The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Broadcast Standards" at all three networks at various times "frowned on characters not operating in lockstep with everyone thinking and doing as their peers did. The group is always right. The one kid who doesn't want to do what everyone else does is always wrong!"''|'''-- [[Mark Evanier]]''' [http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_12_11.html#016337 about the time he wrote for cartoons on the 80's]}}

This is a surprisingly common [[An Aesop|theme]] in children's shows, especially in the 1980s when [[Moral Guardians]] promoted it as the primary "pro-social" moral. The essence, as summed up in [https://web.archive.org/web/20060812025228/http://www.povonline.com/cols/COL145.htm this article by Mark Evanier], who wrote for the cartoons of the time, is this: ''the group is always right; [[Trope Namer|the complainer is always wrong]]''. Thus, [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|you should always agree]] with your friends and go along with whatever they want to do without argument -- unlessargument—unless it has to do with [[Drugs Are Bad|drugs]], of course. In extreme cases, [[The Power of Friendship]] can even be contingent on making the holdout agree with the majority. The problems with mindless conformity encapsulated in the [["Jump Off a Bridge" Rebuttal]] never come up, since, you know, everyone jumping off a bridge together is ''social'' and [[Loners Are Freaks]].

A [[Real Life]] [[Fandom]] variant would be [[Fandom Heresy]]. Not to be confused with [[Vocal Minority]]. Also not to be confused with [[Periphery Hatedom]], when '''unjustified''' scorn and hatred about characters or shows come from complainers ''that are not even in the intended demographic of the show in the first place.'' See also [[Unacceptable Targets]], wherein you are always wrong if you do not like the [[Unacceptable Target]]. Very much [[Truth in Television]] whether it's justified or not. Despite this, [[No Real Life Examples, Please]].

* In the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga Kaiba tried to murder Yugi and his friends in several ways, two of them involving a torturer and a serial killer. Even after this Kaiba still belittles and insults Yugi's friends whenever they meet. Jonouchi is apparently the only one to show suspicion or unwillingness to help Kaiba and he is always wrong for doing so.

* Given that Team [[Iron Man]] won the [[Marvel Civil War]], we're probably meant to assume this about [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]].

** And they've now just thrown up their hands, said screw it and reached for the [[Reset Button]]. {{spoiler|Iron Man committed what amounts to suicide by putting himself into a PVS and having his memory restored from a back-up made some (so far) indeterminate length of time pre-civil war, Captain America is back and doesn't want to talk about it and, apparently, the US President has power to repeal the Superhuman Registration Act, [[YouArtistic FailLicense Law Forever|an act of congress]], overnight on a whim.}}

* Disney's ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]'' has Grumpy who is ridiculed for his lone fears that Snow White will lead the Queen right to them. He's [[Properly Paranoid|bang on the money]] on that one.

* ''[[Who Wants to Be a Superhero?]]'' kinda flip-flopped on this sort of thing. Both US seasons had a point where the entire team was given new costumes designed by [[Stan Lee]] himself -- excepthimself—except that one contestant got a really dorky-looking suit. In the first season, said contestant was eliminated because he wouldn't admit to Stan that he didn't like the costume; in the second, the contestant was eliminated because he ''did'' tell Stan that he didn't like it.

* [[Henrik Ibsen]] was generally not fond of this trope (perhaps because, as a critic of Victorian society, he ended up being shouted down a lot) and used pretty much every one of his plays as a celebration of individualism and subverting [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]]. Especially ''A Public Enemy'' is particularly harsh in criticizing such form of thinking, despite the complainer ending up something of a [[Doomed Moral Victor]].

* Subverted in the Zerg campaign of ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' with Zasz, an obnoxious lieutenant in the ranks of the alien race. He spends the first half of the campaign being obviously jealous because [[The Hive Mind|The Overmind]] has chosen Kerrigan has his ultimate creation. Then Zasz gets killed for good because nobody else listened when he said the Protoss were setting up an obvious trap and Kerrigan was falling right into it.

* In ''[[Charlie the Unicorn]]'' -- except—except for right until the end, {{spoiler|when his two friends steal his kidney.}} Since the other two are really annoying from the start, even abusive, there is a sense of parody.

**** [[SchrodingerSchrödinger's Gun|Except when they order pizza....]]

** In the Season 4 episode, "Hollywaste", the Planeteers are playing stunt doubles in a movie [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|based on one of their adventures.]] The eco-friendly actress who plays the movie version of Linka, Bambi Blight, is the younger sister of recurring villain Dr. Blight. Trouble happens as usual -- andusual—and clues point to Bambi. Most of the Planeteers are quick to blame Bambi but Wheeler alone trusts her. In the end, Dr. Blight reveals herself as the guilty party. After a battle and the arrest of Dr. Blight, Captain Planet says, "Bambi is proof that [[A Worldwide Punomenon|one bad Blight doesn't spoil the whole crop]]." Note that Wheeler was right, but not because he disapproved of guilt by association - he thought she was innocent because she was an [[Beauty Equals Goodness|attractive Hollywood actress]].

*** Although oneSome might interpret this as the [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] "If someone you care about is unhappy, don't bother trying to cheer them up because it won't work." There was a similar episode of ''[[The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]]'', in which the animals attempted to cheer up Eeyore because he spent all his days staring gloomily at clouds. In a nice twist, after each of their heavy-handed attempts failed, Piglet simply sits and talks to Eeyore, who reveals that he's not depressed - he is, in fact, playing an imaginary game with the clouds. A nice avoidance of this trope, in that the gang is encouraged to find out more about Eeyore's unusual behaviour and even appreciate it on its own terms.

**** In ''[[The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]]'', tendedthe totrope subvertwas thisoften frequentlypresented and subverted with Eeyore, with the others and even himself suggesting making him over to be happier and fit in more, in the end however they usually decide both Eeyore and the others are happy with [[The Eeyore|his usual "depressed" self]]. This is occasionally played more straight with Rabbit however, whose objections to the antics of the others (usually Tigger) are usually shot down, though granted his [[Control Freak]] tendacies and extremely prudish demeanor justifies it a little.