Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Difference between revisions

** Spoofed in the episode "Lois Strikes Back" where four girls play a mean prank on Reese and the school does nothing to punish them for it, so Lois takes matters into her own hands and gets revenge on the girls. Malcolm attempts to deliver the Aesop that two wrongs don't make a right and Lois seems to accept this, only for her to sneak out the window to get revenge on the last girl. Interestingly enough, attempting to play the Aesop straight with Lois abandoning her revenge could have resulted in a Family Unfriendly Aesop as well since then it could have been "if a group of mean girls hurt a family member, standing up for them is wrong even if the girls get away with it."

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is rife with these

** A big and often used is if you are a genius who other people have to depend on, you can basically be a dick to everyone without many consequences. Though this is more of a [[Truth in Television]] variety because often those who don't have to deal with you constantly will let you get away with being an ass if you are good for the bottom line.

*** This particular trope is often subverted too though; House will often intentionally behave like even more of a complete and utter dick than his own natural personality would be, simply because he can. While often it's played for laughs, his cavalier/antisocial/sociopathic tendencies have more than once lead to a patient ending up with lifelong injuries that wouldn't have happened if everyone had just done their job right the first time, at which points he usually feels legitimate remorse and sometimes contemplates (however briefly) if he should really keep doing things that way.

[[Category:Sturgeons Tropes]]

[[Category:Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]