All-Natural Snake Oil: Difference between revisions

It may be interesting to note that, as a commercial trope, this is mostly a fairly recent invention, growing through the 1960s and 1970s. (Though if you look through really old newspaper ads from the early 1800s, you can find examples of this.) For most of ''the rest of human history'', "nature" was widely considered to be filthy, disgusting, and [[Everything Trying to Kill You|chock full of things that want to kill and/or eat you]]. Had marketing forces stayed on-track, modern products would be touting their ''complete absence'' of anything found in nature, and extolling the health benefits (and exciting taste sensations) found from making food and health products with Pure Science.

 

{{examples}}

 

** Another sketch features a doctor prescribing cigarettes, reassuring his patient that tobacco is a herbal ingredient.

** Or rather, a white-coated man masquerading as a doctor - the punchline is that he's a tobacco salesman. "Doctor? Whatever gave you that idea?"

** Of course, his serious argument was that 3 cigarettes a day was the most cost-effective and fun treatment for the patient (a [[Mall Santa]]) who had [[Fartillery|extreme flatulence]]. Dr. Cuddy (his boss) begged to differ, but no matter.

* Parodied in the first episode of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' with BubbleShock! The advertisements all say, "Contains Bane. It's organic!" Nobody ever asks what Bane ''is''. {{spoiler|It's an alien mind-control parasite; organic, sure, but also very much alive, and pure evil to boot.}}

** Also [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when Maria criticizes that just because it says organic, that automatically makes it alright.

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', when ''trans'' fats are banned in Arlen ala 1920s Prohibition. Bill Dauterive believes that if the food he's eating is organic (or at least free of particularly demonized chemicals), he can eat as much as he wants. He proceeds to get even fatter as a result.

** Also spoofed in [http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2002-02-05/ this] ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic strip. Scott Adams' commentary in one of the books: "It frightens me to think how many people believe 'natural' is the same as 'good for you.'"

* Spoofed a number of times in [[Discworld]]:

*** Groat also puts [[wikipedia:Gunpowder|sulfur and charcoal in his socks, and soaks his trousers in saltpetre.]] After he's rescued from a fire, this leads to a doctor informing Moist von Lipwig "His trousers were the subject of a controlled detonation after one of his socks exploded."

*** He also has a chest warmer made of goose grease and bread pudding. Apparently he stuffs that down his shirt instead of down his throat but it keeps him going so whatever works.

** Numerous of his books refer to a drink called Scumble, which, as is innocently said, is made of apples - well, mostly apples. However, it is [[Gargle Blaster|one of the most strongly alcoholic liquors known on the Disc.]] Nanny Ogg's cooking contains numerous variations.

** The Discworld Companion has an entry on Jimkin Bearhugger's Homeopathic Sipping Whisky. Jim failed to understand why the slogan 'Every Drop Diluted 1 Million Times' failed to attract customers even though, in theory, even being in the same room as an uncorked bottle should have gotten you riotously drunk.

* An episode of ''[[Eureka]]'' revealed that all the victims had eaten the chicken which came from a chicken farmer (who actually ''cloned'' the birds because it was less cruel that way) who fed the poultry a certain nutrient solution. She had no problem using the nutrient because it was natural, and therefore safe to use. At least until a doctor pointed out it was known to ''degrade people's brains''. Note that this was an ''organic'' chicken farmer who cloned only ''parts'' of the chickens for human consumption. Yes, ''organically'' cloned chicken parts.

{{quote| Its alright dear, I've used fat-free fat.}}

* [http://plover.net/~bonds/atkins.html Dr. Atkins' Cholera Revolution]!

* The whole bottled water thing was mocked in the ''Mother Nature's Son'' episode of [[Only Fools and Horses]], with the bottled water coming from the tap and being bottled in a production line through their kitchen. Referenced a lot in UK media at the exact time Coca Cola's Dasani brand was also found out to be purely tap water, and made slightly more funny when it turned out that the real life example also had something in the water supply.

* In [http://www.zug.com/pranks/natural/ this article], a man puts the idea that 'all natural' is the same as 'good for you' to the test- by eating all natural soap, toiletries, pet treats and aphrodisiacs.

* An episode of ''[[South Park]]'' has an New Age "healer" who buys various trinkets and concoctions from [[Cheech and Chong]] and passes them off as Native American remedies, including [[Squick|"tampons made from the hair of Cherokee."]] Things take a turn for the serious when Kyle starts suffering kidney failure and Mrs. Marsh recommends he sees said healer, who diagnoses his condition as "toxins" that need to be purged. When Stan tries to tell the healer that these treatments aren't working and needs to go to the hospital, he gets labeled a smart-ass and receives a bunk lecture on how Native American remedies are more in tune with nature than Western medicine, despite the fraud healer having no idea how these remedies work in the first place, let alone how to make them. It's not until C&C insist that Kyle needs to get to a hospital ASAP that anybody listens.

** The healer tells Stan that Western medicine is all about making money and not about healing, immediately turning to a customer, "That'll be $200."

{{quote| '''Idiot citizen''': What's so bad about corn syrup? It's natural. Corn's a fruit. And syrup comes from a bush.}}

* A ''[[The Far Side|Far Side]]'' cartoon features an [[The Igor|Igor]]-like character walking into a shop selling "unnatural foods".