History Main / AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office or legislative body, depending on where the balance of power lies in the Presidential-Parliamentary spectrum [[note]]in Presidential systems, the Head of State (i.e. President) is also the chief executive and the cabinet needs no legislative confidence, so the Presidential Election would be more important that the Legislative Election; in Parliamentary systems, the chief executive - in this case, the Head of Government (i.e. Prime Minister) - is drawn from the Legislature, and the Head of State has no power of their own, so the Legislative Election would be more important that the Presidential Election where one exists, as the Head of State might be elected by the Legislature instead of the voters. In the case of parliamentary monarchies, there are no presidential elections because the head of state is a hereditary position. so the Legislative election is the only one available.[[/note]]. Since real life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.

But not in the world of fiction. No matter how meaningless the post, no matter how minor the job of selecting it, ''any'' job that requires an election will be treated as seriously as the election of a world leader. Even if the person in question is running for the position of garbage collector, expect the news media to hound their every footstep sniffing out scandal as if the person was a major celebrity. Furthermore, every person in town will be talking about their positions in great detail as if the election deeply impacts every facet of their lives. A work in a school setting will show the student body deeply concerned over the position of StudentCouncilPresident. The candidates, all of whom are ''children'', spend what must be exorbitant funds on their campaigns and the school allows them to hold massive rallies in a gym or auditorium, in which the entire student body will attend on their own free time to support their favorite candidates and take part in the leadership of their school. The actual election will even feature fancy voting booths just like those used in ''real'' elections.

* In the "Portrait of a Politician" story in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', mass rallies are held over the election of the mayor of Mega-City One, which leads to serious riots, deaths, and mass arrests. The mayor is a purely figurehead position, whose authority is limited to suggesting legislation to the Chief Judge. In the end, the election was won by an ordinary orangutan.
* ''ComicBook/PS238'' has an issue where the election for class president is SeriousBusiness for the school's two CaptainPatriotic heroes. They are the only ones taking it that seriously, though; pretty much everyone else get bored with them very quickly, and in the end they both lose in a landslide to somebody who hasn't actually been running, but who most of the class has voted for anyway because they like him more than the actual candidates.

* ''Film/{{Election}}'' played this for satire, both on the United States presidential elections and the amount of seriousness that other people give to student council elections. The most popular candidate in the election is the one who promises to never do anything and make sure the students never have to attend mandatory pep rallies for student council ever again. At the end of the movie ultimately no one's lives are changed significantly by the school election, because hardly anyone in the movie much cared anyways. The one person who is seriously impacted by it is the one who took the results so seriously [[spoiler: he tried to rig the election to settle a personal grudge with the winning candidate, got caught, and lost his job, his marriage, and his respect in the community to the point that he has to move away and start his life over again.]]

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': ''Nobody'' takes the Sendarian election seriously, least of all the candidates. Everyone thinks it is a ridiculous way to choose a king, and they ends up with a dynasty of quite good rulers who don't take themselves too seriously. Further details: The election requires that a candidate have a simple majority of the popular vote. Unfortunately, there are 724 candidates on the first ballot. Rather than have a runoff election between a fixed number of the more popular candidates, the Sendarians simply have another election, with every candidate who didn't choose to withdraw still on the ballot. This process repeats for 6 years and 22 ballots, ultimately resulting in the election of King Fundor the Magnificent, a rutabaga farmer who has been nominated by his neighbors, has not spent a single moment in those six years actively campaigning, and who honestly thought that they had pulled him off the ballot years before.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'': In "Recap/BlackMirrorTheWaldoMoment", comedian/CGI puppeteer Jamie Salter is pushed into running in a by-election as Waldo, the profane character he portrays. Everybody on all sides regards the outcome as a given, they all know the Conservative party is going to win, but the Labour candidate recognizes that she will get her name out in the press for the ''next'' election, and Waldo become an internet sensation. The entire election degenerates into a complete media farce. Played with, however, in that the Conservative candidate -- [[{{Jerkass}} while a bit of a pompous dick]] -- [[JerkassHasAPoint is not entirely wrong]] to point out that while this might be a small by-election, Waldo's antics are making a mockery of and potentially undermining democracy, thus making it an ''actual'' serious business.

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Intro to Political Science". While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no-one else does. After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing raspberries and Magnitude saying Pop Pop to everything. The winner is ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (yes, the TV Show) with seven out of eleven votes.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'' Emma (a former bail bond enforcer) and Sidney (a newspaper journalist with no relevant experience) apply for the position of ''sheriff''. Rather than picking a candidate based on competence this turns into an election, complete with a debate attended by the entire town and one backer committing arson to benefit his candidate.
* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Leslie runs for city council in her mid-sized town of Pawnee against the heir of the local candy business over the course of an entire season, and it's treated like a presidential debate. She has the services of a powerful campaign manager, makes public appearances and goes on a bus tour. The election gets considerable coverage on local news programs and even has a televised debate. (Granted, Pawnee is just like that.)

* A second-season episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'' deals with the midterm congressional elections which actually ''are'' important, but President Bartlet instead obsesses over a race in his hometown in New Hampshire where the conservative he beat in his very first election to the House of Representatives is running for a school board seat. He goes as far as having polling done and wants to comment about it to the press before CJ talks him down. As with several other issues in the episode that the characters face, it's implied to be an attempt to deflect how he's feeing about the assassination attempt he experienced in previous episodes by over-focussing on something trivial.

* ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'' played this mostly straight ''twice'' in two separate student council election arcs. The most absurd parts are how seriously Stan keeps taking it, spending what must be hundreds of dollars on t-shirts for his campaign (and he even gets people to wear them!), posters, a pizza party, and numerous rallies in which, of course, the students show up voluntarily and get extremely excited by him. Stan even talks about "the issues" as a way to throw his opponents, tries to implicate them in scandals and actually throws his sort-of girlfriend under a bus all in the name of high school elections. On a smaller scale, when Aggie runs in the first arc, she seriously believes that becoming student council president was a platform for promoting world peace. When Cyndi runs in the second election arc, she spends massive amounts of time to stop Stan from winning by creating scandal, though it could be argued that since Cyndi [[ForTheEvulz just likes making drama]], her goal isn't winning the election so much as screwing with Stan.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' featured Stan treating the position of church deacon so seriously that he even hired Karl Rove and put Roger into a cruel sweat shop when they discovered using Roger's alien breast milk in potato salad got Stan more popularity. And why was Stan running for this position? To get a shady parking spot at church. He even drags Steve off to Mexico to get an abortion after an alien egg gets Steve pregnant. Eventually the problem is resolved when Steve, kissing Stan's opponent's daughter, accidentally transfers the alien baby to her, forcing her family to move out of town to avoid the shame of her pregnancy. If this sounds like this trope on drugs, well, welcome to ''American Dad!''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', Doug's opponent for school treasurer was the Mayor of Bluffington's son. The Mayor threw the full weight of his influence behind his son's campaign for school treasurer, driving a ridiculous amount of public coverage to a minor election. This proved to be an example of the Mayor having a truly [[WhatAnIdiot idiotic set of priorities]], since he was so focused on helping his son win his student government election that he neglected his own campaign for reelection in the world of grownup city politics. Naturally, this cost him his position as Mayor. As a cartoon character, he could conceivably be counting on NegativeContinuity to save him from a defeat like this--but it did not and for the remainder of the series Tippy Dink was now the Mayor of Bluffington.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" involves an election for the student council president at Ponyville Elementary, pitting [[AlphaBitch Diamond Tiara]] versus Pipsqueak. The Cutie Mark Crusaders view Diamond winning as a negative thing because she's a bullying egomaniac who will only make things worse for the school. Diamond Tiara ends up losing big-time when her pushy campaigning alienates everypony at school, including her BetaBitch and only friend Silver Spoon. It turns out the reason Diamond takes the election so seriously is because she's afraid of being shamed by her status-obsessed mother, Spoiled Rich, and the rest of the episode is taken up by the Crusaders helping Diamond Tiara through a minor identity crisis. [[spoiler:In the end Diamond tells her mother off, uses her money and influence to get Pipsqueak's policies in action (namely getting new playground equipment), and makes up with her classmates.]]

* British county and municipal council elections have the full party-political machine involved in them, despite the fact that their actual influence is extremely limited these days; they have the power to decide how often the garbage gets collected, where the no-parking zones are put and whether or not you can build an extension on the back of your house but that's about it. They mostly seem to use the posts as a sort of probationary period for future Parliamentary candidates.
* Local footing is of paramount importance in the UsefulNotes/FrenchPoliticalSystem, so national parties are heavily involved in the municipal elections of the big and medium size cities and in the regional elections. The EU elections are the ones where they invest the least amount of time and resources, and also the ones where abstention is king.
* South Korean municipal assembly elections literally mean serious business as they are a way for ambitious South Koreans to gain long term financial stability in a country that has a failing social safety net due to expensive children's education and real estates for residence.

** "Douche and Turd" shows an election of school mascot, in which the "candidates" are a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich, elevated into unbelievable importance. Stan is banished from the town for refusing to take such a silly election as SeriousBusiness. Kyle calls [[Music/SeanCombs Puff Daddy]], who takes his "Vote or Die" campaign UpToEleven. The worst part about the whole thing is [[spoiler: not only did Stan's candidate lose in a landslide, but [[ShaggyDogStory the election was rendered meaningless]], because the point of it was to replace the cow mascot after PETA protested, and once PETA was killed off, South Park happily took back the cow mascot.]]

* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Leslie runs for city council in her mid-sized town of Pawnee against the heir of the local candy business over the course of an entire season, and it's treated like a presidential debate. She has the services of a powerful campaign manager, makes public appearances and goes on a bus tour. The election gets considerable coverage on local news programs and even has a televised debate.

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office or legislative body, depending on where the balance of power lies in the Presidential-Parliamentary spectrum [[note]]in Presidential systems, the Head of State (i.e. President) is also the chief executive and the cabinet needs no legislative confidence, so the Presidential Election would be more important that the Legislative Election; in Parliamentary systems, the chief executive - in this case, the Head of Government (i.e. Prime Minister) - is drawn from the Legislature, and the Head of State has no power of their own, so the Legislative Election would be more important that the Presidential Election where one exists, as the Head of State might be elected by the Legislature instead of the voters.[[/note]]. Since real life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.

* South Korean municipal assembly elections literally mean serious business as they are a way for ambitious South Koreans to gain long term financial stability in a country that has a failing social safety net due to expensive children's education and real estates for residence.

** "Douche and Turd" shows an election of school mascot, in which the "candidates" are a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich, elevated into unbelievable importance. Stan is banished from the town for refusing to take such a silly election as SeriousBusiness. Kyle calls Puff Daddy, who takes his "Vote or Die" campaign UpToEleven. The worst part about the whole thing is [[spoiler: not only did Stan's candidate lose in a landslide, but [[ShaggyDogStory the election was rendered meaningless]], because the point of it was to replace the cow mascot after PETA protested, and once PETA was killed off, South Park happily took back the cow mascot.]]

* Old joke: why are local politics so vicious? Because the stakes are so petty.

** "Douche and Turd" shows an election of school mascot, in which the "candidates" are a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich, elevated into unbelievable importance. Stan is banished from the town for refusing to take such a silly election as SeriousBusiness. Kyle calls Puff Daddy, who takes his "Vote or Die" campaign UpToEleven. The worst part about the whole thing is [[spoiler: not only did Stan's candidate lose in a landslide, but[[ShaggyDogStory the election was rendered meaningless]], because the point of it was to replace the cow mascot after PETA protested, and once PETA was killed off, South Park happily took back the cow mascot.]]

** "Douche and Turd" shows an election of school mascot, in which the "candidates" are a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich, elevated into unbelievable importance. Stan is banished from the town for refusing to take such a silly election as SeriousBusiness. Kyle calls Puff Daddy, who takes his "Vote or Die" campaign UpToEleven. The worst part about the whole thing is [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory the election was rendered meaningless]], because the point of it was to replace the cow mascot after PETA protested, and once PETA was killed off, South Park happily took back the cow mascot.]]

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* ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' had an issue where the election for class president was SeriousBusiness for the school's two CaptainPatriotic heroes. They were the only ones taking it that seriously, though; pretty much everyone else got bored with them very quickly, and in the end they both lost in a landslide to somebody who hadn't actually been running, but who most of the class had voted for anyway because they liked him more than the actual candidates.

* In ''Film/YoureNotElectedCharlieBrown'' Linus is running for student council and is a runaway favorite until he starts talking about the Great Pumpkin during a debate. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Election}}'' played this for satire, both on the United States presidential elections and the amount of seriousness that other people give to student council elections. The most popular candidate in the election is the one who promises to never do anything and make sure the students never have to attend mandatory pep rallies for student council ever again. At the end of the movie ultimately no one's lives are changed significantly by the school election, because hardly anyone in the movie much cared anyways. The one person who is seriously impacted by it is the one who took the results so seriously [[spoiler: he tried to rig the election to settle a personal grudge with the winning candidate, got caught, and lost his job, his marriage, and his respect in the community to the point that he has to move away and start his life over again.]]

* In ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'', as the group passes through California they are swept up in a series of political demonstrations that evolve into outright brawls between factions. They wonder what high political office such enthusiasm must reflect, and are shocked when they learn that it is only for the position of Justice of the Peace.

* The very first episode of ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'' featured Stephanie Kaye running for Student Council President as a way to create a more mature, popular image for her new ''{{Stripperiffic}}'' makeover. The conflict of the episode comes from the clash between Stephanie, her friend Voula, and her new friend Joey Jeremiah. The students attend an election rally outside of school hours, though it's not clear if they're being forced to come or if they're appearing voluntarily. Despite initially giving responsible yet overreaching speeches from Voula, Stephanie actually wins her campaign by letting all the boys at the rally kiss her and changing her slogan to "All the way with Stephanie Kaye." She also makes bizarre campaign promises such as rock music on the PA system and co-ed swimming in gym class. Amazingly, nobody in the school administration is concerned about a student council candidate essentially prostituting herself for votes. Furthermore, there's something strange about how Voula cares deeply about the integrity of the student council campaign, while Stephanie seems to think it's a popularity contest. Like they are in ''real life''.
* ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' parodied the 2012 Presidential Election using a "documentary" in which John Oliver and Jason Jones became rival campaign managers of two 13-year-olds running for student council. As the students were actual students, the segment played their rather blase reaction to student elections against the comically over-the-top seriousness of the adults.
* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'' Emma (a former bail bond enforcer) and Sidney (a newspaper journalist with no relevant experience) apply for the position of ''sheriff''. Rather than picking a candidate based on competence this turns into an election, complete with a debate attended by the entire town and one backer committing arson to benefit his candidate.

--> '''Earl:''' "MOOMBATAAAAAA!!! WOO! NEW DAY FOR [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield CENTRAL AFRICA!]]"

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode Intro to Political Science. While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no one else does. After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing raspberries and Magnitude saying Pop Pop to everything. The winner is ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (yes the TV Show) with seven out of eleven votes.
* Hinted at in one episode of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In ''Murder in the Electric Cathedral'' the son of the murder victim threatens the DA that - should he not get acting soon - he would see to it that the DA "won't even be elected dog-catcher next spring."
* In "Recap/BlackMirrorTheWaldoMoment", comedian/CGI puppeteer Jamie Salter is pushed into running in a by-election as Waldo, the profane character he portrays. Everybody on all sides regards the outcome as a given, they all know the Conservative party is going to win, but the Labour candidate recognizes that she will get her name out in the press for the ''next'' election, and Waldo become an internet sensation. The entire election degenerates into a complete media farce. Played with, however, in that the Conservative candidate -- [[{{Jerkass}} while a bit of a pompous dick]] -- [[JerkassHasAPoint is not entirely wrong]] to point out that while this might be a small by-election, Waldo's antics are making a mockery of and potentially undermining democracy, thus making it an ''actual'' serious business.
* The Student President election in one episode of ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' - especially for Fish, who turns into "a political werewolf" at the mere mention of elections. He eventually develops an entire separate personality who urges him to "[[TakeThat make Forest Hills High great gain]]". The position itself [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome turns out to be meaningless]], its only power being to pardon students.
* ''Series/ThePattyDukeShow'' gets into it in the tenth episode of the series, "The President". Patty and Cathy are talked into running for president of the Girls' League, an organization at their high school. The ensuing campaign comes complete with mudslinging and the cousins stealing both voters and campaign ideas from each other.
* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Leslie runs for city council in her mid-sized town of Pawnee against the heir of the local candy business over the course of an entire season, and it's treated like a presidential debate. She has the services of a powerful campaign manager, makes public appearances and goes on a bus tour. The election gets considerable coverage on local news programs and even has a televised debate.

* ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'' played this mostly straight ''twice'' in two separate student council election arcs. The most absurd parts are how seriously Stan keeps taking it, spending what must be hundreds of dollars on t-shirts for his campaign (and he even gets people to wear them!), posters, a pizza party, and numerous rallies in which, of course, the students show up voluntarily and get extremely excited by him. Stan even talks about "the issues" as a way to throw his opponents, tries to implicate them in scandals and actually throws his sort-of girlfriend under a bus all in the name of high school elections. On a smaller scale, when Aggie runs in the first arc, she seriously believes that becoming student council president was a platform for promoting world peace. When Cyndi runs in the second election arc, she spends massive amounts of time to stop Stan from winning by creating scandal, though it could be argued that since Cyndi [[ForTheEvulz just likes making drama]], her goal isn't winning the election so much as screwing with Stan.
** A joke in the first arc suggests most students aren't even aware there ''is'' a student council, while a joke after the conclusion of the second arc has Meg compare being class president to dressing up a Barbie in a pinstripe suit. So there is some acknowledgement that in reality, student council elections actually are as pointless in Belleville as they are in the real world. It's just downplayed because the viewpoint of the core cast members (who take them ''deadly'' seriously) is the only one the readers usually see.
** By the end of the series, it's clear that Stan's focus on superficial things like student elections has simultaneously taught him the life skills he needs to schmooze with people to move up in the world while also costing him any meaningful relationships since he'll always treat them as less important than the appearance of being "liked." This was reinforced in the follow-up ''Webcomic/{{QUILTBAG}}'', making it clear that at least for Stan's character arc, his deadly serious attitude about something ultimately pointless and popularity driven was intended to establish what kind of person he grows up to be as opposed to granting him actual power.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' had Frankie tired of how Herriman ran the home, so she decided to run for the job. Bloo joins the campaign because - well, [[AttentionWhore just because.]] Herriman, realizing that he couldn't win against Frankie on his own, makes a deal with Bloo to give up the race and become his campaign manager, and together launch a vicious smear campaign against Frankie. The election results with [[spoiler:Frankie winning, but then giving the job back to Herriman after seeing him miserable as a supermarket bag boy. The pay being less than her old job and the bonus being carrots helped.]]
* Harshly subverted in ''You're Not Elected, [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]''. Linus runs for student council president, making promises that the office could never deliver. This being ''Peanuts'', Linus learns in the end that he's completely subservient to the faculty and can't implement any of his policies...leading to the other students accusing him of selling out.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' did this ''twice''. The episode "Trapper Keeper" focused on the kindergarten class elections elevated to the levels of SeriousBusiness to parody the 2000 presidential race. "Douche and Turd" showed an election of school mascot, in which the "candidates" were a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich, elevated into unbelievable importance. Stan was banished from the town for refusing to take such a silly election as SeriousBusiness. Kyle calls Puff Daddy, who takes his "Vote or Die" campaign UpToEleven:
--> Vote or die, motherfucker, motherfucker, vote or die!
--> Rock the vote or else I'm gonna stick a knife through your eye.
--> Democracy is founded on one simple rule:
--> Get out there and vote or I will motherfucking kill you!
** The worst part about the whole thing is [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory the election was rendered meaningless]], because the point of it was to replace the cow mascot after PETA protested, and once PETA was killed off, South Park happily took back the cow mascot.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' have an episode where their school has an election campaign for school president. Unfortunately, the two leading candidates are running along racial lines to the exclusion of any other issue. Fat Albert and a white female friend are so disgusted by this use of race for political advantage that they decide to run on a joint ticket promising to focus on the issues and to run a civil campaign. It's apparently a sound platform considering they win in a landslide.
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has the episode where Johnny and Carl run for litter commissioner - Johnny [[CasanovaWannabe trying to pick ladies with it, of course]]. Though the serious business included wacky hijinks such the inclusion of a pie as a candidate after a man answers an opinion poll with "I like pie!". Johnny wins, however since he doesn't understand or care about his job in the least his first order of business is to have a huge parade in his honour that covers the city in confetti, which he's forced to clean up by those same girls he was trying to win.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" involves an election for the student council president at Ponyville Elementary, pitting [[AlphaBitch Diamond Tiara]] versus Pipsqueak. The Cutie Mark Crusaders view Diamond winning as a negative thing because she's a bullying egomaniac who will only make things worse for the school. Diamond Tiara ends up losing big-time when her pushy campaigning alienates everypony at school, including her BetaBitch and only friend Silver Spoon. It turns out the reason Diamond takes the election so seriously is because she's afraid of being shamed by her status-obsessed mother, Spoiled Rich, and the rest of the episode is taken up by the Crusaders helping Diamond Tiara through a minor identity crisis. [[spoiler:In the end Diamond tells her mother off, uses her money and influence to get Pipsqueak's policies in action (namely getting new playground equipment), and makes up with her classmates.]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Election}}'' played this for satire, both on the United States presidential elections and the amount of seriousness that other people give to student council elections. The most popular candidate in the election is the one who promises to never do anything and make sure the students never have to attend mandatory pep rallies for student council ever again. At the end of the movie ultimately no one's lives are changed significantly by the school election, because hardly anyone in the movie much cared anyways. The one person who is seriously impacted by it is the one who took the results so seriously [[spoiler: he tried to rig the election to settle a personal grudge with the winning candidate, got caught, and lost his job, his marriage, and his respect in the community to the point that he has to move away and start his life over again.]]
[[/folder]]

** The worst part about the whole thing is [[spoiler:the election was rendered meaningless, because the point of it was to replace the cow mascot after PETA protested, and once PETA was killed off, South Park happily took back the cow mascot.]]

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode Intro to Political Science. While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no one else does. After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing rasberries and Magnitude saying Pop Pop to everything. The winner is ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (yes the TV Show) with seven out of eleven votes.

* In "Recap/BlackMirrorTheWaldoMoment", comedian/CGI puppeteer Jamie Salter is pushed into running in a by-election as Waldo, the profane character he portrays. Everybody on all sides regards the outcome as a given, they all know the Conservative party is going to win, but the Labor candidate recognizes that she will get her name out in the press for the ''next'' election, and Waldo become an internet sensation. The entire election degenerates into a complete media farce. Played with, however, in that the Conservative candidate -- [[{{Jerkass}} while a bit of a pompous dick]] -- [[JerkassHasAPoint is not entirely wrong]] to point out that while this might be a small by-election, Waldo's antics are making a mockery of and potentially undermining democracy, thus making it an ''actual'' serious business.

* The Student President election in one episode of ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' - especially for Fish, who turns into "a political werewolf" at the mere mention of elections. He eventually develops an entire separate personality who urges him to "[[TakeThat make Forest Hills High great gain]]". The position itself [[RealityEnsues turns out to be meaningless]], its only power being to pardon students.

* American elections can get extremely heated, partly because they are much more frequent (there are Senate and Congressional elections every two years, one of which coincides with the Presidential election, as well as state and local elections for Governor, Mayor, councillor etc), partly because of underlying social and economic tensions, and particularly following Supreme Court rulings made during the Obama administration (mostly by Republican judges, at the disapproval of said administration) that basically said that various previous restrictions on political campaigning- such as monetary limits on how much can be spent on political ads and time-limits on when ads could be run- violated free speech laws and were overturned, meaning that the US spends more on elections than anywhere else on the planet and there are kinds of loopholes allowing for even the wildest accusations. It is not uncommon for politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens to fear riots or even civil war as both the Republican and Democratic parties are painted as hopelessly corrupt would-be tyrants (with varying degrees of justification) by their enemies.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' featured Stan treating the position of church deacon so seriously that he even hired Karl Rove and put Roger into a cruel sweat shop when they discovered using Roger's alien breast milk in potato salad got Stan more popularity. And why was Stan running for this position? To get a shady parking spot at church. He even drags Steve off to Mexico to get an abortion after an alien egg gets Steve pregnant. Eventually the problem is resolved when Steve, kissing Stan's opponent's daughter, accidentally transfers the alien baby to her, forcing her family to move out of town to avoid the shame of her pregnancy. If this sounds like this trope on drugs, well, welcome to ''American Dad''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' featured Stan treating the position of church deacon so seriously that he even hired Karl Rove and put Roger into a cruel sweat shop when they discovered using Roger's alien breast milk in potato salad got Stan more popularity. And why was Stan running for this position? To get a shady parking spot at church. He even drags Steve off to Mexico to get an abortion after an alien egg gets Steve pregnant. Eventually the problem is resolved when Steve, kissing Stan's opponent's daughter, accidentally transfers the alien baby to her and forcing her family to move out of town to avoid the shame of her pregnancy. If this sounds like this trope on drugs, well, welcome to ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''.

* Local footing is important in the UsefulNotes/FrenchPoliticalSystem, so national parties are heavily involved in the municipal elections of the big and medium size cities and in the regional elections. The EU elections are the ones where they invest the least amount of time and resources, and also the ones where abstention is king.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" involves an election for the student council president at Ponyville Elementary, pitting [[AlphaBitch Diamond Tiara]] versus Pipsqueak. The Cutie Mark Crusaders view Diamond winning as a negative thing because she's a bullying egomaniac who will only make things worse for the school. Diamond Tiara ends up losing big-time when her pushy campaigning alienates everypony at school, including her BetaBitch and only friend Silver Spoon. It turns out the reason Diamond takes the election so seriously is because she's afraid of being shamed by her status-obsessed mother, Spoiled Rich, and the rest of the episode is taken up by the Crusaders helping Diamond Tiara through a minor identity crisis.

** Kevin eventually faces a recall election due to carnivores (hoping to replace Kevin on the rabbit council with a rabbit ''they'' control) manipulating rabbit society into becoming divided based on whether they have ears standing up or ears that flop over...and as a rabbit who has one of each ear, Kevin is their prime target. [[spoiler:The stress of the divisions between rabbits causes ''all'' rabbits ears to look like Kevin's on the day of the election, and he survives his recall.]]

* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' had two arcs where Kevin ran for office.

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office or legislative body, depending on where the balance of power lies in the Presidential-Parliamentary spectrum [[note]]in Presidential systems, the Head of State (i.e. President) is also the chief executive and the cabinet needs no legislative confidence, so the Presidential Election would be more important that the Legislative Election; in Parliamentary systems, the chief executive - in this case, the Head of Government (i.e. Prime Minister) - is drawn from the Legislature, and the Head of State has no power of their own, so the Legislative Election would be more important that the Presidential Election where one exists, as the HoS might be elected by the Legislature instead of the voters.[[/note]]. Since real life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.