An Aesop: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"I can't tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit."

''"Perhaps it hasn't one," Alice ventured to remark.

Since some shows seem to contractually require one moral per episode, you often end up with a [[Broken Aesop]].

 

 

In an American [[Dom Com]], the point where the '''Aesop''' is delivered is often referred to by writers as the [[Golden Moment]].

* [[Very Special Episode]] - The show takes a more serious tone to tackle a more serious issue.

 

 

Ironically, Aesop probably doesn't deserve the dubious honor of having this trope named after him. In their original forms these stories likely did ''not'' end with heavy-hitting moral [[Anvilicious|anvils]]. The listeners (for Aesop would have been an oral storyteller) were probably left to sort out the meaning for themselves; the one-liner morals (such as "slow and steady wins the race") were likely tacked on by modern compilers.

----

'''An Aesop''' is among the [[Tropes of Legend]].

{{examples}}

 

* Most episodes in ''[[Mokke]]'' have mild, safe Aesops in the vein of "appreciate your friends," "set goals in life" or "don't cling obsessively to material possessions."

* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'': Don't be afraid of being yourself. {{spoiler|even if you are "only a duck" you don't need to become a "beautiful swan" to be loved. [[Take That]] Hans Chistian Andersen}}!

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': In the manga. It's subtle, though: compromise your dreams with what is best for everyone. {{spoiler|Roy compromised his dream for power by vowing to use it for others, and being patient about it. May gave up her quest to restore her clan to help save another country. She got both though. Scar compromised his quest for vengeance by just preventing it from happening again in the future. Ed gave up his alchemy, and didn't get his leg back. Al rejected his body because he couldn't fight with it, and when he got it back it was incredibly weak. The only person who didn't compromise was Father. He wanted out of his flask, and didn't balance it with morality, empathy, or just settling for anything less. And he got screwed}}.

* ''[[Franken Fran]]'': Though there are exceptions, the dominant Aesop to be learned is that death is not something to come back from, especially via science.

* The entire tenth episode of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' consists of each of the members of the Bebop giving An Aesop, which is [[Lampshaded]] by the use of caption cards reading 'lesson'. The entire concept gets more and more twisted as the episode goes on: Jet starts out with a straight Aesop about how hard work is the only thing that pays off in the end and those who trust in their luck get theirs eventually (after having lost his savings in an attempt to gamble with Faye). Faye follows up with a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] about how humans are always playing each other and trusting people is for fools (after it's revealed she was cheating). Ed delivers a [[Broken Aesop]] about how, [[Word Salad|if you see a stranger, you should follow him]] (after it turns out there's a stowaway poisonous creature on board that's attacking the crew). Finally, Spike finishes it off with the episode's ''real'' lesson... {{spoiler|[[Spoof Aesop|Don't leave food in the fridge]]. The poisonous creature [[It Came From the Fridge|had mutated from a lobster left in the ship's backup refrigerator too long]]}}.

* Despite being mostly comprised of Aespoic-moments, the 32nd episode of the original 1969 series of ''Himitsu no Akko-chan'' plays that straight towards the heroine. When the kind-hearted Akko-chan meets a new deaf kid at school, she hurriedly wishes her magic mirror to [[Be Careful What You Wish For|turn her into a deaf-mute version of herself]], enabling her to empathize better with her plea. Her magic mirror [[Literal Genie|takes her literally]], taking her speaking voice again too, and refusing to change her back on the premises that, needing a clearly worded wish to act, it can't understand or obey a deaf-mute mistress. Only when Akko-chan, distraught and terminally scared, is starting to resign to her fate, the mirror changes her back on its own accord, moved by her tears and pointing out how her owner has now learned that a disability is nothing to be wished for, and how her new friend was more brave and resourceful than she could think.

* The English dub of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' often ended with a "Sailor Says" segment, tacked on by the translators in order to sell the show for the Saturday-morning broadcast segment.

* ''[[Gunnm]]'' delivers an especially hard-hitting Aesop in volume five: Be a little considerate of people's feelings. Always treat others with respect, even if you think they are cowardly, selfish jerks. You may not like the result if you don't.

* ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'' shows us that [[Just Like Us|teachers are human beings too]]. They have feelings and they deserve your respect. They do care about you and are willing to help you if you let them. There ''are'' bad teachers but they are the exception and not the rule.

* ''[[The Idolmaster (anime)|THE iDOLM@STER]]'': Almost every episode gives a lesson to at least one character.

* ''[[Popotan]]'': Moving away from others is not as hard as it appears because one can still have pleasant memories of old friends, and one should learn to let go of said friends in order to move on in life. It's an overarching theme of the entire series, and Konami (the best friend of Mai, one of the protagonists) puts it into words in both the second and the final episodes.

 

* In one ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' story, Johnny and Wulf search for a target on a planet where the natives, among other things, eat humans. The conditions in which the farmed humans were kept served to illustrate the point that battery farming is bad.

* Many times in the stories of [[Wilhelm Busch]], often against alcohol and mischief. Several stories end with "Und die Moral von der Geschicht..." (and the moral of the story is: ...) There's a reason the German version of this page was named "[[De/Die Moral|Die Moral]]".

 

* This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [[Script Fic]] ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'':

'''Calvin:''' "Eh, we gotta have a few of those every once in a while." }}

 

== Film ==

* Lampshaded in ''The [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] [[The Movie|Movie]]'', in the following dialog:

'''<nowiki>SpongeBob:</nowiki>''' [on microphone] But that's okay! Because I did all the things they said a kid couldn't do! I went to Shell City, and I beat the cyclops, and I rode the [[Adam Westing|Hasselhoff]], and I brought the crown back! So, yes, I am a dork, and a goofball, and a wingnut, and a Knucklehead McSpazatron! But most of all, I'm... I'm... I'm... {{smallcaps|I'm a Goofy Goober!}} {{[[[The Power of Rock]] rock music starts}}] }}

** And later subverted in the end of the movie:

{{quote|'''Mr. Krabs:''' Mr. Squidward, front and center! I think we both know who deserves to wear that manager pin.

'''<nowiki>SpongeBob:</nowiki>''' Are you kidding? I was just going to say that your fly was down. Manager? This is the happiest day of my life! }}

*** Which is funny, since Squidward [[Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal|doesn't wear any pants]].

{{quote|"I think we've all learned a few things in the past 90 minutes. We've learned that Irishmen have huge nipples. We've learned that film-critic intellectuals are a bunch of gaywads. And most of all, we've learned that creeping corporate influence over the news protects us from terrorism."}}

* Health Education movies such as ''[[The Keg Party]]''.

{{quote|Hamm: I guess crime doesn't pay.}}

* The [[Aesop]] in ''[[Reefer Madness]]'' is this: if you smoke marijuana... sorry, "marihuana"... even once, you'll instantly become addicted and as a result you'll go crazy, become a sex-crazed lunatic, and murder your girlfriend in cold blood.

{{quote|If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, l won't look any further than my own backyard, because if it isn't there I never really lost it to begin with.

[and after Dorothy returns to Kansas] There's no place like home! }}

 

== Literature ==

* Every Oompa-Loompa song in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' and ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' is An Aesop in rhyming verse.

* The moral of ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' is to live life, take the good and take the bad and remain true to yourself. There might be other lessons scattered about the book concerning [[Author Tract|not manipulating others or belief in God,]] but the big message is to take the ups and downs and keep on. It comes off as [[Bittersweet Ending|bittersweet]] mostly because of all the events that had to take place for the protagonist to come to this conclusion.

* In [[The Trolls]] while little ones crop up here and there in Aunt Sally's stories, perhaps the biggest message is also, interestingly, the stealthiest one: be nice to your siblings.

* The moral of the business fable ''[[Who Moved My Cheese?]]'': Watch for signs of change, and be ready to change your actions when change happens around you.

 

* Every of ''[[Full House]]'' episode ended with a [[Full House Music|sappy musical score]] while Bob Saget explained the moral of the story to one of the girls.

* Most of the episodes of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' and ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' were morals about human [[Pride|hubris.]]

* ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' has this in spades.

* Every episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'' ends with J.D. reciting the theme of the episode over a musical piece. Often, though not always, an Aesop.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', ''The Two Doctors'' was an allegory about meat-eating, hunting and butchering, ending with the Doctor announcing to Peri that, "from now on it's a healthy vegetarian diet for both of us!" Writer Robert Holmes was a vegetarian.

** There are some Aesops about inner turmoil in "Vincent and the Doctor" from the Fifth Series. The episode explains that there are differences in how different people deal with depression or anxiety (the Eleventh Doctor is shown to be more resilient than Vincent Van Gogh). The Doctor also delivers a particularly touching Aesop at the end, when Amy discovers that their intervention failed to stop Van Gogh from killing himself: "The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant. And we definitely added to his pile of good things."

* ''[[Sister, Sister]]'' was full of these, ranging from the typical (such as stranger danger and the value of wise spending) to the more complex (such as Lisa dealing with her fear that she cannot compare to Ray's dead wife).

* [[Community/Recap/S1/E01 Pilot|The first episode of]] ''[[Community]]'' has Prof. Duncan attempting to impart one to Jeff about academic honesty. Jeff, however, feels strongly that community college is not the place to learn anything. Jeff's objection notwithstanding, many episodes end with speeches, tilted-head smiling people, happy music, and reconciliations.

* One episode of ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' played with the notion of the Aesop: Mister Feeny assigns Corey, Topanga, and Shawn a seemingly impossible task. After trying and failing, the [[Genre Savvy]] kids come to the conclusion that Mister Feeney was giving them a [[Secret Test of Character]] to teach them a lesson about teamwork. Unfortunately they were wrong: Mister Feeney was actually trying to teach them a lesson about never giving up, and ''wants'' them to complete their seemingly-impossible task, and so he sends them back out again.

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' justifies this because a sizable chunk of the premise is Future!Ted lecturing his kids about his mistakes when he was young. However, they're frequently [[Spoof Aesop|spoof]], [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|family unfriendly]], [[Broken Aesop|broken]], [[Space Whale Aesop|space whale]] (i.e., "I won't bother telling you not to fight, but don't fight with Uncle Marshall. He's insane."), [[Lost Aesop|lost]], lampshaded [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]], or otherwise humorously subverted, usually with Future Ted giving an aesop, but admitting that in real life, back when the events ''actually'' took place, he and his friends didn't learn their lesson right away. However, when one of the characters gives an aesop in the present, it's more often played straight.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** And after the Snow Goons arc

{{quote|'''Calvin:''' I like lessons that aren't applicable later in life}}

 

== Theatre ==

* [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] were fond of presenting Aesops:

{{quote|"I don't say I'm better than anybody else,

But I'll be damned if I ain't jist as good!" }}

** ''[[South Pacific]]'' had one in the song "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught."

* ''The Time of Your Life'': The text of the play is prefaced with a moral sermon.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[The Reconstruction]]'' has one that's never explicitly stated, but it's definitely an important part of the ending and Dehl's [[Character Arc]]. {{spoiler|A single person cannot save the entire world, and if they could, the psychological stress would break them first. So, instead of shooting for over-ambitious goals or lamenting the fact that we can't accomplish them, we should focus on what we ''can'' do to make the world a better place.}}

 

* In ''[[A Profile]],'' building on the [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] of 'Your friends will lie to you directly to your face, so be careful,' it then turns it around and says 'but you should trust them anyway. They're your friends.'

* ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'': People with disabilities are just that, ''people''. Considering this is a doujin [[Eroge]] [[Visual Novel]] than began on a certain image board this is surprisingly deep.

* At least two are present in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]].'' The first is that you should always believe in your friends<ref>Though there's an addition this one that says you should believe in your friends, but you don't have to tell them things they don't need to know</ref> and that it's never too late to repent and start over. In fact, this is a pretty striking contrast between the ends of Meakashi and Tsumihoroboshi. In the first the no attempts at amends are made even when the error is realized while Tsumihoroboshi states the aesop outright and has the people involved seeking forgiveness.

 

* Made into a Super Hero in [http://xninjared.deviantart.com/art/Lysistrata-Gambit-152865735 this comic]

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' decide to drop an aesop about [[Be Careful What You Wish For]] in [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2182.html this] strip, [[anvilicious]]y, with links to this AND that page.

* See [[The Rant]] of [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=333 this] ''[[The B-Movie Comic|The B Movie Comic]]'' strip.

** And [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=445 these] [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=446 two] pages.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Broken Saints]]'' is big on the moral messages, and this is [[Lampshaded]] in the credits of Chapter 19, which has a line reading: "today's lesson: strip clubs are bad"

* Subverted HARD in ''[[Look a Vlog]]''.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The first season of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' was pretty notorious about this. Although some of those were along the lines of "[[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|Stealing is wrong unless it's from pirates]]."

* ''[[South Park]]'' often features an Aesop at the end. Many times Kyle starts a speech by saying, "I've learned something today..." The morals are sometimes humorous - though as often as not - these speeches really are didactic.

** One of the funnier genunine spoofs of this trope was in "Super Fun Time", in which a completely nonsensical, out-of-left-field moral wound up being preached in the end by the episode's ''villain''.

** Cartman is sometimes opposed to the lesson at hand - and seems intent on disrupting the Aesop delivery.

{{quote|"Oh goddamnit, Kyle! You gave him one of your gay little speeches, didn't you?"}}

* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' also ended most episodes with The Tick turning to Arthur and saying "Arthur, I think we've learned a valuable lesson today," and then expounding semi-incoherently.

* ''[[The Weekenders]]'' loves Aesops. The episode "Listen Up" subverts their convention two-fold by having Carver (instead of the usual Tino) deliver it, and then having him off-center on screen and fading him out, forcing Carver to cut it short.

* Subverted in ''''[[Family Guy]]'': While Peter recovers in the hospital, Lois says, "I guess you learned an important lesson." Peter leans back smugly and says, "Nope," at which point the episode ends.

* ''[[The Proud Family]]'' had a tendency to overdo this at times, with some episodes being particularly Anvilicious(most notably the one about how [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]])

* On ''What It's Like Being Alone'', Aesops are usually provided by one-off characters that are on the verge of death. They then die, violently.

* ''[[Jem]]'' did this in practically any episode about the Starlight Girls—one of them would do something stupid (anything from stealing to drugs) and have to have An Aesop explained to them. A few featured other characters, such as the one where Roxy got screwed over again and again because she couldn't read.

* Happened quite often in the early episodes of ''[[Recess]]'', though they were ''never'' in-your-face about it. Then morals came from time to time later on, and season six became [[Anvilicious]].

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' had an aesop in many episodes in the first season, all of them being important lessons to teach children such as facing the consequences of your actions, not to curse, not to take advantage of your friends and not to touch things that aren't yours when instructed. Later seasons tend to lack these.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Creator Standpoint Index]]

[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]

[[Category:Index]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]