Clueless Aesop: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"Now, we're not trying to indoctrinate you. Well, we are, but we're not succeeding."''|'''Peter Sagal''', ''[[Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!|Wait Wait Don't Tell Me]]''}}

 

== Advertising ==

* In the early 1990s, many [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]] would send, ostensibly out of the goodness of their hearts, free "educational kits' including lesson plans, worksheets, and other materials to elementary school teachers. In truth, they were really [[Product Placement|unsubtle advertisements for the company's products]]. These were often heartwarmingly/hilariously/heartbreakingly misguided. One of the most infamous such lesson plans doubles as a [[Broken Aesop]]: "Let's learn good nutrition with [[McDonald's|Ronald McDonald]] and friends!" Um...

** Also parodied in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' ("Lisa's Wedding") set in the distant future of... [[Zeerust|2010]]. By this point the students are stacked three high and are taught by Troy McClure via TV screen:

{{quote|'''Troy:''' Now turn to the next problem. If you have three Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you? You, the redhead in the Chicago school system?

'''Troy:''' Partial credit! }}

* Another example was the D.A.R.E. group in the late 1980s that tried to encourage kids to not do drugs and in their educational kits they included a pencil with the slogan "Too Cool To Do Drugs". Unfortunately, because they set their slogan not to start at the eraser end but at the lead end of the pencil, as it was sharpened the slogan devolved on the pencil from the original message, down to [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing|"Cool To Do Drugs"]], to simply "Do Drugs".

* Then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvjFsZJqAPs this] [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]] ad from Warner Bros. using a scene from ''[[Casablanca]]''. Only trouble is anyone who has seen the movie knows Rick is actually angry at Ilsa for ''resisting the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]]!'' So WB is comparing themselves to... [[Godwin's Law|what]]?

** While not as uncomfortable in terms of subtext, the one where the [[Wizard of Oz]] yells at Dorothy and company for, er, pirating media is pretty terrible too.

* In the 80s there was an [[X-Men]] one-shot called ''Heroes for Hope'' in which the X-Men take on famine in Africa ... which, as everyone knows, is caused by an ancient demon that feeds on human misery. Oh well, at least Marvel gave the proceeds of the comic to charity.

** The demon in question was established to be merely a consequence of the misery in the area, which was caused by far more complex causes... but it was very, very easy for the casual reader to get the above impression.

* ''Serenity'' ([[Name's the Same|not]] [[Serenity|that one]]) - it was supposed to be a story of bad girl finding about the wonders of God's love and becoming better person in the process. The way it was handled makes most people see it as depressing story about lonely girl getting subjected to emotional harassment and manipulation by bunch of Christian zealots, until she turns into brainwashed drone, [[The Woobie|while all she wanted was to have friends]].

 

* ''[[Riff Trax]]'' has continued [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'s tradition on that score, most notably with their commentary on the short ''Drugs Are Like That'', a parade of dubious and even contradictory metaphors for drugs. At different points in the short, for example, habitual behavior (such as hair twirling) and spontaneity (represented by making a minor change to a Lego-block machine) both become drug-use analogues.

* The Truth's line of anti-tobacco PSAs are often well written, but one is an [[Egregious]] case of [[Did Not Do the Research]], where they try to prove tobacco companies were aiming their products at kids because cigarettes were shown in ''[[The Muppet Movie]]''—because clearly a movie featuring Muppets can only be for kids. ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' was released in 1979, when [[Jim Henson]] was out to prove puppets could appeal to ''older'' audiences and a film didn't need an R rating to be made for adults.

** Also their choice for all the 'asexual' aliens to be played by women, because you know it wouldn't do for Riker's [[Love Interest]] to look like a man. (Okay, it ''is'' [[Shown Their Work|scientifically accurate]] because the only vertebrates we know of who can [[wikipedia:Parthenogenesis|reproduce asexually]] are [[One-Gender Race|all female]]. Still...)

*** This actually annoyed [[Jonathan Frakes|Jonathan "Riker" Frakes]] a bit, but the producers didn't have the [[Stealth Pun|balls]] to have the <s>hot babe</s> androgynous alien played by a guy.

* ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'' decided to tackle sexual predators in the two-parter "The Bicycle Man". In the story, [[Gary Coleman|Arnold]] wants a bicycle. After becoming friends with Mr. Horton, the owner of the bicycle shop, over part one, he, and his friend [[Long-Lost Uncle Aesop|Dudley]] (''Diff'rent Strokes''' recurring [[Very Special Episode]] scapegoat), start spending time with Horton in the back room where he lives. After [[Squick|riding on Mr. Horton's back]] and playing "Neptune, God of the Sea," Horton offers them some alcohol (which only makes Arnold worried that he might be caught with it on his breath) and sits them down to watch some cartoons. "That mouse just lost his drawers! [audience laughter]" Yeah, so after enjoying a nice X-rated cartoon, Arnold is uncomfortable enough to leave. Dudley wants to stay, and Arnold goes home. After letting slip what happened, Mr. Drummond calls the police. They arrive right as Horton is about to... uh... begin. Dudley appears on screen drugged with tranquilizers and shirtless. Then they have a couch conversation about how important it is to tell an adult about such things. While this is admittedly far more direct and open than the "bad touch" [[PSA]]s of the 90s, there is laughter throughout the episodes right up to when Mr. Drummond calls the police. Yes, even during the set-up to the molestation. That must have been the most awkward studio audience ever.

** [[Harsher in Hindsight]] considering Todd Bridges came out later saying he was repeatedly molested during the show's run.

* The 1998 episode ''Rust Buckets'' is a possible [[Trope Codifier|example]] of this, and just ''could not'' handle the episode's issue (unroadworthy vehicles) well. In fact, in Part 2 after the commercial break, it went ''off-topic''!

** The episode ''Unfit to Drive'' from the 1996 series, ''Enough's Enough'' from the 1997 series, and (to a slightly lesser extent) the 1997 episode ''Don't Look Back In Anger'' tend to sometimes forget what the aesop they're dealing with is.

 

== Theater ==

{{quote|During [the number] dancing robots appear with LED breastplates that first flash dollar signs amidst videos of urban and international violence, then display hearts as Mother Teresa appears onscreen to feed starving children. The number was originally designed for Jackson's This Is It shows (performances that were preempted by the artist's demise), so Cirque can't entirely be blamed for its unseemly exploitation of human suffering for commercial entertainment. Of course Jackson would have seen himself as raising awareness, and Cirque doubtless think the same thing about the pro-Gaia number [[Earth Song]] that unfolds as 30,000 people sip from souvenir plastic cups.}}

 

 

== Web Original ==

* Poked fun at by [[The Cinema Snob]] in his review of "Rock: It's Your Decision". The reformed, ex-rock-and-roll-fan protagonist preaches to a group of kids about what he saw at a rock concert once: The people listening weren't just sitting quietly and listening to the music! They were ''getting up and dancing!'' The music was ''controlling'' them! The Snob snarks, "This is an emotional response, like crying when you're sad. This, too, is sinful, and should be suppressed."

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Also, oil and water? Not well-known for mixing together. It (hopefully) should be blatantly obvious that generally oil ''should not be in water''.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' in general, since its [[Dead Baby Comedy]] status makes taking any Aesop it offers seriously near-impossible, especially when it comes to religion and gay rights.

** What makes it even worse is that D.W. never got punished. Arthur spent an entire week making a model plane, and DW not only ruins the wet paint, then blames it on Arthur, but she then throws his plane out the window, after he specifically told her not to touch it. She's not even sorry that it broke, blaming the plane for being defective because it didn't fly. Arthur hits D.W. in retribution, but gets all the blame.

*** From what we've seen. [[Unreliable Narrator|Her punishment could have happened off-screen.]]

** The infamous "[[Stroke Country|If It's Doomsday, It Must Be Belfast]]" episode, which was meant to promote world peace. What it managed to do instead was become the single most offensive example of both the [[Oireland]] trope and [[The Troubles]] trope, making the struggle between Catholics and Protestants look like [[West Side Story|The Jets against The Sharks]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJrovKgrTw Highlights can be seen here]. (And the comments. Dear God, the comments.)

*** Even better, while the titular subplot is far better known, this episode also had the team attempt to ''solve the Israeli / Palestine conflict''... with '''[[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Ma-Ti]]'''. Yeah really.

* Also happens [[In-Universe]] in ''[[South Park]]'', when the school decides they need to teach the kids about safer sex—without actually talking about sex. So they just tell the kids that boys always need to wear condoms, or else they might get girls pregnant, and leave it at that. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** At the end of the episode, Chef specifically calls this out, points out that the people teaching the sex ed (Mr. Garrison, Mr. Mackey, and Miss Choksondick) are all misguided, misinformed, or just plain clueless about sex themselves, and says that if the parents want it done right they should do it themselves.

 

{{reflist}}