Clueless Aesop: Difference between revisions

* 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.

* The well-intentioned episode on ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' in which a member of a race of asexual women and Riker fall in love. As Cracked.com put it: "The episode's message ends up completely garbled. Intended as a condemnation of homophobia, the episode instead comes off as the story of one woman's brave quest for cock in the face of lesbian tyranny."

*** 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.

*** In fairness to the producers, casting androgynous or asexual aliens as women was a typical Star Trek trick, which had works previously for the Talosians (Original Series) and the Bynars (Next Generation). But [[Failed a Spot Check|no one seemed to connect the dots in this case]].

* [[Anvilicious]] as it could be at times, ''[[Captain Planet]]'' sometimes went in over its head. It gave us the following stellar examples, some of which can be viewed via [http://www.uproxx.com/feature/2010/09/5-weird-captain-planet-episodes-you-probably-dont-remember/ list of uncomfortable "Captain Planet" episodes]:

** 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.)

** While not as [[Ripped from the Headlines]] as the other episodes, we must not forget the time that the Planeteers went back in time to ''battle [[Adolf Hitler]]''. It's hard to talk about how racism is bad when the good Cap equates his hate with pollution.

*** And it's even worse when you consider that, in [[Real Life]], Hitler and the Nazis were [[Even Evil Has Standards|big on conservation]]. To the point where some historians have argued that the Nazis intended to turn the entire nation of Poland into a nature and hunting preserve after the war!

* The infamous Saturday morning special ''[[Cartoon All Stars to The Rescue]]'' tried to deal with the dangers of marijuana -- by wasting a perfectly good [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] and having beloved children's cartoon characters spew quaint little platitudes about how drugs are bad. And marijuana users are apparently angry, semi-violent hoodlums a la ''[[Reefer Madness (Film)|Reefer Madness]]''. When that cartoon was broadcast in prime time in Italy, it was preceded by an "insanely long" and "insanely boring" message by the then-Prime Minister.

** American children were treated to a similarly [[Anvilicious]] message from Bush, Sr.

** Apparently, the special was not advertised as being a [[Very Special Episode]] prior to it first airing, fooling kids into thinking that it was going to be a purely fun crossover cartoon super special. Little did they know that they were about to be [[Anvilicious]]'d to oblivion.

** Y'know, some of those very cartoon characters being aware of drugs [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?|explains WAY too much.]]

*** You know, in 1949 no one really though smoking was bad. Just saying.

* Ah, ''Tinkerbell & The Great Fairy Rescue''. This entry in the otherwise surprisingly good ''[[Disney Fairies]]'' movie series soured some viewers thanks to it's intended Aesop being presented in such a clueless way as to become downright [[Warped Aesop|warped]]. The morals of the story were probably originally meant as, "spend more time with your child" and "don't stifle your child's imagination" and "have an open mind". In practice, the moral instead became an alarmingly [[Anvilicious]] [[Science Is Bad|Science Is]] [[Science Is Wrong|Badong]] [[Script Wank]]. These days, do we really need a children's film where a skeptical biologist is the antagonist?

** The show also had a real life one with "Feeling Pinkie Keen" (from the same writer, oddly enough). Similar to the "Tinkerbell" example, the message was supposed to be that you shouldn't obsess over finding explanations for all the weird stuff you see. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJQGS0ZMf0A Twilight's final summation] had some unfortunate phrasing that made it sound like the message was "Scientists should admit that God exists."

* 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]].

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[[Category:Clueless Aesop]]