History Main / CaptainObviousAesop

* ''Sabrina's Secret Life'' has an episode where Sabrina "learns" that rumours are bad and the only way to stop them is to out them as a pack of lies. Did we mention she's fifteen and yet every character spends the episode behaving like a 6-year-old?

* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'': The quotes you find scattered throughout are intended to be both clues and musings on the nature of life (see the game's original title). Many find them more useful as the former than the latter.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' 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.

* In ''WebAnimation/TheCrystalGemsSayBeAntiRacist'', each short opens with a [[StylisticSuck childishly simple]] anti-racism PSA being shot [[AnimatedActors in-universe]], but when the camera stops rolling the PSA continues with a more deep-dives 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.

* In ''WebAnimation/TheCrystalGemsSayBeAntiRacist'', each short opens with a [[StylisticSuck childishly simple]] anti-racism PSA being shot [[AnimatedActors in-universe]], but when the camera stops rolling the PSA continues with 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.

* ''WebAnimation/TheCrystalGemsSayBeAntiRacist'' is a subversion; each short opens with a [[StylisticSuck childishly simple]] anti-racism PSA being shot [[AnimatedActors in-universe]], but when the camera stops rolling the PSA continues with a more nuanced discussion of the topic. 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.

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* Parodied in an episode of {{Series/Scrubs}}. J.D. fantasises about doing a PSA on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on_another Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy]], in which he simply tells the audience: "Don't smother your kids."

* Parodied UpToEleven on a famous episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':

* ''WebAnimation/TheCrystalGemsSayBeAntiRacist'' is a subversion; each short opens with a [[StylisticSuck childishly simple]] anti-racism PSA being shot [[AnimatedActors in-universe]], but when the camera stops rolling the PSA continues with a more nuanced discussion of the topic. 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 due to systemic racism in America's education system.

* [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/30/worst-comics-2010-superman-grounded/ This]] article mocks the ''[[ComicBook/SupermanGrounded Grounded]]'' AbortedArc of Franchise/{{Superman}} 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.

Obviously there's {{Truth in Television}} here. ValuesDissonance 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. Not to mention that even the most moral of people can get [[JadedWashout burnt out on idealism]] and start [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence 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.

* The ''[[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2008/10/08/false-witnesses-2/ Slacktivist]]'' refers to this as the "Anti Kitten-Burning Coalition".

* Fred Clarke of [[https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/ Slacktivist]] fame refers to this as the "Anti-Kitten Burning Brigade". In his opinion, loudly proclaiming "I'm against kitten burning!" or similar obvious evils (pedophilia etc) as though its a controversial and courageous moral stance serves three purposes:
** 1. It allows the AKBB to "cosplay" as embattled martyrs without actually exerting effort or being subjected to real danger.
2. They can now pretend moral superiority to their neighbors, who are ostensibly secretly in favor of whatever obvious evil the AKB brigade opposes.
3. Any kind of harm the AKB brigade causes to their neighbors is now fully justified, [[TautologicalTemplar because they are the good guys opposing kitten burning]].

1. It allows them to "cosplay" as embattled martyrs without actually exerting effort or being subjected to real danger.

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Compare {{Anvilicious}}, AndThatsTerrible, StockAesops, BrokenAesop, and DrugsAreBad. Contrast FamilyUnfriendlyAesop and SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped. Also contrast with LostAesop, when the story seems forget that it was trying to give a moral. See also WindmillCrusader, where a character takes a stand against a non-existent problem. Can sometimes overlap with CluelessAesop, where a story attempts to give a moral but misunderstands/misapplies it or simply isn't in a good position to give it anyway.

This trope is PlayedForLaughs quite often, hence why so many of these examples are parodies, but [[UndeadHorseTrope straight examples are still fairly common]].

Compare {{Anvilicious}}, AndThatsTerrible, StockAesops, BrokenAesop, and DrugsAreBad. Contrast FamilyUnfriendlyAesop and {{Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped}}. Also contrast with LostAesop, when the story seems forget that it was trying to give a moral. See also WindmillCrusader, where a character takes a stand against a non-existent problem. Can sometimes overlap with CluelessAesop, where a story attempts to give a moral but misunderstands/misapplies it or simply isn't in a good position to give it anyway.

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* Though there are more profound aesops to be found in the game, one of the major ones of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' boils down to "racism is bad." It does go into detail about just how monstrous this can end up becoming, but it also hammers this point in as if it's never been said before.

** After the untimely deaths of Music/DavidBowie and Creator/AlanRickman, ''[=StarWipe=]'', an ''Onion'' spinoff dedicated to parodying celebrity tabloids, published a bold op-ed column entitled [[https://web.archive.org/web/20170624030607/http://www.starwipe.com/article/op-ed-we-celebrities-and-they-should-stop-dying-1758 We Like Celebrities And They Should Stop Dying".]] The article goes so far as to call on [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama President Obama]] to stop celebrities from dying, and includes a link to a petition to the White House to end all celebrity deaths.

* Website/TheOnion has parodied this a few times.

* Creator/LindsayEllis' video on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU1ffHa47YY "Woke Disney"]] argues that most of modern Creator/{{Disney}}'s pretensions towards cultural liberalism ultimately amount to this. Instead of seriously grappling with issues of racial, gender, and economic inequality in ways that might risk framing major corporations (like Disney) and the economic system as a whole as [[InherentInTheSystem fundamentally unjust]], they present only the most cartoonishly obvious manifestations of societal problems in order to boil the solutions down to simple slogans that most people probably already agreed with and which [[RuleAbidingRebel won't actually change things]].

* Website/TheOnion has parodied this a few times. [[http://www.theonion.com/article/third-amendment-rights-group-celebrates-another-su-2296 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.
* Parodied by spinoff site of The Onion, Website/{{Clickhole}}, in a video simply titled [[https://www.clickhole.com/this-video-seems-silly-but-it-makes-a-good-point-1825126152 "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 Music/DavidBowie and Creator/AlanRickman, the satirical website [[Website/TheOnion StarWipe]] published a bold op-ed column entitled, "[[http://www.starwipe.com/article/op-ed-we-celebrities-and-they-should-stop-dying-1758 We Like Celebrities And They Should Stop Dying]]." The article goes so far as to call on [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama President Obama]] to stop celebrities from dying, and includes a link to a petition to the White House to end all celebrity deaths.

* Parodied by spinoff site of The Onion, Website/{{Clickhole}}, in a video simply titled [[https://www.clickhole.com/this-video-seems-silly-but-it-makes-a-good-point-1825126152 "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.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
-->'''Jack Johnson:''' It's time that someone had the courage to stand up and say: "I'm against those things that everybody hates!"\\
'''John Jackson:''' I respect my opponent. He's a good man. But frankly, I agree with everything he just said!