History Main / CrapsaccharineWorld

** The [[Film/BatmanBegins first film]] of the saga reveals that the League of Shadows are partly responsible for the current state of Gotham, having tried to destroy the city, which they perceived as a WretchedHive, using economic means. Which mostly just made it more wretched.
-->'''Rachel''': Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. They talk about the Depression like it's history and ''it's not.''

** Amonkhet is mostly vast desert populated by undead, exactly the kind of blasted hellscape the Gatewatch expected a plane ruled and created by Nicol Bolas would look like. Then they find the city of Naktamun, a beautiful place where benevolent gods watch over the populace and mummies perform all the labour, allowing the mortals to devote their time to training and preparing for their glorious God-Pharaoh's return. [[spoiler:Amonkhet is arguably the most nightmarish plane seen so far. Nicol Bolas ''corrupted'' the plane by killing and corrupting its resident gods so that they would raise a population of unwitting mortals for him to harvest as superpowered mummy warriors. The entire place is one giant PeopleFarm.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}''. Friend Computer wants you to be happy. Happiness is mandatory. Failure to maintain sufficient levels of happiness is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Are you happy, Citizen?

* The future setting in ''Film/ThePurge'' seems like a utopia, and actually, it almost ''is''. The only catch is, you have to be able to survive the 12-hour period once a year where the government lets the citizens do (almost) ''anything'' without any legal repercussions[[note]]what you ''can't'' do however is attack the government or its officials themselves (at least until the third sequel), or use weapons that would cause massive, uncontrolled harm (missiles, nuclear, etc.)[[/note]]. Of course, it's actually worse than that. If you survive being attacked by someone you thought you could trust, like the protagonists did, you'll never trust them again. It's also hinted that the biggest reason for this event is the government's way of [[TheSocialDarwinist weeding out the poor and the weak.]] Worst of all, the movie portrays humanity itself in a ''very'' grim way, showing that, if given the opportunity to commit murder and get away with it, [[HobbesWasRight most will take advantage of the opportunity, simply because they can.]]
** The sequel, however, downplays it, with a resistance that rises up against the Founding Fathers [[spoiler:who decided that not enough people were dying, so hired some death squads to {{kill the poor}}]].
* In ''Film/RunningScared2006'', the home of the torturing, murdering pedo couple, decked out like a kindergarten playroom. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLrEUhuOZvs Video]]

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' has Miranda, a planet that was a failed attempt at creating a utopia by dosing the population with a chemical designed to curb their violent impulses with the ultimate aim of doing this to every world. The result is a ghost planet filled with abandoned buildings, the corpses of people who became so docile because of the aforementioned chemical that they laid down and died, and those who had the exact opposite reaction to the chemical, becoming the cannibalistic and psychopathically violent Reavers.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Belle and her father live in a nice cottage situated in the middle of green pastures, with flowery trees and a beautiful village nearby. Its inhabitants are polite and cheerful - even the guy strapped on a stock - but they treat Belle and Maurice like they were crazy because they don't fit in while they praise Gaston, a narcissistic JerkJock with [[DevilInPlainSight sociopathic tendencies]].

* Pleasure Island from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' is a perfect textbook example of this. The Coachman takes disobedient boys here to allow them to do anything at all that they want, including smoke cigars, drink beer or play pool, but eventually, they are turned into donkeys and sold off by the Coachman. (Of course, the fact that Pleasure Island is a gigantic carnival-world -- and [[CircusOfFear not the wholesome kind of carnival]], either -- should have tipped ''somebody'' off.)

* [[WebVideo/Nana825763]] is a master of this on Website/YouTube. When he isn't producing just straight up NightmareFuel, he's hiding it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSER3yml1iM underneath sickeningly]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=NVlqGe5YXfU&NR=1 sweet content]]. Even his relatively benign [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knd5Sw6xJgA videos about an ant farm]] has him throwing in random shots of creepy, bloodstained dolls. And that's when he's not inverting the trope to mess with people, like the video with one of the aforementioned bloodstained dolls and utter MindScrew...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn7SWpctUL4 that's about cooking.]]

-->-- '''Stan Marsh''' singing about his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNNOeEDB19E#t=2m18s home town,]] ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''

Contrast with SugarBowl, the (usually) non-ironic version of this trope. May overlap with VileVillainSaccharineShow, especially when that same villain [[BigBad is the main reason]] (or one of the main reasons) ''why'' the world in question is... well, crapsaccharine. The two can overlap, however, if the villain is bad enough to make their world look good in comparison. Contrast PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, FauxtivationalPoster, AWorldHalfFull, where it looks like a CrapsackWorld, but it ''can'' get better, and HeelFaceTown, where the town (or city) is a ShiningCity which was reconstructed from a Crapsaccharine World. HappinessIsMandatory can be this, but often fails to create even a pleasant veneer over things.

Contrast with SugarBowl, the (usually) non-ironic version of this trope. May overlap with VileVillainSaccharineWorld, especially when that same villain [[BigBad is the main reason]] (or one of the main reasons) ''why'' the world in question is... well, crapsaccharine. The two can overlap, however, if the villain is bad enough to make their world look good in comparison. Contrast PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, FauxtivationalPoster, AWorldHalfFull, where it looks like a CrapsackWorld, but it ''can'' get better, and HeelFaceTown, where the town (or city) is a ShiningCity which was reconstructed from a Crapsaccharine World. HappinessIsMandatory can be this, but often fails to create even a pleasant veneer over things.

Contrast with SugarBowl, the (usually) non-ironic version of this trope. Compare and contrast VileVillainSaccharineShow and the similar UncannyVillage wherein a world becomes a perfectly ordinary SugarBowl if its horrifying villain were removed, whereas a Crapsaccharine World is fundamentally rotten to the core. The two can overlap, however, if the villain is bad enough to make their world look good in comparison. Contrast PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, FauxtivationalPoster, AWorldHalfFull, where it looks like a CrapsackWorld, but it ''can'' get better, and HeelFaceTown, where the town (or city) is a ShiningCity which was reconstructed from a Crapsaccharine World. HappinessIsMandatory can be this, but often fails to create even a pleasant veneer over things.

** In ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S7E5Revisions Revisions]]", SG-1 finds a small idyllic village. It looks like a perfect town until [[spoiler:people start disappearing, and everybody but SG-1 forgets they ever existed]].
** An episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' had the team come across a seemingly beautiful world untouched by the Wraith and with no crime. [[spoiler:It turns out the worst criminals were originally sent to an island where the Wraith would devour them. This was so effective crime virtually stopped, so standards became a lot more lax. One man who had been wrongfully convicted of murder was sent there, and a woman who tried to tell the Atlantis team about it was sent to the island for treachery.]]

** One such example in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' is the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E21TheReturnOfTheArchons The Return of the Archons]]", in which Kirk & co. beam down to a world, finding that the town they're in resembles an American 1900s-era town. They only find out later that the idyllic atmosphere they witness among the people they see is bought at the cost of an all-controlling computer regulating their behaviors for six thousand years.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E7Justice Justice]]", the ''Enterprise'' arrives at a planet that seems idyllic -- except that the punishment for ''every'' crime is death.
** One example is the Changeling homeworld in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', a planet of islands, beautiful gardens, and monoliths. Most of the planet is covered by the Great Link, a [[AlienSea sea]] of liquid Changelings living in constant, blissful union with each other. Did we mention that it's the base of operations for the Dominion, and that the Changelings are the Founders of the Dominion, cruel tyrants who want to stamp out freedom in the Alpha Quadrant just like they've already done in the Gamma Quadrant?
* Played for comedy in ''Series/SuburbanShootout'', where a picture-perfect English village is dominated under the surface by rival gangs of upper-middle-class housewives.

** ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E8ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]" features a Smalltown USA where everyone is bright and happy, about to celebrate the birthday of a 6-year-old boy with lots of presents and love... until we find out that the 6-year-old boy is a telepath who [[HappinessIsMandatory requires everyone to be bright and happy all the time]]. Everyone constantly mumbles to themselves about how happy they are, or else he kills them in rather horrible ways -- or worse, if they are people he loves, he might try to ''help'' them. He still tries to "help" them in the 2002 revival because he was never taught that this was wrong; everybody, including his own mother, hates and fears him because of this.

** This is established before the prequels, in the form of an essay [[FramingDevice written by]] an Imperial propaganda minister, who cheerfully describes the planet's technological wonders, mentions in passing that crime is being wiped out, and points out the ''magnanimity'' of the Emperor in granting aliens [[FantasticGhetto designated housing areas]] regularly patrolled by Stormtroopers, to better protect them from [[FantasticRacism any intolerant locals.]] Said author was [[BoomerangBigot a nonhuman himself]].

** [[Recap/BlackMirrorSanJunipero San Junipero]] also [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation comes across as this]], with many viewers pointing out that this virtual tropical paradise where residents party all day and night is only fun when that lifestyle is a rarity but will inevitably get boring and empty when that's what you're stuck with for eternity a la ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place To Visit]]".

** ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]" features a Smalltown USA where everyone is bright and happy, about to celebrate the birthday of a 6-year-old boy with lots of presents and love... until we find out that the 6-year-old boy is a telepath who [[HappinessIsMandatory requires everyone to be bright and happy all the time]]. Everyone constantly mumbles to themselves about how happy they are, or else he kills them in rather horrible ways -- or worse, if they are people he loves, he might try to ''help'' them. He still tries to "help" them in the 2002 revival because he was never taught that this was wrong; everybody, including his own mother, hates and fears him because of this.

* ''Fanfic/FluffyPony'' works (works involving a species of [[LegoGenetics genetically engineered "magical pony" pets]]) offer an interesting inversion; Fluffy ponies are ''designed'' to see the world as a SugarBowl, regardless of how cruel and harsh the world may be-DependingOnTheWriter-making their world this trope through their eyes, while the human characters see the world for what it really is. Though it is not impossible, for a Fluffy that has [[BreakTheCutie had enough experience with the world]] to [[TookALevelInCynicism realize how dangerous the world is.]] Combine this with them being programmed to be naturally innocent, trusting, weak, and naive, and throw them in a world full of natural predators, many other things in nature that can kill them, and a surprisingly dis-appropriate number of humans who want to mistreat if not outright torture them for little to no reason, (Again, how prevalent this is depends on the writer and there are usually just as many people who genuinely want to help and care for them.) and those who aren't lucky enough to be taken into a loving household, will often either have to learn they live in a Crapsaccharine World or end up either dead or [[DrivenToSuicide just saying "Wan di" on loop, till something kills them.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Started off like this, with the cheery adventures of [[ABoyAndHisX A Boy and His Dog]], and a ''literal'' SugarBowl in the Candy Kingdom, hiding that it was an AfterTheEnd setting filled with dangerous threats and brutal monsters. Then it started delving deeply into various [[BackstoryHorror horrible backstories]] and the DysfunctionJunction of the cast, ultimately showing that while there are plenty of nasty things out there The Land of Ooo is still ''overall'' a pleasant place to live.

* ''WebOriginal/FluffyPony'' works (works involving a species of [[LegoGenetics genetically engineered "magical pony" pets]]) offer an interesting inversion; Fluffy ponies are ''designed'' to see the world as a SugarBowl, regardless of how cruel and harsh the world may be-DependingOnTheWriter-making their world this trope through their eyes, while the human characters see the world for what it really is. Though it is not impossible, for a Fluffy that has [[BreakTheCutie had enough experience with the world]] to [[TookALevelInCynicism realize how dangerous the world is.]] Combine this with them being programmed to be naturally innocent, trusting, weak, and naive, and throw them in a world full of natural predators, many other things in nature that can kill them, and a surprisingly dis-appropriate number of humans who want to mistreat if not outright torture them for little to no reason, (Again, how prevalent this is depends on the writer and there are usually just as many people who genuinely want to help and care for them.) and those who aren't lucky enough to be taken into a loving household, will often either have to learn they live in a Crapsaccharine World or end up either dead or [[DrivenToSuicide just saying "Wan di" on loop, till something kills them.]]

** ComicBook/TheJoker holds a parade in [[Film/Batman1989 downtown Gotham City]] to celebrate the town's 200th anniversary, showering 20 million dollars on the streets to lure the crowds in... so that he can gas them all to death.
** In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle's]] apartment is all pink with way more dolls and stuffed animals than you'd expect a grown woman to own. Her breakdown makes it very clear that she was the kind of person who used excessive optimism to mask her unstable mental state.

* Cowslip's warren (the Warren of the Shining Wires) from ''Literature/WatershipDown''. "The Man" leaves food daily, there's lots of poetry and [[WickedCultured culture]], and whatever you do don't mention [[TheScottishTrope the wires]]. (Granted, given that their choices were "near-complete extermination" or "guaranteed collective survival", the rabbits ''may'' have been justified in their choice.)