Amy pushes Fink to revoke Sonic's banishment, the Swifties are rapidly disassembled.|| - ||Mintberry Crunch|| from the *South Park* "Coon & Friends" trilogy. || **Stan:** Wow! Who would have thought that Mintberry Crunch had powers?|| || **Cartman:** *sighs* Fucking Mintberry fucking Crunch.|| - Gary from "All About the Mormons." When Mr. Garrison introduces him to the class, he notes that Gary is a straight-A student and a child actor, and makes it clear that he prefers him to all of the regular characters. Everybody else immediately hates him...unless they talk to him for five minutes, because he's so nice that your anger will quickly dissipate. - Sierra from *Total Drama World Tour* has quite a lot of Mary Sue traits, such as an unusual and nonstandard physical appearance, having a massive crush on a character known for having numerous real-life fangirls, knowing everything about the other characters, and often displaying skill and strength beyond expectations. However, other characters find her creepy and annoying, especially Cody (her aforementioned crush). - *The Venture Bros.*: Brock Sampson is a parody of over-the-top Sociopathic Hero characters. While he does get plenty of asskicking scenes, he is also shown doing less adventurous things with the Ventures (such as helping effeminate Dean put on his plays and/or dressing up for costume competitions), whom he sees as a family unit. In fact, when Femme Fatale Molotov Cocktease invites him to abandon them and join her as a mercenary, he happily tells her that he prefers the Ventures to the moral ambiguity and weirdness of spy work.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodySue

Partial Nudity Tropes - TV Tropes See how much skin is shown, and how much is not shown. Basically, tropes that have one purpose: how much skin can clothing show before it's considered indecent. Of course the amount will vary among cultures, yet any degree is still appealing, which is one of the main reasons these tropes are so often used. And since a lot of people find partial nudity more sexy than full nudity, this also makes many of these tropes fanservice, as well as mildly Not Safe for Work. ## Related: ## Tropes <!—index—> <!—/index—> - Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: An anthropomorphic animal who wears only a hat and/or a collar, but no other clothing. - Barefoot Captives: Prisoners and slaves forced to go without shoes - Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Anthropomorphic animals that don't wear shoes. - Barely-There Swimwear: Characters wearing swimwear so revealing that they may as well just go naked. - Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Female and feminine characters often wear clothes that leave their midriff bared. - "Basic Instinct" Legs-Crossing Parody: Parodying the leg crossing scene, usually while not wearing underwear. - Battle Strip: A character removes clothing before or during a fight. - Chainmail Bikini: Armor which covers only the minimum necessary. - Cleavage Window: A costume with an opening designed into it over the upper chest, exposing the breasts to some degree, The Cleavage Window can be any size. - Does Not Like Shoes: A character is always barefoot. - Dressed Like a Dominatrix: A costume resembling that of a dominatrix. - Exposed to the Elements: A character wears little in spite of being in cold weather. - Fanservice Model: A fashion model that specializes in scanty clothes, like swimsuits, lingerie... or nothing at all. - Final Battle-Induced Shirt Loss: Villain destroys protagonist's shirt during the climax. - Fully-Clothed Nudity: A character is treated or acts as if they are naked even though they are at least wearing underwear or swimwear. - Fur Bikini: A bikini made of animal skin. - Fur Is Clothing: An anthropomorphic animal's fur is treated as clothes that can be removed. Cases will often involve the animal wearing undergarments beneath the fur. - Go-Go Enslavement: A character is forced into wearing revealing clothes. - Going Commando: No underwear. - Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: An anthropomorphic animal either doesn't wear a shirt or doesn't wear pants. - Impossibly-Low Neckline: A woman's top is so far off her shoulders that it's a mystery it doesn't just fall off and expose her breasts completely. - Intimate Open Shirt: A character has their shirt unbuttoned for fanservice. - Leotard of Power: A character wears a leotard. - Monster Modesty: Non-humans depicted as only wearing underwear or shorts. - Naked Apron: A naked character wears an apron over their body. - Navel-Deep Neckline: A woman's outfit which has a neckline cut to or below the midriff. - Navel Window: A character's outfit deliberately shows their belly button but no more of their midriff. - Nipple and Dimed: Women with bare breasts have their nipples censored. - "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: A character dreams they are in a state of undress. - Nude-Colored Clothes: A character appears to be naked simply because their clothes match their skin color. - Old-Timey Ankle Taboo: A character gets turned on by a flash of ankle (or other body part that is usually concealed in their culture). - Open Shirt Taunt: A character opens their shirt to expose their chest and dare someone else to kill them by shooting or stabbing their exposed chest. - Our Nudity Is Different: Characters having a different beliefs on what qualifies as nudity. - Pants-Free: A character who's had their lower body hidden is revealed to be pantsless. - Playboy Bunny: A woman wears bunny ears, a leotard, and leggings. - Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Superheroes wear modest costumes while villains wear costumes that are more revealing. - Sexy Backless Outfit: A woman wears an outfit that leaves her back bare. - Sexy Coat Flashing: A character seduces another by opening their coat to reveal their underwear or their naked body. - Shirtless Captives: A character held prisoner ends up without their shirt. - Shirtless Scene: A character gets a scene where they don't wear a shirt. - Showgirl Skirt: A skirt split down the front to display the character's legs. - Sideboob: A woman wears a top that leaves the sides of her breasts uncovered. - Stocking Filler: Women wearing garters, fishnets, and thigh-highs for fanservice purposes. - Theiss Titillation Theory: Clothing which appears to be in danger of showing something is more titillating that clothing which outright shows it. - Thong of Shielding: As long as the buttcrack itself is covered it's okay. - Toplessness from the Back: All that is seen of a naked or topless woman is her back from the waist up. - Underboobs: A woman wears a top that leaves the underside of her breasts uncovered. - Vapor Wear: Clothing which, by its design, makes it almost impossible for the character to be wearing underwear. - Walking Shirtless Scene: A (usually) male character is (almost) always seen not wearing a shirt. - Walking Swimsuit Scene: A character is almost always seen wearing swimwear. - Zettai Ryouiki: Short skirt plus long stockings, in order to show bare thigh.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PartialNudityTropes

Partially-Concealed-Label Gag - TV Tropes A comedy device where a character misjudges the meaning of a sign or banner because part of it is concealed. This leads to them making a wrong decision which they soon have to regret with hilarious results. Compare Signs of Disrepair, where certain letters of the sign are missing to spell out something different. See Cue Card Pause for when a sentence is misleading because it's incomplete. See Stopped Reading Too Soon for a more dramatic self-inflicted variation of this trope. ## Examples: - In the *Simple Samosa* episode "Maa Mooli", Samosa and his gang are directed to a junkyard to cure Dhokla's bad luck. The outside of the junkyard has a sign on the front that looks like it says "Anger", confusing Samosa, but after the gang goes into the junkyard, some gunk on the sign falls off and reveals the sign actually says "Danger". - In *The Emperor's New Groove*, Yzma tries to poison Kuzco so she can become ruler. Unfortunately, when Kronk pours the potion into Kuzco's drink, he transforms into a llama instead of dying. Yzma then looks at the bottle Kronk used and notices that the label is peeling, unfolding it to reveal that instead of a skull, it is actually a llama silhouette. **Yzma:** This isn't poison, this is extract of *llama!* **Kronk:** You know, in my defense, your poisons all look alike. You might wanna think about relabeling some of them. - Buster Keaton liked this gag: - *The Navigator* has a scene where he has to enter pier 2. He comes across pier 12 where a post covers the "1" on the sign to make it look like pier 2. So he enters the wrong pier and boat and unwillingly ends up on the open sea. - *Seven Chances* features this twice: - In one scene, Buster sees a human-size poster of an attractive actress in front of a theatre and decides to bribe the bouncer to get into her changing room. Then a stagehand comes and removed a crate in front of the poster and reveals that the actress was actually an actor dressed as a lady. Cue Buster coming out of the changing room all bruised up. Watch the scene here. - In another scene, Buster tries to escape a horde of angry women by rushing into a Turkish Bath. What he didn't know was that he actually crashed the Lady's day at the bath. Turns out the sign at the entrance was covered up by a pedestrian. Watch the scene here. - In *Cabin Boy*, a cow is blocking an arrow on a sign; as a result, instead of going to Golden Mist Seaport and boarding the luxury liner the *Queen Catherine*, Nathaniel Mayweather instead goes to Backtown and boards the fishing boat *The Filthy Whore*, triggering the main plot of the film. - *The Smurfs*: Clumsy Smurf sees a sign that appears to read "Go This Way" while running from Gargamel. As he runs in the sign's direction, he bumps a bush covering it, revealing that it says "Do Not Go This Way." The sign actually leads to the dangerous Blue Portal, which takes him to the real world. - In *National Lampoon's European Vacation*, Clark takes the family on a side trip from their game show prize vacation to visit their relatives in Germany. They're looking for house six ("6") and it appears they found it and introduce themselves to the couple living there. Just after they step inside, a leaf falls away from the number sign, revealing that it actually says sixteen ("16"). Clark and his family stay with the couple for a night and leave without ever noticing the couple was not their relatives. - *Paddington (2014)* has Paddington mistake a car for a taxi, but really the door was open, so it reads, "Taxidermist". - In *American Pie*, Finch, who refuses to use the toilets at school, has an acute attack of diarrhea and doesn't have time to get home. Stifler "helpfully" points him to the restroom while covering up the first part of the "Women" sign. Embarrassment ensues. - *Captain Underpants* - In George and Harold's comic about the lunch ladies, a teacher accidentally creates zombies by burying the dead lunch ladies on a hill with a sign saying "bury dead stuff here". After he leaves, lightning strikes a tree covering the sign, revealing it saying: "Warning: this hill is haunted. Whatever you do, DON'T bury dead stuff here." - George and Harold make this a Running Gag in their *Hairy Potty* spin-off comic; the titular werewolf-toilet both enjoys sabotaging signs in this manner and often does so accidentally in his battles with Captain Underpants. For instance, on a billboard reading, "My homemade buttermilk bread smells great! It's awfully good!", he'll crash through the entire right half of the sign so it says "My butt smells awful". One particularly sadistic instance had him laser off a portion of a sign reading "Please drive very slowly over tracks; children at play" to make it "Please drive slowly over chidren". - In *The Dumb Bunnies*, the Bunnies unintentionally steal someone's car at a car wash, since the car was covering up the "WASH" in "FREE CAR WASH". - *Arrested Development:* Tobias is looking for work as an actor, so he goes to a newsstand and grabs what he thinks is an issue of *Actor Pull* magazine. But part of the cover was obscured by the magazine right next to it—he actually grabbed the latest issue of *Tractor Pull*, a magazine for farmers. - *The Benny Hill Show* A sight gag in Hill is standing next to a sign that says "HOMES TO LET." Several attractive women enter the building. They leave, and one of them slaps him in the face. An adjustment is made to the sign: "HOMMES TOILET." - In a similar gag, Benny is putting up a sign saying "JOHN SMITH, THE RAPIST." Jackie comes out gesturing wildly at the sign. Benny moves the lower sign to make it read "JOHN SMITH, THERAPIST." - *Through the Dragon's Eye*: Scott and Boris come across a sign while ascending the mountains of Widge that appears to say "Road Safe." Turns out the Widgets covered the prefix and it actually says "Road *Un*safe." They end up caught in a rockslide moments later. - *Superliminal*: While traversing through a dark, horror-themed area, the player sees a sign through a doorway that reads "DIE". ||Going through the doorway reveals the "sign" to actually be stacked cases which read "DIET SODA"||. - *Pebble and Wren*: When Pebble is looking for a job, he sees a sign saying, "Small monsters". He gets excited because he is a small monster, only to find that the sign actually says, "Small monsters need not apply." - The *Buttersafe* comic "Future Con 2010" parodies this trope. A group of friends plans to attend a science-fiction convention because one of them received a flyer about it. Said friend has held onto the flyer for a week and loudly declares "I haven't even moved my thumb, which is covering what I can only assume is an inconsequential portion of the flyer that, if revealed, would in no way alter the assumptions I've made about what kind of convention this is." We then see that the flyer reads "FU***TURE CON," with said thumb covering up the missing letters—and cut to a group of people dressed as *furniture.* - *Cinematic Titanic:* While watching *Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks*, Trace Beaulieu mentions how much he loves the original novel *Frankenstein*. None of the other riffers were aware of this fact, so Trace shows off his novelty t-shirt to prove it: **Trace Beaulieu:** Why do you think I wear this t-shirt all the time? *[opens his suit jacket to show off the shirt]* **Josh Elvis Weinstein:** *[reading the shirt]* "I Like Frank." *[Trace contorts himself so the rest of the shirt is visible...]* **Josh:** *[continued reading]* "...enstein's Monster." Oh! **Frank Conniff:** I always thought that shirt was about me! I'm a little sad now. - *PeanutButterGamer*: In his "Goodwill Games #9" video, PBG plays the PC adaptation of *Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?*. While playing the game, he refers to the character of Edward as "Ard" due to the first half of Edward's name tag being obscured by Logan's head. - *Search for Sandvich*: The Medic watches the Sniper's video of Twin Peaks. However, the Medic pauses the video on a frame where the town's name is partially off-camera, and he deduces that they must be in a place called "Twin Pea". - At the beginning of Scott The Woz's episode on *Star Fox Zero*, Scott is seen chugging a bottle of "Ru Alcohol", with his thumb partially on the label, stating that if there's anything underneath his thumb, it can wait until later. At the end of the episode, Scott finally moves his thumb to discover that the "Ru Alcohol" he's been drinking is actually rubbing alcohol. **Scott:** That's where the death-y aftertaste came from! I should really work on my thumb placement more. *(Passes out on desk)* - *The Simpsons* is big on this: - In the "Itchy and Scratchy" sketch in "Cape Feare", Itchy purposely covers up the letter "s" on an advertisement board reading "We spay your pet - $75" so it would read "We pay your pet - $75". Scratchy falls for the offer and ends up Strapped to an Operating Table. Watch the scene here. - In the episode "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", Homer is at an air show where he spots a banner beyond a crowd of people advertising "Free Duff". Overjoyed, he heads over to the counter and empties 8 cups at once. Then the crowd dissolves and we get a better look at the banner which actually reads "Alcohol-Free Duff - $6". Homer has to resort to a fake Fainting attack in order to get out of paying those $48. Watch the scene here. - In the "Treehouse of Horror I" segment "Hungry Are the Damned" (a parody of *To Serve Man*), Lisa finds a cookbook titled "How To Cook Humans". One of the aliens blows dust off the cover, revealing the title says "How To Cook **For** Humans". Then Lisa blows more dust, showing "How To Cook **Forty** Humans", then the alien takes the book back and blows off even more dust, showing the full title "How To Cook For Forty Humans". - In "Bart of Darkness", Bart thinks Ned Flanders has murdered his wife and sends Lisa into his house to investigate. Lisa goes to the freezer and pulls out a green bag labeled "human head", horrifying her and Bart. She is relieved after wiping off more frost, revealing it to be a "Sc **human** Farms **head** of lettuce". - In "The Springfield Files", Homer finds a sign that reads "DIE" while stumbling around Springfield drunk. He screams in horror, then the wind blows a tree out of the way, revealing the sign to say "DIET." Homer screams even louder at this. - "And Maggie Makes Three" tells the story of Maggie's birth. Homer quits his job at the power plant to work at a bowling alley, but he has to return to the power plant eventually because he makes more money working there and he needs to support Maggie. When he returns, Mr. Burns puts a plaque over his desk that reads "Don't forget, you're here forever." In the present day, Homer has now put pictures of Maggie over the plaque, making it read "Do it for her." - In "Homer Defined", Homer almost causes a nuclear meltdown when he ignores the core temperature gauge on his dashboard, which was obscured by excess jelly from a donut he was eating. **Homer:** Okay, okay, don't panic. Whoever's problem this is, I'm sure they know how to handle it. *(at this point, the increasing heat causes an air bubble to blow from the stain and burst, revealing the gauge behind it)* - In "They Saved Lisa's Brain", Lisa sees Reverend Lovejoy driving the "Book Mobile" and she advises him to get *Fahrenheit 451*. As the van moves away from the branch hiding part of the vehicle, the slogan is revealed to actually be "Book **Burning** Mobile". - In "Midnight Towboy", Homer is driving around in search of milk, but none of the places he goes to have any. At one point, he sees a sign, partially obscured by a tree, which appears to say "MILK", but actually reads "Mr. T Is the Lion King". - In "Apocalypse Cow", Homer is going to save Bart's cow, Lou, from slaughter. He looks through binoculars and sees a "laughter house," which he likes the idea of. He zooms out and notices it's a slaughterhouse, and screams. - In this official Sky 1 channel bumper that aired in the UK, Scratchy is being wheeled through a hospital and sees a sign that reads "A&E" (an emergency room). He gets closer and finds it to be a Super Killing L **ase**r. While Scratchy remains initially unharmed from the laser, the operating table he's strapped to flips over and is then shattered by the laser, cutting him apart. - In "Treehouse of Horror XVI", Bart gets into a fight at the zoo. He lands in the peacock habitat, and is relieved, until a peacock moves and reveals it to be a *mutant* peacock habitat. The peacocks reveal their many eyes and close in on Bart. - In "Lost Our Lisa", Lisa gets lost taking the wrong bus and stumbles upon a military base. **Lisa:** How could I confuse Bus 22 with 22A? Area 51? Ha, I found Area 51! **Guard:** No, ma'am. [steps back] This is Area 51-A. - "From Beer to Paternity" does it three times in quick succession, with Duffman entering what he thinks is a bar for women and spraying them with beer, before being chased out by a bunch of angry female lawyers. These three buildings are the **Women's Bar** Association, **Ladies' Pub**lic Defenders Society, and Women's Le **gal Dive**rsity Initiative. The first two times, the concealed word was covered up by pigeons, so Duffman shooed the pigeons away from the third one before barging in, only for that sign to be a faulty neon sign. - Inverted in the *SpongeBob SquarePants* episode "Krusty Koncessionaires", which features Mr. Krabs with a new advertising banner for the Krusty Krab: The Krusty Krab Krabby Patties are yummy Please your face Tonight would be great! - However, the banner gets bent as he tries to get it up on the concert stage, it reads - The Krusty Krab Krummy Place To eat! - The crowd isn't impressed. - *Tiny Toon Adventures*: In "Venison, Anyone?" (part of "Mr. Popular's Rule of Cool"), Montana Max tries to hunt a street-smart deer named Vinnie. At one point, Vinnie stands in front of a sign that appears to say, **DEER CAVE**, and tricks Monty into going into the cave. However, his head and his right arm were blocking out the rest of the sign, revealing it to say, **DEER KEEP OUT! BEAR CAVE**. - *BoJack Horseman*: In "Hooray! Todd Episode!", Todd attends a fashion show as a celebrity's date. He reads a sign as "El Entrance" and, assuming it's Spanish, walks in to join the audience. However, a toucan's beak was blocking the sign, which really said " *Model* Entrance," and Todd ends up on the runway. - *Hey Arnold!*: In "Oskar Can't Read?", as a final test to see if Oskar has conquered his illiteracy and learned to read, Arnold drops him off in a far-off part of town with written directions on how to get back home. When Oskar gets to the part where he has to take a subway to Sheffingtown, he looks up at the train schedule, which is partially obscured by a cart carrying a tall stack of luggage. The sign reads that a train going toward "Sheffing" is in one direction, and Oskar goes that way. Then the cart moves aside, and we see that Oskar has boarded a train to Sheffing **ston**—the Sheffing **town** train was the other way. - A variant happens in a *Robot Chicken* sketch, where the Wonder Pets rescue a baby cow. They think the cow is sad and bring him to a nearby building labelled "Laughterhouse" to cheer him up. However, the owner of the building then arrives and comments that he forgot to paint the letter "S" on his *slaughterhouse*. - In the *CatDog* episode "Battle of the Bands", Catdog joins a "battle of the bands" contest after seeing a poster that reads "Battle of the Bands, Nearburg's Best", along with a $1,000 reward. Part of the poster flies off and lands at the Greasers' feet, instead reading "Battle of Nearburg's Best". The Greasers enter the battle too but mistake it for a literal fight rather than a music battle between bands. - In the *Arthur* episode "Arthur Rides the Bandwagon", Arthur tries to buy a Woogles toy being a fad, but all stores have sold out of them. He spotted a street vendor he believed was selling them and bought one. The vendor moved the watch display uncovering the first letter revealing to be Poogles to the audience accompanied by a Losing Horns background sound and Buster's disgust as he walks by. - *Futurama:* In "Proposition Infinity", Bender goes on a graffiti spree, posting pixel-art pictures of his own face in all kinds of inconvenient places. At one point he puts the picture on a traffic sign reading "FREEWAY ENDS AT NEXT CORNER", covering up just enough of the message to make it instead read "FREE CORN". Immediately after, the Hyper-Chicken drives by, gets excited at the prospect of free corn, then crashes his car into the end of the freeway.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PartiallyConcealedLabelGag

Parody Retcon - TV Tropes Lesson learned: Don't sleep with your Literature professor. *"I contend that making a film that's only part satire is hedging your bet, in a sense saying 'if you like it and think it's good, then it's a good movie. If you think it stinks, then I meant it to be funny.' It's the coward's way to make a movie."* A parody retcon is when a creator, in response to negative critical reaction to his or her work, handwaves the work's failings by claiming that it was supposed to be a parody all along, and that in fact the critic is wrong for taking it seriously. It's a subtrope of the Deliberate Flaw Retcon. In general, people won't believe a creator who says this. However, with Poe's Law being what it is, sometimes this will happen even if the creator really *did* intend the work to be a parody but was too subtle with it or didn't go far enough with it. Bottom line — if you have to explain to people that they shouldn't take it seriously, you'd better have solid evidence that this is the case. See also I Meant to Do That, "Just Joking" Justification, External Retcon, and Author's Saving Throw. The direct opposite of a Denied Parody, which is when people think it's a parody when the creator intended it to be taken seriously. Not to be confused with parodying retcons. ## Examples: - Frank Miller claimed that his notorious *All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder* was intended to be a parody. It's complicated by the fact that he said this to people who liked it. No one's certain if he's telling the truth. - Joe Madureira has claimed that Red Monika's ridiculous proportions in *Battle Chasers* were a parody of sexy women in other comics. And has always done so — even in the original run of the short-lived comic, during which there was little to no controversy regarding said character's proportions. That means he's probably telling the truth, but whether or not it was *effective* parody is another story. - Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's *Fighting American* (an Expy of their more popular creation Captain America) started off as a dead serious book about Commie-smashing. When the anti-Communist Witch Hunts of Joe McCarthy began to fall out of favor with Americans, Simon and Kirby quickly tried to retool the series into a tongue-in-cheek parody of Red Scare stories. It didn't work, and the title was cancelled after just seven issues. - Neil Gaiman mentions in *The Sandman Companion* how he initially envisioned the character Thessaly as a satire of the "new-age pagans" who popped up in feminist circles in the 1980s and '90s, marketing themselves as a Lighter and Softer version of traditional witchcraft: Thessaly, despite looking like a new-age witch, is more of a jerk and practices a very brutal version of witchcraft. As of the 2010's, however, Thessaly, and her premiere story "A Game of You", has been criticized for transphobic and gender-essentialist overtones. Gaiman has since claimed that Thessaly was specifically based on an actual trans-exclusionary radical feminist he'd encountered, and that readers weren't supposed to agree with her dismissive attitudes towards the transgender character; others argue that this is undermined by Thessaly otherwise being the most competent character in the arc. - *The Room* is probably the most famous example. Tommy Wiseau (director, writer, and star) intended the film to be a dramatic melodrama, only for it to be So Bad, It's Good and critically panned on its release. The film's "fans" asked him if he meant the film to be funny, and in a fit of Ascended Fanon, he started calling it a Black Comedy (it even says so on the DVD case). Everyone else involved with the production claims that Wiseau treated the project with the utmost seriousness during filming, and they further suspect that the whole affair plot was based on a real past relationship of Wiseau's. Most fans of the movie are inclined not to believe Wiseau, if for no other reason that he only started calling it a "black comedy" when the idea was suggested to him, and he still describes the film's contents in melodramatic, passionate terms. - *Mommie Dearest* is perhaps the Trope Codifier. After its poor initial reception, Paramount started advertising it as a parody a few weeks after its release, changing its movie posters to proclaim, "Meet the biggest MOTHER of them all!" - *Deafula* was said to be a parody, and was even renamed *Young Deafula* in some places. The director's reason for the conspicuous lack of jokes? Only deaf people would get it. - Roland Emmerich claimed that *Independence Day* was supposed to be a comedy all along. Opinion is split on whether to believe him, because it's a rare example of a film that was very successful when appreciated straight, and because it has enough humor and Shout Outs ( *e.g.* flying saucers, Area 51, Brent Spiner playing a scientist) to be an edge case. - M. Night Shyamalan claimed that *The Happening* was a parody of B movies in an attempt to downplay its critical curb-stomping. No one believed him. - *The Concorde... Airport '79* was marketed as a comedy after critics pointed out all of its unintentionally hilarious scenes. It still didn't help at the box office. In fact, this was so indicative of the impending death of the air disaster movie genre that it paved the way for *Airplane!* to do a full-on parody and finish the job. - *Monster a-Go Go* was claimed to be a parody of some sort by Gordon Lewis, although *what* exactly it's supposed to parody is unclear. - *Rat Pfink A Boo Boo* starts out serious, but apparently halfway through, the director (Ray Dennis Steckler, the same guy who directed *The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies*) got bored and decided to film the rest of it as a comedy/parody. - The lead actress of *Space Mutiny* claimed that the whole thing was in fact a spoof of the sci-fi genre (possibly trying to save face after its appearance on *Mystery Science Theater 3000*). This might explain the cheesy sets and costumes, as well as the bizarre "ancient dentistry" scene. It doesn't explain why, of the three directors that worked on the film, one wanted his name removed, another has his buried deep in the credits, and the third isn't listed at all. - Stephen King claimed that his So Bad, It's Good film *Maximum Overdrive* (which he wrote and directed) was a deliberate homage to bad movies such as *Plan 9 from Outer Space* after it received bad reviews. Apparently, he was hoping that audiences had forgotten the trailers which clearly presented it as a horror film, with King himself promising the audience, "I will scare the hell out of you." However, he later acknowledged on more than one occasion that the film sucked, calling it a "moron movie". - Claudio Fragasso tried pulling this off with *Troll 2* after the release of the documentary about it, *Best Worst Movie*. The people who worked with him on the film say otherwise; he apparently thought he was a genius. There *are* moments in the film that are meant to be amusing in their own right, such as ||Elliot abruptly appealing to diplomacy in a showdown with the Goblins|| or the reveal of ||the secret weapon as being a double-decker baloney sandwich||, but they were clearly written as a counterpoint to a genuine attempt at horror. - *There's Nothing Out There* is quite clearly a parody, but the DVD commentary hangs a lampshade on the phenomenon, as the filmmakers jocularly insist that everything that didn't work was a parody but that everything that did was serious. - *Wild Things* is generally seen as a Guilty Pleasure if nothing else, but the sheer volume of unintentional hilarity has lead some to hypothesize that it may have been a Stealth Parody of erotic thrillers all along. It was directed by an indie filmmaker with a history of making clever movies, and it gives a juicy (and funny) supporting role to a well-known comedian in Bill Murray, so the hypothesis isn't unreasonable. - *The Wicker Man (2006)* remake by Neil LaBute was widely panned. Its star Nicolas Cage insists that it shouldn't be taken seriously, noting that he stopped doing so himself when he punched out a woman while wearing a bear suit. "You dont karate chop Leelee Sobieski in the throat and not know how absurd that is, but its just not something I would like to talk about. I would rather let them discover it on their own, but I think I learned a lot of that kind of off the wall kind of stuff watching Stanley Kubrick , because his movies were incredibly funny, but you never really knew how much was planned or accident, you know?" - *Secretariat* was largely well received, but one reviewer, Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com, gave it an extremely bizarre negative review. Among other things, he accused the movie of being racist (and pro-Tea Party) simply because the Hispanic "villain" was "terrorist-flavored" and his horse's name, Sham, implies evil. (This despite the film being Based on a True Story, so those elements all happened in Real Life.) He also used the director's Christianity to compare the movie to the works of Leni Reifenstahl. When Roger Ebert, himself a liberal, took issue with the review, O'Hehir tried to claim he was just being hyperbolic, and that it was "supposed to be funny, and also to provoke a response." Few believed him; if nothing else, Poe's Law would have been working against him. - It's now claimed that *R.O.T.O.R.* was a parody all along, despite the poster, video box, description, and advertising not saying a word about it. - George Clooney made the mistake of playing it straight in *Batman & Robin*, unlike virtually all of his co-stars, although ironically this *does* fit the tradition of Batman's character being depicted as The Comically Serious. Clooney, however, has subsequently claimed that he played the character as gay. - *Manos: The Hands of Fate* was originally billed as a horror movie but became famously So Bad, It's Good, enough to pick up a cult following. The director responded that it worked better as a parody and suggested that it might be even funnier if it got a Gag Dub — and did so even before the *Mystery Science Theater 3000* episode proved him right and made the movie more famous. - *United Passions* is a film about the formative years of world soccer governing body FIFA, which was widely panned for being melodramatic and glossing over the organization's history of corruption — especially given that FIFA was in the midst of a serious corruption scandal at the time of the film's release. The stars later tried to claim that they knew people wouldn't take kindly to the film and tried to make the characters look as cartoonish and ridiculous as possible — especially Tim Roth, who played FIFA chief Sepp Blatter, who in real life was forced to resign as part of the scandal. - *Showgirls* was savaged by critics and audiences when it came out, but has since attracted a fairly large cult following, in part from the contention that it's meant to be a satire. Opinions differ on whether it was supposed to be garden-variety So Bad, It's Good, a deconstruction of the traditional Rags to Riches story (like *A Star Is Born* or *All About Eve*), a satire of the Vegas entertainment scene, or even an indictment of fame and pop culture in general. But it's definitely not meant to be taken seriously. - Inverted with *The Incredible Melting Man*. The director has gone on record to say that he intended it from the start to be a parody of monster flicks (which considering its ridiculous premise and being made about 20 years after the heyday of such movies in the 1950s, isn't hard to believe), but that the final product *isn't* one. It ended up being a hot mess thanks to Executive Meddling, when the studio insisted that he play it all straight against his wishes. - *Back to the Future*, per film legend, was nearly called *Spaceman From Pluto* at the insistence of a meddling executive. He went as far as to send Steven Spielberg a note asking for this change, along with a few suggestions for how to work the title into the movie (because it had nothing to do with the movie otherwise). Spielberg responded by thanking the exec for the joke note and telling him how everyone found it really funny — and the executive was too proud to admit he was serious and went along with it. - Discussed in *John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch*, when John, questioned by the kids if the special is supposed to be sincere or ironic, muses that it's entirely up to critical reception in the end, and decides that that's the first lesson of the day: pretending to know what you're doing will make you successful. "Um, well, first off, I *like* doing the show. I mean, The Sack Lunch Bunch is fun. But honestly, like, if this doesn't turn out great, I think we should all be like, 'oh, it was ironic'. And then people will be like, 'oh, that's hilarious'. But if it turns out very good, be like, 'oh, thank you, we worked really hard', and act fake-humble, and then you win either way." - Isaac Asimov's "First Law": When this story was republished in *The Rest of the Robots*, Dr Asimov prefaced the story by pointing out that this was a Donovan story, not an Asimov story. When it was republished in *The Complete Robot*, he warns the audience that this story is not to be taken seriously. This is because the robot in this story breaks the First Law due to a motherly instinct, which robots aren't programmed with. - L. Ron Hubbard's publishers claimed that *Battlefield Earth* was meant to be satirical in response to criticism. Which makes no sense, because Hubbard himself intended the book to describe a historical event critical to the beliefs of the religion he founded. - Maradonia Saga: Following the release of a book trailer that could charitably be called "amateurish", Gloria Tesch's publicist responded to criticism by classifying the trailer as "obviously comic satire". Much like her books, nobody bought it. - Valerie Solanas wrote *The SCUM Manifesto*, which among other things calls for "the eradication of men". People didn't notice until ten years later, when she became famous for trying to kill Andy Warhol, and she claimed it was satirical (in the vein of *A Modest Proposal*). No word on whether the assassination attempt was "satirical", however. - *First Night 2013* was a live New Year's Eve countdown special on local television in Los Angeles that quickly went viral because it was a trainwreck on practically every level (technical glitches, uncensored profanity, has-been musical guests, missing the actual countdown, *etc.*). Host Jaime Kennedy quickly (and unsurprisingly) invoked this trope. - Ricky Gervais did this after criticism of *Derek*. Before it aired, he spoke often about how he had "dropped the veil of irony" and committed to making a sincere comedy-drama. People panned it for being Narmy, particularly its sad music montages, which Gervais would claim were there to give the verisimilitude of a cloying documentary — while at the same time retweeting comments earnestly praising the sequences for their emotional power. - An in-universe example happens in *Victorious* episode "Jade Dumps Beck". Robbie is forced to review Trina's one woman show before opening night. Predictably, the show is terrible, but Trina harasses and threatens Robbie until he gives her show a good review. After telling André the play was "So bad, it was laughable", André suggests that Robbie review it like a comedy, which he does. Trina is furious at first, but after getting a standing ovation on show night, she goes along with it. - South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts wasn't being a racist when he called Nikki Haley, a Republican candidate for his state's governor and an ethnic Punjabi who converted to Methodist Christianity from Sikhism, a "raghead" (and Barack Obama a secret Muslim in the same breath). He was being *satirical*. And just quoting a *Saturday Night Live* skit that exists only in his head. - During the 2010 UK general election, the makers of Marmite threatened legal action after the super far-right British National Party included a jar of the product in one of their videos. The BNP originally claimed their video had been a parody, and only later admitted that it was a mistake. - During the 2011 US national budget meetings, former Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl spoke in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood by claiming that "over 90%" of the organization's services were abortions. After it was revealed that only 3% of their services (and 11% of visits) were abortions, Senator Kyl claimed that he was exaggerating and that his claim was "not intended to be a factual statement". - Ray Comfort now claims that his infamous "Banana: The Atheist's Worst Nightmare" argument was satire. The video argues for intelligent design by showing how the banana is apparently perfect for human consumption — ignoring the fact that this is because of centuries of selection and cross-breeding by humans, and that wild bananas are much less human-friendly (with thicker skins, sour flesh, and large inedible seeds). No one on any side of the debate could figure out what it was even supposed to satirize; it was very clearly just an unresearched argument that blew up in his face. - Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson claims he was only joking when he was voicing his concern for Guam capsizing. - In late 2013, *Slate*'s Aisha Harris made a case for more inclusiveness when it came to who portrayed Santa Claus, prompting then-Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly to offer her take on the issue, which led to her saying that "Santa just is white." Several pundits, including Jon Stewart, took her to task for it, leading her to clarify her remarks and say they were "tongue-in-cheek." Stewart found that rather difficult to believe. - Thomas Friedman got some attention for his Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention: "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's", a folksy attempt to express the logical (but not foolproof) opinion that economically stable countries have few incentives to go to war. First published in a 1996 *New York Times* column, he also featured it in his 1999 book *The Lexus and the Olive Tree*, and apparently meant it in utter seriousness. Weeks after the book was published, forces of the McDonald's-happy NATO countries bombed Yugoslavia, with a few McDonald's locations sustaining damage. Critics also found earlier cases of conflict between two countries with McDonald's. In response, Friedman claimed that his theory was done "with tongue slightly in cheek". - After the pornographic Atari 2600 game *Custer's Revenge* received heavy criticism, the president of the company that created it said "our object is not to arouse, our object is to entertain". This despite the fact that its cartridge calls it "erotica". - *Far Cry 3* lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem responded to criticism of the game's use of Mighty Whitey by announcing that the plot was actually a satire. No one believed him. - When the next-gen version of *Call of Duty: Ghosts* was revealed, one of the promoted features was "fish that moved out of the way you got near them". Gamers were quick to point out this was not a new thing, specifically pointing to *Super Mario 64* (which came out *17 years earlier*). They since then said it was a joke, despite not sounding like one. - *Final Fantasy*: - A lot of *Final Fantasy V*'s fans argue against criticism of the game's Lighter and Softer nature, daft Cliché Storm elements, and Large Ham Generic Doomsday Villain Big Bad by insisting it's a parody of *Final Fantasy* games as a whole. There are a few sequences that qualify as parody of how these games tend to go down (Bartz waking up from a meaningful dream about his destiny to discover his party staring at him freaking out, the whole Solve the Soup Cans sequence with the Ronkan door switch), but for the most part it's a normal *Final Fantasy* with jokes in. This trope was, however, invoked for the Game Boy Advance remake, which re-translated the game in a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek fashion, with such gems as Bartz declaring a Giant Enemy Crab has "been served" and a librarian's advice to "take a look, it's in this book." - In 2011, PETA created *Super Tanooki Skin 2D*, a game about a tanuki trying to reclaim its skinned fur from Mario, and said that the Mario games were sending the message that it was okay to wear fur. After the expected backlash and an official statement from Nintendo, PETA claimed it was all "tongue-in-cheek". PETA did the same with *Pokémon* in *Pokémon Black and Blue*. - *Watch_Dogs* has been interpreted by some as being a Deconstruction of typical video game protagonists with protagonist, Aiden Pearce, being a Failure Hero and Hypocrite who ruins his family's life with his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. When asked about this, writer Kevin Shortt said it was entirely intentional. The best evidence is this is true is interviews have cited *Breaking Bad* as an influence on Aiden. - In *Ozy and Millie*, Millie tries to do this with *one of her school assignments*. - *Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal* parodies this with the page image (original comic here). - *Sonichu* creator Christine Weston Chandler insists that the webcomic is a parody, but it's not clear what she's even trying to satirize. It turns out that she was worried about avoiding copyright infringement and had heard that parodies qualify as Fair Use (this didn't stop her from absolutely flying off the handle when she saw *actual* parodies of her work, such as *Asperchu*). - Used In-Universe in *The Order of the Stick,* due to it having No Fourth Wall. Zz'dtri the drow wizard is initially defeated after Vaarsuvius points out that he's a ripoff of a copyrighted character, causing the Lawyers to appear and drag him away. He returned years later, stating that he got off by declaring himself a parody. Out-of-universe, the satire was never really open to question. - In-universe example in *Darths & Droids*: Jim's unseen campaign was intended to be "the GREATEST DRAMATIC STORY EVER!" When the others tell him it was hilarious, he replies "I completely intended it to be hilarious." - In-Universe example in the *Bravoman* webcomic. Brave Man is very obviously a Captain Ersatz of Bravoman, which the titular hero is angry about because Brave Man is stealing his popularity. The end of his first appearance has him getting beaten up by a pair of angry lawyers, which Bravoman happily takes as karmic payback. When Brave Man appears again, Bravoman asks if he should be in copyright infringement jail, to which Brave Man responds that he got out of that situation by declaring himself a parody. - In *Mr. Boop*, this is one potential interpretation of whatever the heck is happening in-universe over Book IV. Alec tells new Love Interest Liz that he drew the *Mr. Boop* comic as a joke to make his friends laugh and kept running with it when it became popular, but the rest of the storyline makes it very clear that he really *is* obsessively in love with Betty Boop and drawn to the Self-Insert Fic fantasy the comic depicted, as his "Journal Comic" *Mr. Mr. Boop* increasingly becomes indistinguishable from *Mr. Boop*, with Liz slowly transmuting into Betty. note : Out-of-universe, of course, the whole thing was obviously a joke from day 1. Probably. - The Irate Gamer commonly does this, either in response to accusations of plagiarism of other Caustic Critics like The Angry Video Game Nerd and Armake21, or in response to pointing out mistakes in his videos (when he doesn't re-edit the video, delete the comments, and pretend the mistake was never there). - Discussed in the *Folding Ideas* episode, "Asian Girlz": Dan thinks this is not really that good of an excuse because satire can done badly. The example he uses is the eponymous song "Asian Girlz" — it was accused of fetishizing Asian women, so the band claimed it was satire, but the song doesn't offer any criticism of said fetishization and thus fails at satirizing it. - The creators of *CinemaSins* have usually responded to critique of their videos by claiming that they're intended to be satirical, and that the narrator of the series is more of a "character" who represents anal-retentive Caustic Critics on the Internet. They also claim that a certain percentage of the sins written for each video are intentionally wrong "as a joke". Since none of them are actually *presented* in such a way, how do you know which are which? Well, if you can prove the point wrong, then that was obviously one of the "intentionally wrong" sins and you just missed the joke! - Let's Players who are known for complaining about video games being hard when they're really not very good at them (like Game Grumps) occasionally deflect criticism by claiming that they're playing poorly on purpose and portraying a character who sucks entertainingly and blames everything but himself. While the "Let's Play Curse" is a known phenomenon in the genre, the problem with these Let's Players is that they generally *don't* suck entertainingly, often forcing the viewer to watch them try the same thing several times and fail in baffling ways (like getting stuck or ignoring game mechanics), and their complaints sound too genuine to be acting. - The "social experiment" variant of the trope is a popular Internet meme, referring to a person who would make an inflammatory post, get a negative response, and respond that he wasn't serious and that it was all a "social experiment" to get a rise out of people. It's actually fairly common for people to do this for real, but they're not fooling anyone. The more enterprising posters will even mock people for "falling for it"◊. A variant of the variant is the "I was only pretending to be r***" meme. - To try and prove that he played *Donkey Kong* on original hardware, now-disgraced competitive video gamer Billy Mitchell once released a video in which he ostensibly swapped the circuit board of an arcade cabinet. However, the video clearly shows him putting the same board back into the cabinet that he took out. When questioned about this, he claimed that the video was *satire*, a claim that was hard to take seriously, as it was never presented as such, and the only way to detect the supposed "satire" was to identify the minor physical differences between *Donkey Kong* and *Donkey Kong Jr.* boards in Mitchell's dark, grainy, out-of-focus footage. The claim was completely ruined when photographs of the machine circulated, showing that even if the board was as he said it was, the *joystick* was replaced with an eight-way stick (which is illegal in competitive *Donkey Kong*). - Used In-Universe in *The Cleveland Show*: A playground kid mocks Rallo's "stupid rap," and Rallo replies that it's a joke band, "like Spinal Tap, or Aerosmith". - Used In-Universe in *The Fairly OddParents!* when Timmy releases an action movie at a film festival, he wins an award because everyone thinks it's a comedy, and accepts it. - Used In-Universe in the *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* episode "The Show Stoppers", in which the Cutie Mark Crusaders' musical performance at a talent show is given a comedy award, which the CMC gracefully accept. - *The Simpsons*: "The Principal and the Pauper" remains notorious for its retconning of Skinner's backstory, claiming that he took over the "real" Skinner's identity after he disappeared in The Vietnam War. Ken Keeler defended it by saying that it was supposed to be a joke on people who proclaim that They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. The problem with that is that people didn't just criticize it for the retcon; they also didn't like that barring the conclusion, the situation and Skinner's angst are more or less completely Played for Drama, with very few jokes made on the whole topic and some incredibly maudlin music and dialogue. Then again, Keeler has also suggested that the message may have been garbled somewhere in development.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyRetcon

Semi-Divine - TV Tropes *"Open your eyes, let's begin. * Yes, it's really me, it's Maui: breathe it in! I know it's a lot: the hair, the **bod!** When you're staring at a demigod!" A character that's not a fully supernatural being (such as a god, angel, demon, spirit in general, abomination, etc.), but has a touch of it or more in them. The character may be the offspring/descendant of supernatural creatures and mortals, or is part of a race that's inherently part-supernatural or in between. For that matter, the character might have even become part-supernatural as a boon from the Powers That Be or their own personal attempt to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. The reverse can also happen, as a fully supernatural being Descends from a Higher Plane of Existence and winds up with a "mere" fraction of their former supernatural touch. These characters tend to exhibit several superpowers, and if they aren't outright immortal, they're almost guaranteed to be Long-Lived. They may or may not qualify as Humanoid Abominations (who themselves have a high chance of being this character type), and that's if they look humanoid in the first place. Often the result of a Divine Date. Changelings are also frequently found to be some mix of human and faerie. Divine Parentage, being Touched by Vorlons and a Deal with the Devil are common origins for this type of character. Having a piece of a magical being in you may also count. The Antichrist is almost always an example. One can think of these characters as beings that are partly Made of Magic (or spirit-like beings in general). As can be derived from the title, part-divine characters are one of the (if not, *the*) most common examples, which is unsurprising, considering the fact that many gods in mythology have had rather promiscuous lifestyles, and this would naturally extend to modern-day fiction. It should be noted, however, that this trope applies to any mix or midway between "normal" and purely supernatural beings, so this isn't limited to the literal Semi-Divine. ## Examples - The Grim Reapers of *Black Butler*, described by Sebastian as intermediate "between Man and God". - *A Certain Magical Index* has Saints, powerful people on the Magic side who are born with a portion of the Son of God's power in them. There are less than 20 of them in the world. - All of the *Claymores* are half-human and half-youma ||except for Clare, who is only one-quarter youma||. They're born human and become half-youma by taking youma flesh into their bodies. A fallen Claymore warrior is called an "Awakened One" and is *far* more powerful than a pure-blooded youma. - *Dragon Ball*: - Goku and Vegeta as they can transform into Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (aka "Super Saiyan Blue"), becoming literal Physical Gods. - Goku takes this a step further with Ultra Instinct, an achievement of power that leaves Beerus and the rest of the Gods of Destruction shaking in their boots for a while. - In *Dragon Ball Super*, ||Goku Black is another example, being Zamasu inside Goku's body, and can transform into Super Saiyan Rose, another godly form. Fusion Zamasu, having merged with the demi-god Goku Black, is also a demi-god by default||. - *Naruto*: Anybody who gets the Rinnegan (and can use its powers) possess the Six Paths Technique that basically makes them a demigod. To elaborate, the first of the Six Paths allows the user to summon powerful creatures, and see through their vision. The second allows them to absorb chakra, allowing them to negate most ninjutsu. The third rips out people's souls through physical contact. The fourth mutates the user's body into essentially a cyborg with multiple abilities, including firing lasers and missiles. The fifth can summon a gigantic hellish head that can heal any injury by crunching people in its mouth. The sixth manipulates gravity, and can create mini-black holes. Despite its name, there's actually a seventh power that allows the user to create chakra transceivers that can control corpses, people, and Tailed-Beasts alike if stabbed to their bodies, and allows the user to channel the powers of one of the other Six Paths at the controlled puppets, and see through their eyes too. Oh, and the seventh Path can also resurrect people Back from the Dead. The only thing that keeps a user of the Six Paths Techinique from being a full-scale god is the fact that they still have mortal lifespan. - *Sailor Moon*: Sailor Pluto, who is the daughter of the god of time, "Chronos". King Endymion in Act 13, says: "The blood of the god of time, "Chronos", runs through her veins.", and the incantation to use the Space-Time Key has "the almighty god of time, the guardian of time's father, Chronos!", and Sailor Pluto is that guardian of time. - Captain Marvel: "I'm not a man ... I'm not a god ... but you, Billy: you're both." - Jesse Custer in Garth Ennis' *Preacher* series, who is Blessed with Suck by unwittingly becoming the host for Genesis, a spirit that is half-angel and half-demon. This gives Jessie a Compelling Voice superpower with almost no limits, and it also gives him more problems than he can count. - *The Spectre* qualifies, as he's a dead human who is the host of (the angel that represents) God's Wrath/Vengeance. - Wonder Woman was originally a clay statue blessed by Aphrodite, then by 5 female goddess and Hermes, with special gifts and powers. In the New 52, its retconned that she is actually a daughter of Zeus. - As in mythology Hippolyta is the daughter of Ares and the mortal woman who founded the Amazons and acted as their first queen. - Cassie Sandsmark, the second Wonder Girl, was the daughter of Zeus and a human mother. - In one of her many retconned origins, Donna Troy was a "Titan Seed", orphaned children rescued by the Titans of Greek Myth and granted superpowers by them. - Originally, the Amazons had superpowers as a result of a training method which taught them to channel psychic energy into their muscles. Following the DC reboot of the 1980s, the Amazons were reimagined as a race of superhuman women created by the goddesses of Olympus (and Hermes) using the souls of women who had been murdered by men across time. - Hellboy has the appearance of a Big Red Devil, but a flashback in a later story reveals he's the child of a human witch and a demon lord. And a slightly later story reveals that his right hand—an oversized stone appendage—came from a Hyperborean statue infused with the same magic that the Archons used to create the world. Which makes Hellboy part-human, part-devil, and part-angel. - *Teen Titans* - Raven is the daughter of a human woman named Arella and an inter-dimensional demon lord named Trigon. This often allows her father to take control of her. - Lilith Clay was revealed to be the daughter of Thia a Titan of Myth who plotted to overthrow the gods of Olympus. Following the first reboot of the DC universe this, origin was erased. - *Child of the Storm* has a few: - Harry Potter is depicted as a demigod. At first, this does exactly nothing, since it takes a while to really kick in (and then tends to be more of a hindrance than a help, given that the sudden jumps in Super Strength leave him mortally afraid of accidentally breaking someone). Later, on the other hand... - Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hercules and Hippolyta, also appears. - In *Codex Equus*, demigods are mentioned, with many being heroes in various cultures, though a few of them have gotten prominent focus. - It turns out Party Ponies with strange abilities like Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich likely are this trope: Pakak had twin daughters, Katharsis and Arlequin, with his wife, Shady of G1, who in turn ascended to godhood and had children of their own and thus distant descendants, leading to similar powers to Pakak's Toon Physics powers showing up in a very diluted form. Though this would mean the divine blood is *extremely* diluted by now. - Every Royal Changeling is a demigod, due to Blackrose and Blackthorn having multiple flings with mortals from different races. This makes them more powerful than the Common Changeling, being stronger, smarter, tougher, and magically more powerful as well as possessing a natural aura that attracts Common Changelings to them. Unfortunately, their divine heritage also gives them an strong sense of entitlement, seeing themselves (and their Parents) as the rightful rulers of Changelingkind and treating their "rebellious" subjects as ungrateful, disobedient children for leaving their Court. Luminiferous notes that ironically, *Thorax*, a lowly drone, was the only one to break his Curse and Ascend into something far greater, something that Blackrose or even Blackthorn's children have never done, which is a sign that their grudge against Dragonkind is really holding them back. - Thorax is a strange example in that he was once a lowly drone of Chrysalis's hive who became a Royal Changeling by willingly sharing his love with his ex-Queen. Despite being the equivalent of an infant demigod, it's implied that he's *incredibly* strong, even sending Changeling King Zorpheus halfway across Avalon with a single arcane blast that would've killed normal Royal Changelings. If he were to go further on his potential, he would've become a god on the same level as Blackthorn and Blackrose. - Crystal Prism, once a unicorn colt named Page Wheel, is physically a teenage Alicorn after Ascending very early in his life thanks to unethical experiments and strange, traumatic circumstances. According to Twilight Sparkle, Crystal's stint as a magic-absorbing monster gave him so much magic that after he was killed by Luminiferous and the Equestrian Princesses, the magic reacted by reviving Page Wheel's dead body in a cocoon, Ascending him in the process. So he's quite young both in mortal and divine terms, especially the latter since he's the equivalent of an infant demigod. It's revealed that his current state is because he was intended to become the Alicorn god of Rebirth and Change so he'll symbolize a "new age" for Ponykind, but he was encouraged to forge his own path instead. - All *nineteen* sons of Golden Scepter, an antediluvian Alicorn Emperor, are demigods, having been sired with a mortal pegasus mare named "Blessed Skies". However, through gaining Character Development by doing positive things based on what they each embody individually, all of them would become demi-Alicorn gods, making them the equivalent of infant divines. A few of them are Prince Blazing Hoof, the oldest of Golden Scepter's sons, and Prince Crimson Star, a blind psychic prodigy, though as more entries are published, more sons are named such as Prince Fanged Paw, Prince Written Word, and Prince Steel Barricade. - The villainous Dark Illustration is the son of the Fallen goddess Ispita and a mortal Pony stallion. His entry calls him a "demi-draconequus" whose chimeric traits are based on circus animals, though it's noted that part of this is due to shapeshifting abilities that he possesses. - *The Confectionary Chronicles*; - While all of Lokis children are slightly stronger than the average pagan god due to their fathers angelic state, Sleipnir is particularly powerful as Loki was so shocked to realise that he had become pregnant that he briefly departed his vessel, with the result that Sleipnirs foetus briefly transformed with him and retained some of that power after birth. - Also invoked in a less direct manner with the revelation that Remus Lupins grandfather was Loki/Gabriels son Fenris. However, at the time Fenris had temporarily shed his godly status to live as a normal man and his own son was adopted anyway, so although Lupin is technically part of Gabriels family it doesnt give him any aspect of Lokis powers. - *The Dark Lady*: In a case of Adaptational Species Change, Robin II's name is brought up as being nothing but a coincidence, instead of being named after Robin Hood. This is because Robin Hood is not her father, with mentioning that she is a Demi-god, implying her father to be Hades. - *Endless Pantheon*: The Goa'uld are pseudo-divine beings, creatures of flesh born from the blood of ||Jormungandr||. With a special necromantic ritual they were able to transcend this state to become full minor gods, but after the Great Offscreen War the ritual and associated powers were taken from them. Those who were gods before the Terms still have some echoes of their godly powers, but greatly reduced. - In *Fate of the Clans* The Divinity skill is a measure of a Servant's Divine Spirit aptitude. The higher the rank, the closer the person is to godhood. EX indicates the person is a Divine Spirit. It's a double-edged sword. While a higher rank does increase the person's strength the higher the rank the more of an effect an Anti-Divine weapon will have on them. - Cú Chulainn is an Irish demigod, son of the sun god, Lugh. His B-rank Divinity is why he has a larger-than-average mana pool. ||His Divinity is boosted to A as an Alter.|| - By removing eight of her tails, Tamamo was able to reduce her Divinity to A. - Iskandar and Chiron have C-rank Divinity. - The *Pony POV Series*, there have been several examples. - The most prominent is Fluttercruel, who was born from Discord's Mind Rape of Fluttershy, who's Demi-Draconequus. - Cupid was the child of the Love Goddess Venus and her husband, a mortal pony named Mars. Cupid was also the Concept of Sharing Love and showcases a unique trait of a Demi-God: the ability to move freely between the mortal plain and the spirit realm, something Fluttercruel is unaware of (probably because unlike her, Cupid's mother was an active part of her life). Unfortunately, Cupid was killed using the Concept Killing Spear and erased from existence along with his Concept. ||Eventually a mortal named Lovestruck, who is his twice removed Reincarnation due to the Lost Age, merges with Cupid's Shadow of Existence, inheriting his Demi-God nature and reconstituting his Concept.|| Another benefit of Demi-Gods is also revealed here: they aren't *as* powerful as full deities, but can freely use their full power without being detected by those who can sense the divine because their mortal half shields their divine half. - Another one is know to *exist* but has not been touched upon in detail: Galaxia, Celestia's sister, sired a family during her time in the mortal world, which is where Blueblood and Cadence's bloodline comes from, which technically makes Blueblood this trope, albeit *incredibly* diluted. - In a sense *all of life itself* is this. Fauna Luster is called the Mother of All Things because She gives birth to *all* souls. One side story even has all mortal life referred to as the half siblings of the Alicorns for this reason. This may explain how mortals have the potential to become gods. - *We Are All Pokémon Trainers*: - Following Okamiquest, Ammy has been left with a slight divine spark due to her transformation into a divine Arcanine. - Hitodama, Tagg's Lampent, is the demigodess progeny of Satine the Chandelure and Lifealope, who happens to be a minor deity and Xerneas' brother. - *Enlightenments*: Wander is semi-divine, thanks to the whole "still has a large chunk of Dormin's soul in him" thing. His powers are mostly just enhanced strength and being categorically unable to die and stay dead, as well as having a constant telepathic connection with the god who accidentally made him semi-divine. The horned boys are much weaker semi-divine entities, with their horns caused by the equivalent of one of Dormin's breaths; they're still mostly human compared to Wander. - *There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton*: - It's implied in *A Cold Day In Erebus* that the wizards and witches of *Harry Potter* are descended from ancient demigod children of Hecate. In *Thanatos Scowled*, it's revealed that they are her descendants, as well as those of other deities of magic. - Also in *Thanatos Scowled*, Nico wonders if Sam Manson is descended from Iris or Aphrodite when he sees her violet eyes, as their children are much more likely to have the more exotic eye colors. - *If I Had The Strength* has Madame Lan secretly being a Heavenly Official, so her sons by her husband husband are technically demigods — emphasis on the *technically* because they are acknowledged as extremely beautiful and talented but on the human level. - Genie in the *Aladdin* sequels and series. After being freed by Aladdin's final wish in the first film, he has gone from having "phenomenal cosmic powers" to "semi-phenomenal nearly-cosmic powers". - In Disney's *Hercules*, the title character is this trope. Unlike in Greek Mythology, he was *born* a full-fledged god to Zeus and Hera, then Hades's minions remove most of his godhood with a potion, just leaving him with Super Strength (due to not drinking the last drop). In the series, he was regularly referred to as a demigod, and we met several others. - Maui in *Moana* is a Disney depiction of a mythic figure common in a vast number of real-life Polynesian mythologies. While real-life depictions range from mere human to full-on divinity, this movie's depiction settles for the middle of the road and explicitly calls Maui a demigod. In this version, he was not born Semi-Divine, but adopted and given powers by the gods after ||his birth parents threw him into the sea||. - The White Court in *The Dresden Files*. Their souls are half demon due to a demonic symbiote that gives them superhuman abilities and incredibly good looks, but at the cost of a Hunger for human emotions. The Raith family is particularly noted to go after lust. - The Reveal in *The Immortals* quartet is that ||protagonist Daine|| is a demigoddess through a minor God of the Hunt. ||This explains both Daine's unprecedentedly strong wild magic and her incredible archery skills||. - In the *Old Kingdom* books by Garth Nix, the world was created by ||nine|| spirits of Free Magic, but in order to protect the world and humanity, the Seven created the Charter and bound most of the Free Magic in the world. Four of them poured most of their power into mortal bloodlines; the Clayr, the Abhorsen, the royal family and the Wallmakers. Consequently, although not directly related to a deity, they all do have powers inherited from a god (or close enough). - *Kushiel's Legacy* establishes that the D'Angeline people are distantly descended from God's grandson and his angelic companions. It has some advantages: they have fewer infirmities in old age, women won't get pregnant until they pray to "open their wombs", and they tend to be very pretty. - The original Master of the Straits's mother was a direct child of Elua (or one of his companions) by a human while his father was the renegade angel Rahab, giving him "three parts ichor to one part blood". While his curse keeps him alive, his ancestry keeps him in good health for over 800 years. - Vishous from *Black Dagger Brotherhood* is another example; he is the son of the Scribe Virgin, the deity vampires pray to in his universe. He also has a twin sister named Payne.... - The *The Camp Half-Blood Series* (Rick Riordan's Verse) has this as its central premise: the gods of many mythologies are still around, usually act more modern and won't stop having demigod kids with mortals. *Percy Jackson and the Olympians* is about a special camp for the children of Greek gods (Camp Half Blood), *The Heroes of Olympus* is the same thing for the children of Roman gods, and *Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard* is roughly the children of Norse gods. - The Delphaes in *The Shining Ones* started as humans but now are slowly evolving into gods. As a result, they possess awesome powers, but they can also melt alive anyone who gets too close to them. ||Eventually, they fully evolve into gods and leave the earth forever.|| - In the *Inheritance Trilogy*, demons are the descendants of both god and mortal, and include ||Oree, the protagonist of the second book. Since demons are themselves mortal, but also partake of godhood, their blood is the only thing that can kill the genuinely-immortal gods.|| - The Lord Ruler of *Mistborn* presents himself as a Physical God ||but is actually a human who briefly held a portion of the power of the god Preservation a millenium ago. Though he no longer possesses that power directly, while holding it he gained enough divine insight to make him scarily good at all three of the trilogy's forms of Functional Magic, rendering him immortal and virtually invincible||. Word of God calls people like this from across the overall cosmology of Sanderson's works "Slivers". - *No Gods for Drowning*: Various people on this world owe some ancestry to a god and this allows them the abilities of these gods, albeit to a lesser extent compared to the gods. - Subverted in *The Wheel of Time* with the Forsaken, who are basically considered minor evil deities under the power of the Dark One in-universe, but are really just very powerful, very evil humans (the gap between legend and reality being a major theme of the series). ||However, in the last two books Rand becomes this or something pretty close after fully coming into his Enlightenment Superpowers, and is even able to face the Dark One on fairly even footing at the end||. - In the *Discworld* novel *Soul Music*, a contemporary of Susan Sto Helit at their exclusive boarding school boasts of the Great God Blind Io having visited her great-great-grandmother as a shower of something or other, her great-grandmother being the causal result. Which she reckons makes *her* a hemi-semi-demi-goddess. All good for school enrollment... Susan, who herself is coming to terms with her own interesting genetic make-up bequeathed by her Grandfather, is not impressed. - *Journey to Chaos*: - Kasile is a direct descendant of the fire goddess Fiol, but there's a lot of human blood between the two of them. She's basically mortal but has access to divine magic. - Elves in general fit this trope because they carry fragments of Chaos inside them. It makes them into beings that are halfway between humans and tricksters. - *The Divine Cities* - With a pantheon of squabbling gods reigning over the Continent, it's not a surprise that there were plenty of semi-divine beings around before the Kaj killed the Continent's Divinities. Those beings were called the Blessed and reality itself felt the urge to accomodate their wishes, warping itself around them and — to a lesser extent — around their descendants. Saypur's last Kaj and resident godslayer, upon conquering the Continent, ||dragged them and any other divine creatures he could find out into the streets and executed them all.|| - In an ironic turn of events, ||the Kaj himself was part Divine, though he didn't know this until the last Divinity told him||. It was the only reason, in fact, why and how he managed to develop a weapon strong enough to kill the gods, ||as a non-Blessed human could not have accomplished that||. - Played With in Shara, who initially is taken aback by the idea of all her achievements in life being due to her being a descendant of the Kaj, but she is then assured that she has not inherited enough of it for reality to warp itself around her. - ||Vinya Komayd, Shara's aunt and head of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs||, on the other hand, turns out to be Blessed, meaning her entire political career was not her own achiement. Her bitterness over that discovery is what kicks the plot of *City of Stairs* off by ordering the death of Dr. Efrem Pangyui, who made the discovery in the first place. - *A Piece in the Game of Gods*: As revealed in Part 37, Demi-god is a possible state for certain characters to be, and is slightly connected to being basically ||adopted by a god||. - In the novella *A Taste of Honey*, most of the important characters turn out to have some divine blood: - Aqib is related with Adónane and Perfecta through his mother's line of descent, although it's been many generations and the blood is very thin. It still allows him to communicate with animals on a level non-divine people cannot. - Femysade, also distantly related with the Ashëans, turns out to be their prophesized scientific savant and her smidgen of divine blood allows her to use their gadgets. - Lucretia, being the daughter of Aqib *and* Femysade, develops telekinesis at the age of eight and ||her own son Qary has the strongest telekinetic talent seen in a very long time||. - *The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps*: - Demane is a demigod, though that's a tenuous descriptor as he admits himself, considering he is seven and five generations removed from his truly divine aunt on his mother's and father's sides, respectively. Aunty claims he's nonetheless stronger than anyone she's seen in a couple generations, and his divine heritage allows him to work minor miracles. He also has Super Strength, a superiour sense of smell, can see in the dark and can control his metabolism to an extent. All of this has earned him the moniker 'Sorcerer'. - Captain is, according to Demane, way closer to the divine than Demane himself. His Super Strength is superior to Demane's, as is his Healing Factor. He has Hyper-Awareness as well, his voice is so beautiful he cannot speak but sings and his hair can drink sunlight, which is why he keeps it hidden. - In *The Mortal Instruments* Shadowhunters' powers are believed to be tied to them having the blood of angels. The Downworlder races are similar: vampires and werewolves are infections originally created by demons, warlocks are the offspring of demons with humans, and fairies are descended from Angel/Devil Shipping. - *Dark Shores* has two types. One is Magnius, scion of sea goddess Madoria and a huge sea serpent who communicates telepathically with the crew of the ship he is guarding. The second are people "marked" by the Seven gods who give them various abilities: Madoria allows her chosen to breathe under water, Hegeria (goddess of the body) gives them healing abilities and the Seventh god enables his chosen to steal other people's life force through touch. - *Villains by Necessity*: - Bhazo, nicknamed "The Mad Godling" was born to Rhinka, the goddess of wisdom, and Cwellyn, a human who'd been the patron saint of bards, representing knowledge. He didn't have any special abilities until being granted all knowledge by the gods, which drove him mad (hence his nickname), aside from immortality. - One of the Heroes, Tamarne, was miraculously conceived by Cror, god of thunder (apparently it somehow involved coming to his mother in the form of a white tiger, which seems similar to stories about Buddha). He could call down lightning like his father, fight like Cror and was immortal. However, he sacrificed his divinity later to save the other Heroes during the War from the Dark King. - *Tolkien's Legendarium*: Lúthien, an elf from before the First Age, was born to Melian, a Maia (the legendarium's equivalent of angels). Lúthien's granddaughter Elwing is the mother of Elros and Elrond, the former of whom became ancestor to the Númenorean kings and their descendants (including Aragorn), while the latter is the father of Arwen, whose ethereal beauty is attributed to her Maia ancestry. - *Of Fire and Stars*: Demigods were once common in Zumorda. They live much longer than normal humans, though they're unable to have children of their own (so most adopt orphans). Most have Affinities that relate to whatever divine parent they have, though it varies just like mortals'. ||It turns out that Zhari is one, and Tristan's a quarter.|| - *The Burning Kingdoms*: Malini and Chandra's family supposedly descent from Divyanski, a goddess who is worshipped among their people. - A priest notes that Malini's appearance is similar to hers. - Chandra believes being a descendant of Divyanski is why he's the emperor by right. - The vampires of *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*. They retain their (enhanced) bodies and their minds, but their formerly human soul is replaced with that of a demon. - Hell, most of the "demons" are an example. They're the product of countless generations of interbreeding between humans and true demons, who were more like Eldritch Abominations than their typical depictions. - An example of a mortal attaining semi-divine status happens in *Angel*. Cordelia was dying because her psychic visions were causing Power Degeneration. After refusing a divine offer to give up her powers and live a normal life in order to continue doing good, she was rewarded by being turned part demon. Being allied with the (generally) good Powers That Be, her demonhood had no cosmetic effects, gave her immunity to Power Degeneration, and healing abilities. - Also from *Angel*, the fifth season gives us Ilyria, an Old One, a pure demon. Her current shell is too weak to contain her power, so Team Angel siphons off some of her power. So now she's a semi-human Old One with a fraction of her former strength. - ||Castiel|| during the fifth season of *Supernatural*. ||After rebelling against heaven to help the Winchesters save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, he steadily loses his divine power until he's basically human by the end of the season||. - Sam and the rest of the psychic children. Their powers originated from ||being fed Azazel's blood when they were infants||. - In the *Stargate-verse*, any character on the path to ascension displays a plethora of Psychic Powers, which signifies how close they are to becoming the god-like ascended. - In *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine*, ||Benjamin Sisko|| is the son of a human man and one of the Prophets (possessing a human woman). - The titular *Shadowhunters* are effectively a human sub-species gifted with angelic blood and paranormal abilities for the purpose of Demon Slaying. - Leontius from Sound Horizon's *Moira* is noted to be descended from the Thunder God from his mother's side. ||As his siblings, so are Elefseus and Artemisia||. - The original demigod, Gilgamesh himself, was actually *two-thirds* god, thanks to having three parents (two gods, one mortal; the Mesopotamians thought that multiple fathers could contribute to a child). Or it might just have been a poetic way of calling him "more god than man" without making him fully divine. - Dragons in eastern mythology are often part-godly in nature. - Classical Mythology had a ton of them: - Heracles: In a similar vein to Gilgamesh, Heracles is not only the son of Zeus and Alcmene, but he is also descended from Perseus (incidentally his half-brother) and, arguably, Tantalus (yet another half-brother). He actually has more of Zeus's blood in him than *any other god on Olympus.* - The swan's children, Helen (her half - sister Clytemnestra was daughter of Leda and her human husband, Tyndareos) and her twin brothers Castor and Pollux: children of Zeus and Leda. - Odysseus spent a few years on two different islands shacked up with two different minor goddesses (Circe and Calypso). *The Odyssey* doesn't mention any children, but there's no such thing as a divinity that isn't Super Fertile. Later myths explore the lives of their many, many, many children. - Frankly, Zeus and a few other gods deserve a special folder all their own. Those rapists were all up ins. And gods make babies. Always. - Aeneas's mother was Aphrodite. Dude founded the city and fathered the people that would go on to later found Rome. - There were whole races that were thought to be somewhere between the Olympians and mortals in terms of divinity, such as the nymphs. - Jesus Christ actually averts this. Instead, the majority of Christian denominations hold him to be both 100% divine *and* 100% human. - Merlin is thought to be the child of a demon and mortal, although in the original myths he was depicted as something of a fey spirit, so half-fairy was more likely. - In Hindu Mythology, Ganesh was a boy who was appointed by the Goddess Parvati to stop anyone from entering her bathroom while taking her bath. When Ganesh stopped her husband Shiva from entering, Shiva cut his head off. After Parvati found out what happened, she became angry, and Shiva had to fix Ganesh by attaching an elephant's head to Ganesh. Some variations on the myth depict him as already being divine, however, especially when he's the son of Shiva and Parvati. - In the *Mahabharata* there are the sons of Kunti: Karna (son of Surya), Yudisthira (son of Dharma), Bhima (son of Vayu), and Arjuna (son of Indra). Also the sons of Madri: Nakula and Sahadeva, the sons of the Ashvin twin gods. - From Irish legend comes Cú Chulainn, the son of the mortal woman Deichtine and the sun god Lugh. Additionally, a good number of the members of the Red branch - namely, Conall Carnach, Fachtna Fáthach, the three sons of Uisliu, and again Cuchulainn) are descended from Aengus Og - Fachtna through his daughter, Maga, and the rest through his granddaughters. - In Japanese Mythology, the entirety of humankind (or maybe just the Japanese) itself is semi-divine, due to being descendants of the First Emperor, who in turn is a descendant of the Sun Goddess, who in turn is a descendant of one of the creator of the world. - Furthermore, some humans can increase their divinity-level by being worshipped while still alive, they are known as *arahitogami*, or living-god. - The demon Mara in Buddhism is the son of a Deva, in fact one of his names is Devaputra Mara which literally means son of a god. Buddhism acknowledges the existence of four "Maras", three of them merely psychological concepts and the fourth an objective devil-like living creature. Should be notice, though, that Devas in Buddhism are not objects of worship as all are mortal beings. However his status as a semi-deva gave Mara a series of special powers including a long life span. Amusingly the fact that Mara is often described as "son of a god" rose some eyebrows when the first Asian Buddhists heard that Jesus was the son of God. - Phil, Prince of Insufficient Light in *Dilbert*. - *Dungeons & Dragons*: - "The planetouched" all descended from outsiders — Tieflings and Aasimar are descendants of fiends and celestials, respectively. The Planetouched are not much above mortals in terms of power — close enough that they can be player characters with a bit of adjustment for level. Half-fiends and half-celestials are more immediate descendants of outsiders, and they are relatively more powerful. - In *D&D 3E*, every sorcerer gets their powers from some kind of encounter with a magical force somewhere back in the family tree (either directly or indirectly). Some of them are divine, infernal, or even draconic. - *D&D* also has Divine Rank 0 entities (normal beings have no rank at all). Such an entity isn't a god for most purposes (they don't grant spells, with one very specific exception that requires special training and effort on the devotee's part note : dragons, being dragons, have a high-requirement Prestige Class, Dragon Ascendant, that gradually turns the dragon into a quasi-deity (a term for Divine Rank 0 entities). The feat Servant of the Dragon Ascendant allows a divine spellcaster to receive spells from worshipping a dragon that has become a quasi-deity via the prestige class), but they have many of the mechanical benefits of being considered divine (immortality, max HP, a host of immunities, some DR against non Epic weapons, resistances). - Abominations are, as their name suggests, negative examples of semi-divine beings. These results of "misguided deific concourse" were sealed away by their ashamed progenitors, and as a result nurse a grudge against the rest of creation. Abominations have just enough of a divine spark to be damned hard to kill — they're ageless beings who don't need to eat or breathe, have a host of Contractual Boss Immunities, and generally require epic-level heroes to slay them. - *Planescape* introduced proxies — mortals turned into extensions of the divine will and power. - *Forgotten Realms*, with its endless tug-o-war between deities, got Chosen — mortals given a chunk of divine essence to carry and work with. Mystra is most known for keeping a bunch of these, because as the goddess of magic, she *had to* stash some power in mortals. They're "not quite mortals" — don't age or need to sleep, immune to any poisons, and so on. Unlike proxyhood, this can't be called off at will, and as such happens only when gods are *quite* sure they want to make this specific follower overpowered and near-immortal — though, of course, if a Chosen becomes enough of a problem, the respective deity is likely to send powerful and more loyal minions to take it from the renegade's dead body; this happened to The Rebel Chosen (killed by Elminster) and Sammaster after he went violently insane (killed by Khelben). - Ubtao protects his faithful using Bara. These also have untouched will, but this status is explicitly contractual and can be easily lost through improper behaviour. Bara get immortality and an overpowered random signature ability. Known gifts included commanding any water creatures, raising The Undead with unlimited control, power over plant growth, and telekinesis strong enough to crush the Tarrasque beyond regeneration. - *Exalted*: - The eponymous Exalted are mortals that are blessed as the divine champions of the most powerful gods and god-like beings in the setting by means of having an Exaltation, a shard of divine power, merge with their souls. As a consequence, they tend to have abilities that far exceed those of the "normal" gods and spirits, which is most obviously seen in the Solars and their derivatives (although, it should be noted, the average god in *Exalted* is not generally anywhere near as powerful as the title might imply). - God-Bloods are the children of mortals and supernatural beings. Most are the offspring of gods and elementals, hence the name, but they can also be the progeny of demons, The Fair Folk, ghosts and the Exalted themselves. They are nowhere near as powerful as the Exalted (although ones sired by very powerful entities can get close) but they still get perks such as a few extra decades of lifespan, better health and resistance to sickness and poison, and the universal ability to channel Essence. Beyond that, their specific powers and even their appearance can vary wildly based on their parents'. This process, notably, is not strictly limited to humans, and God-Blooded animals can and do exist — there's nothing really stopping an animal god from mating with its chosen species, or an elemental spirit or inhuman demon from fertilizing whichever meatbag strikes its fancy. - *In Nomine*: By using the Songs of Fruition, it's possible for celestial beings — i.e., angels and demons — and for ethereal spirits — typically the more powerful ones, such as fey, embodied archetypes, or the pagan gods — to have children with mortals. The fruit of these unions have greater inherent spiritual power and affinity for the supernatural than regular humans do. However, they also have a chance of being born as monsters, warped in body and mind, and shunned and feared by celestials, ethereals and humans alike. These unfortunates are known as Nephallim when sired by celestials and gorgons when born of ethereals. - *Leviathan: The Tempest*: The titular Leviathans are part God of Evil, part Kaiju, and part human, the descendants of Eldritch Abominations that (according to the Tribe's own mythologies) once ruled the world in savagery and terror before the true Gods cast them down and raised humanity to civilization. - *Pathfinder*: - The Aasimar are beings descended from good-aligned Outsiders like angels or azatas and mortal humanoids (most often humans); they are often unearthly beautiful, ethereal, and are one of the longest-lived races in the game, and have a few innate good- and light-based powers. - The Celestial sorcerer bloodline is a sorcerer of any race who either has a good-aligned Outsider ancestor somewhere in their family tree, was blessed by a good-aligned deity at their birth, or something similar. They eventually gain powers like the ability to manifest and fly with feathery, angelic wings, as well as the ability to purge things with light. - *RuneQuest*: The children of gods are not automatically gods (although they can become so after their deaths if people care to worship them). They do have great powers and often long lives. For example, Ezkankekko the Only Old One, son to the troll trade god Argan Argar and the human earth goddess Esrola, could appear as troll or human at need, had vast magical powers, and lived for millennia before ultimately being killed by Belintar. - *Scion*: The Scions are the children of gods, and can ascend to godhood themselves. - *Warhammer 40,000*: The Primarchs and, to a lesser extent, the Space Marines. The Primarchs are the 20 "sons" of the God-Emperor, and while they aren't as powerful as him, they're nigh-godly unto themselves. The Space Marines are warriors that are Bio Augmented with the geneseed of the Primarchs, and they're basically an army of individuals who can each slaughter a thousand men by themselves. - The Demonspawn and Demigods of *Dungeon Crawl*. They can be created through magical experiments, breeding with demons and gods/angels, (un)holy pacts, or any number of other ways. The former are very versatile and have a wide range of (random, but usually powerful) abilities from their demonic mutations, but are weak against evil-smiting powers. The latter have the highest base attributes in the game, and have a lot of HP and mana pools, but they level slowly and can't worship a god, which is pretty bad, as a lot of powers and bonuses can only be gained through religion. - In the *Baldur's Gate* series, the Bhaalspawn are the children of Bhaal, the Lord of Murder. He sired them so they would kill each other until none remained, at which point his essence that was scattered among them would have accumulated, and his chosen follower, Amelyssan, would have performed rituals that would have brought him back. Neither Amelyssan nor the last Bhaalspawn (the protagonist) complied to these plans, however. - Dante and Vergil of *Devil May Cry* are both the sons of Sparda, a demon who made other demons look like wet tissue paper in comparison. *Devil May Cry 4* introduces Nero, Vergil's son who has also inherited great power from his grandfather. - *Faraway Story* has Celestials, beings with both human and godly ancestry. Two of the party members, Ellevark and Marinet, are Celestials. - In *F.E.A.R*, the unnamed child that was produced by ||Alma Wade raping Michael Becket (the protagonist of *Project Origin*)|| certainly counts. It's even described as a ghost in the flesh. - In *Disgaea*, Laharl is the son of the former overlord and a human. - *The Elder Scrolls*: - In *Morrowind*, anyone who uses of Lorkhan's Heart can become this, which is how Vivec, Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Dagoth Ur acquired their immense powers. Those afflicted with the Corprus Disease (created by Dagoth Ur) also have a touch of the divine, given as... not exactly a *boon*, but seen as such by the gifter and his cultists. ||The Nerevarine gets infected over the course of the main quest but later gets cured of the downsides, making them functionally immortal.|| - The Septims in *Oblivion* are all descendants of the God-Emperor Talos, who himself was Dragonborn, meaning he was imbued with the divine soul of a dragon by the Top God Akatosh which he passed down to them. It's for this reason that they're hunted down and butchered by the Mythic Dawn as part of their plot to help Mehrunes Dagon destroy the world. - The Last Dragonborn of *Skyrim*, who like the Septims before him was born with the soul and blood of a dragon (who are otherwise known as aedric spirits), but has the body and mind of a mortal. - The Hito-Shura in *Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne* is a curious case - the catalyst for his transformation into a half-demon was an artificial parasite forcefully implanted against his will. The implications are also notable; it is mentioned demons are wholly subservient to their nature in return to their immortality, and that humans are able to shape their own destinies, but are mortal in exchange, leaving the Hito-Shura as a truly interesting being with the best attributes of both races with none of the downsides - as lampshaded by a Loa near the entrance of the Labyrinth of Amala. - In *The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword*, it is eventually revealed that ||the Royal Family of Hyrule|| is descended from the goddess Hylia, as ||the first Zelda was her mortal reincarnation||. - In *Dark Souls*, all humans have a touch of divinity since each carries a fragment of the Dark Soul, a Lord Soul that is fundamentally different from the Lord Souls wielded by the gods. - Likewise, Spiritual Successor *Elden Ring* makes the player character one of the Semi-Divine "Tarnished." Unlike most entries on this list, the Tarnished were born to low level divinity. The name comes from all those to whom it applied having committed some sort of transgression that caused the Greater Will to exile them, hiding its Grace from their eyes. The player's Tarnished is on a redemption arc, as the Greater Will has restored their ability to perceive its Grace. - Subverted by the "Demigods," of the Lands Between. The terms of "God," and "Demigod," here seem to refer to their generation, not their divinity. For example, Radagon was a mortal hero elevated to godhood who is referred to as a god, while his daughter with Marika, Top God of the Lands Between, is called a Demigod. - *Tales of the Abyss* Luke fon Fabre is proclaimed by the Score to inherit the power of Lorelei, the Pure Magic Being behind the Score, which makes him a lesser Reality Warper with the power to destroy the whole world if he was of the mind for it. ||That is, the *real* Luke, now known as Asch, is this. The Luke the audience meets first and is The Hero of the piece is the replica of the original and, by the verse's physics, actually a God in Human Form, being *another* Lorelei.|| - *God of War*: Before ascending as the new God of War, Kratos was revealed to have been one of the many demigod sons of Zeus. His true nature was heavily implied through the first two games by his impressive feats of physical strength and the ability to wield magic weapons and artifacts, and it was only outright confirmed at the very end of the second game and a unlockable extra ending in the first game that went on to be featured in the spin-off title *Ghost of Sparta*. - In *Wildstar* the Dominion was founded by a half-human half-Eldan hybrid known as Dominus. His most pure-blooded descendants, the Luminai, are deified. - In *Mortal Kombat*, the Edenians are stated to be descendants of the gods. This is the reason for their mystical abilities and incredibly long life cycles. Rain himself is revealed to be the son of the Edenian god, Argus, himself in *Mortal Kombat: Armageddon*. - In *Six Ages*, the children of gods aren't automatically gods themselves, but tend to have powerful magic and long lifespans. Cenala, who claims to be the daughter of ||the Rider god Hyalor and|| the elf goddess Aldrya, is initially presented as simply a powerful and supernaturally long-lived priestess. As the game progresses she grants omens and even miracles to her followers, and if she shows up, she's drawn in the same style as the gods are. But unlike true gods, she seems to experience time normally, lives in a physical place, and can't stay away from her home too long lest she start aging normally. ||She can also be killed, but that's true of the gods as well.|| The game's lore also provides some more examples: your culture-founder Hyalor, the son of a minor god who led his people for generations as a seemingly immortal hero, and was deified after his eventual death; his counterpart among the Ram People, Vingkot; and Verlaro, a god who fell to this status when his people stopped worshipping him. - *Radiant Arc*: ||Linky is half-angel due to Irin being his mother. If he sustains near fatal damage and survives, he can regenerate and unlock more of his angelic power. This is a requirement to become the Radiant Arc, since angelic power is required to defeat Zardon. The previous Radiant Arc was a human who was granted angelic power.|| - Divinity in *Nasuverse* is somewhat arbitrary and is ranked; the closer you are to the gods, the higher the rank. This results in heroes such as Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds divine (Rank A), but has his divinity reduced to Rank B since he himself dislikes the gods, and Medusa, who has had her divinity reduced severely despite being a goddess after being transformed into a demonic creature. - In *Fate/stay night*, this actually does have an impact on the plot because one of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms, Enkidu, gets stronger the higher the target's Divinity Ranking. To a normal person it's just a tough but relatively normal set of chains, but against Divinity it's a nigh-inescapable trap once caught. ||Too bad for Illya in the *Unlimited Blade Works* route when that target happens to be her Servant Herakles, not only a demigod who ascended to full godhood after his death but the one who, to quote the Myths and Legends folder on this page, had more of Zeus' blood in him than anybody else except for Zeus himself. In the *Fate* route, Cu Chulainn is ultimately restrained and executed by Gilgamesh after a long off-screen battle thanks to his Rank B Divinity, and in *Fate/Zero*, he once again uses the chains to restrict Iskandar, who has Divinity thanks to claiming to be a distant descendant of Zeus, and deal a killing blow.|| - Caster, Tamamo-no-Mae from *Fate/EXTRA* is depicted as this. As she is ||the aspect and mortal incarnation of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, herself||. In her past, she chose to be born as mortal and lost most of her power in the process but still retains some amount of her divinity. In order for her to be summoned as a Heroic Spirit or Servant, she must be willing to lower herself down from her former nine tails to just her original single tail in the process, just to make her on the same level as other Servants as she is technically considered way above the category as a Heroic Spirit and more of actually a Divine Spirit. - *Fate/Grand Order* introduces a slew of Servants with varying levels of Divinity based on being descended from gods, *are* gods or divine creatures (or fragments of one), possessing close ties to divine beings (such as Jesus or the Buddha), or having been artificially granted it through outside means (such as ||obtaining an Eldritch Abomination's power or merging with a Phantasmal Beast||). - *Gunnerkrigg Court* has ||Antimony Carver||, who's part fire-elemental. - In *El Goonish Shive*, all elves are this, being offspring of Immortals and humans. - *Tower of God* - The Princesses of Jahad are imbued with some of the power of their adopted father, the God-Emperor of the Tower. They tend to be among the most powerful people in the Tower. - All Rankers might count — except when they are full Physical Gods — because they reportedly derive much of their great power from a contract with the Administrators. The details of this aren't very clear, though. - *Sluggy Freelance*: "Mohkadun" features some "godlings" who are the descendants of the Top God of Mohkadun and a human. It's not so clear how they are different from the full gods. - *Danny Phantom*, along with Vlad Masters and Danielle Phantom, are half ghost, though there was no breeding between ghosts and humans involved: the former two were both results of lab accidents, and the latter was cloned. - Raven of the *Teen Titans*, daughter of the human woman Arella and the arch-demon Trigon, who inherited a degree of her father's vast magical powers. Destined to be the harbinger of the end of the world; spends most of her time trying to thwart her fate. - *Wakfu*: - While the exact powers of demigods vary depending on their godly parent, one constant seems to be being blessed with enhanced physical abilities and an extended lifespan, whether it be just being Long-Lived and/or some form of Reincarnation. - Eliatropes and their Dragon siblings are the first creations of the supreme gods Eliatrope and Great Dragon. - Goultard is the son of the god Iop and one of his mortal followers Cabotine. - ||Flopin and Elely|| are revealed to be this with the revelation that ||Sadlygrove is actually the reincarnated form of the god Iop, who is also slowly regaining his godly powers||, though only the latter has actually manifested godly powers ||likely due to the fact she's a Iop as her divine father is.|| - The villains of the third season, the Brotherhood of the Forgotten, are a group composed entirely of demigod children of gods, united by a common disgust with their parent's apathy toward them and mortals in general. Also, the third season reveals ||Ruel Stroud|| was in fact a son of the god Enutrof all along. - *Steven Universe* is the son of a human musician and Rose Quartz, a magical alien gemstone. He inherited her gem along with her powers, and a good chunk of the show is about how he deals with the messes his mother left behind and learning how to use those powers. ||And then it turns out that Rose was actually Pink Diamond— Diamonds being revered as the next best things to goddesses by said magical alien gemstones.|| - *Maya and the Three*: The very first episode reveals that ||Maya herself is one. Shes the daughter of a human, King Teca, and the Goddess of Death, Lady Micte||. There is also Zatz, the Prince of Bats, who is the son of the God of Bats and a mortal woman.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PartAbomination

Parody Episode - TV Tropes A form of Formula-Breaking Episode. When a show, usually a comedy, abandons its usual format and spends most of the episode as a parody of another show, book, television show, movie, or genre. Popular, timeless, children's fantasy films are always the most targeted for this format, as they're recognizable by everybody. It is usually revealed that the whole thing was just a dream or fantasy, or a lengthly series of events will be required to set up the parody format. The Onion noted that this can be a sign of total desperation, especially when the Wizard of Oz is used as the basis. Compare Whole-Plot Reference. See Stock Parody for some more specific examples. ## Examples: - *Bleach* did an Arabian parody and a Monster Mash parody, both of which were dream sequences. - The *Excel♡Saga* anime practically *was* this trope. - Half of all *Galaxy Angel* episodes. There was a Wild West episode, a joshikousei episode, a Magical Girl episode (which was really a *Sailor Moon* episode, but you can't blame them for having Small Reference Pools)... - *Gintama*, something of a parody of shounen manga in itself, also features several parody episodes, mostly of Japanese series such as *Dragon Ball Z* and a bizarrely cast *Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind*, not to mention a 2-part satire of *Saw* and a movie-parody episode that touched on everything from *Star Wars* to *Millennium Actress*. And of course the almost frame-for-frame End of Gintamangelion. - Hell, there's even parody *arcs*. - The *Lupin III* franchise *frequently* uses this trope. The original Manga stories simply used the Arsene Lupin Sansei character as a vehicle to drive a story, through whatever tale Monkey Punch wanted to tell. - *One Piece* has done a few specials in this style. The "Detective Memoirs of Chief Straw-Hat Luffy" specials are a parody of Jidaigeki dramas with Luffy as a detective in feudal Japan, and the "Chopperman" specials feature Tony Tony Chopper as a superhero. The manga includes additional side comics, featuring the pirates as high school delinquents, mobsters, mythical monsters, and even *middle-aged housewives*. - *Ouran Highschool Host Club* takes an episode to do a parody of Alice in Wonderland. The whole cast is desperately suppressing facepalms the whole time. - *Patalliro! Saiyuki* is an entire *series* based around the concept of a parody episode, recasting the characters in a theme of *Saiyuki* or *Journey to the West*, usually to hilarious results. - In a chapter of *Soul Hunter*, ||everyone thinks Taikobo is dead and therefore the series will be cancelled due to no more main character||. Cue an opening with the worst sports manga ever. - Most of the *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann* parallel works are these, although some have plot relevance. Not an episode perse, but they do feature new footage. The Manga version has quite a few more, and there's another, spin-off manga featuring the cast in a modern high school. - Episode 6 might get a distinction as a parody of a stereotypical Hot Springs Episode, considering the fact that it all goes to hell and what not. The same could be said of Episode 12, which is a parody of a stereotypical Beach Episode. - *Done Disappeared* episode "*Bonus Episode*" parodies the True Crime review podcast *Crime Writers On* with a review from *Crime Writers Off*. - *Mr. Boop*: Strip #55 is a panel for panel remake of the infamous loss.jpg - Again (inverted this time) in Strip #90. - *DuckTales (1987)*: "Scroogerello" is All Just a Dream and a parody of *Cinderella.* - *The Simpsons* did this several times. - *Futurama* had both "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" ( *Star Trek*) and "Fry and the Slurm Factory" ( *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*). - The *Family Guy* episode "Meet the Quagmires" was a total sendup of the *Back to the Future* movies. They also did a half-episode parody of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* ("Wasted Talent" — the episode where Lois discovers that Peter can play the piano like a pro while drunk). "Family Guy Presents: Laugh It Up, Fuzzball" for *Star Wars*. - *Glitch Techs*: "Castle Crawl" is a homage to *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night*, right down to the infamously cheesy English translation and ||how the duo must turn the castle upside down in order to reach the True Final Boss||. - *South Park*: - The *Rugrats* episode "Wash/Dry Story" was a parody of *West Side Story*. In a laundrette. - The *Kim Possible* episode "Dimension Twist" parodied famous TV shows under the guise of being sucked into TV Land. - *The Fairly Oddparents* did this with their first movie, "Channel Chasers", but it had a lot to do with the plot/overall aesop. - *Phineas and Ferb* - One entire episode is splitted into parodies of different formats of TV shows, and it ends up not having a plot at all. - One episode homaged old detective shows like *Starsky & Hutch*, *Miami Vice* and *CSI: Miami*. - *Animaniacs* is 95% these, e.g. "Super Strong Warner Siblings" - *The Powerpuff Girls (1998)* did one where Fuzzy Lumpkin, Mojo Jojo, Princess, & HIM form "The Beat-Alls". - The girls do a parody of themselves in "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever." - And an episode in the style of *Rocky and Bullwinkle* ("I See a Funny Cartoon In Your Future"). - *Dexter's Laboratory* did a *Die Hard* parody. They also did *Speed Racer* and *Wacky Races* parodies. As well as a *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*. - The *Hey Arnold!* Halloween episode was a homage to Orson Welles films. - Or alternatively, a parody of the panic created when an Orson Wells story was mistaken for an actual alien invasion by a great number of radio listeners. - *Kappa Mikey* had one in the form of *The Wizard of Oz*, *It's A Wonderful Life* (crossed with *A Christmas Carol*) and surprisingly enough, *The Ring*. - *Rocky and Bullwinkle* had a parody of children's television shows of *The Mickey Mouse Club* kind. - *Beavis And Butthead*'s Christmas Episode killed two birds with one stone — Part One is Yet Another Christmas Carol. Part Two? It's a Wonderful Plot. - One episode of *The Angry Beavers*, "El Grapadura y El Castor Malo", inexplicably featured a parody of Mexican Masked Luchador action films, staring masked wrestler El Grapadura (The Stapler) and Norbert as detectives. It was also voiced entirely in Spanish, with English subtitles that were at times a rather loose translation of what was being said (for example, "Señor Daggeto" being translated as "Mr. Stupid"). - The same happened with a parody of *Miami Vice* in style of an actual 80s cop-show episode. - *ReBoot*'s episode *Firewall* is a parody of *James Bond*. That episode even got a unique title sequence similar to *Bond* movies. - Each and every episode of Walter Melon is based on this. Whenever heroes get in trouble or get sick, Melon and his assistant Bitterbug take their places temporarily. They replaced characters such as Superman, The Hulk, James Bond, Batman and Robin, Kirk and Spock, Tarzan, etc, in spoofs of their movies or TV shows. - *Johnny Bravo* had "The Zone Where Normal Things Don't Happen Very Often" (not an episode title but the setting for "Little Talky Tabitha!," "The Man Who Cried Clown" and "Johnny Very Good" - respectively parodying the episodes "Living Doll," "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" and "It's A Good Life"). - Many, many, MANY episodes of *Codename: Kids Next Door*. To the point that it was becoming the regular formula for every episode. Most notably was *The Animatrix* parody that worked out really well, and one episode parodying *The Matrix* again, superhero comics, children books, *Dragon Ball Z*, and... *The Pink Panther*? All in one episode. - *Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island* did a parody of *Final Fantasy VII* ... with a little bit of *Donkey Kong* and *The Legend of Zelda* on the side. Does the idea of a coconut dressed like Cloud Strife and an bully apple dressed like Sephiroth raise a few eyebrows? - *Pinky and the Brain* parodied *Chinatown*. - "Semi-Die Hard" on *The Cleveland Show* - *Tiny Toon Adventures* frequently did parodies, of Citizen Kane, Kon-Tiki and *thirtysomething*, among others. - *Time Squad*: *White House Weirdness* which parodies a Scooby-Doo show in the White House haunted by supposedly ghosts. - *The Goode Family* episode "Gerold's Way or The Highway" parodies Gangster films and DeNiro films. - *Marsupilami* episode "The Wizard of Mars" parodies *The Wizard of Oz* - Scaredy Squirrel has an episode were they make fun of Halloween and called it Halloweekend. - *The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius* does quite a lot of these. - *Beetlejuice* sends up "The Wizard Of Oz," "It's A Wonderful Life" and "The Twilight Zone." - The *Recess* episode "Schoolworld" was a parody episode of *2001: A Space Odyssey*. - *American Dad!* did parody episodes of *The Lord of the Rings*, *Goodfellas* and one which was a parody of movies about The Vietnam War. - *CatDog*: "The Canine Mutiny" is a parody of *The Caine Mutiny* in which CatDog end up stranded at sea in a makeshift boat with Mr. Sunshine and Mervis. Cat becomes captain, and quickly goes mad with power. - *Eek! The Cat*: Besides its usual plots, the show had several episodes like this, including a parody of *Apocalypse Now*, *Star Trek*, *Jaws*, and *The Exorcist*. - Episode 69 of *Kaeloo* is a parody of *Dora the Explorer*. - The Bakshi *Mighty Mouse* episode "Don't Touch That Dial" is both a group parody and Take That! to Saturday morning TV of the time. Skewered were a *Flintstones/Jetsons* mash-up, *Scooby-Doo, Rocky & Bullwinkle* (which was spared a Take That!) and *The Real Ghostbusters.* - Subverted on *Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja* with a *Ferris Bueller's Day Off* parody where Randy actually gets put in quarantine for the fake disease he made up.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParodyEpisode

Parrot Expo-WHAT? - TV Tropes Like Parrot Exposition, but the expositor can't even finish the word. Even if it is easy to remember. Also used when someone says a big word, like Palaeo-whatisit. Sometimes used out of spite, and sometimes used out of disbelief. A common form of verbal Oh, Crap!. Often used in Advertising. Sister Trope to Gesundheit, where the speaker finds the word so unpronounceable he thinks it must have been a sneeze. Compare Porky Pig Pronunciation, where a character is also unable to pronounce words that they want to say, and is forced to substitute them. A common silly subtrope involves the expositor successfully repeating each *part* of a word, but still somehow unable to say the whole thing together: "He went to Liechtenstein." "Liechten-where?" "Liechten- *stein*." " *What*-enstein?" ## Examples: - Snuggimals! - Benda- *what?* Benda- *who?* - A certain E*Trade commercial that a certain actress claims is violating her rights. **Lindsay:** Milk-a- *whaaat*?! - Used in a commercial for Maximum Testosterol, apparently by picking which syllable to 'miss' out of a hat. A character asks incredulously, when first told the name, "Maximum *what*stosterol?" - When Dan receives his Shikigami in *Thawing Permafrost*, he can't get the name right. Upon first hearing it, his reaction is "Shiki-whatnow?". - From *Calvin & Hobbes: The Series*: **Mom:** Calvin, we're going out to the grocery store real quick, and we need you to watch Tug. **Calvin:** You need me to what?! - From *A Complete Turnabout*: **Edgeworth**: You... You got the limited edition Mayoi and Chinami cards from the 'Moonlight Showdown' series! **Phoenix:** I got what of whom from what? - From *Sonic Generations: Friendship is Timeless*: **Sonic:** Who's Discord? That snake-looking thing up there? **Twilight:** That's right, Sonic. Discord is a draconequus. **Sonic:** A what? - From *Double Rainboom*: **Twilight:** In theory, this potion is supposed to be a talent enhancer. **Rainbow Dash:** A talent what? - From *Turnabout Storm*: **Apple Bloom:** My name is Apple Bloom, and I'm a *Cutie Mark Crusader!* **The Judge:** A... cutie mark... what? - In *Jinxing the Unforgivables* Michael explains that Beauxbatons' flying carriage is made more comfortable during transport by magical means. **Hermione:** Oh, like a magical shock-absorbers. **Michael:** Shock-a-what? - *Dragon Fire*: **Harry:** Then [Voldemort]'s going to keep coming after me until either he kills me, or I kill him. If that's the case, then it only makes sense that one of us will end up killing the other. **Dumbledore:** Very wise of you Harry. Hence my reasoning for bringing young Tonks here today. She is a fully qualified auror as I mentioned, and therefore I believe she is well positioned to help you with your skills. She also has a rather unique ability as she is a metamorphmagus. **Harry:** A meta-what? - *Not With Haste*: **Uncle Vernon:** Well what happened boy? **Harry:** Dementors. **Uncle Vernon:** Demen-what? - *A Solid Foundation*: **Daniel:** We need to *prioritize* when we are in combat. I am all for feminism and girl power and all of that, but biology is biology. I would never want my wife or my daughter or any other woman, for that matter, to have to stand their ground alone against a man in a physical confrontation. Emma is a warrior. She can kick ass. She knows martial arts better than I do, and her technique is *much* better, but her frame is smaller than a man's, and she doesn't weigh that much. That is why her favorite martial art is aikido; it's the one that made her fall in love with martial arts. **Remus:** Aiki *what*? - *Tones of Gray*: **McGonagall:** Miss Dagworth-Granger, I apologize for not intervening faster. Mr. Finnigan was given detention and lost 50 points. However, I had to take points from Harry and Draco as well. I am sorry, boys, but I need to be as objective as possible. **Draco:** We understand, but again, Headmistress, if Finnigan or anyone else messes with one of us, we are not going to take that sitting down. **McGonagall:** Quite. However, I would rather you stick to surreptitious methods like that of Miss Dagworth Granger. **Harry:** Surre- what now? - *What's in a Name? Or a Face?*: **Draco:** Out of the way Weasley. I'm here to speak to Dorothea. **Ron:** Doro-what what? - *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Liars*: **Hermione:** I will hex that mutt into the Mariana Trench if Harry gets hurt. **Ginny:** The what trench? - In *Transfiguration Trouble* Harry makes several unsuccessful attempts at getting his relatives to enter the Leaky Cauldron. **Guinevere:** Perhaps Anti-Muggle charms? **Harry:** Anti-what now? - *My Old Kentucky Home*: **Denver:** Maybe we can help. **Hermione:** How? You're muggles? **Rodney:** Muwhat? **Hermione:** Muggles. Mundanes. No Magic. - *Harry Potter and the Garden of Intrigue*: **Dumbledore:** Ah, young master Weasley, it seems your mind is geared towards brilliance. And apparently you're rooting out what I'm planning before I'm sure of it myself ... I don't suppose your family has a secret history of Leglimency that Arthur keeps forgetting to mention? **Ron:** Legli-what? - *Time Turned Back*: **Gabriel:** Know what ventriloquism is? **Regulus:** Ventril-what? **Gabriel:** Ventriloquism. The art of throwing your voice. Ever seen people with dummies on their lap making it look like the puppets are the ones talking? - In *9*, from 8, the Dumb Muscle of the group: **1:** Subjugate them! **8:** Sub-what? **1:** You illiterate cretin — take their belongings! - *Alpha and Omega*: **Kate:** Idaho? **Humphrey:** Ida-who? - *Madagascar*: **King Julien:** Welcome to Madagascar! **Marty:** Mada-who-ha? **Gloria:** What? **King Julien:** No, not who-ha. As-car. - Counts as a Brick Joke thanks to the first exchange between Marty and the penguins: **Private:** We're going to Antarctica! **Marty:** Aunt-who-tica? - *The Rescuers Down Under*: - In *The Lion King (1994)*, this exchange regarding Simba and Nala's arranged marriage comes up: **Zazu:** Your parents will be *thrilled...* what with your being *betrothed* and all. **Simba:** Be-what? - *Open Season*: The paranoid Shaw comes across the couple Bob and Bobbie camping out and tells them he sees the future of animals planning a rebellion to overthrow the human race and become the dominating species on Earth. The couple's response his insane claim? **Bobbie:** Oh, we know exactly what you mean. **Shaw:** You do? **Bobbie:** We're scientists. Well, of sorts. And we're trying to secure photographic documentation of a real live *Homo Sasquatchus* . **Shaw:** Homo-say-what-us? **Bobbie:** We're looking for Bigfoot. **Shaw:** Huh? Bigfoot? *[face palms]* I didn't realize I was talking to a couple of whack-jobs! *[Shaw picks up a roasted marshmallow on a stick by the campfire and points it at their dog Mr. Weenie]* **Shaw:** Don't trust him. Pets are double agents. The moment you turn your back, he'll shiv ya! *[He eats the marshmallow, then tosses the stick to the ground as he leaves.]* **Bobbie:** Oh, no, he can't! We had him fixed. *[Mr. Weenie whimpers]* - Becomes a Brick Joke in the mid-credit stinger where ||Shaw, tarred and feathered in leaves, gets strapped to the roof of Bob and Bobbie's van, both of whom mistake him for Bigfoot||. - *Batman: Assault on Arkham*: The Riddler explains how to defuse the Explosive Leash implanted in the each member of the Suicide Squad: **Deadshot:** How do you defuse this bomb, exactly? **Riddler:** It's the electroshock. **Captain Boomerang:** It's the *what* now? - *Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls*: **Princess:** That was the dart of the Wachutu shaman! **Ace:** The what-nee what-en? - From *Broken Arrow (1996)*: **Giles:** Broken *what*? **Baird:** Broken Arrow. It's a class five strategic theater emergency. - *The Cat in the Hat* has this during the Kupkake-Inator scene: **Chef!Cat:** Well, forget everything you know about making cupcakes ... and say hello ... to the amazing Kupkake-inator. **Host!Cat:** Cupcake-a-what? **Chef!Cat and audience:** Kupkake-inator! - This bit in *The Court Jester* **Fergus, the ostler:** "Im Fergus, the ostler!" **Hawkins:** Wh-Whogus the whatsler?" - In the live-action *How the Grinch Stole Christmas!* movie: "Holiday Whobeewhatee?" - This bit in *Mary Poppins*: **Jane:** Mary Poppins taught us the most wonderful word! **Michael:** Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! **Mr. Banks:** What on earth are you talking about, supercal— super— or whatever the infernal thing is? **Jane:** It's something to say when you don't know what to say. **Mr. Banks:** Yes, well, I always know what to say. - *Monty Python and the Holy Grail*: **Arthur:** How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, King of the Britons. **Dennis' Mother:** King of the *who*? - In *The Rocketeer*, when Cliff reveals his secret identity to his girlfriend Jenny: **Cliff:** Jenny, prepare yourself for a shock. I'm the Rocketeer . **Jenny:** *[confused]* The Rocket-who? - *Spaceballs*: **Radar Technician:** I'm having trouble with the radar, sir. **Dark Helmet:** What's wrong with it? **Radar Technician:** I lost the bleeps, I lost the sweeps, and I lost the creeps. **Dark Helmet:** The what? **Colonel Sandurz:** The what? **Dark Helmet:** And the what? - *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*: **Anya:** Buffy's got some kind of job there helping junior deviants, Spike's insane in the basement, Xander's there doing construction on the new gym— **Willow:** Wait, Spike's *what* in the *what*-ment? **Anya:** Insane, base. - In "Intervention", when Buffy's friends confront her about her having sex with Spike (||the Buffy they saw was actually a robot||), she responds, "The who whatting how with *huh*?" - Buffy does this a lot. From "Lie To Me": *[Ford walks up behind Buffy, who has just slain a vamp]* **Ford:** What's going on? **Buffy:** Um, uh... there was a-a cat. A cat here. And um, uh, then there was a-another cat. And they fought. The cats. And... then they left. **Ford:** Oh. I thought you were just slaying a vampire. **Buffy:** What? What-ing a what? - It's not for nothing that this show is the Trope Namer for Buffy Speak. - *Red Dwarf*: Extrapo- *what*-ilated? - *Firefly*, "Shindig": "Any of these gentlemen can lend you use of a sword." "Use of a sw *what*?" - *Mystery Science Theater 3000*: In "Prince of Space", Bobo is "doing his business" in space and gets too close to a space-time anomaly. **Observer:** *[to Bobo]* Wait, wait, don't go in there! Don't, don't, I wouldn't do that, that's a... *[Bobo gets sucked in]* **Observer:** ...wormhole. **Pearl:** A worm-what? **Observer:** A wormhole. **Pearl:** A what-hole? **Observer:** A worm *hole*. *Worm*hole! - In *El Chapulín Colorado*, the eponymous hero would listen to some complex word, make the entire routine and then add an astonished expression. As added fun, instead of repeating the whole word, the person just repeats the last syllables that Chapulín missed. **Person:** It was its exoskeleton. **Chapulín:** Its exoskele-what? **Person:** -ton. **Chapulín:** Chanfle . - On *World's Dumbest...*, this is the reaction to a video of a woman who teaches you how to give your possum a proper pedicure. **Danny Bonaduce:** Give your *what* a proper *what*? - In episode one of *Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People*, Strong Bad's attempt to find one of the pages for the Snake Boxer 5 manual takes him through a chain of people that leads to Bubs. **Strong Bad:** *Please* tell me you've got my Snake Boxer 5 manual... **Bubs:** Snake what now? **Strong Bad:** Auuuugh! Aaaagh! **Bubs:** Oh, Snake Boxer 5! Here ya go. - *Conker's Bad Fur Day*: **King Bee:** I didn't even get to tell you about the big-breasted babe... **Conker:** The— the big what? - *Dead or Alive Dimensions*: **Ayane:** How could karate stand against the Hajin-mon sect of Mugen Tenshin? **Hitomi:** Hajin-in the what now? - In *Hearts of Iron IV*, there is a world news event for when the Soviet Union annexes the tiny, geopolitically irrelevant Central Asian puppet state of Tannu Tuva. The only option text reads "Tannu What?" - From the opening cutscene of *Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures*: **Sir C:** Oh no! That's the Fridigitator! **Pac:** Fridigiwhatsit? - In Chapter 2 of *Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance*, when Raiden infiltrates a Desperado facility, Doktor tells him to find a terminal where he can access the lab's main server. **Doktor:** But first, you need to take a DOOMP. **Raiden:** I... wait, what? **Doktor:** A DOOMP? A digital-optical output mounted proxy. ... - In *Homescapes* Austin hires Jeb to dismantle the old pier. **Jeb:** Good timing, sir! Your pier was a Kon-Tiki expedition waiting to happen. **Austin:** Kon-what? **Jeb:** Kon-Tiki, that's the name of Thor Heyerdahl's raft that he used to sail across the Pacific. Your pier would have sunk immediately though... - In Dragon Ball Abridged, anytime Goku calls out that he's using the Kaio-Ken technique, it's invariably followed by the receiving party uttering "Kaio- *what*?" before he wallops them. - In the *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series* version of Bonds Beyond Time, Yami has this response when Yusei Synchro Summons a monster. Of course, Yami's doing it on purpose because he's a Jerkass. **Yusei:** I Synchro Summon Junk Gardna, in Defense Mode. **Yami:** Synchro what? **Yusei:** Synchro Summon. **Yami:** What Summon? **Yusei:** Synchro Summon. **Yami:** What what? **Yusei:** Synchro. Summon. **Yami:** Oh. What's that? **Yusei:** It's where you play a monst- **Yami:** Wait. I seem to have stopped caring. - The "Synchro what?" line was also used in the actual English dub of the movie. And later, in a scripted duel during the 2014 World Championships of the card game, he said "Xyz what?" in response to an Xyz Summon. - *Homestar Runner*: - *The Most Popular Girls in School*, Episode 18: **Mackenzie:** Alo- *what*? **Doctor:** Alopecia. **Mackenzie:** What the fuck is that? - *The Simpsons*: - "Team Homer": **Burns:** Listen here...I want to join your team. **Homer:** You want to join my what? **Smithers:** You want to what his team? - And from "Who Shot Mr Burns, Part 2" **Jasper:** You shot who in the what now? - From "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo", on the Japanese game show: **Wink:** Now, our game shows are a little different from yours. Yours reward knowledge. We punish ignorance. **Homer:** Ignor-what? ( *fire shoots out of Homer's microphone*) - From "Moe'N'a Lisa": - Spoofed on *Futurama*, in the episode "I, Roommate": **Fry:** Where's your bathroom? **Bender:** Bath-what? **Fry:** Bathroom! **Bender:** What-room? **Fry:** Bathroom! **Bender:** What-what? **Fry:** Eh, never mind. - *The Fairly Oddparents*: **Gigglepies**: Yugo-po-what-i-whats? - *Danny Phantom*: **Jack:** It's the Ecto-Exodus Alarm! **Danny, Sam and Jazz:** The Ecto-whaty-what? - *Rugrats*: **Stu:** Presenting the Bonkomatic Baby Bumper! **Didi:** The Bonka-whosit Baby-what? - *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*: - In "Bridle Gossip", when Twilight Sparkle tries to assuage her friends' fear of Zecora **Twilight Sparkle:** She's a zebra. **Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, & Spike:** A *what?* - In "Stare Master", Fluttershy tries to warn the Cutie Mark Crusaders that they're in danger: **Fluttershy:** There's no time! There's a cockatrice on the loose! **Apple Bloom:** A cocka-what-now? - In "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", Pinkie Pie's reaction to the Flim-Flam brothers introducing themselves as "traveling sales-ponies nonpareil" is "Nonpa-what?" - In "Games Ponies Play", when it dawns on the Mane Six that they have mistaken a random tourist for the Equestria Games inspector, Twilight decides to ask: **Twilight Sparkle:** You... *are* Ms. Harshwhinny, the Equestria Games inspector, aren't you? *[Beat]* **Tourist:** Inspector what-now? - In one episode of *Sheep in the Big City*, a plot twist (both Sheep and General Specific lose the mayoral election to ||a talking ham sandwich||) leads to a long chain of characters going "Hubba- *whah*?" - *King of the Hill*: **Student:** *[at a Catholic school]* We're learning about transubstantiation. **Peggy:** *[a Protestant]* What? **Student:** Transubstantiation. **Peggy:** Trans what now? - An episode of *Ben 10*: **Mayor/Tour Guide:** It's a Megawatt. **Ben:** Mega- *what?* **Mayor/Tour Guide:** Exactly. - *Avatar: The Last Airbender*: - In *Family Guy*, Brian unsuccessfully tries to correct Stewie's proununciation of "whip" (Stewie also aspirates the "h"). - In a episode of The Future is Wild animated series: **C.G.:** Apparently, the impact of the Avian creature must have deactivated the mocular re-organizer. **Ethan:** The Whatta-who-nizer? **C.G.:** I don't know! Expands the moculars or something. You call ask my father after he yells at me for breaking it. - In *The Beatles* episode "Baby's In Black," where the boys are in a Transylvanian castle, and Paul comes across a tomb. **Paul:** Hey, a sarcophagus! **George:** A what? **Paul:** You know. An Egyptian tomb. **Ringo:** An Egyptian tomb? Can't say as how I do, but perhaps if you whistle a few bars. - "The Frickert Fracas" episode of *The New Scooby-Doo Movies* has Jonathan Winters and the gang visiting the farm of Maude Frickert. The farmhand Vernon confronts them and tells them not to bother looking for a "chicken formula." Jonathan counters they're only there to visit Maude. **Jonathan:** We don't know anything about a growth serum or chicken formula. Look, buddy... I'm Jonathan Winters, the famous comedian. **Vernon:** Jonathan who? The what? **Jonathan:** *[running out of steam]* Jonathan Winters, the not-so-famous comedian. - *Thomas & Friends*, "The Deputation" has this exchange: **Percy:** Edward says we need a... a depot station! **Gordon:** Of course! The question is... **Henry:** What is a desperation? **Percy:** *[smugly]* It's when engines tell the Fat Controller something's wrong.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParrotExpoWhat

Parody Displacement - TV Tropes Above: A YouTube upload of the song "Jeopardy". Below: Weird Al's parody. Notice how the parody has almost four times the views. *"Spoof films used to be so good that they'd eclipse the movies they spoofed."* When a parody has become more popular than the property that it's a parody of, often to the point where those unfamiliar with the source material will believe that the parody is its own thing. Perhaps the original work loses cultural relevance while the parody has more staying power. Alternatively, the parody could appeal more to a different demographic through its humor or content. Often, people who are only 'familiar' with a work through the parody are surprised when the subject of the parody turns out to be better than they thought. Occasionally this can overlap with Ret-Canon, where aspects of it get associated with the original work, even if the parody is forgotten. Related to the concept of a Forgotten Trope, except it is not tropes but works or personalities that have been forgotten. See also Adaptation Displacement, Pop-Cultural Osmosis, Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure, Older Than They Think, The Coconut Effect, Covered Up, Sampled Up, Revival by Commercialization. Contrast Shallow Parody, when lacking knowledge of the original work merely renders the parody meaningless. Be careful: If the original still has a respectable pop culture presence, then claiming the parody is better known may tend toward Fan Myopia. ## Example subpages: <!—index—> <!—/index—> ## Other examples: - The Energizer Bunny, mascot for the Energizer brand of batteries for over 20 years, was originally a parody of an ad campaign by rival Duracell, in which a small and cute bunny with a small drum powered by their battery would last longer than one powered by their chief rival — which in the commercial was Everlast to not name Energizer (owned by Eveready at the time) by name. (Energizer's ad was that its bunny, like its battery, was too large and impressive for Duracell's ad.) In part due to its effectiveness as a campaign and in part due to Duracell not keeping up with the trademarks, the original bunny is all but forgotten in North America (although still active in other continents). Duracell claimed that 40% of the audience thought they were still Duracell ads, but never really tried to back that up. - The phrase, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" has been used and re-used so often (just as often as a parody as not), that it's approached the point where many people have no idea where it actually came from (for the record, it was from a 1970 commercial for a butter substitute called Chiffon). - Similarly, the phrase "that's-a spicy meatball-a" is used in a few places. It was originally from a fake ad for meatballs inside an Alka-Seltzer ad from 1969. - And again for a very distinct, hushed delivery of "We've secretly replaced somebody's 'X' with 'Y.' Let's see if they can tell the difference." Originally from a Seventies and Eighties ad campaign for Folger's Coffee Crystals, but the references to it have far outlasted the ads. - This is, in fact, pretty common with commercials. The endless repetition of them can easily create annoyance, which means writers and creators will see them as ripe for parody in their work, with the end result being the parodies can live on even when the ad campaign itself ends. - You know the funny-but-bizarre slogan from the software Winamp "It really whips the llama's ass!", right? They didn't make it up. Actually, it's a quote from one of many other bizarre songs by outsider artist Wesley Willis. - A 2013 Super Bowl ad set in a library, in which a whispered argument over Oreo cookies escalated into a brawl, prompted the creation of a sign proclaiming, "In light of recent events, NO OREOS will be allowed in the library." In the years since, this sign has frequently circulated on social mediashared by puzzled library-goers who have no idea what it's talking about. - Unless you're a pretty major film buff, chances are pretty good that you've heard of Segata Sanshiro long before you heard of the Akira Kurosawa film *Sanshiro Sugata*. By a similar count, the frequent Actor Allusions to *Kamen Rider* probably flew over the heads of most Westerners. - The song used in the Atari 2600 *Mario Bros.* commercial is actually a parody of the Expository Theme Tune for the 1961 TV series *Car 54, Where Are You?*. - The famous jingle from this Bagel Bites ad ("Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at suppertime...") is actually a spoof of a real song, "Sugartime" by the McGuire Sisters. - Some quite famous or well known people from previous centuries are nowadays better known because they were painted or sculpted by world famous artists. So whenever, for instance, the *Mona Lisa* is parodied, most people aren't aware that she was an actual aristocratic 15th-16th century lady. - *Neon Genesis Evangelion* and *Martian Successor Nadesico* are a Deconstruction and a parody, respectively, of the Humongous Mecha series of their day. Ten years later, who can remember their contemporaries? - *Gunbuster* was actually a parody of *Aim for the Ace!* a *tennis* manga and anime series; as well as Super Robot anime programs like *Mazinger Z* and *Getter Robo*. - *Dragon Ball* originally started as a parody of *Journey to the West*, which, while still popular in Asia, is more or less unknown in many countries *Dragon Ball* was released in except those that had *Monkey!* on their TVs. - The speech "Sometimes I'm a..." is closely associated with *Cutey Honey*, so much so that the original source ( *Tarao Bannai*) that Cutey Honey was parodying with that speech has been long forgotten. - Fandom example: At least on this wiki, it appears as if the use of the term "White Devil" in reference to *Lyrical Nanoha* protagonist Nanoha Takamachi has almost completely eclipsed its original use as a *canon* nickname for the RX-78 and/or Amuro Ray of *Mobile Suit Gundam*. - In the Western world, *Naruto* has completely overtaken terms and names like Fuuma Shuriken, (Kage) Bunshin, Kawarimi note : A real weapon and techniques that existed at least in fiction before; a ninja called Sasuke note : an extremely common "ninja name" in Japanese fiction and folklore, akin to "Kurtz" for villains; and a trio with the names of Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya with powers based on snails, snakes, and frogs, respectively note : a homage to the folktale *Jiraiya Go-ketsu Monogatari*, their names being the literal words for their animal. - *Ouran High School Host Club* appears to be headed this way, with more people watching the show having not seen any of the shojo it parodies. The surface humor and well-developed characters serve to attract people who don't get the joke. - *Sgt. Frog*: The anime commonly includes Shout Outs to older works to entertain some of its older audiences, so naturally for many younger viewers, it's often the first they've ever heard of certain things. Lampshaded by the Dub, in which the narrator tells people to search for *Space Sheriff Gavan* on YouTube. Interestingly, that show actually *was* shown in America, but it's highly likely that most viewers never saw it. - The gaudy clothes, pencil-thin mustache, and uncommonly large overbite of *Osomatsu-kun*'s Iyami is much more well known to Japanese audiences than Tony Tani, the vaudeville comedian who inspired him. Even his trademark "zansu" tic came from Tani's act. - A general example: The sheer amount of references to the *Ultraman* franchise in anime is staggering, ranging from blatant parodies of the entire franchise to extremely subtle nods to specific episodes of specific series, but most are rarely understood by non-Japanese viewers, especially since *Ultraman* is usually brushed off as "that low-budget *Power Rangers* ripoff" by many. A particular case of this is *Neon Genesis Evangelion*, which bears *many* resemblances to *Ultraman*, and whose creator, Hideaki Anno, is a massive enough fan of the franchise that he made his own fan film at one point. - *Pretty Cure* is used in many stock shout-outs to Magical Girls but the references fly over many international fans heads. In most countries, *Pretty Cure* has never had the same mainstream accessibility as *Sailor Moon*, or even anime like *Tokyo Mew Mew*, largely due to Late Export for You and No Export for You. Many English-speaking anime fans know of *Pretty Cure* parodies more than they know the actual *Pretty Cure* characters. - While *Anpanman* is very popular in Asian countries, in the West most people are familiar with *One-Punch Man*, a parody work inspired in said character. - While "Stronger Than You" is the Signature Song of *Steven Universe* and is quite popular, a large number of people think of it as an *Undertale* song due to a fanmade parody of it sung by Sans during his boss fight. If you search the song on YouTube, more *Undertale* versions appear than *Steven Universe* videos and various *Undertale* versions have more views than the Garnet version. There are even several "Stronger Than You" parodies which are based on the Undertale version, with the original's focus on how love is stronger than hate lost in favor of particularly mean-spirited jabs (the original not containing anything much harsher than "I think you're just mad 'cause you're single") and/or a battle to the death (while there was always fighting involved, it wasn't to the death in the original), more akin to the Sans version. That said, it's difficult to tell how many people really believe that the Undertale version came first, and how many are just playing along and/or trolling Steven Universe fans. - *Lullaby for a Princess* is well-known amongst bronies but, because it is a fandom-centric Filk Song, it's prone to this when parodies. For example, many *Warriors* fans know of *Lullaby For A Warrior*, a version about Bluestar and her sister Snowfur, before the original. - "Ready As I'll Ever Be" is *Tangled: The Series*' Signature Song but it's most popular with amateur animators. As a result, many people learn of it from animatics without realizing it's from a Disney cartoon. - Many fans of *Homestuck* do not know the words to "Fergalicious", but *do* know all the words to its fanmade parody "Karkalicious". - MF 217 adopted a serious take on the R-1000 enemies from *Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly*, which are depicted as liquid metal *Velociraptors* who are vulnerable to being frozen and smashed to bits. MF217 had known about these enemies for at least a decade and a half prior to him learning about the T-1000, from whom the R-1000s were meant to be a parody of due to both being cybernetic creatures composed of liquid metal physical structures. - Bowsette originated from a comic parodying Peachette, a Toadette-exclusive power-up form from *New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*. Bowsette's popularity was such that she and other fan characters based on her were directly referenced in the *Neptunia* series, with no mention of Peachette. - Of course, Genie's impressions in *Aladdin* were always meant as a Parental Bonus, but some are getting obscure even for the adults, at least the ones who weren't already adults in the 1990s. You know when Genie says there are provisos and quid pro quos? That's an impression of William F. Buckley Jr., whom you're unlikely to be familiar with if you're either not American or not old enough to remember the Reagan administration. - *Dumbo*'s name is based on the legendary circus elephant Jumbo, something not many people nowadays remember or know (his proper name is given as Jumbo Jr., while "Dumbo" is a mean nickname given to him by the other elephants). - In *Rockadoodle*, Pinky is to Colonel Tom Parker what Chanticleer is to Elvis Presley. Young kids who grew up in the 90's probably knew who Elvis was, but the Colonel, not so much. The name/character of Chanticleer himself is from one of Chaucer's *The Canterbury Tales*, who took it from the body of folk tales about him and Reynard the fox. But you would have to be a medievalist to make that connection. - Many young viewers watching the *Shrek* movies will not realize that Puss in Boots is an Affectionate Parody of the titular character from *The Mask of Zorro*, even being played by the same actor. This applies both to when *Shrek 2* was released, as it came out six years after *Zorro*, and to the present day, where the *Shrek* fandom is still very active despite no new releases in years, while the *Zorro* franchise hasn't been in the limelight for some time. Because of this effect, it can be humorous when fans of the film grow up and realize that Puss, who has become an iconic character in his own right, is so heavily inspired by another classic character. - While older audiences and rock fans likely know of the song, the target audience for *The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie* typically know of "Goofy-Goober Rock" before the original 1980s song "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister. This extends to fans who were kids at the time of release but are now adults. - The 1980s Anime series *Jushin Liger* is likely known in the West because the Japanese wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger based his gimmick on it, even using the show's theme song as his entrance music. - Sting's famous gothic-themed gimmick, first unveiled in 1996, was originally *very* heavily inspired by *The Crow* and its popular 1994 film adaptation (hence why the persona is often called "Crow Sting" by longtime fans). While *The Crow* is decently popular, and the 1994 movie has a respectable cult following, they're nowhere near the *bona fide* cultural icon that Sting was at the height of his fame. - Many of the radio parodies Bob & Ray did. Perhaps the most durable example was their spoofing the then-hit Soap Opera *Mary Noble, Backstage Wife* as "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". The former was a deadly-earnest story of an 'ordinary woman' married to a matinee idol; the latter... culminated, around 1970, in Mary and her family leaving showbiz altogether to open a toast-themed restaurant. The series having earlier openly mocked Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Army hearings. It is still one of B&R's best-known skits. - *I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue*: "The antidote to panel games" was born from the creative minds behind *I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again* and conceived as an unscripted parody of panel shows. *Clue* has been on the air for over 40 years now and is better known than the shows it parodies, as well as itself becoming not so much an antidote but a *template* for the next generation of panel games. - The "mystery voice" who provides answers for the listeners at home is a reference to "Twenty Questions", a venerable old panel game which was still running when *Clue*' made its debut. Everybody would have got the reference in 1972; not so much nowadays. - A lot of 1930s and 1940s American radio shows are totally forgotten nowadays, but live on as punchlines in Looney Tunes and Tex Avery cartoons. The funny thing about it is that even back in the day these jokes were completely incomprehensible to people outside the USA or people who didn't listen to the radio. Modern audiences nowadays will probably be amazed how many of these recurring catch phrases and punch lines actually originate from radio shows, movies and even commercial jingles: - "Turn off that light!" (reference to air raid wardens during World War II) - "Was this/that trip really necessary?" (reference to a slogan used to encourage people not to take unnecessary trips to free up gas and rubber for the war effort and to free up space on trains to ferry troops to their duty locations. ) - "It's a possibility!" (reference to Artie Auerbach's catchphrase as Mr. Kitzle during Al Pearce's radio shows) - "Nobody home, I hope, I hope, I hope" - Al Pearce - "That ain't the way I heard it!" (reference to The Old Timer character from the radio series *Fibber McGee and Molly*) - "'T ain't funny, McGee!" Molly's frequent line in *Fibber McGee and Molly*) - "I love that man!" - (reference to the character Beulah (Marlin Hurt) on *Fibber McGee and Molly*.) - "Operator, give me number 32O.. ooh, is that you, Myrt? How's every little thing, Myrt? What say, Myrt?" - (reference to the character Fibber, whenever he made a phone call to a certain Myrt in *Fibber McGee and Molly*. ) - "Well now, I wouldn't say THAT!" - (reference to the character Peavey (Richard Le Grand) in the radioshow *The Great Gildersleeve*) - "Don't you believe it!" was the title of a 1947 radio show in which popular legends, myths or old wives' tales were debunked. - "Aha! Something new has been added!" and "So round, so firm, so fully-packed. So free and easy on the draw." (reference to Lucky Strike cigarettes) - "B.OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" from a commercial for Lifebuoy soap against B.O. (body odor) - "Ain't I a stinker?" (Lou Costello from Abbott and Costello) - "I'm only three and a half years old!" - From a character named Martha (Billy Gray) on the Abbott & Costello radio show. - "Ah, yes! (Insert statement here), isn't it?", "Yehudi?", "Don't work, do they?" and "Greetings, Gate! Lets osculate!" (Jerry Colonna, sidekick on Bob Hope's radio show.) - "I dood it!", "He don't know me very well, do he?" and "You bwoke my widdle arm!" Red Skelton's radio comedy character Junior, aka Mean Widdle Kid - "Of course you realize this means war!" (Groucho Marx) - "Ain't I a devil?" - Ralph Edwards in *Truth or Consequences*. - "Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?" and "I'm going to hug him and pet him and hug him and pet him..." (reference to John Steinbeck's novel *Of Mice and Men*) - Several dimwitted characters were based on Mortimer Snerd, a puppet character by puppeteer Edgar Bergen, created in 1938. - "Henry! Heeeeeeeeeeen- *RY*!" "Coming, Mother!" (reference to The Aldrich Family, a radio sitcom) - The NBC Chime - "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples." - A catch phrase from Lew Lehr. In parody the word "monkeys" was often replaced by other animals or people. - "Ah say! I'm from the South, son!", "That's a joke, son!", "Pay attention now, boy!" - Kenny Delmar as Senator Claghorn in "The Fred Allen Show". The Looney Tunes character Foghorn Leghorn was entirely based on this radio personality. - "See?" - A verbal tic actor Edward G. Robinson used. When characters in Looney Tunes use it, it's usually in a police or gangster context. - "I'll moida da bum." - A reference to boxer Tony Galento. - "I have a problem, Mr. Anthony!" - Reference to John J. Anthony, who presented the daily radio advice program "The Goodwill Hour". - "Train leaving on Track 5 for Anaheim, Azusa and Cuuuu-ca-mon-gaaa!" - Mel Blanc usually said this, quoting a character he played on "The Jack Benny Show". - "Come with me to the casbah" - Reference to Charles Boyer as Pépé le Moko in the 1937 film *Algiers*. Interesting detail: the line was prominent in the trailer, but not in the movie itself. - The signature station ident of the BBC World Service for decades until 2008 was a jolly tune, dating from the late 17th century, called *Lilliburlero*. People not familiar with the music of Restoration England tended to wonder why Britain's English-language service to the world uses an up-tempo version of the nursery rhyme *Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top/When the wind blows, the cradle will rock...* as its theme tune. - Baba Booey, the nickname of Howard Stern's producer Gary Dell'Abate, is probably more well known than whose name it was a mispronunciation of - Quick Draw McGraw's sidekick Baba Looey. - Double Inversion, as Baba Booey is so commonly screamed after a golf swing on TV that some think it is just something you scream when golfing. - *The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy*, in its various incarnations, is much better known these days than *The Hitch-Hikers' Guide to Europe*, the real travel book that inspired it. - Many episodes of the 80s comedy *Radio Active* are parodies of specific and now long-forgotten shows, though if (as is highly likely) you don't know the original shows, they still work as send-ups of a general *type* of programme. - Many AFL clubs' theme songs are better known to Australians (at least in AFL states) than the songs they are based on. Even where those based on songs that are still widely known (Adelaide: the "Marines' Hymn" (as in the US Marines); Brisbane: "La Marseillaise"; Geelong: Song of the Toreador from *Carmen*; Hawthorn: "Yankee Doodle Dandy"; St Kilda: "When the Saints Go Marching In"), people are more likely to be familiar with the club song lyrics, while once-popular songs used by other clubs (Carlton: "Lily of Laguna"; Collingwood: "Goodbye Dolly Gray"; Essendon: "Keep Your Sunny Side Up"; Melbourne: "Grand Old Flag" (which is very well-known in America); North Melbourne: "Wee Doch an Dorus"; Richmond: "Row, Row, Row" (not to be confused with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"); Sydney: "Victory March" (the University of Notre Dame fight song); Western Bulldogs: "Sons of the Sea") are now known almost exclusively as the club songs. Here are some of the original versions. - Brian Posehn, a Weird Al fan, brings this trope up while talking about how he is unsure of the proper way to introduce Weird Al's music to his kids. **Brian:** Should I make him listen to the original song first, and then go "Okay, here's Weird Al's parody of it"? Or should I pretend they're all completely original songs? That would be easier, but it might mess him up a bit, like when he's 16 and at some party and Michael Jackson starts playing, and he goes "Wait a minute! What the hell is this?! 'Beat It'?! Well it sure sounds a hell of a lot like 'Eat It'! *Somebody* needs to get sued." - Hardly anyone realises that the willow song in *The Mikado* was actually a parody of the song Desdemona sings in *Othello*. - Which itself was a well-known tune at the time, a fact that is lampshaded in the play when Desdemona accidentally starts singing the wrong verse and catches herself. - *Ruddigore* is mostly a parody of a kind of melodrama no one watches anymore. - The famous quote from *Twelfth Night*, "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em" is a parody of Matthew 19:12: "For there are some eunuchs, which were so borne of their mothers belly: and there be some eunuchs, which be gelded by men: and there be some eunuchs, which have gelded themselves for the kingdom of Heaven." (From the Geneva Bible, a modernized version of the translation Shakespeare would be most likely to have read, omitting the annotations telling to take it metaphorically.) Between the Squick of this verse and Shakespeare's importance, the first quote has become *far* more familiar than the second. - And many people associate it with Joseph Heller's *Catch-22* (his version substituting "mediocre" and "mediocrity" for "great" and "greatness" respectively) rather than Shakespeare. - A few Shakespeare scholars suspect that this effect accounts for a lot of puzzling things the Bard wrote. Several parts of his early comedies and later romances (the ending of *Two Gentlemen of Verona*, Posthumus' notorious vision in *Cymbeline*, most of *Titus Andronicus*, etc.) are not just generally deemed bad ... they're bad in bizarre, far-out-in-left-field ways that have left centuries of readers stumped as to what Shakespeare even thought he was doing. However, these scholars argue, many of these plays fall into focus if we picture Shakespeare writing them as merciless parodies of other popular Elizabethan plays, which are now lost to history. - It cuts both ways. Many people have searched the Bible in vain for the line *"The devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek."* not realising the provenance is Shakespeare: *The Merchant of Venice*, Act One, Scene Three. Shakespeare is referencing something that actually happens in the Bible, at least (the Temptation in the Desert, which appears in three Gospels). - "Whatever Lola Wants" has been used in so many commercials like this one for Levis Jeans: (NSFW) [1] that many people don't know that it was used in the musical *Damn Yankees*. - Everyone remembers Harry Houdini, but the man whose name he stole as his pseudonym, magician Jean-Baptiste Houdin, is nowadays very obscure. - Indeed, the parody sometimes outlives the original, as many of the plays by famous Greek tragedians which were made a mockery of in Aristophanes's plays are now lost. - Aristophanes was also parodying and making satirical references to comedy works by his rivals, such as Eupolis and Cratinus. He is the only writer of Old Comedy whose works survive to the present day, and we know little about his contemporaries. - Some of the politicians and generals satirized by Aristophanes suffered the same fate. Lamachus was a real-life general of the Peloponnesian War, and was killed in combat (along with most of his unit) in 415 BCE. But he is mostly remembered because he is the antagonist in *The Acharnians*, one of the most famous among Aristophanes' surviving works. Cleonymus of Athens was a real-life general and politician, who reportedly threw away his shield during a battle and run for his life. Aristophanes often mocked him for his cowardice. More that 2000 years later, most people (including scholars) know Cleonymus due to Aristophanes' jokes about him, rather than anything he did in life. - A number of scenes in works by Euripides seem to satirize or point at plot holes in the older works of Aeschylus. Modern readers often have to read annotations to get the references. - *My Singing Monsters*: Shugabush Island has become more popular than the song it is based upon, "Love or Money" by Sugarland. - *Metal Gear*'s Solid Snake (and to a lesser extent, his predecessors Naked Snake and Venom Snake) has become a more popular character than Snake Plissken, the character he was originally a pastiche of. - Duke Nukem was not the first guy to make a One-Liner regarding the kicking of asses and the chewing of gum. In general, a *lot* of lines thought of as Duke Nukem lines came from various 80s and 90s action films, most notably *Army of Darkness*. - Dan Hibiki from *Street Fighter Alpha* (and following *Street Fighter* games) was a parody of the two main characters from *Art of Fighting*: Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia. This was a result of the original *Street Fighter* designers jumping ship to SNK and helping create *Fatal Fury* and *Art of Fighting*. Suffice it to say, Capcom was not happy, and the two companies shared a deep rivalry throughout the 90s. However, *Street Fighter* is much better-known in North America than *The King of Fighters* and has moved much further into the mainstream due to several separate factors, so it is not uncommon for an American fan of the series to not know that Dan is a parody of anyone specific, or to assume that he is just a parody of Ryu and Ken. - While it is very well known in Japan, not many Western fans of *Touhou* know that the title of the "Marisa stole the precious thing" meme is a parody of a line by Inspector Zenigata from *The Castle of Cagliostro*. Possibly because the original line was translated differently in official *Lupin* material, with the wording of "He (Lupin III) stole something outrageous — your heart." - Sure that Stop Motion animation from the *Cuphead* trailer for PS4 looks kind of creepy, too bad almost no one knows that this is an Affectionate Parody of the stop motion animations from The Golden Age of Animation such as *Puppetoons*. *Cuphead*, in general, can yield quite a lot of this trope, especially among people without exposure to Golden Age of animation cartoons. While some parodies are more obvious than others (such as the titular character being partially an expy of Mickey Mouse), many of the cartoons *Cuphead* references throughout the game are completely obscure for modern audiences. - Most people today will probably be more familiar with Morrowind, an area in *The Elder Scrolls*, than they will be with Morrowindl, an area in *The Heritage of Shannara* that it was likely named after. - In the memetic exchange between Richter Belmont and Dracula from the *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* localization, the line "What is a man!? A miserable little pile of secrets!" is actually a quote from the preface of André Malraux's *Antimémoires*. - The Koopalings from the *Super Mario* series are all named after many long-forgotten 80s personalities, like Morton Downey Jr. and Wendy O. Williams. And, in one case, a classical composer. The tie-in book *Dinosaur Dilemma* did something similar with a bunch of officials named after real people whose last names were "Cooper" or "Koop" that the target audience probably never heard of, like C. Everett Koopa. - *Dr. Slump* was one of the most popular Anime & Manga of its era in Japan, but it had has had little to no exposure outside of Japan. Early games in the *Super Mario Bros.* and *Sonic the Hedgehog* contain quite a few nods to *Dr. Slump* (such as Mario running with his arms raised by his sides and wearing a winged cap in *Super Mario 64*, and Sonic peeking out of a star-studded bannered ring on the title screens of his first two games) that Westerners have come to consider original to those franchises. - Shulk's "Now it's Shulk time!" quote in the 3DS and Wii U editions of *Super Smash Bros.* is a reference to the character Reyn from Shulk's home game, *Xenoblade Chronicles 1*. Reyn would frequently say, "Now it's Reyn time!" during battle, and the line became a common in-joke among players. Because the *Smash Bros.* series is much more mainstream than any of the *Xenoblade Chronicles* games (the original Wii release and 3DS re-release of Shulk's game sold a combined 1.5 million compared to *Smash 4*'s collective 15 million), Shulk's version of the line has become much more well-known among the general gaming audience. - *Undertale*: - Sans and Papyrus, a pair of skeleton brothers, are a parody of a webcomic called *Helvetica* and its eponymous skeleton protagonist. The joke was that Helvetica is a font that is beloved by typeface aficionados, while (Comic) Sans and Papyrus are fonts that are widely derided. But *Undertale* became far more popular than *Helvetica*, and Sans and Papyrus are two of the most popular characters in the game, to the extent that even people who have never played the game know about them. - The line "you're gonna have a bad time" was a preexisting meme from *South Park*. - According to Twitter, kids who grew up after the 2000s don't know about *Tokyo Mew Mew* and believed that Mad Mew Mew was an original concept. - The "here lies andy. peperony and chease" tombstone joke from *The Oregon Trail* is a reference to this '90s Tombstone Pizza ad. - *beatmania*: The song "Bloomin' feeling" is known as the "Jack Black Octagon Remix" due to a Voice Clip Song of Jack Black's appearance on *Sesame Street*, seen here, which isn't even the original upload. - *Tokimeki Memorial* has so many parodies, pastiches, and satire due to it being the Trope Codifier of Dating Sims, but due to its No Export for You status, many people outside of Japan have only seen those parodies without ever knowing what it was they were parodying. The dating sim genre, in general, gets this a lot to the point where certain modern dating sims are confused for a parody, a Stealth Parody, or even a Deconstruction, when they're actually straight takes on the genre just with an unorthodox cast ( *Hatoful Boyfriend* being a notable example). - Hat Kid's "smug dance" in *A Hat in Time* is based on a similar animation from *Animal Crossing*, with the "Peace and Tranquility" screen that prominently features it being a direct reference to this video. However, the dance became so heavily associated with Hat Kid that when another game, *Blue Fire*, included it as an unlockable emote it namedropped her specifically. - Neco Arc of *Nasuverse* fame is a goofy joke catgirl version of the relatively serious Arcueid Brunestud, one of the main characters of *Tsukihime* and its fighting game spinoff, *Melty Blood*. Neco Arc is a tiny gremlin-like catgirl creature compared to regular Arcueid and her moves are basically as comedic a take on Arcueid's as you can get. It was around late 2021 that Neco Arc suddenly exploded in popularity not just among *Nasuverse* fans but video game fans and memers in general, and before long, Neco Arc started popping up everywhere. It got to the point that, true to this trope, memes now exist that consider Arcueid to be Neco Arc's alternate "humansona" or generally referring to her as "human Neco Arc" (she's a vampire but still). It is rather hard to tell whether the memes are just memes or if some people really do consider Neco Arc the original and Arcueid the spinoff. - *MS Paint Adventures*: - This strip of *Luke Surl Comics* points out how knowledge of classic literature is gained not from reading it but from seeing it referenced in cartoons. - One *Shortpacked!* comic mocked a Batman figure from the *Justice League* toyline that, for some reason, had a helmet that didn't cover the top of his head◊. It claimed that this is because "I'm Batman, and I can breathe in space." Due to being an inherently funny line, it caught on among Batman's Memetic Badass following, and even named a trope. Many people don't even realize it's talking about a specific action figure, and the figure in question is long forgotten even among toy collectors (it's a rather generic Environment-Specific Action Figure in a line full of them). - Brian Clevinger's *8-Bit Theater* has had this effect on the original *Final Fantasy*. Many of the concepts featured in the comic (the White Mage being female, the Black Mage being non-human, the Fighter being an Idiot Hero, etc.) are either totally invented by it, or are references to/parodies of longstanding *Final Fantasy* Fanon and memes, but many people assume them to be canon to *FF1* even though they're really not. A lot of this can be blamed on the fact that *FF1* is both a very old game (one that younger readers are less likely to be familiar with) and a very bare-bones one compared to later entries in the series; Clevinger wasn't twisting the personalities of the characters for humor, he was inventing personalities for them where they had none before. - Even among people who *do* remember the original *Final Fantasy*, or at least know about it through various spinoffs and tie-ins, some characters are still better-remembered as their Clevinger versions. Characters like Sarda or the unnamed king of Corneria have little dialogue and even less discernible personality in the original game, and their role in the plot is just to give you an item or open up another part of the world. They became major recurring figures in *8-Bit Theater*, and consequently, when you say, for example, "Sarda" to someone, they're much more likely to think of the Clevinger version. - There was a popular AMV called "Euphoria". It combined the song "Must Be Dreaming" with the anime *RahXephon*. Rather better-known these days is a parody from *AMV Hell 3*: "Osaka Must Be Dreaming" (same visual effects, same song, but with clips of Osaka). - Atop the Fourth Wall: - Linkara's Catchphrase " **I** am a **man!**" followed with a punch is actually a reference to infamous comic *Superman: At Earth's End*, one of the first titles he reviewed. - Another phrase of his, "It's magic, I don't have to explain it." is a reference to Joe Quesada's disliked explanation for *One More Day*. - Inverted whenever '90s Kid appears. Many people assume that's Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" playing in the background, but Lovhaug actually uses the Weird Al parody "Smells Like Nirvana." - Speaking of Channel Awesome, how many people do you suppose get Doug's repeated references to the TV show *One Step Beyond*? Most people are far likelier to have heard of The Nostalgia Critic and therefore assume the catch phrase originated with him. - The Biting Pear of Salamanca, also known as the LOLWUT Pear. - There's a *CollegeHumor* video in which someone tells a story of Amir ordering "Gangsta's Paradise" on karaoke only to sing "Amish Paradise." The owner of the bar later said that they actually had "Amish Paradise" in the machine. - The Kitsune^2 song, Avast Your Ass is a popular song for remixes. One such remix, Avast Fluttershy's Ass (or whatever title the author has changed it to by now) is more often searched for than the original, and has over twice as many views. The fact that it's about Fluttershy is most likely a huge contributing factor to this. - One case that somewhat depends on whether you're a bigger fan of hip-hop, or *Game of Thrones*. If the latter, you're likely more familiar with Backflip Wilson's version of Black and Yellow than the original. - Green and Purple by Kritikal is so wide-spread by Internet memes, most don't know it's a parody. It's popularity is mostly from the titular colors, rather than the subject of smoking marijuana. And in an even stranger version of this, this *Team Fortress 2* music video has almost double the views than the song on *Kritikal's official YouTube channel* (the former video). - Quite a few people are only familiar with the relatively obscure anime *Irresponsible Captain Tylor* because the Empress Azalyn character is the Author Avatar of YouTube Pooper RootNegativeSixteen. - *Weiss Reacts* was actually an Affectionate Parody of an older, moderately well-known fic the author happened to like based on a similar premise about the characters of RWBY reacting to fanfiction. Nowadays, the former fic is so famous and well-known that the latter was actually called a rip-off of Weiss Reacts, even though *it came first*. The authors of both fic take it in stride, as the latter fic, *Dear Fanfiction* is actually featured in the former. - In a bizarre case of the parody artist himself getting this treatment, very few fans of NintendoCapriSun are aware his Catchphrase "IN THE BATHROOM" comes from a "Weird Al" Yankovic song. ("A Complicated Song", to be exact.) - Many younger fans of *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* tend to believe that Luna's song in "Children Of The Night (Duo Cartoonist)" is an original song rather than being from *Hocus Pocus*. Complicating things is the fact that "Children" uses original lyrics not featured in the original movie that were added years after *Hocus Pocus*' release in a fanmade cover of the song. - One comment in the comment section of the obscure song The Midnight Tango by Herb Alpert said it better. - Mike Stoklasa of *RedLetterMedia* based the character of Mr. Plinkett on a character in one of his earlier films, where Plinkett was played by Rich Evans. The Plinkett reviews have proven so explosively popular that Stoklasa's version of the character has far eclipsed Evans's, to the point that Evans's reprising of the role for *Half in the Bag* was mostly met with They Changed It, Now It Sucks! - even RLM has come to call Evans's version "Fake Plinkett." - The Twitter parody account *@seinfeldToday* got very popular in 2014-2015 sharing imaginary *Seinfeld* plots based around modern technology, and was widely criticised for being lame and uninspired (including by Larry David). One of its critics started a parody account of the parody account, *@seinfeld2000*, which contained dreadful spelling and grammar, surreal and horrifying plotlines, and very well-produced parody Mashup videos and music. *@seinfeld2000* has outlived *@seinfeldToday* and made *Seinfeld* a popular meme. - These days, it's nearly impossible to find references to the original 4 Non Blondes song "What's Up?". It has been almost entirely supplanted by the He-Man parody remix, "HEHEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA" (part of a larger parody, "Fabulous Secret Powers, by Slackcircus created in 2005). - In one of The Reacts Channel regular segments "Do Teens Know 90s Music", Gangster's Paradise was played. At least one teen recognized it as "The song Weird Al parodied". He couldn't actually name the song beyond that. - In a case of a work doing this to itself, memetic *Homestar Runner* song "Trogdor" features the line "And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIGHT!", a Call-Back to the Strong Bad Email "guitar", where Strong Bad improvised a song that included the line "And the dragon comes in the NIIIIIGHT!" As "guitar" is a fairly early email that's on the obscure side, and the Trogdor theme is popular even outside the site, chances are very likely anyone who heard the original heard the Call-Back first. - There are quite a few people who have never heard of Dr. Dre's "What's the Difference" before hearing the Bill Cosby Pokémon rap using that song's background music and audio samples of Cosby from *The Simpsons* and *Family Guy*. - Those who saw the viral video "She Blocked Me" from Albino Blacksheep may be hard-pressed to find that it's a parody of the lesser-known song "She Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd. - In 1953, German playwright Max Frisch published *Biedermann und die Brandstifter* (or *The Arsonists* in English), a stage play about a pair of psychotic arsonists who pose as simple traveling salesmen, and use their charm and wit to persuade a perfectly ordinary man to help them in their arson spree; written when Adolf Hitler's rise to power was still in recent memory, Frisch intended the fire as a metaphor for fascism, and used the play to demonstrate how otherwise good people can be taken in by evil. If you're below a certain age, though, you're probably more likely to know the Philosophy Tube episode that was inspired by the play (and the subsequent episodes where "The Arsonist" became a recurring character). - In the Game Grumps episode on *Mickey Mousecapade,* Arin spends the entire episode speaking like an AVGN wannabe, with deliberately bad jokes and a ton of off-color scatological humor. A lot of viewers just enjoy the bizarrely-specific Toilet Humor at face value without realizing it's based on a specific video (this riff of the same game), especially since AVGN copycats aren't as prominent as they were in the early 2010s. - Happened to "Weird Al" Yankovic on This Very Wiki. Most tropers may be more familiar with the tropes named after the song "White & Nerdy", (Asian and Nerdy, Black and Nerdy, and Jewish and Nerdy) than the song itself. - CaptainSparklez's "Revenge" Minecraft Parody of Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love. For a while it had more views that the official upload of the original. Despite Executive Meddling from Usher's label taking the video down and forcing Captain Sparklez to change the sound, the original is back up with still more likes than the original. The original has since, however, overtaken the parody in terms of YouTube views. - The "Out Of Your Friends, Which Are You?" meme originated from an earlier image◊ that played all four roles fairly straight as a vaguely redneck-ish portrayal of a friend group. This was then given a parodic edit◊ which swapped out the third position for an eerie-looking image of a Deathclaw and the text "друг", creating a surprisingly creepy effect. The edit became far more popular than the original ever was, and nearly all permutations of the joke are based on the "друг" version. - The Rickroll is supposed to be a variant of Duckroll◊, which had a similar premise involving tricking people into looking at a picture of a duck on wheels. Rickrolling is still popular to this day and helped "Never Gonna Give You Up" achieve 1 billion views on YouTube while Duckrolling never really caught on outside of 4chan. - The phrase "Unholy Alliance" is commonly used in a wide variety of contexts, but almost nobody remembers that it was originally a parody of the "Holy Alliance" of Russia, Prussia, and Austria that formed in the early 1800s. - You always remember people based on the physical features and characterisations that are different than others. As a result people you know are remembered as caricatures of their physical features or behaviour more than how they actually look and behave. For instance: - King Charles' ears have been exaggerated in cartoons so often that many people often imagine them to be Dumbo-sized. In the BBC documentary series *The Human Face* they used him as an example by first simply tracing the lines of a photograph of him into a realistic drawing. As a result he was unrecognizable. Only when they exaggerated his features into caricature you instantly recognized him as then-Prince Charles. - The vocal patterns and mannerisms of George H. W. Bush are much more remembered through Dana Carvey's exaggerated impression of him than by video recordings of his actual voice and physical presence. Indeed, once Carvey's impression gained traction, anyone else's impression of Bush Sr. was most often an imitation of Carvey's impression. - Many dictators like Adolf Hitler, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein... have also been caricatured as Ax-Crazy lunatics. This is also how they live on in people's perceptions, even though if they were all as nuts as some parodies make them they would have never been able to remain in power for so long. - The widespread belief that Adolf Hitler was a hyperactive madman is derived from his highly threatrical speeches, where he deliberately shouted at the top of his voice and rapidly waved his fists around in a dramatic, passionate manner to excite crowds. - Elvis Presley's greasy quiff has been elongated to such absurd lengths in caricatures that people may actually be surprised to learn it was actually not five feet long in reality. - Ringo Starr has been caricatured as a dimwitted Manchild in so many parodies that people may be surprised to realize that he actually is a smart, normal-behaving adult. - Napoléon Bonaparte was caricatured by 19th century British cartoonists as a small dwarf with a large hat. This is also how he lives on in our minds. In reality he was of average height for his time. - Bill Cosby did a retelling of a sketch from an old radio drama called "Lights Out" about a chicken heart that ate up New York City. Since he was a kid, he thought the chicken heart was coming to eat him, and he promptly smeared Jell-O all over his floor and set his sofa on fire to discourage the "monster." Cosby's routine is now much better known than the original sketch. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump... - The Chicken Joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side". Despite being used as the mascot of joke-telling, it's really a parody of other jokes. Where most jokes end with some kind of pun, "To get to the other side" is a straight answer that only works if the listener was expected something absurd. - This joke in turn has been the source of thousands of parodies. - Plenty of modern media references "Do Not Adjust Your Set" to mean "this weirdness is real". The phrase was first used in this sense in *The Outer Limits*, but it originated years earlier as a warning to viewers that the station was experiencing technical difficulties. "Do Not Adjust Your Set" meant "the problem's on our end, not yours, so don't go fiddling with the antenna". - The expression "technical difficulties" is now highly likely to be used as a euphemism for a person (or even a society) going insane, or even for something disastrous or off-color (as, most hilariously, in *Problem Child 2*), rather than something as mundane as a problem with a broadcaster's equipment. - Any cartoon, video game, film, etc. made prior to The '90s that wasn't Disney-popular that was parodied in and after The '90s will get this effect in Eastern Europe due to that region locked away from Western pop-culture for 50 years (where only the very best of the West passed the border). - The name "Barcalounger" (the brand of reclining chair) is a play on a the name of a type of sailing ship, the Barca-longa. No one but naval historians and readers of the *Aubrey-Maturin* series (which are not such distinct populations) would know that now. - Any denizen of the Internet knows about demotivational posters. On the other hand, the kind of motivational posters they're based on aren't nearly as well-known, especially outside the USA. - Anyone who's worked in any kind of office environment is likely to recognize them, or at the very least take a closer look to see if it's a demotivator or the real thing. - Chef Al Yeganeh, the New York proprietor of "Soup Kitchen International" (later "The Original Soupman"), and the real life inspiration for *Seinfeld*'s Soup Nazi was in business about ten years prior to the episode that made him famous. Despite his insistence to the contrary, prior to Seinfeld, Al Yeganeh was an obscure New York figure known mostly to certain circles of affluent late 80s/early 90s Manhattan yuppies who were willing to pay $30 for a pint of soup. Nearly everyone else knows of him because of the Soup Nazi episode. In one TV interview, he seriously claims that he made Seinfeld famous. In an interesting subversion of the trope, many feel that the *Seinfeld* version is relatively tame compared to the real man who has been known to use profanities such as calling a female reporter a "bitch" on camera in one instance. Woe betide the person who mentions the parody to him-he once cussed out the real Seinfeld for it, and hates this generally. - *Seinfeld* also popularized the "Dingo ate my baby!" meme. Outside of Australia, it's largely forgotten that this joke references a real event, the death of Azaria Chamberlain, the (false) accusations that her parents murdered her and the media circus surrounding the case. note : Further, *Seinfeld* was likely referencing a then-recent film about the case, *Evil Angels* (or *A Cry in the Dark*), starring Meryl Streep. This is lampshaded in *Tropic Thunder*, where the Australian Kirk Lazarus reminds another character making these jokes that it was a real case and he doesn't see the humor in it. - Conservative cultural critic Rod Dreher came up with the term earwabbit to describe when you can't hear a traditional song or piece of classical music without thinking of a pop culture spoof. He chose earwabbit as a reference to the Looney Tunes spoof of Ride of the Valkyries, which is discussed elsewhere on this page. - Brown Windsor Soup is a by-word for disgusting British cookery at its early-to-mid-twentieth-century nadir. Problem is, there are no reliable references to it existing before the mid-1940s, and the majority of references for the first few decades afterwards are Self-Deprecation jokes about horrible British railway/hotel/restaurant cuisine. In fact, it appears to have originally begun as a comic reference to a real, but now forgotten product called Brown Windsor so **a**p, obviously the reverse of anything made for human consumption. Despite this, some "traditional British" cookbooks and websites, including Jamie Oliver's, have attempted to reverse engineer an (edible) Brown Windsor Soup, usually involving some kind of meat consomme. - German comedian Otto Waalkes (just think of his Pfefferkuchen epos parodying the Neue Deutsche Welle) but in general, this is less pronounced in Germany. - The term "Bazooka" for rocket launchers began as a reference to their visual similarity to the instrument of the same name. Now, the name has become far better known for the weapon, with the instrument itself largely unknown. - Jonestown, the Jim Jones-led Peoples Temple commune in Guyana that ended in a political assassination and subsequent mass suicide, has a near-legendary reputation and its name is often shorthand for "cult gone horribly wrong". Oddly, Jonestown is more famous than Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, upon whose name Jonestown was a bit of a pun. - New Math was a very short-lived, much-derided US education trend of The '60s, based on teaching children abstract mathematical theory rather than basic arithmetic. It's basically forgotten outside educational circles, but has a minor place in pop culture for inspiring Tom Lehrer's song "New Math" and a 1965 *Peanuts* series where Sally struggles with it ("ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS HOW MUCH IS TWO AND TWO?").

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Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death - TV Tropes *All morning, before the tornado, it had rained. The day was dark and gloomy. The air was heavy. There was no wind. Then the drizzle increased. The heavens seemed to open, pouring down a flood. The day grew black * — **Article from the ** *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* describing the morning of March 18, 1925 Significant character deaths tend to take place outdoors on a partly cloudy day. The dying character will look up at the sun just as it starts to be obscured by a cloud, optionally reaching out for it with one hand, and will die as the sun disappears into the clouds. Hell, it might even start raining at that very moment. A related variant schedules the death at a conveniently timed sunrise or sunset. Death at sunrise stresses the benefits of a Heroic Sacrifice; death at sunset is generally Because Destiny Says So and will be sad even if they deserve it. Symbolic subtrope of Empathic Environment and He's Dead, Jim. If it rains into the Dies Wide Open eyes, not so symbolic He's Dead, Jim. See also It Always Rains at Funerals. ## Examples - *Spider-Man 3*: ||Harry Osborn|| dies during a sunrise at the end. Appropriate, as he had just made a Heroic Sacrifice. - Kadaj's death in *Advent Children*. - Deliberately inverted in *Gosford Park*. The weather is rainy and miserable up until the murder, and then brilliantly sunny afterwards. - In *Blade Runner*, Roy's sunrise death breaks through the rain clouds and the Always Night of the rest of the film. - One of the classic examples of the dying while looking at the sunset subtrope can be found in *Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid*. Sheriff Baker somewhat reluctantly accompanies Pat Garrett to raid a bandit's safehouse in an attempt to learn where Billy is holed up and gets wounded multiple times in the ensuing gunfight. He walks away from the fight to sit beside a small stream and wordlessly look out at the sunset while Bob Dylan's *Knocking on Heaven's Door* (which was written specifically for that scene) plays in the background. The scene has been called an elegy for the Western genre as a whole. - In the final scene of *My Friend Dahmer*, Jeff picks up a friendly hitchhiker named Steven Hicks, and they drive off not into the sunset, but into a cloudy horizon threatening rain. - Played with at the end of *Back to the Future Part II*, with Marty seemingly stranded forever in 1955 during a thunderstorm. - *Star Wars* - *The Force Awakens*. The Starkiller Base is draining a nearby sun for power, and when finished will be ready to fire. This is taking place during Han Solo's confrontation with ||his son Kylo Ren||, who has turned to the Dark Side. When the ambient light turns dark red indicating the sun is nearly drained, it's obvious that something bad is about to happen. - *The Last Jedi*: As Luke Skywalker sits on the Ahch-to cliff, preparing to become one with the Force, he sees the planet's twin suns becoming obscured by clouds. This is a deliberate reference to the beginnings of his adventure in *A New Hope*'s famous "binary sunset" scene. - *Dracula the Undead* lampshades this, where ||The clouds part and the sun comes out when Dracula is killed. Dracula can control the weather, so of course his power over it would stop when he died.|| - A rather large subversion: In the first novel of the *Forgotten Realms* novel trilogy *The Last Mythal*, *Forsaken House*, the prologue begins with an elf hero, acting commander only by rank succession, walking out to challenge the fiend commanding the opposing forces, a fight that leads to his death. The book points out that unlike the ballads told of this story, the fight *was not* at sunset, and rains did not follow the hero's death: instead, it was a miserable, hot, muggy cloudless day in late summer, at two in the afternoon. - Brandon Sanderson's *Mistborn The Final Empire* ||The Lord Ruler is defeated and killed as the sun rises||. - Shows up in *The Areas of My Expertise*. In the Common Long and Short Cons section, Hodgman assumes a lot of things that are quite beyond the con artist's control, like the sun going behind a cloud at a dramatic moment. - Played With in G. K. Chesterton's poem The Last Hero. It starts with a storm, and it is being used to foreshadow the hero's death, but he doesn't respond to it with depression, he responds to it with holy joy - the same way he responds to his death. - *Watership Down*. General Woundwort leads an expedition with the aim of killing the rabbits who've humiliated him and returning the escapees from his warren by force. In an effort to avert bloodshed, Hazel goes alone to meet him. He points out that rabbits have enough enemies without fighting each other, and if they work together a lot of Efrafa's problems (such as overcrowding and rebellion) will be solved. At that moment, in the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he really was the leader of genius and vision which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate. For one beat of his pulse, the lame rabbit's idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him. The sun dipped into the cloud bank and now he could see clearly the track along the ridge, leading to the beech hangar and the bloodshed for which he had prepared with so much energy and care. "I haven't time to sit here talking nonsense," said Woundwort. - *The Martian* has a version where the "partially cloudy" dust storm is *causing* the chance of death by obscuring the solar panels Mark Watney is using for power. - *The Lady of Shalott* has the sunset/dusk version. Both versions say the tragic lady dies at "the closing of the day". - The end of the fifth season of *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*. - Averted when Buffy's mother died. Not only was the weather sunny and clear, but one scene featured sounds of children playing outside just to drive home the fact that the death of a loved one does not result in a sudden warping and darkening of nearby reality. - ||Darla||'s death in *Angel*. - *Babylon 5*, "Into the Fire": Londo is outside on Centauri Prime celebrating ridding the world of the ||Shadows'|| influence - and thereby saving it from the ||Vorlons' world-destroying rampage|| - when the obligatory giant shadow comes out of nowhere. Granted, it's a ||Vorlon planet-killer||, not a cloud, but the effect is similar. - The *Psych* episode "Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder". The cloud in question becomes a plot point - "Clouds don't kill people; people kill people!" - Jesus's Passion. It was the middle of the (implicitly cloudless) day at the time. The sky darkened *anyway*, which has often been attributed to *God* flinching. - *Macbeth* - "It will be rain tonight". Banquo's last words before he is set upon by his murderers. Whether it then actually rains varies from production to production. - Parodied in *Peasant's Quest*. When the player kills the Kerrek, the sun is obscured by clouds and it begins to rain, and the narrator comments "You're feeling pretty good, though, so the artless symbolism doesn't bug you." - In *Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time*, ||Farah dies|| in a level called "The Setting Sun." - In *Hearts of Iron*, in the unlikely shot that Japan is beaten back to their island by China, the event signifying the peace-treaty and subsequent communist revolt in Japan is called "The Setting Sun". This is partly this trope, but also partly to pun on Japans native name "the Land of the Rising Sun". There are several events dealing with sunrise too. - Zack's death in *Final Fantasy VII* fits this perfectly. - The sun shines through clouds throughout the entire "The Sacrifice" campaign. ( *Left 4 Dead* and *Left 4 Dead 2*) You walk towards the sun at several points in the campaign (obscuring your view) and even the poster has the sun shining directly behind Bill. - In *Ōkami*, a looming solar eclipse (it happens at the speed of plot, but still) leads up to your confrontation with Yami. When you finally meet him, the sun goes completely dark and things get worse. By the way, you are playing as the Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu. - A variation happens in *The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker*; it's mostly sunny when the battle starts, but it soon darkens and starts raining heavily ||(literally as heavy as the entire ocean, to be precise)||. The battle ends with the death of ||Ganondorf (who doesn't get better this time around), the King of Hyrule, and Hyrule itself||. - *Halo: Reach* has this in the last mission as Reach is being glassed and looking like Mordor, complete with rain while you're Holding the Line for Captain Keyes to land to retrieve the Package. - Happens all the time in *Castlevania*. As you strike down Dracula, either the sun rises, or a window conveniently breaks to let in a beam of sunlight, thus vaporizing his remains. - In fact, the convenient dramatic timing of sunrise happens all the time in vampire media (primarily movies); it could be a trope all its own. - *Red Dead Redemption II*: ||If Arthur Morgan has low honor near the end of the game, a vicious thunderstorm will stir up as he fights and is subsequently killed by Micah Bell.|| - Similar to the title quote, on December 7, 1941, most of the men at Pearl Harbour who died that day were just getting up, looking forward to a relaxing Sunday in paradise. - On October 2, 1968, a massacre happened in Mexico. In the middle of the shooting, it started to rain.

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