Clueless Aesop: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Now, we're not trying to indoctrinate you. Well, we are, but we're not succeeding."''|'''Peter Sagal''', ''[[Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!|Wait Wait Don't Tell Me]]''}}
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Not that this is always the fault of the writers. Any attempt to tackle serious subject matter honestly is problematic when the [[Moral Guardians]] are watching. This is often due to the fact that many attempts to deal with such serious subject matter will usually have said Guardians responding with outrage ''at its mere inclusion''! Yes, even if you are explicitly attempting to discourage it.
And so you often end up with children being warned about something
Not to be confused with a [[Broken Aesop]]. While there can be some crossover, ''Broken'' Aesops are lessons undermined by the action within the show (e.g., "Be nice to people who are different from you. Now, let's go back to [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|fighting monsters]]!")
Don't confuse this with a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] either, because while again there can be some crossover, Clueless Aesops ''are'' acceptable
Also do not confuse with any Aesop delivered by [[Clueless|Cher Horowitz]].
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== Advertising ==
* In the early 1990s, many [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]] would send, ostensibly out of the goodness of their hearts, free "educational kits' including lesson plans, worksheets, and other materials to elementary school teachers. In truth, they were really [[Product Placement|unsubtle advertisements for the company's products]]. These were often heartwarmingly/hilariously/heartbreakingly misguided. One of the most infamous such lesson plans doubles as a [[Broken Aesop]]: "Let's learn good nutrition with [[McDonald's|Ronald McDonald]] and friends!" Um...
** [[Homestar Runner]] satirized this with typical aplomb in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131112215917/http://www.homestarrunner.com/cheatcommandos4.html Commandos In the Classroom]''.
** Also parodied in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' ("Lisa's Wedding") set in the distant future of... [[Zeerust|2010]]. By this point the students are stacked three high and are taught by Troy McClure via TV screen:
{{quote|'''Troy:''' Now turn to the next problem. If you have three Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you? You, the redhead in the Chicago school system?
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'''Troy:''' Partial credit! }}
* Another example was the D.A.R.E. group in the late 1980s that tried to encourage kids to not do drugs and in their educational kits they included a pencil with the slogan "Too Cool To Do Drugs". Unfortunately, because they set their slogan not to start at the eraser end but at the lead end of the pencil, as it was sharpened the slogan devolved on the pencil from the original message, down to [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing|"Cool To Do Drugs"]], to simply "Do Drugs".
** A similar incident happened on a smaller scale for some rubber wristbands for red ribbon week. The slogan on the wristbands: I've got BETTER things to DO than DRUGS. Observant students quickly noticed the message in all caps. Despite the mistakes ([https://web.archive.org/web/20080625095600/http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/Drug_Slogan_102507 and news coverage]) the exact same design is still in production.
* Then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvjFsZJqAPs this] [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]] ad from Warner Bros. using a scene from ''[[Casablanca]]''. Only trouble is anyone who has seen the movie knows Rick is actually angry at Ilsa for ''resisting the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]]!'' So WB is comparing themselves to... [[Godwin's Law|what]]?
** While not as uncomfortable in terms of subtext, the one where the [[Wizard of Oz]] yells at Dorothy and company for, er, pirating media is pretty terrible too.
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* In the 80s there was an [[X-Men]] one-shot called ''Heroes for Hope'' in which the X-Men take on famine in Africa ... which, as everyone knows, is caused by an ancient demon that feeds on human misery. Oh well, at least Marvel gave the proceeds of the comic to charity.
** The demon in question was established to be merely a consequence of the misery in the area, which was caused by far more complex causes... but it was very, very easy for the casual reader to get the above impression.
** In retrospect, Mikhail Rasputin's quasi-introduction falls into this category by [[Fridge Logic]]
* ''Serenity'' ([[Name's the Same|not]] [[Serenity|that one]]) - it was supposed to be a story of bad girl finding about the wonders of God's love and becoming better person in the process. The way it was handled makes most people see it as depressing story about lonely girl getting subjected to emotional harassment and manipulation by bunch of Christian zealots, until she turns into brainwashed drone, [[The Woobie|while all she wanted was to have friends]].
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[The Garbage Pail Kids Movie]]'' was an attempt to turn a line of trading
** While robbing a shop!
* ''[[Reefer Madness]]'': The moral was (at one point) ''meant'' to be "marijuana is evil", but...
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** Papa Bear is ''racist''?! Argh!
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s list of '[http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-great-childrens-books-for-people-who-hate-their-children/ Great Books for Traumatizing Children]' appears to be mostly made up of Clueless Aesops. They range from [[Anvilicious]] (''[[Latawnya the Naughty Horse Learns to Say No to Drugs]]'') to [[Unfortunate Implications|outright fucked up]] (''[[Alfie's Home]]'') to Nazi propaganda (''The Poodle-Pug-Dachshund-Pinscher'').
* The [[Horatio Hornblower]] story "Hornblower and [[Have a Gay Old Time|the Man Who Felt Queer]]". The story features Horatio taking part in a sneak attack on a French ship. One of his crew, who earlier complained of feeling ill, has an epileptic fit. As the
** Actually, Horatio makes it very clear that the reason he wanted to complete the task was so that he would not have possibly killed a man for nothing. Which is fair enough.
** The TV series tries to make this a little less of a WTF moment by making Horatio's best friend Archie the epileptic. Knocking him out makes him feel guilty enough, but later on Horatio's enemy unties the boat and the still-unconscious Archie drifts out to sea. A horrified Horatio is thus given a nice bit of character development when he's led to believe that he killed his best friend ({{spoiler|he didn't, Archie's found alive in a Spanish prison a couple of episodes later}}).
* On the surface, ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' is a safe, clean, nonviolent fantasy serving as a cautionary tale about the dangers of premarital sex. Bella is certainly tempted, but Edward does the good Christian thing and pressures her into getting married first. This is all well and good, except it's coming from the same story that portrays [[Unfortunate Implications|an emotionally abusive ephebophile stalker]] as romantic. In the [[Real Life|real world]], teenage romances do not last forever, and marriage is the last thing that random charming attractive guy will pressure unsuspecting women into. The lesson is outright [[Broken Aesop|contradicted]] in the final installment, when the pregnancy [[Nightmare Fuel|nearly proves fatal]]. Marriage does not protect from STDs, nor does it physically or emotionally prepare one for pregnancy.
And the first time they actually sleep together after their wedding, it's a violent event that leaves Bella injured and the bed destroyed. The Aesop here seems to be less, "Wait until marriage" and more, "Don't have sex ever."
** Many readers draw religious parallels and symbolism from the books, particularly when considering that Meyer is a Mormon. Meyer claims that she didn't intend the books to be influenced by her religion or promote her beliefs, but admits that her values do shape her writing. Regardless of intent, many readers feel the result is clueless aesops.
** On a related note to the Breaking Dawn pregnancy, Twilight is simply not the kind of series that should be having a debate about abortion. Also, the pro-life/pro-choice thing is slightly irrelevant ''when it's clear that the baby is most assuredly killing the mother, and she may or may not survive to give birth'' (in other words, exactly the kind of exception most pro-life advocates are willing to make when it comes to their stance on abortion). The fact that it's a [[Creepy Child|Creepy]] [[Half-Human Hybrid]] with powers of [[Mind Rape]] and [[Horror Hunger|makes Bella thirst for blood during the pregnancy]] only makes things worse- Bella may well be giving birth to the [[Anti Christ]].
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== Live-Action TV ==
* Perhaps the best example: The barely remembered (or perhaps nicely repressed) [[Disney Channel]] [[Very Special Episode|Special Presentation]], ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJg-jliyhXA Too Smart for Strangers]''. Seeing the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood dole out advice to the kiddies on how to avoid being kidnapped and molested is [[Nightmare Fuel|stunningly f___ed up in itself]]. If there is a list of characters who should never
** Not only that, but the lesson this special tries to get across also becomes twisted and warped: Taken at face value, this is basically 40 minutes of Winnie the Pooh and friends [[Paranoia Fuel|telling children to be suspicious and paranoid of everyone they don't know]], to act rudely to strangers, and to even flat-out lie to adults. Of course, it's [[Think of the Children|all to keep children safe]], and the advice itself was not much more horrible than most extended anti-stranger PSAs of the era (''[[Welcome To Pooh Corner]]'' was a program of [[The Eighties]]). But coming out of Pooh and Piglet's mouths...
** Furthermore, some of the tips can lead to more harm than good. One for example is to go to your neighbor's house if you receive a threatening call. All well and good, but [[Oh Crap|what if the neighbor is the one who made the call to begin with]]? For that matter, most child kidnappings are ''not'' committed by strangers.
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** To clear things up, "No Sugar, Sugar" (the original) made it seem like ''any'' amount of sugar is bad for a diabetic. "Uptight (Oliver's Alright)" (the re-edited version) presents more accurate information about the condition, in that diabetics (especially type 1) need sugar every once in a while to keep their blood sugar levels even.
* A Canadian children's program once tried to tackle the serious subject of alcoholism and [[Berserk Button|Intermittent Explosive Disorder]]. That show was ''[[Today's Special]]''... And for maximum [[Nightmare Fuel|childhood destroying]] effect, the IED-prone alcoholic was played by Gerry Parkes, better known as none other than kindly old Doc from ''[[Fraggle Rock]]''!
* ''[[Kids Incorporated]]'' had an anti-drugs episode, an episode about homelessness, an episode about child abuse, and a surprisingly poignant episode about Kid's estranged older brother. Oh, and they each contained [[Mood Whiplash|the usual happy covers of popular songs and]] [[Imagine Spot
* The ''[[Mork and Mindy]]'' episode with Mr. Bickley's blind son seems to have multiple Aesops: accept handicapped people, learn to see life in a new way, don't abandon your son... But it's not well-handled because this is a show about a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] alien who says the darnedest things. Just to give an example of how poorly executed this episode was, they used the "Does your guide dog get scared when you're skydiving?" joke.
** "Hold That Mork"'s Aesop was about gender equality. Nothing wrong with that, but it was delivered through the plot of Mork joining The Denver Broncos ''cheerleaders''. Even if the message is good, let's face it, the whole point of the episode was really about providing [[Fan Service]] for the both the male viewers and, apparently, [[Robin Williams]] [[Fan Girl|fangirls]] with a cross-dressing fetish.
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** Also the episode that dealt with the dangers of drinking-and-driving. Now, this subject unfortunately isn't that far removed from real-life high schools (not that Bayside could be considered entirely realisitc), but the presentation is questionable. Bottom line, Zack and friends get found out because they keep telling different cover stories and get left with a lot of holes to plug. It's as if the intended lesson was "If you're going to lie, keep your story straight so you don't get caught."
* There was a [[Government Information Adverts|Public Service Announcement]] at a local TV station which used its puppet mascot and tried to explain the difference between "good touching" and "bad touching". The trouble is, they used footage from [[Looney Tunes]] cartoons while they were talking about "good touching"... including [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]]'s crossdressing smooches on Elmer Fudd, and multiple shots of Pepe Le Pew. Someone clearly wasn't paying enough attention when that PSA was made....
* ''[[Punky Brewster]]'''s anti-drug episode featuring the "Chicklets". The final scenes with P(SA)unky & friends in the middle of an anti-drug protest are [[
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' had a tendency to identify (and mock) these in [[The Fifties]] educational shorts it aired, which had titles like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THYVh9AhtLk "A Date With Your Family"]. The lessons in said shorts ran the gamut from Clueless, to looking very Warped thanks to [[Values Dissonance]], to being straight-up [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|Warped]] regardless of the time they were made. Hence, such gemlike riffs as "Emotions are for 'ethnic' people", and "Expressing individualism is just plain wrong".
** And:
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*** This sounds odd today, but [[Technology Marches On|shampoo was harsh]], even corrosive back in the Fifties. Washing it every day would have made them look like they stuck their fingers in a light socket regularly for fun. It sounds warped out of context though.
* ''[[Riff Trax]]'' has continued [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'s tradition on that score, most notably with their commentary on the short ''Drugs Are Like That'', a parade of dubious and even contradictory metaphors for drugs. At different points in the short, for example, habitual behavior (such as hair twirling) and spontaneity (represented by making a minor change to a Lego-block machine) both become drug-use analogues.
* The Truth's line of anti-tobacco PSAs are often well written, but one is an [[Egregious]] case of [[Did Not Do the Research]], where they try to prove tobacco companies were aiming their products at kids because cigarettes were shown in ''[[The Muppet Movie]]''
* The well-intentioned episode on ''[[Star Trek: The
** Also their choice for all the 'asexual' aliens to be played by women, because you know it wouldn't do for Riker's [[Love Interest]] to look like a man. (Okay, it ''is'' [[Shown Their Work|scientifically accurate]] because the only vertebrates we know of who can [[wikipedia:Parthenogenesis|reproduce asexually]] are [[One-Gender Race|all female]]. Still...)
*** This actually annoyed [[Jonathan Frakes|Jonathan "Riker" Frakes]] a bit, but the producers didn't have the [[Stealth Pun|balls]] to have the <s>hot babe</s> androgynous alien played by a guy.
*** In fairness to the producers, casting androgynous or asexual aliens as women was a typical Star Trek trick, which had works previously for the Talosians (Original Series) and the Bynars (Next Generation). But [[Failed a Spot Check|no one seemed to connect the dots in this case]].
**** Could also be considered [[Completely Missing the Point]] by some viewers because the episodes was ''supposed'' to have the "straight" metaphor character be oppressed by the "gay" metaphor characters, as part of a common ''[[Star Trek]]'' theme of presenting [[Fantastic Aesop
** "Symbiosis", the anti-drug episode. The ''Enterprise'' rescues some of the crew and a couple of barrels of cargo, considered more important than crew by those who weren't rescued, on a ship going between two planets in a system that has only interplanetary travel and is losing that. Planet #1 is supplying a drug to planet #2 that is an addictive cure for a plague that has, Dr. Crusher discovers, been wiped out centuries ago. This is the sole industry of Planet #1 -- they don't even have their own
*** An argument can be made that the episode isn't anti-drugs so much as anti-exploitation and slavery. There is a slightly out of place [[Character Filibuster]] on the subject, but it arguably avoids being too anviliicious by virtue of coming from the character's established traumatic background.
* Due to [[Executive Meddling]], the entire ''[[The Weird Al Show|Weird Al]]'' Show ended up as [[Take That|clueless Aesops]]; which annoyed the star. My personal favorite is "The way to deal with bullies is open communication". ("I want your money." "Here it is, please stop hitting me." is open communication, isn't it?)
* ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'' decided to tackle sexual predators in the two-parter "The Bicycle Man". In the story, [[Gary Coleman|Arnold]] wants a bicycle. After becoming friends with Mr. Horton, the owner of the bicycle shop, over part one, he, and his friend [[Long-Lost Uncle Aesop|Dudley]] (''Diff'rent Strokes''' recurring [[Very Special Episode]] scapegoat), start spending time with Horton in the back room where he lives. After [[Squick|riding on Mr. Horton's back]] and playing "Neptune, God of the Sea," Horton offers them some alcohol (which only makes Arnold worried that he might be caught with it on his breath) and sits them down to watch some cartoons. "That mouse just lost his drawers! [audience laughter]" Yeah, so after enjoying a nice X-rated cartoon, Arnold is uncomfortable enough to leave. Dudley wants to stay, and Arnold goes home. After letting slip what happened, Mr. Drummond calls the police. They arrive right as Horton is about to... uh... begin. Dudley appears on screen drugged with tranquilizers and shirtless. Then they have a couch conversation about how important it is to tell an adult about such things. While this is admittedly far more direct and open than the "bad touch" [[PSA
** [[Harsher in Hindsight]] considering Todd Bridges came out later saying he was repeatedly molested during the show's run.
* Even ''[[Police, Camera, Action!]]'' is not invulnerable to this trope. In fact, possibly more so than ''[[Hannah Montana]]''.
* The 1998 episode ''Rust Buckets'' is a possible [[Trope Codifier|example]] of this, and just ''could not'' handle the episode's issue (unroadworthy vehicles) well. In fact, in Part 2 after the commercial break, it went ''off-topic''!
** The episode ''Unfit to Drive'' from the 1996 series, ''Enough's Enough'' from the 1997 series, and (to a slightly lesser extent) the 1997 episode ''Don't Look Back In Anger'' tend to sometimes forget what the aesop they're dealing with is.
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== Theater ==
* [http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/theater/cirque-du-soleil-michael-jackson-immortal-world-tour-review This review] of ''[[Michael Jackson:
{{quote|During [the number] dancing robots appear with LED breastplates that first flash dollar signs amidst videos of urban and international violence, then display hearts as Mother Teresa appears onscreen to feed starving children. The number was originally designed for Jackson's This Is It shows (performances that were preempted by the artist's demise), so Cirque can't entirely be blamed for its unseemly exploitation of human suffering for commercial entertainment. Of course Jackson would have seen himself as raising awareness, and Cirque doubtless think the same thing about the pro-Gaia number [[Earth Song]] that unfolds as 30,000 people sip from souvenir plastic cups.}}
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== Video Games ==
* The Tales series in general, and ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' specifically, are chock full of [[Narm Charm]]: it ranges from overly-dramatic to flat-out-bizarre, but still manages to be awesome despite that.
** ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' has some interesting things to say about justice that get completely lost due to the game's [[Black and White Morality]]. {{spoiler|[[Vigilante Man|Yuri]] murders Ragou and Cumore, two [[Complete Monster
*** Its even worse than that. {{spoiler|Ragou was caught red-handed for ''feeding people'' to his pets [[For the Evulz]] and was punished with a slap on the wrist. Cumore had the authority to keep sending people out to die in the desert because frankly no one cared to stop him. The justice system is obviously, hilariously broken and its apparent that Yuri's vigilante acts saved a lot more lives than Flynn's [[Lawful Stupid]] approach to things.}}
* The moral they try to get across in ''[[I.M. Meen]]'' is that you should read more. What we get is more like "Never ''ever'' touch a book or else that book might suck you into a horrible labyrinth and and an evil man will torture you like some kind of sadistic pedophile".
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== Web Original ==
* This trope was brutally satirized in ''[[The Onion]]'' article "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100225054036/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38286 Talking To Your Child About The WTC Attack]", which encouraged parents to give a no-holds barred explanation of the world history leading up to the World Trade Tower attacks in order to answer why this bad scary thing happened (serious [[Tear Jerker]] warning). Although given that the material is fairly obscure even among adults who try to keep with the news, the real moral might have been "try hard to understand world history, and don't believe the simplified explanations we have to tell our kids."
* Poked fun at by [[The Cinema Snob]] in his review of "Rock: It's Your Decision". The reformed, ex-rock-and-roll-fan protagonist preaches to a group of kids about what he saw at a rock concert once: The people listening weren't just sitting quietly and listening to the music! They were ''getting up and dancing!'' The music was ''controlling'' them! The Snob snarks, "This is an emotional response, like crying when you're sad. This, too, is sinful, and should be suppressed."
== Western Animation ==
* There was an animated story in ''[[Yo Gabba Gabba!]]'' about anthropomorphized drops of water and oil who live in towns across from one another. They are separated by a line in the middle of a road and they are not allowed to mix with one another. Now, the story looks like it's heading towards a [[Green Aesop]] when an oil drop runs across the road and collides with a water drop. But the story focuses on how together they make a pretty rainbow. And then all the oil and water drops start playing together. The message was ''supposed'' to be "it's wonderful when people who are different play together", but unfortunately children will probably interpret it as "go ahead and pour oil in the sink/bathtub/etc. to make pretty rainbows".
** Also, oil and water? Not well-known for mixing together. It (hopefully) should be blatantly obvious that generally oil ''should not be in water''.
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' in general, since its [[Dead Baby Comedy]] status makes taking any Aesop it offers seriously near-impossible, especially when it comes to religion and gay rights.
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** What makes it even worse is that D.W. never got punished. Arthur spent an entire week making a model plane, and DW not only ruins the wet paint, then blames it on Arthur, but she then throws his plane out the window, after he specifically told her not to touch it. She's not even sorry that it broke, blaming the plane for being defective because it didn't fly. Arthur hits D.W. in retribution, but gets all the blame.
*** From what we've seen. [[Unreliable Narrator|Her punishment could have happened off-screen.]]
* [[Anvilicious]] as it could be at times, ''[[Captain Planet]]'' sometimes went in over its head. It gave us the following stellar examples, some of which can be viewed via [https://web.archive.org/web/20130709012753/http://www.uproxx.com/feature/2010/09/5-weird-captain-planet-episodes-you-probably-dont-remember/ list of uncomfortable "Captain Planet" episodes]:
** The infamous "[[Stroke Country|If It's Doomsday, It Must Be Belfast]]" episode, which was meant to promote world peace. What it managed to do instead was become the single most offensive example of both the [[Oireland]] trope and [[The Troubles]] trope, making the struggle between Catholics and Protestants look like [[West Side Story|The Jets against The Sharks]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJrovKgrTw Highlights can be seen here]. (And the comments. Dear God, the comments.)
*** Even better, while the titular subplot is far better known, this episode also had the team attempt to ''solve the Israeli / Palestine conflict''... with '''[[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Ma-Ti]]'''. Yeah really.
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*** If you're trying to curb overpopulation, wouldn't a logical approach be to teach kids that orphans are perfectly good kids who need homes? That way you're teaching compassion for others instead of accidentally calling anyone who had quadruplets evil.
*** What's more, since this was a show aimed at kids, they had to execute the whole anti-overpopulation message without mentioning birth control or abstinence. So kids are told to make smart choices about family planning, but they're not explicitly told how.
* The infamous Saturday morning special ''[[Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue]]'' tried to deal with the dangers of
** American children were treated to a similarly [[Anvilicious]] message from Bush, Sr.
** And Aussie kids got one from Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Kind of funny in retrospect, as he's the Prime Minister celebrated for downing a [[wikipedia:Yard glass|yard of ale]] in eleven seconds when he was younger (making it into the Guinness Book of records), so you have to wonder what else he got up to back then. But then, this is Australia, where you're looked upon as weird if you don't like to get smashed at least occasionally.
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** There is an even more ridiculous [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBDtu2AmktA Sonic Sez], that may suggest the writers knew exactly how silly this was. Grounder smashed himself while chasing a rabbit, a container of pills falling out of him in the process. The rabbit goes to take them, only for Sonic to stop him. The pill bottle reads, "For Grounder, Robot Headache Pills, Take One A Day With Oil."
* An episode of the ''[[Double Dragon (animation)|Double Dragon]]'' cartoon involved a kid obsessed with video games. He was taught that life is [[This Is Reality|not a video game]]... by a pair of magically-super-powered crime-fighters who summon dragons and shoot fire and stuff... in '''a show based off a video game.'''
* The [[Classic Disney Shorts|Classic Disney Short]] "[[Donald Duck|Donald's]] [[Blatant Lies|Happy Birthday]]" (1949) was about Huey, Dewey and Louie wanting to buy Donald a birthday present but Donald insists that the nephews save money. Once they get the money, they buy Donald a box of cigars. Donald jumps to a conclusion and thinks they want to start smoking, so he forces them to smoke the entire box only to later find out the cigars were meant for him. Here, the nephews are thinking of their uncle and working hard for the money, while Donald wants the boys to save money and not smoke, but the problem is, Donald is supposed to be seen as the bad
** The aesop seems more like "Don't jump to conclusions" or "Think before you act impulsively", rather than having anything to do with the risks of smoking...In fact, who says it's even playing out an aesop on the first place? It seems more like it's all [[Played for Laughs|Played for]] ([[Black Comedy|dark]]) [[Played for Laughs|laughs]].
** If you watch the third Donald Duck cartoon DVD collection called "The Chronological Donald Vol. 3 (1947-1950)", this episode is listed as "From the Vault". Reportedly because of the climax where Donald forces them to smoke the entire box, they may have been worried that it might confuse/upset some viewers, and doesn't it seem a bit [[Broken Aesop|hypocritical]] that Donald doesn't want the boys to start smoking when he's been seen smoking in several other cartoons?
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*** You know, in 1949 no one really though smoking was bad. Just saying.
* Ah, ''Tinkerbell & The Great Fairy Rescue''. This entry in the otherwise surprisingly good ''[[Disney Fairies]]'' movie series soured some viewers thanks to it's intended Aesop being presented in such a clueless way as to become downright [[Warped Aesop|warped]]. The morals of the story were probably originally meant as, "spend more time with your child" and "don't stifle your child's imagination" and "have an open mind". In practice, the moral instead became an alarmingly [[Anvilicious]] [[Science Is Bad|Science Is]] [[Science Is Wrong|Badong]] [[Script Wank]]. These days, do we really need a children's film where a skeptical biologist is the antagonist?
* [[In-Universe]] example from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': In the episode [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1
** The show also had a real life one with "Feeling Pinkie Keen" (from the same writer, oddly enough). Similar to the "Tinkerbell" example, the message was supposed to be that you shouldn't obsess over finding explanations for all the weird stuff you see. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJQGS0ZMf0A Twilight's final summation] had some unfortunate phrasing that made it sound like the message was "Scientists should admit that God exists."
* Also happens [[In-Universe]] in ''[[South Park]]'', when the school decides they need to teach the kids about safer
** At the end of the episode, Chef specifically calls this out, points out that the people teaching the sex ed (Mr. Garrison, Mr. Mackey, and Miss Choksondick) are all misguided, misinformed, or just plain clueless about sex themselves, and says that if the parents want it done right they should do it themselves.
* According to ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130630013653/http://www.everythingisterrible.com/2012/02/drug-avengers.html Drug Avengers]'', an obscure and [[Deranged Animation|very weird]] educational cartoon recently exhumed by ''[[Everything Is Terrible]]'', the reason [[Space Whale Aesop|Earth will not be able to join the Galactic Federation in the future]] is because we do too many drugs. Yup.
{{reflist}}
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