History Main / RadishCure

* In one ''{{Sandman}}'' story, this is Dream's punishment for an author who kept a Muse captive.

[[folder: Mythology]]

This is named for a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle story in which this is prescribed to a little girl who hates taking baths. Her family lets her go without a bath for ''quite'' some time (maybe a week, but [[MST3KMantra don't think about it too hard]]). At one point, the dirt on her hands is thick enough that her parents plant radish seeds there. In a day or two, when the girl sees them, a FreakOut ensues and she clamors for a [[strike: bath]] shower, and never wants to go bathless again.

* Subverted in a classic Charles Addams cartoon, which shows a young boy – perhaps five years old – sitting in an armchair, contentedly puffing smoke rings from a huge, ornate meerschaum pipe. Says the child’s disgruntled mother to a sheepish father: “So much for ‘Oh, let’s let him have a puff; he’ll be so sick he’ll never want to try it again!’”

* In ''[=~Brewster's Millions~=]'', a recently-deceased relative of the title character employs this trope in his will: Montgomery Brewster must spend $30 million within 30 days, in order to get his actual inheritance of $300 million. [[OnOneCondition There are several catches, though]]: at month's end, he's not allowed to own any assets of any kind, he can't simply give money and/or valuables away (beyond the $1.5 million he's allowed to donate to charity, that is), he mustn't destroy anything that's inherently valuable, and the final catch that makes this Radish Cure truly work in the end--during the 30 day period, he's not allowed to tell anyone else why he's spending his $30 million so foolishly.

* Subverted in RoaldDahl's ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'', where the evil Trunchbull forces a dessert-stealing child to eat a monster cake in a single sitting -- he does get sick, but manages to finish it and becomes a hero figure for the school. Hooray, strange Dahlish morality fables!

* There's a children's book called ''TheChocolateTouch'' based on the legend of King Midas where a boy who eats too much candy unwittingly buys a magic chocolate from [=~The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday~=]. After he eats it, everything he puts into his mouth turns to chocolate, making him thirsty and sick and ruining some possessions, like his trumpet. Finally he accidentally turns his mother into a chocolate statue by kissing her on the cheek, runs back to the shop's proprietor and tells him he's learned the error of his ways, and is allowed a ResetButton.

* Inverted in ''TheSarahSilvermanProgram'' - After being offered Tab by his boyfriend (who insists he at least try it once), Steve pretends to become obsessed with it. But, the boyfriend starts offering him more and more of it, turning it into an EscalatingWar.

* Miss Wilder tries to use it in ''[[Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie Little Town on the Prairie]]''. She's mainly doing it to spite Laura, since she picks on Carrie and and another girl for unconsciously rocking their seat, while other kids are purposely throwing things and talking out loud. Laura has a {{Crowning Moment of Awesome}} when, after Miss Wilder makes sickly Carrie keep rocking the seat alone, she proceeds to tell Miss Wilder ''she'll'' rock it and does so so loudly no one can hear anything else.

* Named for the classic Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle example. In fact, ''all'' of the early Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories had this basic form, not just the Radish Cure one. The plot outline changed a little after the author added magic powers to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's repertoire.

* ''Bread and Jam for Frances'' is right up there with ''Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle'' as ''the'' classic example of this trope.

* One of Jean de la Fontaine's ''Tales in Verse'' has a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop version. A {{Casanova}} aristocrat sleeps with the wife of his servant and to prove to the servant that monogamy is impossible, serves him eel pie daily. This is at first a delicacy, but soon becomes unbearable.

* In ''Otis Spofford'' by BeverlyCleary, the title character's teacher has him make spitballs exclusively as punishment for shooting them. Cleary also includes a story in her autobiography of some boys who chewed garlic in class. The principal finally bought a dollar's worth of garlic--this was in the 1930s--and had them chew it all.
* There's a children's book called ''The Chocolate Touch'' based on the legend of King Midas where a boy who eats too much candy unwittingly buys a magic chocolate from [=~The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday~=]. After he eats it, everything he puts into his mouth turns to chocolate, making him thirsty and sick and ruining some possessions, like his trumpet. Finally he accidentally turns his mother into a chocolate statue by kissing her on the cheek, runs back to the shop's proprietor and tells him he's learned the error of his ways, and is allowed a ResetButton.
* Another children's book, ''Strega Nona'', is a SorcerersApprenticePlot starring the titular grandmotherly witch and her magic pot that produces pasta on command. The RadishCure comes in at the end: Big Anthony's ''punishment'' for having flooded the entire village with pasta ... is having to eat all of it.

* Inverted in a classic Charles Addams cartoon, which shows a young boy – perhaps five years old – sitting in an armchair, contentedly puffing smoke rings from a huge, ornate meerschaum pipe. Says the child’s disgruntled mother to a sheepish father: “So much for ‘Oh, let’s let him have a puff; he’ll be so sick he’ll never want to try it again!’”

* ''TheSimpsons'':

* A second season episode of DIC's [[HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats Heathcliff]] series involved a (court-ordered) attempt to get Heathcliff to stop stealing fish from the fish store using this method ([[ItMakesSenseInContext otherwise, he would have to go to jail]]). It ends up working too well...

* Miss Wilder tries to use it in ''[[LittleHouseOnThePrairie Little Town on the Prairie]]''. She's mainly doing it to spite Laura, since she picks on Carrie and and another girl for unconsciously rocking their seat, while other kids are purposely throwing things and talking out loud. Laura has a {{Crowning Moment of Awesome}} when, after Miss Wilder makes sickly Carrie keep rocking the seat alone, she proceeds to tell Miss Wilder ''she'll'' rock it and does so so loudly no one can hear anything else.

* In one ''{{Sandman}}'' story, Dream punishes an author who kept a Muse captive this way.

[[folder: Mythology]]
* The legend of King Midas and his golden touch.

* Subverted in RoaldDahl's ''{{Matilda}}'', where the evil Trunchbull forces a dessert-stealing child to eat a monster cake in a single sitting - he does get sick, but manages to finish it and becomes a hero figure for the school. Hooray, strange Dahlish morality fables!

Somebody wants something she shouldn't have. Knowing this, somebody else responds by giving it to her, to the point where she can't stand it anymore. AnAesop is had by all.

[[folder: Fairy Tale]]
* Strega Nona's pasta pot.

* For that matter, the legend of King Midas and his golden touch.

* Used in an old Disney cartoon, where DonaldDuck catches Huey, Dewie and Louie with a carton of cigars, and makes them smoke them all--only to find out they were a gift for him.

** And the little girl who was a crybaby, so her tears were powered to OverNineThousand until she stopped crying - when [[EverythingsCuterWithKittens a friend gave her a kitten.]] Um, BrokenAesop much?
*** Sort of. The point was that the girl made a habit of sobbing over "every little thing that didn't suit her", so the tears stopped as soon as she was able to smile. The kitten was going to be given to her anyway and the shock of crying enough to fill the playground with tears shock her out of her habit

* Subverted in RoaldDahl's ''{{Matilda}}'', where the evil Trunchbull forces a dessert-stealing child to eat a monster cake in a single sitting - he does get sick, but manages to finish it and becomes a hero figure for the school. Hooray, strange Dahlish morality fables! (Although he ''is'' one of the few students whom managed to take on one of Trunchbull's [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionately over-the-top punishments]] -- for something which, given Trunchbull, it's possible he didn't even ''do'' -- and come out the other end sort-of on top over her, which might explain this.)

* Inverted in ''TheSarahSilvermanProgram'' - After being offered Tab by his boyfriend, Steve pretends to become obsessed with it. But, the boyfriend starts offering him more and more of it, turning it into an EscalatingWar.

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* See ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', when Nozomu and Kafuka board up Komori, plus probably some others.

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* In ''[[BrewstersMillions Brewster's Millions]]'', a recently-deceased relative of the title character employs this trope in his will: Montgomery Brewster must spend $30 million within 30 days, in order to get his actual inheritance of $300 million. [[OnOneCondition There are several catches, though]]: at month's end, he's not allowed to own any assets of any kind, he can't simply give money and/or valuables away (beyond the $1.5 million he's allowed to donate to charity, that is), he mustn't destroy anything that's inherently valuable, and the final catch that makes this Radish Cure truly work in the end--during the 30 day period, he's not allowed to tell anyone else why he's spending his $30 million so foolishly.

* Miss Wilder tries to use it in ''[[LittleHouseOnThePrairie Little Town on the Prairie]]''. She's mainly doing it to spite Laura, since she picks on Carrie and and another girl for unconsciously rocking their seat, while other kids are purposely throwing things and talking out loud. Laura has a {{Crowning Moment of Awesome}} when, after Miss Wilder makes sickly Carrie keep rocking the seat alone, she proceeds to tells Miss Wilder ''she'll'' rock it and does so so loudly no one can hear anything else.
* Otis Spofford's teacher has him make spitballs exclusively as punishment for shooting them. Beverly Cleary also includes a story in her autobiography of some boys who chewed garlic in class. The principal finally bought a dollar's worth of garlic-this was in the 1930s- and had them chew it all.
* There's a children's book called ''The Chocolate Touch'' based on the legend of King Midas where a boy who eats too much candy unwittingly buys a magic chocolate from TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday. After he eats it, everything he puts into his mouth turns to chocolate, making him thirsty and sick and ruining some possessions, like his trumpet. Finally he accidentally turns his mother into a chocolate statue by kissing her on the cheek, runs back to the shop's proprietor and tells him he's learned the error of his ways, and is allowed a ResetButton.

* [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] had a literal IronicHell version of this, which was subverted as he was TooSpicyForYogSothoth.

* [[KingOfTheHill Hank Hill]] made Bobby smoke a whole carton of cigarettes. It only turned Bobby into an addict. Oh, and it rekindled Hank's own cigarette addiction as well.

* The original was a German FairyTale collected by the BrothersGrimm, and before that it was an oral tradition, thus putting it in the [[OlderThan Older Than Print]] category. A pregnant woman had a craving for an herb called rampion, which grew in a witch's garden. And ''"rampion"'' in German is ''"Rapunzel"''.
** It's older than that -- Giambattista Basile had a similar tale about parsley.

* Subverted in RoaldDahl's ''{{Matilda}}'', where the evil Trunchbull forces a dessert-stealing child to eat a monster cake in a single sitting - he does get sick, but manages to finish it and becomes a hero figure for the school. Hooray, strange Dahlish morality fables! (Although he ''is'' one of the few students whom managed to take on one of Trunchbull's [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionately over-the-top punishments]] and come out the other end sort-of on top over her, which might explain this.)

* Subverted in RoaldDahl's ''{{Matilda}}'', where the evil Trunchbull forces a dessert-stealing child to eat a monster cake in a single sitting - he does get sick, but manages to finish it and becomes a hero figure for the school. Hooray, strange Dahlish morality fables!

* Cliff and Claire do it on ''TheCosbyShow'' when Rudy complains about not being allowed to stay up late, choose her own clothes, etc. They agree to let her stay up as late as she likes. This is rather odious because Rudy presents her complaints in a fairly mature, intelligent, and reasonable manner--she's never rude to her parents or argumentative. And her parents set her up to fail. If they could even have told her firmly, but gently, why the rules would stay as they were, it would have been much better.

* Used in an old Disney cartoon, where Donald Duck catches Huey, Dewie and Louie with a carton of cigars, and makes them smoke them all--only to find out they were a gift for him.