History Main / GuiltByAssociationGag

* ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' has an example that isn't PlayedForLaughs. "I saw the whole thing; you killed all four of them." Uh, Sheriff Baxter, wasn't the grand total number of Baxters mocking Joe's mule three? Lampshaded by Joe himself as he leaves the area:

** The former TropeNamer from ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'': Everyone at a dinner party dies because they ate a spoiled salmon mousse, and are carted off by the Grim Reaper. In the afterlife, one of them points out that she hadn't actually eaten any. It was, in a rare case for Creator/MontyPython, an ad-lib. What made that particular scene even funnier is that the character sounded more excited than anything, since they were in the middle of an intellectual debate about the afterlife when Death arrived.

* In the ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' episode "Archie And The Lock-Up", Archie gets guilt-tripped into going out to rescue Mike from a protest that is turning ugly. He ends up getting arrested and stuck in a jail cell with the "pinkos, commies, and fags".

* Non-Comedy example: In ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' the cops suspect someone protesting about the Docklands redevelopment might try something on the Royal Wedding day, so they round up members of the protest groups, and one man from the Anti-Nazi League by mistake; he gets the worst of it because he talks back.

* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'': In the episode "And Then There Was Shawn", after Shawn interrupts the lesson too many times, Mr. Feeny threatens to give the class detention if there is "one more crazy interruption." Hilariously, the "crazy interruption" that Feeny decides is the final straw is the janitor bursting into the classroom, giving a creepy stare, and then leaving. And he punishes Kenny too, even though all he did was ask for a pencil.

* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', the Light Warriors are all to be killed by Sarda because they're horrible people. Except for Fighter. "He's a casualty."

** In the "Apocalypse Ponies" sketch, when the Apocalypse Ponies show up to kill the children for [[DisproportionateRetribution drawing on the walls]], the parents are also killed despite not doing anything.
** In the "Yoshi's Vengeance" sketch, Mario jumps off Yoshi and drops him into a BottomlessPit, leading Yoshi to get revenge on Mario. He also defeats four Shy Guys and shoots Luigi in the head despite not taking part in the incident.

** In the "Heck House" segment of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E5TreehouseOfHorrorXVIII Treehouse of Horror XVIII]]", Bart, Milhouse, Nelson and Lisa are sent temporarily to Hell, yet Lisa took no part in the chaos they wrought. She points this out along the way to hell: "I warned you, and yet my punishment is no less severe. That's odd."

* In one episode of ''Anime/MegamanNTWarrior'', when the class gets into a rubber band fight while Lan is trying to solve a problem on the board, Ms. Suzaki takes away his recess time along with everyone else's.
* In ''Manga/LoveHina'', Kanako's plan of driving away everyone who made hell of Keitaro's life also includes [[ShrinkingViolet Shinobu]], who throughout the series until that point was the only person to treat him fairly from the get-go and never did anything like {{Megaton Punch}}ing him into the sky, publicly embarrassing him, trying to bisect him for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, making him an unwilling test subject for dangerous machines, and so on and so forth. She ends up being the first to get run out of the Inn, however.

** In the episode "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru", after the girl advice Lincoln gave the boys at his school backfires on them, his customers attempt to get revenge him ''and'' Clyde, despite the latter's involvement in Lincoln's scheme being minimal at best.

** In the episode "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru", Lincoln's customers go after both him ''and'' Clyde, when the latter's involvement in Lincoln's scheme was minimal at best.

* In one episode of ''Series/SuperMarioBrothersSuperShow'', Mario and Luigi mention they used to play in their plumbing school's band before being thrown out for eating during a concert. Luigi clarifies that ''Mario'' was the one eating. Luigi was merely holding his salami sandwich while he turned his music page.

* In one episode of ''Series/SuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', Mario and Luigi mention they used to play in their plumbing school's band before being thrown out for eating during a concert. Luigi clarifies that ''Mario'' was the one eating. Luigi was merely holding his salami sandwich while he turned his music page.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', Mario and Luigi mention they used to play in their plumbing school's band before being thrown out for eating during a concert. Luigi clarifies that ''Mario'' was the one eating. Luigi was merely holding his salami sandwich while he turned his music page.

* On ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Edd is always beaten up along with the others when Eddy's schemes go south even though he's usually the voice of reason, trying to convince the other two that they should be doing something productive instead. This was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d on one occasion: after beating up the Eds, Sarah admits that Edd didn't deserve the beating but then she adds, "Give those cute ones an inch, and they'll take a mile!"

Compare: MyFriendsAndZoidberg, IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure, CantGetAwayWithNuthin, GoAmongMadPeople. If the character didn't do the listed thing, but DID do something else, it may become ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne. The opposite of this trope is IAmSpartacus, where people who aren't guilty deliberately associate themselves with the guilty party and AccompliceByInaction, where people who didn't do the act are considered guilty because they [[BystanderSyndrome didn't do anything to stop it.]] Jokes of this kind are a type of BlackComedy. See also MisplacedRetribution and KarmicMisfire, especially when the victim is the only one targeted for what their guilty association did. For people who are victimized by just being there, see GuiltByCoincidence.

* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'': In the episode "And Then There Was Shawn", after Shawn interrupts the lesson too many times, Mr. Feeny threatens to give the class detention if there is "one more crazy interruption." Hilariously, the "crazy interruption" that Feeny decdes is the final straw is the janitor bursting into the classroom, giving a creepy stare, and then leaving. And he punishes Kenny too, even though all he did was ask for a pencil.

* In the ''Series/{{Batman}}'' episode "Dizzoner the Penguin", Batman and the Penguin are running for mayor of Gotham City. Penguin makes the [[InsaneTrollLogic argument]] that since Batman is often seen in contact with criminals while he himself is often surrounded by police, he is the more trustworthy character.