An Aesop/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A TV show has a moral tacked on to the end.

  • Straight: At the end of an episode of Timmy's World O' Fun, Timmy learns not to judge people by the color of their skin.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Everyone on that episode Timmy's World O' Fun learns a different lesson.
    • Timmy learns a lesson every episode.
  • Up to Eleven: Everyone learns a lesson in every episode of Timmy's World O' Fun.
  • Justified: Hey, teaching people to not be prejudiced is a very important thing.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: It seems like the show is building towards the traditional "don't judge others" Aesop, but the last few minutes of the show trail off into a different direction.
  • Double Subverted:
    • Only to firmly veer back into Aesop territory.
    • Then a horde of Exclusively Evil orcs raids the school, and all humans, white, black and green team up, apply the Power of Love, and the trope is justified.
  • Parodied: Spoof Aesop
  • Deconstructed: While making a Show Within a Show, Timmy is shown to be struggling. He wants people to take something away from the shot, but also must be careful not to make the message feel forced. His writers encourage him to make the Aesop, but his friends don't. Timmy is working a tight deadline, adding to the stress of writing an Aesop.
  • Reconstructed: Timmy, with the help of his friends, work together to write an episode, which was received as the best in the show.
  • Zig Zagged: The show can't seem to decide whether it wants to teach a lesson or not.
  • Averted: There is no Aesop.
  • Enforced: The FCC mandates a certain amount of educational programming.
  • Lampshaded: "Gather round, kids, it's time for Timmy Troper's Lesson Of The Day!"
  • Invoked: Timmy wonders why he shouldn't judge people by their skin colour, and misbehaves on purpose so his parents will explain it to him.
  • Defied: Timmy refuses to learn any lessons.
  • Discussed: "Timmy, why do you seem to learn some obvious lesson every week?"
  • Conversed: "Shows like that always have some kind of moral at the end."

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