Unnecessary Roughness: Difference between revisions

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* Team [[Card-Carrying Villain|Evil]] from ''[[Shaolin Soccer]]'' deliberately attempted to injure enough players of the titular team that they wouldn't have enough replacements to fill the required spots and thus be forced to forfeit. This strategy included such odd tactics as deliberately kicking the ball straight at the goalie.

** They get by it because [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|the referee is on their boss's payroll]].

* The film ''[[Slap Shot]]'' is largely a subversion of this trope, focusing on a team that is in a huge slump until they recruit three brothers who basically just skate around beating up the other team, allowing the other players to score. The climax pits this team against a makeshift bunch of the roughest players in the sport, and the game quickly degenerates into one huge brawl.

** To be fair, there were plenty of instances of the Giants committing holding or facemask with no penalty

{{quote| Gunnar: "Two minutes is well worth it."}}

** And ironically, Gunnar made a rather pointless [[Heel Face Turn]] at the end, blowing his own coach off to congratulate Banks personally. "Good job, Captain Duck" indeed.

* ''Sleepers'' provides a rare example of unnecessary roughness being perpetrated by the protagonists and morally justified in context. Hey, it isn't a sports film. The inmates of a juvenile prison play a game of football against the guards. The guards have made and will continue to make the boys' lives a living hell, including but not limited to the sexual molestation of the four main characters. The boys see this as a chance to turn the tables for one day. Their gameplan is simple: brutalize the guards, who can't resort to such tactics themselves in public, and give the ball to Rizzo, a college star. {{spoiler|Rizzo pays with his life; his death is avenged many years later}}

* In ''[[Sorority Boys]],'' the Tri-Pi Sorority girls play the role of the [[Opposing Sports Team]] in a football game against the protagonist Delta Omega Gamma sorority. The DOG sorority's advantage comes from having [[Disguised in Drag|three guys in drag]] on the team, but this advantage is neutralized when the Tri-Pi sorority girls perpetrate a [[Groin Attack]] against each of the disguised frat boys.

* Pretty much the entire plot of ''[[The Waterboy]]''.

* There's a famous scene in ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' where Evil Sensei orders his charge to sweep Daniel's already wounded leg. The kid is reluctant, but ultimately goes along with it.

** Johnny experiences some unnecessary roughness in the sequel, in the opening scene which takes place immediately after the first film's climactic fight. Having cheated and still lost, Johnny confronts Kreese and tells him where he can stick his particular brand of karate. Kreese nearly kills him, but Miyagi intervenes.

* ''Escape to Victory'' (AKA ''Victory'' in North America). During [[World War II]], a team of Allied prisoners of war plays the German national team in an exhibition match. The German team commits many violent fouls against the Allied players, which the referee doesn't call. The reason is that the referee has been ordered by the German Army officers to cheat and help the German team win.

* Done repeatedly in ''[[Cars]]'' by [[Jerkass]] perennial runner-up Chick Hicks, who won't hesitate to slam other racers and cause a thirty-car pileup just to stop his rival. He never gets penalized in any way for his tactics, even after {{spoiler|causing a near-fatal crash for the retiring champion and winning the coveted Piston Cup championship.}}

 

== Literature ==

** That reflects a bit unfairly on Madam Hooch, the referee, who was screaming virtually non-stop at the Slytherin team and awarded Gryffindor half a dozen penalty shots, but we don't know what kind of offence would result in someone being sent off and not even the Slytherin team ever outright assault an opponent (Quidditch is an exceptionally violent and dangerous game anyway- realistically, the bludgers could quite easily kill someone).

*** We can't forget "the Transfiguration of a Keeper into a polecat". It's unclear whether this was done to provide an edge in a scrap, or simply render the enemy Keeper unable to use his broom.

*** In fact, the actual list of what constitutes a foul has been kept secret for years for fear of "giving the players ideas."

*** It's also mentioned that about 90% of the fouls can be prevented from ever happening by just not letting anyone use their wands while on the field.

*** The UU team are amateurs so the professional players of A-M United have every advantage. The smarter pros realize that and are also aware that the opposing team are actually ultra powerful wizards who will likely enact their own [[Unnecessary Roughness]] after the game. The Librarian alone is known for beating people to a bloody pulp for calling him a monkey (he is an orangutan).

 

* Most auto-racing depicted on TV features more contact between cars than a demolition derby. In reality even slight damage to a race car can result in such a huge performance loss that drivers usually avoid contact at all costs. Anyway, every major organized motorsports competition has strict rules against deliberate vehicle contact, and will disqualify, and even ban from competition, an offending driver who's being reckless.

** Odd-vehicle races on ''[[Top Gear]]'' have strict no-contact rules -- which are always forgotten before two laps.

* In ''[[Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman]]'' (episode "Travelling All Stars") we see a baseball match where the professional team's players deliberately injure members of the Colorado Springs team and receive no penalty. (Naturally, Colorado Springs wins anyway.)

* There were a few instances of the ''[[American Gladiators]]'' and the contestants mixing it up in the heat of competition. Once, Turbo actually punched a contestant during Sling Shot.

*** ''Mutant League Football'' also has an inversion of this trope. By bribing the ref, he will start calling bogus penalties against the other team if it will help yours. One of the penalties that can be called is "Unnecessary ''Kindness''."

** Then there's Blood Bowl. This is what happens when you take the over-the-top ridiculous aspects of Warhammer, and replace the GRIMDARK with American Football. Based on the tabletop gaidengame, you can choose between "classic" mode (taking individual turns and rolling a crap-ton of dice like said tabletop) or "arcade" mode (standard real-time football, except instead of "downs" you play from kickoff/snap until you either score, or the enemy gets the ball and HE scores.)

* In ''[[Base Wars]]'', it's not sufficient to tag a runner out. Instead, the two robots fight to the death.

* In ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]: ACME All-Stars'', it's possible to run over other players baseketball and soccer games with a car.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

 

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