Broken Treasure: Difference between revisions

A common subversion is for the plot to end with a [[Milholland Relationship Moment]]. This is frequently the other character, at the end, explaining that the item wasn't as valuable as the first character thought - in fact, it's nearly worthless. A more sappy variation is for the other character to come back, find the broken item, see the attempts to fix it, and forgive the first character, saying that they aren't angry or upset because [[The Power of Love|love is more valuable]] than the material thing.

 

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== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Ethan Frome]]'': Ethan and Zeena don't have the best of marriages, what with Zeena being a hypochondriac shrew; but during a visit from Mattie (whom Ethan likes), the cat is startled and breaks her wedding gift (a bowl), signifying that their relationship is in ''serious'' trouble.

 

** In another episode, Frasier fiddles with and breaks a precious carved figure of an animal in the middle of a job interview.

* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'': Rose and Sophia scramble to replace Blanche's broken plate. When Blanche returns, her feelings for the plate have changed, and she intentionally smashes the replacement plate.

* On ''[[Road to Avonlea]]'', Janet receives an heirloom haircomb from one of her husband's relatives. It's hideous, but she doesn't want to say so, so her husband and in-laws are insulted when she won't wear it. Her kids lose it somehow, and when she finally agrees to wear it, she can't find it. She ends up spending a lot of money to have a replica made, and after taking a good look at it, her in-laws realize how ugly it is and don't blame her for not wanting to wear it.

* Parodied in a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' episode. Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie appears on a TV Show with Nobel Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu (played by Eddie Murphy). Tutu breaks Flutie's statue, and during the remainder of the sketch, Flutie is asked to analyze the same signature highlight over and over again while Archbishop Tutu solders the statue back together, eventually using his Nobel Peace Prize to complete the repair.

* ''The George Lopez Show'' did this with George's prized Steve Garvey signed baseball. His son took it to practice with and the dog chewed it up.

* Several times in ''George and the Dragon''. In one episode, George grinds up Gabrielle's WWII medals. In another episode, George breaks Gabrialle's records (big black round things that make music when placed in a thing called a record player).

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* ''[[Daria]]'': Daria and Jane are filming a music video of Mystik Spiral in the Lane family gazebo while the Lanes are away. It suddenly collapses. They then go through much time, money, and a twisted [[Chain of Deals]] to make build a look-alike gazebo before the Lanes come home. They succeed. When Mrs. Lane comes back, she says that the gazebo is very old, run-down and fragile, and will probably collapse soon, so she's going to have it demolished.

* ''[[Doug]]'' had Doug and Skeeter accidentally toss Patti's "Wacky Whizzer" frisbee-esque toy into a yard guarded by a vicious dog. It got chewed up at the end, but when they went to her house to apologize, she showed them a whole box of them her father had gotten free from work.

* Parodied by ''[[Futurama]]'', twice. Once, Fry eats what he believes is jerky, only to find out it's a mummified, ancient Pharaoh. The Professor is furious, because ''he'' was going to eat that Pharaoh! The second time, Dr. Zoidberg breaks a tiny piece of the Professor's model ship in a bottle and frantically tries to repair the damage. Each attempt only makes it worse, until the bottle and ship are both smashed to pieces. Zoidberg resorts to framing Fry, then toward the end tries to commit honorable ritual suicide. The joke is, the whole thing was worth $10. Which neither Fry nor Zoidberg had in their posession. Then, the sword Zoidberg attempts suicide with was worth 10,000 dollars, which gets ruined by Zoidberg trying to stab himself through his tough shell.

{{quote| Host: That sword was worth ''ten thousand <s>DOLLARS</s> [[Just a Stupid Accent|DORRU]]!''<br />

* ''[[Taz-Mania]]'' had Taz break his mother's vase and sell off his treasured bottlecap collection to buy a new one, only to find that his mother was just going to sell it at a garage sale and didn't expect to get more than $5 for it.

* Done in ''[[Recess]]'' when Spinelli loses Vince's lucky marble. After attempting in various ways to get it back, she finally tells him, only to have his reaction cut short by the discovery of a shiny nickel, which he proclaims to be "better than that crummy old marble".

 

{{reflist}}