History Main / StrawmanBall

* PlayedForLaughs in TheNostalgiaChick's crossover with NeedsMoreGay: while Nella is excited to fangirl with Lindsay and Rantasmo, Lindsay insists that they need a strawman and even provides a script for Nella to begrudgingly read. Made more ridiculous if you know that Nella is bisexual in RealLife.

* PlayedForLaughs in TheNostalgiaChick's crossover with NeedsMoreGay: Lindsay forces Nella into this role, even giving her a script to read. Made more ridiculous if you know that Nella is bisexual in RealLife.

* ComicBook/CivilWar was meant to be a takeoff on the Patriot Act, where occasional characters such as IronMan are given the pro-registration side while being made to appear fascists or dupes. Bizarrely, the writer apparently thought he was writing the pro-reg heroes as basically right and reasonable but forced to extremes. The fans disagreed.
** Not just that, but the writing staff in general didn't agree beforehand on which side they were going to support, which led to other writers deliberately amping up the JerkAss quotient on Iron Man.
*** Thus making it an interesting example of meta-fiction due to reflecting a 'civil war' among the writers themselves.

** That isn't to say Green Arrow isn't the given this role. He was a real {{Jerkass}} when he found out his sidekick Speedy was doing heroin, and Green Lantern had to lecture him.
** Subverted in the similarly themed ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'' comics, where they both reach the same conclusions on what they should do, but the thought process that got them there is as different as Night and Day.

* In the Michael Crichton novel ''Literature/StateOfFear'', the characters fall into three distinct categories: smart educated good characters, who don't believe human-caused global warming is an immediate threat and can quote entire geological surveys in their defense; smart uneducated good characters who start out believing in global warming but change their minds when confronted with facts; and bad characters who believe human-caused global warming and defend themselves with loud, pissy, easily-refuted propaganda.
** In one memorable instance, a minor character is effectively used as a concern troll by Crichton as she displays graph after graph - which the reader gets to see too - that "prove" global warming doesn't exist, and is pretty much lost on how to deal with the problem.

** "Noncompliance" where Olivia is afraid of the mentally ill.
** "Ridicule" where Elliot dismisses the claims of a man raped by women.
** "Closet" where Olivia is honestly baffled as to why a professional football player's homosexuality would be such a big deal.

* Mild example on ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. In an episode about relationship between Muslims and terrorism, Palmer, the most minor character, makes some vaguely intolerant remarks. He doesn't say anything too ridiculous, but it does present Ducky with an opportunity to soap box about tolerance and such what.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'' was particularly guilty of this, with the weekly caricature of conservative arguments set up as straw men for President Bartlet and his staff to knock down. One regular cast member would usually be chosen as the Idiot of the Week. (Admittedly sometimes the left would lose; usually on the small stuff.)
** Donna Moss took up the role more and more as the show went on.

* There was a particularly {{egregious}} example in one episode of ''Series/AllInTheFamily.'' The issue: Sexism. The Idiot of the Week? The extremely liberal Michael, for whom this viewpoint was completely out of character.
** At least at the time: as the series went on, it became increasingly clear that for all of Michael's liberal views, he was quite chauvinistic.

* Strangely common on the ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', considering that most of the cast are scientists and generally viewed as geniuses, it's rare that the 'stupider' characters take this role.

* More recent episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' make use of this (usually with Lisa, Ned, and Marge) whenever they tackle topical issues. All the while keeping [[GagSeries laughs]] the main priority.
** One notable instance was Marge's issues with her sister Patty coming out of the closet (Homer of all people even lampshades the TransparentCloset before the commercial break by essentially saying, [[SarcasmMode "Oh and get this, I like beer!"]]), after talking up a big show about how open minded she is about homosexuality. She fully recognizes what a hypocrite she's being, and indeed there are a lot of cases where someone believes they're completely accepting of gay and lesbian people until someone they're close to comes out.
*** What makes this example particularly odd is that eight years before that episode was one where the family befriended a gay man (voiced by openly gay director John Waters) and not only was Marge perfectly fine with him, she chewed Homer out for being homophobic and thinking that hanging around John would make Bart "go gay". AesopAmnesia, or OpinionMyopia?
*** Likely a twist on NotInMyBackyard, as it's one thing to be friends with a non-related gay person, but could hit closer to home when it's a relative being talked about.
* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Lois is the worst of the bunch as it's not only painfully obvious that she's a [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] to [[AuthorAvatar Brian's]] AuthorTract, it's hypocritical without being HypocriticalHumor as she's suddenly Mrs. Brady when the subject of drug legalization or gay marriage pops up despite being a pothead (and using harder drugs) with recurring bouts of DepravedBisexual. Meg's excused because she's a ButtMonkey both in and out of the show's universe and represents Teen {{Wangst}}, but Lois serves no other purpose than as a Foil with no humor or lampshading involved.
** Toyed with, since there also plenty of times Lois [[KarmaHoudini gets away with putting Brian or another character down]], either due to ComedicSociopathy, or because they are ''[[GreyAndGreyMorality even worse]]''. At one point Lois even made clear that Brian is a pretentious CommanderContrarian who plays this trope solely to [[AttentionWhore stand out and be different]].
* This was essentially Wheeler's place on ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|and the Planeteers}}'', being the [[{{Eagleland}} unenlightened American pig]]. Even when he makes perfectly valid points, [[WriterOnBoard the show]] [[AuthorTract refuses to let him be right]]. Often, it fell to the sage communist girl to correct his incorrect opinions, especially when Wheeler's plans involved ANY violence. Gaea forbid the kid with the flamethrower should use his flamethrower.
** And the ''one'' time he's allowed to be right, he's right for ''the wrong reason'', when he was the only Planeteer who believed Dr. Blight's sister wasn't evil, but he believed it because she was an attractive Hollywood actress. At least he got to share the IdiotBall with his friends that week -- a nice change from his normal "It's my Idiot Ball and you can't play!" status.

** What Wheeler Learned About Overpopulation: "no matter which side of an issue you choose, you're wrong".
*** Which actually ''is'' a pretty good lesson. Some problems simply don't have easy answers, and in such cases all available options have issues and flaws that some groups will justifiably oppose vehemently.
*** Except in the Overpopulation episode, whichever opinion Wheeler chose, the others would oppose it... even if it was the opinion THEY were behind earlier in the episode. It seemed they simply refused to agree with the [[{{Eagleland}} ignorant American swine]], even if it meant changing their opinion, just so long as they held a different one from him.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' didn't do this every week. However, if it was a group that existed outside of Hank's comfort zone or value system (RPGers and/or Pagans, New-age birthing techniques, Alternative spirituality, Hippies), you can bet that that particular [[TheWarOnStraw Strawman]] wouldn't even have a chance to make a point before the show went right ahead in 'proving' how 'wrong' they were.
** It didn't even have to be ''[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman human]]''. If the episode centered around an animal ''other'' than a dog, then you could guarantee that said animal (and even said animal's owner) would be portrayed in a negative light.
*** Taken to ridiculous extremes with the episode ''The Petriot Act''. Bill is portrayed as being happy, successful, and popular with woman after he decides to look after a very friendly dog that belongs to an army officer for a few days. Hank ends up looking after a cat, who is [[CatsAreMean vicious and nasty]] and makes Hank's life miserable.

* Found quite frequently in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series.
* In a second David Weber example, the novel ''Crusade,'' based on the ''TabletopGame/{{Starfire}}'' board game, has Liberal Progressives ("[=LibProgs=]") and Liberals acting like complete idiots throughout the book for no other reason than they're, well, Liberals. Basically, Weber took the historical bent of liberal parties towards diplomacy and jacked it up to an extremely high level, to the point where you start wondering how these morons got themselves elected in the first place. (And just to pile on, in later books in the setting the answer is strongly implied to be "election fraud").

* This was essentially Wheeler's place on ''CaptainPlanet'', being the [[{{Eagleland}} unenlightened American pig]]. Even when he makes perfectly valid points, [[{{WriterOnBoard}} the show]] [[{{AuthorTract}} refuses to let him be right]]. Often, it fell to the sage communist girl to correct his incorrect opinions, especially when Wheeler's plans involved ANY violence. Gaea forbid the kid with the flamethrower should use his flamethrower.

** It didn't even have to be ''[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman human]]''. If the episode centered around an animal ''other'' than a dog, then you could guarantee that said animal (And even said animal's owner) would be portrayed in a negative light.

This is somewhat related to TheWatson, but deals with opinions rather than facts. Often goes hand-in-hand with the [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] and the person holding it is likely to be juggling it along with the IdiotBall and\or JerkAssBall. See also CompressedVice.

* Hal Jordan, the titular GreenLantern was often reduced to this in ''Green Lantern/Green Arrow'', to give GreenArrow someone to argue with. A particularly {{egregious}} example was arguing against fighting a slaver, because he was the legitimate authority in the area.

* In the Michael Crichton novel ''{{State of Fear}}'', the characters fall into three distinct categories: smart educated good characters, who don't believe human-caused global warming is an immediate threat and can quote entire geological surveys in their defense; smart uneducated good characters who start out believing in global warming but change their minds when confronted with facts; and bad characters who believe human-caused global warming and defend themselves with loud, pissy, easily-refuted propaganda.

* In a second David Weber example, the novel ''Crusade,'' based on the ''{{Starfire}}'' board game, has Liberal Progressives ("[=LibProgs=]") and Liberals acting like complete idiots throughout the book for no other reason than they're, well, Liberals. Basically, Weber took the historical bent of liberal parties towards diplomacy and jacked it up to an extremely high level, to the point where you start wondering how these morons got themselves elected in the first place. (And just to pile on, in later books in the setting the answer is strongly implied to be "election fraud").
* The Truax was a response to [[Creator/DrSeuss The Lorax]] written by logging supporters who didn't pay enough attention and thought Seuss' book was an attack on them. The Lorax-analogue, a vaguely racist-looking tree man named "the Guardbark", is an excitable, easily-swayed dimwit who the Truax (a logger) manages to convince with lazy and sometimes completely dissonant arguments; when the Guardbark asks what the logging industry is doing for endangered species, the Truax basically tells him, "Well, who's gonna care about gross nasty things like ticks that carry germs that kill cute little Cuddlebears (Yes, Cuddlebears)? And I mean, sure, everyone likes these minnows, but it's too hard to change what we're doing and we don't really want to, so we won't." The Guardbark is totally down with that excuse.

**** Likely a twist on NotInMyBackyard, as it's one things to be friends with a non-related gay person, but could hit closer to home when it's a relative being talked about.
* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Lois is the worst of the bunch as it's not only painfully obvious that she's a [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] to [[AuthorAvatar Brian's]] AuthorTract, it's hypocritical without being HypocriticalHumor as she's suddenly Mrs. Brady when the subject of drug legalization or gay marriage pops up despite being a pothead (and harder drugs) with recurring bouts of DepravedBisexual. Meg's excused because she's a ButtMonkey both in and out the show's universe and represents Teen {{Wangst}}, but Lois serves no other purpose than as a Foil with no humor or lampshading involved.

* In a second David Weber example, the novel ''Crusade,'' based on the ''{{Starfire}}'' board game, has Liberal Progressives ("[=LibProgs=]") and Liberals acting like complete idiots throughout the book for no other reason than they're, well, Liberals. Basically, Weber took the historical bent of liberal parties towards diplomacy and jacked it up to an extremely high level, to the point where you start wondering how these morons got themselves elected in the first place.

** Not always the case. Hank ''often'' exhibited this, but episodes like the one where he joins a Food Co-op involved him learning that he was wrong to dismiss them as a bunch of dirty hippies (of course, he also teaches them basic business practices that make the Co-op productive and financially sound). The above example about the episode where he is forced to adopt a cat was more about the greedy and hypocritical veterinarian and medical supply salesmen trying to milk Hank for every dollar they could get than it was about cats being bad pets (it was just that ''specific'' cat was a huge pain). Most episodes that invoked this trope end with Hank learning a lesson or making a reasonable concession to the idea he opposed, but pointing out that the person arguing or acting against him was a hypocrite or at least being a jackass about it.

This is somewhat related to TheWatson, but deals with opinions rather than facts. Often goes hand-in-hand with the [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] and the person holding it is likely to be juggling the IdiotBall and\or JerkAssBall as well. See also CompressedVice.

The show is tackling a controversial topic and the writers want to appear even-handed by representing different viewpoints. Their solution is to put the correct opinion (meaning that of the writers) into the mouths of most characters, while one of the characters, [[IdiotBall often at random]], holds the opposing viewpoint. This character is in possession of the Strawman Ball.

This is somewhat related to TheWatson, but deals with opinions rather than facts. Often goes hand-in-hand with the [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] and IdiotBall. See also CompressedVice.

*** What makes this example particularly odd is that eight years before that episode was one where the family befriended a gay man (voiced by openly gay director John Waters) and not only was Marge perfectly fine with him, she chewed Homer out for being homophobic and thinking that hanging around John would make Bart "go gay". AesopAmnesia, or OpinionMyopia?

[[folder:Film]]
* Elias from ''Film/ClerksII'' is used as a strawman fan of anything Creator/KevinSmith doesn't like, such as ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. Smith never allows him to make any good points in his defense besides attacking the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels.
[[/folder]]

This is somewhat related to TheWatson, but deals with opinions rather than facts. Often goes hand-in-hand with the StrawmanPolitical and IdiotBall. See also CompressedVice.

* More recent episodes of ''TheSimpsons'' make use of this (usually with Lisa, Ned, and Marge) whenever they tackle topical issues. All the while keeping [[GagSeries laughs]] the main priority.

* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Lois is the worst of the bunch as it's not only painfully obvious that she's a StrawmanPolitical to [[AuthorAvatar Brian's]] AuthorTract, it's hypocritical without being HypocriticalHumor as she's suddenly Mrs. Brady when the subject of drug legalization or gay marriage pops up despite being a pothead (and harder drugs) with recurring bouts of DepravedBisexual. Meg's excused because she's a ButtMonkey both in and out the show's universe and represents Teen {{Wangst}}, but Lois serves no other purpose than as a Foil with no humor or lampshading involved.

* {{King of the Hill}} didn't do this every week. However, if it was a group that existed outside of Hank's comfort zone or value system (RPGers and/or Pagans, New-age birthing techniques, Alternative spirituality, Hippies), you can bet that that particular Strawman wouldn't even have a chance to make a point before the show went right ahead in 'proving' how 'wrong' they were.

** One notable instance was Marge's issues with her sister Patty coming out of the closet, after talking up a big show about how open minded she is about homosexuality. She fully recognizes what a hypocrite she's being, and indeed there are a lot of cases where someone believes they're completely accepting of gay and lesbian people until someone they're close to comes out.
*** What makes this example particularly odd is that eight years before that episode was one where the family befriended a gay man (voiced by openly gay director John Waters) and not only was Marge perfectly fine with him, she chewed Homer out for being homophobic and thinking that hanging around John would make Bart "go gay". AesopAmnesia, or OpinionMyopia?
* [[FatIdiot Peter]] from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' of all people even lampshades the TransparentCloset before the commercial break by essentially saying, [[SarcasmMode "Oh and get this, I like beer!"]] though Lois is the worst of the bunch as it's not only painfully obvious that she's a StrawmanPolitical to [[AuthorAvatar Brian's]] AuthorTract, it's hypocritical without being HypocriticalHumor as she's suddenly Mrs. Brady when the subject of drug legalization or gay marriage pops up despite being a pothead (and harder drugs) with recurring bouts of DepravedBisexual. Meg's excused because she's a ButtMonkey both in and out the show's universe and represents Teen {{Wangst}}, but Lois serves no other purpose than as a Foil with no humor or lampshading involved.

** At least at the time: as the series went on, it became increasingly clear that for all of Micheal's liberal views, he was quite chauvinistic.

*** Which actually ''is'' a pretty good lesson. Some problems simply don't have easy answers, and in such ases all available options have issues and flaws that some groups will justifiably oppose vehemently.

*** Which actually ''is'' a pretty good lesson. Some problems simply don't have easy answers, and all available options have issues that some groups will justifiably oppose vehemently.

* MarvelCivilWar was meant to be a takeoff on the Patriot Act, where occasional characters such as IronMan are given the pro-registration side while being made to appear fascists or dupes. Bizarrely, the writer apparently thought he was writing the pro-reg heroes as basically right and reasonable but forced to extremes. The fans disagreed.

The show is tackling a controversial topic and the writers want to appear even-handed by representing different viewpoints. Their solution is to put the correct opinion (meaning that of the writers) into the mouths of most characters, while one of the characters, [[IdiotBall often at random]], holds the opposing viewpoint. This character is the Idiot of the Week.

While the device is ostensibly used to make the show seem balanced, it often has the opposite effect because the correct characters lecture the Idiot of the Week calmly, while the Idiot rants irrationally. Members of the audience who agree with the Idiot of the Week feel they are being lectured and that their opinion is being misrepresented. Fans of the character in question are also annoyed. Even people who share the correct opinion may feel that they're being talked down to {{Anvilicious}}ly.

** Justified by the fact that this was also supposed to be a Democratic administration, it makes sense that it's being told from a Democratic and largely liberal perspective.

* More recent episodes of ''TheSimpsons'' and ''FamilyGuy'' make use of this (usually with Lisa, Ned, Marge, and Lois, and Meg) whenever they tackle topical issues such as same-sex marriage, Bush's policies, stem cell research, censorship, etc. All the while keeping [[GagSeries laughs]] the main priority.

*** Neither of these reaches the level of Stan Smith, the ''main character'' of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' (from the creators of ''FamilyGuy''... but you knew that). You can tell exactly what an episode is going to be about within a couple of minutes by watching his right-wing reaction to an issue.
*** WesternAnimation/SouthPark also contains instances of such.
** [[FatIdiot Peter]] from Family Guy of all people even lampshades the TransparentCloset before the commercial break by essentially saying, [[SarcasmMode "Oh and get this, I like beer!"]] though Lois is the worst of the bunch as it's not only painfully obvious that she's a StrawmanPolitical to [[AuthorAvatar Brian's]] AuthorTract, it's hypocritical without being HypocriticalHumor as she's suddenly Mrs. Brady when the subject of drug legalization or gay marriage pops up despite being a pothead (and harder drugs) with recurring bouts of DepravedBisexual. Meg's excused because she's a ButtMonkey both in and out the show's universe and represents Teen Wangst and Marge is Flanderization increasingly more naive to the times, but Lois serves no other purpose than as a Foil with no humor or lampshading involved.
*** Toyed with, since there also plenty of times Lois [[KarmaHoudini gets away with putting Brian or another character down]], either due to ComedicSociopathy, or because they are ''[[GreyAndGreyMorality even worse]]''. At one point Lois even made clear that Brian is a pretentious CommanderContrarian who plays this trope solely to [[AttentionWhore stand out and be different]].
* This was essentially Wheeler's place on ''CaptainPlanet'', being the [[{{Eagleland}} unenlightened American pig]]. Even when he makes perfectly valid points, [[{{WriterOnBoard}} the show]] [[{{AuthorTract}} refuses to let him be right]]. Often, it fell to the sagely communist girl to correct his incorrect opinions, especially when Wheeler's plans involved ANY violence. Gaea forbid the kid with the flamethrower should use his flamethrower.
** And the ''one'' time he's allowed to be right, he's right for ''the wrong reason'', when he was the only Planeteer who believed Dr. Blight's sister wasn't evil, but he believed it because she was an attractive Hollywood actress. At least he got to share the IdiotBall with his friends that week.
*** Something of a nice change from his normal "It's my IdiotBall and you can't play!" status.

** Maybe because a flamethrower is a (very) deadly weapon, and this is a children's show?
*** As opposed to what, (mildly) deadly? He was actually the most limited in his powers, the others could control the ring's element not just produce it. He never got to end forest fires or anything.