Pervs Sell Products
Some shows go to detailed, explicit length to show how horrible perversions are, to the point where they're about one step away from "sideshow freak" territory. The repetition of the theme is the trope.
A definition of "perverted" is not within the scope of this Wiki; what is relevant is that the show presents the subject as lurid or perverse, with the expectation that the majority of the viewers will be shocked, angered and/or titillated by it.
With nonfictional works, expect criticism to generate a response of But It Really Happened!
Examples of Pervs Sell Products include:
Comic Books
- DC Comics' current Dork Age appears to support this belief, as several villains have been reinvented in disgusting ways to increase their popularity. The Joker went from the joke-themed villain he'd been in the Silver Age back to his originally characterization as a murderous psycho, getting away with things like crippling Batgirl or killing Robin because of his Joker Immunity; Doctor Light, once one of DC's dorkiest villains, was reinvented as a rapist in Identity Crisis; Killer Moth was turned from a garish masked villain into a cannibalistic moth-man by a Deal with the Devil; the list goes on and on.
Live-Action Television
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
- Profiler
- The Inside
- CSI
- Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series, in which grown men are lured via the Internet to theoretically have sex with minors, is perhaps the shining example of this trope.
Real Life
- During sweeps weeks, news programs often do this as a Ratings Stunt.