History Main / CleanUpTheTown

* In a sci-fi comedy by Creator/HarryHarrison, an android police officer is assigned to a police station of BadCopIncompetentCop types. He promptly arrests the local crime boss for an outstanding warrant, forcing the other officers to help him clean up the town (which the android does most efficiently) because they're afraid the crime boss [[YouHaveFailedMe will have them tortured and killed once he gets out of jail]].

* Deconstructed hard in ''ComicBook/SouthernBastards.''

* In a sci-fi comedy by Creator/HarryHarrison, an android police officer is assigned to police station of BadCopIncompetentCop types. He promptly arrests the local crime boss for an outstanding warrant, forcing the other officers to help him clean up the town (which the android does most efficiently) because they're afraid the crime boss [[YouHaveFailedMe will have them tortured and killed once he gets out of jail]].

* ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine #71 (back when it wasn't just ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') had a ''Boot Hill'' module called "The Taming of Brimstone", in which the player characters had to clean up the eponymous town.

* ''TheNamelessMod'''s [[PlayerCharacter Trestkon]] is this- if the player wills it.
* In ''{{Crackdown}}'', the city's police force barely is able to hold the line at their own headquarters. [[SuperSoldier The Agent]] must go through the city, killing the leaders of the three gangs who rule the city and their lieutenants. [[spoiler: It becomes a subversion when it's revealed the Agency [[EvilPlan allowed the gangs to run roughshod, so they'd be able to assert a despotic regime once they clean out the gangs.]]]]
* This is the plot of all the StreetsOfRage games. Somehow, the crime syndicate keeps coming back.

A new person (or an old inhabitant returning after years away) comes to a town suffering from lawlessness and corruption. He or she is appointed to a position of responsibility, such as TheSheriff, and proceeds to reduce crime, establish the rule of law, and topple the corrupt powers that kept the town from prospering.

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** Similarly done at the end of the QuickDrawMcGraw cartoon "Double Barrel Double," but without the double entendre line.
*** Possibly because Quick Draw himself is a horse so the joke wouldn't work.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Drip-Along Daffy": Daffy comes to "clean up this one-horse town", and in the end he does... as streetsweeper. "Lucky for him, it ''is'' a one-horse town."

* Deconstructed hard in ''ComicBook/Southern Bastards.''

* Jesse Custer in the ''Salvation'' arc of {{Preacher}}.

* This is a good deal of the plot of ''Film/WalkingTall''.

* ''DodgeCity''

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* Parodied in ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': a janitor is praised for "cleaning up the town" as he [[RidingIntoTheSunset walks into the sunset]].

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* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' adventure ''Harlequin's Back''. In one of the mini-adventures in the book, "A Fistful of Karma", the PC's must defeat a cruel tyrant who oppresses the people of a mining town.
* ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine #71 (back when it wasn't just ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') had a ''Boot Hill'' module called "The Taming of Brimstone", in which the player characters had to clean up the eponymous town.

* Many episodes of ''Series/StargateSG1''. Often, the SG-1 team arrives on a planet to discover that an enemy force ("Goa'uld" or otherwise) has enslaved or is otherwise tormenting the local population, prompting the team to clean up the town.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Emma came to Storybrooke when her long-lost son showed up and said she was TheChosenOne. She didn't believe the kid, but when she got a good look at the town and the crooked mayor, she decided to stay put and be a professional pain in her side, eventually getting the job of sheriff. As such, she's untanggling all of the town's dark secrets.

* City Marshal [[AwesomeMcCoolname Dallas Stoudenmire]] was brought into El Paso to clean it up as the previous 5 marshals in the last 8 months were either incompetent, corrupt, or killed. He proceded to kill at least 10 criminals in the next year, dropping the crime rate significantly.

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* The first album by ''Music/TheProtomen'' largely takes place some time after Dr. Light created Protoman to do this, and Mega Man decides to follow in his footsteps. [[spoiler:Mega Man ends up discovering that Protoman [[WorldHalfEmpty grew so disgusted]] with the inhabitants of TheCity and their unwillingness to fight for themselves against [[BigBad Wily's]] [[{{Dystopia}} tyranny]] that he turned on them and became Wily's [[TheDragon Dragon.]]]]

* The first album by ''Music/TheProtomen'' largely takes place some time after Dr. Light created Protoman to do this, and Mega Man decides to follow in his footsteps. [[spoiler:Mega Man ends up discovering that Protoman [[WorldHalfEmpty grew so disgusted]] with the inhabitants of TheCity [[DyingLikeAnimals and their unwillingness to fight for themselves]] against [[BigBad Wily's]] [[{{Dystopia}} tyranny]] that he turned on them and became Wily's [[TheDragon Dragon.]]]]

* In HotFuzz, Nicholas Angel has been so effective at cleaning up London that he's making the other cops look bad, so he's transferred to the quiet town of Sandford. At first it looks like there's nothing for him to clean up, but then [[TownWithADarkSecret unusual deaths]] start happening...

* ''{{Dragon}}'' magazine #71 (back when it wasn't just ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') had a ''Boot Hill'' module called "The Taming of Brimstone", in which the player characters had to clean up the eponymous town.

* ''{{Dragon}}'' magazine #71 (back when it wasn't just ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') had a ''Boot Hill'' module called "The Taming of Brimstone", in which the player characters had to clean up the title town.

* Happens in (of all places) ''SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', after Mean Mr. Mustard's theft of the magical musical instruments turns the town of Heartland into a crime-ridden cesspool. How does the title band clean things up? With a musical carnival!

* [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] in HarlanEllison's short story, "The End of the Time of Leinard". The sheriff who was brought in to clean up the town decades before is now seen as a menace for his heavy-handed tactics, leading the town to conspire to get rid of him.

* Parodied in ''TheFarSide'': a janitor is praised for "cleaning up the town" as he [[RidingIntoTheSunset walks into the sunset]].

* ''{{Dragon}}'' magazine #71 (back when it wasn't just DungeonsAndDragons) had a ''Boot Hill'' module called "The Taming of Brimstone", in which the player characters had to clean up the title town.

* ''{{Robocop}}''

* {{Batman}}, to varying success; the recent franchise reboot emphasized this aspect, as Batman himself hopes that someday he won't be needed.

* [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]], when he arrives in Ankh-Morpork - but he's so nice about it...
* [[LiadenUniverse Pat Rin yos'Phelium]] when he arrives on Surebleak.

* Many episodes of ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}''. Often, the SG 1 team arrives on a planet to discover that an enemy force ("Goa'uld" or otherwise) has enslaved or is otherwise tormenting the local population, prompting the team to clean up the town.