History Main / MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting

* Author Emile Zola wrote a famous accusation near the end of the 19th century, simply called "J' Accuse" ("I Accuse") in which he criticized the French government for stripping Jewish military Alfred Dreyfuss of all of his titles. Dreyfuss was accused of treason, but as it turned out antisemitism was the real reason. Zola's written attack was a huge scandal back then and he was persecuted too, but later he was VindicatedByHistory.

** From "Dangerous Curves": Homer: "I know parts of our marriage are based on lies, but so are a lot of good things: religion, American history,..."
** In "Treehouse Of Horror XVI" Homer turns into a large cannibalistic blob. After eating some obese Germans he says: "Must eat more fat people. Thank God I'm in America."

* JohnLennon sent his MBE medal back to Buckingham Palace in 1969 as a protest against Britain's involvement in the Biafran War. He is the only Beatle who did this.

* Americans burning the Stars and Stripes is still a controversial act in the United States.

** "Bart Vs. Australia": When the family flees back to the American embassy in Australia the ambassadeurs try to stop them from entering by activating an electrical fence near a sign that says "Made with pride in the U.S.A." The fence defunctions halfway, causing the Simpsons to enter after all.
** "Treehouse Of Horror VII": Kang and Kodos disguises themselves as the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. In a direct jab at American political system they say:

-->'''Mr. Burns''': "Yes, I too feel renewed appreciation for the good old US of A. Oppression and harrassment are a small price to pay to live in the land of the free."

** "I'm A Little Bit Country": In the pro and anti war debate America is described as "an entire country saying one thing and then doing another."
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Brian (an extreme left-wing Liberal) meeting right-wing Republican radio broadcaster Radio/RushLimbaugh in the episode "Excellence In Broadcasting". Rush actually manages to convince Brian to change his political views and develop a new-found sense of patriotism. Brian moves in with Rush, and takes the liberty to replace all of Rush's appliances with American made versions. They all break catastrophically as Brian lists off what he replaced one by one, which includes: the toaster, refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, oven, coffee maker, coffee mug, fine china dishware, cupboards door hinges, light bulbs, ceiling fan, garbage disposal, faucets, Rush's man-bra, and his cat.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsons_uncle_sam_9761.png]]

* AFishCalledWanda: John Cleese's character Archie gives the following speech: "Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone "Are you married?" and hearing "My wife left me this morning," or saying, uh, "Do you have children?" and being told they all burned to death on Wednesday. You see, Wanda, we'll all terrified of embarrassment. That's why we're so... dead. Most of my friends are dead, you know, we have these piles of corpses to dinner. But you're alive, God bless you, and I want to be, I'm so fed up with all this. I want to make love with you, Wanda. I'm a good lover - at least, used to be, back in the early 14th century. Can we go to bed?"

* RobertCrumb: Criticized the U.S.A. several times, most notably in "Why I Hate the U.S.A."

In some countries such criticism is seen as highly unpatriotic, even treacherous. Dictatorships are the most obvious example, but even in some democratic countries expressing such opinions can bring people into serious trouble. Yet, in a truly free society criticism of your own country should be respected. Lots of sociological revolutions and changes have occured just because people questioned the ideas of their government and society.

* Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was banned from the Soviet Union for criticizing Stalinist Russia in his book "The Gulag Archipelo".

* TheSimpsons: A popular staple of the show.

* Comedian LennyBruce spent a huge part of his career targeting American censorship laws, especially regarding obscenity.
* Comedian BillHicks dared to criticize the American government at the height of the Gulf War (1991).
* Comedian GeorgeCarlin also has a track record of criticizing American politics and society.

Please make sure that only examples are added where the criticism is made by a person born in the country he criticizes. See MisplacedNationalism for criticism of one people or country towards another.

* JohnLennon: Took an anti-British stance in his song "Give Ireland Back To The Irish".

** "He Loves To Fly And He D'Ohs's":

* SouthPark:

* TeamAmericaWorldPolice: The anti terrorism squad is being portrayed as causing more damage to other countries than actually helping them. An important story arc to, as Gary the actor is shocked by their actions and refuses to help his country any longer.

* MadMagazine: A decades long tradition of this magazine.

* Series/LittleBritain: Every episode proudly praises the glory of "being British", only to feature a lot of Englismen that are hardly something to be proud of.

'''Homer''': "God bless America!"

* Series/{{Duckman}}: Also satirized a lot of aspects of American society and politics.

----

* LifeInHell: Groening pokes fun at American society a lot.

To top it all off the next scene shows Ralph in a bar indulging himself with a pinball machine coming across as a complete oaf.

** As do Levellers in a few of theirs, most interestingly, in England My Home

* JacquesBrel: The Belgian singer attacked his home region Flanders in three songs. The final one, "Les F..." was such a scathing attack on Flemish nationalists that the number was banned on the radio.
* TheSexPistols: "God Save The Queen" is a scathing attack on the British royals, with the immortal line: "There is no future and England's dreaming!"

** "The PTA Disbands": '''Homer''': ""Lisa, if you don't like your job, you don't strike: you just go in every day and do it really half assed. That's the American way."

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Brian (an extreme left-wing Liberal) meeting Radio/RushLimbaugh. Rush actually manages to convince Brian to change his political views and develop a new-found sense of patriotism. Brian moves in with Rush, and takes the liberty to replace all of Rush's appliances with American made versions. They all break catastrophically as Brian lists off what he replaced one by one, which includes: the toaster, refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, oven, coffee maker, coffee mug, fine china dishware, cupboards door hinges, light bulbs, ceiling fan, garbage disposal, faucets, Rush's man-bra, and his cat.

These are the people who feel that MyCountryRightOrWrong is mostly wrong and have nothing but contempt for MisplacedNationalism. They will vocally criticize their own country and feel that they are in their right to do so since they were born there themselves. Though they can sometimes be categorized as misantropes or a BoomerangBigot there are also enough examples of people having good reasons and/or arguments to criticize their country of birth. This can result into active protest marches with the intent to change things. Or, in a less drastic fashion, result in SelfDepreciation comedy, done for satirical purposes.

* Series/SpittingImage: Owns this trope!

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Brian (an extreme left-wing Liberal) meeting Rush Linbaugh. Rush actually manages to convince Brian to change his political views and develop a newfound sense of Patriotism. Brian moves in with Rush, and takes the liberty to replace all of Rush's appliances with American made versions. All of them break as Brian lists off what he replaced, which includes: the toaster, refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, oven, coffee maker, coffee mug, fine china dishwear, cupboard door hinges, lightbulbs, garbage disposal, faucets, Rush's man-bra, and his cat.

-->Phipps: "Sir Cedric! Sir Cedric! Good news. We've finally found an heir!"
-->Sir Cedric Willingham: "That's wonderful, Duncan. Who is he?"
-->Phipps: "His name is Jones. Ralph Jones."
-->Sir Cedric Willingham: "A good man?"
-->Phipps: [embarrassed] "Well... he has his strengths and his weaknesses. You see, he's... American."
[anguished pause]
-->Sir Cedric Willingham: "Quickly, Duncan! The strengths!"

* Series/Blackadder: Targets the British upper class society frequently.

** "Homer Loves Flanders": Flanders drives Homer to a sports game. When Homer notices Lenny and Carl he pushes Flanders' face down from sight because he is afraid of being seen with him. Carl notices Homer's car is driving without a chauffeur and assumes his driving "one of those electrical cars." As the car crashes Lenny sarcastically remarks: "One of those AMERICAN eletrical cars."

-->Kodos: "It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us."
-->Man1: "He's right, this is a two-party system."
-->Man2: "Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate."
-->Kang: "Go ahead, throw your vote away."

** "The PTA Disbands": Homer: ""Lisa, if you don't like your job, you don't strike: you just go in every day and do it really half assed. That's the American way."

-->Colby (StephenColbert in InksuitActor guise): "Okay Homer, I don't know anything about planes, but I know about you. You have what made America great: no understanding of the limits of your power and a complete lack of concern for what anyone thinks of you. So you'll land that plane. And do you know why? Because I heard some guy say you couldn't."
-->Homer: "What! I'll show him. I'll show that guy!"

-->Kyle: "Do you really think your civilization is better than ours?! You people play games by killing animals, and oppress women!"
-->Boy in Blue Vest: "It's better than a civilization that spends its time watching millionaires walk down the red carpet at the Emmys!"
-->Stan: "...He's got us there, dude."

-->Colby: "Okay Homer, I don't know anything about planes, but I know about you. You have what made America great: no understanding of the limits of your power and a complete lack of concern for what anyone thinks of you. So you'll land that plane. And do you know why? Because I heard some guy say you couldn't."

While patriotism can be noble or nice if your country is doing well, there can be times when one is ashamed of his country. Usually it's politically or socially motivated. They dislike the imperialistic, militaristic or nationalistic approach of their own government and people.

* WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic: In his review of "The Magic Voyage" Doug criticizes the German company who made this film for making such a historically inaccurate film. Then he turns the tables by adding: "We can't even get our own history right!" and shows the poster for Disney's "Pocahontas" film.

* NostalgiaCritic: In his review of "The Magic Voyage" Doug criticizes the German company who made this film for making such a historically inaccurate film. Then he turns the tables by adding: "We can't even get our own history right!" and shows the poster for Disney's "Pocahontas" film.

* TheNostalgiaCritic: In his review of "The Magic Voyage" Doug criticizes the German company who made this film for making such a historically inaccurate film. Then he turns the tables by adding: "We can't even get our own history right!" and shows the poster for Disney's "Pocahontas" film.