Post-Robbery Trauma
When a sitcom protagonist has an encounter with crime they will become paranoid of everyone around them. They will take a self-defense class (you know what ensues) or buy a gun. In the latter case a trigger-happy random shootfest inevitably follows, and somebody gets shot in the foot. This usually turns into a Family-Unfriendly Aesop about the dangers of attempting to defend oneself for any reason.
Not everyone needs to (or should) own a gun, and not everybody who owns one knows or cares how to use it responsibly. Some statistics show friends and relatives are shot more often than criminals, yet others also show that some areas with high gun ownership may have lower crime rates than areas with low gun ownership. In short, a lot relies on your interpretation of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.
Examples of Post-Robbery Trauma include:
Live Action TV
- Ellen: After a break-in, Ellen is given a gun by Audrey and tries to learn self-defense. She also has bars installed in her windows, and takes to sleeping cuddled up with a life-sized mannequin meant to give intruders the illusion that she lives with a man.
- Suddenly Susan: After Susan's apartment gets robbed, she decides to get a gun and ends up accidentally shooting her elderly neighbor.
- Family Ties
- Growing Pains
- The Golden Girls, "Break In": The house is robbed while the Girls are out for an evening. Terrified, Rose buys a gun for protection. Rose accidentally shoots Blanche's very expensive vase, thinking that the burglar has returned when it was just Blanche and her date returning to the house.
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Blanche: You shot my vase! |
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- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air used this for drama. Will and Carlton were robbed; Will was shot, which set up a long recovery arc, and Carlton got paranoid and bought a revolver. Guess how well that went over...
- Home Improvement did this once, though it was actually neighbor Wilson that got robbed. In any case, imagine Tim Taylor Technology applied to a home security system and... yeah.
- 7th Heaven, after Annie and Matt are robbed at gunpoint. Matt reacted in the usual terrified way, suffering a Heroic BSOD the next morning, while Annie remained calm and strong as usual. However, later on Matt was getting better thanks to a support group while Annie unexpectedly broke down in tears a few nights later, and freaked out when she mistook a stranger giving back a pair of dropped sunglasses for an assailant.
- Mama's Family:
- In "Black Belt Mama", Thelma gets mugged and gets her purse stolen. She then takes a self-defense class with Naomi and Sonja. Later on in the episode, Thelma is at a bus stop with another woman when the same mugger comes for her purse. Thelma reminds the thief to remember to take the other woman's purse too, at which point Thelma slams him in the back of the head with an iron in a shopping bag.
- Applied hilariously in "The Key to the Crime": After the Courteous Crook hits the Harper home, Thelma notices he cleaned up the bathroom and remarks, "I ain't gonna be able to sit in there again!"
- Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory experienced this after Leonard's and his apartment was robbed. However, in keeping with the light 'n' happy, nerdy tone of the show, he and Howard designed a security system equipped with a taser-fitted fishing net. Needless to say, it didn't end well.
Newspaper Comics
- One Calvin and Hobbes story had burglars break into Calvin's house and steal the TV and some jewelry. Calvin's parents were traumatized by the breach of security, but Calvin was (once he had ensured that Hobbes was safe) mostly just annoyed about lack of TV.
Western Animation
- Hey Arnold!, "Mugged"
- Doug, in the episode where Doug's bike gets stolen.
- Slight variation in The Simpsons, (Strong Arm of the Marge) when Marge becomes a shut-in after having her necklace snatched. Eventually, she regains her self-confidence after using free weights, and pummels her attacker (earning Chief Wiggum's praise). However, she soon starts taking steroids, but that's a trope for another day...
- Less variable variation: in the episode "The Cartridge Family", after a particularly violent soccer riot, Homer buys a gun to protect his family. Marge becomes naturally worried, particularly with Homer acting ... well like Homer with a deadly weapon, and takes the kids to a motel, while Homer reasons there's no need to have a gun for protection when he has nothing to protect. The episode ends with Marge taking the gun and throwing it in the trash Until she sees her own reflection with the weapon and decides to keep it for herself.
- Metalocalypse has the band refuse to go out in public after they are attacked on-stage at the end of season one.