Very Special Episode: Difference between revisions

[[File:7728 4665.jpg|link=Bronze Age|thumb|350px|[[Superdickery.com|His nickname is "Speedy!" What did you expect?!]]]]

 

 

An episode, often in a sitcom, in which the lead confronts some highly emotional or forbidden issue from everyday life. Drug abuse, teenage sex, bulimia... At the end of the episode, the protagonist is Enlightened, and the [[Long-Lost Uncle Aesop|guest character]] with the Very Special Problem is never seen or heard from again. Often there is an 800 number to call, should you (or someone you love) actually have the Very Special Problem. If the problem involves children in some way (and it almost invariably ''will''), then it may also be promoted as something that "No Parent Should Miss". These often come about when [[Oscar Bait|networks or writers are bucking for awards]].

** Apparently, the magic mirror could have restored Akko-chan's voice and hearing as soon as she asked the first time, but it was simply proving its point, stating that Akko-chan got her Aesop all wrong: instead of feeling compassion for her new friend, she should have thought of how he's brave enough to get on with his condition without breaking down as she just did.

* In a Very Special Episode of ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'', the eponymous [[Cute Witch|elementary school witches]] have to help Nagato, a little girl pushed on the brink of depression by the inherent competitive Japanese school system. [[The Woobie|Feeling inadequate, mercilessly bullied, teased by her peers, ignored by the teachers and witnessing her parents always arguing for her school problems]], Nagato starts to exibit psychosomatical reactions (aka throwing up in fear) whenever she approaches school, ultimately choosing to become an hikikomori. The witches just decide, without any use of their powers, to be Nagato's helping hand, going so far to offer their own hats for... Nagato's use and offering their friendship to ease her feeling of inadequacy and loneliness.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** This [http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/12/the_8_most_awkward_berenstain_bears_books.php# article] lists the "8 Most Awkward Berenstain Bears Books". Six of the eight could be classified as this trope. Namely bullying, Internet addiction, too much junk food, [[The Talk|birds and the bees]], guns, and racism.

 

* The fourth wall destroying quote above comes from the [[Lost Episode]] of ''Gap'', which also served as a [[Take That, Critics!]] to all the people who protested against the many many (mostly) implied instances of teenage drug use and alcoholism.

* Popularly attributed to ''[[Blossom]]'', which had a lot of Very Special Episodes, promoted as such. Frequently, episodes employing this trope were introduced by actress Mayim Bialik (who played the title character) intoning in a somber manner, "Tonight, on a Very Special ''Blossom'' ... ," followed by teaser scenes dramatically showing the conflict and cutting off before the most dire event reaches its climax.

* ''[[Family Matters]]'' did episodes about the following topics:

** Marrow donation.

*** It's obvious the actors were REALLY uncomfortable doing this PSA. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgD2Qr67ymc See for yourself].

** Police discrimination—a cop pulls over and unfairly tickets Eddie because he was a black teenager driving in a white neighborhood.

* ''[[The George Lopez Show]]'' had a lot of these involving [[TV Teen|Carmen]]. Every teen sex related thing happened to her, just short of getting an STD or getting pregnant.

* ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'' in almost ''every'' episode. Walnut Grove had a never-ending line of suffering citizens needing help from the Ingalls.

* ''[[A Different World]]'' had an episode on date rape co-starring Tiamak.

** And one about AIDS starring Tisha Campbell.

* ''[[Baywatch]]'' tended to do two half-hour plotlines within a single hour-long episode, running them simultaneously in the episode's timeline. Sometimes, this had... possibly unintended results. Such as the hilarity of combining a Very Special Episode plot in which one of the lifeguards gets skin cancer, with a plot in which Hulk Hogan has a wrestling match against one of the WWF heels in order to save a local youth center or similar.

* Parodied in "Mr. [[Monk]] and the Naked Man" which explains his prejudice towards nudists. He even has a silly [[Freudian Excuse]].

* Series 3 of the BBC childrens' sitcom ''[[Dani's House]]'' features an episode in which the eponymous heroine becomes addicted to a driving video game, after becoming frustrated at having to rely on public transport and finding she can't afford to have proper driving lessons. There is the possibility that it might be slightly tongue-in-cheek, but the cast play it straight throughout (allowing for moments of humour, obviously).

* "The Good Wound" from ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' obliquely dealt with spousal abuse.

* [[Motorhead]] released a song called "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" which touches upon incest.

* [[Ozzy Osbourne]] has a song of his No More Tears album called Mr. Tinkertrain, which is about pedophilia.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** Other "very special problems" various cast members have had to deal with included abuse (child and teen dating), alcoholism, war-related issues (including prisoners of war, land mines and post-traumatic stress disorder), pornography and so forth. While lighter stories have continued in the strip, the dramatic stories have taken precedence.

* Parodied in [http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2005/01/23 this] [[Pearls Before Swine]] strip, where Rat's head explodes. It ends advertising "A Very Special [[Sunday Strip]]": ''Coping With The Death Of An Unloved One'' [http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2005/01/30 Guess what ran next week?]

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** The most famous "death" examples were tribute shows aired for [[Owen Hart]] (who was killed after a stunt gone horribly wrong), [[Eddie Guerrero]], and [[Chris Benoit]] (aired live, before the details of his murders of his wife and son, and his suicide became definitively known). WWE also aired a show six days after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, as a salute to victims killed in the terrorist attacks.

 

 

== Toys ==

* Since the first wave, the stories of ''[[Hero Factory]]'' amount to this if the animated series is anything to go by - the Fire Lord arc is a drug PSA using fuel as a metaphor for drugs, and the Witch Doctor arc is about environmentalism.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

 

== [[Web Comic]] ==

** Not really a Very Special Episode in the clinical sense, but in the very title of [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/02/17 Gabe's proposal] to Kara.

* Parodied in the comic-within-a-comic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, wherein The Big Man [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/sweetbroandhellajeff/?cid=019.jpg wants that us all to keep it real about... AIDS].

* ''[[Extra Credits]]'', normally a [[Visual Pun]]-centric commentary on video games, did this with the second part of an episode on game addiction. Instead of the show's normally minimalist art, the writer, James Portnow, sat down in front of a camera and talked about his previous experiences with gaming addictions and the harm it did to his life. It even came with a moral: ''"Life will always welcome you back."''

* The ''[[Brows Held High]]'' review of ''[[Angels in America]]'' for World AIDS Day in part of the Red Ribbon Reviewers project was mostly a PSA about HIV and AIDS, and praise for the play and TV miniseries.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

[[Category:Dead Horse Trope]]

[[Category:An Aesop]]

[[Category:Very Special Episode]]