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

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This trope comes in 4 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]]. [[Strawman Political|Strawman Politicals]] 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 With Nuthin']] uses this a lot.
# '''Writers use [[Values Dissonance]] for [[Played for Drama|dramatic effect]].''' This is common in [[Dystopia|Dystopias]], 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]]. 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 Coms]] will do this as well. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]] or [[Selective Enforcement]] is often invoked here.
 
Since laws all over the world are rife with [[Values Dissonance]], things that are misdemeanors or not even illegal in one country but treated as serious crimes in others can seem like this.
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* [[Kick the Dog]]: An action that helps characterize a morally neutral or ambiguous character as bad.
* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: A crime committed really ''is'' horrific and unforgivable.
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Advertising ==
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* [[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.
* Oak milk. One ad has a somewhat odd fellow walking through a near-deserted fairground at night rambling about a state of "hungrythirsty" before declaring:
{{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...]]''}}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hawQ5wobi1Y "Wouldja please pass the jelleh?"]
 
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* ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of The Wind]]'' features the third kind: "Show no mercy to the insolent!"
* The Team Rocket trio of the ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|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...
** The ''Pokémon'' universe seems to [[Justified Trope|have a rule]]: Use any method but a Poké Ball to catch Pokémon, and expect [[Laser -Guided Karma]] to get you. Note that when Jessie snaked a Yanma right out from under the kid who was battling it (using a Poké Ball), not only did Jessie not get a comeuppance, the Yanma evolved into Yanmega in its first battle. Pretty much ''all'' their blastoffs involving catching Pokémon also involve them either stealing other people's Pokémon or using a machine to grab them ''en masse''. You'd think [[Team Rocket]] would have made the association by now.
*** They have (see also: the movies). [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|They just do it this way because they're the villains]], [[Card -Carrying Villain|to the point where they panic when they're nice to an old couple in a restaurant, taking it as a sign they're going soft]]. Never mind that they've done similar things in earlier seasons with no such fear.
*** The Yanma example was more of a breach in unspoken Trainer etiquette than actual stealing. It's a given that barging in and hijacking somebody's attempt at catching a Pokémon is rude, but you're not technically breaking any rules because the Pokémon is still considered wild until it's in a Poké Ball.
** Early in season 1, Ash made the mistake of voicing his opinions on thinking that perfume is stupid. He made the mistake of doing so in Erika's shop. Erika responds by not only kicking him out of her shop, but '''[[Disproportionate Retribution|banning him from stepping foot in her gym.]]'''
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* [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]: "Don't waste food... [[Serious Business|Or I'll kill you.]]"
** Wasting food is an ugly thing to do, though. The character also had a very plausible [[Freudian Excuse]] not to want to waste food.
* ''[[Ranma Half]]'': [[Embarrassing First Name|Pantyhose Taro's]] grudge with Happosai. His legitimate (potential) [[One -Winged Angel|grudge (his curse)]] is a [[Red Herring]] to this.
 
 
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== Literature ==
* Violet Beauregarde in original ''[[Charlie and The 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]].
* In ''[[Les Misérables]]'' Jean Valjean got 5 years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread (and breaking a window), and another 14 following escape attempts.
* In ''Les Malheurs de Sophie'' every story is either a type 1 or a type 3. Sophie is forced to wear a necklace of the parts of a bee she dissected until they fall off, because obviously that is one of the biggest crimes that a six year old kid can commit.
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{{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.}}
* In ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', Oliver's famous request for a second pitiful helping of porridge is treated like a high crime by the miserly workhouse staff. "He asked for ''more?''"
* For an epic example of Type Four, look no further than Alexander Pope's ''[[The Rape of the Lock]].'' The Baron sneaks up behind the beautiful Belinda and snips off a lock of hair - and this divides the entire court down the middle and results in an all-out [[Battle Royale With Cheese|war of the sexes (fought with fans and scornful glances)]]. To top it all off, it's [[Based Onon a True Story]].
* ''The Return of the Home Run Kid'' by Matt Christopher runs into this problem not on its own merits, but when considered in light of its predecessor. The focus of the story is the main character's baseball training under a fellow who was kicked out of the major leagues for betting against his own team, and said fellow teaches dishonorable tricks like pretending to have been hit by a pitch. Fairly bad, sure? But in the previous book, ''The Kid Who Only Hit Homers'', our hero used magic to ensure that he never struck out, and this was treated as entirely proper. Anyone who considered that poor sportsmanship probably wasn't still reading the books, and anyone who accepted it would have a hard time telling how physical cheating is worse than magical cheating.
* Yes, Cybomec from ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' gets a lot of [[Kick the Son of A 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.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' did the fourth kind quite a few times, satirizing the way British culture used to encourage the first kind. The page quote comes from their restaurant sketch, combining this with [[My Greatest Failure]].
* In the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode The Package, Jerry is interrogated by Newman for mail fraud... and let's just say Newman relishes in the thought of catching and fining Jerry, even if there wasn't much actual fraud going on. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|He still gets fined, though.]]
* ''[[Deep Space Nine]]''. Captain Sisko hunts down a traitor from his own chain of command. Traitor as in joining the Maquis, a group that attempts to harm only war-mongering Cardassians as policy. Said traitor believes that Sisko is blowing everything out of proportion, and references ''[[Les Misérables]]'' a lot. It's left up to the viewers to decide whether Sisko is truly upholding Federation values as he states, or is just secretly pissed that someone would dare "leave paradise" ([[The Federation]]), as the traitor claims.
** Both deploy chemical weapons against civilians, take from that what you will. (Though the chemical weapons were meant to force populations to permanently evacuate the planets they were living on; they weren't immediately fatal.)
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*** Quark was even exiled from Ferengi society for a time for the unforgivable sin of...breaking a contract to sell his remains when he thought he was dying.
* 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.
* ''[[MashM*A*S*H (TV)|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 On 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 Appendix 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]].
** The difference is that Hawkeye pulled that earlier stunt with Trapper John who tended to be very much like Hawkeye in his ethics. However, Hawkeye learns the hard way that BJ has an entirely different point of view. In fact, that the early drafts of the script was closer to recycled with BJ going along willingly, only to have the actor, Mike Farrell, objected that this was mutilation and he wanted his character to reflect that same revulsion.
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** When Barney discovered that Ted has an ex who was once a porn star.
{{quote| '''Barney:''' You broke up with a PORN STAR?! FRIENDSHIP OVER!}}
* On ''[[Thirty30 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 />
'''Kenneth:''' It's not just the coffee. I also went to a PG-13 movie. I bought a pair of sunglasses. I tried a Jewish doughnut! I'd always been told that New York was the 21st century city of Sodom, and looks what's happened... I've become one of them! [[Accidental Innuendo|I've been sodomized!]] }}
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*** Alternately, Alexis is [[Genre Savvy]] and is only ''pretending'' to play this straight in order to assure Castle that, although no one's perfect, she's not getting into any serious trouble and he can stop worrying.
** Another time Castle and Beckett find out that Ryan's fiance slept with another man while she was already dating Ryan. They fear that this information will destroy the relationship and angst over wheter to tell him. When they finally tell him, he reveals that he already knew and did not thik that it was a problem since they were only dating for a month at the time and were not yet exclusive.
* [[Saved By 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 With 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]]'', 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.
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* Crime Spree by MC Frontalot. Front acts like a criminal mastermind, even though his crimes are petty at best.
{{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 "[[AlicesAlice's Restaurant (Music)|Alices Restaurant]]" has a Type 4 example, where the singer and a friend of his get put in jail for littering.
* Trouble on my Mind by Pusha T ft. Tyler, The Creator is about wanting to cause trouble yet has lyrics such as "Let's hit a couple bars and give some bitches wet willies." The music video features the two throwing eggs at random passerby, doing wheelies in a Rascal and trashing a hotel room.
* Psychostick thrives on this, with songs like "I Hate Doing Laundry" and "Don't Eat My Food".
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== Theatre ==
* In ''[[The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny (Theatre)|The Rise and Fall of The 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 The 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 ''[[Zombie Prom]]'', Miss Strict notices that [[New Transfer Student|Jonny Warner]]'s jacket is missing an "h". Jonny explains that he's spelling his name without it now, Miss Strict tells him it's not wise to defile a good Christian name and tells him to put it back in. When he (calmly) tells her he kind of wants to keep the "h" out, she immediately decides that he is a hooligan ("''With'' an "h"!") and the other students are in awe of the "Rebel Without An "H"!", as they see it.
* In ''[[The Book of Mormon (Theatre)|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.
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"You're gonna catch holy hell!" }}
* In the Bathroom level of '[[Nightmare Ned]]' features a mirror that shows Ned going through puberty. Even Ned thinks it's lame.
* In ''[[Ultima VIII]]: Pagan'', any crime committed in the main city will cause the local law-enforcing sorcerer to be summoned, who will [[Kangaroo Court|promptly]] (and [[Ludicrous Gibs|graphically]] blow you to smithereens, [[Cutscene Incompetence|without any means for self-defense or escape]]. Crimes may range from murder, assault or theft right down to [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|being rude to said sorcerer]].
* In [[Goldeneye 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?
** [[Accidental Aesop|Unintentional]] [[Deconstruction|deconstruction?]]
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* Inverted in the fifth episode of the Irish comedy series ''I Am Fighter'':
{{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 (Film)|Batman and Robin]]'' has become his personal [[Berserk Button]].
* Jen of [[Cake Wrecks]] writes out phonetic [[Spiteful Spit|spitting sounds]] ("ptooey") at the mere mention of the dreaded cupcake cake.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!]
* 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 [[PS 3]] for Christmas, and so on.
* [http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5948675&postcount=9917 This] post<ref>note: you'll need to be signed in to view the full thing</ref> at [[Alternate History]].com applies [[HP 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 At the End]]'', [[Bomberman]] ([[NamesName's the Same|not]] [[Mega Man (Video Game)|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.
 
 
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* Type 4 is used in the ''[[Mighty B]]'' episode "Toot Toot", which is about Bessie farting during a meeting and getting kicked out of the Honeybees for it. It sends her into a [[Heroic BSOD]], and the other Honeybees are suffering without her. However, just as Bessie was about to burn her manual, she realizes that farting is a natural function, and that there is a badge called the "Toot-Toot" Badge, which is rewarded for those who go through farting in public with dignity.
* The ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Christian Rock Hard" where they get caught downloading music, and are shown how the artists they stole from are "suffering", such as how they can't buy a private island or get new features for their private jets. Another notable example occurs in "Butt Out," when their parents act as if smoking is "the worst thing" Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman have ever done, never bothering to comment upon the fact that they've just burned their school to the ground!
** ''[[South Park]]'' uses Type 4 a lot, like when Stan was exiled from the town for refusing to vote on the school mascot election between [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Political?|Turd Sandwich and Giant Douche]].
** Eric Cartman repeatedly insulted his friends, abused them (often brutally) and betrayed them just for the sheer joy of it. He also made at least two attempts to genocide a large group of the population, convinced women to have abortions for his own profit and, having arranged a couple murdered {{spoiler|(one of which was his father)}}, made them into a chili and fed it to their son. But ''eating the skin of all the fried chicken'' was the last drop that finally prompted his friends to ignore him. Kyle even calls out that Cartman did a lot worse before.
* 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.
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** The world "whomp" is treated a ''so bad'' a swear that ''SWAT teams'' are brought in and the kids are out in ''court''.
** In the episode where the kids protest the tearing down of an old jungle gym by staying on it endlessly, Prickly decides to initiate "Plan P", which Ms. Grotke calls "extreme". The plan: {{spoiler|calling the kids' parents.}}
* Coop from ''[[Megas XLR]]'' typically does the fourth version in his [[Once an Episode]] speeches to the [[Monster of the Week]]. Ironically, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|HE normally did that along with at least one of the others he accused them of]] himself.
* In the infamous ''[[Arthur (Animation)|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.
** This also initially happens in a later episode, "Arthur's Family Feud", in which Arthur and D.W. get into a minor tussle which accidentally ends up causing a souffle that their dad just baked to get ruined. Dad gets so pissed off that he ends up initially throwing the book at them until Mom calms him down.
** It's actually a fairly common theme through the series: DW is a consummate [[Karma Houdini]], and Arthur's inability to get away with anything approaches [[Butt Monkey]] levels.
*** 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!!!'''''"}}
** Rarity simply cannot abide crimes against fashion and/or fabulosity.
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* In ''[[Tripping the Rift]]'', Chode was sentenced to death for littering on a [[Neat Freak]] planet. Also as he was being arrested, a person who accidentally missed hitting the trash can with his trash was instantly vaporized.
* Used in [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]].
{{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 With His Head|Off with their heads!]] One for each head of cabbage!" }}
** Somewhat justified, since this is this poor guy's business. But he seems to be able to replenish his supply for the next time his cabbage stand gets destroyed.
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* In MK Gandhi's memoirs ''The Story of my Experiments With Truth'', he feels wretched with guilt over simply ''tasting'' meat when he was young.
* There are many people who consider it some kind of crime against nature to use the [[Useful Notes/Fonts|Comic Sans or Papyrus fonts]].
* Coding "grammar" is a hot topic of debate amongst even professional programmers. A group of people will lynch you if you fail to put the curly brace on the same line as the start of a new scope. Or if you CamelCase. Or you use Hungarian Notation. Or, if you do none of those things, [[MortonsMorton's Fork|a different group of people will lynch you]].
* Using incorrect grammar for non-computer languages gets to some people as well.
* Apparently cupcakes are a clear and present danger to airplanes and must be confiscated.
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