Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Difference between revisions

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** Nozomu as well, albeit in a different way. The audience doesn't see his upbringing, but given (as part of family tradition), his family tries to force him to marry the first person he locks eyes with during a ceremony, it's unlikely to have been that normal. Whatever it involved, Nozomu turned out to be a hilariously neurotic guy. And then there's Nozumu's nephew Majiru, whose [[Parental Abandonment]] is somewhat [[Played for Laughs]], as is Nozomu's [[Hands-Off Parenting]] of him after taking him in.
* Monkey D. Luffy's childhood in ''[[One Piece]]'' is clearly this.
{{quote| '''Luffy''': Yeah! So don't attack him!!! He'll ''kill'' you...!!! Grandpa's nearly killed ''me'', often enough!<br />
'''{{spoiler|Garp}}''': Hey! Have a little consideration. So what if I dropped you off a few cliffs, tossed you into the midnight jungle, and [[Crosses the Line Twice|tied you to a balloon and set you to fly away]]...!! '''It was to make you a stronger man!!!''' }}
* ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' is a prime example of this. Even the fact that his parents sold him to [[The Family for the Whole Family|the "very nice people"]] for organ harvesting is played for laughs. [[In-Universe]], when he talks about his childhood, most of the listeners burst into tears.
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* [[Deconstructed Trope]] in ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' with the flashbacks to Mallory's childhood. They consist of scenes of Mallory's father being deeply abusive, both physically and sexually, to his wife and daughter... on a [[Sitcom]] set, complete with a highly uncomfortable [[Laugh Track]] that pushes it into the [[Dead Baby Comedy]]/[[Dude, Not Funny]] zone. It really doesn't help that the father was played by [[Playing Against Type|Rodney Dangerfield]]. The dissonance between character and actor is ''staggering''.
* ''[[Austin Powers]]'': One of Dr. Evil's best moments is during a group therapy session, casually dismissing his deranged childhood as "typical."
{{quote| '''Dr. Evil:''' The details of my life are quite inconsequential. Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with a low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloë with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds--pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Wilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum. It's breathtaking--I suggest you try it."}}
* ''[[Bananas]]'' -- [[Woody Allen]] recalls his parents to his psychiatrist:
{{quote| "I think they hit me once, actually, in my whole childhood. They, they, uh, started beating me on the 23rd of December in 1942, and stopped beating me in the late Spring of '44."}}
** Allen used similar jokes in his stand-up acts: "When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room."
** And similarly in his film ''[[Zelig]]'':
{{quote| "My brother beat me. My sister beat my brother. My father beat my sister and my brother and me. My mother beat my father and my sister and me and my brother. The neighbors beat our family. The people down the block beat the neighbors and our family."}}
* John Cusack's character in ''[[Better Off Dead]]'' had a somewhat off home-life coupled with bizarre neighbors and general lucklessness, spurring him into several [[Suicide as Comedy|bungled suicide attempts played for laughs]].
** Cusack's film ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'' seems to reference the earlier film in the backstory of protagonist Martin Blank, which appears to have been similarly hilariously abusive. By the time of the movie, Martin's mother has gone completely over the bend and is in an asylum and doesn't recognize him, and his father is implied to have been an abusive drunk (Martin does a [[Libation for the Dead]] at his grave and ultimately dumps the entire bottle out and leaves it there). In Martin's case, this unhinged him enough to become a professional assassin.
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* Tracy Jordan from ''[[30 Rock]]'' could be the page quote:
{{quote| "It's all coming back to me. Oh my God! I slept on an old dog bed stuffed with wigs! I watched a prostitute stab a clown! Our basketball hoop was a rib cage – a rib cage! Why did you bring me here? I blocked all this stuff out for a reason! Oh, Lord, some guy with dreads electrocuted my fish! [Later] All my life I've tried to forget the things I've seen — a crackhead breastfeeding a rat, a homeless man licking a Hot Pocket off the third rail of the G train! [Still later] I've seen a blind guy bite a police horse! A puppy committed suicide after he saw our bathroom! I once bit into a burrito and there was a child's shoe in it! I've seen a hooker eat a tire! A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy's! The sewer people stole my skateboard! [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|The projects I lived in were named after Zachary Taylor, generally considered to be one of the worst presidents of all time!]] I once saw a baby give another baby a tattoo! They were very drunk!"}}
* In ''[[Coupling]]'', Jeff frequently alludes to his upbringing, which was obviously pretty bizarre and had a big influence on his personality.
{{quote| You're shaking the caravan, Jeffrey!}}
** His mother also apparently started making enormous sculptures of erections and filling the house with them. She would keep the ones that went wrong in a box under Jeff's bed. She also apparently told him if he told lies he would be punished by some magical being sneaking into his room at night and removing a 'segment' of his penis.
* ''[[Monk]]'' has a fair number of references to his childhood, which was also highly dysfunctional. Although it's played a bit more seriously than usual for this trope, there is an explanation for his off-putting behavior.
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** Mac's mother is extremely apathetic and just sits in front of her television all day drinking and smoking. His father was sent to jail for drugs.
* Arnold Rimmer from ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', his father vented his frustration at being rejected by the space corp for being an inch too short on him and his brothers by, among other things, using a medieval torture device to make them taller, and withholding food if they couldn't answer questions about astronomy.
{{quote| Rimmer: "Every morning he'd measure us to see if we had grown, if not it was back on the rack."}}
* ''[[Titus]]'': Christopher Titus's father actually thinks emotionally damaging kids is better for them than physical violence (which Erin's dad, Merritt, does to her brother, Michael, which Ken thinks makes him a "drunken Irish loser.")
** Christopher Titus really did have a messed-up childhood in [[Real Life]], and mentions it often in his stand-up comedy routines and on the sitcom. Both of his parents were alcoholics (though his dad, Ken, was a [[Functional Addict]]), his mom, Juanita, was a violent, manic-depressive schizophrenic who murdered her second husband after he beat the shit out of her for not having dinner done and she eventually killed herself after realizing that her mental illness ruined her life, his dad married and divorced five times (with his ex-wives cleaning him out to the point that the only thing they had in their house was a rubber raft, a box, and a black-and-white TV), and Titus's extended family includes members who were either mentally ill, verbally abusive, addicted to drugs, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|a Mormon uncle]].
* Chandler Bing from ''[[Friends]]''.
{{quote| '''Chandler:''' Come on, by age seven kids have already seen orgies. ''[Beat]'' Was it just me?}}
** Phoebe Buffay often comes out with tales of a horrendous early life, and the humour comes from her blase or sunny demeanor when recounting them.
** Not to mention Monica; her parents used the term "pulled a Monica" to mean "screwed up". Monica once points out that they promised her and her psychiatrist that they would stop.
* In ''[[Seinfeld]]'', it is hinted that George's childhood was less than salutary.
{{quote| '''George Costanza''': As damaging as purely psychological and verbal abuse could be...<br />
'''Elaine Benes''': Ah, and another piece of the puzzle falls into place. }}
** Also:
{{quote| '''Frank Costanza''': Blow out the candles! Blow out the damn candles!<br />
'''Young George Costanza''': I need my glasses...<br />
'''Frank Costanza''': You don't need glasses! You're weak! }}
** Not to mention ''Festivus''.
{{quote| '''Frank Costanza on old tape''': Time for the feats of strength!<br />
'''George Costanza''': NO! NOT THE FEATS OF STRENGTH!!! *runs out screaming* }}
* Dr Cox from ''[[Scrubs]]'' falls in and out of this. Sometimes his abusive childhood is treated jokingly, and then in other episodes they'll focus on how messed up he is as a result.
{{quote| "I don't necessarily buy into all that New Age-y crap. I once saw my mom knock my dad unconscious with a frying pan. You know what I did? Kept right on going with my birthday party!"}}
* Daphne in ''[[Frasier]]'' has a habit of recounting traumatic or downright abusive stories from her past in a cheery, fond tone.
* ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' often displays the poisonous behavior of Charlie and Alan's mother, both in the show's timeframe and in [[Backstory]] presented by "who-did-Mom-scar-more" arguments. There was also an episode where she keeps pushing Charlie to find out why he doesn't like her and why he has issues with commitment. He finally opens up [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|with a rant]]:
{{quote| '''Charlie''': I'm not saying I hate you, but if I did, it might have something to do with the fact that you're a narcissistic bloodsucker who drove my father into an early grave, after which you married a succession of men who couldn't care less about Alan and me, which was just fine with you 'cause you... looked at us like a couple of dancing monkeys you could just haul out whenever it suited you! And when it didn't, you sent us off to boarding school or camp or that kibbutz in Israel, where we got beat up 'cause we weren't even Jewish! And now... now you show up here every chance you get to lay a guilt trip on me for not appreciating my cold, lonely, loveless childhood!<br />
'''Evelyn''': [[Comically Missing the Point|Well... obviously you're not ready to talk about it]]. }}
* Apparently George Lopez's childhood in ''[[The George Lopez Show]]''. (His mother let a rat live in his bedroom, telling him it was a South American gerbil.) In real life Lopez was raised by his grandmother, who was incredibly hard to live with. It still fit into this Trope when he wound up putting his horror stories about her into his stand-up routine. One of his shows was even called "Why You Cryin'?" which was her typical response to him getting upset.
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** Mrs. Benson takes [[My Beloved Smother]] [[Up to Eleven]], and qualifies Freddie for this as well.
* Ray and his brother Robert in ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]''. Their mother Marie overbearingly smothered Ray and utterly neglected Robert. One episode ended with Ray realizing his parents followed him to school when he was a child, hiding behind bushes and the like.
{{quote| '''Ray''': You mean, Mom was the crazy tree lady from my dreams?<br />
'''Rob''': Yup.<br />
'''Ray''': Then... the insane canoe guy was...<br />
'''Rob''': Dad.<br />
'''Ray''': My God, that gave me nightmares.<br />
'''Rob''': For how long?<br />
'''Ray''': I had one just last week!<br />
'''Rob''': Wow, that is messed up. }}
** Robert can also be a case of this, though a lot of times it's not funny.
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** In one episode, Bill recalls one of his father's pieces of advice: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child and acted as a child. But when I grew up, I took that child out back and had him shot." Dave then asks if his father was in the Khmer Rouge.
**
{{quote| '''Bill''': Another time I was cut from the high school football team and my mother said, "Central's lost a fullback but the McNeal's have gained a daughter" and in front of the other players too... priceless! Good times... good times...<br />
'''Lisa''': And this is a happy memory for you?<br />
'''Bill''': Why shouldn't it be? }}
**
{{quote| '''Bill''': I remember one time my father came home from a night on the town which of course had turned into a week and my mother said, "John, is there anything you won't drink?" and my father shot back, "Poison... I'm saving it for you." (Laughing) And I and my brother, who is now an alcoholic himself, just about died laughing...}}
* Interestingly, ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' borders on this for the younger boys, who simply gripe about their mom lightly, but with Francis it's almost always averted and he has deep-seated hatred for her, acknowledging that psychological abuse is serious and long-term. Possibly because for them, this is the norm, while Francis has already flown the nest and seen just how horrible the things Lois did really are, and how much it has messed him up (though there are also indications that Francis was disturbed in the first place, so it's not entirely certain how much of it was Lois' fault). The closest any of the younger boys has gotten to realizing how unhealthy Lois treats them is Malcolm, the genius.
** In one episode Dewey begins to stop taking part in his brothers' antics and begins acting more responsible and mature, being pleasant to his mother and no longer causing trouble, which causes Lois to stop harassing him. Malcolm and Reese corner him to find out why she isn't harassing him any more like she does them, but when he tries to explain - that the only reason she acts that way towards them is because they keep misbehaving - they either don't understand, or refuse to accept it, and vow to find out how he does it.
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** This also ties in to the [[Series Finale]], where Lois refuses Malcolm a high-paying job out of high school since their plan for him is to work his way up from the bottom of society to become President of the United States, and in fact had been planning ''his whole life''.
* It's possible that [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]] is the backstory for every single character in (and the explanation for the title of) ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.
{{quote| "His arm's come off!"}}
* On ''[[The Colbert Report]]'', many jokes revolve around the character of Stephen Colbert's upbringing, which led him to be an outwardly confident, blustery man trying to ignore the frightened child inside by adhering unerringly to his own version of reality (in which, of course, there's nothing wrong with the way his parents raised him). It's summed up nicely in this line from his book ''I Am America (And So Can You!)'':
{{quote| I often think back fondly on the memories I haven't repressed.}}
** This was/is often a device with his and other characters on ''[[The Daily Show]]'', too. See, for example, [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-11-2000/even-stevphen---elian-gonzalez this Even Stevphen].
* Barney Stinson in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' often alludes to his "hilarious" childhood, involving being left alone by his mother for weeks at a time and being told that his father is [[Running Gag|Bob Barker, former host of ''The Price Is Right'']]. They did, however, get a moment of legitimate pathos out of it in the episode where the Bob Barker thing was revealed. Barney goes on ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' with the intent of telling Bob Barker that he's his son, but can't bring himself to do it. The implication is that deep down he knows Barker isn't his father but won't admit it to himself, and a later episode revealed that many of his mother's lies were due to her actually being overprotective of Barney. She did not want him to feel humiliated or unloved so she would make up outrageous stories that seemed believable to a young child. However, this seems to have caused Barney to have a massive ego and an inability to deal with disappointment as an adult. And the icing on the cake is that his mother was apparently the female version of what he is today. Or ''worse''.
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* Curtis from ''[[Todd and the Book of Pure Evil]]'' seems to be in the teenage years of a [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]]. He mentions in one episode that his parents are constantly trying to get rid of him. In another episode, when his friend Hannah questions how he learned to pick locks, he mentions that his parents lock him out of the house a lot.
* Nathan from ''[[Misfits]]'' borders on this. Although part of it to used to show why Nathan is the way he is, the fact that the stories are delivered in typical Nathan style makes them hard not to laugh at.
{{quote| '''Nathan''': He's suppose to take me out for the day, so he takes me to IKEA. He buys so much flat-pack furniture there's no room for me in the car, so he leaves me there for 3 hours. Then some guy with a beard sees me hanging around and buys me lunch. I spent my 8th birthday eating swedish meatballs with a known pedophile. <br />
'''Jamie''': Did he... <br />
'''Nathan''': No no. Dad got back when we were finishing our ice cream ,but that sick pervert cared more about me than Dad ever did. He would've taken me to the zoo. }}
** And later, the story of Nathan's first sexual experience involves a family camping holiday...and his mother's friend badtouching him.
* The entire show ''[[Married... with Children]]'' is pretty much built around this trope.
* The protagonist's [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]] was used as a [[Running Gag]] in the Danish Christmas show [[Christmas on Vesterbro|''Jul på Vesterbro'']]. The main character would frequently wax nostalgically about something his ''papa'' used to say, followed by a black-and-white flashback to the father sprouting some words of wisdom, [[Crosses the Line Twice|before trashing him with various blunt instruments]]. Watch a collection of the clips with subtitles [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yqbOFuOiqE here].
{{quote| Junior, all humans have the right to privacy. And this is a metal ruler. Bend over. (''WHACK'')<br />
Junior, there are two kinds of women: Whores and your mother, who has retired. And there are many ways to knock out your teeth, but I think it will be most fun to use this pipe wrench. Bend over. (''WHACK'')<br />
Junior, I once saw a circus artist get stomped on by an elephant. He got fewer bruises than you'll get now. Bend over. (''WHACK'') }}
* [[Your Mileage May Vary]] in the case of Sammy from ''[[Yes, Dear]]''. He's raised in a family where he is loved genuinely, but the many bad things befalling him are so over-the-top (the fact that said events all occur BY ACCIDENT adds to the humor factor) make his childhood life appear like this (for instance, in one episode, he's shown in flashback to have accidentally bumped his head on some hard surface 5 times).
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== Newspapers ==
* In ''[[The Onion]]'', this article: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/abusive-father-cant-wait-to-see-the-art-hes-inspir,27192/ "Abusive Father Can't Wait To See The Art He's Inspiring His Kids To Create"], is this trope embodied, and taken [[Up to Eleven]]:
{{quote| "The 37-year-old father said he could only imagine how his son and daughter's unstable upbringing might manifest itself in future writings, paintings, or music, given the way he routinely ridicules their achievements, yells at their mother in drunken fits of rage, and threatens the family with physical violence."}}
 
== Video Games ==
 
* Dave, a guy you meet during ''[[Fallout|Fallout 2]]'', had a fun childhood.
{{quote| "When I was one, I was dropped on the porch. When I was two, I had pneumonia. When I was three, I got the chicken pox. When I was four, I fell down the stairs and broke six ribs. When I was five, my uncle was decapitated by a watermelon. When I was six, my parents hit me in the head with a shovel. When I was seven, I lost my index finger to me pet rat. When I was eight, my dog Spike got hit by a tractor. When I was nine, my mother lost her arm to a rabid Brahmin. When I was ten, my sister was torn to bits by a pack of dogs. When I was eleven, my grandfather killed himself because I was ugly. When I was twelve, my grandmother killed herself because I was ugly. When I was thirteen, my father poked out his eyes with a pitchfork in a drunken stupor. When I was fourteen, my brother lost his hand to a wallaby. When I was fifteen, my aunt choked to death on a chicken bone. When I was sixteen, I lost my cousin to a badger. When I was seventeen, I cut off my left big toe with a hoe. When I was eighteen, my father lost his right leg to the same tractor that killed my dog. When I was nineteen..."}}
* Given the [[Everything Trying to Kill You|brutal nature of the game]], [[The Many Deaths of You|the many potential ways to die]], and the [[Artificial Stupidity|hilarious stupidity of its title characters]], it should be no surprise that these pop up occasionally in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]''.
** Probably the most well-known cause of death among Dwarven babies is [[Dead Baby Comedy|"used as shield in self-defence"]].
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** [http://its.goofyti.me/NO/DAD/NO/goofy.jpg NO, DAD! NO!]
* The central theme of the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' alternate universe fancomic [http://zarla.deviantart.com/gallery/#Les-Enfants-Terribles "Les Enfants Terribles"] is Big Boss's absolutely dreadful parenting of his clone children, and of [[The Unfavorite|Liquid Snake]] in particular.
{{quote| [http://zarla.deviantart.com/art/Les-Enfants-Terribles-38063076 "I'm BUSY, Liquid. GOD, why do you have to be so inferior?"]}}
* Monette of ''[[Something Positive]]'', discussing her [[Disappeared Dad]]: "He spent the first six months of my life battling my mother for custody of all of us, and when he got it, he took my sisters and dumped me on my grandma's doorstep. And she wasn't even there! She was on vacation. And she raised pitbulls at her house [...] He had tied raw, bloody steaks to my head." Her grandmother wasn't much better, [http://somethingpositive.net/sp11302004.shtml as we see in her recounting of childhood Christmases]. Meanwhile, Jason's father is a psychiatrist who "used his field of study to bully children" and abandoned the family when he got bored with them. Before that, he was emotionally abusive towards them in a number of ways, including "giving me invoices for how much love I owed him per week. That wasn't so bad, but man did the audits suck."
** Inverted with Ollie, whose implied history of sexually servicing his psychopathic uncle [[Complete Monster|Avogadro]] was apparently an ''improvement'' over life with his own violent, two-faced father.
* ''[[Achewood]]'''s Roast Beef, who "comes from circumstances".
* ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'''s Padma Maharassa was inflicted with a [[Gender Blender Name]] in memory of his deceased mother, and describes his father as too busy to pay much attention to him.
{{quote| "When my father finds out I'm using my trust fund to become a comedian instead of a doctor, he will fly out here to disown me forever. Which would bring the total number of times he has spoken to me up to... four. But I think he mistook me for a delivery boy once."}}
* ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]''. Greliz asks Glenn how he got to be such an agile, scrappy fighter. Glenn explains that his grandpa throws things at him a lot.
* Dave Strider from ''[[Homestuck]]'' was raised by his brother, generally referred to solely as "Bro," who decorates their apartment with puppet porn and kicks Dave's ass regularly (''[[Marionette Master|with a puppet]]'') for no particular reason. If there was any question of how much this has messed up Dave, {{spoiler|Bro's favorite puppet, [[Demonic Dummy|Lil' Cal]], is, through a [[Stable Time Loop]], a ''manifestation of Dave's nightmares from living with Lil' Cal''}}.
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== Web Original ==
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] once showed a drawing he drew as a kid, featuring his parents as two dinosaurs ripping him apart, played for [[Black Comedy]]. What makes it more tangible, however, is that the character has become something of a [[Papa Wolf]] who can't stand it when non-bratty children get abused.
{{quote| [[Understatement|"I had issues"]]}}
** [[The Nostalgia Chick]] too, perhaps [[Distaff Counterpart|fittingly]]. Her mother made her feel inadequate, her dad never loved her, and her uncle was sexually abusive. In her case this is also a [[Freudian Excuse]], as she herself abuses [[Adult Child|Nella]], doesn't like to show weak emotion, and makes a lot of off-color sex jokes.
** [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses]] also apparently had a pretty crappy childhood, what with being raped by a doctor and his parents saying he ought to "go back to the dumpster where they found him". Of course, this refers to the [[Alter Ego Acting|characters]], not [[Doug Walker]] and Lindsay Ellis.
** Another Doug character, [[Bum Reviews|Chester A. Bum]], has a vaguer past than Critic or Ask That Guy due to his brain being scattered by drugs, but has also made references to family abuse. Even logically, ''something'' had to happen to make him homeless and keep him that way for so long.
* ''[[A Very Potter Sequel]]'' has both Harry and Draco.
{{quote| ''"I was in the car with my parents when we crashed. Into a crocodile. My parents got eaten but then the crocodile took out a knife and gave me this scar."''}}
* ''[[Friendship Is Witchcraft]]'' has Fluttershy. Her father was kind of a douche.
** Spike also counts, with everything from having his legs broken to HOLDING UP A LIGHTNING ROD DURING A STORM.
** Pinkie Pie didn't have one by her own admission.
{{quote| ''Didn't you already have a childhood?''<br />
''...''No''.'' }}
* From ''[[Yukari Is Free]]'', [[Embarrassing Nickname|Tardboy]] was apparently locked in a cage by his mother and led around on a leash.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'' has turned Kaiba's childhood into an example of this.
{{quote| "Whip him until his name is Toby!"}}
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[American Dad]]'': To some degree, Stan (mostly over-the-top [[Booby Trap|Booby Traps]] to shut up Haylee's protests). Stan's father Jack was neglectful to a similar extreme.
{{quote| '''Jeff:''' Were you close to your dad?<br />
'''Flashback Stan:''' Daddy, will you read me a story?<br />
'''Flashback Jack:''' Who the hell are you? }}
** And in "Joint Custody", Jeff's dad frames him for a drug run and then tries to collect the bounty.
{{quote| '''Jeff:''' You're wrong about my dad. He cares more about me than anything.<br />
'''Jeff's Dad:''' (to the police) There's your criminal. Just give me the money. That's all I care about - money. [[Kick the Dog|Not Jeff]], [[Department of Redundancy Department|money]].<br />
'''Jeff:''' See? [[Double Take|Wait]]. [[Stoners Are Funny|Am I Jeff or money?]] }}
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* ''[[Daria]]'': According to "The Daria Hunter," Mr. DeMartino had one of these. He had a single mother who sent him to live with his neighbors (who were "strange, twisted" people and most likely subjected him to all kinds of horrors that turned him into the man he is today) because she didn't want her dates to know she had a son. He also was sent to military school (just like Daria's father, Jake, who also had a hilariously abusive childhood of his own at the hands of his dad, Mad Dog Morgendorffer), and one of his buddies married his mom.
* In ''[[South Park]]'', Butters. His parents ground, beat and berate him constantly, his mother went crazy and attempted to drown him in a lake, his parents attempt to sell him to Paris Hilton, Cartman convinces him the world is ending and he lives in a bunker and a junkyard for several weeks, he gets committed to a mental asylum and anally probed by a machine for eight straight hours... the creators ended up having to put a moratorium on torturing Butters because it was just becoming too much.
{{quote| "Butters... ''why there is Hamburger Helper in my glass of milk''?"}}
** Ironically, "Jared has Aides," an episode whose entire plot is about what is and isn't too offensive to joke about, is rarely shown in reruns because people found the ending (where Butters is physically beaten offscreen) to be horrifying.
** Butters has also been sexually abused by his Uncle Bud. When an investigator shows the things that pedophiles do to children, he licks the doll's crotch and Butters tells him that his Uncle Bud does that to him.
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** Mr. Garrison feels that he had a traumatic childhood because his father ''didn't'' sexually abuse him, and to Garrison, this meant that his father didn't love him. Mr. Mackey, the guidance counselor, says that the only way to save his son's life is for the elder Garrison to have sex with him, and he finally {{spoiler|hires Kenny G to pretend to be him and sleep with the younger Garrison.}}
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Whenever Homer thinks back to his childhood it always is to his father putting him down.
{{quote| '''Homer Simpson''': Now son, on your first day of school, I'd like to pass on the words of advice my father gave me...<br />
'''Abe Simpson''': ''(in flashback)'' Homer, you're as dumb as a mule and twice as ugly! If a strange man offers you a ride, I say take it!<br />
'''Homer Simpson''': ... Lousy traumatic childhood! }}
** Another Homer flashback, when his mother encourages 7-year old Homer's impersonation of JFK after seeing him on the news.
{{quote| '''Flashback Abe''': You, President? This is the greatest country in the world. We've got a whole system set up to prevent people like you from ever becoming president. Quit your daydreaming, melonhead!<br />
'''Abe''': ''(to get Homer's attention)'' Quit your daydreaming, melonhead! }}
** Homer repeatedly strangles Bart for humour. In one instance, while standing in front of a billboard saying "Report Child Abuse."
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** Other band members don't fare much better. Pickles was always overlooked in favour of his loser brother, and his father even told him that he "belongs in a trash can". Skwisgaar was messed up by a promiscuous and neglectful mother and a lack of a father figure. Murderface's father killed his mother and himself with a chainsaw in front of baby Murderface.
*** In utter contrast to his bandmates, Nathan has a fantastic relation with his dad, and is shown fishing, go-karting and playing scrabble with him.
{{quote| '''Nathan''': I f***ing love my dad!}}
* [[Gorillaz]] bassist Murdoc was, according to ''Rise of the Ogre'', [[Financial Abuse|forced by his father to participate in talent contests for money]]. The incident portrayed in the book involved him in costume as Pinocchio, complete with fake nose, singing "I've Got No Strings." "The prize? £2.50." Murdoc also claims to have hit puberty at age eight and lost his virginity to a dinner lady at age nine "And I've been in a bad mood ever since," though given that this is Murdoc it's not unlikely that he's making that up.
* Helga's home life in ''[[Hey Arnold]]!'' was alternately [[Played for Laughs]] (as in this trope) and [[Played for Drama]] (especially in [[Tear Jerker|"Helga on the Couch"]]). Her father is controlling and uncaring, and her mother is scatterbrained, lazy, seems to have the will to live sucked out of her, and is most likely an alcoholic due to her love of [[Frothy Mugs of Water|"smoothies" that contain ingredients commonly found in alcoholic cocktails (such as tabasco sauce and celery sticks)]]. Anytime her beautiful and successful sister (who may have problems of her own, but is so much of a [[Stepford Smiler]], she represses them) shows up, she's overlooked for her.
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* Whenever we get a flashback to Fry's parents in ''[[Futurama]]'', they are usually shown being ludicrously neglectful towards their son. In "The Cryonic Woman", we even learn that when Fry went missing due to being frozen, his parents didn't even want the police investigating the case due to them believing it would be ''a waste of taxpayers' money.'' {{spoiler|However, in "Bender's Big Score", Fry went back in time and reunited with his parents, in whose perspective he didn't stay absent long enough to justify calling the authorities.}}
** They apparently kept him out of school for the same reason.
{{quote| '''Leela''': Now, bees communicate by dancing.<br />
'''Fry''': Just like my parents! No wait, that was hitting. }}
*** Similarly, Leela on her time at the [[Orphanage of Fear]]:
{{quote| '''Leela''': Just like old times. Gosh. The bars on the windows seemed so much thicker back then. Mr. Vogel? Remember me?<br />
'''Warden''': Leela! You're worthless and no-one will ever love you!<br />
''(They laugh and hug)''<br />
'''Leela''': You used to say that all the time!<br />
'''Warden''': Oh, those were happier days. }}
** Every single child from the [[Futurama|Cookieville Minimum-Security Orphanarium]] gets one.
* Uncle Ruckus from ''[[The Boondocks]]'' was abused both physically and verbally for most of his childhood; according to him when his parents found him as a doorstep baby his father stepped on him, he beat him almost every single day for even the silliest reasons, and he threw him out of the house at a young age to fend for himself along the way he plowed his face through a fence, made him step in a bear trap, and smashed his face into a pole, deforming him.
{{quote| '''Huey''': That's, like... Academy Award-''nominated'' sad.}}
* The ''entire'' childhood of [[The Fairly Odd Parents|Timmy Turner]] can to be considered to this way. Especially as that is why children get Fairy Godparent assigned to them in the first place.
* [[Unreliable Narrator|According to Pinkie Pie]] of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', she grew up on a rock farm. A '''rock farm''', where she and her family worked all day moving rocks around for no particular reason -- some of which were about the same size as Pinkie herself at the time. Abuse didn't seem to be the intention, but the effect was about as soul-crushing as you'd expect.
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