History Main / PunishmentDetail

* In ''[[TortallUniverse Lady Knight]]'', Kel assigns people to latrine duty when they cause trouble. The rest of the time, unpleasant tasks are divided equally among the camp's inhabitants (including [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure its commander]]), except for those who have a talent that makes them more useful elsewhere. Kel even threatens to list a particularly unpleasant specimen of humanity as having a talent for cleaning latrines if he doesn't shape up.

* Tyrion Lannister from ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' gets put in charge of managing the sewers in King's Landing, since he's horribly unpopular. In something of a subversion, Tyrion goes on to make the sewers incredibly more efficient than they used to be.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A very common practice in many military organizations. Expect to see the people in question doing various menial labor such as painting parking space stripes, doing yardwork, etc. Sometimes they will also be used for "make-work" jobs with no real purpose, such as painting rocks.
** However, in some cases these tasks will go to the NewMeat instead of people on Punishment Detail.
** KP, or Kitchen Patrol, is a common form of military punishment in media (classically taking the form of PeelingPotatoes). In Real Life, it's not nearly as common as it once was.
*** Hilariously enough, the Russian Army has always considered KP a reward rather than a punishment. Sure, PeelingPotatoes is boring and monotonous, but so is, say, tank tread maintenance. KP is far less physically demanding, is done in a nice warm kitchen rather than a snowdrift somewhere and gives you ample opportunity to beg or steal a wide variety of edible goodies.
** More often than not, the punishment is not the detail itself. The detail, while miserable, is usually something that has to be done. The frequency that one ends up on said details is the punishment. If you find yourself burning shit once a week, that's normal. If you find yourself burning shit twice a day, that's a pretty good indication that you've pissed off someone up top.
* A possible form of a sentence of "Community Service."
* Clean-up duties are often used in this fashion just about everywhere.
* Having to work dorm guard duty or some similar job that is typically on a rotating watch (the main purpose being to keep unauthorized people, usually members of the opposite gender, out of the dorms). Someone has to do this at night, and someone has to do this on the weekends. One's daytime duties do not necessarily decrease just because you had guard duty from midnight to Two AM.
** Guard Duty may be punish''ing'' but is not punish''ment'' in and of itself. Having to pull guard duty every night including weekends especially when there are other ablebodied personnel available? '''That's''' punishment.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has "[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040116 grease trap duty]]" (on an airship).
[[/folder]]

->'''[[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]] Literature/CiaphasCain:''' [[labelnote:*]]HERO OF THE IMPERIUM![[/labelnote]] I know these ones a bit too well.[...] Hochen, Nordstrom, Milsen, Jarvik, and the inevitable Gunner Erhlsen. Tell me Erhlsen, are you planning to make latrine orderly a full-time career?\\
'''Erhlsen:''' "[[DeadpanSnarker We serve the Emperor as our talents direct]]."
-->--''[[Literature/CiaphasCain Sector 13]]''

* In just about any work put into an office setting, being put in charge of getting everyone else coffee or other refreshments can be used as this, especially when it's being framed as a deliberate snub/form of exclusion.

->'''[[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]] Literature/CiaphasCain:''' [[labelnote:*]]HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!{{/labelnote]] I know these ones a bit too well.[...] Hochen, Nordstrom, Milsen, Jarvik, and the inevitable Gunner Erhlsen. Tell me Erhlsen, are you planning to make latrine orderly a full-time career?\\

* ''CommonLaw'' has the main characters offered their choice of these when they violate the terms of the prior inquiry. Either they can go their return to their separate and far less prestigious positions, or they can stick together and end up on pawn shop duty. They TakeAThirdOption.

-->'''[[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]] CiaphasCain:''' [[hottip:*: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!]] I know these ones a bit too well.[...] Hochen, Nordstrom, Milsen, Jarvik, and the inevitable Gunner Erhlsen. Tell me Erhlsen, are you planning to make latrine orderly a full-time career?
-->'''Erhlsen:''' "[[DeadpanSnarker We serve the Emperor as our talents direct]]."
-->--''[[CiaphasCain Sector 13]]''

* In the ''CodexAlera'' series Tavi gets assigned with measuring and evaluating all the latrines after calling his immediate superior out selling for selling the legion's supplies on the black market.

* Something related to sanitation and toilet functions, or anything else that involves unpleasant odors and getting extremely dirty.

Frequently TruthInTelevision.

[[folder: FanWorks]]
* In the ''{{Naruto}}'' fanfic ''FanFic/CuttingLoose'' a fairly common means of dealing with most levels of misbehavior among the ninja corps is to assign those ninjas the nastiest, most unpleasant jobs possible, like sewer-cleaning.

[[folder: Film]]
* In ''TheLastCastle'', Irwin is ordered by the Warden to move a massive pile of rocks from one end of the prison yard to the other. When that doesn't break his will, Irwin is subsequently told to move all the rocks back to their original position.

[[folder: Literature]]
* In the ''CodexAlera'' series Tavi gets assigned with measuring and evaluating all the latrines after calling his immediate superior out selling for selling the legion's supplies on the black market.
* Tyrion Lannister from ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' gets put in charge of managing the sewers in King's Landing, since he's horribly unpopular. In something of a subversion, Tyrion goes on to make the sewers incredibly more efficient than they used to be.
* ''CiaphasCain'' is fond of handing these out instead of harsher punishments (to reenforce the illusion of a The Men First attitude), particularly to soldiers who've watched his back (or at least he likes to give them the impression he does to encourage them).

[[folder: LiveActionTV ]]
* In the first episode of ''Series/YoungBlades'', the Musketeers get assigned to dungeon cleaning duty as punishment for fighting.

* In the first episode of ''{{Reaper}}'', Sam's boss decides to punish him the for the damaging the store by assigning him to the Gardening Department (where he has to pile forty pound sacks of dirt all day). Fortunately, the Devil arranges it so that his love interest is there to keep him company.

[[folder: RealLife]]
* A very common practice in many military organizations. Expect to see the people in question doing various menial labor such as painting parking space stripes, doing yardwork, etc. Sometimes they will also be used for "make-work" jobs with no real purpose, such as painting rocks.

* A possible form of a sentence of "Community Service."

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

* ''PhineasAndFerb'' have to clean a latrine with toothbrushes (several times) as punishment for being creative in "Phineas and Ferb get Busted."

[[folder: WebComics]]
* ''GirlGenius'' has "[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040116 grease trap duty]]" (on an airship).

-->'''[[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]] CiaphasCain:''' I know these ones a bit too well.[...] Hochen, Nordstrom, Milsen, Jarvik, and the inevitable Gunner Erhlsen. Tell me Erhlsen, are you planning to make latrine orderly a full-time career?

* AngelaAnaconda is always being assigned to clap erasers after school by her teacher (mostly because said teacher doesn't like her). She has actually developed [[BeyondTheImpossible a special talent for eraser-clapping!]]

-->'''Erhlsen:''' '[[DeadpanSnarker We serve the Emperor as our talents direct]].'

* On ''{{Community}}'', the study group are forced to wash down the school's newly acquired space simulator as punishment for creating -- and permanently voting into use -- an offensive school flag.

* In ''RedDwarf'', the punishment of choice was repainting the ship's hull. Bear in mind that you have to wear a spacesuit, and a safety tether, and said hull is 6 miles long.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: TroperTales]]
* In the Crescent Valley High School robotics club, we have a bin for screws and bolts and nails and whatever other metal detritus the magnet-sweeper picks up off the floor, and the favored punishment is being forced to sort through it.

* Being assigned to [[VentureBros Operation Rusty's Blanket]] was a punishment for Brock Samson.

* In my robotics club, we have a bin for screws and bolts and nails and whatever other metal detritus the magnet-sweeper picks up off the floor, and the favored punishment is being forced to sort through it.

-->'''[[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]] CiaphasCain:''' I know these ones a bit too well.[...] Hochen, Nordstrom, Milsen, Jarvik and the inevitable Gunner Erhlsen.[...]Tell me Erhlsen, are you planning to make latrine orderly a full-time career?
-->'''Erhlsen:''' '[[DeadpanSnarker We serve the Emporer as our talents direct]].'