What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Difference between revisions

This trope comes in 4four varieties:

# '''Writers believe this is as wrong as they are showing it.''' In this case, the "What do you mean," part is from the writer, so this overlaps with [[Values Dissonance]]. [[StrawmanStraw Political|Strawman PoliticalsCharacter]]s and [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]] are the most common forms of this. A prime source of [[Narm]].

# '''Writers think this isn't that bad, but exaggerate for effect.''' So this isn't moral dissonance, it's just [[Anvilicious]]. Even if the thing is wrong, presenting it as something magnitudes worse usually makes it a [[Clueless Aesop]]. [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin']] uses this a lot.

# '''Writers use [[Values Dissonance]] for [[Played for Drama|dramatic effect]].''' This is common in [[Dystopia|Dystopias]]s, police states, histories, and cults. But it can also be used to make organizations look like this when they aren't, like with [[Straw Dystopia|Straw Dystopias]]s. But thanks to [[Values Dissonance]], this is often about [[Truth in Television|real cultures]] from the past or present.

# '''Writers invoke [[Values Dissonance]] for [[Rule of Funny|Comedic]] [[Played for Laughs|Effect]].''' A lot of the well-written animated shows, even dating back decades, would do this. And [[Sit Com|Sit ComsSitcom]]s will do this as well. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]] or [[Selective Enforcement]] is often invoked here.

== '''Compare with: =='''

* [[All Crimes Are Equal]]

== '''Contrast with: =='''

== Advertising ==

* Gamefly commercials. Various gamers having [[Freak-Out|epic-level temper tantrums]] over a bad game they purchased, complete with screaming, destruction of personal property, and even chucking televisions off their roofs.

* A carpet cleaning service, Stanley Steemer, has a commercial where two of their employees see a rolled-up carpet set up for trash collection. Both react as if it were a corpse, complete with one racing out to its side, cradling it tenderly, [[Schindlerssobbing Listsobbing|"I could have saved this one!",]] and ending with a [[Skyward Scream|Skyward Screamed]]ed [[Big No]].

* A commercial for the sweetener Truvia shows a woman committing a particular act. After she completes this act, the shame and self-loathing on her face is glaring. Her SO walks up and looks down at her with a look of absolute disgust. The heinous act this woman committed? Eating a tiny piece of cheesecake, which could have led to her getting fat.

* We have HARD WATER!!!{{context}}

* [[Johnny Turbo (Comic Book)|Johnny Turbo]] fights tooth and nail against the evil Feka corporation for trying to make a profit with a competing product.

{{quote| ''I wish I'd given Oak to my son when he was a child, haha, just kidding, [[I Have No Son|I don't have a son]], well technically I do, but [[This Is Unforgivable!|he's in real estate...]]''}}

* Polaner All-Fruit: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hawQ5wobi1Y "Wouldja please pass the jelleh?"]

* ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of Thethe Wind]]'' features the third kind: "Show no mercy to the insolent!"

* The Team Rocket trio of the ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' anime, in certain situations. Go after a group of WILD Remoraid to send to HQ? Ten thousand volts and a one way ticket to the stratosphere...

* Howard X. Miller in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''... crushed a poor, innocent flower! [[And That's Terrible|How could you]]!

* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]] Fumoffu'': There's a Horse headed pervert walking the streets. Does he flash his victims, grope them, molest them? No, he gives them ponytails. [[Raised Byby Wolves|Sousuke]] suggests that they torture him. And then he actually gets arrested and is told that he'll be doing a long time in jail.

* ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'', Misaka 10032's reaction to Last Order taking her visor is to chase after her with an assault rifle.

* ''[[Ranma Half½]]'': [[Embarrassing First Name|Pantyhose Taro's]] grudge with Happosai. His legitimate (potential) [[One-Winged Angel|grudge (his curse)]] is a [[Red Herring]] to this.

* Guess what hyper-fundamentalist comic company fits the first kind. If you said [[Chick Tract|Chick Tracts]]s, then you get a gold star.

* An infamously [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] panel from [[Super Dickery]] illustrates the word "forty" by showing [[Lex Luthor]] stealing forty <s> pies</s> cakes. That's as many as four tens. [[And That's Terrible|And that's terrible]].

* The ''[[Batman|Scarecrow Year One]]'' comic features a supposedly "horrific" crime spree by Scarecrow which includes killing one innocent person who had double-crossed him (his erstwhile mentor and fellow professor who refused to speak up for him when it would have saved his job because he didn't want to jeopardize his tenure), [[Abusive Parents|killing the grandmother who had wanted to murder him when he was born]], and [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch|attempting to kill the father who abandoned him and his mother]]. On the side, he also kills his mother's abusive husband. When Scarecrow finally crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] for real by subsequently {{spoiler|holding a gun on his own infant half-sister}} it comes across as more than a little abrupt, considering that up until that point he came off more as a a very angry nerd on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] than an ice cold killer. There's a few brief mentions of his murders-for-hire (a callback to his original origin story), which are the reason Batman and Robin are after him in the beginning, but these are pretty much sidelined in favor of the aforementioned rampage.

* A type 4 example appears in ''[[The Flash]]'', in a flashback to the exploits of 1930s [[Knight Templar]] the Clipper. At one point he rescues a family from a burglar and then starts handing out punishments for their "crimes"--right—right on down to the boy who accidentally broke another child's toy. The punishment is to have all of ''his'' toys set on fire.

{{quote| '''Boy''': Even Pooky?<br />

* ''[[Airplane! (Film)|Airplane 2: The Sequel]]'' plays this for laughs by having various characters on the lunar shuttle react deadpan to being told they're off course with a malfunctioning computer, but they go berserk when told they are [[Must Have Caffeine|out of coffee]].

* In ''[[Canadian Bacon]]'', a group of American Sheriff's Deputies gripe about things they don't like about Canada while watching a Canadian hockey game. When one of them says Canadian beer sucks, the entire stadium goes quiet, then erupts into a gigantic melee. The cops even start beating on him when they find out what he said.

* ''[[Follow That Bird]]'': Despite The Sleaze Brothers' real crime through the film was attempting to kidnap Big Bird to put into their circus, they ultimately get punished by officer John Candy for [[Brick Joke|"Stealing an apple from a kid's lunch box."]]

* Violet Beauregarde in original ''[[Charlie and Thethe Chocolate Factory]]'' novel. The other "bad" kids were spoiled brat Veruca Salt, gluttonous Augustus Gloop, and Mike Teavee who has become violent from watching too much television. Violet's flaw was [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|chewing gum too much]].

* ''[[The Book of Lord Shang (Literature)|The Book of Lord Shang]]'' advocates punishing minor offences severely, the idea being that the punishments will deter people from committing small crimes and thus keep them off the slippery slope towards major offences.

{{quote| [June] 8--In the most dramatic Iran-contra testimony to date, Fawn Hall, played by Farrah Fawcett, testifies that, as Justice Department investigators closed in, she and Oliver North stayed late in their White House basement office and "colorized" a number of classic black-and-white films.}}

* Yes, Cybomec from ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' gets a lot of [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch]] points for killing Pentacko. But his other victims committed such offenses as 1) [[Sadist Teacher|having been cruel to him back in elementary school]], 2) [[One Steve Limit|having the same first name as another target]], 3) [[A God Am I|being annoying when reminding him that he can't defeat the Definition Essentials]], 4) [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|denying him the chance to take out someone he'd sell his soul for the chance to kill]], or 5) simply being in his way.

** President [[Gerald Ford|Jerry Frond]] exiles the Voyagers to Bulgadia, in spite having a [[Mission Fromfrom God|sacred calling]] to keep them in Antia until after the war. Why? [[Sleazy Politician|So he wouldn't lose votes in the election from the Left]]. He is visited by angels, who punch him in the face. [[Selective Enforcement|Angels that could be spending their time incinerating the mass-murdering dictators elsewhere]].

* If you're reading a novel, short story, fluff piece or fanfic set in the [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] universe, you've got about a 2-in-3 chance of this happening, normally type 4 but sometimes type 3. Crowning highlights: a Guardsman is ordered to defend an outpost, but facing an overwhelming attack he pulls back and cleverly defeats them, only to be executed for not staying put and allowing the base to be overrun because ''those were his orders''; a Space Marine stranded on a Death World is severely chastised for picking up an alien weapon and using it after his own weapons are out of ammo; any time the Eldar get pissy over the Imperium "selfishly" wanting to save a world housing tens of billions of humans they were willing to sacrifice to save a couple thousand (or less) Eldar.

* Subverted in ''[[Starship Troopers (Literaturenovel)|Starship Troopers]]''. An officer tells some officer candidates a story from the Napoleonic era: a junior navy officer during ship battle picks up his heavily wounded commander and carries him to a safe place. During that time all other officers on the ship are killed, so the young guy winds up a commanding officer on the ship - and, because he left his post, he stands trial and is cashiered (and is lucky not to be hanged). It seems a gross injustice for the candidates - but the officer explains that the punishment was completely justified: for an officer to have left his post without an order is really a very [[Serious Business]], because if a sudden catastrophe happens, it is much more likely to disrupt a unit without a commanding officer.

* Marietta Edgcombe in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series is a Type One example. She once tried to tell on the DA to Umbridge, got a jinx from Hermione that labeled her a "SNEAK" all across her face for it, and will apparently have acne scars on her face for the rest of her life. An interview with [[JKJ. K. Rowling]] confirms this is a Type One example where she said of Marietta, "[[Word of God|I do so loathe a traitor]]".

* ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'': Tuppy Glossop once tricked Bertie into falling into a pool, and Bertie's been nursing the desire for vengeance ever since. (A bit of [[Hypocritical Humor]] when you recall that this is the guy who pushed Tuppy's cousin Oswald into a lake.)

{{quote| ''I am not a vindictive man, but I felt, as anybody would have felt in my place, that if fellows like young Tuppy are allowed to get away with it the whole fabric of Society and Civilization must inevitably crumble.''}}

** Important to note is that Sisko isn't pissed that the traitor left the federation for joining the Maquis (he himself has said that it is easy to be a saint in paradise (the federation) showing that he understand what they are going through) but instead it is that the traitor left Star Fleet that pisses him of. One of the unanswered questions is stated in the names of some of the episodes surrounding this: namely For the Cause which symbolise the question why the terrorist left Star Fleet, is it for the cause or is it for his own agenda (to finaly become a leader) and For the Uniform which symbolise Sisko's acts in this arc, was it for the Uniform or was it for revenge due to the negative mark on his record for failing to catch the terrorist.

* An interesting subversion in an episode of ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'': The victim was in prison for seven years for stealing a pair of shoes. He only got six months for the actual theft. The rest were added on from his repeated escape attempts.

* ''[[M*A*S*H (TVtelevision)|M* A* S* H]]'' ended up like this. The protagonists in the book and movie weren't really moral, and the show never quite dropped those aspects, which clashed with the increasing [[Writer Onon Board]].

** The perfect example of this is in "Preventative Medicine" when Hawkeye tried to trick an incompetent Colonel into thinking he needed to have his Appendixappendix removed. (thus preventing him from getting his soldiers killed). This led to a scene with BJ berating Hawkeye about betraying his Hippocratic Oath by performing unnecessary surgery and a lot of guilt and angst from Hawkeye afterwards. Never mind that [[Recycled Script|Hawkeye pulled the exact same stunt in an earlier season without any kind moralizing or guilt whatsoever]].

** In one of the dvdDVD commentaries it is explicitly stated that the title sequence is set up to show the violence in everyday life.

{{quote| '''Barney:''' You broke up with a PORN STAR?! FRIENDSHIP OVER!}}

* On ''[[30 Rock (TV)|30 Rock]]'', Kenneth becomes addicted to caffeine and starts acting... out of the ordinary.

{{quote| '''Tracy:''' So you had a little bender!<br />

* ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'' once featured a girl whose angelic voice moved God Himself... but her life was marred by a tragic addiction to ''chewing gum.'' Even earthly human society seemed to consider this a terrible moral failing. Perhaps [[Charlie and Thethe Chocolate Factory|Roald Dahl]] wrote for that show!

*** it falls even flatter once you consider that Monica has a caffeine addiction.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Castle]]'': when Demming, Beckett's new love interest, is suspected by the others of being a dirty cop planted into their recent investigation to sabotage it from within, they voice their suspicions of him from a distance. However, whereas the cops comment on things such as his suspicious reasons for requesting to be part of the case and his too-good-to-be-true dedication to the case, Castle's reasons for suspecting him -- basedhim—based largely on his insecurity over suddenly having a competitor for Beckett's attention -- stemattention—stem from his suspicion that "he probably goes to yoga classes just to pick up women" and "he probably subscribes to ''The New Yorker'' without even reading it".

* [[Saved Byby the Bell|Jessie's]] (in)famous addiction to caffeine pills. This was the extremely common [[The Nineties|1990's]] [[Very Special Episode]] about otherwise [[Lawful Stupid]] overachievers using stimulants to get better grades. [[Family Ties|Alex P. Keaton]] and [[The Fresh Prince of Bel -Air|Carlton Banks]] played this straight by actually getting addicted to prescription drugs, with [[Anvilicious]] results, but, because [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin'|the show was expressly aimed at kids,]] the producers refused to reference or even imply illegal drug use in a [[Drugs Are Bad]] episode. The result is poor Elizabeth Berkley [[Chewing the Scenery]] over a bottle of no-doze as if it were Oxycontin.

** Played for laughs in ''[[Buffy]]'',an episode when [[Affably Evil|Mayor Wilkins]] is making a speech right before Ascending.

{{quote| '''Buffy''': Oh. God. ([[Beat]]) He's ''really'' going to go through the whole speech, isn't he?}}

:*** More straightfowardly, the characters in Buffy had a tendency to get incredibly [[Buffy-Speak|lecture-y]] whenever one of them had a little too much to drink. Even then the lectures were always a joke, except for the one time where Xander was binge drinking {{spoiler|to try and forget about Anya.}}

* ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' reconstructed this in the episode "Morality Bites". The sisters use their powers to punish a man who lets his dog pee in their garden and Phoebe then sees a premonition of her own death in the future and the sisters travel there to find out that Phoebe used her powers to kill a man, got caught and was being burned at the stake while modern day witch trials were going on. When the sisters come back to their time, they discover that the man they punished at the start of the episode is the same man who was leading the witch trials in the future. Phoebe then suggests that them using their powers to punish the man starts them off using them for personal gain.

{{quote| '''Piper:''' But this is just a little thing.<br />

* In ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s parody of ''[[Countdown Withwith Keith Olbermann]]'', Olbermann's "special comment" was on a co-op board refusing to make an exception to its "no pets" policy for his cat, Miss Precious Perfect:

{{quote| '''Olbermann''': And there it was. All perfectly legal. Like the 1942 internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens or the forced relocation of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears or the monstrous injustice of our nation's Jim Crow laws. It was all perfectly legal and EVERY BIT AS WRONG if not, indeed, MORE SO!! Mr. Lieberstein, you speak of considerations of the rights of others! How DARE you, sir?! How DARE you?! Where, sir, in any of this, were the rights of Miss Precious Perfect considered? DAMN YOU, Mr. Lieberstein!! DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!}}

* [[I CarlyiCarly]] has done this a few times, Freddie being the victim most often. The most notable example is the ''iMeet [[Fred]]'' episode, where Freddie says that he doesn't think Fred's videos are all that funny, and Fred announces he's not going to make videos anymore. Freddie then suffers a [[Humiliation Conga]] courtesy of everyone at school, and his aunt. And later, Sam beats him with a tennis racket. And then throws him out of a treehouse and jumps on him.

{{quote| '''Sue''': [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Lady Justice wept today.]]}}

*** "Bad Reputation" also brings us Kurt's master plan to become [[Badass]]-- have—have the Glee Club perform [[MC Hammer|Can't Touch This]]. In the library. Needless to say,it backfired when the elderly librarian told them it was [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"cute" and asking them to perform it at her church.]]

* Abed's methods of teaching the study group to respect and fear him in ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' episode [[Community (TV)/Recap/S1 /E21 Contemporary American Poultry|Contemporary American Poultry]]. This involves cutting up a backpack, releasing a monkey from a cage, putting gum in hair, unplugging a TV, and feeding chicken fingers to a guy.

** In "[[Community (TV)/Recap/S3 /E17 Basic Lupine Urology|Basic Lupine Urology]]", a spoof of ''[[Law and Order]]'', a ruined science experiment is treated with all the seriousness of a homicide. By contrast, Star-Burns is revealed to be stealing, selling drugs and running a meth lab from the trunk of his car, all of which are dismissed as irrelevant to the investigation.

* In one ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' episode, Lister confesses his darkest secret to Kryten: once, many years ago, ''he went into a wine bar''.

* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s "Don't Download This Song" mocks type 1 of the [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]] message (making it a type 4).

{{quote| ''Cuz you start out stealing songs,<br />''

''Then you're robbing liquor stores,<br />''

''And selling crack, and running over schoolkids with your car!'' }}

** Also by "Weird Al", the narrators of "Young, Dumb and Ugly" [[Poke the Poodle|treat their ''own'' actions like this]].

{{quote| ''We got a reputation round these parts,<br />''

''We only leave a ten per cent tip -<br />''

''Sometimes we don't return our shopping carts,<br />''

''Stay out of our way and don't you give us no lip<br />''

'''Cos we're young - dumb and ug-ly ...'' }}

{{quote| ''I'm the number one menace for miles around/With the littering, the loitering, [[Mattress Tag Gag|the mattress tags]]/all the [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|piratated]] [[Digital Piracy Is Evil|MP3s I grabbed]]/ All the cable I stole/[[Bathroom Stall Graffiti|certain bathroom stalls I wrote on]]/I'm so cruel and cold you'll put a coat on!''}}

* [[Arlo Guthrie]]'s song "[[Alice's Restaurant (Musicmusic)||Alices Restaurant]]" has a Type 4 example, where the singer and a friend of his get put in jail for littering.

* In ''[[The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny (Theatre)|The Rise and Fall of Thethe City of Mahagonny]]'', Jimmy's crimes, by increasing severity of the sentences he is handed by the [[Kangaroo Court]], are: indirect murder of a friend (the man who [[Casualty in Thethe Ring|killed him in the ring]] is unknown to the court because he's the prosecutor); breach of the peace; seducing a girl (i.e. a prostitute); singing a subversive song; and not paying for two rounds of whiskey and a broken bar-rail. For this last offense, which the court declares to be the most heinous crime in the world, Jimmy is sentenced to die in the electric chair. It may even be worse than premeditated murder (a crime which the prosecutor bewails using ''exactly the same words''), because one accused of that might have money to [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|bribe the judge]].

* In ''[[The Book of Mormon (Theatretheatre)|The Book of Mormon]]'', Elder Price sings about the worst sin he's ever committed, one that's left him haunted by guilt for his entire life: when he was five, he blamed his brother for taking a donut that he actually ate himself. He also thinks that deciding to walk out on his mission in Uganda makes him literally worse than Hitler.

{{quote| "But you just stepped in them yourself!"<br />

"They're ruined!"<br />

* In [[GoldeneyeGoldenEye: Rogue Agent]] you can get unlocks by earning "rogue bonuses" which are awarded for particularly "evil" actions. Said actions are things like headshots, taking human shields, shooting [[Exploding Barrels]], hacking enemy turrets, etc... all things that are present in many other FPS and which an experienced player will already be doing by this point. Apparently we were evil all this time, who knew?

* The dwarven justice system in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has values skewed along this trope's lines. Heinous crimes such as smashing nearly-valueless furniture or failing to manufacture the specific pointless trinket demanded by one of the fort's nobles can net a dwarf a month in prison (which is often a death sentence due to the fact that feeding prisoners is a low-priority task<ref> Though a well-designed prison can bypass those issues and make jail time a passing inconvenience rather than something more severe</ref>) or a "beating" by an officer of the fortress guard. Note that the fortress guard assigned to deliver the beating will use whatever weapon he's carrying to full effect in the course of the beating, so if you've given your fortress guard battleaxes expect a fountain of blood and severed limbs to ensue. Conversely, outright murder is usually punished by a sentence of around 200 days in prison.

* A lot of the "incidents" behind the [[Excuse Plot|Excuse Plots]]s of ''[[Touhou]]'' fall into this trope, as apparently things like an unusual number of ghosts appearing, people having lots of parties, and lots of flowers blooming warrant going out and beating the crap out of whomever is responsible. This is mostly justified though, as the denizens of Gensoukyou are varying degrees of [[Chaotic Neutral|batshit insane]] and will use any excuse for a fight.

{{quote| Reimu: A ''youkai'' was just sitting there minding its own business. And it was enjoying a book, too! I tried to exterminate it with a surprise attack ...}}

* Some time before the start of ''[[Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories (Video Game)|Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'', Etna abandoned Larharl and set out to become an Overlord stronger than him, because he committed the heinous crime of... eating her favorite pudding.

* In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', Almaz will have you know that he would ''never'' indulge in such perverse, vile temptations as... wearing matching outfits on dates with his crush, or getting her to make him a sandwich.

* Some of the [[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]] games for [[Game Boy]] included Professor Oak's voice appearing out of nowhere to admonish the main character before he or she did something stupid and dangerous such as riding a bike indoors or trying to use a fishing rod on land.

{{quote| Juniper's words echoed... [Player]! There's a time and place for everything! But not now.}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'', {{spoiler|the Illusive Man}}'s reaction to seeing Shepard after (s)he storms {{spoiler|the Cerberus base}}.

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''The Illusive Man'''}}: Shepard. ''You're in my chair.''}}

* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'': ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20090830033951/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=7&issue=15 King Radical is subverting our country's rich history for his own devious purposes!]''

* Type 4 from ''[[Skin Horse]]'': Sweetheart's idea of a "rampage" is [[Poke the Poodle|spilling coffee next to a "no littering" sign]]. The Chimeric Anti-Defamation League hears about it and tries to revoke her membership. You know things are bad when ''Unity'' is the voice of sanity -- her reaction is, "Who called you, and how could they tell it was a rampage?"

* In a ''[[User Friendly]]'' arc, Erwin the computer dreams of being [[Mercy Kill|Mercy Killed]]ed for having an incurable case of Windows NT, and going to Purgatory. When his [[List of Transgressions]] is recited, installing NT turns out to have been a greater sin than nearly starting a border war in Africa.

{{quote| '''Barry 'The Blender' Henderson:''' This here's a picture of Thomas 'The Tanker' Smythe driving a tractor at the age of three, which you might think is completely illegal. But when you're on the fucking outskirts of Limavady, anything goes. Know what I'm saying? Keep it on the DL.}}

* In ''[[A Game of Gods]]'', when the group is in [[Nightmare Before Christmas|Halloweentown]], listening to Jack's speech on Christmas getting bombarded by the questioning mob, [[Kamen Rider Double|Narumi]] fires a gun at nothing just to get their attention. Needless to say, [[Halo: Reach|Jorge]] is displeased with this as to give him a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] line.

* To [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]], the "Bat Credit Card" gag of ''[[Batman and Robin (Filmfilm)|Batman and Robin]]'' has become his personal [[Berserk Button]].

* The premise behind many ''[[Hitler Rants (Web Video)|Hitler Rants]]'' parodies, where Hitler melts down over anything from getting his [[X Box Live]] account banned, getting a Wii instead of a [[PSPlay Station 3]] for Christmas, and so on.

* [http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5948675&postcount=9917 This]{{Dead link}} post<ref>note: you'll need to be signed in to view the full thing</ref> at [[Alternate History]].com applies [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]]'s [[Cosmic Horror]] [[Purple Prose]] to ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''.

{{quote| Some people considered them “cute”, he understood. There were even dolls and some dreadful Disney cartoon. He gazed at an animal face with outsized human eyes, a skull bloated to hold a man-sized brain, a foreshortened muzzle which somehow twisted itself to mimic human speech (he had been told that he would find Equestria full of English-speakers: very few humans could duplicate the whinnying local speech), and forelimbs that looked like tapering cones of hairy flesh until they bent with, again, that blasphemous plasticity…and he was to entrust his life to things like this one?}}

* In ''[[Mega Man Dies Atat the End]]'', [[Bomberman]] ([[Name's the Same|not]] [[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bomb Man]]) is a psychopath with a fondness for [[Stuff Blowing Up]], yet people seem most upset at the fact that he uses the metric system.

* Fish slapping, from the ''[[Veggie Tales (Animation)|Veggie Tales]]'' film Jonah. Justified in that it's all a story being told by the modern day Pirates, and saying what the ''real'' Assyrians did would be inappropriate for their young audience.

* ''[[Fillmore!]]'', a police-procedural-type show set in a school, is the undisputed master of this, both for the title character and the show in general. Fillmore himself is treated, by many people in the show, like an unstable/possibly violent ex-convict for his past crimes. What are those crimes, you ask? Directly ripped from the opening sequence: Chalk boosting, locker rigging, a comic book poker ring, cutting class, milk counterfeiting (non dairy creamer), and backtalkery. For this sordid past he has many [[The Atoner]] moments. This is before, of course, we even get into the scooter jacking ring, tartar sauce smuggling, and the time Fillmore's pet was almost killed by a boy in return for the answer sheet to a particularly hard test. Another episode features a psychotic, monotone, genius IQ boy who had to locked up in total isolation because the spray paint tagging he was doing all over the school were so traumatizing they could make people physically ill.

* In ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'', the earl of Lemongrab has some... er, interesting concepts when it comes to punishing those who do wrong. Making a mess? Thirty days in the dungeon. Asking questions? Thirty-TWO days in the dungeon. Refusing to clean up mess, or asking who exactly Lemongrab is talking to? Three hours dungeon. Harmless prank? Seven years dungeon, no trials. Assuring Lemongrab that the prank was harmless? Twelve years dungeon. Elaborate, painful prank involving spicy food? ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!!! (Of course, Lemongrab isn't evil--heevil—he's just young, angry, and a bit of an idiot.)

** Princess Bubblegum and Finn decide to play a harmless prank on the earl of Lemongrab--basicallyLemongrab—basically, they leave a sign beside his bed that says "YOU REALLY SMELL LIKE DOG BUNS." How does the earl react? He clenches his fists, starts shaking, and opens up his mouth wide to scream loudly in sheer outrage for several seconds. And how does he attempt to punish those responsible? Round up EVERYONE in the castle, to sentence them to seven years in the dungeon, no trials!

* ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'' does the fourth kind quite a lot. In one example they steal a balloon and fully intended to give it back. It pops. Torment ensues. Eventually, they give in and turn themselves in to the police, and get thrown in prison. Then they learn it is Free Balloon Day, and stay in prison for all of three seconds before being let free.

* Almost all the villains in ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' are built on this. Simple things most kids don't like doing such as homework, washing dishes, and eating vegetables are blown to world-destroying proportions.

*** It was an endangered species. But still. Made especially ridiculous because, as Homer put it, God clearly ''wanted'' it to die. (The species is [[Too Dumb to Live|sexually attracted to]] ''[[Kill It Withwith Fire|fire]],'' for example.)

** Principal Skinner talks about the horrible thing he did in the Vietnam War. He stole cupcakes.

{{quote| In a large eastern city, a demon is on the loose. The people are terrified. The police baffled. With diabolical cleverness, the monster strikes without warning... and draws moustaches on all the ads.}}

* One episode of ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' features Black Lightning acting like this in a dream sequence, during which he shoots lightning at people for the heinous acts of... putting sprinkles in coffee, not cleaning up after their dogs, driving an SUV, wearing white after Labor Day, and making "Smell That Pig IV". At one point he attacks Batman because he doesn't like his costume.

* In the infamous ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]'' episode "Arthur's Big Hit" Arthur hits D.W. in the arm after she destroys his model airplane. The punch is considered an abominable offense, while D.W. gets off scot-free for her thoughtless destruction of his treasured possession.

*** Justified, in a way - older kids are often punished more harshly than younger ones because they're supposed to know the rules by their age. DW is only four, and thus makes mistakes and has a lot of learning to do. Arthur, on the other hand, is eight, and should really know better most of the time. Not to mention that Arthur is an [[Unreliable Narrator]], being eight, and might not cover whatever punishments DW suffers for her own actions.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': Pinkie Pie invokes this with her deadly-serious attitude towards keeping secrets in "Green Isn't Your Color".

{{quote| "Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever! '''''FOR-EV-ER!!!'''''"}}

** [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 /E14 The Last Roundup|"NOPONY breaks a Pinkie Promise!"]]

* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'' plays this for comedic effect in a few episodes, but one incident with normally [[The Quiet One|calm, soft-spoken, steady]] Clay stands out:

{{quote| '''Kimiko:''' It's Spicer! He took [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|the seed]]!<br />

* One ''[[Dudley Do -Right]]'' episode involves having the titular character be discharged from the Mounted Police for doing the unthinkable...{{spoiler|eating his peas...with a ''KNIFE''!}}

{{quote| Stupid celebrity! Armed robbery AND murder? You'll be locked up for forty-five ''days.''}}

* Pepper in ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures]]'' believes removing a friend from her My Face account is more heinous than ripping their spleen out of them.

{{quote| Guard: "Your Majesty, these juveniles were arrested for [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|vandalism, traveling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages]]."<br />

Cabbage Merchant: "[[Off Withwith His Head|Off with their heads!]] One for each head of cabbage!" }}

* Kids have gotten in trouble for having plastic silverware in their lunchbox. Note that most school cafeterias actually provide silverware for students and that a person would have to work very hard or get very lucky to actually hurt someone with plastic silverware. Also, students have gotten in trouble for having over-the-counter medication in their possession at school, which is a bit more justifiable since they could use it to poison someone, overdose at school, or sell the pills, but really, most students simply carry a small bottle so that they'll have it should they get a bad headache or, in the case of girls, menstrual cramps.

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