Badly-Battered Babysitter: Difference between revisions

There are some common variations. The baby may wander away from the home, with the babysitter giving chase. In others, the baby itself turns the home into an [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|obstacle course of doom]] using the furnishings, appliances, water pipes, electrical outlets, and pretty much everything else in the house. Or it is possible that the baby is unusual in some way, and thus is physical dangerous, and will inadvertantly (or not so inadvertently) hurt the babysitter in the course of "playing". Regardless, in the end [[Amusing Injuries|grievous bodily harm]] comes to the babysitter (and quite often the home itself is wrecked)... but the baby itself is [[Infant Immortality|safe and sound, and utterly unhurt]].

 

 

A version of the story (below) goes right back to ancient Welsh folklore - making this trope [[Older Than Print]].

* In a subversion, the short film ''Jack-Jack Attack'' (special featured on the ''[[The Incredibles]]'' DVD) features a stereotypical blonde (Kari) babysitting Jack-Jack Parr. Jack-Jack proceeds to teleport about the house, defy gravity, chew through a wooden "cage" (actually an inverted playpen), phase through walls, set the house on fire, and shoot Kari with lasers. This actually happened WITHIN the time-frame of the movie, off-screen.

** Her frantic calls to Mrs. Parr, and the ease/eagerness with which she handed the kid off to a [[Big Bad|complete stranger]] that belatedly identified himself as the replacement sitter, tied into the main plot as well.

* When Kala [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uB4K0_Wjo discovers and rescues] [[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]] from the tree house.

* ''[[Ice Age]]'' is this in a nutshell.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** It was also pulled for other things, like the implication that the Kents hired the babysitter so they could have a quiet night together. Also played with a bit at the end where the Kents get home, see the wrecked house, and compliment Letitia and ask if she's available next week. Another thing that irked the censors was a scene where little Clark gets himself a drink of milk straight from the udders of a cow.

* Speaking of [[The DCU]], this showed up in ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'' a couple of times: once when Wonder Girl and Arrowette babysat a child who was hypnotized by a children's video into attempting to kill them, and again when the young and old superheroes switched ages, forcing the now-adult sidekicks to babysit their now-child mentors. During the midst of the latter situation, Wonder Girl even mentions the former one, lamenting how she'd promised never to babysit again afterward.

* Sarah is a form of this in ''[[Labyrinth]]'', though it was [[Be Careful What You Wish For|her fault that goblins took her baby brother away.]] She has to go through a fairy biting her, lots of running, falling down traps, enduring the Bog of Eternal Stench, [[Villainous Crush|being hit on by the villain,]] and going up against a goblin army. And their parents are none the wiser.

 

* [[Older Than Print]]: In the [[Welsh Mythology]] cycle, ''The [[Mabinogion]]'', Prince Llewellyn the Great goes out, returning to discover his baby son's cradle overturned, the baby missing, and the guart dog Gelert with blood around his mouth. Llywelyn drew his sword and killed Gelert, who let out a final dying yelp. The he heard the baby's cries and discovered it was unharmed under the cradle, along with a dead wolf which had attacked the child. Gelert had killed it, and the blood had been the wolf's -- and his own, from wounds received in the child's defense.

 

* The platform game ''Sleepwalker'' had the player controlling a hapless dog tasked with stopping his master from waking up as he sleepwalked all over the city.

* A parody of this occurs in the ''[[Stinkoman 20 X 6]]'', in which the hopelessly naive 1-Up wanders into "[[Lethal Lava Land|The Lava Zone]]" to look for a kidnapped Pan-Pan. Stinkoman doesn't care until he realizes 1-Up took his "Power Crunch," at which point he must follow and protect 1-Up to ensure he gets his item back.

{{quote|'''[[Resident Evil 4|Ashley]]''': [[Most Annoying Sound|LEEEOOOOOOOOOON!!!]]}}

* ''[[Yoshi's Island]]'' has a multicolored tribe of Yoshis ferrying Baby Mario through the whole game, and rather ridiculous obstacles. (You think they could just leave the baby with someone at home and go clear the way on their own?)

* This is the setup used by the "Buttons and Mindy" segments on ''[[Animaniacs]]'', where they took an almost sadistic glee in torturing the poor dog.

** And the poor dog [[The Woobie|always winds up getting chewed out]] by the [[Sarcasm Mode|mother of the year]].

** In one episode, the Warners have met up with [[Tiny Toon Adventures|Elmyra]] and are trying to get rid of her. They do so by convincing her to follow Mindy. After the Warners stop him from automatically trying to interfere on Mindy's behalf, Buttons ''really'' enjoys seeing someone other than himself taking all the pain for a change.

** And in ''[[Wakko's Wish|Wakkos Wish]]'', he finally gets his reward: a pile of steaks.

** Most of the shorts also tend to end with Buttons getting a big hug from Mindy, showing that while the girl's parents treat him like dirt, his torment isn't entirely without its rewards.

* Parodied to the extreme by ''[[TV Funhouse]]'' in its "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-_kLSbKW2o The baby, the immigrant, and the guy on mushrooms]" sketches (where mom leaves the cat in charge of the titular baby, immigrant, and guy on mushrooms).

** This was probably a variation of the 1934 Popeye cartoon "A Dream Walking," in which Popeye and Bluto tried to protect a sleepwalking Olive Oyl from the dangers of a construction site.

* A series of [[Donald Duck]] shorts on ''[[Mickey Mouse Works]]'' and ''[[House of Mouse]]'' depict Donald having to watch a mischievious baby turtle, lest Don face the mother's wrath.