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Commonly subverted/parodied when a mildly [[Genre Savvy]] hero initially assumes he is receiving valuable training, only to realize that he is [[Fence Painting|just being made to do]] [[Mooching Master|his sensei's chores]]. [[Double Subversion|Double Subverted]] if the sensei tells him that this realization ''is'' the valuable lesson.
 
Named for the most famous example, Mr. Miyagi's training of Daniel-san in ''[[The Karate Kid (Film)|The Karate Kid]]''. Daniel was expecting some rigorous "This is how you punch, this is how you kick" training from the get-go, but instead Miyagi tells him to do various chores, and shows him the precise ways he wants those things done. After painting the house, painting the fence, sanding the decks and rubbing wax on and off a small fleet of cars, Daniel was ready to quit, believing he was being used as a slave. Miyagi then demonstrated that those chores were to build up strength and muscle memory of how to perform various blocking actions, as well as [[Secret Test of Character|testing how much patience he had]]. ''THEN'' Miyagi showed Daniel how to punch, kick, etc. (He also gave Daniel one of the cars!)
 
On the realistic end, this can be an effective training method in regards to strength and motion, but is no substitute for the real training to follow.
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== Anime & Manga ==
* On ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'', Master Roshi takes it to comedic excess when he forces Krillin and Goku to work long hours delivering milk on foot, sowing fields with their bare hands, and doing chores at construction sites, all the while wearing weighted turtle shells. He makes a few bucks off it, too. It does really build them up fast, however. ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' was fond of this trope and repeated it frequently, often setting Goku to a mundane but laborious task to retrieve an item that would increase his power, only to reveal that it was the task itself that increased his strength.
** Occasionally the teacher would admit from the get-go that that was what was going on. When Goku first went to train with King Kai, he found that the gravity was so impressively strong that he could barely move (precisely, ten times the gravity of Earth). King Kai told Goku that he'd be ready to train when he could catch Bubbles the monkey, and later, use a mallet to hammer Gregory the cricket on the head - because, obviously, it'd mean that he'd strengthened enough that he could move well enough in the high gravity for the training to be any good.
*** The gravity of Kai's world was also the same as that of the planet Vegeta, homeworld of the enemies Goku was training to fight. As Kai noted, Goku would never be a match for them if he couldn't handle the same gravity they did.
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* Parodied in ''[[Inuyasha]]''. When Inuyasha wanted to get stronger and power up his [[BFS]], he went to Totosai, the original maker of the sword, to train. Totosai, completely oblivious, made an offhand comment about wanting a bath; Inuyasha took this to mean that he should cut firewood, haul water, and work the bellows to heat the fire as part of his training, and went to work with atypical gusto.
** He then proceeded to wreck Totosai's shit after realizing that it was all a misunderstanding.
* A subversion from ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'': Brock and Ash meet Bruno, a member of the Elite 4 who agrees to train them. He gets them to do a ton of chores. Brock assumes this all has a deeper meaning but Bruno just wanted his chores done, which is followed by his training which can be summed up in one sentence: "Be nice to Pokemon."
* ''[[Rosario to Vampire]]'' [[Double Subversion|Double Subverts]] it, when Moka nabbed a magic-cancelling whip so Inner Moka could come out and play, and they she took Tsukune out on a shopping trip around town, which led to attacks from the rest of the [[Harem]]. Tsukune figures out how to remotely sense demonic energy as a matter of survival, which everyone concludes was her motive. No, it turns out she just wanted to do some shopping as her [[True Self]]. A subversion of the usual subversion, as, despite the "task" not having been meant to teach him anything, it proved valuable ''anyway''.
* ''[[Aquarion]]'' loves this trope, and parodies it whenever possible.
* When the heroes of ''[[Get BackersGetBackers]]'' want to learn to use Divine Design, they get a witch friend to help them learn the basics of magic. The first task? Stacking eggs.
* Takumi from ''[[Initial D]]'', or so he thinks, starts out driving at 4:00 AM as fast as possible while delivering his dad's tofu to the peak of Mount Akina and drifting to prevent the tofu from rolling around, in order to return home ASAP and catch a little snooze before going to school.
* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', the Daycare Lady locks Gold into a cage full of dangerous looking Pokemon. Gold's Cyndaquil ends up evolving thanks to fighting them and Gold immediately shouts his thanks. Turns out the old lady was just too lazy to look after the Pokemon herself and was using Gold to give them some exercise.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', just to get to ''start'' Izumi's [[Training From Hell]] for ''alchemy'' you need to survive in the wilderness for a month with just a knife and to find out the meaning of "all is one, one is all". The thing is that by nearly dying you realize how you're just part of an endless cycle of life which can easily move on without you, and how alchemy is a miniature replication of such a cycle through a circle of your own body. This was training her teacher required her to do, shown in one volume's gaiden to {{spoiler|actually be a subversion: the guy she asked to be apprentice was ''the brother'' of the guy she wanted to learn alchemy from, and he thought she wanted hand-to-hand-combat training}}.
* Subverted in ''[[Medabots]]'', which had a chapter in which Ikki and Metabee did Dr. Aki's housework, and while Metabee told Ikki that they were, Ikki thought they were doing a [[Wax On, Wax Off]] deal. Later on, when they fight... The good doctor tells them they were doing his chores and that it served no practical purpose.
* ''[[AyanesAyane's High Kick (Anime)|Ayanes High Kick]]'': When Ayane accepts Kunimitsu's offer for training, he declares that the first step is for her to build the training ring, to help build her physical strength and stamina.
* A filler episode of [[One Piece]] uses a learn a craft variant. A young kid who had only worked as a dish washer on a Marine ship kitchen accidentally destroys the weekly (and almost legendary) curry lunch for the officers, and the head chef forces him to make a new batch on his own as punishment. With Sanji [[Stealth Mentor|providing some subtle clues of his own]], the kid learns that the observations made as a simple dish washer have given him the fundamental skills to cook the meal.
* Averted in [[Saiyuki]]. Kouryuu is constantly seen sweeping up leaves when speaking to his master- but this seems to be because he wants the courtyard to be clean and there is nothing to suggest that Koumyou even asked him to do it.
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* The eponymous ursidae-member Po in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'', who eats when he's upset, is taught kung fu by Master Shifu via eating dumplings with chopsticks; largely because Shifu discovers, quite by accident, that when Po is thinking about food, he's capable of feats that, when he's thinking about kung fu, he's not even aware exist.
* Parodied in the Karate Kid rip-off ''[[Showdown]]''. The martial artist master is making the hero clean toilets, and the hero is like "I get it, this is like [[Wax On, Wax Off]], right?" The response? "No, this is toilet cleaning."
* Parodied and subverted in ''[[SurfsSurf's Up]]'', in which Big Z has Cody doing ridiculous training exercises to help him "learn how to surf". Cody finally figured out that Big Z was playing practical jokes on him, and learned that the ''real'' lesson was to '''''relax and just have fun'''''.
* Parodied and subverted in the Japanese movie ''[[Waterboys]]''. The boys high-school Synchro-Swim Team seeks help from a local Sea World Dolphin trainer. He makes them clean all the aquariums, under the quise of it being muscle training. {{spoiler|It works, but it's obvious that he was just using them and didn't think it would help}}. Later, he takes them to an arcade and gives them $50 to play Dance Dance Revolution, as a lesson in getting in sync. {{spoiler|Again, it's fake training and he drives off, singing happily that he's finally dumped them. However, he runs out of gas and returns to get his money back, thereby discovering that his false improvised training worked again.}}
* Well before all of these, the 1978 [[Jackie Chan]] movie ''[[Drunken Master (Filmfilm)|Drunken Master]]''. Jackie plays Wong Fei-hung, a young punk who is punished by being put under the brutal training of So Hai, an alcoholic with a style known as the Eight Drunken Gods. So Hai appears to delight in putting Fei-hung through [[Training From Hell]]: pour water from one giant barrel to another, while balancing atop the barrels. Fill a bucket with a a teacup-oh, the bucket is on the top of a pole, the stream is on the bottom of the pole, and you do it by wrapping your legs around the top of the pole, hanging upside down, and doing upside down situps. Crush walnuts-WITH YOUR HANDS, not a nutcracker. Do katas in time with your instructor-with your hands roped to his, so he can yank you around if you're too slow...or just for the hell of it. Of course, it all comes clear in the climactic battle against the film's [[Big Bad]]. {{spoiler|the bucket exercise gives you a hell of a grip. Just imagine your enemy's ear is a bucket handle. Balancing atop the barrels means you're also used to being off balance and you've strengthened your ankles, definitely required if you plan to use [[Drunken Boxing]]. Upside down situps give you powerful abs, required if you plan to have the speed to get out of the way of enemy kicks. Walnut cracking by hand? Imagine your enemy's larynx is a walnut...}}
* Played surprisingly straight in ''[[Sgt. Kabukiman NYPDN.Y.P.D.]]''; to learn how to control his powers, Harry must sort a huge pile of rice by variety, practice coming up with Haikus, and take a whole bunch of [[Groin Attack|groin attacks]]. Okay, so maybe not ''that'' straight.
* Mentioned (but not done) in the second ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Filmfilm)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' film. While cleaing April's apartment, Mikey, who's cleaning the counters, bids his brothers to watch him.
{{quote| '''Mikey:''' Watch this! ''(Ala Miyagi)'' "Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. ''Wax on''-"<br />
'''Raph:''' ''(Stops him)'' Mouth. Off! }}
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== Literature ==
* Parodied in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Mort|Mort]]'' when the hero, as Death's apprentice, is told that if he wants to understand the secrets of space and time he must muck out the stables. After considering various reasons why this might be part of his training, he comes to the conclusion that it's because Death was "knee-deep in horseshit". A [[Double Subversion]], though, as Death insists that, by realising this, Mort ''has'' learnt something significant (something to the effect of "Always see things for what they are").
** Similarly in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', when Lobsang Ludd is being taught by Lu-Tze, an [[Old Master]] who is content to be [[Almighty Janitor|a humble sweeper]]. After several days of sweeping up the temple, he confronts Lu-Tze:
{{quote| '''Lobsang''': "I mean, I understand how it works. The master makes the pupil do all the menial jobs, and then it turns out the pupil is really learning things of great value ... And I don't think I'm learning ''anything'', really, except that people are pretty messy and inconsiderate.<br />
'''Lu-Tze''': "Not a bad lesson, all the same." }}
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* In David Eddings' ''[[Belgariad]]'' universe, the arch-wizard Belgarath learned the [[Functional Magic]] of 'The Will and The Word' from the reclusive [[Physical God]], Aldur, in this way. Aldur kept setting his young apprentice to various menial, pointless and increasingly strenuous tasks, culminating in him ordering the young Belgarath to move a boulder out of his way, since he couldn't be bothered to step around it...
** And of course, Belgarath used the same thing for Garion. When Garion moved the boulder, however, he tried ''lifting'' the thing. Newtonian physics still work, apparently. Garion found himself in a rather deep hole.
* In ''[[Warcraft: theThe Last Guardian (Literature)|Warcraft the Last Guardian]]'', a [[War CraftWarcraft]] [[Warcraft Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] novel, the first task that our hero faces when attempting to become the wizard Medivh's apprentice is to clean, fix and sort out his library. This turns out to be a [[Secret Test of Character]], since an apprentice is supposed to know the contents of the library inside and out and have the patience and humility to do some physical work every now and then.
** Also to show that the student can tell which books will eat/incinerate/otherwise main him/her.
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Game of Thrones]]'', Syrio Forel trains Arya Stark for Braavosi-style fencing by forcing her to chase and catch the stray cats roaming the castle at King's Landing. The point, of course, is for her to get fast enough to catch them and avoid being scratched. Subverted in that she understands the purpose of it all and appreciates it.
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== Video Games ==
* Mage training with Mebbeth in ''[[Planescape Torment|Planescape: Torment]]'' comes in the form of three chores. [[Statistically Speaking|With a high enough intelligence or wisdom]], The Nameless One will even figure out the lessons all on his own. After it turns out that The Nameless One knows magic already from a previous life, Mebbeth comments wryly that he just shaved months off his training and that she'd been looking forward to having someone to foist her chores off on.
* In possibly one of the most hilariously random quests ever, ''[[Summon Night|Summon Night: Swordcraft Story]]'' has your training under a great Craftlord involve running around collecting parts {{spoiler|which are food ingredients}}, so you can make...{{spoiler|a ladle, with which to cook some curry for him.}} Of course, it turns out that this was the first training that he had under your father, so it's half-revenge, half-valuable lesson.
** [[Magikarp Power|And the elemental version of the weapon is the best weapon you can have if you need to break an opponent's weapon]], so it's still very useful.
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== Web Original ==
* Spencer's training of the gang in ''[[Lonely Girl 15Lonelygirl15]]'' includes bizarre methods like hopping like a kangaroo, wandering around blindfolded, and playing '80s video games whilst eating candy. Jonas in particular is sceptical, but the methods are surprisingly effective. Well, except for the idea of plunging knives into a wall and pulling oneself up with them; that really was just an extremely dumb idea.
* In ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]'', when Tien, Yamcha, and Piccolo arrive on King Kai's planet, he sets Tien to the same training as Goku, lets Piccolo meditate, and tells Yamcha to wax his car. Yamcha assumes this trope is the case and launches into the task with gusto. Except Kai doesn't give a damn about [[Butt Monkey|Yamcha]] and just wanted to give him some menial chore to keep him busy.
 
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== Western Animation ==
* Parodied on an episode of ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'', in which the menial tasks really are just menial tasks, but let Johnny win the match anyway. (Much to Master Hama's disappointment. He'd bet against Johnny)
* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "Sokka's Master" has Sokka seek sword training with Piandao; in addition to actual training with wooden practice swords, the training involves calligraphy, rock gardening, and landscape painting. Atypically, Piandao actually ''explains'' the purpose of these as he goes along (instead of afterwards), and Sokka performs them in very odd ways.
* Penny Proud from ''[[The Proud Family]]'' goes through a spoof of the Karate Kid. Like painting the fences.
* Grandpa does it to Jake in ''[[American Dragon Jake Long]]'' and all of the chores he forces him to do turn out to have combat applications (except for doing his laundry).
* Another [[Playing Withwith a Trope|parody]] in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'', where [[Fish Out of Water|medieval]] [[Identical Grandfather|Boss Delwapo]] has Billy do his chores for him as training for fighting a dragon. In a scene paralleling ''The Karate Kid'', Billy finds out that Boss just wanted his chores done. Turns out he's a [[Fake Ultimate Hero]], though.
** And Billy ends up [[Take a Third Option|not even fighting the dragon.]]
* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Code Monkeys]]'', "The Take Over", in which Dave trains under a Miyagi-esque sensei to prevail over Japanese competitors in a high-stakes eating competition. He [[Genre Savvy|assumes]] that he will be painting a fence, waxing a car, etc., but is instead instructed to ''eat'' such items as paint, wax, and sawdust to strengthen his stomach and make him able to eat anything.
* ''[[Earthworm Jim (Animationanimation)|Earthworm Jim]]'' played with this in its animation incarnation: Jim finds a enchanted sword in his vending machine sandwich, which vows to make a hero out of him. In the following scene Jim drags himself on camera, wearily explaining that he'd performed such tasks as regrouting the bathroom and cleaning out the stables of the seven incontinent yaks. He then asks if the tasks were meant to teach him humility. The [[Large Ham]] sword mutters, uncharacteristically quietly, "I dunno, they just... needed to be done, I wasn't going to do it..."
* An episode of ''[[Storm Hawks]]'' has the eponymous characters meeting Arygyn the Skeelur, who trains them to take on their upgraded enemies...by taking them to an amusement park.
** In another episode, where Sky-Knight Starling is confused by the team's training, which mostly consists of children's games resembling paintball and keep-away. The group assures her the games are important, and they come in handy saving a terra (even Finn's guitar playing!).
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