Kick the Dog/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PujUHjFb2_k Thankfully, Slappy Squirrel has no problem with kicking puppies. Or blowing them up. A rare example of Kick The Dog being applauded].

* In ''[[Rugrats]]'', Angelica Pickles plays this trope very well, especially when torturing Tommy and his friends in some episodes.

*** ''[[Rugrats in Paris]]'': Coco Labouche plays this trope too.

* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', an evil corporate boss almost performs it literally. After saying his evil plans to instigate children to smoke out loud, he pets a dog and, seconds later, throws the dog out of the window and shoots it instead of kicking.

** Stewie however does do this to Brian when Brian fails to repay a debt to him.

** And let's not forget Carter's "orphan" joke from "No Chris Left Behind".

* The first act of the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" is one sustained kick the dog moment for Scott, particularly when he makes Cartman beg for his money back, then ''burns the money in front of him'', while boasting that his parents give him a huge allowance. Of course, he doesn't exactly get off lightly.

** A more classic dog-kicking (more properly, turtle-duck kicking) scene with Azula is a flashback to her as a young girl, throwing rocks at cute innocent little turtle-ducks floating in the palace pond. Given that even as late as the season 3 premiere, the turtle-ducks were shown ''still'' fleeing in panic whenever the older Azula walked near the pond, she seems to have done this a ''lot''.

** She also destroyed a sandcastle in The [[Beach Episode]].

** When Mai was introduced, she agreed with Azula to back out of a hostage change ''for her own baby brother'', making herself look like a cruelly [[Emotionless Girl]] who doesn't care about anything except obeying Azula because {{spoiler|[[Hidden Depths|that's what she wants her to think]].}}

*** Before Mai made her decision she looked at Sokka holding Tom Tom (who was perfectly happy with this). Perhaps she just realised that they weren't going to hurt him?

*** Curse of the Flying Hellfish reveals him and Abe to be the last surviving members of their [[WW 2]] unit, and that a deal was made such that the last surviving member would get to keep a case of art stolen from civilians; Burns hires an assassin to kill Abe, but said assassin is not successful at it. Bart convinces Abe to go get the case anyway, and when Abe and Bart retrieve it, Burns shows up and takes the art at gunpoint. Bart calls Burns a coward, then Burns points the gun at his face; Abe says Burns can take the art as long as he does not hurt the boy. Burns remarks that he would rather do both, then [[Moral Event Horizon|kicks Bart into the empty case and kicks the case into the water]]. Note that he could have taken the art without drowning the child, he just tried to drown the child anyway, for no apparent reason other than [[Disproportionate Retribution|that said child insulted him]].

*** He once developed a project to block sunlight from reaching Springfield, to deprive them of one more alternative source of heat and light. His [[Extreme Doormat|usually-unquestioning assistant]] Smithers [[Even Evil Has Standards|STRONGLY objected to this]], and was fired as a result. A town hall meeting was held about this, and Burns showed up JUST when the whole town was being shown what Burns' oil drilling operation did to Bart's pet dog, who was seen using wheels just to walk down the hallway.

** Homer has a few of these too.

'''Homer:''' Why you little.. (''resumes strangling Bart'') }}

** Also, in the first clip show, Homer lands in a coma after Bart pulls a prank on him due to Homer playing pranks on him all that day (Bart hadn't expected him to wind up in a coma). Thinking Homer may die, Bart sadly confesses to the prank. Homer then procedures to wake up....and begin strangling Bart in revenge for the prank.

*** Not to mention that before that, Homer's pranks on Bart were pretty mean-spirited. He put duct tape on Bart's eyes (duct tape is the strongest tape available, and the eyelids are the thinnest layer of skin on the body), and he tricked Bart into drinking milk that was sitting next to the furnace for six weeks (so it was so curdled, it might as well have been poisoned). It's a good thing [[MST3K Mantra|it only happened in a TV show]]; there's a difference between an April Fool's Day joke and attempted murder.

** In the infamous "The Boys Of Bummer", Bart costs Springfield the Little League Championship and is being booed at. He runs out of the stadium and asks Chief Wiggum for safety. So what does do. He drive Bart '''''back''''' ''into the stadium'' where the angry spectators throw food and beer cans at him. ''[[It Gets Worse|And that's just the tip of the iceberg.]]''

* Ursula in the wedding scene of ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' lays a classic one into Eric's [[Evil-Detecting Dog]].

** Not to mention when we're first introduced to Ursula, where she's munching on adorable, terrified little shrimp that squeal in her grasp.

** Control Freak steals [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'s gadgets, then pushes him off the Eiffel Tower.

* In ''[[Mulan]]'', [[Big Bad|Shan-Yu]] captures a pair of Chinese scouts (and mockingly congratulates them on finding his army), then lets them go to tell their Emperor he is coming. As they flee, he turns to one of his henchmen, an archer:

[nocks arrow] "One." }}

** Later, after having his pet falcon steal a small item from a nearby village to confirm the presence of the Chinese army there, he orders the attack:

* In the ''[[Gargoyles]]'' four-parter City of Stone, Gruach is forced into an arranged marriage with Gillecomgain, the murderous Hunter. At one point, Gillecomgain takes a flower and looks at her somewhat wistfully, but then crushes it. Greg Weisman said they were worried we might start to feel sympathy for Gillecomgain being stuck in a loveless marriage, so the flower-crushing was a somewhat manipulative signal that it was okay to hate him. Later, he holds a knife to Gruoch- taking his own wife hostage- to threaten Macbeth. All this made it easy to cheer when he fell to his death shortly thereafter (also a case of [[Karmic Death]], as he'd earlier killed Macbeth's father by throwing him off the same castle wall).

* In ''[[Winx Club]]'', the Trix do this on a daily basis. Some of their moments are: trying to murder Bloom's parents, crippling Galatea by destroying her wings (Icy), turning Mirta into a pumpkin (Icy again), threatening to kill Musa's father (Stormy)...basically, most of their heinous acts either border or are attempted murder. Counting all their acts of needless cruelty would make one ''hell'' of a drinking game.

* [[Gorillaz]] bassist and [[It's All About Me|self-proclaimed mastermind]] Murdoc kidnapped their singer 2D to record the Plastic Beach album. That was cruel, [[Fridge Horror|vaguely disturbing]] and allover thoroughly unpleasant, but at least purposeful. However, in addition to assaulting and incarcerating him on the desert island, Murdoc also put 2D in an submarine basement complete with a huge porthole overlooking the open sea. [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|Thing is, 2D has a pathological fear of whales, and now a gets wonderful view of them twenty-four seven.]] There was no real ''reason'' for doing this, other than to [[Break the Cutie|psychologically torture the poor guy,]] so the whole ordeal falls straight into [[Kick the Dog]] territory.

** The reason for the whale was so that 2D didn't escape (Murdoc was somehow paying it to watch him, apparently); the real [[Kick the Dog]] comes from his [[Curb Stomp Battle|fights]] with Murdoc, and he's even shown looking suitably bruised up [http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/19700000/2D-Plastic-Beach-gorillaz-19757813-500-536.jpg here]. Phase 3 has made many fans want to give him a massive hug.

** They learned well from their mother [[Wicked Stepmother|Lady Tremaine]]. She locked Cinderella up when she realized she was the one the Prince was looking for. And when Cinderella was able to escape with the help of her animal friends, she purposely tripped the footman carrying the glass slipper, causing him to trip and the slipper to break.

*** Bonus points for flashing an evil grin ''right after the duke implies that the king will have his head for this.'' Because, you know, she wasn't enough of a monster already apparently.

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'s'' parody of ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' advertises one of its features as "kick a puppy."

** In an earlier episode, Fluttershy bumps into Gilda the griffon while leading a family of ducks across the marketplace. Gilda flips out, mocking Fluttershy's apology and ''making her cry''. That is just not on, you bitch. "This calls for extreme measures... PINKIE PIE STYLE!"

* Remington Smisse from ''[[Wakfu]]'' often betrays his allies (especially Evangelyne), even when doing this inconveniences him.

* Benson does it in the [[Regular Show]] episode ''Replaced.'' He plans on firing Mordechai and Rigby and replacing them. However, when he did it, he took their pictures just to look at their faces.

** If that weren't bad enough, the episode prior, ''Best Burger Ever,'' instead of punishing the two with his usual way (making them clean the mess up and threatens to fire them if they don't), he steals their burgers and eats them.