Humans Are the Real Monsters: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

For [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynics]], human history isn’t exactly all that wonderful and cheery. Throughout the ages, human civilizations have been primarily motivated by both viciousness and greed, having fought countless wars, colonized lands that were already inhabited by other people, treated those inhabitants as second-class citizens (at best), sold them into slavery or [[Shoot Everything That Moves|just slaughtered them]] (at worst), and stripped lands bare of their precious minerals and resources for their own wealth and benefit.

Now? Just wait until we get the hang of intergalactic space travel and discover ''other'' sentient races with land, natural resources, and technology of their very own!

 

 

In a distinct contrast to humans, alien races which humans impose themselves onto are either [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|sufficiently advanced]] enough that anything they could ever want or need is immediately made available to them (thus making greed and violence sound redundant to them) or have achieved a state of equilibrium with their surrounding environment which leaves them perfectly content. Either way, this generally gives an alien race a more empathic or more peaceful outlook and worldview than what humans understand and seek to attain. If these alien races ever attack humans, it will likely be either a reactionary measure to a previous transgression on the humans' part against them or a preemptive strike out of fear that humans will cause them harm at the first opportunity they get. In the event that enough of the galaxy is in a panic over humanity, they may even form an [[Anti-Human Alliance]] and possibly put [[Humanity on Trial]].

In political works, this trope may be invoked to argue that [[Hobbes Was Right]].

 

 

See Also: [[Humans Are Warriors]], [[Humanity Is Superior]], [[Humanity Is Insane]], [[Humans Kill Wantonly]], [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] and [[Humans Are Morons]].

Contrast: [[Humans Are Special]], [[Humans Are Good]], [[Aliens Are Bastards]].

 

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' had an entire episode called ''The Evil of Men'' near the middle of the Buu saga. Essentially, it explores how even we, the normal, non-powerful humans can be just as cruel as the monsters Goku and co fight on a regular basis. Case in point: A gang of thugs arrive to shoot up Buu and Mr. Satan (who is in the process of rehabilitating Buu) and end up shooting Bee the puppy. Later, one of them comes back and shoots Mr. Satan point blank in the back and runs off. Sure Buu managed to save him in time (and saved the puppy in the first attack), but witnessing this cruelty literally caused him to unleash his evil side, and thus, the entire rest of the Buu saga is the world paying the price for what those men did.

** Considering the violent psychic dismemberment the diclonii are capable of, that's saying something.

* In marked contrast, [[Studio Ghibli]]'s ''[[Pom Poko]]'' is a subversion. Some fans call it "[[Fern Gully]] with a Brain". Some of the Tanuki believe that all humans are bad and they argue for open warfare against the humans - and even then, they have a hard time fully committing to this as finding food would be a great deal harder with no garbage bags to rummage through. Other Tanuki argue that the humans are simply unaware that Tanuki are real and can be reasoned with. {{spoiler|After the Tanuki take the gamble of going public, it turns out that this is indeed the case and the humans are happy to come to a compromise with the creatures, setting aside parkland for them to live in. Of course, the fact their default humanoid forms [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|are cute looking]] is a real help.}}

* Similarly, ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' (also by [[Studio Ghibli]]) ''appears'' to be taking this stance, as it also takes place in a threatened forest populated by animal spirits. But then [[Subverted Trope|it turns out that the humans aren't all bad, and the animals can be pretty dickish]]. Then it turns out every side was being manipulated by outside forces, who in their own way are just trying to get by, ultimately stating that [[Rousseau Was Right]].

* ''[[Spirited Away]]'' features a bath house that serves supernatural beings whose view of humans ranges from worthless to bastards to interesting to ''[[To Serve Man|delicious]]''. That the bath house's workers need to take human form in order to serve their customers can be seen as punishment, irony, or subversion. It also goes both ways - a few spirits are greedy or decadent.

* ''[[Blue Gender]]'' serves this up with a side of [[Broken Aesop]]: Man is ruining the planet due to technological excess and overpopulation, [[Gaia's Vengeance|and so nature sends]] [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|the Blue]] to forcibly knock humanity back to the Stone Age (Or at least the Bronze). The problem: At the time of the show's events, humanity knows it's ruining the planet and is trying to fix things... an effort Gaia is ''actively sabotaging'' with The Blues, to the point where the effort to build a colony ship (to ease the overpopulation) are destroyed. The Aesop being that Humans can live in harmony with nature, as long as they're not abusing tech. Arguably an inversion of the trope.

* The manga series ''[[Parasyte]]'' seems to believe in this Trope so much that the only way that the horrible damage humans wreak on the environment can be lessened is for nature to introduce a new apex predator to the biosphere to keep humanity in check.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', while slavery affects all species/races, [[Fish People|fishmen]] and [[Our Mermaids Are Different|merfolk]] are the prime target and face [[Fantastic Racism|very heavy discrimination]]. Up to 200 years ago, they were seen as just another type of fish.

** Subverted: Koenma points out {{spoiler|there is a Chapter White which has every act of human kindness, the two are about the same length and should only be seen together to ascertain a balanced view of humanity. Since Chapter Black is "just a one-sided argument"}}

* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Soul Taker (anime)|Soul Taker]]'', {{spoiler|Kyosuke's sister Runa}} feels this way after [[Freudian Excuse|bad stuff happened]]. In the end, the villain puts Kyosuke in a bind: fight to save humanity who are ungrateful bastards and hate him since {{spoiler|he's technically an alien}} or let them all die and live happily and eternally with said [[Big Bad]]. Kyosuke naturally turns both offers down, [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]], shows the villain that there IS {{spoiler|[[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|measure to a non-human]]}} and saves the day.

* [[Ubermensch|Rau Le]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Creuset]] from ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' believes that humans are selfish greedy bastards who will do anything to get ahead even if it means slowly wiping themselves out in the process, and justifies this viewpoint with both Kira's existence and his own existence as both were born through genetic manipulation and cloning respectively; this belief is also what drives him to want to wipe out humanity entirely taking the "I'm [[Taking You with Me]]" ethos to its extreme logical conclusion.

** The scary part? ''The show universe itself is so chock full of bigots and assholes he's doesn't really look all that incorrect!'' In fact, considering all the racism and blind hatred fueling the wars (which both sides are aware of and DEFEND as virtuous, especially at their highest levels of authority), he really has a very good claim for arguing his point is pretty valid, and {{spoiler|this is what motivates the antagonist from the sequel to enact a plan to prevent such things from happening again, because he agreed humans became bastards as a result of said hatreds.}}

* The protagonist of ''[[Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]'' thinks humans are bastards or at least [[Humans Are Flawed|incredibly petty]]; it doesn't help that he's a certified [[Doom Magnet]] and he's surrounded by the most horrific [[Delinquents]] at school. Subverted when he acknowledges that his narrow view of humans makes him just as bad.

* This is {{spoiler|Lance's}} [[Kill All Humans|main motivation]] in ''[[Pokémon Special]]''.

** When Lake Valor gets {{spoiler|blown up}}, most of the Pokémon in the surrounding areas adopt this attitude as a result. When Pearl tries to catch a pissed Buizel and unsuccessfully pleads to it that he wants to stop the ones responsible, Crasher Wake points out that the wild Pokémon don't understand anything that's going on beyond the fact that they know that humans were responsible for disrupting their natural habitat.

** Episode 19 of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' has a group of Tentacool, one of them happening to evolve after Team Rocket tried to capture them, that attacked the humans because Obaba (not to be confused with the one from the episode before this one) wanted to build a hotel resort where their nest is. However, Misty, with the help of a Horsea, manage to convince them that not all humans are bad people.

* ''[[Slayers]]'' usually don't mess with it, but in ''Slayers Premium'' people scream at their kin affected by that curse while ''knowing'' what's going on, and later...

** Explanation provided: the assistant healer had, after the demon that the octopi had been mistakenly worshiping as a god is destroyed, admitted to the whole town that they were wrong to hunt the sentient sea-going cephalopods and eat them. However, she then declared that the town's economy was mostly built on their reputation for delicious octopus-based dishes, and suggested that, rather than having the humans go on hunting and eating octopi, the octopi just start cutting off their tentacles [[Good Thing You Can Heal|(which regenerate)]] and letting the humans have them for meat instead, a suggestion that the octopi agreed with.

* Lampshaded heartwrenchingly at the end of the [[Kikaider|Kikaider 01 OVA]] where the android Kikaider "takes the final step to humanity" by becoming capable of performing evil acts despite his conscience. The fact that the story also supposedly parallels [[Pinocchio]] also gives it a sick twist.

* ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' has the revelation that {{spoiler|humans discovered a race of aliens who share a [[Hive Mind]] unaffected by time and distance...and decided to hack them up without anesthetic (because nothing they had worked on the aliens) in order to use their brains for instant interstellar communications. And their [[Hive Mind]] meant they ''all'' felt it. Discovering this is what makes Ralph Werec undergo his [[Face Heel Turn]]; when his sister Sara and her allies learn the same, they're horrified but don't share Ralph's [[Kill All Humans]] attitude.}}

* This is how [[Monster (manga)|Johan Liebert]] views humanity. He believes that all you need to do is add a little fuel to the fire and humans will destroy each other through hatred. Of course, even if you agree with him, [[Complete Monster|he is DEFINITELY the biggest bastard of them all.]]

* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]''. While the series started off with a terrible first impression of humanity with [[Evil Poacher|Viper Snakely]], there are some good-hearted humans like Roger Ranger and his uncle who become friends with Kimba.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Transmetropolitan|Spider Jerusalem's]] motto, heck even those characters who can be classified as non-human tend to be assholes.

** On the other hand...

* The reason Larfleeze hasn't left Earth after ''[[Blackest Night]]'' is because [[Lex Luthor]] told him that humans are greedier bastards than he could ever hope to match, and that life on Earth is all about owning things. After spending more time on Earth, Larfleeze has come to agree with Luthor...[[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame|and he loves Earth for it.]]

* Zigzagged in ''[[Crossed]]'', whose moral seems to be that while we are ''not'' all bastards, we all have the ''potential'' to be bastards, with the protagonist pointing out that however [[Complete Monster|horrible]] the [[Not Using the Zed Word|Infected]] are, they never do anything that ordinary humans cannot also do. Surprisingly thought-provoking, given that this is a series that's pretty much nothing but [[Gorn]].

** The two sequel series (be afraid...) rather confirm this, each having a non-infected human that gives the Crossed a run for their money in the sick bastard department, without the excuse of having caught a psycho-virus.

 

** Another fic, ''[[The Thessalonica Legacy]]'', subverts this nicely. The humans are violent, warlike, and sometimes outright murderous compared to the ponies, but it's because they [[HAD to Be Sharp|had to be in order to survive their harsher universe,]] putting them more in [[Humans Are Flawed]] territory than here.

 

** If you sit down and watch the movie again, "Bambi" is not as bad as [[Bambification|some of its successors]]. For one thing, [[Walt Disney]] pointedly refused to make the hunters larger characters because he would have had to show them as two-dimensional villains given their actions.

** This is even subverted in ''[[The Iron Giant]]''. A pair of hunters shoot a deer that the titular Iron Giant had been watching, but they are not characterised negatively at all, and the scene is used to show the Iron Giant first learning about the concept of death.

* ''[[Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron]]'' depicts a white man owning a wild horse as equivalent to slavery. Seriously. The Native Americans of the same film are shown in a more sympathetic light, but the titular stallion still doesn't like being trained.

* Unusually for a [[Western Animation]], ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' takes the misguided point of view. The dentist believes that he has rescued the lame Nemo from the dangers of the reef rather than separating him from his father, and the main antagonist is a slightly hyperactive little girl who simply doesn't realize that if she shakes the bag too hard she'll kill the little fish inside. [[Hanlon's Razor|It's clearly ignorance rather than malice]].

** The writer of the movie, Andrew Stanton, also insisted that his intent was to tell the story of the last robot on Earth, and the pollution angle was simply a plot device to allow him to do that. Others don't believe him or are oblivious to the actual [[Power of Love|focus of the plot]].

* [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' is an almost perfect example of this being both played straight ''and'' subverted. The human [[Mega Corp|RDA]] are intruding on Na'vi land and destroy the home of the Omaticaya tribe in order to acquire [[Unobtainium]], and follow a rigid, aggressive schedule for this. On the other hand, the RDA tries to negotiate with the Na'vi, and even when they do attack they try to be "humane" first (i.e. hitting the Na'vi with gas and trying to intimidate them into leaving) and avoid [[Kill Sat|bombing them from orbit]] because they want to minimize local casualties. Then the gloves come off, RDA destroys Hometree, killing hundreds of Na'vi in the process. When the Na'vi assemble an army for war, the RDA tries to destroy the Tree of Souls to break their spirit. Selfridge, the corporate head of the RDA, reacts to destroying said sacred Na'vi site with the same apathy that one would associate to accidentally swatting a fly, though he does appear significantly more disturbed when they take down Hometree. In fact, he and the other officials look downright ''horrified'' at the violence, and {{spoiler|go out gracefully at the end, following the Na'vi victory.}}

** This may be a case of humans seeing themselves as the good guys. But when they see the effects of their policies, realize they're [[Heel Realization|not as benign as they thought.]]

*** They may be horrified, but the sequels mean the humans will be back. The [[Unobtainium]] is too valuable for them to just give up.

** Whenever they find an alien nest in D9, they [[Kill It with Fire|torch it with a flame thrower]] and laugh at the popping noises that the alien larvae make as they boil.

** They set up a firing range and they shock the {{spoiler|main character (who is the only human who can use alien tech)}} to get him to pull the trigger on the gun they strap him to. They then bring in a new alien gun and repeat the process many, many times in order to test the effects of each weapon. Cries of "I'll pull it! I'll pull it!" are ignored, and they ''never once'' see if he'll keep his word and pull it without the shocks.

* This is a major aspect of the film ''[[Godzilla]]''. Let's see here, humans made the atomic bomb. Humans used the atomic bomb for purposes of war. Humans test more powerful versions of the bomb. [[Too Dumb to Live|Guess who ends up mutating and waking up a VERY pissed-off radioactive dinosaur?]]

* The major theme of the movie ''[[King Kong]]'' is that man is the monster.

** To be fair, it's mostly because the humans are afraid and paranoid (doesn't help that a yellow radio is adding fuel to that fire), and most are good people who just let that fear control them. This is about the [[Cold War]] after all.

** Both the original and the remake try to paint human actions as [[Hanlon's Razor|irresponsible, rather than outright evil]]. See also: [[Humans Are Morons]].

*** Lampshaded when one ape crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]], and others find out about it. A human observes that they "just joined the human race."

* [[Ed Wood (creator)|Ed Wood]] naturally [[Narm|overdid it]] in ''[[Plan 9 from Outer Space]]'', with an alien screaming, "All you of Earth are idiots! You see? Your stupid minds, stupid, stupid!"

*** [[Too Dumb to Live|Then again]] the aliens' plan of warning was a [[Zombie Apocalypse]].

* This is the basic premise of the movie ''[[Deadgirl]].'' Human behavior is far more depraved and horrifying than any scary monster the imagination can conceive, and the victim in the movie is said movie monster: a zombie.

* In ''[[The Return of Hanuman]]'', most of the divine beings in Swarglok wouldn't dare to reincarnate to Earth because in the modern times Earth is dangerous, with dangerous humans. Despite of that, Hanuman still believes that there are [[Humans Are Good|nice people]] remaining on Earth.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by [[The Muppets|Kermit]] in ''The Muppet Musicians of Bremen'' after he intruduces the four protagonists, the titular animal musicians, and the antgonists, their abusive owners.

 

*** To be fair, humanity never initiates the bloodbath in either case. {{spoiler|The buggers killed hundreds of thousands of people in an orbital bombardment and the piggies brutally murdered two of the humans that were assigned to interact with them, while their homeworld contains a virus capable of destroying planets with no known cure}}. We do, however, attempt to end each conflict via xenocide.

* [[David Gemmell]] makes this point at least once per novel. In ''Stormrider'' he has one character, explain that a human witch has the ability to cultivate and grow and spread the magic in the world, but that the sum total of her ENTIRE LIFETIME of work and toil can be consumed by a single day of war.

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] sometimes used this in his stories, although he tends to view it as a virtue:

** ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'': Human beings are described as highly aggressive and expansionistic, with a strong will to survive. Heinlein makes the case that this is moral behavior. Though he also states that humanity has to be taught morality.

** [[Author Avatar|His most popular hero]] Lazarus Long is described as a mild bastard. But one that should be respected and admired. Quite a bit of [[Moral Dissonance]] is seen when he commits crimes that we are told to admire him for, but Long would kill anyone else who did them.

* A recurring theme in the works of [[Stanislaw Lem]].

** Moderated somewhat by the fact that {{spoiler|redemption happened too}}. ''Perelandra'' implies this had [[Human Aliens|other effects]] as well.

** Bonus feature: Both pro and con of this are extrapolated fairly strictly (i.e., [[Recycled in Space|Once More, With Aliens]]) from [[The Bible]].

* In ''[[Animal Farm]]'', humans are portrayed as the corrupt nobles of Tsarist Russia, more or less. The pigs, who represent the leaders of the Communist revolution, eventually start emulating the humans as they become more and more corrupt. The [[Animated Adaptation]] made this even less subtle, ending the film with a [[Bolivian Army Ending]].

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', the demon Crowley contemplates telling his superiors that they might as well shut Hell down and move to Earth, since humans are far more creatively evil than demons could ever be. He then decides against it since they often turn around and be stunningly good in the next moment. Often with the same people involved. He fully admits that their behavior confuses him.

** This is after he gets a call congratulating him on the Spanish Inquisition, ''which he had nothing to do with''. After he realized humans cooked the whole thing up themselves [[I Need a Freaking Drink|he went out and got]] '''[[I Need a Freaking Drink|real]]''' [[I Need a Freaking Drink|drunk]].

* This is pretty much the entire point of ''[[Notes From Underground]]'' where the main character in particular embodies this, but with the sole exception of the [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]] most of the characters fall into this.

** Only one alien dockworker nostalgically remembers the days of [[The Empire]], when the spacedock was bustling with ships and work was always available.

* A rather nasty science fiction novel by Charles Pellegrino, ''Flying to Valhalla'' is built around the theory that a species looks out for itself only, destroying all competitors. This includes humans, which they go on to prove, whether they want to or not.

* Tarrou, of ''[[The Plague (novel)|The Plague]]'', holds the worldview that evil is inherent and natural in humans:

* In ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' the Planet of Sphinx is a subversion where humans come to a planet inhabited by [[Noble Savage]] creatures called treecats and instead of tearing the planet up, they go to lengths to keep it clear of development, and form friendships with them. One of them bonds with the title character who of course is an exponent of [[Humans Are Warriors|another trope about humans]].

** In the Andalite Chronicles Elfangor is surprised to learn that humans fight wars with one another. However the Andalites are not much better given that they {{spoiler|attempt to wipe out the human race in order to get the Yeerks}} twice.

 

* As a whole, ''[[Star Trek]]'' - especially ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|the Next Generation]]'' - posits a world in which humans ''were'' bastards, and rarely loses the opportunity to lecture their 20th-century viewers on how far we still have to go. Good news, though; we get better. In fact, we're even sorta charming, especially to advanced races who gauge others for 'potential'.

** Even so, in one episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Quark the Ferengi lectures Commander Sisko about how ''his'' species never practiced slavery or genocide (particularly [[Anvilicious]] as it's already established that Ferengi not only did keep slaves but ''still do'' (sort of) - anyone who goes into debt they can't repay is legally enslaved to their debtor. This also ignores the extreme sexism his race continues to practice). He also tells Nog in "The Siege of AR-558":

** The Vulcans are a more extreme example of former bastards. They often act condescending to other species, but the subtext is often that they realize that since they were bastards, other species can benefit from logic as well, and often get shirty when they don't. A young Tuvok from Voyager was once shown complaining about humanity always expecting other species to be like them, apparently not recognizing a classic ''Vulcan'' move when he sees one.

** The jabs at humans that [[The Spock|Spock]] and other [[Straw Vulcan|Vulcans]] like to make via examples from human ''history'', however, go uncalled-out, even though all indications are that Vulcans were just as bad in their own early history. Spock himself admitted that Vulcan, like Earth, had its warring colonizing period that was considered brutal even by our standards, and that some Vulcans {{spoiler|(you might know them as Romulans)}} still hold to their warlike roots.

* Given [[Rousseau Was Right|the kind of person]] [[Jim Henson]] was, he usually had a more thoughtful take on this issue. To wit:

** ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' stands dedicatedly on the "humans are misguided" side. Uncle Traveling Matt quickly dubs us "the Silly Creatures", which really says it all. On the few occasions Doc threatened the [[Five Races]], he did so without realizing it (shutting down the pipes in his house shuts down the water supply for the Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs). {{spoiler|When he finally meets Gobo face-to-face, he's careful to take this sort of thing into consideration.}}

* Not really avoided in ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' or its movie spin-offs. As far as the biggest bastard Kermit ever met is concerned, [[Roger Ebert]] said it best: "As soon as Kermit gains legs, he meets a human with an unsavory use for them."

** The famous anti-hunting rendition of "For What It's Worth" featured little woodland animals singing about "a man with a gun over there", and periodically ducking under cover as trigger-happy human hunters blundered through the scene, firing at everything that moved.

** {{spoiler|And then promptly subverted at the end when the hunters reveal they were trying to bag ''construction equipment''.}}

'''The Doctor:''' That's true. That's very true. }}

*** It was less that the humans involved behaved like bastards of the first order (he's pretty familiar with humans doing terrible things), and more than he got [[Mind Rape|mindraped]] by some malevolent alien entity.

** Remember the Ood from The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit? We get treated to this trope in a later episode Planet of the Ood. {{spoiler|The humans who found them isolated the Ood Brain (the core of their ''hive mind'') and after an indefinite amount of time started to hack off the Oods' hind-mind (the external chunk of brain sticking out of their face that govern personality) and replace them with translator orbs.}} Of course, not ''all'' humans are bastards: there are still people protesting against the slavery.

** Of course, when it comes to supernatural, it's more a case of [[Crapsack World|EVERYTHING is a Bastard]], even the angels.

** To be fair not all the angels are bastards. Castiel and Joshua are pretty decent. Anna too up until you know.... And {{spoiler|Gabriel}} in the end, a possibly a little bit in the beginning.

** And now it looks like Castiel has caught the crazy everybody else had.

* ''[[Lost]]'' seems to be going this route with the overriding conflict between {{spoiler|Jacob}} and the Man in Black/{{spoiler|Smoke Monster}}:

{{spoiler|Jacob}}: It only ends once. Everything that happens before that...is just progress. }}

* Subverted in an episode of the 80's ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' revival, when aliens arrive on Earth and announce that they seeded the planet with humans ages ago, but now {{spoiler|they are destroying us because they were attempting to breed warriors, and we aren't ''big enough'' bastards}}.

** In another episode, Harper wonders aloud if Castalians (a genetically-engineered human variant that breathe water) eat fish or if it would be like humans eating monkeys, and Captain Dylan Hunt points out that humans ''have'' eaten monkeys, [[I Am a Humanitarian|and other humans]].

* HG Wells in Warehouse 13 comes to this conclusion after her 8 year old daughter was murdered.

 

* The music video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI Do the Evolution] showcases humanity's evil actions throughout history, though it also implies that life on Earth in general has always been naturally savage and brutal.

* Parodied in ''Robots'' by [[Flight of the Conchords]]. Robots have annihilated all humans for this trope, but one of the lieutenants notes that they did the same thing as them by killing them.

'''SILENCE! DESTROY HIM!''' }}

** [[Disproportionate Retribution|"After time we grew strong, they gave us cognitive powers/ They made us work far too long at unreasonable hours!"]]

* One of the major themes of [[The Protomen]]'s CDs, especially the first one.

* [[wikipedia:Man Is the Bastard|Man Is the Bastard]]. That is all. }}

* [[Devo]], ''Beautiful World''. Especially the video. Actually, most of the band's work tends to involve this trope in one form or another.

* Although it's not directly stated, and [[Moral Guardians|not that the media cared]], but ''[[The Rolling Stones|Sympathy for the Devil]]'' strongly suggests that the Devil in question is humanity itself.

* The ''Ego Likeness'' song "Song for Samael" certainly seems to imply this:

''Will you take care of this for me?'' }}

* [[Arch Enemy]]'s "Beast Of Man" uses the page quote in its lyrics.

* Pick a [[Heavy Metal]] song, any of them, and chances are it's about this.

 

* When [[Our Mermaids Are Different|merpeople]] are concerned, expect a subversion as well. Granted, humanity has had a conflicted relationship with the oceans, but it's usually only mer''men'' that exhibit any misanthropy as a result of it; [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|it doesn't seem to stop mermaids]] from [[Interspecies Romance|seeking out human boyfriends]].

** The [[Interspecies Romance]] between human and merpeople is a modern thing; in traditional tales, all merpeople hated humans.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

** This storyline could also be interpreted as [[God Is Evil]], especially since Monty plans his first human-to-cockroach transformation with the unborn baby of [[Kick the Dog|the nicest characters]] {{spoiler|who also happens to be an ex-nun and whose baby-daddy is an ex-priest}}. It's made especially creepy by the fact that Monty is discussing wiping out/mutating humanity ''[[Stepford Smiler|with the calm demeanor you'd use to pick groceries]]''. {{spoiler|Monty is later called out by a bunch of the characters for both his plan and the fact that he can't use H/his powers to find some missing clothes (Thorax: "Monty, you and I are quits.") Monty eventually reveals to the mom-to-be that he wasn't really going to do it, and the whole thing probably a [[Secret Test of Character]] for the other, um, characters.}}

* ''[[Pogo (comic strip)|Pogo]]'': "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' played this up quite often, with the sentiment usually voiced by Hobbes. Sometimes, however, Calvin himself would experience the [[Cultural Cringe]]. One strip which showed him becoming disgusted at the garbage that other humans had thoughtlessly discarded in the woods, ends with him ''stripping off all his clothes and walking naked through the forest with Hobbes'', proclaiming "I'm with you." In its own absurd way, it was a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

 

* Christianity states this is the whole reason for the Incarnation and Sacrifice of [[Jesus]]. Paul even yells at other Christians for [[Squick|having sex with their stepmothers]] (1 Corinthians 5)

* [[The Bible]] delves into this territory at times, especially in the Old Testament. The Lord is great and righteous. Humanity, not so much.

* [[New Age|New agers]] often believe that there are many alien races out there watching over humanity, but are withholding assistance because we're too violent and nasty to each other and aren't [[Perfect Pacifist People]] like they are.

 

*** That's not entirely true either. The Emperor wanted to eliminate alien races that ''posed a threat to humanity''. (which in fairness, is just about all of them) IIRC, Fulgrim tried to get the Laer to become a protectorate of the Imperium. Too bad the Laer worshipped Slaanesh...

** Psykers have always been a grey area, however. No matter how much they may be detested daemon magnets, the fact remains that the Imperium simply could not function - even with the Emperor at full strength - without them, as they're utterly vital for both communication and navigation. Same goes for the three-eyed Navigator corps. Not to mention that the Emperor is himself a psyker, the most powerful to have ever lived.

* ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' series seems to hold to a viewpoint best described as follows: "Humans are Bastards, but frankly, compared to the rest of reality, they're small-timers." Both ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' come close to playing it straight, while ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' comes close to subverting it (Prometheans admit humans have their flaws, but desperately want to ''be'' them because they know Prometheans are far worse), while ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' subverts it outright (''Dancers In Dusk'' states few things rekindle a changeling's much-needed faith in other people then visiting a stranger's dreams for the first time).

 

* [[William Shakespeare]], ''[[Richard III]]'':

 

* ''[[2027]]'': Titan will reference this if you {{spoiler|initate the Vladmir ending.}}

** After a while, having ''every single demon'' you try to negotiate with asking "Why do humans suck so much?" gets tiresome... (Though they also like to ask, "Nice suit! Where'd you get it?", so...)

* ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' games gave us the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of this trope in [[Cosmic Horror|Nyarlathotep]] - an entity literally created as [[The Heartless|the dark, destructive side of the collective unconscious]], [[Made of Evil|a monstrous entity born of Humanity's hatred, fear and despair]]. [[As Long as There Is Evil|He will exist as long as Humanity does]]. He has been known to [[Omnicidal Maniac|indulge in omnicidal plans]]... [[Persona 2|and he has been]] [[The Bad Guy Wins|known to win]].

** Of course, He of the Thousand Masks takes his name from a Lovecraftian [[Eldritch Abomination]] who just likes to mess with sapient life.

** Though there is also Philemon, The Crawling Chaos' rival who believes humanity can become enlightened.

* A recurring theme in the ''[[Lunar]]'' series:

** In ''[[Lunar: The Silver Star]]'', the Goddess Althena finds that humans depend on her too much, and she decides to spread her power among them in order to {{spoiler|live as a regular human; in this case, it's Alex's [[Victorious Childhood Friend]] Luna}}. While she disliked the fact that they depended on her a good deal, she believes that [[Humans Are Special|they can live fully without her and are capable of great things.]] Ghaleon believes in this trope in full force and thinks that humanity needs a god.

** In ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue]]'', Zophar, [[God of Evil|the god of destruction]], also believes in this. [[Mysterious Waif|Lucia]] doesn't directly fall under this trope, but being an [[Emotionless Girl]] who is a servant ([[Epileptic Trees|or something]]) to Althena that is required to sleep on the abandoned Blue Star for thousands of years gives her the impression that Althena alone is the only one capable of keeping Lunar at peace and in line. [[Character Development]] ensues as she adventures with [[The Hero|Hiro]] and the others, and she, too, begins believing in [[Humans Are Special|the opposite trope.]] {{spoiler|Even ''Ghaleon'', the former [[Big Bad]], returns realizing that the human strength that Alex had and that Hiro has are special.}}

* While it doesn't have a Humans Are Bastards theme ''per se'', the [[All There in the Manual|racial backstory]] in ''[[Dungeon Siege]] II'' doesn't exactly put humans in a positive light. It says that the human race has a dual nature, but it only mentions the negative, not the positive; it says that humans are [[Blood Knight|extremely violent]].

** To be fair, there's the Dryads. You'd think that a race of attractive plant girls who have an innate connection to nature would be some of the nicest people around, right? Guess again. Most Dryads are quite militaristic (more so in ''Broken World''), and are unusually suspicious of other races, especially the Half-Giants (though the Elf Amren seems to be on good terms with them). Plus there's that Ring of Submission they have, which senses your intentions before you've even thought of them and then [[All Crimes Are Equal|does painful or even fatal stuff to you accordingly]]. For a race that doesn't like government, that's a pretty fascistic way to treat your prisoners.

*** Thankfully, there is an exception: Taar. She actually is one of the nicest people around and isn't all that fond of the Rings of Submission (which explains why she's glad to remove the player character's). In addition, since as of ''Broken World'', the Overmage is dead and peace is slowly but surely returning to Aranna, only time will tell if the other Dryads will also lay off the testosterone.

** Or to be exact, the Zerg overmind desires to kill/infest the human colonists... and the Protoss attempt to stop this by burning the worlds... while the people are still on it. The Protoss burn them not because it's the only way or even the best way, but because they found humans distasteful but didn't have an excuse to remove them until the Zerg came along.

** ''Starcraft II'' does a much better job of showing Terrans as a mostly good race, it highlights Acturus Mengsk's [[Villain with Good Publicity]], while following the exploits of a force mostly made up of idealists. {{spoiler|The General that follows Valerian Mengsk is also willing to work with Raynor with no real objections.}} This is because the game is about how even when things look darkest, there is always the light of hope.

*** The books that introduced Arcturus's son Valerian show him as a pretty decent guy with a passion for history, while his father only focuses on the practical. About the only thing the father and son can talk about is Valerian's collection of antique swords, which Valerian sees as art and Arcturus sees as weapons. This is likely because he was mostly raised by his mother, while Arcturus was busy defeating the Confederacy and setting up his empire.

* ''[[Warcraft]]'' shows many humans who are pigheaded and prejudiced against races they view as "savage", and if a racist character shows up, it's more likely than not to be a human. But like other examples on this list, the other races in the world have their own prejudices, ranging from the orcs refusing to accept their role in the atrocities of the first two wars, the high elves blaming the Alliance (that they left) for not saving them and continuing to practice magic despite the destruction it's caused and the Forsaken seeking to [[Kill All Humans]], more than a few gleefully.

*** They only refuse to own up to the rather distorted view of their sins that the Humans placed on them. Internally, many orcs from that era feel conflicted over the utter destruction they caused. While Thrall still led the Horde, he did everything he could to keep hostilities to a minimum, while humanity was more or less the [[Jerkass]] in such situations (Varian was the one to declare war on the Horde, not the other way around). The Horde under Garrosh, however, is a completely different story.

* In ''[[Breath of Fire 4]]'', this is the reason why Fou-Lu, the antagonist, turns into an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] and decides to [[Kill'Em All|destroy humanity]]. {{spoiler|Having your girlfriend tortured into insanity so her body, mind and soul can serve as consumable fuel for a [[Fantastic Nuke]] aimed (and actually fired) at you can do that to a guy.}}

** At least in this case the problem didn't seem to be blamed on humanity being evil, but that humans were heavily influenced and manipulated by [[Eldritch Abomination|Lavos]], who uplifted mankind to the top of the ecosystem for its own purposes (To eat said ecosystem). So we're not world-wrecking monsters, we're just minions of a world-eating monster. That's a bit better... ish...

** They are also called out by the Dwarves who kill the faeries because humans accidentally poisoned their home. Clearly accidentally poisoning someone's living place is worse than actual genocide. Really the only people who has any right to call out humanity are the demihumans of Marbule as they never tried to kill anyone else.

*** In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' every race got a chance to be a bastard, with the Reptites and Mystics waging wars in different time periods with the intent to wipe out humanity for ill-defined reasons. Even if humanity committed atrocities in the backstory that's a little extreme. The nature-based empire from ''Cross'' was the evolved form of the Reptites from ''Trigger'' which, to exist, likely killed off all the humans in their own timeline where Lavos never landed. Of course, it's humans that defeat Lavos and [[Save the World]] in the end (albeit with help from non-human allies.)

* And that is not the only example to be found when it comes to the [[Tales (series)]]. In fact, this is a major theme of ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'' (along its [[Fantastic Racism]]), but the message is not "humans are bastards" as much as it's "all people, Humas and Gajumas, are bastards period". They hate each other because they do, and both do pretty nasty things to each other (some Humas refused to give medicine to a Gajuma woman while she was dying ''in front of her daughter'', and some Gajumas chased an old couple out of town, forcing them to live in the middle of a desert filled with monsters). They get better... sort of. {{spoiler|The end of the game implies that they keep on being douches, but at least [[The Powers That Be|the powers in command]] are doing something about it}}.

** ''[[Tales of Legendia]]'' uses something like this as a plot twist. There are two types of people on that world, Ferines, the people of the sea, and Oerines, the people of the land. The game highly drops a lot of hints that one of them wasn't exactly native to the world. Naturally, you assume after seeing the technology in The Legacy that {{spoiler|the Ferines weren't native}}. However, it's revealed in a surprise twist that {{spoiler|It's actually the ''Oerines'' who are the aliens who came to the world in The Legacy, not the Ferines! They don't need land - they live in the water after all.}} Despite that in the past, one of the Human Groups Were Bastards, but so were the other to get revenge, and in that only ''some'' were bastards. (Quite a bit of the {{spoiler|Ferines}} even want to start opening up peace talks again, once the Raging Nerifes was calmed down and replaced with the alter ego, the Quiet Nerifes, later called the Great Nerifes.)

** In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', also full of [[Fantastic Racism]], its starts out having you think that Half-Elves, in the form of Desians (who are running Human Ranges all accross Sylvarant) are the bastards and the humans are victims here. But because of their treatment by the Desians and how the Desians, who I remind you are half elves, treat humans, humans are bastards to half-elves. You slowly start to see how much humans can be bastards as the game goes on and the party reaches the parallel world of Tethe'alla. The Tethe'allans know of the parallel Sylvarant, and do whatever they can to make sure Sylvarant keeps going into decline to keep their world flourishing, buts not the main story point. Skip to deeper in the game {{spoiler|It turns out that the reason half elves are bastards is because the angels who command the half elves are bastards, and the reason the angels are bastards, is because the big bad: Mithos Yggdrasil has deemed them so 4000 years before the game begins when Mithos' older sister Martel is killed by humans, which in turn makes him an evil obsessed with reviving his sister, insane bastard.}} Sadly, this is just the story, I haven't started on the individual characters who are straight bastards, and there are a lot of them, even if some don't seem like it when you first meet them.

* Humans in the PC game series ''[[Age of Wonders]]'' almost always have leaders whose favorite pastimes include leveling elven forests, siding with demons and orcs for more power, and enslaving lesser races. This is despite the fact that they technically have a "Neutral" alignment.

** In the sequel, however, they're mostly being manipulated by a vindictive Water Wizard.

* Dracula from ''[[Castlevania]]'' likes to toss out this accusation to whatever Belmont he's fighting, usually starting by mentioning that the only reason he's up and about is that some human woke him again. But the Belmonts are generally full of righteous fury and in no mood for discussing the idea, so not much comes of it.

** In some games it's explicitly stated that Dracula's continuous resurrections are not just because of individual Dracula-cultists resurrecting him, but that human malice and greed in itself allows him to continuously come back even when it isn't his will to do so. This may be more [[As Long as There Is Evil]] rather than an endemic thing, however.

** He is also guilty of stimulating the trope. Consider the purpose of the titular ''Dracula's Curse''/''Curse of Darkness''. Death's backstory in ''Judgment'' outright states that he is "sowing wickedness" in human hearts to help bring Dracula back.

** The game either tries to mitigate this or is hopelessly hypocritical in that at least half of the other races (besides Viera) are not just criminals, but scum sort of criminals like slavers. And the Viera themselves are basically just a reskin of ''Enterprise'' era Vulcans in their manner.

* Shows up again in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. Your party spends a good chunk of the game on the run from the [[Evil Army]] while everyone else on Cocoon hates and fears you, even little kids. The populace of Cocoon even support complete Purges of residential areas where L'Cie have been spotted due to their extreme paranoia concerning anything Pulse related. To be fair, most of them only act this way because they believe Pulse L'Cie are horrible monsters that want to destroy everything they know and love. Furthermore, {{spoiler|the Fal'Cie are the ones actively nurturing the populace's worse traits to lead them to destroy themselves}}. The only human portrayed to be a [[Complete Monster|total bastard]] is Jil Nahbaat. {{spoiler|Dysley's a bastard too, but he's disqualified since he isn't human.}}

** This is quickly subverted in that the humans were enslaved by the other species and treated like trash for being second best at everything. Which won them the war in the end. ""So. Is it not ironic that the lowest creatures of all, the humans, ultimately attained ownership of the land? But that is the result of human will. Even the gods did not imagine that humans would ever become rulers of the earth."

* At the end of ''[[Phantasy Star]] II'', all the disasters turn out to be caused by {{spoiler|earthlings, who, having stripped Earth of all its resources, have arrived to purge all life from Algo and take it for themselves. The [[Bolivian Army Ending]] doesn't leave much hope they can be stopped, either.}}

* In the ''[[Star Control]]'' universe humans are hardly one of the evil races, but they have had their... poor moments. They designed a race of super-intelligent clones, the Androsynth, then declared them inferior and put them into manual labor. This backfired rather spectacularly when the Androsynth, being more intelligent than your average Joe, still invented hyperspace travel before the humans, escaped, and eventually joined the Ur-Quan Hierarchy, hoping for some sweet revenge.

** Oh, and humanity also managed to collectively alienate the VUX by insulting their appearance in the first contact - ironically, humans look just as attractive to the VUX as the other way around (VUX is sometimes treated as an acronym for "Very Ugly Xenoform"). This would lead to a massive political crisis and, indirectly, to the VUX joining the Ur-Quan as well as, isolated, they could not match the Hierarchy. So out of 7 races in the original Hierarchy, humankind is responsible for two. Unsurprisingly, the Alliance (which humans were members of) eventually lost the first war.

** Played straight since according to the official site humans are largely responsible for the tradition of war and conflict on Prodesto.

* Subverted and parodied (in a straight manner) in ''Elven Legacy''. The main characters, who are elves, will often (oh so often...) go on a rant about human bastardness, while at the same time acting either in equally bastardly manner or topping humans by quite a bit. Most blatant when the protagonist accuse humans of arrogance for daring to think elves would be humble enough to surrender their weapons and meet with their lord.

*** The Charr information is subverted by Guild Wars 2 lore as it's revealed that Ascalon is a massive [[Propaganda Machine]]. The Charr use 'meat' as a derogatory term, but the idea of Charr eating people was introduced by the humans to reinforce the vision of the Charr as 'mindless savages', when the truth was that they [[Not So Different|weren't so different]] after all. The Charr became [[Villains by Necessity]] as those who didn't obey the tyrannical Fire Legion (who had enslaved the Charr) were put to death. Eventually though the Charr overthrew their [[Evil Overlord|evil overlords]] and went their own way (abandoning magic and becoming very independent in the process). The Charr seem angry at the humans, but they [[Not Evil, Just Misunderstood|aren't evil]] but rather are kind of ticked off as their first encounter with humanity was humanity engaging in an ethnic purge, trying to wipe out as many Charr as they could and stealing charr lands in the process. I think it's understandable that the Charr held a grudge. Furthermore, Ascalon had a case of [[Written by the Winners|revisionist history]], often using propaganda to reinforce a positive view of humanity whilst painting the Charr as a faceless evil. The reason this propaganda was rehearsed so readily was to help the humans hide the [[Awful Truth]] from themselves - that with their constant warring between the three human nations, the attempted ethnic cleansing of the Charr, and having driven one race to extinction, they truly are the most horrible bastards that Tyria has to offer. Hell, the Charr refer to one of their 'greatest heroes' as 'Gwen the Goremonger.'

** And then there's the Asura this is part of their official description, by the way: "Inventors, scientists, and spellcasters of every stripe, the Asura consider many other races beneath them and are not afraid to tell them so at every opportunity."

* The human deathknight Charna in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 4'' is described as being capable of evil that 'even the demons balk at'.

* Revealed in one dialogue during ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 3'', stating that humans of the dystopian Neo Arcadia only indulge themselves in food and comfort, letting the authorities do the thinking for them while regarding the conflicts [[The Hero|Zero]] and [[Big Good|Ciel]] have been fighting as mere daily news on the televisions. In ''Z4'', Zero also further condemns humans fleeing from [[Big Bad|Weil's]] iron fist as cowardly beings who would do nothing about their refugee leader getting kidnapped just to avoid another war. It is not until [[The Dragon|Craft]] blows up the city do humans finally wake up with terrible pain in their minds.

** Dr. Weil also implies in Zero 3 that Humans innately feel that ruling all the eye can see and making others work for them is the ultimate joy for them, and believes that no Reploid could ever understand this joy, although Zero [[Shut UP, Hannibal|counters]] this by stating that he doubts any decent human would understand Weil's viewpoint, either.

** In the [[Prototype 2|sequel]], Mercer's growing disgust with humanity's flaws {{spoiler|drives him to become a [[Dark Messiah]] bent on uniting the entire world into a [[Hive Mind]] so he can end all conflict.}}

* Casually tossed here and there in ''[[Kid Icarus|Kid Icarus Uprising]]''. Palutena notes, when talking about Magnus, that humans are fundamentally driven by desire, using the mercenary as an example. {{spoiler|Hades gets humans to war with themselves to an insane degree by spreading the rumor of the Wish Seed. This draws the ire of the nature goddess Viridi, who begins attempting to annihilate humankind for their greed, violence, and wastefulness. Dark Pit seems to be the only one willing to tell the gods that they're just as bad, if not worse}}.

* The villains of the Orochi Saga in [[The King of Fighters]] , namely the aforementioned Orochi, (ancient Japanese snake-demon/deity)and his followers, strongly believe this. To them, humans have ruined their world&the environment, though aside from that, they don't consider them all that great in general, to the point where they believe humankind should be annihilated. (Though part of this may also be that they serve a higher power, 'Gaia', but regardless of whether or not they're being influenced, this is still what they believe.) The Edit-Team ending even outright states that while Orochi still needed to be stopped, humanity still wasn't that great either, and that we were partially to blame for Orochi's purpose being twisted into what it became. Still, some of our heroes (as in, the various teams,) acknowledge this to an extent, though they don't think that humanity is completely un-redeemable.

* Another work of SNK's, [[Last Blade]], (technically set in the same universe, but in the 1860's in Japan,) has a similar villain. Kagami is one of four individuals that were gifted with powers by the four Japanese Gods, with Kagami representing the phoenix, but with time, Kagami grew disgusted with humanity, and with that belief in mind, got to work opening the Hell Gate, with the intention to suck Earth into Hell. In the sequel however, he's reborn, (after being sucked into Hell's Gate in the first game,) and by the end, after being forced by the God's into service once more, decides to personally give humanity a second chance.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** In ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', whenever humans show up they're generally portrayed as the equivalent of [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] (and once, literally). The inhabitants of the furry world often make disparaging remarks about how stupid our world is in comparison to theirs (in which sentient creatures constantly slaughter and devour each other without so much as a hint of remorse or guilt), and in fact portrays humans as so evil that introducing a single one into the K universe almost ''destroyed the world''.

*** Actually, ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' has lately disproven the theory that the mere presence or awareness of humans has an adverse effect on instincts. It's that characters moving between the worlds throw at least one of them off balance. Once the balance is restored, you can pay as much attention to humans as you like and not lose your instincts. In fact, it turns out that [http://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk1017.html the animals are equally destructive to their own environments]. It's promptly subverted in the next strip...

** In ''[[Jack (webcomic)|Jack]]'', the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|isn't Satan, but a human that has become the personification of Envy. However, he's the only remaining human in Hell -- it is assumed the rest have redeemed themselves and have moved on.}}

** [[Newshounds]] has [[Cerebus Syndrome|gotten really bad]] about this trope.

** When humans appear in [[The Kenny Chronicles]] they tend to refer to Tarnekis as animals or rant about how they are a danger. Of course Tarnekis were created by pirates (who they are implied to have killed) and some of their ships were stolen (though the Ballyhoo was bought).

* ''[[Terinu]]'''s race was wiped out by the humans, after it was discovered that {{spoiler|they were the power source of the [[Big Bad]]}}. Made worse because Ferin are inherently adorable critters.

** [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|Oh, so if they were ugly you wouldn't care?]] Plus {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] isn't very nice as well what with enslaving races and making them their power source}}

* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' had a particularly good example as to ''why'' [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1670#comic Humans Are Bastards]

** A PG-friendly version of the trope is used by Florence, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00072.htm here], when discussing [[wikipedia:Green Run|intentional releases of radioactive iodine by the government]], from the [[wikipedia:Hanford Site|Hanford Site nuclear weapons facility]].

* Played for laughs in ''[[Nedroid|Beartato and Reginald]]'' with [http://nedroid.com/2009/08/nobody-knows-the-troubles-ive-seen-except-beartato-since-i-just-told-him/ Space Reginald's reaction to Earth].

 

* [[The Imageboard That Must Not Be Named]]. That is all.

* The [[GIFT]], as well as [[Troll]] and [[Griefer]]. Griefers wouldn't do ''half'' the things they do to you in-game to tick you off merely because you can shut the game off or hit them in the face. Trolls and other such types on the internet wouldn't say ''half'' the stuff ''to your face'', because then that means you can get them back for it.

* Whenever [[The Nostalgia Critic]] runs into this trope in a film (almost always with a helping of [[Green Aesop]]), the review cuts to a newsreel-style condemnation of man's evil, complete with clips from the movie and an old-timey voiceover. It's finally subverted in the previously mentioned ''[[Once Upon a Forest]]'', where the voiceover finally gets sick of the trope, announces most humans are alright, and showcases how much more dangerous ''animals'' are.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YZtJdaN_l4 If Balloons Could Talk], then apparently humans would do all sorts of things that hurt and terrorize them just for the sick pleasure of hearing them cry out in horror and agony.

''The hands insert the plug into the outlet and the balloon cries out in pain'' }}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Also subverted at one point, when the farmer's daughter saves Hazel from the farm's cat.

* Used and surprisingly subverted in the obscure animated movie ''[[Once Upon a Forest]]''. An accident with a truck full of toxic gas drives away the animal inhabitants of a forest, and the kids set out to find a cure for their dying friend. The village elder, who was caught in a trap when he was younger, warns them about humans. But at the end of the film, it's the humans who come in to clean things up, surprising the elder.

* While the live action ''[[The Matrix]]'' movies stick with heroic humans battling evil machines to keep the box office gross up, the Wachowskis apparently felt free to tell the '''real''' story in ''[[The Animatrix]]'', where it's revealed that not only did humans start the [[Robot War]] purely out of [[Fantastic Racism]] (the robots literally came before humanity bearing flowers and open arms) and that the robots locked humanity in the Matrix purely as self-defense against genocide (and not to mention attempting to give them an utopia which human minds did not want), but that humans continue to do evil, twisted things to the robots in the "present day" of the series, tricking them and brainwashing them into thinking humans are their friends, and thus turning them into cannon fodder.

** Making this even more hilarious, this actually is the plot of an episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', with ''Futurama'''s version just getting straight to the point.

* The third episode of ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'' both provides an example and subverts this trope in a matter of seconds. Upon witnessing rioting and looting, [[Wonder Woman]] comments that perhaps her mother was right about humanity being savages. A moment later, [[Green Lantern]] is shown helping a couple of burly, typically biker-type individuals rescue two children from underneath some debris.

* This trope, as it relates to animals, is spoofed in an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' where Death goes on a date with a woman who works at a pet shop. She insists that there'd be no more wars if people were more like animals, and he says "What are you talking about? Animals fight all the time!"

* The movie ''[[Battle for Terra]]'' plays with this trope. The Earth is destroyed and what's left of the human race is forced to live in a military fleet which invades the peaceful title planet. While they are doing this by force and goal to the kill all the aliens they are portrayed as just desperate {{spoiler|if you want to know why don't they just live together, the humans and terrans don't breath the same air}}.

* In ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'', the Gummis are in hiding because humans were too determined to get their hands on their technology.

* ''[[Dante's Inferno (video game)|Dantes Inferno]]: An Animated Epic'' - A major point Lucifer tries to make to Dante's captured wife's soul, Beatrice. Trying to convince her that mankind is forever destined to fall into hell by their weak minds and free will, he pushes the point further by filling her head with images of mankind's greatest atrocities throughout time, one of them an image of [[Adolf Hitler]] and his empire, which suggest that Lucifer can foresee the future.

* One ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' short has Tom waiting in line to get into Heaven, as a "conductor" lets recently deceased cats onto the train if they were good. At one point he calls out several names, and we cut to see a dripping wet sack, which opens up as several kittens scamper out. The conductor sadly shakes his head and mutters "Some people..."

* [[Played for Laughs]] on ''[[South Park]]'', although it is more that the [[Adults Are Useless]] are [[Too Dumb to Live]]. Examples include "Prehistoric Ice Man" ("sometimes, what's right isn't as important as what's profitable"), "Here Comes the Neighbourhood ("And I want to assure the nation that is watching that South Park is not a town of prejudice or bigotry), and "Pinewood Derby" (where the Earth is cut off from the rest of the universe because the people are not worthy of joining the intergalactic community.) Of course anyone looking for a straighter version need look no further than [[Complete Monster|Cartman]].

* Implied in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgOAR4Xq4Y "Bolero" sequence] of ''[[Allegro Non Troppo]]'': Life on a distant planet evolves out of a [[Shout-Out|discarded]] [[The Gods Must Be Crazy|soda bottle]]. Eventually, apes (who are [[Dark Is Evil|masses of black, sketchy fur]] compared to the brightly-colored cartoon animals and have [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red eyes]] set in [[Black Eyes of Crazy|black sclera]]) are revealed as cheating bastards who don't follow the animals' evolutionary path {{spoiler|and eventually mess up the planet by creating war, religion, and destructive cities. By the end they have evolved into humans but on the inside they're still vicious, unsatisfied animals.}}

* Ever notice that most of the antagonists on ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' are humans? Mostly Montana Max and Elmyra Duff but the only sole exception to this is Mary Melody, in fact there is a better owner for Furrball than Elmyra was.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]