History Main / Nephewism

** Robin the Frog in ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' is the nephew of Kermit the Frog. Robin's father was referenced only once on the show.[[note]]Robin wanted to sing "They Call the Wind Maria", but Kermit was wanting him to sing "I'm Five"; when Robin refused, Kermit said "forget it", and Robin threatened to get an agent and a lawyer; Kermit trumped this by threatening to get his father.[[/note]] Additionally, one episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'' (in which he appears as a tadpole) established that his mother is Kermit's older sister. So he has parents, somewhere, but they're never seen. ''Series/TheMuppets2015'' has an episode that reveals his parents have recently divorced, but we still don't learn anything more about them.
** ''Series/MuppetsTonight'': Andy and Randy Pig, nephews of Miss Piggy.

** Classic series companion Sarah Jane Smith was raised by her aunt Lavinia.

* Froot Loops has a toucan and his three nephews as its mascots.

* In ''Literature/People Might Hear You '' by Robin Klein, the main character Frances lives with her Aunt Loris.

* In ''Literature/DolphinIsland'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke, the main character begins his adventure by stowing away on a transcontinental hovership that's made an emergency landing where his home is--this act made guilt-free by the conveniently uncaring (and immediately forgotten) aunt and uncle he lives with.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''; The main character is technically the nephew of the couple he lives with. In practice, he's more an abused servant with nowhere else to go than a family member. Dumbledore arranged for him to live there so he wouldn't learn about the whole "Boy Who Lived" thing until he could have some perspective -- and because he needed Harry to live with a family member as part of a magical protection, and his mother's sister Petunia was the only candidate.

* In ''Dolphin Island'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke, the main character begins his adventure by stowing away on a transcontinental hovership that's made an emergency landing where his home is--this act made guilt-free by the conveniently uncaring (and immediately forgotten) aunt and uncle he lives with.

* In ''Understood Betsy'' by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, the title character is an orphan who lives with her flighty maiden aunts, who treat her as if she is very fragile. When one of the aunts is sent to live in Arizona for her health, they give Betsy to their "horrid Putney cousins" to raise. This turns out to be the best thing for her.

* In Garrison Keillor's ''WLT: A Radio Romance'', a boy named Francis With, after his father dies in a railroad accident and his mother gets sent to a mental institution, gets sent to live with his uncle, who works as a salesman for popular Minneapolis radio station WLT. As a teen, Francis starts working at the station as a gofer, and eventually becomes an indispensable fixture at the station. Changing his name to Frank White, he moves on to television after the golden age of radio ends, and eventually becomes a TV network news anchor.

* In ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules'', Harry invokes this to explain why he took Tom Riddle as his ward. He says that he is a distant uncle of Tom's to explain why a man barely out of his teens is raising a kid by himself.\

* In ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules'', Harry invokes this to explain why he took Tom Riddle as his ward. He says that he is a distant uncle of Tom's to explain why a man barely out of his teens is raising a kid by himself.

* ''Film/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' has the little ghost living with his trio of disruptive ghost uncles. However, the prequel explains that they are not really his biological uncles, but ghosts that oversee his care for magical reasons.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya's parents died when he was young, and he was adopted by his mother's sister, Midori, and her husband, Minetaka. He didn't know the truth until he hacked into government records, and it took him a while to come to terms with it. Midori's daughter Suguha learned that Kazuto was her cousin during the time he was trapped in the eponymous game, resulting in her developing a crush on him, as her cousin, that she desperately tried to get over (since they're adoptive siblings and Kirito already had Asuna).

* A rather unusual example happened with King Jeongjo of Joseon-era Korea. When he was ten, his father (the infamous Prince Sado) was executed via confinement in a rice chest. Because his status as the son of a criminal would have been a black mark on his succession to the throne, his grandfather Yeongjo had it recorded that Jeongjo was the adoptive son of the late Prince Hyojang, Sado's half-brother who died seven years before Sado's birth (and predeceased Jeongjo's own birth by twenty-four years), and his wife Hyojang, who had died less than a year before Jeongjo was born.

** Sunny calls her [[HasTwoMommies caretakers]] "uncle". Of course, anyone who's played the second game knows [[BoomHeadshot exactly what happened to her mother.]]

** Scootaloo's parents are [[WhenYouComingHomeDad usually busy]] so she's left in the hooves of her [[HasTwoMommies two aunts]], Lofty Love and Holiday.

* Hunter from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' was taken in by his uncle, Emperor Belos, after the rest of their family was killed by wild magic. Belos is one hell of an AbusiveParent however: he raised and trained Hunter to be [[TheDragon his right hand man, the Golden Guard]] at just 16 years old, is implied to be physically abusive towards him, and Hunter is expected to be eternally grateful to him, because [[FictionalDisability as someone who has no magical powers]], nobody else would ever want him. [[spoiler:It later turns out that Hunter is actually a Grimwalker, a clone of Belos's brother Caleb, and the latest in a long line of Belos's failed attempts to make a "better version" of his brother. Hunter is nearly killed by Belos after discovering this, and runs away as a result, eventually being taken in by Luz's mother Camila in the human realm.]]

* Played with in ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}''. Brad and Toni aren't technically Shannon's legal guardians, as she still has a father. But he's always off doing his own thing (and hasn't even appeared in the strip in years) and she is ''always'' staying with them, to the point where if they want to do anything as a couple they first need to find a sitter for Shannon. It's Nephewism in practice, just not in name.

* A ''Series/VeronicaMars''[=/=]''Series/{{House}}'' crossover fic posited that Logan was House's nephew, and [[spoiler:he went to live with him after his dad was arrested for Lilly's murder]]. Canonically, [[spoiler:he became legally emancipated and started living in a hotel suite]].
** This is generally a popular trick in crossover fics, as the RelativelyFlimsyExcuse is often the only one that can explain why characters from two different canons should give a damn about one another.
* In ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules'', Harry invokes this to explain why he took Tom Riddle as his ward. He says that he is a distant uncle of Tom's to explain why a man barely out of his teens is raising a kid by himself.
* In ''Fanfic/TheFifthAct'', [[PeggySue Cloud Strife]] poses as an uncle to the younger Cloud Strife of the timeline to explain away the name and the resemblance.
* In the second arc of the ''Fanfic/ElementalChessTrilogy'', Roy and Riza are very startled to learn that one of their men [[spoiler:is the first cousin once removed of their late friend Maes Hughes. He grew up calling him "Uncle Maes," making him more of an HonoraryUncle, but it still fits.]]
* The Cadance/Twilight ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' one-shot ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/312111/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This]]'' takes the original cartoons usage of this and expands upon it. The reason why Celestia didn't adopt Cadance and instead raised her as her niece was that she had written ''Luna'' down as her adopted mother. Luna was still stuck in the moon at that point and Cadance didn't notice the fine print on the paperwork until adulthood. Still, Luna insists on calling Cadance her daughter despite not being around during her fillyhood. Cadance, however, is unnerved by having a pony she doesn't know well (and who is [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty physically her age]]) as her mother.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' fic ''Fanfic/FreshBlood'', Roxy has abandonment issues because her parents left her with her [[ParentalNeglect neglectful]] and [[AbusiveParents verbally abusive]] aunt and uncle as an infant. Roxy ended up [[TheRunaway running away]] as a teenager. ''Roxy's Story'' takes place in the same continuity and reveals that [[spoiler:Roxy's father was involved in her mother's murder]], which is why Roxy was sent with relatives.
* ''Fanfic/RWBYScars'': Summer was raised by her aunt Ivory after her mother was murdered.
* In the ComicBook/TeenTitans ''Our Own League'' series, Jackson/Aqualad was raised by his Aunt Gail alongside her daughter Momi, both original characters. This contradicts canon where Jackson's mother raised him since she died when he was a baby in this verse.
* In Creator/{{Savu0211}}'s ''The First King'', Amara was raised by her aunt after her mother was killed by a male lion.
* In ''Fanfic/YouAndMeAndEveryoneInBetween'', Qrow has been raising his two nieces Ruby and Yang by himself for over a decade.

* In ''Fanfic/TwoButterfliesGoneWithTheWind'', Mirabel was raised by Bruno after she failed to get her gift. She eventually forgets who her birth-parents are and takes to calling him "Papa".

* Mary from ''Film/WhenTaekwondoStrikes'' lives with her uncle Louis, a priest. It's never stated what happened to her parents, only that she's Louis' last remaining relative.

* In the ''Samantha'' series of the ''Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection'' after spending five years being [[RaisedByGrandparents raised by her grandmother]] since her parents' deaths in a boating accident, Samantha moves to the BigApplesauce to live with her Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia.

* In ''Dolphin Island'' by Arthur C. Clarke, the main character begins his adventure by stowing away on a transcontinental hovership that's made an emergency landing where his home is--this act made guilt-free by the conveniently uncaring (and immediately forgotten) aunt and uncle he lives with.

* In ''Literature/LeSilenceDeLaMer'', the protagonist girl's uncle raised her. The [[Film/LeSilenceDeLaMer 2004 TV film]] makes them [[RelatedDifferentlyInTheAdaptation grandfather and granddaughter]] instead.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':

* ''Literature/LesVoyageursSansSouci'' begins when Sébastien arrives at his aunt Ursule's home in Saint-Isidore. It is not explained why he is moving with his aunt or what has happened to his father (Ursule mentions his mother is dead), and his parents are not even mentioned after the first chapter.
* The Finneys of Sharon Creech's novels ''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' and ''Walk Two Moons'' seem to take in cousins as necessary: in the former book, Carl Ray, who lives in another state, stays with them when he comes to Ohio allegedly looking for a job, [[spoiler:though he ultimately reveals it was actually to find his birth father]]; in the latter, Ben's mother is explicitly out of the picture due to [[spoiler:being in a mental institution]], and where his father is in this isn't made clear.
* In ''Literature/{{Another}}'', Kouichi Sakakibara lives in Yomiyama with his maternal aunt Reiko shortly after being hospitalized, since his father's away on business and [[MissingMom his mother is dead]]. [[spoiler:At the end of the story, we learn that his aunt is actually [[DeadAllAlong the Extra]].]] The other protagonist, Mei, is in a similar situation. When she was two, her family was struggling financially, so she was adopted by her aunt, who had been suffering from depression after suffering a stillbirth around the time Mei was born.
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya's parents died when he was young, and he was adopted by his mother's sister, Midori, and her husband, Minetaka. He didn't know the truth until he hacked into government records, and it took him a while to come to terms with it. Midori's daughter Suguha learned that Kazuto was her cousin during the time he was trapped in the eponymous game, resulting in her developing a crush on him, as her cousin, that she desperately tried to get over (since they're adoptive siblings and Kirito already had Asuna).

* ''Wendell and Vinnie'': The series opens with Vinnie Bassett taking custody of his nephew Wendell after Wendell's parents die in a car crash.

* Gobo hears regularly from Uncle Traveling Matt in ''Series/FraggleRock''. Several flashbacks reveal Traveling Matt's own uncle, Traveling Gobo, whom Gobo is named after. Theirs is the only family relationship established between ''any'' Fraggles.
* In ''Series/LazyTown'', Stephanie is staying with her uncle Milford Meanswell (who is a puppet while Stephanie is a live actress, oddly enough) for the summer. Her parents are never seen, and she seems to have moved in permanently as she has had many episodes taking place during non-summer seasons.

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series:
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'''s main character (whose canonical name is Yu Narukami) gets sent to live with his uncle for the duration of the game because of his parents' travels for their work.
** Likewise, Naoya of ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' is the [[HelloInsertNameHere Hero's]] cousin, who was raised by his aunt and uncle (the Hero's parents) and treats the Hero like a younger brother.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'':
** Sunny calls her [[HasTwoMommies caretakers]] "uncle". Of course, anyone who's played the second game knows [[BoomHeadshot exactly what happened to her mother.]]
** Also Meryl, until we find out that [[spoiler:Campbell is actually her father, not her uncle.]]
%%* Emil from ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld''.
* Diddy Kong is Donkey Kong's nephew. Either he's adopted, or [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the sibling of a gorilla can have a monkey for a child]].
* Link, in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', lives with his uncle. As it's eventually explained, they are all that remains of the bloodline of the Hylian Knights. The [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa manga]] gives a backstory to the absence of Link's parents.

* Occasionally comes up in the ''VideoGame/DarkParables'' series, which stands to reason as they're based on classic {{fairy tale}}s. Most notably, ''The Final Cinderella'' states that the title character and her stepsister were taken in by their EvilUncle after their parents' deaths, and he subjected them to a CinderellaPlot in the extreme.

* Gargamel takes care of his niece Denisa in several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''. Unlike her uncle, Denisa is actually a nice good-hearted girl, much to her uncle's annoyance.

** Backtracking to the triplets, the only piece of Disney media that Donald's sister Della had appeared in prior to ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' was a single Dutch comic that stated she was lost in space, and due to some wormhole shenangians, is completely unaware so much time as passed on Earth. The show would run with the first part of this idea; the first episode movie implies that Donald's twin sister Della [[MissingMom died or went missing]], with it eventually being reveal said incident was her getting lost in space. The circumstances surrounding that event was what resulted in Donald becoming an OverprotectiveDad to his sister's unhatched eggs, and his subsequent estrangement from Scrooge prior to the beginning of the series. [[spoiler:She's eventually revealed to still be alive on the moon and manages to return halfway through the second season.]]

* ''Series/TheBernieMacShow'': Bernie is forced to take in his nieces and nephew when his sister is institutionalized due to her drug addictio\n.

* The [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Duck family]]: Scrooge [=McDuck=] is uncle to WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, who is uncle to Huey, Dewey, & Louie. Not a parent among 'em. Scrooge's sister Hortense and husband Quackmore Duck are eventually revealed to be the parents of Donald and Della Duck, the mother of Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They were first depicted long after the other characters were, and, in any case, are obscure enough to have made no appearances outside of Disney Comics.

* ''Film/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' has the little ghost living with his trio of disruptive ghost uncles. However, the prequel explains that they are not really his biological uncles, but ghosts that oversee his care for magical reasons.