Fiction Isn't Fair: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

While some teachers clearly do get away with [[Sadist Teacher|victimizing students and using abusive language]], there are many instances in fiction in which said teachers would be treading on very thin ice at a lot of schools, particularly those in fear of litigation.

Compare [[Refuge in Audacity]], in which the reason the characters are able to get away with such blatantly outrageous behaviour is because, simply, their behaviour is ''too'' outrageous for anyone to believe. Compare also [[No Delays for the Wicked]], and [[Never My Fault]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* The villains in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' get away with hospitalization quite easily. [[The Abridged Series]] doesn't even bother to call it out after the second episode. In this case it probably had to do with the fact that few people are going to believe that [[Serious Business|playing a children's card game]] can hospitalize someone.

* In several episodes of ''[[Hell Girl]]'' the bad guy of the week would end up behind bars in five minutes if anybody involved acted in even vaguely rational manner. The cake goes to a teacher in the second season who started tormenting her student subtly in a manner that seems like bullying of another student, but then proceeds to trying to pour acid over the student, laughing maniacally!

 

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Back to The Future]]'', someone put a "Kick Me" sign on George McFly's back. As he walks down a hallway, half of the students are kicking him and the other half are laughing at him. Principal Strickland chews out George for the whole thing.

** [[Truth in Television|You've never attended an American high school, have you?]]

 

== Literature ==

* One plot point of C. S. Lewis' ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]'' that's always been plenty annoying for readers is that Edmund Pevensie is allocated the demeaning role of the "traitor" who has to perform a [[Heel Face Turn]], with many allegorical readings even going so far as to compare him to [[The Bible|Judas Iscariot]]. In fact, a careful reading of the book makes clear that while, yes, Edmund's actions did amount to a betrayal of Aslan, outside of the context of the story Edmund never did anything wrong. Indeed, he's [[The Woobie|one of the more sympathetic and put-upon characters in the story]], being treated as ''persona non grata'' by his older brother and sister simply for being the youngest of the siblings (and, to their credit, they eventually do admit that they were cruel to him), of course the White Witch would seem a kindly figure to him! Why should he suspect that the White Witch is villainous when he's never been to Narnia, and how can anyone accuse him of betraying Aslan when he had never even met Aslan?

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Kyle XY]]'', episode "Free to Be You and Me". The school refuses to allow gay couples into the dance. Teaches a moral about tolerance of gays, but totally fails to consider that the result of such a policy would be for some parent to call up the ACLU, who would then give the school an ultimatum.

** Which is roughly what happened in April 2010, in a [[Real Life]] case of this event happening. Prom was officially cancelled and unofficially a group of parents established a separate private party and invited all of the straight kids there as well as teachers who acted as chaperones. It's splitting hairs, but legally somewhat distinct.

* The whole Tritter storyarc in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''.

** Most of what House himself does qualifies. An established flaw of Cuddy, his direct superior, is that she turns a blind eye to the laws, policy, and safety regulations he breaks in literally every episode. Especially obvious after the third season when he is required to pick a new diagnostic team, choosing his employees not based on merit but on how much they interest him. He tells Cuddy and the candidates this, to their faces. Unfair hiring practices are very illegal, especially in hospitals where unqualified workers regularly kill people by accident. Both House and Cuddy are rather fortunate to still have their jobs.

*** He keeps one candidate around in part because he's a black Mormon, one in part because she's a lesbian and one despite the fact that he doesn't have a medical degree or any real training. Surely ''those'' qualify.

** It might be justified because of how House is often the last resort, for people/patients who would otherwise simply die. They might have insurance waivers that need to be signed before anyone could see him. House could justify his hiring practice easily enough.

** Cuddy mentions having a special fund for House-related lawsuits at one point early in the series.

** This is at one point subverted. After Buffy was expelled and Snyder refused to let her back Giles threatened to make a formal complaint. Snyder tells him to take it to the school board. Giles tells him he was thinking of the state supreme court. This leads to a compromise.

*** Actually it doesn't. Snyder still refused and only relented after Giles basically threatened to beat the crap out of him.

** Secondly, how Sam has managed to not get expelled. This is at its worst in the early episodes where Sam is a major bully. In the later episodes, you have to wonder how she even manages to pass through the grades, considering Sam appears to fail every class, is lazy, never does homework, and actively aggravates her teachers. This is after being held back once already in third grade.

*** It is mentioned in "iPilot" that Sam has actually been suspended before, and that another incident would lead to an expulsion.

** Speaking of Sam, one has to wonder why she hasn't been taken from her mother by Social Services by now. We discover that Mrs. Puckett, among other things, has driven to school while blind to pick up her daughter, doesn't do much of anything besides sleep all day, Sam mentions that her mom doesn't feed her (whether it's truth or exaggeration is never fully revealed, but she ''does'' eat at Carly's a lot), the police have been to her apartment ''numerous'' times to do searches... And Sam frequently mentions these things to Carly and Freddy, and within earshot of Spencer, who is a legal adult and should probably call the police! Yet absolutely ''nothing'' is done about her horrible home-situation.

* Pretty much every soap opera or "drama show" on TV. In order to drive the conflict, no one ever calls the police for something like breaking and entering.

* In ''[[True Blood]]'', how the hell is the Fellowship of the Sun not on the FBI's Most Wanted list after sending a friggin' suicide bomber to a vampire gathering, and then gloating about it on public television? It's clear that vampires are considered people under the law, and there were many human participants in any case.

* A skit on the 1980s updated version of ''[[The Mickey Mouse Club]]'' takes place in a supermarket, where an adolescent girl working at the checkout line is forced to deal with an item scanner endowed with a ridiculous level of artificial intelligence; the scanner has a [[Jerkass]] personality and keeps insulting shoppers in its obnoxious robotic voice (calling them fat, saying they have bad breath, etc.). The hapless girl gets blamed for all this rudeness (despite, you know, [[Captain Obvious|not actually being a robot]]), and is finally fired by her supervisor (although by that point she's almost ''happy'' to be fired, since she won't have to put up with the asshole computer anymore). It was obviously [[Played for Laughs]], though.

* From what we found out via the reminiscing on ''[[Frasier]]'', Frasier and Niles had it rough too. Not only were they almost always picked on by their fellow students, but sometimes the ''teachers'' joined them in the jeering. Where are these schools located, Hell?

 

== Video Games ==

** Coffee cups? Bombarding Phoenix or otherwise humiliating him is commonly done not only by the prosecutors, but even by the witnesses.

** This is because Real Life Isn't Fair; it seems over-the-top and cartoony to a Western audience, but it's based on Japanese court proceedings, of which the entire thing is only ''slightly'' exaggerated. The reason prosecutors seem to get away with everything in these games is because in Japanese courtrooms, everyone is on the prosecutor's side anyway because the defendant has committed an unforgivable act of bad manners just by pleading not guilty. Yes, really.

 

== Web Comic ==

* In ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', assault doesn't seem to be a crime in Callan. Siegfried assaulted Dominic multiple times and faced no consequences. And it's not even a case of a corrupt government protecting one of their own. Taz attacked a guy with a garbage can for saying his music sucked and he's a massive anti-authoritarian, while Melna, a despised ethnic minority, routinely assaulted Dominic and faced no charges.

** Taz has been shown as being bailed out of jail in a recent strip where he assaulted Dominic, but given the relative mildness of the assault, this may be [[Rule of Funny]].

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Danya managing to get away with extremely high profile abductions of hundreds of high school kids (including the child of a vice president, in one version), and keeping the game on the air for periods that can be upwards of two weeks without getting tracked down. In version two, the island ''was'' tracked down, but only just after the game ended. Equally, earlier versions had a couple of villainous characters who were insane prior to the game to the point that they most definitely should have been committed.

** In version one, some of said villains ''were'' committed and subsequently broken out by the terrorists or escaped on their own. However, the other three versions have drifted away from that with the narrower focus.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Angela Anaconda]]'' might be the worst offender here: the teacher regularly gives the class pet straight A's, even when she doesn't do what the assignment asks for (she once brought a tea set when she was supposed to make a volcano) and constantly gives everyone F's and D's. For some reason despite that fact that 99% of her class is, you know, FAILING she never loses her job or even gets called on it...except when it involved a school play; even then, the only reason Mrs. Brinks let Angela get what she deserved (in a good way) was because she was surrounded by parents and couldn't be seen to be hypocritical.

** ''Malcolm'' even turns this into a [[Spoof Aesop]] during an episode where Reese decides to stop bullying and the entire student body falls into anarchy as [[Evil Power Vacuum|the lesser bullies attempt to fill the power vacuum]] left by his absence. When Reese [[Status Quo Is God|returns to his tyrannical ways]], everyone cheers.

** At least one episode had the ACLU come in after finding out the school literary journal was censored. Which, while a subversion of the trope, is just as unlikely as anything on this page; school publications are privately funded and don't count as "the press". Therefore, the school may censor whatever they like.

** ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer's Enemy" revolved around how someone from "real life" might react to Homer Simpson's life.

** In the flashback episode that shows Bart first attending the school, Principal Skinner introduces some members of staff to the new students, including school bully Jimbo.

** Another episode has Nelson talking about the proper way to prepare huckleberries - until Skinner walks past, when he starts telling stories about people he beat up.

*** Snake is a repeat violent offender (having committed armed robbery multiple times in broad daylight in front of witnesses), and yet Springfield can't hold him. This isn't a case of [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]], or [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]; Snake is a petty criminal.

*** Although, given Calvin's imagination, he may just think the work's a bit hard.

*** Sometimes he also makes it hard for himself. Case in point, the leaf project:

'''Calvin''': [[Comically Missing the Point|See? It's impossible!]] }}

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Daria]]'': When the school alters Daria and Jane's poster, and then attempts to display the altered poster in an art show over their protests, they take action by destroying it. Principal Li calls Daria's mother, Helen, who, despite having earlier agreed with Li on the issue, gets an [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] [[Mama Bear]] moment:

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' has its protagonist undergo bullying that counts as physical assault. People get shoved in lockers, physically beaten, and the mascot is hung from the goalposts. For at least two hours. Add in the blatant favoritism shown to the football players and popular kids by the school system, and Casper High is BEGGING for a lawsuit...

** In one episode, a teacher told Dash to get Danny into shape, and he replied "Is 'broken in half' considered a shape?", so it's not just that the teachers never see it.

** Then there was that Ember episode where an entire SWAT team was called in to arrest every single teenager in town. That's bordering on parody.

*** To be fair, earlier in the episode, all the students ganged up and nearly trampled the [[Stern Teacher]] to death had it not been for Danny. In his perspective, he didn't know they were all [[Mass Hypnosis|hypnotized]].

** In addition, Vlad (through Jack) institutes several anti-ghost anti-teen measures, including a [[Fascists' Bed Time|curfew]], "confiscating" any handheld technology, excessive surveillance, escorts for all teens, et cetera.

* The ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Goobacks" involved people from the future [[Time Travel|traveling to the present]] and [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|taking everyone's jobs because they were willing to work for 20 cents an hour]]. At no point does anyone even ''try'' enforcing minimum wage laws.

*** Certain government agencies tend to frown on it, though.

** On the other hand, there didn't seem to be anyone obstructing the giant public gay orgy used to protest the future immigrants. Those guys must have been violating at least a couple of indecency laws.

** Wait, [[Julius Caesar|March 15?]]

** This was handwaved in one episode in which he mentioned in passing that he had tenure. This was his justification for going on with an experiment that would kill a human subject, to prove that Timmy's "parents" were fairies.

** This is more a character flaw than anything really. They managed to convince her that all of that was just an accident and they really were trying to be good students, honest! She's always shown to be very forgiving and they really played the right notes with her. Noticeably, when she realizes what's going on and how she's been tricked she let's the girls rain down dodgeball-based vengeance upon them.

* ''[[Total Drama]]''. No matter how sadistic or life threatening the challenges get, Chris still gets away with abusing several teens on international television. No law enforcement official ever steps in, nor do the kids' parents. Even when he's shown ''killing interns'' onscreen, no one seems to care.

 

{{reflist}}