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Acceptable Professional Targets: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{cleanup|The major sections need to be sorted alphabetically.}}
{{quote|'''Dromiceiomimus''': Oh! Why don't [[Trope Name|PROFESSION MEMBERS]] play hide and seek?
'''T-Rex''': Why?
'''Dromiceiomimus''': Because no one will look for them!
'''T-Rex''': Hah! Ouch for PROFESSION MEMBERS, and their stereotype!
|''[[Dinosaur Comics]]''}}
Subtrope of [[Acceptable Targets]], there are certain characters that are doomed to be mocked (and have a general negative characterization) just for their career choice. Please do not add particular cases to the examples listed here. Compare with [[Klingon Scientists Get No Respect]].
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=== [[Literature]] ===
* [[The Bible]]. Matthew aka Levi was a tax collector until redeemed by Jesus. Generally, they are viewed as something suitable for use as a low baseline in parables and comparisons: “Are not even the tax collectors doing that?”, and “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the harlots will get into the kingdom of heaven before you.” and so on. [http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=tax+collector Count the mentions]..
** Biblical (more specifically, New Testament-era) tax collectors were not the bureaucrats known in the Western world today. Like many Empires the Romans used tax-farmers -- essentially freelancers who bought the right to be a shake-down artist for a given district at auction. (A similar practice still exists today, in those municipalities that auction off tax liens to private individuals who then get the right to pursue the debt they bought.) These would often brutalize the peasantry (by leaning extra hard) and cheat their employer (by embezzling). In other words it did not just mean "someone with the dirty job of funding public services". Often it meant (in a pretty straightforward sense) a collaborator with the occupying forces, and often outright thief. It is notable that when tax collectors came to John the Baptist they were commanded to "take no more than what they had been ordered to" -- implying of course that tax collectors regularly took more, and everyone knew it.
** It's worse than that. The tax collectors in the Biblical gospels represented a régime which was deliberately overtaxing citizens of occupied countries so that Roman citizens in Rome could live tax-free. Much like any other occupying force in wartime, they were despised.
* An aversion is the Murakami short story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo," where the main character is a debt collector, who is an average salaryman, and is a total [[Badass]] because he's so very calm. Also, he helps the titular Super-Frog save Tokyo.
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=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* [[House of Lies]] is about a group of consultants with only one goal in mind when they work with clients: convince the clients that they absolutely need them, no matter the cost.
* Higgins in both the original ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'' and [[Magnum P.I. (2018 TV series)|its 2018 reboot]] is an estate manager. They share [[British Stuffiness]] (it is more noticeable in the old Higgins). But they are each a benevolent boss and when they get angry they are usually quite justified (Robin's Nest has a lot of artifacts on it as well as well-tended gardens and a beachfront that is a fine ecological trove). Higgins also often turns out to be heroic on several occasions (the reboot is emphasizing this more as it is using a younger-and feminine-one).
**Some cases Magnum takes are for local business people who are a diverse lot. Some of them do indeed turn out to be criminals but there is no particular reason for them to.
=== Web Comics ===
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Inevitably corrupt, often an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] and puts their reelection ahead of everything else. The stereotypical politician is willing to promise voters the moon, and then [[Did You Actually Believe?|give them the shaft]] as soon as the election is over. The word "politician" even used to be an epithet!
* See also [[Acceptable Political Targets]].
=== Web Comics ===
* [https://sinfest.xyz/view.php?date=2004-06-26 This] ''[[Sinfest]]'', where Slick starts his campaign to become President.
{{quote|'''Monique''': What happened to becoming a porn star?"
'''Slick''': I thought I should aim a little lower.}}
== [[Straw Critic|Critics]] ==
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* '''Vietnam Veterans''': The [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|traumatic flashbacks]] of said group are quite often played for laughs. Try depicting the same thing occurring to soldiers returning from the war in Iraq under the context of comedy and see what kind of response you'll get.
** Even among the [[Media Watchdog|"how dare you criticize our troops" crowd]], recruiters are, sometimes, free game.
** Considering that recruiters [https://web.archive.org/web/20130826180341/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889152,00.html kill themselves with some frequency], one has to wonder about where [[Media Watchdog|their]] sympathies lie.
* Generally, the officers rather than the enlisted men or draftees are the true demons here. Draftees get the most sympathetic portrayals: [[Punch Clock Villain]] at worst, but more often than not simply hapless dupes.
* '''[[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Drill Sergeants]]''' are usually treated as less than human machines made simply for demeaning and putting the trainees through [[Training from Hell|hell]]. While this face is mostly true, they'll never push a soldier to the point of causing them life-threatening difficulties. And if one of their squad is feeling depressed and/or suicidal or just received heartbreaking news (such as a death in the family), they'll show them all the moral support they can muster.
== [[Morally-Bankrupt Banker|Banker]]s ==
Bankers have always generally been portrayed as greedy and amoral, believing they can always get their way if they throw enough money at the problem (and it will rarely be their money they're throwing). They obviously overlap with Accountants and Loan Sharks.
Typically, this mostly applies to [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|higher-ups]] in the banking industry, while the local teller attending the [[Take a Number|slow-moving queue]] is generally closer to [[Service Sector Stereotypes]].
* However, beware of running afoul of [[Once-Acceptable Targets]], given the strong associations banking conspiracies have with anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe.
** In American Media they tend to be aged white [[Fat Bastard]]s or [[Corrupt Hick]]s.
** This seems to have recently extended to [[Misblamed|anyone working in the financial sector]], with everyone from trading software developers to stockbrokers to commodities traders apparently responsible for the housing market collapse and bailout from 2007 onwards.
** It has taken on a new lease of life in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis a.k.a. the Great Recession, starting from around 2007. Since then, it
=== Film ===
* The [[Bank Run|run on the bank]] appears in a few films, with portrayals ranging from supportive or sympathetic to downright hostile. The Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' is made to look greedy and reckless, while the Bailey Building and Loan in ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' is portrayed with sympathy. Invariably, the big fish will be the first to be portrayed as the robber barons, stopping at nothing to bankrupt every other business in the community for their own gain.
=== Web Comics ===
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== Clowns ==
As discussed at the trope entry, [[Monster Clown]] is about the ''only'' clown portrayal that exists in fiction these days, aside from the occasional case of the clown who [[Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight]], which isn't much better. While the basis for [[Real Life]] mime dislike is their being annoying, clowns have the baggage of more ostentatious appearances and criminals (i.e., murderers, pedophiles) like John Wayne Gacy. On top of this, they're not seen as particularly talented performers even in non-evil portrayals (i.e., the obnoxious birthday party clown). The fact that circus, the medium in which most of the best and often non-stereotypical [[Real Life]] clowns work, is not as popular as it once was doesn't help.
Addressing someone as "a clown" when they're not actually engaged in live artistic performance as one is a fairly common pejorative.
=== [[Music]] ===
* [[wikipedia:Charlie Brown (The Coasters song)|Charlie Brown]] by The Coasters ("Charlie Brown / Charlie Brown / He's a clown / that Charlie Brown / He's gonna get caught / Just you wait and see / (Why's everybody always pickin' on me?)") dates to 1959.
* [[Bob Rivers]]' parody of [[Bruce Springsteen]]'s "I'm Goin' Down" (as "The Dow is down, down, down, down / The NASDAQ's down, down, down, down / Greenspan's a clown, clown, clown, clown / My stocks are down...") is more of the same.
== [[Everyone Hates Mimes|Mimes]] ==
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Despite them being fairly important in preventing and treating certain types of cancer, few people will see past "a guy who sticks his fingers up people's asses for a living."
* In some ways, proctologists are the new dentists.
=== Music ===
* [[Bowser & Blue]] have a comedy song that pokes gentle fun at the field. "''We praise the colorectal surgeon, misunderstood and much maligned, slaving away in the heart of darkness, working where the Sun don't shine.''"
== Contractors ==
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* One popular insult aimed at teachers is "those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Teachers of younger children get this particularly badly with comedians often cracking jokes such as "all you have to do is make stuff out of pasta". Tip: before making this comment, try teaching someone who doesn't know how to hold a pencil how to write. The fact that high school teachers are normally very well versed in their chosen field is normally dismissed, leading to characters who became teachers because "they weren't good at anything else".
* Once someone is identified as a piano teacher, you know what will happen.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[Daria]]'' shows several teacher stereotypes.▼
* There also is the stereotype of drama, music or other fine arts teachers as being washed up performers who can't get work anywhere else (see ''[[The Steve Harvey Show]]''). This can be [[Truth in Television]]. It may be easier to keep a job as a teacher (at least until recently) than to keep a job as an actor or artist.
=== Western Animation ===
▲* ''[[Daria]]'' shows several teacher stereotypes.
== Priests ==
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** For bonus verification points, "[http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/should-the-times-be-a-truth-vigilante/ Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?]"
=== Live
* In ''[[Community]]'', Annie has stated her reason for being on the school newspaper is to mitigate the fallout to a previous drug addiction.
{{quote|'''Annie:''' No one will think about my time in rehab if they think I'm a writer!}}
=== Web Comics ===
* [https://xkcd.com/2512/ This] ''[[xkcd]]'' strip shows a journalist asking whether he can share a quote from [[The Bible]], apparently thinking it was a new phrase.
== Economists ==
They practice one of the [[Hard on Soft Science|softest sciences]] ''and'' have the potential to be influential on a national scale, making scientists of every other discipline hate them. At the same time non-professionals don't like them because economics is so tightly entwined with the very polarizing subject of politics.
* It doesn't help their image that most of the field of economics is (perhaps [[Truth in Television|
* Even economists themselves acknowledge this negative view of their profession, calling their field of study [[Self-Deprecation|"the dismal science"]]. For extra deprecation, some even say that calling economics a "dismal ''science''" is only half-right.
=== Web Comics ===
* ''Offshorecomic'' written by a trader and certified financial analyst, so it got Economist (on the banner, that balding guy who sucks on his finger) as "bona fide [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All|intellectual-yet-idiot]]". Though not nearly as stupid as risk managers ([[Too Dumb to Live|RIP]]).
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' has an [//www.smbc-comics.com/comic/responsible-2 idea] of what could make economist "No Longer Most Hated Profession".
== Truck Drivers ==
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=== Real Life ===
* Old joke among advertising execs: "Don't tell my mother I work in advertising, she thinks I play the piano in a brothel."
=== Web Comics ===
* ''Diabolica'': "[http://diabolica.comicgenesis.com/d/20000605.html are we looking for an assassin or a marketing executive?]"
== [[Super OCD|Librarians]] ==
Pretty much an [[Always Female]] subset of the [[Sadist Teacher]], with the added benefit of never actually helping or teaching anyone. Aside from looks of scorn, most will only get a trademark "SHHHHHHHHHH!" Outside their realm of power, they're depicted as lonely, bitter, anal-aggressive spinsters. However, as a contrast, there is the [[Hot Librarian]].
=== Film ===
* [[Meaningful Name|Ms. Censordoll]] is a text book example of this. Unlike most librarians, she [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|actively embraces censoring books.]]▼
* ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'': {{spoiler|She's just about to close up the library!!!}} Oh yes, definitely the worst fate that could befall anyone.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* Totally averted in ''[[Wishbone]]'' where the main (human) character's mother and neighbor are librarians and are generally decent people. The neighbor tends to be the closer to playing this straight, but she's just as helpful as the mother. This is of course expected for a series designed to get children to read more books.
* And in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' where the Librarian at Sunnydale High School, Rupert Giles, is a father figure, oracle and Watcher to the entire group of Scoobies, not just our eponymous heroine.
=== Western Animation ===
▲* ''[[Moral Orel]]'': [[Meaningful Name|Ms. Censordoll]] is a text book example of this. Unlike most librarians, she [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|actively embraces censoring books.]]
== [[Egomaniac Hunter|Hunters]] ==
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== Physicians ==
Most portrayals of physicians are fairly positive; it's hard to get down on an occupation whose sole raison d'etre is healing the sick and alleviating suffering. However, when physicians go wrong, they go terribly wrong. Given the gravitas of the Hippocratic Oath, there's intense drama to be played out when a physician chooses to go against his code. It's still acceptable to portray a doctor as a complete quack, especially in a comedy. In dramatic works, expect a cold sociopath who sees patients as dollars or a collection of symptoms whose suffering is irrelevant. Finally, a growing minority in the West have embraced unproven, unscientific alternative healing practices. Proponents rarely distinguish between criticism of the health care industry, criticism of pharmaceutical companies, criticism of health care protocols and regulation, ad hominem attacks on medical practitioners, and criticism of the principles of science-based medicine (peer review, controlled studies, etc). Each is a completely different topic.
* On a vaugely-related note, practitioners of alternative health care will often be portrayed as [[Granola Girl]] ditzes or knowingly malign peddlers of [[All-Natural Snake Oil]] in works which embrace Enlightenment on the [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]] conflict.
* Another topic is the illegal organ trade.
* Physicians who treat life-or-death cases are likely to be sued for malpractice when they fail to help a patient, even if there's nothing that could have been done. This means that they need extensive malpractice insurance, which invites accusations that they are incompetent or casual murderers. After all, why would a doctor insure himself against malpractice if he didn't plan on committing some?
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=== Live-Action TV ===
*The Ferengi in the Star Trek Franchise are something of an example of this stereotype. Though in DS9 it is downplayed and they come off as more [[Adorkable]] then distasteful. Even Ferengi Arms dealers are [[Adorkable]].
== Postal workers ==
There are three different, independent stereotypes involving delivery people or the various neighbourhood workers who come to the door.
* One is that whatever they're delivering arrives invariably late, damaged or not at all. (Or, conversely, in some [[Parallel Universe]] everything shipped arrives yesterday.)
* Another is the [[Cheating with the Milkman]] trope, which (like [[Pizza Boy Special Delivery]]) seems to get applied as a [[Porn Tropes|porn trope]] to every one routinely sent to the house. The mail man, the milk man, the pool boy, the grounds keeper, the parcel courier, the repair man — just so long as they're [[Totally Eighteen]], all are fair game for the wayward house wife. In porn, their [[Distaff Counterpart]]s (such as the [[Gag Boobs|silicone-breasted]] pizza delivery lady) are even more sexualized.
* And then there's [[Going Postal]], where the targets of all of these tropes abruptly cease to be gruntled, unexpectedly snapping and opening fire on everything and everyone. OK, ok. I'll put down the tropes and back away now... just so long as no one gets hurt. I didn't mean what I said. Any of it. Really. Just please don't shoot. Please?
Most often, the derision and the stereotypes are directed against the overall system, not the individual letter carrier — who occasionally gets a friendly or sympathetic portrayal and who, alas, must trudge through hail and snow and sleet<!-- or "heat", in the wording on the main NYC post office in [[Miracle on 34th Street]] --> and dark of night to complete their appointed rounds. In most nations, the main post office is run by the government — and in some places the "swivel service" in general is (or is perceived to be) inefficient or just plain unreliable.
=== [[Film]] ===
* The two ''[[Back to the Future]]'' sequels play with the stereotypes about mail being delivered late. In 1885, a message is [[Product Placement|placed with a Western Union agent]] for delivery to a specific named person at a seemingly-arbitrary highway crossroads in 1955. It arrives exactly on time. In 2015, a weather forecast predicts rain ending at some very exact time, down to the second — which proves correct. Doc Emmett Brown then exclaims "If only the mail were this reliable!" (playing on stereotypes that neither was reliable in the era the films were shot, 1985).
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* One of the [[Wayne and Shuster]] CBC TV specials in the [[The Seventies|late seventies]] opened with "We're already getting hundreds of letters of mail from people praising this episode." When questioned "We're getting mail? About this show?" the immediate response is that, as soon as the post office started operating more like a private business<!-- as a Crown corporation, instead of a government department--> the mail is moving!
=== [[Music]] ===
* Songs about someone eagerly awaiting a letter from a loved one, or a lover, are historically commonplace; the song "Please, Mr. Postman" has been re-made by many musicians.
** [[Bob Rivers]], as a [[Song Parody]], has "Please, Don't Shoot Mr. Postman" which plays directly into the [[Going Postal]] tropes, complete with incompetent police ordering the Uzi-toting letter carrier to "put down that letter opener".
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Acceptable Targets]]
[[Category:Acceptable Professional Targets]]
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