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Too Smart for Strangers
- 299 statements
- 55 feature instances
- 47 referencing feature instances
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A Very Special Episode with a moral about a very important issue: all adults that you don't know are ravenous, sex-thirsty child molesters waiting to lure you into the back of their white van with promises of candy and toys. This Aesop came along in The '80s as child abduction and abuse, particularly in the wake of the 1981 abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, became a national concern in the United States and shortly thereafter there was a nationwide panic about Satanic cults that were alleged to be kidnapping and sexually abusing children (though after extensive investigation, no such cults were ever actually found). Of course, being childrens' TV shows, they have to discuss these issues in a way that's easy to understand, but without being scary — which usually just ends up being awkward. Really awkward. They can't mention any of the "worst" crimes (e.g., molestation) by name, so they generally stick to just kidnapping or "being touched in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable" (and, all together now, that's nooooo good). Expect the most graphic euphemisms you can get onto suitable-for-all-ages television, such as the "bathing suit area." For these reasons, the bulk of the show tends to be either about "safety tips" like never talking to strangers (which usually refers to strange adults, mind you) and rejecting all forms of generosity, or about a Card-Carrying Villain kidnapper and the more fantastical things he does to his victim. It's also worth noting that in the vast majority of child kidnappings and sexual abuse cases, the abuser is not a stranger but someone the child knows and trusts, usually because they have easy access to the child and, in custody cases (which are almost all kidnappings) the kidnapper has something to gain by kidnapping the child. The fact that this Aesop is based on faulty information renders it almost entirely useless, so it fell out of favor by the end of The '90s. A couple of high profile cases where lost children actively hid from the police or other adults trying to find and rescue them, as they'd had it drilled into them that all strangers were dangerous and would kidnap them given the opportunity, put the final nails into the simplistic interpretation of this idea. These days, experts advise caregivers to warn their children against "Tricky People" rather than "Strangers," putting the focus on suspicious actions rather than on whether you know someone. Guaranteed to be utterly uncomfortable, as happy-go-lucky, fun-loving characters are forced to deal with a truly horrifying eventuality. May have the side effect of making some children unbelievably paranoid, especially if they themselves have had it happen by someone they know and trust. And Heaven have mercy on your psyche if the writers decide to disregard the "don't scare the crap out of the kids" part. Compare Drugs Are Bad, another favorite kids-show message in the 1980s. See also, Memetic Molester, for fictional characters who are portrayed in a way that makes it a good idea for them to stay away from kids. The plot may involve a Red Riding Hood Replica, as a familiar tale about an innocent child who encounters a conniving predator. Compare and contrast Internet Safety Aesop, the stock lessons for the modern age about not trusting strangers online. Examples |
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| Too Smart for Strangers / int_10550610 | type |
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Strong Kids, Safe Kids was a direct-to-video program released by Paramount Home Video featuring several segments and musical numbers instructing kids how to avoid strangers and what to do if they are harmed by someone (plus tips for parents on how they should handle such crises). It was hosted by Henry Winkler, who reprised his role as The Fonz from Happy Days in one segment. | |
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In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Parasites", as the detectives arrive at a house, Stabler asks the little girl playing outside what her name is. She warily tells him that she's not supposed to talk to strangers and when he assures her that he's a cop, she asks to see his badge. | |
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Civvie 11's review of a game based off From Dusk Till Dawn has the debut of Cancer Mouse. Cancer Mouse introduces himself by saying he's going to teach children lessons about stranger danger, which Civvie agrees with... and then Cancer Mouse tries to add a lecture about white genocide. Civvie kicks him out before he could talk about both topics | |
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The Dimwit & Duke mascots in Bioshock Infinite have PA similar to this, encouraging children to report any suspicious strangers to the authorities (though this is more about foreign saboteurs than child kidnappers). The icing on the cake here is that Dimwit & Duke are mascots for a city that's essentially a militarized despotic United States in the sky, with its other public announcements covering standing for the national anthem and proper gun maintenance. | |
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Care Bears: A cartoon episode (partially included here) went for the related message of "don't go out in public without an adult". Bright Heart disobeys Champ Bear and goes down to Earth by himself. The message is undermined by the fact that the "danger" he encounters comes in the form of Shreeky (who, ironically, is a child and a human one at that) and Beastly. Of course, Shreeky and Beastly's attempts to kidnap Bright Heart are thwarted at every turn by their own stupidity. So the Broken Aesop is "don't worry about kidnappers — they're idiots." Although the intended Aesop was "don't go skiing alone, because if you get hurt, no one will be there to help you" but they have used this trope in at least 2 episodes. They also had a live-action special featuring mascot costumes, Be a Safe Kid, in the mid-80s. It also teaches about how to avoid strangers. |
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Briefly parodied in The Empire Strikes Back: "R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!" | |
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Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons misunderstood these, and thought his shoulder was his "special area." In another episode, Homer attempts to remember all the advice his father gave him when he was a kid. In The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show, Marge agrees on letting her kids roam around alone for a while in a shopping mall, under the condition that they be careful. Only they completely disregard her advice mere seconds later by leaving together with a total stranger... Subversion! Turns out he was just a friendly marketing researcher, gathering children for a Itchy & Scratchy survey. Asking nicely apparently isn't Roger Meyer, Jr's strong suit. The trope is averted in "Fat Man and Little Boy" by Homer (no surprise there). He even says so himself: |
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Milly, Molly had the episode "Wags", which is this but for dogs, in which Wags learns to be cautious around strangers after being captured by a "bad stranger". | |
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In Toby Terrier and His Video Pals, this is one of the lessons taught in "Safety First", and shown in action with their version of Little Red Riding Hood having Little Red Riding Hound refusing to talk to the wolf since he's a stranger. | |
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Less well-known, but no less awkward, is a PSA starring He-Man and She-Ra of all people. It really brings the awkward when it acknowledges that kids are abused by people they know already. Interestingly enough, Melendy Britt revealed at a convention in the early 2010's that she remembered hearing about a little girl who revealed to an adult that she was being abused. The girl revealed it because she learned from She-Ra and He-Man that it was okay to tell an adult and not feel shame. | |
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DVD-R Hell has covered a couple of these, including the trope namer. Brad's reaction to the song about molestation is a classic. | |
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Lucifer: In Season Six, Dan as a disembodied ghost winds up possessing the body of his killer, Vincent Le Mec and goes to see Trixie. When the apparent stranger attempts to hug her, she shouts "stranger danger" and uses Waif-Fu to knock him on his ass. | |
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The Family Circus: One strip showed a tearful Jeffy running indoors, leaving a kindly-looking elderly woman standing in confusion on the sidewalk, wailing, "Mommy! A stranger talked to me!" | |
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The first chapter of Yotsuba&! has Yotsuba run off to explore her new neighborhood. Her father enlists the help of Fuuka Ayase, one of their new neighbors, to go look for her. Fuuka finds Yotsuba and tells her that she's a friend of her father's. As they start walking back, though, Yotsuba remembers a time her father told her to be wary of strangers, even if they say they know him. Yotsuba comes up with a wacky excuse before sprinting away in fear. It isn't until Yotsuba runs into the rest of the Ayase family and reunites with her dad that everything gets cleared up. | |
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In Yin Yang Yo!, an elderly female stranger approaches Yin and Yang inviting them to her home. The two call her a stranger, then complain to her for not offering free candy. However, she wins them over by promising free Wi-Fi in her house. | |
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The Cowboy Bebop episode "Toys in the Attic" has this gem from Ed: | |
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The TV version of The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers, from the 1980s Saturday-Morning Cartoon adaptation, is more nuanced than most examples of its era and deconstructs extreme examples. The Bumbling Dad decides to Scare 'Em Straight, until Sister Bear is reduced to a terrified wreck who doesn't want to leave the house. The Closer to Earth mother (as always) has to reassure Sister Bear that there are dangerous strangers out there, but you can't be paranoid like that. In some ways the book (while sharing this nuance) is creepier because the newspaper pictures are in black-and-white the reader has time to read the text and let it and Sister's wide-eyed expression sink in. | |
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In one of the animated "George" segments of The Go Show, meant to teach kids about right and wrong via an animated preschooler named George, he gets lost in the supermarket. One variation on this scenario involves a strange man take him by the hand and George yelling, followed by the segment ending and the narrator discussing stranger danger. Another variation involves him talking to a woman in a police uniform, which the narrator says is okay despite technically counting as talking to strangers, the police are there to help. | |
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And then there's that infamous "Sonic Says" from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog quoted above... | |
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In Psych-OMORI-Nauts: Operation Weed-Out to Sunset!, Hero informs Kel not to trust the strangers claiming to be Psychonauts by referring to this. | |
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Persona 5: Childish shadows will sometimes shout "stranger danger!" at the beginning of combat. | |
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Get Muggsy! subverts this. Although the plot does briefly stop for Muggsy to give a lesson on strangers (complete with the "bad touch" kind of stuff), the lesson also says that some strangers (e.g., authority figures) are more trustworthy. | |
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Referenced occasionally by The Nostalgia Critic. Justified as it's his job to smash the Nostalgia Filter of all this stuff, but you've got to wonder why his parents suddenly decided to care enough and make sure he knew about stranger danger. | |
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Parodied to hell and back no fewer than three times in Dragon Ball Z Abridged during the Namek Saga, all three involving Gohan. | |
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There was a Very Special Comic Book starring Spider-Man in which his next-door-neighbor kid was being molested by his (female) babysitter. In it, Spidey shares that he was molested, pre-superpowers, by someone who looked suspiciously like Uncle Ben◊. Spidey never references or even acknowledges this story in any other continuity, but can you really blame him? Supposedly, the original draft of the story said the molester was Uncle Ben, with all the attendant Squick involved. One time when Executive Meddling was used for good, as this approach would've made it really hard to see Spider-Man's origin the same way again. It was packaged with a Power Pack comic about the Powers family helping a child who ran away from abuse in her immediate family. Both comics were reviewed by Dr. Scott of Polite Dissent here. | |
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In Adventures of the Gummi Bears, during Folly Day in disguise, Sunni is approached by a stranger offering candy, and she refuses citing such danger. Unfortunately, the man oily notes that he is not a stranger to her as he reveals himself to her justified alarm as Duke Igthorn, who is indeed very well known to the Gummi Bears as their greatest enemy. | |
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Heavily deconstructed in With Pearl and Ruby Glowing; some of the kids are assaulted by someone they know, including parents, friends, or authority figures, and the advice given to them by parents usually doesn't work because even if you refuse candy from a strange man, there's nothing stopping him from taking you anyway, claiming that he's your father and that you're being "cranky" when you scream for help. | |
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Cinema Snob Reviews Frozen (a fan comic where The Cinema Snob reviews Frozen (2013)) spoofs this with Snob thinking Kristoff asking Anna about strangers will lead to this. He begs the film not to do it, and is very relieved when Anna's joke answer is all there is. | |
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In Love & Pies, Amelia catches Edwina helping Amelia's daughter Kate find her toy. Amelia tells Kate not to talk to strangers and Kate retorts that Amelia talks to Edwina all the time. | |
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Journey to Chaos: Nosiop, a poison master, has a habit of testing his recipes on the unsuspecting. He offers a piece of candy to Zettai, the pre-teen daughter of one of his guild fellows, and they have this exchange. | |
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On 30 Rock, when Kathy Geiss put the moves on Jack, he recounted it to Liz, saying "she touched me in my swimsuit area" and "it made me very uncomfortable". | |
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Played much more effectively, and realistically, in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "See No Evil", where a career criminal, played by Michael Gross, uses an experimental invisibility suit to pose as his young daughter's (Elisabeth Moss) imaginary friend, Mojo, in order to get around a restraining order put in place by his ex-wife. | |
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In the game Evil Genius, when you successfully kidnap someone from America, you hear a radio announcement about the crime, which includes advice that people take steps "such as not accepting candy from strangers." | |
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There were three Diff'rent Strokes episodes that were like this. One where Arnold's friend Dudley was molested by Gordon Jump. (Don't forget that scene where the bike store owner wants the kids to scream real loud at his ass.) Another where Arnold and Kimberly hitch a ride with a kidnapper who clearly intends to rape Kimberly. The eighth season opens with a two-part episode where Sam is kidnapped by a grieving father. |
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Taken to a truly weird level by one issue of Swamp Thing (one that predated the iconic Alan Moore run). Though the The Comics Code still held some sway back then, Swamp Thing was emphatically not a series for children, and freely talked about children being abducted and killed by the stranger (the story was, in fact, Ripped from the Headlines of the Atlanta child murders). The weirdness comes in when it turns out the killer is a very on-the-nose parody of Fred Rogers - who was demonically possessed, but the narrative implicitly blames him for the murders anyways, because his show teaches little kids to treat every stranger as a friend. | |
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The Brady Bunch: The Season 2 episode "The Babysitters", where Mike teaches his 7-year-old son, Bobby, about never answering the door for a stranger. Although most such lessons are taught to children as early as age 3 or 4 and Bobby may have been a bit old for the lesson — a point Robert Reed likely made to the producers — he likely went along because the demonstration was effective and made its point. (Incidentally, Alice answers the door while Mike, thinking that Bobby is still at the door, is still playing the part of the crotchety old stranger. Turned out Mike outsmarted himself.) | |
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One episode of Dateline covered this, showing a mother (via hidden camera) that her children were more than happy to receive a tour of an ice-cream van from a man they'd never seen before. To their credit, the girl did realize that they violated this trope not long after the van had pulled away, leaving the pair behind - her younger brother, unfortunately, was still focused on the free ice-cream they'd gotten. | |
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Best of the Worst has dug up plenty of examples, including Tricky People. All of the ones they've covered are guilty of botching the message entirely with unbelievably gullible protagonists, the implication that everyone you know is a molester, and wildly inaccurate information that serves to put kids in even more danger. | |
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A recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live during the 2013-14 season has a public service officer come to a classroom to teach about stranger danger, but the kids misinterpret everything he says, making them want to find vans during recess because the people inside might have candy. | |
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The Barney & Friends episode "Playing It Safe" contains a segment about stranger danger. Derek brings up the topic when talking about safety rules, which brings Baby Bop to ask about it as well. The kid cast then puts on a play of Little Red Riding Hood to teach her about not talking to strangers and, in traditional Barney fashion, it's followed by a song reinforcing the message. | |
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The Outside plays with this, as strangers aren't shown to be inherently bad. Nevertheless, Ryuuko hadn't learned to avoid dangerous ones (due to being raised sheltered and isolated), which is seen best in chapter 23, where she meets a "nasty dude", who's implied to be a child predator and, had Shiro not have intervened, things wouldn't have turned out well. Later, in chapter 36, she meets an old woman, to whom she goes with, because, "she could tell that she wasn't going to hurt her", said woman getting her out of the cold and looking after her. | |
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Roys Bedoys: In “That’s Dangerous, Roys Bedoys!�, a strange man offers Roys candy, so he yells for Mrs. Bedoys. In “Roys Bedoys Gets Lost!�, another strange man tries to get Roys to follow him by offering ice cream, but Roys refuses. In “Beware of Strangers, Roys Bedoys!�, another strange man offers Roys a ride home in his car, claiming that Mrs. Bedoys is in the hospital, then another one knocks on the Bedoyses’ door and tries to get the boys to let him in, only to run away upon finding out Mrs. Bedoys is at home, and then a third one tries to show the boys a puppy on the playground but they refuse. |
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In You Got HaruhiRolled!, Kuyou somehow ends up trapped in a cardboard box, and, in a parody of Eliezer Yudkowsky's "AI in a Box" thought experiment, is reduced to begging passers-by to let her out. Shortly afterwards, Imouto and Miyoko walk by, and Kuyou tries to persuade them to release her. Miyoko is all set to do it, but Imouto refuses, bringing up this trope. So Kuyou is forced to stay in the box until a rainstorm ruins the cardboard. According to the writer of the fic, his incarnation of Miyoko is a Nightmare Fetishist, so that may have something to do with her willingness to release Kuyou. | |
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An odd version happens in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's fifth season finale, "The Cutie Re-Mark". In an attempt to avert an Alternate Timeline and get the filly Rainbow Dash to perform the Sonic Rainboom, Twilight flies up to join her and tells her about everything. However, since Twilight is still one with No Social Skills and all of time/space is on the line, she comes off as incredibly creepy, causing Rainbow Dash to fly away and allow the Point of Divergence to hit again. | |
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Tricky People, a 1998 video produced by Nest Entertainment, is a rather serious PSA about sexual abuse and stranger danger... which stars a silly yellow Barney-esque dinosaur named Yello Dyno. | |
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In The League of Gentlemen, "community theatre" group Legz Akimbo performs a play about stranger danger in a school. It ends with the moral that anyone you encounter could be a paedophile, so only trust people you meet online! | |
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The trope is referenced in the episode "What Fresh Hell?" of Criminal Minds, where the "Stranger Danger" program is mentioned as probably being the single biggest enemy of child abduction cases in America, because after it was disseminated research showed that strangers were probably responsible for a minority of kidnapping cases. Far more often the abductor was friends, family, neighbours or someone at least associated with the family or child. In this case, it was a local gardener who lived a few blocks away. | |
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In The George Lopez Show episode "Max's Big Adventure", Max has a school play about this that has two kids being approached by a man in a Conspicuous Trenchcoat asking them where their parents are. The play is about as good as one would expect, leading George to think that Max doesn't really know about stranger dangers and testing him. The episode as a whole is more of a deconstruction of this trope. | |
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South Park: Parodied, of course, with a counselor who asks if Father Maxi had stuck anything up the kids' butts. The counselor avoids the word "penis" though, asking if he had stuck anything "of his" up there, which just confuses them. There are at least two other episodes of South Park that touch on the subject, but the closest to this trope is probably "Child Abduction Is Not Funny". Tweek is nearly abducted by a man who dresses up as the Spirit of Human Kindness and tries to convince him that these sorts of morals are just paranoia. (And they partly are...) Later, the town's parents kick the children out of town for their own safety(!?) — after hearing on the news that parents are most likely to abduct their own children.note Which is true - except it's generally a divorced or otherwise estranged couple that this happens with, making it "Custodial Interference", not a molestation/rape-driven kidnapping And then there's "Wacky Molestation Adventure", where the kids frame their parents for molesting them and they're arrested and sent to a facility to "cure" them of their sexual urges. While the kids form colonies of their own now that they're alone, the parents undergo brainwashing procedures that end with them believing that they actually did molest their kids. And, of course, who can forget "Sexual Harassment Panda"? ("When I see one little panda pulling down another little panda's underpants, that makes me a saaaad panda!") Naturally, the kids grossly misinterpret his lessons to the point where anything a friend does that they don't like counts as "sexual harassment," and this eventually leads to a rash of time-consuming lawsuits. In the end, the mascot is forced to change his name to "Don't Sue People Panda." Subverted in this scene from "Mecha-Streisand" where a disguised Barbara Streisand offers the boys a ride in her car. In "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset", Butters says that his parents told him to never get in a car with a stranger... unless it's a limousine. |
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Home Alone: A brief moment, when a shop worker is suspicious about Kevin being by himself. She questions him relentlessly about where his family is, and when she asks "where do you live?", Kevin replies "I can't tell you, because you're a stranger". | |
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My Dream Is Yours: Ohlm is a ditz and he may not have many intelligence points, but he's got enough intelligence points to realize not to converse with strangers, as shown when he uses Confusion Fu against Jamie Jam and her "Knock Knock" Joke. | |
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At least suggested in The Spider and the Fly, where a Spider entices an innocent but wary Fly to come into his house with promises of nice things, only to snare and eat her when she finally gives in. Given that it's a Beast Fable for children about the dangers of predatory people, the fate of the Fly could be shorthand for any number of horrible things. | |
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Double-subverted in a cutaway of Family Guy. Peter as a child is offered some candy by a dangerous-looking strange man in a van if he gets in. Peter declines the offer because his mom said he shouldn't. The newspaper reveals that another boy got in the van and got a lifetime's supply of candy much to Peter's jealousy. The next day, Peter receives the exact same offer from a normal-looking man and gleefully agrees. He gets no candy and gets molested. | |
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The PSA at the end of the M.A.S.K. episode "The Ultimate Weapon" had Matt Trakker warn his son Scott that hitchhiking is dangerous because you'll never know who will pick you up. He even states that it's possible the person who picks up Scott's friend could be a child molester. Fortunately, Scott convinces his friend to walk with him and his dad. | |
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In How I Met Your Mother, Ted is stranded when his friend Robin happens to show up in her white news van, leading to this jokey exchange: | |
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