Spoof Aesop: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Bob''': Hmm, there's a lesson in all this.

'''Eglamore''': Okay. Let's hear it.

 

{{quote|'''Yugi''': It's time for the big message...We've learned that Card Games are the answer to all life's problems. And the only thing I know for certain in this world is that there's a strange man living inside my head who tells me to do things.

 

[[An Aesop]] is, increasingly, one of the most [[Subverted Trope]]s on television—to the point where parodies of them are becoming almost as repetitive as the morals themselves (though to some they will ''always'' be better than an actual [[Aesop]]). [[Aesop]]s are too basic a tool to become a [[Discredited Trope]], so new comedies will likely keep on spoofing them.

When adding examples, bear in mind that just because a work is [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche|a spoof]] and has [[An Aesop]], it's not necessarily a '''Spoof Aesop'''

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Speedy Cerviche of ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' offered up a great Spoof Aesop after a battle: "Whoever said 'Violence never solved anything' wasn't a Pizza Cat!"

* In ''[[Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo]]'', the eponymous character spends a great deal of the fight against Halekulani (a money-obsessed villain) trying to convince him that friendship and normal life is more important than money. At the end, he starts saying what the most important thing in the world really is, and ''just'' as he knocks out Halekulani, admits that it's money, after all.

* The ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode "Toys in the Attic" consists of each member of the Bebop's crew (well, except Ein, who is a dog) delivering an Aesop. Ed's aesop [[Word Salad|would probably count]] ("[[Too Smart for Strangers|If you see a stranger]], [[Subverted Trope|follow him]]"), but Spike's aesop is the primary culprit. The aesop is {{spoiler|don't leave food in your fridge}}, put in the context of {{spoiler|[[It Came From the Fridge|the contents of one of the ship's refrigerators having evolved into a horrible poisonous blob monster that attacks the crew.]]}} It avoids becoming a [[Space Whale Aesop]] because it's clear the writers weren't treating the subject matter seriously at all.

* It may or may not be intentional, but much of the first-season [[Gag Dub]] of ''[[Duel Masters]]'' implies that in order to win at card games, you gotta have [[Anime Hair|great hair]].

* In the ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' novel side story "Cinderella Panic!", it parodies the original fairy tale and gives a sort of backwards moral. Granted, the moral it gave ''was'' quite a bit more realistic than the original fairy tale's moral - "Don't always just rely on trying to find a "Prince Charming" who will bring you out of a bad situation, instead use your own strength and find a way out."

** Cinderella takes the lesson to heart and sells the other glass slipper for ludicrous profit to a would-be princess, before leaving the kingdom forever (together with the fairy godmother) to become a traveling merchant.

** A later episode has "Feel good about your body. Unless you're ugly."

* Any Aesop from ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'' falls under this.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' had many incredibly stupid aesops delivered at their [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|"Sailor Says"]] segments at the end in the English dub, which are mocked in this way in ''[[Sailor Moon Abridged]]''.

* ''Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance'' has this little gem: "Heroes die. Fame lives forever."

 

{{quote|Wes shook his head. "No, I told that story so you'd all know better than to try to out-drink Wedge. It's a mistake I've watched countless people make." He paused and gave them one of his most serious looks. He was a little out of practice but doubted they'd notice. "[[Never Gets Drunk|Even the most mild-mannered Corellian holds his liquor better than the rest of us.]] Remember that."}}

 

== Film ==

''The hosts of the television show smile in relief''

'''Billy Mack:''' Become a pop star, and they give them to you for free! }}

 

== Literature ==

* Hilaire Belloc's book of poems ''Cautionary Tales'', written in 1907, parodies the little stories with morals that the Victorians loved to tell their children, in which dire consequences would befall any child who broke the slightest rule. The poems include ''Matilda, Who Told Lies, And Was Burned To Death'' (a retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf), and ''Jim, Who Ran Away From His Nurse, And Was Eaten By A Lion''.

** And, of course, Algernon who played with a Loaded Gun and upon missing his Sister was Reprimanded by his Father.

* ''Borgel'' by [[Daniel Pinkwater]] contains several folk tales which contain Spoof Aesops of the third type (e.g., "Never bet on an eggplant").

** In the last page of [[Daniel Pinkwater]]'s ''Young Adult Novel'', several Wild Dada Ducks ask what the story's moral is, and one of them answers that it doesn't have a moral -- "it is a Dada story."

* [[Older Than Print]]: ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'': What valuable lesson in chivalry and virtue does Sir Gawain learn after failing his [[Secret Test of Character]]? "Never trust women."—it really ''is'' a Spoof Aesop, not just a case of [[Values Dissonance]]. Gawain's short speech, in which he explains that, ever since Eve gave Adam the forbidden fruit, women have been leading men into evil, was obviously a shameless attempt to excuse his own failure by blaming someone else.

* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s humorous short story "Never Bet The Devil Your Head": [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. It expands upon it with the intentionally ridiculous [[Space Whale Aesop]] that if you do, he might eventually come to collect.

* Too many James Thurber stories to count.

* A footnote in Terry Pratchett's novel ''<s>Faust</s>Eric'' explains, "Interestingly enough, the gods of the [[Discworld|Disc]] have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go. Which they won't do if they don't know about it. This explains why it is important to shoot missionaries on sight."

 

== Live Action TV ==

'''Buffy''': Foamy!

'''Xander''': Good. Just so that's clear. }}

** An episode of ''[[Angel]]'' starts out this way, although there was a hidden moral. Cordelia has been impregnated by the monster of the week, and was surprised when her teammates helped her out:

{{quote|'''Wes''': What did we learn?

* As was mentioned in [[Berserk Button]], the [[Aesop]] of ''[[The King of Queens]]'' episode "Bun Dummy" is "Save the bun hairstyle for when you're an old lady, and if you're bold enough to wear it as a young lady, don't [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|act like it's the greatest thing that ever happened to you]]".

* The Bernadette Peters episode of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', Sam the Eagle started reading the famous story of "The Ant and the Grasshopper". However, when winter came in the story, Sam was shocked to learn that {{spoiler|the grasshopper drove his sports car to Florida, and the ant got stepped on.}}

{{quote|'''Serling:''' So, there you have it. Something that is beautiful to one is not beautiful to another. As this woman learned when she... well... she didn't really learn anything. And neither did we. Frankly, usually I try to have some kind of ironic twist or moral in these things, but... I got nothing this time, because that woman ''was'' hot! In [[The Twilight Zone]].}}

{{quote|'''Mr. T:''' Let that be a lesson to all the Gary Burghoffs, Joey Lawrences, Tina Yotherses, and George "Goober" Lindsays! If you believe in yourself, eat all your school, stay in milk, drink your teeth, don't do sleep, and get eight hours of drugs - you can get work!}}

* Even with its "No hugging, no learning" motto, an episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' does have a Spoof Aesop. In the episode "The Summer of George", George's plan to fulfill his personal goals during that summer (which he declared "The Summer of George", hence the title) go terribly awry. The Spoof Aesop here would seem to be "Never name a season after yourself; it will only end in tragedy".

* In [[Kingdom of Loathing]], low-quality booze gives one very few adventures, and some even does Stench/ Sleaze damage, and takes one forever to get drunk off of. Only go for the good stuff.

* When you complete all of [[Brutal Legend]]'s Overslaughter side-quests, the Hunter leaves with: "Whenever you kill something, a part of you dies. A tiny, pathetic little part of you that you didn't need anyway." (paraphrased)

 

== Webcomics ==

'''Torg''': I've learned that I need to appreciate you more. I've been taking your friendship for granted when I should have listened with my heart.

'''Riff''': And I learned it's OK to eat people if they're the bad guys. }}

{{quote|'''Torg''': "Devaluing everything material is a road to ruin. That was a lesson Clutter Monster learned too late and at too high a price."}}

{{quote|''Luckily the volcano was actually a magic portal that returned me to the real world. It was my salvation, not my destruction. I learned an important lesson that day. Lava heals all wounds. When life gets me down, I look to jump in some lava. Barring that, I remember that freedom is not found on the horizon. True freedom is found by looking within. Within mountains filled with lava.''}}

* From ''[[The Wotch]]'' ( http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2007-04-23 ) "Now Jennie, what did we learn again?" "That it's never okay to drop bowling balls on people's heads unless they are evil wizards hurting your friends."

* From ''[[Stickman and Cube]]'': "Don't think too much or you'll disappear into nothingness. Especially if you're a cube."

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', chapter 15, Antimony and Kat see that Red has become estranged from her friend, Blue; they blame her acerbic personality, but [[Minor Flaw, Major Breakup|Red blames her hair]]. Annie and Kat humor her by taking her to get a haircut, but they also tell Red that it will take more than new hair to win her friend back. Then {{spoiler|the new haircut ''does'' win Blue back. So the real lesson is that [[The Fair Folk|fairies are capricious and weird]].Or alternatively, "No one is too happy to wang (throw) tomatoes".}}

** Also one presented in [[The Rant]] for [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=224 this strip]:

{{quote|Tom Siddell: Kids! Guys in forests are always willing to help!}}

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'': Read or the owl will eat you.

* [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0612.html This] [[Order of the Stick]] strip. "See what we learned today, Mr. Scruffy. Solve a mans problems with violence, help him for a day. '''Teach''' a man to solve his problems with violence, you help him for the rest of his life."

** The strip in question is entitled: "Technically, the 'Fish' Version is a Subset of This One."

* [http://nedroid.com/2009/07/the-seven-trials-more-like-the-seven-stupid-trials-am-i-right-folks/ The Seven Trials], by [[Nedroid]].

* [[Xkcd]]: "[http://xkcd.com/984/ If you want something done right, learning from the Nazis isn't enough, you have to actually put them in charge.]"

 

== Web Original ==

{{quote|'''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]''': We shouldn't hate each other!

'''[[The Nostalgia Critic]]''': We should team up to hate other things! }}

** "Hell, we almost had it coming!"

* From [[The Nostalgia Chick]]: "Remember, you can't spell [[Black Comedy Rape|rape without rap]]." [[Dude, Not Funny|It wasn't really her shining moment]].

* Seanbaby said this about ''River City Ransom'': "Kids, if there's one thing you take away from River City Ransom, may it be that violence is the answer to your problems. If you beat a gang member hard enough, he will become an honor student. And if you beat an honor student hard enough, he will give you his lunch money. And the final moral is: it's all about good grades and trips to the mall."

* The ''[[Tipping Forties]]'' like to end each episode with each player sharing what they've 'learned' from that day's [[Let's Play]].

* ''[[80's Dan]]'' Christmas special:

{{quote|"Whether we think about Santa this season, or Jesus, whether we're religious, or we just like presents, we can all agree on one thing. And that's that killing Nazis is fun."}}

* In ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'', at the end of the episode "Siren Says," the main characters try to figure out an [[Aesop]] but can't. For instance, they start out thinking that it's that [[Stock Aesops|old chestnut]] "don't be prejudiced for the beautiful and against the less attractive"...except that lesson would be [[Broken Aesop|rather inappropriate]] since the beautiful girl was innocent, and the less attractive girl was [[Horny Devils|the evil Siren]] that was framing the beautiful one. Jake briefly considers that agreeing to date the less attractive girl in the first place would have prevented her from attacking him in the first place...but then he'd be dating a clingy, psychotic Siren who could go off at any minute.

** They eventually decide the lesson is {{spoiler|don't trust children's paper fortunetelling toys, and always wait an hour after eating before going swimming.}}

** Lessons "we should learn" from the Wheel of Morality include "Never ask what hot dogs are made of," "If you don't have something nice to say, you're probably at the Ice Capades," and "If at first you don't succeed, blame it on your parents."

** An example ''not'' coming from the Wheel of Morality bits came from the show's ''[[Power Rangers]]'' parody "Super Strong Warner Siblings", with Yakko, Wakko, and Dot as pseudo-Power Rangers fighting off bug monsters and the like. At the end of the short, the Warners show up to deliver the moral of the story...

'''Orson:''' That's pretty much it. }}

** In one episode, Jon, Garfield and Odie go to Doc Boy's farm. Doc is proud of running an efficient operation, and to Garfield's horror he has no TV, because he thinks that would make things inefficient. While he's away, Garfield signs the farm up for cable. Now at this point the most likely moral would be "Doc learns that, in moderation, TV is okay" (or possibly "Garfield learns it's wrong to sign other people up for things they'll be expected to pay for without asking them"). Instead, this being [[Mark Evanier]], we get "Doc Boy learns watching TV does indeed make farm animals lazy and inefficient, but that's okay because you can win Big Cash Prizes, and not ''need'' to work."

{{quote|'''Inner Frat Boy:''' Aw, clowns aren't scary, Billy. They're just different. And just because someone looks different than you, or thinks differently than you, doesn't mean you should be afraid of them. ''It means you should be angry at them!'' How dare they be different! What, my way of life's not good enough for them?

'''Billy:''' So you're saying I should beat them up?

*** So 8 year old kids ''should'' buy companies on everaged credit?

**** Well, they'd do less damage than a lot of the adults.

{{quote|'''Clinton''': If something doesn't go right, just complain until you get what you want.

'''Marge''': That's a pretty lousy lesson.

** In the South Park episode where Stan and Cartman break a dam and the ensuing Hurricane Katrina inspired chaos leads the town to blame it all on various things, from global warming, to terrorists to Crab people. At the end of the episode Stan has had enough and states "I broke the dam!" Everyone takes this metaphorically though, in that they ''all'' broke the dam, and all begin repeating [[I Am Spartacus|"I broke the dam!"]] to Stan's annoyance.

* Done in every episode of the short-lived cartoon ''Spacecats''. In an unfortunate [[Irony]], the first such lesson was [[Logic Bomb|"Don't watch cartoons. They will rot your brain."]] The cartoon aired on NBC the year the network decided to replace its Saturday morning cartoon lineup with an expanded morning news show.

{{quote|'''Robin:''' So, I guess it is bad to watch too much TV.

'''Starfire:''' But, we were only victorious because Beast Boy watches too much the television.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:An Aesop]]

[[Category:Parody Tropes]]