History Main / AppealToWorseProblems

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* In ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'', when Hamlet doesn't finish his plate, Helga reminds him of all the people in England who are starving. Well, dieting.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

--> '''Antigone''': ''(to Dido)'' If you see a hot spiced bun and think it's not fair that you have to have tesserae rations again while the stupid foreman's daughter is buying two, you should learn to keep your kleptomaniac tendencies in check and be grateful for what you do have. There are children in 12 who won't survive long enough to take tesserae, so stop making that face.

[[folder:Film]]

* Done in ''Film/AChristmasStory'' when Randy doesn't eat the meatloaf because he hates it. Mrs. Parker tells him that starving children in China would be happy to have it.
* In ''Film/{{Munich}}'' one of the people involved in the planning of the Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes says that compared with the reaction to the massacre, nobody says anything about the children killed in Israel's military attacks against Palestinians.
* Similar to the ''Munich'' example, in ''Film/PatriotsDay'' the [=FBI=] tries to use a Facebook post made by Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the wife of one of the Boston terror bombers, in which she reacts to the bombing by saying that "More people die in Syria and other countries", as evidence to coax her to reveal her knowledge on the terror plot.

* ''Film/LadyBird'': After losing her virginity to Kyle, Lady Bird is upset to find out that he's not a virgin like he claimed, since she wanted her first time to be special. When he tries to mitigate the problem by bringing up the Iraq War and how many people are killed each day, she tells him that two different things can be sad and that not everything needs to be compared to war.

* Spoofed in Literature/GoodOmens, when the anthropomorphic personification of Famine throws the contents of a fast-food tray into a bin; "if you had told him there were starving children in Africa, he would have been flattered that you noticed."
* Ken Jennings (that guy who won all the money on ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'') points out the ridiculousness of this in his book ''Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids''.
* Played for laughs in ''[[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook This Mitchell and Webb Book]]'', which contains a section parodying those people on Twitter who reply to the tweets of politicians and journalists with extremely stupidly rude comments for no real reason. One of the posts is Connie Wyatt making a joke post about ice-cream, with one of the replies reading, "Millions of children die of Malaria in Africa every year, and you're worried about ice-cream? How do you even live with yourself?".
* Discussed in the third book of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents -- The Wide Window''. The author points out that while pointing out that things could be worse might be true, it's still ineffective at distracting oneself from one's current problems, likening it to trying to ignore a pimple on your nose by imagining oneself being attacked by a bear.
* In the book version of ''Literature/MommieDearest'', Creator/JoanCrawford tells her children to think of, "the starving children in Europe." This is taking place just after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when postwar Europe was wracked by famine.
* In ''Conned Again, Watson!'' by Colin Bruce, a book that uses Franchise/SherlockHolmes to explore logic and mathematics, Holmes says Watson is guilty of the SunkCostFallacy, when he buys bread, walks past a sandwich stall selling the remainder of the day's stock at a discount, and buys ham. Watson replies that if he bought the sandwiches, the bread would have gone to waste when there are children starving in Africa. Holmes isn't clear how them eating roughly-made, more expensive sandwiches, while the sandwich-seller throws her unsold stock away, has helped these children.

-->'''Burns''': There are people starving in China, you know!
-->'''Radar''' (offering his tray): Here, you can give them this.
* Used in an episode of ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'' when George scolds Max for needlessly wrecking his toy monster-truck.
-->'''George:''' You know there are some kids who don't even have toys!
-->'''Max:''' Yes, and there are some kids who have lots of toys, so that evens it out.

-->'''Pete:''' There are children in Africa, who would love to eat this.
-->'''Karen:''' Then why don't you just send it to them. Buy an envelope and send it to them.
* In ''Series/FawltyTowers'', [[CrookedContractor cowboy builder]] O'Reilly tries to cheer a disgruntled Basil with "there's always someone worse off than yourself".
-->'''Basil:''' Is there? Well I'd like to meet him. [[ComedicSociopathy I could do with a laugh]].

* The Music/WeirdAl song "Eat It" opens with the lyrics "How come you're always such a fussy young man/Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran/Well don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan/So eat it, just eat it." Keep in mind that, when this parody was written, [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japan still was an economic superpower]], so it's a parody of this way of thinking on top of that.
** While it is likely supposed to a case of WindmillCrusader, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJEvTCqToCk live performance in Japan]] naturally replaced the country's name to "Sudan" playing this trope more straight as a result.

-->''Think of all the starving millions''
-->''Don't talk politics and don't throw stones''
-->''Your royal highnesses''
* Music/TheCranberries' anti-paparazzi song "Free To Decide" suggests the paparazzi should be focusing on something other than celebrities:
-->''You must have nothing more with your time to do.''\\
''There's a war in Russia and Sarajevo too.''

* When WebVideo/JonTron was criticized for referring to the Playstation Now service for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 as "retarded" on Twitter, he responded that those offended by his word usage should instead direct their outrage at more important matters, like the Gaza strip bombings.
* Mocked on TheInternet where someone once said, "If we really had no right to complain about stuff because others have it worse, then by that logic, people like Creator/MichaelMoore and every radio talk show host should be out of a job, and most of the northern hemisphere should be ''dead silent'', because the only people who have a right to complain are those in UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Sudan}}, etc."
* In the lead-up to Valentine's Day 2014, there was a common Facebook meme being shared, which said something like "feeling sad about not having a date on Valentines Day? well some people don't have a Mother on Mother's Day or a Father on Father's Day, so shut the f!ck up!".

* A small development team, Glumberland, made [[https://ooblets.com/2019/07/we-did-the-thing/ this post]] regarding their exclusivity deal with the not-so-popular Creator/EpicGames store. In it, they mention more "important" things to get angry about, including climate change, human right abuse, and the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking final season of Game of Thrones]]. Due to its tone more than its content, followers were [[https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/a35wm8/gamers-are-harassing-ooblets-developer-over-epic-games-store-exclusivity not amused]].
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', this is what the argument between Leon and [[spoiler: Rose]] in the tower boiled down to. [[spoiler: Rose]] criticizes Leon for focusing on the League Championship more than [[spoiler: the impeding energy crisis]] which is definitely a bigger problem than a sporting event. Leon points out, as the Champion, the League is part of his job. Not to mention [[spoiler: the energy crisis is 1,000 years away]] and won't be solved in one day while the Championship is happening tomorrow.

* Parodied in [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2314#comic this strip]] of ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'', where an unhappy man is told to "Stop being unhappy! There are people who have it worse than you!", only for somebody else to show up and tell the ''second'' guy to stop being unhappy because there are people who have it worse than ''him'', and so on, and so on, until it finally reaches the least fortunate man in the world, and therefore the only person who is actually allowed to be unhappy, because nobody has it worse than him. He's absolutely delighted to learn this information.
* ''Webcomic/YouDamnKid'' had the author relate how his family once accepted an orphan from China into their home for a while... which led to the Kid pointing out that his mother's claims about "Starving orphans in China would kill for that!" were false [[EvenBeggarsWontChooseIt when even the orphan was disgusted by the meal]].
* Parodied in [[http://nonadventures.com/2007/02/10/mother-ella/ this]] strip of ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella''. "How can you even THINK of superheroing when there's so much crime and tragedy in the world?"

-->'''Annie:''' Leapin' lizards, Molly! It sure is a hard knock life —-\\

'''Molly:''' What don't you like exactly? 3 meals a day? A warm bed? Not being HIV positive? Not performing fellatio on foreign business men? ({{Beat}}) [[ArmorPiercingQuestion That's what you don't like?]]\\
'''Annie:''' [[DumbStruck Uhh...]] I think I'm gonna go sweep over there for a while Molly. (Annie heads off to complain to a less worldly friend) Gee, Pepper! Miss Hannigan sure is mean!\\

[[TimeSkip 6 months later]]\\

* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': During one of their usual arguments over Frank's parenting, Frank pulls this on Kevin by telling him he should be thankful that Frank isn't like the ax murderer who killed his entire family he saw on the news. Kevin points out the ridiculousness of this argument by asking if Frank being a murderer is really the only other option to his daily verbal abuse.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': For a school assignment, Brittany does this with her cheerleader friends, in an attempt to become unpopular. She succeeds...meaning she fails the assignment. [[note]]So she succeeds at failing. Isn't that great?[[/note]]
-->'''Lisa:''' Your boyfriend just threw an intercept on purpose.\\
'''Brittany:''' Well that's nothing compared to working conditions in the [[TheDitz unexploded diamond mines]].

* [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics Australian MP]] Bob Katter's now infamous (and [[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/fact-check-does-a-crocodile-kill-someone-every-three-months-/9202902 incorrect]]) [[http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/abc-hosts-lose-it-over-bob-katters-bizarre-marriage-rant/news-story/ab0840f6d8f7a6c41bf1ff12ba4f9a5f response]] to the result of the postal survey into legalising same-sex marriage (which he had campaigned against):

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', this is what the argument between Leon and [[Rose]] in the tower boiled down to. [[spoiler: Rose]] criticizes Leon for focusing on the League Championship more than [[spoiler: the impeding energy crisis]] which is definitely a bigger problem than a sporting event. Leon points out, as the Champion, the League is part of his job. Not to mention [[spoiler: the energy crisis is 1,000 years away]] and won't be solved in one day while the Championship is happening tomorrow.

* In ''Conned Again, Watson!'' by Colin Bruce, a book that uses Franchise/SherlockHolmes to explore logic and mathematics, Holmes says Watson is guilty of the Sunk Costs Fallacy, when he buys bread, walks past a sandwich stall selling the remainder of the day's stock at a discount, and buys ham. Watson replies that if he bought the sandwiches, the bread would have gone to waste when there are children starving in Africa. Holmes isn't clear how them eating roughly-made, more expensive sandwiches, while the sandwich-seller throws her unsold stock away, has helped these children.

* In ''Conned Again, Watson!'' by Colin Bruce, a book that uses Franchise/SherlockHolmes to explore logic and mathematics, Holmes says Watson is guilty of the SunkCostsFallacy, when he buys bread, walks past a sandwich stall selling the remainder of the day's stock at a discount, and buys ham. Watson replies that if he bought the sandwiches, the bread would have gone to waste when there are children starving in Africa. Holmes isn't clear how them eating roughly-made, more expensive sandwiches, while the sandwich-seller throws her unsold stock away, has helped these children.

** [[UpToEleven All of you be quiet! There are people who are]] [[DeadBabyComedy dead babies!]]

A type of FalseDichotomy, and close cousin of [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Appeal to Pity]]. Often invoked in MiseryPoker. See also, WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency. Overlaps with a specific type of [[AdHominem Tu Quoque]] fallacy called '''Whataboutism''' which uses the same logic (you make point A, but what about B?) but is used to deflect criticism of a group from sources external to that group by pointing to a perceived equal or worse thing that the speaker's group does.

* ''Literature/Discworld'': In ''Unseen Academicals'', Glenda repeatedly tries this ("There are children in Klatch, you know"), but it fails because she cannot remember what is so special about these children.

In ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'', this is how Lightning "helps" Cadance get over the death of her brother. He compares Cadance's grief to his own when his planet was destroyed and the naration tells us that Cadance's problems aren't that bad compared to Lightning's because he lost his entire planet and everyone he knew, whilst she only lost one family member. Cadance then apologises to Lightning for not thinking about others.

* You're complaining that [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife TV Tropes ruined your life]]? There are people who are blocked from visiting TV Tropes in the first place! [[SerialEscalation There are those who can't even afford Internet access!]]

A type of FalseDichotomy, and close cousin of AppealToPity. Often invoked in MiseryPoker. See also, WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency. Overlaps with a specific type of [[AdHominem Tu Quoque]] fallacy called '''Whataboutism''' which uses the same logic (you make point A, but what about B?) but is used to deflect criticism of a group from sources external to that group by pointing to a perceived equal or worse thing that the speaker's group does.

* When the worse issues are directly related to the subject in question (complaining that your car is wrecked when your loved ones are in critical condition because of the accident) or when it's used to rebut a deliberate [[NotSoDifferent attempt to lump together or equate]] both issues.

* ''You Damn Kid!'' had the author relate how his family once accepted an orphan from China into their home for a while... which led to the Kid pointing out that his mother's claims about "Starving orphans in China would kill for that!" were false [[EvenBeggarsWontChooseIt when even the orphan was disgusted by the meal]].

* In ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'', one time when Qwilleran's pampered Siamese turn up their noses at the food he gives them, he makes some reference to there being cats in another country that don't know where their next mouse is coming from. It makes no difference to the spoiled kitties.

* ''Film/LetThereBeLight'': Saul makes an odd argument near the end that comes off much like this, when Sean Hannity asks him (as Devil's Advocate) what right he has "imposing [his] values" on others by attempting to make them Christians. To which Saul responds by asking what right ISIS has beheading people, which Sean then calls "powerful". While of course he's got every right to (peacefully) attempt converting others, it's a very weird way of defending it.

* Ever have a bad day at work or school, and feel you just need to vent? And have you tried to do so, only for you to be told something along the lines of "You think ''YOU'' have it bad? ''I''...." or "I'll give ''YOU'' something to cry about" by someone else (Be they a friend, family member, or stranger on the internet)? You've just experienced this trope.

* Parodied in [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2314#comic this strip]] of ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'', in which people who try to use the argument are constantly interrupted by people with even worse problems until they finally reach the least fortunate man in the world.