Go to Your Room
One of the Stock Phrases most often used in a Dom Com when a kid acts up. A milder version of You Are Grounded. Often followed with the nonsensical "To think about what you've done."
This actually isn't much of a punishment, since many kids' rooms have all their toys and games inside. The trope is often subverted when parents realize this.
Truth in Television; lots of people can recall having heard this spoken to them when they were children.
Because it is far more commonly made fun of than played straight, list parodies and subversions below.
Advertising
- One 1990s Crayola commercial for a "cool room" sweepstakes had a kid sent to his, unbeknownst to him that it's chock full of brand new toys. The next time his parents send him off, he cheers.
Fan Works
- In Kyon: Big Damn Hero Kyon is getting grounded again after his mother learned he dangled another student out of a third floor window (It Makes Sense in Context), telling him he's destroying his future. Then comes Tsuruya's father to thank him for his acts and promises him a position in his corporation after he finishes his education. After he leaves the following exchange happens:
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Kyon: Anyway, you were reminding me that I don't have a future? |
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Film
- Parodied in Hudson Hawk while the title character is facing off with Diabolical Mastermind Darwin Mayflower:
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Hudson: I want to be treated like an adult. |
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- Subverted in The Ring by Rachel yelling this while freaking out over discovering Noah's corpse and realizing that they didn't stop the Curse at all, and doesn't want her son, Aiden, to watch her violent and tearful breakdown over the Cursed Video.
Live Action Television
- In Doctor Who, the Doctor tries to escape the gas mask zombies in "The Doctor Dances" by ordering them to go to their room. It works. Turns out the person controlling them is a four-year-old boy.
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Doctor: I'm really glad that worked, Those would have been terrible last words! |
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- It leads to an Oh Crap moment while they're investigating said four-year-old boy.
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I told it to go to its room...This is its room. |
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- In Married... with Children, after Bud fails an exam because (unbeknownst to Al) his hot new neighbour April keeps sneaking in through his bedroom window to have sex with him:
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Bud: Dad, you can punish me however you like, but whatever you do, please don't send me to my room. |
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- Not so much a parody, but Uther does give Morgana a version of it in Merlin "You will go to your chambers!"
- Occurs in an episode of Power Rangers SPD, during a scene where Mora ticks off Emperor Gruumm.
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Gruumm: Mora, go to your room! |
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Newspaper Comic
- In a strip of The Boondocks, after asking Huey what the vaguely worded Viagra commercials were advertising:
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Granddad: Go to your room! |
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- Family Circus had a subversion where Mommy wants to punish Jeffy with this and realizes that is where his toys are and so says, "Jeffy, go to your room; on second thought, go to my room!"
Stand Up Comedy
- Bill Cosby's famous stand-up act: "And my wife sent me to my room... which is where I wanted to go in the first place."
- To clarify, the point of the sketch was that he was supposed to cook breakfast for his children, while all he wanted to do was get some more sleep; so when his outraged wife sent him back, he was happy about it. "It takes great thinking and work to keep from working."
Video Games
- Parodied in Sam and Max Freelance Police: "Chariots of the Dogs", when, after Sam and Max cause a catastrophic temporal anomaly, the spaceship's computer AI orders them to go back to the spaceship "To think about what you've done."
- Parodied in Mass Effect 2, if Anderson has been made the human leader/represenative of the Council. Udina, his assistant, will walk in and berate him for what he perceives as a mistake, at which point Anderson will tell him that he is in charge, and to "Go to your office, and think about that for a while."
- This is Strago's order to Relm in Final Fantasy VI after she calls Shadow's dog Interceptor a "cute doggy" and Shadow replies that "he bites." Relm's response? "I will not! What a fussy old man!"
Web Original
- Tourettes Guy did this to his son in one video.
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Danny: Aw, fuck you! You're grounded! |
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Western Animation
- Used frequently on The Simpsons (Bart Vs. Thanksgiving, Bart the Daredevil, Bart Gets an Elephant, Homer Vs. the Eighteenth Amendment, etc.) with an interesting inversion in "Lisa the Vegetarian":
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Lisa: If you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room. |
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- There's also used to end an argument about Stampy the elephant.
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- The Simpsons also had a time when Homer said Bart shouldn't go to his room since all of his toys are in there. He instead tells him to go into the garage. A few moments later Bart passes by the window on a lawnmower with several police cars chasing him.
- Kirk Van Houten says this to his son Milhouse after trying to translate a writing on the wall that he wrote on (Trab Pu Kcip) in "Brother from the Same Planet":
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Kirk: What did we tell you about writing on the walls. Go to your room! |
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- Early episodes of Family Guy had a Running Gag where Peter would send Chris to his room (said in a very bored tone of voice) for some minor reason.
- Made funnier by the fact that there is an "Evil Monkey" in Chris's closet. This becomes a bit of a running gag, the series even going to far as to explain WHY the monkey is evil.
- Lois herself has done this. When she had to home school the kids, Chris tried to pass a note to Meg saying "I think Mrs. Griffin's hot". Lois immediately tells him to go to his room in the same bored tone Peter uses.
- Used in an episode of Dexter's Laboratory ("The Old Switcharooms"), with the twist that the kids were sent to each other's rooms in order to learn respect for other peoples' property. Dexter assumes Dee Dee is trashing his lab, and makes a stealth suit to investigate. Of course, it turns out that Dee Dee hadn't done anything, and when she and Dad see how badly Dexter savaged her room (in the process of making the suit), he gets sent to the doghouse... while the dog runs wild through the lab, wrecking it.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Headband" Sokka snaps this at Aang after pretending to be his dad when Aang suggested throwing a dance party for the kids at the Fire Nation school.
- Used in Lilo and Stitch:
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Nani: GO TO YOUR ROOOOOOOOOM! |
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- Rugrats: After Angelica destroys her dad's study and fax machine, Drew finally actually tells her "You're gonna stay in your room and think about what you've done!" He then goes downstairs musing, "Well, I did it. I actually did it! I disciplined Angelica."
- The main theme of an entire episode of Arthur, "Go to Your Room, D.W.!", which was also adapted as a book. D.W. is sent to her room after she pinches Baby Kate.