It's a Wonderful Plot: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

It is usual that people would be worse off without the character facing this plot. The most common subversion is that everybody's life is ''better''. The world is usually governed by the [[Butterfly of Doom]]; regardless of how minor the change, there is rarely a middle ground or a world which is only slightly different, to the extent that the character's absence, no matter how seemingly insignificant or small, will result in a complete [[Crapsack World]] in which there is little hope whatsoever. Also closely related to [[Necessary Fail]].

 

{{examples}}

* The final episode of ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' shows a world in which Lain does not exist (in contrast to scenes from the first episode, before all the weirdness)... and then the viewer realizes that {{spoiler|this is not a mere possibility, but a reality Lain created by erasing everyone's memories of herself. Although she did leave her BFF Alice with a tiny figment of memory of her, only large enough to make her wonder for a second if she has seen Lain before}}.

* The Fourth [[Suzumiya Haruhi]] novel and [[The Movie]], ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'', is basically one long [[Wonderful Life]] story for Kyon, except he didn't actually ask for it, he's not the one being retgonned, and the "angel" responsible is affected by the changes as well... It does happen around Christmas, though.

* Rika in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'''s "Saikoroshi-hen" wakes up in a new world after a [[Near-Death Experience]], in which none of the tragedies involving Oyashiro's curse happened. Her parents are alive, Satoko's parents are alive, Satoshi is still around, and Rena's parents never divorced. {{spoiler|However, as a result, Keiichi never came to Hinamizawa, Satoko and her other classmates bully Rika, Hanyuu is absent, and the town will soon be flooded due to the dam project never being stopped.}}

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' part 6 uses this as the basis for his plan; he plans to create a world where the Joestar family never existed and Dio reigns supreme.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Don Rosa]] did a story about [[Donald Duck]], "The Duck Who Never Was", based on this trope to celebrate his 60th birthday. Donald applies for a job at a museum but is immediately laid off for exceeding the retirement age due to a nearsighted curator misreading his application. He meets a "birthday genie" and wishes he was never born, only to be transported to a hellish version of Duckburg where almost everyone is worse off. However the one person Donald wanted to be miserable, Gladstone Gander, is just as successful as he is in real life. Of course it turns out to be [[All Just a Dream]]. [[Or Was It a Dream?]]

** Some elaboration on what made Duckburg so hellish and how effective this was: Without Donald, Gyro was caught in a ray that Donald was that lowered him to normal intelligence and a unhappy life as a farmer. Grandma Duck was forced to work for Daisy, who became an incredibly successful romance novelist, but was left a lonely, bitter shell without anyone to love (ie, Donald). Gus, as Scrooge's only nephew left, was hired by Scrooge (which was the reason Grandma Duck had to work for Daisy - she didn't have anyone to help her with running her farm, which she sold to Gyro), but was easily tricked by Magica into handing over the [[Number One Dime]], Breaking his spirit and allowing Gloomgold to take everything from Scrooge, resulting in Duckburg's economy collapsing and Scrooge a bitter old duck living in a barrel and into Daisy buying the Money Bin and using it as a printing room for her novels. Without Donald around, Gladstone got Huey, Duey and Louie who have all both adopted his lazy philosophy of relying on luck and grown ginormously fat, and as mentioned above, Gladstone's still a success who also has the Beagle Boys, who without Scrooge to steal from had no choice but to go straight and become the police, in his pocket. Actually, in the pockets of anyone willing to bribe them. As they explained, with the collapse on Duckburg's economy, Duckburg's police runs in a tight budget, so they survive on tips the Beagle Boy who became Mayor gets from the people they arrest in exchange for slighter sentences. Luckily, Donald returns to the museum and the Genie returns things, leading to one giant [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]], with everyone wishing him a happy birthday.

** Huey, Dewey and Louie are preparing dinner for New Year's eve in a geriatric care home using money provided by the Junior Woodchucks. They send Donald with the money to buy food, but he loses the purse. Donald decides Duckburg would be better off without him and seems to prepare to commit suicide, but is interrupted by his guardian angel (not the angel from the previous story, by the way). The guardian angel shows him how a new year's eve in Duckburg would be without him: Huey, Dewey and Louie live in an orphanage, are constantly bullied by their peers and are unable to celebrate new year's eve in peace. Daisy is dating Gladstone (again), but is unhappy with how Gladstone takes her to a horse racetrack rather than a restaurant and feels Gladstone doesn't really care about her. Scrooge has no friends or family and when he decides to invite his staff to a dinner party, he finds that none of them is willing to spend more time than necessary with him.

** And another time (''Donald Duck'' comics will ruminate any trope to infinity) there was an [[Inversion]] where Donald made the wish that he were alone without all his friends who were annoying him. No points for guessing he didn't like it when the wish came true, though there was more to the plot than that.

* Hilariously [[Double Subversion|double-subverted]] in the post-Zero Hour ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'': Brainiac 5 gets a view of what the Legion would be like without him, and it turns out to be an idealized [[Silver Age]]-style world in which the other Legionnaires are just kids in a "hero club." After confirming that, yes, their lives are in fact better without him, Brainy chooses to go back anyhow in order to go on making their lives as miserable as they make his.

* A ''[[The Flintstones|Flintstones]]'' comic had Fred find that he hadn't received a Christmas bonus. Fred gets depressed about this, somehow gets even more depressed and starts going on a walk without knowing where he's headed - toward a tar pit. The Great Gazoo then yanks Fred out of time at the last minute and takes him to a world to show Fred what things would be like if he never existed (Fred protests along the way that he didn't wish that he was never born, Gazoo retorts saying Fred posed an interesting "what if" and didn't want to pass it up). They arrive in a world where Bedrock is a lot larger and is now known as Slaterock, Barney has an administrative position at Mr. Slate's business and Wilma is married to Mr. Slate. Gazoo then shows that all is not as it appears to be. Slaterock grew up "too big, too fast" and crime is now way up. Betty is single and homeless because she never met Barney (because Fred introduced her to him) and Barney is quite lonely and spends his nights in the office depressed. Pebbles is a spoilt brat and Wilma is unhappy with her marriage. Gazoo then takes Fred back to his own time, where he declares that he's alive...and in pain having fallen into the tar pit. He returns home now more appreciative of his family and Mr. Slate arrives with Fred's bonus, saying his secretary forgot to put it in his pigeonhole.

* In [[Grant Morrisons Batman]] story "Last Rites", set between ''[[Batman RIP]]'' and ''[[Final Crisis]]'', Bruce is given false memories of a life in which his parents weren't killed. Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson are dead. Bruce is a dilettante doctor, coddled by Martha and a disapointment to Thomas, especially when he falls for a patient who turns out to be Selina Kyle, distracting him while she robs the surgery.

* Issue #16 of ''[[Cartoon Network]] Presents'' featured a ''[[Top Cat]]'' story, "It's a Wonderful Strife", in which both T.C. and Officer Dibble, tired of putting up with each other, wish they'd never come to the city. The both of them are then shown alternate realities by their guardian angels, played respectively by Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss. Huck shows T.C. that, without guidance from a crafty leader, his gang has to resort to crime for sustenance, and Snagglepuss shows Dibble that if he never became a police officer, T.C. would be an anarchist bossing around the entire police force.

** The angel is even called Clarence, like in the original film.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Mr. Destiny]]'', an '80s comedy starring Jim Belushi, Linda Hamilton and Michael Caine in the Clarence role, subverted this trope a little; Jim Belushi's character always bemoaned the fact that he blew a game-saving play in high-school baseball, and Caine changed history so that he made the game-saver instead. Belushi then sees his life changing; he's now the Vice-President of the sporting goods company he's working for, and married to the boss's daughter, but it turns out he's having an affair with a psychotic temptress, and his real wife from his old life (Hamilton), the one woman he truly loved, is married to someone else.

* This is the plot of the fourth ''[[Shrek]]'' movie, ''Shrek Forever After''. Shrek is tricked by Rumplestilskin into signing a contract that gives him a day as a real ogre in exchange for a day from his past. Unfortunately, the day taken away is the day he was ''born''.

* The plot of ''[[The Butterfly Effect]]'' is one of the most famous (and ''cruelest'') subversions/deconstructions of this trope.

* The educational short ''A Case of Spring Fever'' (Seen on the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode 1012-''Squirm'') features a [[Wonderful Life]] plot where the missing element is springs. Yes, it's exactly as dumb as it sounds.

** What's interesting is that MST parodied this particular short in two different episodes. In the first one, it's just a skit during a host segment—Tom Servo eats so many waffles that he never wants to see another one again, and Crow shows up as the Waffle Sprite to spell out just how terrible a world without waffles would be. ''Squirm'', the episode featuring the "Spring Fever" film itself, aired ''several seasons'' later, so the reference was simply a [[Genius Bonus]].

** Of course, the ''Squirm'' episode featured another host segment, where Crow and Tom Servo wonder if every object in the universe has its own sprite, just waiting for the chance to pull a Wonderful Life plot. They test this by having Crow announce that he never wants to see Mike again for as long as he lives; sure enough, Mikey the Mike Sprite appears to show the 'bots the horror of a world without Mike. The 'bots don't miss Mike at all, but they wish for him back anyway just to humor the sprite. Then Servo says he never wants to see Mike's socks again; enter Mikesocksy...

** And bonus points for the protagonist supposedly having to live as a non-believer, [[Flat Earth Atheist|while his new life is being explained to him by an angel.]]

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The ''[[Sweet Valley High|Sweet Valley Twins]]'' series played the trope entirely straight in a Christmas special book, in which Elizabeth wishes she'd never been born and promptly receives a visitation from a quirky guardian angel who shows her a vision of what life would be like. It's heavy on [[For Want of a Nail]] scenarios based on Elizabeth's actions in previous books, but also contains a couple of more nonsensical changes: the club of shallow, popular rich girls is transformed into a vicious girl gang, and Elizabeth's sister Jessica goes from bubbly, stylish, and popular to shy, geeky, and pathetic.

** Subverted in a ''[[Sweet Valley High]]'' Super Edition, "Winter Carnival" where Elizabeth becomes annoyed with Jessica's forgetfulness/selfishness when it causes a rift in her budding romance with Jeffrey French during a winter festival at a ski resort. Elizabeth is upset and leaves, angrily wishing that Jessica wasn't around to mess things up. When she arrives home, she finds out that Jessica is dead. With Jessica gone, everyone in Sweet Valley is depressed and spends a lot of time remembering Jessica's bubbly personality and forgetting about Elizabeth. She wakes up and realizes that it was [[All Just a Dream]] and makes up with Jessica and Jeffrey.

** And then Crayak complains that the Ellimist cheated. [[Jedi Truth|Though he didn't]].

* Parodied in ''[[More Information Than You Require]]'', and given as Prince Albert's motivation for introducing Germanic pagan influences onto the English Christmas and becoming a [[Funny Foreigner]].

 

* It happened on ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]''. Without Carlton driving the family to greed and materialism, as well as countering Will's laid-back attitude, they sink into laziness and poverty.

** Oh, and Carlton's Clarence/guardian angel is Tom Jones.

** There was also a "What if Al Gore had won in 2000?" sketch released at the height of George W. Bush's unpopularity. In this universe, global cooling is the problem rather than global warming, gas is so cheap that the oil companies are hurting, and America is so well-loved that Americans can't go to other countries without getting hugged.

** When Andrew Dice Clay hosted an episode, the opening sketch shows what would have happened to the show if he hadn't been born. Among other things, Sinead O'Connor(who backed out in protest of the raunchy comic's hosting the show) died from being crushed by a falling amp.

* The TV show ''[[The Wayans Bros]]'' both played it straight and subverted it at the same time. Without Marlon around, Pops owned a gourmet restaurant, Dee was married to the soap hunk of her dreams, and Shawn was rich and owned everything. However, everyone was unhappy: Pops only kept getting the same gift from Shawn and was ignored, Dee's husband was cheating on her, and Shawn was going to destroy Grandma Williams' nursing home to build a Yogurt World.

* ''[[Charles in Charge]]'' has an episode like this: without Charles, the Powell family (and Charles's mother) end up with a lot more money, but they've all turned into [[Rich Bitch|spoiled jerks]].

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when, immediately after returning from the vision of a world without him, Mork exclaims, "Hey, it's a wonderful life!"

* ''[[My Family]]'' did one where Ben wondered how his family would be without him. He then realized they would be exactly the same and was naturally pleased since it meant their problems weren't his fault after all. This occurs after an older man, who just happens to be named Clarence, "saves" him from committing suicide.

* Done with a twist (similar to ''[[That '70s Show]]'') on ''[[Mad About You]]''. After finding out that the newspaper stand where they met had burned down, Jamie freaks out because if it weren't for that stand, they wouldn't have met and would never have fallen in love. Paul insists they would have found each other anyway. A magic wind shifts the world to what it'd be like, only both of them quickly lose all memory of what was lost, and start remembering their new lives. Both are unhappy with their current romantic situations and after wandering around lost, find each other at the burned out remains of the newspaper stand and go home, the world now fixed.

* Done in the "Apocalypse" episode of ''[[Smallville]]''. Clark starts wondering if his friends would be better off if he had never made it off of Krypton, and he suddenly finds himself in a world where just that happened. As usual, at first he's justified to find out that all of his friends are better off, but ultimately realizes that his absence would leave the world in great danger. There some problems with this episode, since without Clark, all of his friends should have died anyway, most of them having been saved from mundane situations by him at one point. Most notably, Lex's brush with death in the first episode (since he would not have known Clark at all prior to that moment) should have still happened, with a more fatal outcome.

** Another ''Smallville'' episode around Christmastime had Lex shown a possible future by the ghost of his mother. In this one, he gave information to the Daily Planet exposing his father's crimes. This caused his father to disown him, but Lex ended up married to Lana with kids, and Lex is working a low-paying job. Then Lana gets sick and, because Lex doesn't have money to pay her hospital bills, she dies. Lex says that he can't live in this world where he literally has nothing left, and it's better to have power so that he can have what he wants. It's supposed to show Lex's descent into evil, but the intended Aesop was really [[Broken Aesop]].

** Something of a [[Chekhov's Gun]] to boot, since a later episode has Lex contact his mother via new age means, and she's angry that he ignored her [[Wonderful Life]] warning.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Turn Left" did this, with an alternate history where {{spoiler|Donna never met the Doctor, so he was killed beyond regeneration by the flooding of the Racnoss tunnels when the Thames broke through. In the following couple of years, every single alien menace that the Doctor had thwarted hit home with full force, reducing the Earth to a [[Crapsack World]].}} Things got downright awful. It's also (in part) set over ''two'' Christmases.

** Season 4's "It's a Terrible Life" showed that even if the boys weren't Winchesters, they'd still end up as hunters somehow, which is pretty awful when you think about it. {{spoiler|Zachariah}} serves as their Clarence-figure, {{spoiler|disguised as Dean's boss}}.

* ''[[iCarly]]'' has an example where it's not a complete [[Crapsack World]]. Carly, after becoming upset with her brother Spencer when his metal tree accidentally burns down her Christmas gifts, wishes he were more normal. Her angel appears and grants the wish. Spencer is turned into a straightlaced lawyer. Sam goes to jail because Spencer refused to let Carly be her friend and become her [[Morality Chain]], Carly ends up as Nevel's girlfriend, Freddie loses his hope that he will get together with Carly and winds up being bossed about by a girl who is completely unsuitable for him, and finally Spencer marries Mrs. Benson. And there is no iCarly webshow anymore.

** It's a [[Crapsack World]] by the standards of the show. Carly's dating a borderline sociopath (as opposed to merely being friends with/the [[Morality Chain]] of one like normal). Freddie's ''still'' an [[Acceptable Target]] of abuse, except that he now takes it from a girlfriend instead of Sam. Spencer has gone from being reckless but loving to being preppy, boring, and aloof; not only that, but he's dating a completely smothering psychopath. And Sam is an even worse person than she is in their regular lives and is in prison—and considering how bad Sam can be in a regular episode, the possibility of what she might do without Carly's calming influence borders on [[Nightmare Fuel]]. The lack of web show is just [[Author Existence Failure]], because Carly never had the opportunity to do it.

* An episode of 80s [[Britcom]] ''[[Sorry]]!'' had this plot. Notably, the library was a less welcoming place without Timothy's influence, and his mother was a lonely old woman who kept talking to her lapdog, Timothy.

* Lampshaded in the series finale of ''[[Quantum Leap]]''. When Sam expresses a desire to stop leaping to the Bartender (a character who is strongly implied to be [[God]]), explaining that he did not intend to make the world a better place by improving only one life at a time, the Bartender replies that the lives Sam has touched in his journey have [[One Degree of Separation|touched others]], and those lives in turn have touched others; by traveling through time, Sam has done a large amount of good simply by helping individuals in need.

** ALF's guardian angel tells him, "Anyone who wants a new life gets one. It's the Capra Amendment," a refernce to the Trope Namer.

* A famous episode of Australian soap ''[[Home and Away]]'' featured long-standing character Alf Fisher having a near-death experience whilst on the operating table. He met up with his dead wife who took him on a tour to show him what their town [[Crapsack World|would become]] if he gave up and died now.

** Repeated later with Sally and the ghost of Tom, her foster-father.

{{quote|'''Adam''' (the guardian angel): {{spoiler|Angel? Who said I was from Heaven?}}}}

** {{spoiler|We were left with the impression that J.R. shot himself in the end.}}

* In "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" Blackadder is the kindest most generous man in Victorian London. He's visited on Christmas Eve by a spirit (Robbie Coltrane) who tells him how wonderful it is that he's so nice. Unfortunately, by showing Blackadder what his descendants would be like if he were mean (rich and with power over the entire universe) he changes into the man we know. He then wreaks vengeance on all the awful people who have been taking advantage of him. More unfortunately, that's the time Queen Victoria and Prince Albert show up to give the nicest man in London a great gift and he tosses them out - assuming they are the winners of the shortest, fastest, ugliest people in London contest.

* The [[Sweet Valley High]] TV series played the plot somewhat different from the above literature example. An angel comes to show them what the world would look like without ''both'' of them. The sports team has no cups (no cheerleaders), one of the girls is a fanatic Greenpeace activist, someone's a computer nerd... it gets worse.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* The [[Gwen Stefani]] song "Wonderful Life" plays with a less fantastical version of this trope, referencing the impact a now-missing lover had on the narrator's life.

{{quote|''If you only knew what you gave to me / Now you can't be found''}}

 

== [[Puppet Shows]] ==

* In ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]'', an angel shows Kermit what would happen to [[The Muppets]] in a world where he never existed. Unfortunately, he's not too sure how to bring them back.

* An episode of ''[[The Basil Brush Show]]'' has this happen. After Basil spends all of the money on cosmetics (namely, for looking after his "brush") he and his friends risk having to stay in the flat without electricity or heating. Whilst the others go off carolling he starts feeling sorry with himself on a bridge. An old man (later shown to be Santa Claus) shows up and shows Basil that he makes lots of people happy, but Basil doesn't get it and wishes he was never born, so the old man sends him to a reality where his thieving cousin now does his show and where the people he helped and now in worse situations. Basil learns his lesson and after begging to exist again ends up in his own reality again. He goes home and finds everyone celebrating Christmas as one of his flatmates found a note with a large sum of money, conveniently.

 

== [[Radio]] ==

* ''[[Old Harry's Game]]'' subverts this in the second episode of series two, in which Satan, an ex-angel, asks Thomas if he has seen the film before taking him to see "all the crap things that did happen because he was born".

* In the February 2, 1947 episode of ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]'', Jack goes to see ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' and calls it improbable. Of course, later that day he hits his head and has a dream sequence in which he sees what the world would be like if he'd never been born. Don Wilson is a farmer, Phil Harris is playing at crummy dives, Dennis Day works for [[The Rival|Fred Allen]], and Mary Livingstone, who had been flirting with Jack before the dream began, is married—to [[Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?|Frank Nelson]]!

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* ''Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge'', Christopher Durang's [[Affectionate Parody]] of classic Christmas stories, features the typical subversion, with the title character learning that everyone's much better off without her.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' screws around with this, and other ''[[Alternate Universe]]'' tropes, there are two mirror alternate history universes and in one the protagonist is dead, so among other things you can see how things play out with his absence.

** Or would that be you get see how things play out with him NOT absent, since the reality where he died is the "real" one?

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Subverted in the webcomic ''[[Megatokyo]]'', because the guardian angel Seraphim did not have enough funds.

* Predictably enough, used in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' around Christmas 2009, with a short shown on a dystopian alternative Earth, called "It's a Wonderful Life, Citizen". It's about someone who is miserable and wishes he was never born. Because happiness is mandatory in that place, his desire in the sense of no longer existing {{spoiler|(in that universe, anyway)}} is granted, and everyone agrees they're happier without him. The story has [[An Aesop]]: Report anyone who's unhappy to the authorities.

* ''[[Housepets]]'' has the arc "It's a Wonderful Dog's Life" where the human Joel (a PETA member who helped kidnap a dog) was turned into a [[Laser-Guided Karma|Welsh corgi named King]]. The arc is more a deconstruction, as the supernatural force who transforms him, "Pete", has no intention to change him back. And with subsequent events, it's unlikely he'll ''ever'' be changed back.

* Butch of ''[[Chopping Block]]'' had a dream about this, in which he discovered how much better the world would be without him. (The dream ended with him violently killing the angel.)

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [http://www.viruscomix.com/estar.html ''Captain Estar Goes to Heaven'']—A young woman who leads a hellish life finds a world that may actually be Heaven. She is offered a "Wonderful Life" that she never had ... can she deal with it?

* The 2010 [[The Nostalgia Critic|Nostalgia Critic]] [[Christmas Episode]] ''You're A Rotten Dirty Bastard'' parodies this plot. The Critic quits his job due to being angry about there being nothing to review for Christmas. Roger, his guardian angel, comes in to show how other people on the [[That Guy With The Glasses]] Team live without his existence, only for everyone to be much better off without him. [[The Cinema Snob]] is a giant porn star, [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] owns both Marvel and DC Comics, [[The Nostalgia Chick]] is married and is a major director of films such as ''[[Take That|Twilight: The Good Version]]'', [[The Angry Joe Show|Angry Joe]] is the president of the United States, blows up the evil Canada ([[Running Gag|naturally]], killing [[Phelous]]) {{spoiler|and publicly executed Tom Green}}, and [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] has taken the Critic's job, gives positive reviews to ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' and ''[[Junior]]'', and is loved even by the trolls. When Roger discovers {{spoiler|he could have been God's greatest angel and successor without the Critic, he tries to kill him, only to learn that God lied about angels being [[Immune to Bullets]]}}. The Critic realizes [[Jerkass|he improved his own life]] and goes back to his old self. All narrated by Santa Christ.

** Not ''everyone's'' lives were better. Technically Joe did blow up Canada. So the critics existance actually prevents more than 33 million deaths. And Phelous's, but that happens all the time anyway. Though if we take Joe at his word, Canada was an [[The Empire|evil empire]] in this alternate world.

** Doug Walker said in commentary that he was disappointed to find out this trope had been subverted [[It's Been Done|numerous times before]], but still hopes that this is the only rendition where they {{spoiler|look at the Angel's life without him}}.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''My Friend Martin''. It featured a group of kids who want to prevent Martin Luther King's assassination. So they go back in time, kidnap him as a child, and bring him back to the present day... only to find segregation and racism still in full force, and many of the main character's best friends are affected. Young Martin, who guesses that the changes the others observe are [[For Want of a Nail]], bravely decides to return to his own time. The end of the show featured the animated King time-lapse aging as he walks through the portal, while in the background a montage of his achievements plays.

{{quote|'''Seymour:''' Hey, this isn't right! You're supposed to show me how miserable everybody is without me!

'''Junior:''' Hey, if ''everyone'' made the world a better place, it'd be perfect! }}

* ''[[Rugrats]]'' did this for Chuckie, where Angelica took over the town.

** This was actually a surprisingly dark, almost disturbing episode (yes, of a show involving talking babies). Even if you just included what happened to Chuckie's father, it's rather bleak. He ends up unemployed, sitting alone in his house, surrounded by ''tons'' of empty pizza boxes he's been hoarding, a sock-puppet his only friend.

** It should be pointed out that the whole thing turned out to be a test being given to Timmy by Von Strangle, even if he was pretty sadistic about it.

* The same thing happened to Dagget from ''[[Angry Beavers]]'', but the clueless Dagget wound up messing up the "improved" lives of his friends in the alternate reality.

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' did a somewhat predictable reversal of the plot of ''It's a Wonderful Life'', with an angel coming to Earth on Christmas to show Butt-head how much better the world would be if he had never been born. Neighbors, classmates, teachers, and even Beavis (mainly because he'd never had the chance to screw up) are shown to be happier and more successful without him. Naturally, Butt-head fails to grasp the lesson.

** ''[[Daria]]'' was one of the neighbors who was happier. This proves that without Butt-head's intervention, her show would not have been as interesting as it was.

** Of course, Homer doesn't get the message and instead spends his time asking "Klink" if he knew about the tunnels under the camp and the radio in the coffee pot. But of course, he manages to stay faithful to Marge on his own.

** And another recent episode used a variation, where Homer looked into magic sauce (seriously) to see what life would've been like if he had won class president. Everything's extremely similar...except he lives in a mansion and doesn't have kids.

{{quote|'''Jimmy's Dad''': Think again, Jimmy. You see, the firing pin in your gun was made out of... yep, zinc.

'''Jimmy:''' Come back, zinc! COME BAAAACK! }}

** Also, in "Grift of the Magi," Moe sees what the world would have been like had he never been born ([[Hero of Another Story|offscreen]]) and stops his suicide attempt.

* The ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Phineas And Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" involves the boys traveling through time 20 years to the future, and {{spoiler|running into future Candace, who, after some crazy antics, goes back to the ''events of the very first episode of the series''. The roller coaster is terminated, and the boys get busted. Future Candace returns to the future, only to find everything [[Bad Future|industrial and bleak.]] In this world, everyone is named "Joe", and Doofenshmirtz is the ruler.}}

** What Candace didn't learn was that, because of her interference, it was Perry, not Doof, who got harmed by the huge ball; and that Doofenshmirtz became the ruler because Perry didn't recover on time to stop him.

*** That's those wacky Planeteer villains and their [[Anvilicious|utter obsession with the evil that is polluting for you]].

* At first, Wade Duck's take on this plot in a ''U.S. Acres'' episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' looks like a standard parody, as he learns that if he hadn't existed, everyone else's life would be ''exactly'' the same. But in the end, this becomes even more subverted: he comes back in time to prevent a robbery, using knowledge that he only gained ''because'' he had been a bodiless observer at the time!

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'', where after a tribute episode to Zorak gone horribly wrong, Zorak wishes he was never born, prompting his nephew Raymond from the episode "Hungry" to appear as a wingless angel to show what life would be like without Zorak: ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'' would still be on the air, Lokar would be the bandleader of ''[[SGC 2 C]]'', and Space Ghost himself would find huge success on his show, going on to become governor of California, then president of the universe. Upon this revelation, Zorak wants to live to make Space Ghost miserable, and Raymond gets his wings.

* ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' did this for their [[Christmas Special]], with Buster wishing he didn't exist after a loss of confidence. He's shown an alternate Acme Acres, where Plucky is the star of the show and using his position to make life miserable for Babs. Meanwhile, Monty has taken over the school and uses it for his own purposes. It's a particularly memorable version of the trope, because the special is littered with clever allusions to the real ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]''—among others, Porky lassos the moon for his girlfriend Petunia, Pepe Le Pew uses a perfume called "[[Zu Zu]]'s Petals," and when Buster gets back to his own reality, he runs around wishing Merry Christmas to various local landmarks.

* Subverted in the ''[[Superjail]]'' season finale: the Warden is {{spoiler|sentenced to spend eternity locked up, because his existence would culminate in his world domination.}} It's only when he escapes and gets a chance to see what happens ''without'' him there to horribly enslave the world that he's able to show the alternative (which isn't remotely as bad as world domination, but quite a bit ''freakier''). The force responsible for his fate doesn't buy it, leading to two very unsettling minutes of [[Continuity Nod]] as the two realities combine.

* The basic plotline of the [[LeapFrog]] educational release ''A Tad of Christmas Cheer'' has Tad thinking that his family doesn't care about him anymore, so a "fairy godbug" transports him to an alternate reality in which he never existed.

* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' uses the subversion in which Helga dreams of what the world would be like if she disappeared. Everybody celebrates that she is gone; Arnold, who caused her to disappear with a magic trick, is famous for it; and her parents' lives are much better. Eventually she wakes up and tries to fix all the bad things she did in that episode before falling asleep.

* A particularly awesome example in the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' episode "Over The Edge": {{spoiler|because of a Scarecrow-induced nightmare, Batgirl actually dreams she gets killed during costumed adventuring. Commissioner Gordon discovers then that Batgirl was his daughter Barbara, and actually orders a manhunt on Batman. [[It Got Worse|Things go downhill from there]]. Gordon goes so far as to enlist BANE to help him hunt Batman.}} A surprisingly dark episode, and probably one of the best of an already excellent series.

* There was a pretty good episode of ''[[Superfriends]]'' called "The Krypton Syndrome" where Superman falls through a portal, winds up on Krypton, and manages to save it. He returns to the present, but finds Earth a burning ruin, with Robin one of the only survivors. After realizing what happened, he [[Tear Jerker|goes back and ensures Krypton's destruction]].

{{quote|'''Superman''': When Krypton was saved, my father never sent me to Earth. So, to this world, there never ''was'' a Superman.}}

* A variation occurs in the ''[[Maryoku Yummy]]'' episode "A Day Without Maryoku," with Shika so frustrated at Maryoku not following the rules that he takes it up with [[Mentor Archetype|Tapo Tapo]], insisting that their world would be better off without her. Tapo Tapo uses magic bubbles to show him how the day went down and then how it would have gone down without Maryoku. Apparently, a lack of Maryoku not only left him watching all the wishes, but kept Bob's van from starting.

** Played straighter in the episode "It's a Yumderful Life," when Maryoku, feeling the pressure of being "the greatest wishsitter," wishes she had an easier job, and then suddenly finds herself as not a wishsitter, but Bob's official clipboard holder. There's even a direct [[Shout-Out]] to the movie with "Yuzu's pedals," a pair of lucky bike pedals Yuzu gave her earlier in the episode, disappearing, and then reappearing when she's back to her regular life.

** Well {{spoiler|Fry was sent into the future specifically to prevent the universe imploding.}}

** [[Nichelle Nichols|"It's the Pasadena Star Trek Convention all over again!"]]

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' did an interesting take on this trope. Peter gets killed in a car crash after [[It Makes Sense in Context|getting drunk at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting]] . Death then shows up to show what Peter would be like if he continues on his path of alcoholism. In this future, Peter is a [[Complete Monster]] who tortures his family and has sex with his boss. Horrified by this, Peter wishes he had never taken a drop of alcohol in his life. Death then shows him what his life would be like WITHOUT alcohol. In this future, Peter is happy, educated, and cheerful, but he has uptight friends, doesn't know Joe, Cleveland, or Quagmire, and thinks they're uncouth. The Aesop is "use moderation."

** In a [[Christmas Episode]], Lois was so upset over how her family's Christmas was ruined she messed with scenes of other Christmas stories. In [[It's a Wonderful Life]], when George Bailey returned from the alternate reality, she pushed him off the bridge.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Christmas Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Shout-Outs Index]]