Think of the Children: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* One [[Compare the Meerkat]] advert was about how people confusing Compare The Meerkat for Compare The Market was destroying the meerkat town Meerkovo. One part centred on how it was destroying the school and the kids were no longer able to learn. If only people knew the difference between the two websites!

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Horton Hears a Who!]]'', the kangaroo rallies all the other animals in the jungle against Horton with this cry.

 

* In the book ''Heir Apparent'' by Vivian Vande Velde, the plot is put into motion by a group called Citizens to Protect Our Children. According to the protagonist, they "strongly believe that only G-rated movies should be made and libraries should only stock nice, friendly, uplifting books, which means nothing supernatural or scary. Which just about kills my entire reading list". They go after the gaming company that she's going to to spend a gift certificate, under the excuse that violence and magic are inappropriate for their children. They later subvert their intended mission, because while the main character is in the game they break into the center and smash up the equipment, causing it to be susceptible to overheating which, unless the game is completed in time, will fry the girl's brain. She lives, though, and in the end the head of the company (a boy about a year older than she is) says that "they're going to get their asses fried for endangering a minor". It's a take on how hypocritical censorship groups are, going after the companies when it's their ''kids'' that are going to the places in the first place!

* In the [[Star Trek]] novel [[Star Trek: The Next Generation Relaunch|''Losing the Peace'']], the Governor of Pacifica makes such an argument. He's apparently concerned about refugees' effects on the Selkie breeding islands, but might possibly be simply annoyed by the refugees. He insists that the delicate environmental requirements of the Selkie young risk being disrupted by the settlers, and that in the name of the children steps should be taken to remove the outsiders. Most of the refugees have nowhere else to go, and really Pacifica should be honoring its obligations to the wider Federation by accepting them. It's a complicated situation though - the governor might well have a valid point.

 

* Several episodes of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law & Order: SVU]]''. Both for and against, intermittently.

* "Gingerbread" in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' had a demon that fed on and propagated this by getting people to burn anyone unusual in sacrifice to it, [[Offing the Offspring|often their own children for extra irony]].

* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7gP1xgRDJ4 this] ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' sketch, [[Hugh Laurie|Laurie]]'s character complains about a "disgusting" program, wondering "what if my children had been watching ?" (It turns out her children haven't watched it, but only because by the "purest good fortune [...] they don't happen to have been born yet.")

{{quote|"He's eight years old. Ben is ''eight years old''!"}}

* [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]: In the episode "Tribunal", the Cardassian attorney, Kovat, urges Odo to help O'Brien confess to a crime he never committed because, "Think of the children, Sir. Allow them to see a glimmer of enlightenment."

** Carly and Sam's beauty pageant Q&A strategy is "ending world hunger... for the children!"

 

* Shouted by a crowd member at a WWE Raw taping in London when R-Truth smoked a cigarette after a [[Face Heel Turn]].

* The reason why Shane Douglas hates [[Ric Flair]] so much: his total disrespect for women and drunken antics in front of children.

 

* In [[Stan Freberg]]'s "Elderly Man River", [[Moral Guardians|Mr. Tweedly]] insists on correcting the grammar of "Old Man River," saying, "The home is a classroom, Mr. Freberg... Keep in mind the tiny tots."

 

 

* ''[[The Music Man]]'' has a whole song creating a moral panic by playing on fears of the pool hall and what it'll do to their children. Billiards is okay by Harold Hill, but pool is trouble.

 

* In the Awakening expansion for ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', one sidequest entitled "Keep Out of Reach of Children" has you running around Amaranthine collecting bottles of Antivan poison on behalf of the local Merchant's Guild. The quest seems to be a [[Stealth Parody]] of this trope; the quest description mentions that the guild is concerned about the poison falling into the hands of children, though the guild is more than likely responsible for bringing the bottles into Amaranthine in the first place.

* In ''[[Dragon's Lair]] 2: Time Warp'', the opening movie tells you to "do it for the children".

* [[Parodied Trope]] twice during the announcer banter in ''[[Ratchet: Deadlocked]]''.

 

* JewWario cries "won't somebody think of the children?!" to get [[The Nostalgia Critic]] and [[The Cinema Snob]] to stop throwing [[Cluster F-Bomb|Cluster F Bombs]] at each other in ''[[Kickassia]]''. Everyone gives him a strange look.

* [[bash.org]], unsurprisingly, plays on this with [http://bash.org/?920525 this gem].

Can also describe the exploitation of babies by professional beggars who rent them from their parents and use them as potent appendage in their trade ([[Fridge Logic|remember that children tend to grow and need to be replaced]]). }}

 

* Helen Lovejoy is a parody of this character on ''[[The Simpsons]]''. Frequently, when something stirs up public outcry, in Springfield, she screams "Won't somebody ''please'' think of the children?" in a panic. Ironically, [[Preacher's Kid|her own child is a kleptomaniac hellion who has to be sent to a boarding school for her crimes]]). The show also did this a lot on the seventh season episode "Much Apu About Nothing" (where Springfield holds a referendum to get illegal immigrants deported) and the season eight episode "Homer vs. The 18th Amendment" (where alcohol gets banned in Springfield after Bart gets drunk at the St. Patrick's Day parade), but not much in the later episodes, probably because the voice actress for Helen Lovejoy (who was also the voice actress for Ned Flanders' wife, Maude) left the show and the writers pretty much [[Put on a Bus|put her on a bus]]—or kept her in the background and only bring her out in crowd scenes. Though the writers may have tired of the joke anyway; the could potentially have used recordings from a previous episode; the authors started subverting the natural pattern, an indication of an attempt to keep the joke fresh. For instance, in the episode where Homer and Marge rekindle their sex life by getting busy in public places, get cornered in the miniature golf course and flee before being seen, leaving their clothes for the crowd to find. As the crowd gasps at the idea of two people running around naked, Moe says the line while Helen is in the frame just to fool with the audience.

** In one episode, Bart got his hands on a [[Tank Goodness|tank]] and was initially making it seem as though he was going to use it on the school. Mrs. Krabappel's reaction is a [[Deadpan Snarker|deadpan]] "No, stop, think of the children." while smoking a cigarette. {{spoiler|He was actually intending to fire at a MLB satellite that was spying on the town, something that only Bart seemed to be aware of.}}

* In one episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', where the titular character suddenly goes missing, Sandy Cheeks rallies the whole town to find him {{spoiler|(he was hiding underneath a rock (i.e. Patrick's house).)}} When they couldn't find him, Sandy gets more desperate, and when one of the townsfolk invokes this trope, she says "Good idea!" and [[Comically Missing the Point|has the children join in the search]].

 

* [[Real Life]] again: Most arguments against "[[Murder Simulators|violent video games]]". To the point that Germany and Australia arbitrarily define [[Video Games]] as children's toys. The games in question are always, invariably [[Did Not Do the Research|never marketed to children]], because [[Rated "M" for Money|adults have more money]].

** According to a PEGI report the average age of people who buy games in Europe is 35 and the amount of games that are for people aged 16 to 18 is around 10%, only 1% of the total games published is suitable for 18 and over. You wouldn't know any of this if you followed the news, as a recent report about an agreement about 18+ games showed in the Netherlands: "kids as young as 11 years old could buy these games" (at a €60 pricetag, which is a lot of money for a 11 year old last time I checked).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Censorship Tropes]]

[[Category:Politics Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Aesops]]

[[Category:The Only Righteous Index of Fanatics]]