Disproportionate Retribution/Newspaper Comics

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Disproportionate Retribution in Newspaper Comics include:

  • In The Wizard of Id, the King is known to throw people in the dungeon (or even order them executed) for relatively minor crimes, but especially making fun of his diminutive size or calling him a "fink".
  • In Dilbert, Alice has been know to commit cold-blooded murder several times for relatively minor things. She has rigged a paper shredder to kill a "sadistic nut", killed an annoying customer by dropping a computer on him from the roof, and killed the "corporate sadist" offscreen. In each case, these victims were killed for spreading rumors, chauvinistic remarks, or simply being annoying. (Even though few would blame her in-universe or out) Catbert claimed after one such incident that he hasn't considered discipline for any of this because she "did not discriminate, sexually harass, steal or take drugs". He then gave her an award for her "cost-saving idea" of killing a co-worker.
    • She has also killed the PHB at least once, but most would agree that was not "disproportionate".
  • In one Peanuts storyline, the Environment Protection Agency, of all people, did this. When the Kite Eating Tree eats one of Charlie Brown's kites, he loses his temper and bites it. His "reward" for actually standing up for himself? The EPA threatened him with legal action! (Lucy, of course, is a big help, saying "Ten to one says they'll throw him in the slammer!", while Snoopy teases him, saying an attorney could defend him in court by saying, "My client was confused, your honor, he thought he was a beaver!") Poor Charlie Brown would procede to run away from home to escape trouble (and briefly became a mentor to some little kids trying to form a baseball team), but fortunately, the tree eventually falls over in a thunderstorm, and with no evidence against him, he is able to go home.