...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Captain Obvious Aesop
- 211 statements
- 39 feature instances
- 14 referencing feature instances
| Captain Obvious Aesop | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | label |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | page |
CaptainObviousAesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | comment |
Friends, there comes a time in everyone's life when they can no longer sit quietly and say nothing. Sometimes, a man's got to take a moral stand, even though it may not be popular and even though it might get him into trouble. Today, my friends, is that day. I won't stay silent any longer. I believe that cancer is bad. This is a trope for when characters are treated as brave revolutionaries by the other characters in the work for stating the obvious: that Eyepatch Q. Blackheart is a bad man, that the Nazis were evil, that cancer is bad, etc. Can also apply to situations or things instead of people. The important part of the trope is the reaction of others. This isn't about the work's moral message, it's about a character being treated as brave for making statements that are completely in line with the majority opinion around him. Obviously there's Truth in Television here. Values Dissonance can sometimes result in this, if the Aesop really was revolutionary and controversial for its time/place. Also, some Aesops are uncontroversial when spoken as a plain statement, but have an implicit, less-widely-agreed-to message, such as "We're not yet doing enough about this." For example, it's easy to say "Bigotry is bad", but programs designed to help disadvantaged minorities, like affirmative action and hate crime legislation, are polarizing political issues with no clear right or wrong answers. "Wars are bad" is an uncontroversial message, but "this particular war is bad and we should stop fighting it" will likely lead to accusations of treason. Not to mention that even the most moral of people can get burnt out on idealism and start resenting the people they're still supposed to help as whiners and nuisances - and therefore, might have to learn to be compassionate all over again, or at least have their initial altruism reinforced. And, of course, Tropes Are Tools; while no one might be arguing in favor of people getting cancer, a story that points out that cancer is bad is still not wrong to do so, and can still be moving if it effectively shows why cancer is bad. This trope is Played for Laughs quite often, hence why so many of these examples are parodies, but straight examples are still fairly common. This may lead to an Anvilicious moral. Compare Anvilicious, And That's Terrible, Stock Aesops, Broken Aesop, and Drugs Are Bad. Contrast Hard Truth Aesop. Also contrast with Lost Aesop, when the story seems forget that it was trying to give a moral. See also Windmill Crusader, where a character takes a stand against a non-existent problem. Can sometimes overlap with Clueless Aesop, where a story attempts to give a moral but misunderstands/misapplies it or simply isn't in a good position to give it anyway. A staple of Glurge, Author Tract, Propaganda Piece, and any time there's a Writer on Board. The Aesop is also likely to convince the other characters in an Easy Evangelism moment. Also notice that you’ll almost always find the "Reading Is Cool" Aesop in a book, meaning people who already like reading are the ones finding it. Sister Trope to Captain Obvious Reveal, when the characters are astonished by a twist the audience can totally see coming. Examples |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop | fetched |
2024-03-25T22:02:09Z | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | parsed |
2024-03-25T22:02:09Z | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to Anvilicious: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to BrokenAesop: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to DavidBowie: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to ExploitedTrope: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to Glurge: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to Lampshaded: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to MichaelJackson: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to ReliablyUnreliableGuns: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | processingComment |
Dropped link to TomLehrer: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_13a61240 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_13a61240 | comment |
The Rise of Skywalker: The most reductive message of Rey's arc in this movie is "being related to an evil person doesn't guarantee you'll be evil". It's not a bad Aesop exactly but given the context, most viewers hardly expected Rey to turn to the Dark Side just because she discovered her long-lost grandpa is the Dark Lord of the Sith. The worst things she's done are accidentally blowing up a transport she thought contained her friend and angrily stabbing an unarmed Kylo Ren (who had nearly killed her and whom she immediately heals), almost everyone believes her to be a good person and tells her so (including those that know her family history), her father was depicted as a good person so the latent evil of her ancestor apparently didn't survive one generation, the one person who insists the Dark Side is "in [her] nature" is a villain who is heavily projecting, plus she only learned she was related to Palpatine a few hours ago. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_13a61240 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_13a61240 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Rise of Skywalker | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_13a61240 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_1bdeba5a | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_1bdeba5a | comment |
X-Men: The comic often edges into this under bad writers. Did you know that bigotry is a bad thing?! | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_1bdeba5a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_1bdeba5a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| X-Men (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_1bdeba5a | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_23d2ea71 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_23d2ea71 | comment |
Parodied in Donkey Kong Country. King K. Rool conjures up a plan to steal the Crystal Coconut, at which point Krusha remarks "Stealing is baaaaaaad". | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_23d2ea71 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_23d2ea71 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Donkey Kong Country | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_23d2ea71 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2588eeb0 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2588eeb0 | comment |
Happens on Dr. Phil often. Usually he ends up telling people something that they should already know, like that it's not okay to cheat on your wife, or it's bad to abuse your family, or that child molestation is horrible. But the people on the show will act like he's telling them something radical that they've never considered and will be belligerent to the end. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2588eeb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2588eeb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dr. Phil | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2588eeb0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_25bfbf9e | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_25bfbf9e | comment |
My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic: One of the many Aesops given out by the Grand Ruler can be summed up as "There are different ways to solve problems." This is something of a Broken Aesop as most of the story is about how the Starfleet ponies are always right and any deviations from their plans is a bad idea. Another one deals with how nightmares are frightening. |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_25bfbf9e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_25bfbf9e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_25bfbf9e | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_29e77392 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_29e77392 | comment |
Played with in Horrible Histories involving the Trope Namer himself: Aesop is sent to distribute alms to a Greek city... unfortunately his idea of crowd control involves increasingly patronising reminders of his "moral tales". The crowd's (hilariously matter-of-fact) response: "Have you ever heard the story about the fable writer and the cliff? It's a story about a highly annoying fable writer who gets thrown off a cliff by an angry mob." "Yeah, it's a moral tale about not annoying an angry mob." | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_29e77392 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_29e77392 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Horrible Histories | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_29e77392 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2b7e8363 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2b7e8363 | comment |
The Onion's spinoff site Clickhole, in a video simply titled "This Video Seems Silly, But It Makes A Good Point." The video in question is just a simple looping animation of a dancing dinosaur with "RACISM IS BAD" floating over it, followed shortly by "NELSON MANDELA WAS A GOOD PERSON." | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2b7e8363 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2b7e8363 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| ClickHole (Website) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_2b7e8363 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3aabfec3 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3aabfec3 | comment |
Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Everyone knows that dumping an oil tanker in the ocean is a bad idea, yet everyone keeps going on about it. The writers reportedly did this on purpose, since more nuanced villains might have been too close to home — i.e., companies their young viewers' parents worked for, or they might fall squarely into Strawman Has a Point if they allowed a realistic portrayal of an oil executive being upset at what his employees were doing. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3aabfec3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3aabfec3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Captain Planet and the Planeteers | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3aabfec3 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3defe34c | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3defe34c | comment |
Discussed by George Orwell in his essay Looking Back on the Spanish War: On the other hand, Orwell also wrote: |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3defe34c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3defe34c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Discussed Trope | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3defe34c | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3e5de40b | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3e5de40b | comment |
Parodied in an episode of Scrubs. J.D. fantasises about doing a PSA on Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy in which he simply tells the audience: "Don't smother your kids." | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3e5de40b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3e5de40b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Scrubs | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3e5de40b | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3f6951a | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3f6951a | comment |
Super Size Me is often accused of having the obvious aesop that eating excessive amounts of fast food isn't healthy. Within the film, Spurlock lampshades this reading and stresses that the point is to show just how bad it is for you... but a careful reading of how he arranges his diet and exercise habits makes it clear he's rather badly skewed the experiment, to the point an entire other film, Fat Head, exists to skewer this one. (Not disclosed, for example, is that Spurlock drank heavily during the filming of Super Size Me, adding a massive number of calories that weren't counted for the experiment and causing liver damage that probably shouldn't be fairly blamed on McDoubles and Shamrock Shakes.) | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3f6951a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3f6951a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Super Size Me | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_3f6951a | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_42cc8840 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_42cc8840 | comment |
High School Musical tells us that being yourself is good and cliques and bullying are bad. Thanks HSM, no one's ever thought of that before. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_42cc8840 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_42cc8840 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| High School Musical | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_42cc8840 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4c663f2c | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4c663f2c | comment |
Holy Man, an Eddie Murphy vehicle, got panned by the critics for having Murphy's supposedly enlightened guru character "G" dispense the "wisdom" of banal platitudes that everyone already knows, such as (and we quote) "Be Careful What You Wish For—you may get it." In particular, Roger Ebert blasted the film for having "G" unironically tell the old parable of the starfish as something that happened to him: | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4c663f2c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4c663f2c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Holy Man | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4c663f2c | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4cc06582 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4cc06582 | comment |
Lampshaded in Hot Fuzz, as quoted above. Skinner argues that a teenager caught stealing a biscuit will learn a valuable lesson from his arrest, only for Sgt. Tony to point out that the lesson would be "stealing is bad and you'll get arrested for it" which anybody over the age of five knows. Although it turns out that Skinner does have a reason to let Cocker go; he's a member of the NWA and thus arranges for Cocker to be murdered for nicking the biscuits and threatening Sandford's chances of winning the Village of the Year award. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4cc06582 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4cc06582 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hot Fuzz | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4cc06582 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4e7cac32 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4e7cac32 | comment |
The moral of the first episode Supergirl (2015) is basically "girls can be superheroes too!". A noble sentiment sure, but female superheroes have been a thing since the '40s and the title character has been a decently well-known fixture of pop culture since the '60s, so there isn't really anybody notable on the other side of this issue. Thankfully it was toned down significantly after the pilot. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4e7cac32 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4e7cac32 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Supergirl (2015) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_4e7cac32 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5717177a | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5717177a | comment |
The Chicken Soup for the Soul series collects short stories that serve to illustrate such time-honored Aesops as, Be kind to others, love your family, make the most of the time you have in life, hang in there when things get hard.... heartwarming, sure, but not really breaking any new ground in the moral philosophy department. This is not helped by most of the stories being intentional Tear Jerkers, often to the level of Glurge. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5717177a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5717177a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chicken Soup for the Soul | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5717177a | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5ca6ca8f | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5ca6ca8f | comment |
In The Crystal Gems Say be Anti-Racist, each short opens with a childishly simple anti-racism PSA being shot in-universe, but when the camera stops rolling the PSA continues with a more deep-dive into the specifics of how society is racist. For example, Pearl's PSA about how black inventor Lewis Latimer was the real father of the light-bulb ends with her going on a rant about how figures of Black history like Latimer are ignored and unknown in the first place because of systemic racism in America's education system.note Despite the PSA's claim, working electric bulbs had been developed over 40 years before Latimer patented his own design. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5ca6ca8f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5ca6ca8f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Crystal Gems Say be Anti-Racist (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_5ca6ca8f | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6276800c | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6276800c | comment |
The Nostalgia Critic tends to rip into movies for this. In his review of The Cell, he's rather baffled at what the audience is supposed to take out of the scenes which show that the serial killer was beaten as a child, by his father. The Critic seems to find it a given that most everyone already knows that child abuse is bad, and the people who still do it aren't exactly gonna be swayed by some movie. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6276800c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6276800c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6276800c | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f1bcb62 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f1bcb62 | comment |
Downplayed in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, which also beats the "Racism is bad" drum, but similarly goes into more nuance about how most racists are simply ignorant or ill-informed rather than willfully malicious. Even protagonist Ike accidentally offends the first Laguz he meets by calling them "sub-human" simply because that's what they were called his whole life and he never knew any better, while former Daein soldier Jill grew up constantly exposed to anti-laguz propaganda teaching her to believe that they're the enemy of mankind. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f1bcb62 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f1bcb62 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f1bcb62 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f778e46 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f778e46 | comment |
Leon Thomas of Renegade Cut has argued something similar with regards to Downton Abbey. In that case, the show is more up-front about its conservative politics and nostalgia for the aristocracy and The British Empire (the Show Runner is a Conservative peer in the House of Lords), and he feels that this extends to its moments of liberalism, which apply mainly to issues like women's rights and gay rights where, in 2010s Britain, the debates were largely settled. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f778e46 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f778e46 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Renegade Cut (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_6f778e46 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_792239e5 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_792239e5 | comment |
Though there are more profound aesops to be found in the game, one of the major ones of Tales of Symphonia boils down to "racism is bad." It does go into detail about just how monstrous this can end up becoming, especially when the victims of racism go on to commit atrocities against the people who oppressed them, but it also hammers this point in as if it's never been said before. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_792239e5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_792239e5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Tales of Symphonia (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_792239e5 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_81692f99 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_81692f99 | comment |
Star Trek can be prone to this sometimes. The original series had the Nazi planet episode, which involved a well-intentioned historian converting an alien planet into a recreation of Nazi Germany because, from what he knew of history, it seemed to him like a good way to introduce order to the people. Kirk has to explain to him the Aesop of "What Hitler did was wrong. Don't do that." Also doubles as a Broken Aesop with a touch of Dated History, as it turned out later on that Nazi Germany was not the model of efficiency people assumed it was. And perhaps a bit of Values Dissonance, because when The Twilight Zone (1959) attempted to address Nazi atrocities in a more sophisticated way they got rather a lot of letters of complaint from supporters of segregation. |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_81692f99 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_81692f99 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_81692f99 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_85a9b36f | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_85a9b36f | comment |
The main message of The Emoji Movie is that it's good to Be Yourself because being meh all of the time is not so great. Who would have guessed? This part of the movie is rarely seen as a deep message about emotional repression because it feels too contrived, being handled without subtlety or nuance, leading to many moments of unintentional hilarity with how it assumes that the audience is ignorant of such a blatantly-obvious message. The approach that Inside Out took was much more meaningful because it actually explored the usefulness of the more negative emotions instead of simply preaching to Be Yourself, which wouldn't help people who suffer from conditions like depression. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_85a9b36f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_85a9b36f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Emoji Movie | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_85a9b36f | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_87b55b5d | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_87b55b5d | comment |
The Onion has parodied this a few times. One article shows an advocacy group dedicated to upholding the Third Amendment (that's the "no quartering troops in civilian housing" one, for the record) despite the fact that the Third Amendment has only been challenged in one minor case during its entire history. The group interprets this as less due to the fact that nobody really wants to do it to begin with, and more due to them being very successful. The Onion's spinoff site Clickhole, in a video simply titled "This Video Seems Silly, But It Makes A Good Point." The video in question is just a simple looping animation of a dancing dinosaur with "RACISM IS BAD" floating over it, followed shortly by "NELSON MANDELA WAS A GOOD PERSON." After the untimely deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, StarWipe, an Onion spinoff dedicated to parodying celebrity tabloids, published a bold op-ed column entitled "We Like Celebrities And They Should Stop Dying". The article goes so far as to call on President Obama to stop celebrities from dying, and includes a link to a petition to the White House to end all celebrity deaths. |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_87b55b5d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_87b55b5d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Onion (Website) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_87b55b5d | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8cf978ec | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8cf978ec | comment |
In Mock Effect, after the encounter with Dr. Saleon, Garrus learns "that… that… killing people… is wrong". | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8cf978ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8cf978ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mock Effect (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8cf978ec | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8df5521b | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8df5521b | comment |
Superman: This article mocks the Grounded Aborted Arc for this, pointing out that Superman appears to be making the statement that drug dealers and child abuse are bad and treating it as though it's some radical new idea. The more specific statements, on illegal immigration and government investment in corporations, were basically in-line with US government policy at the time, which makes Superman's support of them seem even more limp. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8df5521b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8df5521b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Superman (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_8df5521b | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_9a7088bc | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_9a7088bc | comment |
The original series had the Nazi planet episode, which involved a well-intentioned historian converting an alien planet into a recreation of Nazi Germany because, from what he knew of history, it seemed to him like a good way to introduce order to the people. Kirk has to explain to him the Aesop of "What Hitler did was wrong. Don't do that." Also doubles as a Broken Aesop with a touch of Dated History, as it turned out later on that Nazi Germany was not the model of efficiency people assumed it was. And perhaps a bit of Values Dissonance, because when The Twilight Zone (1959) attempted to address Nazi atrocities in a more sophisticated way they got rather a lot of letters of complaint from supporters of segregation. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_9a7088bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_9a7088bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek: The Original Series | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_9a7088bc | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_acb92fd0 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_acb92fd0 | comment |
Referred to in an introduction to the Father Ted scripts by Graham Linehan. Commenting on the Mistaken for Racist episode 'Are You Right There Ted?', Linehan says that it seems to be the only story that has a moral... but if it does it's only 'Don't be racist' which he sarcastically says is 'pretty strong stuff' | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_acb92fd0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_acb92fd0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Father Ted | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_acb92fd0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ada547f3 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ada547f3 | comment |
The Room (2003): Tommy Wiseau claims the message of the film is "If a lot of people love each other, the world would be a better place to live", which his character Johnny in fact baldly states at one point in the film. Doubles as a Broken Aesop; Wiseau claims this lesson is presented through Denny's secret love for Lisa, something that is depicted as bad in the film since both characters are in committed relationships. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ada547f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ada547f3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Room (2003) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ada547f3 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ba0240b6 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ba0240b6 | comment |
Hired!: Hiring a man with sales talent but no relevant experience, and then not giving him any training beyond basic info on the product will not result in an effective salesman even if he is personable and hard-working. Especially if you then leave him to his own devices and don't supervise him at all. The beginning of the second part is the senior Mr. Warren pointing out what a stupid oversight this was. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ba0240b6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ba0240b6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hired! | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ba0240b6 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c1c335a9 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c1c335a9 | comment |
Grizzly Man: The most reductive message of the documentary is a rather obvious "Don't hang around grizzly bears, because they will eat you like they did Timothy Treadwell." The director Werner Herzog, however, uses Treadwell's footage to attack his New-Age Retro Hippie outlook on nature as a benevolent force. In fact, Herzog has described the film as an "argument" he's having over their different perspectives on man's place in the natural world. Herzog himself holds the view that Nature Is Not Nice. It just is. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c1c335a9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c1c335a9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Grizzly Man | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c1c335a9 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c3b69789 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c3b69789 | comment |
In 20 Socially Unacceptable Things by Matt Santoro, Matt tells the audience that it's bad to pick your nose. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c3b69789 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c3b69789 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Matthew Santoro (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c3b69789 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
One of the many criticisms given towards the 13th era Doctor Who episode Orphan 55 is that, while "global warming is a serious issue" isn't inherently a bad moral? The sheer lack of nuance and explorations ends up reducing the moral to just "destroying the world would be bad". | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c43df4d8 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c4778e4b | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c4778e4b | comment |
"Don't stand near a car fire" - Because it's possible for the fire to make the car's bumper launch off at dangerous speeds. The Mythbusters couldn't make this happen themselves, but proved it was possible by finding a firewoman who had her legs broken as a result of this happening. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c4778e4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c4778e4b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| MythBusters | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_c4778e4b | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_d9c602eb | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_d9c602eb | comment |
Parodied on a famous episode of South Park: Played straight in "Death", which states that people who are suicidal shouldn't ask a kid to help them go through with it. |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_d9c602eb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_d9c602eb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| South Park | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_d9c602eb | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_e93c86ef | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_e93c86ef | comment |
In the episode "Cruise to Hell" of Gegege No Kitaro this trope is played for laughs. Two criminals called Masakishi and Mamezo are sent to Hell without even needing to wait until they die, as a punishment for the evil lives they've led. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_e93c86ef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_e93c86ef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| GeGeGe no Kitarō (Manga) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_e93c86ef | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ea4f62db | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ea4f62db | comment |
Family Guy: Parodied when Congressmen finally realize smoking is bad. And in the same episode: "Hey. We had a lot of fun today. But you know what's not funny? Killing strippers." In "A Fresh Heir", Peter's rich father-in-law decides to leave all of his money to Chris, meaning Peter won't be able to get to it like he had been planning to do with Lois. Peter decides to marry Chris (just roll with it), but decides not to at the end of the episode. And when Lois is running for Mayor: |
|
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ea4f62db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ea4f62db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Family Guy | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_ea4f62db | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f3c3ca42 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f3c3ca42 | comment |
The Tick loved to mock this trope as it occurs in superhero comics. "Eating kittens is just plain wrong, and no-one should do it! Ever!" | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f3c3ca42 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f3c3ca42 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Tick | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f3c3ca42 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f5a661a6 | type |
Captain Obvious Aesop | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f5a661a6 | comment |
Happens in-universe in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Ember, a childlike elf, spouts off simplistic platitudes and encouragement to people, which somehow gets under their skin and causes them to see her as some revolutionary preacher. Give her a chance, and she can even turn Nocticula, the succubus queen of the Midnight Isles, onto the path of good. She even develops a cult following after a while. But she humbly insists that she's only telling people what they already know. | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f5a661a6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f5a661a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Captain Obvious Aesop / int_f5a661a6 |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.