Unfortunate Implications/Western Animation: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[
** The "Pastoral Symphony" segment included a centaurette servant named Sunflower (pictured), who is part African human, part donkey, performing menial duties for the Aryan centaurettes, and two attendants to Bacchus who are part African Amazons, part zebra. Sunflower has been [[Orwellian Retcon
** Additionally, [[Token Minority Couple|each centaur pairs up with a centaurette of exactly the same color]]: white with white, tan with tan, yellow with yellow. The one left over after the others have found their soul mates is a lonely blue centaur, who mopes until the little Cupids find him a blue centaurette. Because sexual implications are fine, as long as there is no centaur miscegenation?
* The crows from ''[[
* ''[[
** A woman who has spent only two minutes with a handsome man in her entire life will desperately want him just because of his appearance, to the point that she'll even sacrifice everything that really matters in life (home, family and friends, her voice). What softens the blow is that Disney did Ariel obsessed with human culture with a desire to be a part of it before seeing Eric. Even then, the only reason she went through with the deal was because she was sweet-talked by Ursula while she was emotionally vulnerable and not feeling very fond of her father (who had just violently destroyed all of her favorite possessions for the "sin" of saving someone's life). However, it's still easy to see how this could rub some people the wrong way.
* "A Girl Worth Fighting For" in the first ''[[
* ''[[
** In Mufasa tells a young Simba that all animals are part of the Circle of Life and must be respected. Ok, so why does he force all the hyenas to live in the Elephant Graveyard where there's no food, no water, and the possibility of extinction is very real? What kind of "respectful" king would do that to an entire species? Could it be that despite being labeled as "slobbering, stupid, mangy poachers", the hyenas are in fact the one predator species that could threaten the lions' lofty position as rulers of the Pride Lands?
*** This ecology may have been [[Accidentally Accurate]]: In [[Real Life]], lions do drive hyenas out of fertile territory in this way. But certainly, hyenas are ''not'' scavengers.
** There's also the slight issue of their voice actors: Shenzi is voiced by a black female, Banzai sounds Mexican, and Ed is obviously completely insane.
** In the movie, the only evil lion, [[Complete Monster|Scar]], has darker colored fur than the others. However, the implications are reversed when you realize all of the lighter colored lions are voiced by people of African descent at some point during the movie. Yes, even Simba: Young Simba's singing voice was an African-American boy. Scar is the only lion to only be voiced by [[Jeremy Irons|Caucasian]] [[Jim Cummings|people]].
** And in the Broadway musical, the good lions are all played by African-Americans, while Scar remains an [[Evil Brit]].
* Suzy Johnson in ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[Jimmy Two
* The ''[[
* ''[[Total Drama]]''
** The choice of main antagonists for each season. Heather (Asian) in season one, Justin (Hawaiian) and Courtney (Hispanic) in season two, and Alejandro (Also Hispanic) in season three. Fortunately, that is no longer the case with season 4's antagonist, Scott, who is Caucasian.
** The Trent/Gwen/Duncan/Courtney love rhombus could also be read as unintentionally saying that if your partner has a best friend of the opposite sex they'll end up cheating on you.
** Every interracial couple on the show ([[Pretty Fly for
* ''[[
** All the characters were different [[Talking Animal
** Black stereotypes are not the only ones thrown around; the demimonde cockroach couple trying to move in at the beginning, who get targeted by a regular little "Save the Neighborhood" posse, seemed decidedly Jewish.
** The coding of roaches as people of color is intentional and meant to be satirical, which would be simplistic and stereotyping, but only that, if the first five minutes of the linked ep were all they went on. Once upward mobility of minorities is established as a good thing, the roaches lay thousands of eggs that fill up the rats' living space (the EXACT fear of people who try to keep neighborhoods all-white) and the episode is one gem after another. "Let's step on 'em." "I think I remember why my parents hated [roaches] so much." "It's like Hong Kong up there." A conversation about how people always talk about living together but "we're not people, what kind of people have 500,000 kids?" In the end the roaches are liked due to having saved the very Caucasian rat from a cat (who he tormented needlessly while he was in a body cast) but move out anyway, and it's generally established as a mistake that people of different ethnic groups try to live together. There are ''no words.''
* "Dr. Rabbit's Bright Smiles World Tour" (an animated short about oral hygiene sponsored by Colgate). One might suspect that the real reason Colgate-Palmolive tried to get [[
* ''[[Codename
** It's [[Multinational Team]]: [[Word of God]] says Numbuh 5 is [[But Not Too Foreign|half-French]]. (Confirmed in Operation: C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E., where her mother's accent is clearly French) The good news is she doesn't follow any French stereotype. The bad news is since she's also black, she follows [[Jive Turkey|an entirely different stereotype]]. Uptight British Numbuh 1 and fat American Numbuh 2 come off the as the least stereotyped compared to the others: the dumb-and-tough Aussie (Numbuh 4), the excited and ditzy Japanese (Numbuh 3), and the already mentioned Numbuh 5.
** Somewhat compensated for in 5's case, as she's [[Positive Discrimination|usually the straight man to everyone else]].
** It is shown when Numbah 4 grows up he's still just as tough and even graduated Harvard Med, and {{spoiler|his wife}} Numbuh 3 is in charge of {{spoiler|The Rainbow Monkey Corporation}}, which has got to require some smarts. And Numbuh 2 won't always be fat, {{spoiler|his possible teenage self}} is quite skinny and considered attractive.
** Scottish Numbuh 86 is constantly [[Violent Glaswegian|angry, violent, and generally unpleasant]]. She gets some [[Character Development]], but ''wow''.
* ''[[Captain Planet and
** Wheeler. Brash, loud-mouthed, wielded the [[Elemental Baggage|mostly destructive power]] of [[Kill It
** As long as we're discussing ''Captain Planet'', was anyone else reminded of those Nazi propaganda caricatures of Jews whenever Verminous Skumm appeared in an episode? The fact that [[Jeff Goldblum]] voiced the character in his first few appearances didn't help at all...
* While nobody could fault the ''[[
* In the first aired episode of ''[[Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends]]'', Angelica refers to a white girl in a Sheena costume as a "jungle bunny"... apparently the writers figured: "bimbo girl on the beach = beach bunny", "bimbo girl on the slopes = ski bunny", "bimbo girl in the jungle = jungle bunny", without realizing that was an old, racist term for those of black descent. The [[Edited for Syndication]] version of this episode corrects it to "jungle rabbit".
* ''[[I Am Weasel]]'':
** There was an episode which had I.M. Weasel and I.R. Baboon both create microscopic versions of themselves from their DNA. Predictably, Weasel's mini-people develop civilization at an accelerated rate while I.R.'s never move beyond Stone Age level. The Unfortunate Implications come when both micro-civilizations make contact, interbreed and promptly collapse; leading to Weasel and Baboon agreeing to never marry. This was so close to the old racist belief of "keeping the White race pure" lest Western Civilization collapse from the introduction of "impurities" that it falls straight into [[Dude, Not Funny]] territory. The creators probably thought they were on the safe side since Weasel is voiced by black Michael [[Star Trek:
** Alternatively, the lesson is that everything that makes Weasel successful and Baboon a failure is [[In the Blood]], which in a way is even worse.
* ''[[Transformers Generation
** It had the nation of the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya. Yes, ''[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Carbombya Carbombya]'', the apparent capital, Carbombya City, has a population of 4,000 people and 10,000 camels (they even list this on the sign). The entire population is an Arabic stereotype always swearing on their mothers' camels. The voice actor Casey Kasem was so disgusted that he left the show.
** A little more backstory: Kasem is Lebanese, and upon seeing the script he asked that they at least include a sympathetic Arab character to balance out all the annoying stereotypes in not-Libya. He only left after they refused.
** The name *might* have been tolerable... if they didn't use it at every single opportunity! Seriously, the name comes up over a dozen times in a twenty two minute episode.
* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'':
** It has taken a Unicron-sized step back when it comes to the role of women. The major female bots roles ''all'' revolve around [[
** Exhibit A: Arcee. Ratchet's failure to save her, resulting in her being mindwiped to prevent her data, which turned out to be the codes to control Omega Supreme, falling into the wrong hands, was his tragic backstory. She returns in the present ''offline'' most of the time (why is never stated - it's [admittedly logical] fan speculation that the Autobot bigwigs' attempts to restore that data damaged her further) and is pretty much a plot device until restored midway through the last episode.
** Exhibit B: Blackarachnia. The [[Dark Action Girl]] from ''[[
** Exhibit C: Elita 1. While ''Animated'' Blackarachnia used to ''be'' Elita One, she still counts as separate because ''that'' form has its own name and history too. Unfortunately, she doesn't live up to it any better than she went on to live up to Blackarachnia's. Like the horror movie victim who trips or hurts her ankle for no good reason on flat ground, Elita's [[Powers
** Exhibit D: The others. Other female bots exist, but their roles are very brief. Slipstream gets to be snarky but not play a major role, and is the least-seen of the Starscream clones. She reappears near the end of the series out of ''freaking nowhere'' to try to kill what she thinks to be Starscream for no discernible reason and then flies away when it turns out to not be him, making her return a [[
* ''[[Starchaser:
** Animated B-grade [[Space Opera]] has, as a subplot, a [[Ridiculously Human Robot|a secretarial android in a very female chassis]] being captured by [[Loveable Rogue|the local Han Solo]] [[Expy]]. Initially, she is quite combative, until he locates her personality circuits ''inside her posterior'' and reprograms her to be arm-drapingly infatuated with him (that's gotta be a trope, in itself). [[Moral Dissonance|He then sells her to a slave auctioneer at the next civilized port]], and only grudgingly buys her back when the [[No Social Skills]] hero manages to get himself put up on the block, too. Also, after the hero's initial girlfriend is {{spoiler|rather shockingly killed}}, the hero finds a new chick to fall in pretty-much-instant love with, and the new girl uses the same voice actress. Women are completely interchangeable!
** He uses the female android as a BULLET SHIELD when he kidnaps her, she protests against the forced reprogramming the entire time, and when the spaceship reveals the location of her personality circuits, she becomes very scared and tries to escape. The guy gags her with duct tape when she starts yelling for help and for him to stop, and while reprogramming her she twitches and convulses and gives muffled shrieks as if the mind invasion/reprogramming is PHYSICALLY HURTING HER. On top of that, her human-like design gives her the appearance of being nude as she is bent over the guy's lap, mind-wiped, and subjugated. Kind of a little creepy as hell.
* In ''[[King Arthur and
* There are quite a few in the [[Deranged Animation|very]] [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made
* In "Xmas Marks the Spot", a [[Yet Another Christmas Carol]] episode of ''[[
* ''[[
** It has Him, who is a clear [[Expy]] of the [[Satan]], who is the embodiment of everything evil, be [[Camp Gay]]. Make of that what you will.
** A disturbingly creepy [[Black Comedy Rape|running gag]] in ''[[
** A similar scene happens in "Monkey See Doggy Two", only as Mojo is turned into a dog and sent to the pound, with another Dog. Most recently, the 10th anniversary/final episode special "Powerpuff Girls Rule!" had one last shout-out to this running gag, as a fellow prisoner embraces Mojo much to Mojo's dismay.
* ''[[
** The episode "Amazonian Women In The Mood" has Fry, Zapp and Kif sentenced to death by [[Unusual Euphemism|snu-snu]]. The snu-snu part is encouraging, but the death part is less so. However, Fry and Zapp are exhausted after several women, to the point where Fry pleads with an Amazonian woman "Can't we just cuddle?" and even Zapp, a large, womanising git is requesting a breather. That's right, Fry and Zapp got raped by women about 12 feet tall. And it was [[Played for Laughs]].
** Just to increase the show's count of [[Double Standard Rape (Female
* ''[[
** "You May Now Kiss...":
*** The episode deals with the topic of gay marriage, in which Jasper, Brian's gay cousin (which is a dog like him, obviously), wants to marry his boyfriend, who's human, and despite the fact that gay marriage is heavily discussed, nobody bothers to mention that a man is going to ''marry a dog'' (albeit an anthropomorphic one). This trope comes in effect when you realize that many gay marriage detractors said that this would lead to people marrying their dogs.
*** Since it's ''[[
*** They also threw in a random joke about child abduction victim Elizabeth Smart. [[Dude, Not Funny|The punchline is that she was permanently traumatized by being raped]]. [[Sarcasm Mode|Ha-ha. Clever, eh?]]
*** What's particularly baffling is the fact that Jasper was meant to ''appeal'' to the gay audience, he, and every other gay character from ''[[
** Speaking of things like that, you get ''[[
** There's also "Blue Harvest", where R2-D2 (Cleveland) opens up a "window" of the Millennium falcon, takes out a gun and shoots at a TIE fighter and destroying it, and after shooting it down shouts "YEAH! That's how we do it in ''my'' neighborhood, bitch!" The implications in that scene were that R2-D2's neighborhood was full of drive-by shootings, something that should not be glamorized. The fact that R2-D2 was played by a black character for this special makes the already unfortunate implication even worse.
** According to "Dog Gone", having mentally challenged people reading your book apparently is the worst possible thing than can happen to a writer.
** Viewers have noted that female characters have a greater chance of being abused or killed off. Combine that with the frequently misgynostic humor (where the above is usually [[Played for Laughs]]) and it's clear a few of the writers have '''serious''' issues with women.
** "Seahorse Seashell Party" has am ''extremely'' disturbing implication: "Victims of abuse should stay in their abusive relationships/households for the good of other people, ''especially'' their abusers".
* ''[[
** [http://www.xkcdb.com/?5389 Supposedly], subtle [[Dirty Communists|communist propaganda]].
** Or the ravings of an unapologetic [http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2011/07/thomas_the_imperialist_tank_engine.html?fb_ref=sm_fb_plugin_activity British imperialist].
* The episode of ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Justice League (
* ''[[Young Justice (
** It has an early episode where Aqualad is appointed leader of the team. Despite saying he feels honored, Aqualad immediately states that he only considers his position temporary, and that once Robin is ready, he will give command of the team over to him. So basically, the team's black leader thinks of himself as little more than a placeholder for the white kid who was earlier admonished for his reckless behavior and inability to work with his teammates.
** Traditionally, the Young Justice/Teen Titans teams have been lead by Robin since he's done the hero thing the longest of the group. Indeed, in the show's (and canon comic book) continuity, Robin is established in being the most experienced when it comes to superheroics. Even more than friends who are older than him such as Aqualad & Speedy/Arsenal. So Aqualad's comment could just be a "I'll lead the team until the guy who has more experience than me realizes that HE'S the one who should be the leader.
* ''[[Batman:
* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' has the [[Ambiguously Gay]] character Knockout. At a convention, fans asked the show staff if Knockout was gay. At first they dodged the question playfully, saying things like the Decepticons have a strict "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Then one of them said that on the day Knockout was born, the Allspark (source of Transformer life) had a "glitch." ''Yikes.''
* A common criticism about animated series ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCm1sjARU7E Punky]'', about a girl with Down's Syndrome, is that it makes people with Down's look like idiots. In the first episode, the pharmacist tells Punky's mother to go home and rest, so after her mother goes to bed Punky goes around the house shutting up everything that makes the slightest bit of noise, including her brother listening to music on his headphones at the lowest volume possible besides mute.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** In episode "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", prohibition is introduced after a particularly rowdy St. Patrick's Day. During said St. Patrick's Day celebrations, while everyone is cavorting around drunk, an English fish and chip shop (imaginatively called "John Bull's Fish and Chips" and festooned with Union Flags) gets blown up and everybody cheers. This is unfortunate in that it not only implies that IRA Terrorism during [[The Troubles]] was something funny and/or acceptable, but also implies that all Irish people are terrorists who support the IRA. Which they're not.
** The episode "Flaming Moe" seemed to imply that all gays are camp perverts who hit on every guy, and have no personality other than being gay. [[Broken Aesop|And this episode was about supporting gay rights]]. And also, the writers apparently think transgender people and gays ''are one and the same''. There are ''no words''.
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** The episode "Lisa the Drama Queen" has a particularly [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]: "[[Crapsack World|The real world is supposed to suck, deal with it, and any form of escapism or fantasy is wrong]]." As was mentioned elsewhere, some anvils need to be [[Unfortunate Implications|left in the blacksmith shop]].
** The episode "The Monkey Suit" in which Lisa fights against Ned Flanders in the evolutionism/creationism debate can be seen to fall into this category. Not only does it present a very [[Hollywood Science]] view of the evolution debate, but it portrays every Christian character as being arrogant, [[Straw Hypocrite|close-minded fanatics with no capacity to even acknowledge other people's views]]. Also when [[Hollywood Atheist|Lisa]] holds the secret evolution lessons, the people there are her, Martin and Database ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|Milhouse is there too, but he doesn't count]]) - in other words, the "smart" people, implying that one cannot be clever if one believes in creationism.
** One episode had Marge at home alone with Maggie, who she purposely wakes up so she can comfort her and feel needed. Some creepy, [[wikipedia:
* Averted with ''[[The Smurfs]]'' [[Animated Adaptation]] of the comic book story "The Black Smurfs" when the production company decided to recolor the infected Smurfs as purple.
* In an episode of ''[[
* The ''[[The Fairly
* ''[[Teen Titans (
* G1 ''[[My Little Pony]]'' had a pony named "Gypsy". She's an orange mare with tambourines for her Cutie Mark who never appeared in the cartoons. However her British description is rather stereotypical: ''Gypsy entertains the ponies with her dances - twirling around as she taps out of the rhythm on her tambourine. As she runs past, her ribbon leaves a colorful trail for all to see.''
** There's a G3 pony called "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nwt0llw9uQ Fiesta Flair]" who premiered in the cartoon. She has a (sort of?) Mexican accent, a Spanish-themed name, plays maracas in the cartoon, and her a maraca themed Cutie Mark. Due to the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of all this Hasbro never released her toy.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** Sapphire Shores had some...controversy. As did [[Internet Backdraft|Derpy]].
** The Season 1 episode, "Feelin' Pinkie Keen" had the aesop "sometimes you just have to choose to believe, even if you have no proof". This lead many fans to be annoyed at what sounded creepily close to a lesson on ignoring scientific facts in favour of beliefs. So much so, [[Word of God|Lauren Faust]] had to point out that that was not what was intended at all.
** The ponies also keep cows, sheep, and pigs as cattle, even though these animals are able to talk just as well as they can - this is, at very least a [[Fantastic Caste System]], with the other animals being a servant race at best or a [[Slave Race]] at worst... Or maybe even ''worse''. Ponies here are vegetarians - aside from eggs and dairy - ''BUT'', in one episode Pinkie Pie discusses a strategy on winning a hot dog contest. This may have been a mistake on the writers' part, or the hot dogs in question may be the tofu-vegan type, but if not, this could mean the Ponies are okay with borderline cannibalism.
* The TV special adaptation of ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]'' had the titular character at one point giving a slasher smile before stealing a Who child's candy cane. Modern audiences would easily mistake it for something even worse (which explains why that brief scene is often edited out in syndication).
* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' has a lot of [[Fantastic Racism]]'' undertones, as Imaginary Friends (who are sapient and sentient creatures) seem to be considered second-class citizens. The whole purpose of the eponymous house is taking in Friends who have been abandoned by their owners (no comeuppance at all given to people who do this). In one episode, Mr. Harriman can't get a job at a place that specifies "Must Not Be Imaginary", and another that doesn't allow rabbits. (He understands the first but is ''enraged'' at the second.) Worse, there is not one, but ''two'' episodes ("The Sweet Smell of Excess" and "Emancipation Complication") were Friends are sold into slavery in all but name.
* A big reason why ''[[Mr. Magoo]]'' cartoons are rarely viewed anymore is Charlie, the protagonist's manservant. While Charlie was often the [[Straight Man]] who kept his boss out of trouble, he was also a blatantly racist stereotype of an Asian, and would never be viewed as acceptable in the modern era.
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