History Main / TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong

This is a surprisingly common [[AnAesop theme]] in children's shows, especially in TheEighties when MoralGuardians promoted it as the primary "pro-social" moral. The essence, as summed up in [[http://www.newsfromme.com/?s=the+complainer+is+always+wrong this article]] by Creator/MarkEvanier, who wrote for cartoons of the time, is this: ''the group is always right; [[TropeNamer the complainer is always wrong]]''. Thus, you should always agree with your friends and go along with whatever they want to do without argument -- unless it has to do with {{drugs|AreBad}}, of course.[[note]]And even then, they'd go through [[AggressiveDrugDealer some pretty gnarly mental gymnastics]] to get around this particular instance of self-contradiction.[[/note]] In extreme cases, ThePowerOfFriendship can even be contingent on [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil making the holdout agree with the majority]]. The problems with mindless conformity encapsulated in the JumpOffABridgeRebuttal never come up, since, you know, everyone jumping off a bridge together is ''social'' and LonersAreFreaks.

This is a surprisingly common [[AnAesop theme]] in children's shows, especially in TheEighties when MoralGuardians promoted it as the primary "pro-social" moral. The essence, as summed up in [[http://www.newsfromme.com/?s=the+complainer+is+always+wrong this article]] by Creator/MarkEvanier, who wrote for cartoons of the time, is this: ''the group is always right; [[TropeNamer the complainer is always wrong]]''. Thus, you should always agree with your friends and go along with whatever they want to do without argument -- unless it has to do with {{drugs|AreBad}}, of course. In extreme cases, ThePowerOfFriendship can even be contingent on [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil making the holdout agree with the majority]]. The problems with mindless conformity encapsulated in the JumpOffABridgeRebuttal never come up, since, you know, everyone jumping off a bridge together is ''social'' and LonersAreFreaks.

* Ace Ray of ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'' falls into this, as well as StrawmanHasAPoint. He gets kicked off the Wonderbolts for complaining about Starfleet and is portrayed as a loser who lounges around the house all day - even his own sister disagrees with him and has little sympathy. He ultimately ends up getting arrested after threatening to kill his sister in a fit of rage and is {{Brainwashed}} to like Starfleet. However, he comes off as more accurate than the author intended regarding Starfleet's flaws and failures.
* In the infamous ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' fanfic, ''Fanfic/MyInnerLife'', Link's MarySue wife, Jenna, receives her very own kokiri fairy from the Great Deku Tree to keep. When Mido, the leader of the kokiri, has the audacity to point out that she [[CanonDefilement should not be receiving one due to not being kokiri]], Saria immediately tears him a new one for daring to suggest that Jenna doesn't deserve every little thing she gets.

* ''Film/ChristmasWithTheKranks'' (faithful to its wonderfully DeadpanSnarker source novel by Creator/JohnGrisham) plays this trope terrifyingly straight. The titular characters are a middle-aged couple whose grown daughter Blair has joined the Peace Corps for a year-long mission in Peru. Luther Krank crunches the numbers and realizes that they spend, on average, over $6,000 ever December on Christmas celebrations. Since they have no reason to do so this year, he suggests to his wife Nora that they use that money to treat themselves to a Caribbean cruise vacation instead. Unfortunately, ''everyone in town'' is obsessed with Christmas to a disturbing degree, and they begin bullying, threatening, and outright committing crimes against the Kranks to force them to celebrate. It only gets worse when Blair surprises her parents on Christmas Eve morning with the news that she's coming home for Christmas after all, and can't wait for the annual party. The neighbors are then portrayed as saints for helping the Kranks put together a big bash despite the couple's earlier "evil" action of not wanting to spend thousands of dollars on the holiday.

* ''Film/ChristmasWithTheKranks'' (faithful to its wonderfully DeadpanSnarker source novel by Creator/JohnGrisham) involves the Kranks being pressured into expensively celebrating Christmas by the ''entire neighborhood''. Every house on their block is supposed to have a gigantic FrostyTheSnowman on the roof and soon protesters are demanding that the Kranks "Free Frosty!" They'd planned a luxury cruise instead since their daughter was off teaching in Peru; at the last second she decides to bring her fiance home for Christmas, so they and the neighbors can deck the house out in record time for a big, fluffy ending celebrating the joys of absolute conformity.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'': Billy from "The Off-Beats". The running gag in the series usually [[PlayedForLaughs involved Billy]] saying something that would get Tina mad, and then the Populars would literally throw him out of the group, causing Billy to crash into something.
* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. The Complainer of the group, Sokka, is also TheSmartGuy. Of course, Sokka is also The ButtMonkey, so it is played straight on occasion. Basically, if the thing being discussed is [[SingleIssueWonk a trivial matter]], Sokka will almost always be wrong, often for comedic effect. If it's something plot-relevant, [[ProperlyParanoid he's almost always right]].
* The article referenced above talks about this being the reason for [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Eric's]] existence in the ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons'' cartoon. Fortunately, this trope was also subverted by the show: In some episodes, primarily in season two, there are cases where Eric is right and everyone else is wrong. One of the writers has since said that Eric was originally supposed to be right a lot more often, but the MoralGuardians basically forced this trope. The script for the unproduced final episode subverts this trope in that the group splits in two, and looks like Eric's group may be getting set up for this, but it turns out that [[spoiler:''both'' groups are wrong. Fortunately, they figure out what they really need to do just in time.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGetAlongGang'' was, in the eyes of some, completely dedicated to this trope. The "complainer" in this case was even depicted as [[JustEatGilligan a compulsive gambler who'd bet the clubhouse at the slightest provocation]]. Creator/MarkEvanier would directly make fun of what he felt was this series' message of this trope in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. ([[https://www.newsfromme.com/2006/12/11/todays-video-link-1103/ He talks about it here]], and you can see the "Big Bad Buddy Bird" cartoon he talks about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_4ZRtqfuR8 here]] (starting about a minute in).
* This is one aspect of the "communist" leanings of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''. [[DumbIsGood Brainy Smurf]] was the usual [[ButtMonkey complainer]].
** The other complainer, Grouchy Smurf, wasn't wrong, but the Smurfs found him annoying anyway. (The viewers, on the other hand...)
* Parodied mercilessly with the ShowWithinAShow "The Buddy Bears" from ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. They were three "cute" bears in [[TheGayNineties Gay Nineties]] attire who would endlessly perform an obnoxious "barbershop" routine with canes and madcap dancing. Not coincidentally, the head writer of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', and the writer of this episode, was Creator/MarkEvanier.
** They even had a group verse to express the sentiment:
--->''"Oh, we are the Buddy Bears, we always get along\\
Each day, we do a little dance and sing a little song\\
If you ever disagree, it means that you are wrong\\
Oh, we are the Buddy Bears, we always get along!"''
** Their ''other'' verse, with double your creepy, goes:
--->''Oh, we are the Buddy Bears, we never have a fight\\
Anyone who disagrees is never, ever right\\
If you have a point of view, then keep it out of sight\\
Oh, we are the Buddy Bears, we never have a fight!''
** Questioned by Garfield...
--->'''Garfield''': But what about having an individual point of view?\\
'''B1''': I have an individual point of view.\\
'''B2''': And I agree with him.\\
'''B3''': And I agree with both of them.\\
'''All''': ''[[HypocriticalHumor We all have an individual point of view!]]''
** One episode featured Garfield, sick of having to deal with them, [[AppleOfDiscord manipulating them into a situation where they couldn't agree]]: [[spoiler:choosing pizza toppings, which Garfield claims no two people "in the history of Italian cooking" have ''ever'' been able to agree on]].
** In another episode, Garfield hires the Buddy Bears to clean his house, then manages to get out of paying them by saying he already did. When the Buddy Bears claim to have never gotten paid, Garfield accuses them of disagreeing with him, and as a result, they are wrong. They despondently leave, empty-handed.
** Similarly, an episode of ''WesternAnimation/USAcres'' featured Roy Rooster, the cast's prankster and resident smart-aleck, getting fed up with the farm and joining the Buddy Bears as "Big Bad Buddy Bird" in order to exemplify this trope: their 'episodes' involved little skits showing kids what happens when you don't agree, even over trivial things: a 16-ton safe gets dropped on your head. Roy gets safes dropped on his head throughout the episode, once for wanting chocolate ice cream when the rest of the bears wanted vanilla, ''and they were all buying individual cones''. He eventually gets them to promise not to drop a safe on him, so he gets on with his act... [[spoiler:and they drop ''two'' safes on him]]. Roy gets fed up and yells at the audience, "Don't do everything your friends do, ''just because they do it!'' Have a ''brain'' of your own!"
** A sequel called "Roy Gets Sacked" would follow, which followed Roy as he thinks his friends don't want him anymore and finds himself back as a co-star to the Buddy Bears (who are this time accompanied by an AffirmativeActionGirl) in essentially the same role as before, but this time he is relieved to hear that they don't have any 16-ton safes to drop on him anymore. Unfortunately for Roy, [[ExactWords they drop other things on him instead]], such as a piano, a 1988 Convertible, and [[spoiler:a '''27'''-ton safe]]. Roy just makes a break for it after that last one, rather than tell the audience to make their own decisions like last time.
* DonaldDuck is frequently subject to this, especially in his confrontations with Chip and Dale, but "Crazy Over Daisy" is one of the biggest examples: The chipmunks spend the entire short ridiculing, tormenting, and abusing Donald to the point where they destroy his bicycle, and when he essentially punishes them by building a new bike that the chipmunks have to power, Daisy scolds and dumps Donald for being abusive to them.
* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'': Fozzie Bear. The jokes he tells are booed at regardless. Though it was subverted when Fozzie finally got fed up with the boos and decided to give up jokes. This eventually made everyone sad as they realized that seeing Fozzie miserable is worse than enduring his jokes and at least knowing ''he's'' happy. Piggy ultimately puts it best: "[[SoUnfunnyItsFunny We love to hate your jokes]]!"
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' television series episode "The Bright Circle Celebration", everybody, especially Petrie, is excited for the upcoming Bright Circle Celebration, which seems to be [[YouMeanXmas a cross between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.]] Cera and her dad, however, think the whole holiday is ridiculous; to them, it doesn't make sense to thank the Bright Circle (the sun) for shining. Then a [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin meteor shower starts a fire and threatens to burn down the valley]], and Cera and her dad end up joining in the celebration with everyone else.
* The 2000s version of ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'' seems to have this [[AnAesop aesop]] quite a bit, specifically in The Costume Party and Mind Your Manners, where both complainers are ''tricked into complying'' with Strawberry and her friends' views via parties. A ''lot'' of episode conflicts are solved by tricking or distracting the troublemaker into forgetting they had any reason to disagree or be upset, especially when it involves differences of opinion and personal choices.
* There are some moments in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' where they take ThePowerOfFriendship a bit too far, where the moral feels like "if someone is your friend, the two of you must agree on everything and do everything together." Their LimitedSocialCircle makes it even worse. And you can bet that half of the time, the victim of this is going to be Cornelia.
* Similar to Wheeler below, Stan from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' is always considered an abusive {{Jerkass}} no matter what the situation even when the Aesop is completely flip-flopped with another character doing the exact same thing Stan will still be presented as in the wrong.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'':
** Wheeler. This reaches ridiculous levels in a Season 4 episode where he's portrayed as a heartless jerk because he's the only one who doesn't want to take every injured or endangered animal they find on their missions back to Hope Island, which even Gaia told them they shouldn't do. Even on a show ''founded on the GreenAesop premise'', removing exotic species from their natural habitat shouldn't be okay, even if everyone agrees with it.
** In the Season 4 episode, "Hollywaste", the Planeteers are playing stunt doubles in a movie [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs based on one of their adventures]]. The eco-friendly actress who plays the movie version of Linka, Bambi Blight, is the younger sister of recurring villain Dr. Blight. Trouble happens as usual -- and clues point to Bambi. Most of the Planeteers are quick to blame Bambi but Wheeler alone trusts her. In the end, Dr. Blight reveals herself as the guilty party. After a battle and the arrest of Dr. Blight, Captain Planet says, "Bambi is proof that [[{{Pun}} one bad Blight doesn't spoil the whole crop]]." Note that Wheeler was right, but not because he disapproved of guilt by association - he thought she was innocent because she was an [[BeautyEqualsGoodness attractive Hollywood actress]].
** This trope becomes a bit hilarious when comparing the two episodes dealing with overpopulation, where in each one Wheeler is on ''an entirely opposite side of the debate'', yet both times the "lesson" he "learns" is the same. The first season episode "Population Bomb" had him learn having too many kids is irresponsible via [[AllJustADream an obvious Lilliputian dream sequence]]. Four years later in "Numbers Game," Wheeler wonders why people had kids if they couldn't afford to raise them. Cue Gi jumping down his throat and putting words in his mouth simply for asking a damn question. This time, he has a dream that again, warns him of the danger of overpopulation. It's treated as if he's learned a lesson by the time he wakes up, despite him being right from the beginning. It's especially grating when you remember Wheeler's background. He's from a bad neighborhood in New York, and his own family's home is basically a hole in the wall apartment. He should know better than anyone else what happens to families who have more kids than they can afford.
* ''Franchise/CareBears'':
** Most of the characters are characterized by unique personality quirks, but GrumpyBear is unique in being the only bear to make a hobby out of finding the cloud wrapped around every silver lining (understandably, since the universe's opinion of him tends towards the ButtMonkey-esque.) Nonetheless, he remains quite possibly [[EnsembleDarkhorse the most awesome character on the show]], having cobbled together a fully-functional teleporter, survived an attack from a renegade bowl of fruit and ''playing baseball with lightning''. Even the latest TV series, which gives all the bears a special power unique to their symbol, happily grants Grumpy arguably the most broken power on the show... The complainer may usually be wrong, but even hunting for clouds among the silver linings sometimes has a silver lining.
** The trope is outright subverted in at least one story, in which the other Care Bears spend the entire story trying to cheer Grumpy Bear up but only succeed in irritating him. Eventually they reach the revelation that Grumpy Bear is ''happy being grumpy'' and that they should just let him go on being so.
* There was a similar episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', in which the animals attempted to cheer up Eeyore because he spent all his days staring gloomily at clouds. In a nice twist, after each of their heavy-handed attempts failed, Piglet simply sits and talks to Eeyore, who reveals that he's not depressed - he is, in fact, playing an imaginary game with the clouds. A nice avoidance of this trope, in that the gang is encouraged to find out more about Eeyore's unusual behaviour and even appreciate it on its own terms. ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' tended to subvert this frequently with Eeyore, with the others and even himself suggesting making him over to be happier and fit in more, in the end however they usually decide both Eeyore and the others are happy with [[TheEeyore his usual "depressed" self]]. This is occasionally played more straight with Rabbit, however, whose objections to the antics of the others (usually Tigger) are usually shot down, though granted his ControlFreak tendencies and extremely prudish demeanor justifies it a little.
* Writers of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' admit that this was one of the bits of ExecutiveMeddling they had to deal with, requiring them to depict the "good" teamwork of the G.I. Joes, and the "bad" arguing of the Cobra organization. However, they also admit this worked out in the end, since the constant squabbles and power-plays between Commander, Destro, Zartan, Baroness, and the Crimson Twins made for better plots, and made them much more interesting characters than many of the comparatively blander Joes.
** Eventually satirized in "The Wrong Stuff", where the viewer gets a brief glimpse of a Cobra-produced kid's cartoon show. It features non-conformists being magically transformed into "right-thinking" clones.
** On the Joes side, the token complainer is usually Shipwreck, though his constant bellyaching is usually echoed by his allies. ("Oh, man, not ''push-ups'', I ''hate'' push-ups..." "''Everybody'' hates push-ups, Shipwreck, but we gotta do 'em. So pick up the pace!"). Still, while an effective member of the team, he tends to get in trouble when he goes off on his own. But the trouble he gets into tends to foil Cobra plots.
** Also, look at [[MildlyMilitary their uniforms and attitudes]]. G. I. Joe is the least-conformist military organization in history. There are punk-rock anarchist groups [[RuleAbidingRebel guilty of more groupthink]]. Granted, they are a special forces unit.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Homer shoots this quote to his nagging wife Marge, who is always way more sensible than him but wrong this one time, it's a Halloween episode so it's LooseCanon in a series with varying continuity over the years anyway.
** Another gag in The Simpsons involves Homer and Marge going to see the school counselor to find out why Bart's having such a hard time in school; he suggests that Bart try to remove his personality and be more of a "faceless slug". It is of course played as a joke rather than straight.
** On the episode when Lisa becomes a vegetarian, we see Ms. Hoover and Lunchlady Doris push a silent "independent thought alarm" when she questions school policy, which sends an alert to Principal Skinner.
--->'''Principal Skinner:''' Uh-oh. Two independent thought alarms in one day. The students are overstimulated. Willie! Remove all the colored chalk from the classrooms.\\
'''Groundskeeper Willie:''' I warned you! Didn't I warn you?! That colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself!
** Speaking of Lisa, it's often [[InvertedTrope inverted]] with Springfield's resident SoapboxSadie. Many is the time she'll protest something for being "wrong", despite it ultimately being better for everyone involved or at least having no negative repercussions whatsoever outside of being dishonest or deceitful, and she'll ultimately be portrayed as having the moral high ground who everyone inevitably agrees. It's occasionally mocked, such as when the entire school anticipated she would pull such a stunt and [[ItMakesSenseInContext staged a fake presentation with an imposter Comptroller]] to continue their dishonest act that would get some much-needed funding for the school.
* Creator/RankinBass's ''WesternAnimation/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas'' takes the Santa Claus myth in a creepy direction. A know-it-all preteen mouse writes a letter in the paper saying that [[FlatEarthAtheist Santa is a myth]] and signs it 'All of Us', meaning him and his friends. Santa decides not to deliver presents to the whole town, even though the very concept of a naughty/nice list means he could easily tell who the offender was. Everyone decides they have to build Santa a giant, expensive clock as a peace offering so he'll come visit. The mouse who started the whole mess is then taken on a tour of the town by his father to show how he "ruined everyone's Christmas with [his] opinions" and "[[KnowNothingKnowItAll doesn't know as much as [he] thinks [he does].]]"
* Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' have rather pro-conformity messages. Whenever members of a hostile subculture appear — far-right Christians, far-left hippies, Canadians, etc — they are usually eventually exposed as selfish, bullying hypocrites of some form or another. In the end, everyone learns to not take their contrarian view of the world seriously.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBusyWorldOfRichardScarry'' has the brothers Pig Will and Pig Won't, who somehow manage to embody this Aesop using only two people. As their names suggest, one agrees to ''every'' request or offer, and the other refuses every offer. In the original book, Pig Won't would always say "I won't", without even thinking about it. So one day when their father asks who wants to go with him to visit the fire station, Pig Won't declares "I won't". At the fire station, Pig Will gets to play with the dalmatian, wear a fire suit, play with the fire hose (with adult supervision), and it all ends with an all-you-can-eat hot fudge sundae feast, and when Pig Won't sees all the fun Pig Will had, he immediately becomes Pig Me Too.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers''. Gears complains about everything but the other Autobots actually like having him around because they find his complaints amusing and his behavior never leads him to trouble. In fact, the one time he was content and helpful it was because the Decepticons were controlling him. Played straight with Starscream, whose constant complaints about Megatron's leadership often gave the Autobots an opening for victory. The complainer is always wrong even when the group is evil. And then there's Huffer, who, unlike Gears, is just whiny.
** Another reason why they like Gears is that for all his complaining he also tends to point out legitimate flaws that need to be addressed and fixed, and sometimes it's things they hadn't actually thought of until he brought it up.
** Starscream's complaining isn't always wrong, in fact many times he points out legitimate flaws in Megatron's plan. In the opening episodes, for instance, Starscream is the only one to think of trying to destroy the Ark that still contained the defunct Autobots before getting yelled at by Megatron. The rest of the time though, it's played completely straight with him.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius''. When the Yolkians (the villains from TheMovie) come to the Earth, Jimmy says they're not to be trusted, [[FalselyReformedVillain even after they seem harmless and give everyone free stuff]]. It turns out they ''were'' trying to destroy the Earth and were only giving them stuff to get on their good side. After saving the town, Jimmy makes them say "We were wrong and you were right" in English and French (and tries with Chinese, but nobody knows it). Really most of the time Jimmy is always right and will always be the one to solve the problem, [[IgnoredExpert but no one ever trusts him]] because [[InsufferableGenius he's such a jerk about it]] and half of the problems were [[NiceJobBreakingItHero caused by him in the first place]].
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
** Subverted in the episode "Panic in the Sky". Franchise/{{Batman}} was the only one who refused to surrender himself to the authorities. [[spoiler:If he didn't go to confront Amanda Waller, the rest of the League would still be imprisoned and Luthor would have completed the powerful and immortal android he was going to transfer his consciousness to and make himself a living god.]]
** Batman subverts this Trope quite a lot in ''Justice League''. In the episode "Hereafter," while the rest of the Justice League discuss what should be done after Superman's apparent death and who they should recruit to replace him, Batman refuses to take part (although he does show up for the funeral). He instead focuses on trying to find out what happened to Superman, suspecting Big Blue is still alive somewhere [[spoiler:and he turns out to be right, though it should be noted he doesn't actually contribute to rescuing or even finding Superman, and was actually on the verge of accepting Superman might be dead after all when Superman finally made it back]].
** Superman also subverted this trope when Darkseid came to the Justice League for help. Superman initially refused, having been [[ContinuityNod brainwashed by him in the past and then let loose on Earth]], something his reputation never fully recovered from. Everyone, even Batman, chalked it up to Superman holding a rather understandable grudge and went to help anyway. Darkseid ended up stabbing everyone in the back.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' tends to play with this trope, especially in the early days. The formula usually has Tommy suggesting they do something, Phil and Lil agreeing, Chuckie mentioning that it's not such a good idea, one of the three calling Chuckie a "big baby" and dragging him along. It's usually subverted when the adventure goes south, but they still had a blast.
** Of course in said early days Chuckie's more temperamental attitude led him to point this out more frequently. In one episode he even lampshades how in every argument Tommy tricks him into following him and suggests to just skip it and go along with the plan right away.
** An interesting subversion is the episode "Touchdown Tommy". The B-plot has the dads watching a big football game, though Chaz wants to watch the chess tournament. They blow him off and he's stuck watching the game. Apparently, he knew what he was saying - because the dads were too busy watching football, the babies covered the living room in chocolate milk and Didi and Betty were ''pissed'' when they got back.
--->'''Chaz:''' I told you we should have watched the chess tournaments.
--->''(The others glare at him)''
** Also subverted in "Farewell My Friend", after Chuckie is berated into joining the others on an adventure into his dad's greenhouse, and [[WithFriendsLikeThese actually abandoned]] and left to face the assumed "monster" they face, he finally snaps at Tommy, refusing to go back and claiming him to be a bad friend for forcing him to suffer all his schemes. Tommy goes without him and is "captured" inside, leaving Chuckie to rescue him after the twins [[DirtyCoward bail out again]]. While Chuckie admits to overreacting, Tommy admits it was a bad idea and should be more considerate to Chuckie ([[AesopAmnesia for that episode anyway]]).
--->'''Chuckie:''' I don't think this is a good idea...
--->'''Tommy:''' ''(bored)'' Oh come on, Chu-
--->'''Chuckie:''' ''(angrily)'' I'M NOT GOING! Every time I go on one of these little adventures, I get my head stuck in a tree. Or get chased by some shadow guy or [[AllJustADream fall off a mountain]].
--->'''Phil and Lil:''' Mountain?
** There's even a ''third'' instance of this happening. The episode "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" has Tommy and the twins convince Chuckie to take Chaz's favorite CD so they can play with it. When Angelica sees it and pulls a cruel LookBehindYou to steal it, Chuckie quickly blames the babies for its disappearance without even thinking Angelica might have done something to it. However, it takes its so hard that he declares ItsAllMyFault and ends up initiating the ItsAWonderfulPlot when he thinks he shouldn't have been born. The trio ''are'' very sorry for what happened and try to make up for it by giving him even ''more'' [=CDs=] to replace the one lost. Thankfully, LaserGuidedKarma hit Angelica.
** Another aversion happens in "The Odd Couple" when Tommy stays with Chuckie. Tommy constantly complains about Chuckie's way of doing things and tries to conform things to work like in his house, eventually leading to Chuckie having an outburst over his selfishness. Tommy is apologetic and tries doing things Chuckie's way, but soon Chuckie himself starts to become controlling, leading to Tommy lashing out this time. In the end, both accept that everyone needs equal points they're allowed to do things their own way. What makes this one even more hilarious is that Phil and Lil try to warn them about staying together and both Tommy and Chuckie blow it off, thinking their awesome friendship would help them make it through. However, when each baby confronts the twins later on, they both respond "I hate to tell you this, but...[[IToldYouSo we told you so]]."
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** There's a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries "Trouble With Tribbles"]] episode where rapidly-multiplying bugs have swarmed Ponyville. Everyone is focused on trying to herd them up and get rid of them, except for [[GenkiGirl Pinkie Pie]], who insists they start stockpiling musical instruments. Everybody else shrugs it off as her usual nonsense. When all hope seems lost, Pinkie Pie [[spoiler:comes over the horizon, playing a one-pony-band, becoming the [[JustForPun Pinkie-Pied-Piper]] with the music leading all of the bugs away. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight It turns out she knew how to get rid of the bugs the whole time, but the others didn't listen]]]]. The moral of this episode, as spoken by Twilight Sparkle, is that sometimes you need to stop and listen to your friend's advice, even if it doesn't immediately make sense, making this episode an Aversion. Of course, [[CannotSpitItOut if she'd started her explanation]] with "Hey, I know how to stop the parasprite swarm!" instead of "Hey, help me find an accordion!", [[PoorCommunicationKills she probably would've gotten more help]].
** Again averted with the episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E5GriffonTheBrushOff Griffon the Brush Off]], where Pinkie accuses [[ShadowArchetype Gilda]] of being a bully and a liar. Twilight tells her that maybe [[GreenEyedMonster she's just jealous]], but by the end of the episode Pinkie is proven to be right. In many ways, this show can be considered an apology letter for previous versions that played the trope painfully straight.
** Also frequently averted by the rest of the series. The main complainer of the heroes, Twilight Sparkle, is actually ''right'' about half the time.
*** [[spoiler:It also derails the BigBad's plot in the first season when she points out the factual errors in a prophecy about how she'd be sealed up again.]]
*** [[spoiler:It derails the second season's BigBad's plot as well. Twilight Sparkle was the only one to realize that something was wrong with Princess Cadence's newfound Jerkass behavior, but when she declared her "evil", she lost her friends' and family's trust. Actually, it turns out Twilight Sparkle was right to complain, but for the wrong reason: Princess Cadence didn't suddenly turn evil; she was replaced by an evil Changeling Queen. Applejack apologizes for not trusting her word, though Twilight admits she didn't really go the right way about it either.]]
** However, it's played straight occasionally, too. [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon In the very first episode]], Twilight Sparkle is complaining that being ordered by Princess Celestia to make friends in Ponyville is a complete waste of time, completely unrelated to the much more imminent threat of Nightmare Moon's return. She's right about Nightmare Moon's return being an extremely urgent situation. Making friends being an unrelated waste of time, however? [[ThePowerOfFriendship Not]] ''[[BatmanGambit quite]]''.
** Likewise, Twilight spends all of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen "Feeling Pinkie Keen"]] complaining that Pinkie's "Pinkie Sense" is illogical and that she intends to prove it's all a big coincidence. By the end of the episode, Twilight is forced to admit that even though she still doesn't understand "Pinkie Sense", it's very much real.
** Rainbow Dash, being the HotBlooded egotist of the group, tended to face the brunt of this in a good few episodes, especially in Season Two. Increased CharacterDevelopment and the show's rotation of the SanityBall tends to keep it downplayed later on, however.
*** Played with in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". While Rainbow Dash is the only one of the main six to question the Apple family's (admittedly hap hazardous) dispensing of cider and is [[ButtMonkey treated accordingly]], she pretty much succeeds in spearheading the rest of the town into agreement.
*** Played straight in "Parental Glidence". Admidditly, Rainbow Dash was really harsh when she was chewing out her parents for all the things they've done over the episode. But still, the narrative and the characters treat her as the one in the wrong for daring to have a problem with her parents' overbearing affection.
** Subverted in "Bats!", when everypony else doesn't listen to Fluttershy's argument to make a sanctuary for the vampire fruit bats due to the declining state of the apple orchard. She's ultimately proven right in the end.
** Also subverted when the Mane 6 reform Discord. Everypony is convinced Discord can only be changed through force, watching him with their elements at the ready to turn him back to stone if needed. Fluttershy is agreeing with this mindset at first but quickly realizes that trying to impose authority on Discord only gives him more pleasure in defying it, and against the constant urges of her friends treats him with unconditional trust and kindness. This actually works, much to the surprise of everyone (most of all Discord, who'd just manipulated the Mane 6 into a situation where they would never use their elements on him again before realizing he cared about Fluttershy too much to take advantage of his new position).
** In the episode "What About Discord?" Twilight becomes jealous when all her friends had fun with Discord over the weekend she spent indoors re-shelving her library and all the inside jokes she doesn't understand. She eventually thinks Discord put her friends under a spell and when she lets this thought out her friends are offended that she would think that of Discord and of them until she breaks down that she is jealous. [[spoiler:Somewhat subverted as it turns out Discord didn't invite Twilight on-purpose to, as he claims, teach her a lesson it is okay to feel jealous as long as you let it out. Though no-one else is happy he did this to her on purpose and that he took joy of rubbing his fun in her face. [[LaserGuidedKarma Discord soon gets a taste of his own medicine though]] when the Mane 6 joke about the experience in front of him and he doesn't get the jokes since he was out of the room.]]
** Zig-Zagged in the episode "No Second Prances", where Twilight is suspicious of [[HeelFaceTurn Starlight Glimmer's]] new friend and former bad-pony [[MilesGloriosus Trixie]] and feels that Trixie might be manipulating Starlight for her own ends and she shouldn't make friends with her. Starlight eventually gets fed up with this and [[WhatTheHellHero calls Twilight out on being suspicious of Trixie despite having given her a second chance]] and wonders what that means about herself. [[spoiler:As it turns out unlike the Discord example above, Trixie originally ''did'' only befriend Starlight [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter as a means of getting back at Twilight]], but she [[BecomingTheMask eventually grew to enjoy the bond they developed]] and was [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone crushed when she realized she almost destroyed one of the few genuine friendships she ever made]]. Twilight in turn realizes that she went overboard with her suspicions and apologizes]].
* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Horseland}}'' where the kids were afraid to tell a photographer that the costumes he chose are impractical for riding. Shep gives an aesop at the end stating that it's good to speak up when you think something is wrong and that this is very different from complaining.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** In the Chinpokomon episode, Kyle is constantly criticized for not keeping up with the latest fad, even when it involves bombing Pearl Harbor. When all the other children abandon the fad, [[BrokenAesop he tries to maintain his independence by going on the bombing run anyway]]. Stan gives him a hastily thought-up speech about following the crowd, and while this doesn't really convince him, he's confused enough to relent.
** In the episode "Douche and Turd", Stan refuses to vote for either of the titular school mascot replacements because he thinks that both choices are stupid, and gets ''kicked out of town'' for his troubles. The episode ends with a message that a person should vote even if the choice is between a douche and a turd. And then they have the whole reason for the election nullified, thus rendering Stan's vote moot anyway.
** The show plays with this trope later in the run when Stan becomes cynical and critical of all the dumb things he and his friends enjoy. In the end, Stan reverts to his previous persona but at the cost of becoming a secret drinker...
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "I Second That Emotion", Bender is put through no shortage of grief on Nibbler's account. Leela is more concerned with Bender yelling at Nibbler, who she coddles.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' once has TechnicalPacifist Comicbook/AntMan try to break up a battle between the Avengers and the Serpent Society by suggesting the Serpent Society talk their problems out with him instead. The Serpent Society refuses to cooperate, and instead, the fight between them and the Avengers intensifies. After the criminals escape, the Avengers scold Ant-Man for chastising their violent means of tackling villains. Did we mention that they also had ''hostages?'' Although in the second season, after quitting the team, Ant-Man has a nervous breakdown that leads a complete personality shift resulting in him becoming a new action-oriented hero who gets in trouble with the rest of the Avengers for looking like he's going around killing the members of the Serpent Society. Even when it turns out he was only teleporting them to a microscopic prison, he's still like that for the rest of the show.
* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}}'': the cats need to get into an elephant village held by the lizards, Lion-o decides they should go in quietly and use stealth, but Tygra argues that, given the lizards' superior firepower, they should charge in with the Thundertank. The cats are spotted and Lion-o's plan fails, then, just when it looks like the cats are doomed, Tygra comes in BigDamnHeroes-style with the Thundertank and saves the day.
* ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' both subverted and parodied this.
** Daphne is the subversion: she's always the first to rightfully point out that is never real, yet she'll panic and run like the rest of them, crying out "Ghost!" when it jumps out to scare them. Granted, having a six-foot freaky looking creature hop out at you ''would'' make you panic, even if you didn't believe in them.
** Fred, meanwhile, is the parody: a RunningGag of the series is to have Fred always immediately trace every single mystery back to a kid named [[MeaningfulName Red Herring]], who would never have anything to do with it. [[spoiler: The ''only'' episode where Red is guilty is, of course, one where Daphne dares Fred that he can't go a single mystery without blaming him]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', the trope subverted in that Gruffi is the hardest to please of Gummi Glen and complains a lot, but his practicality is deeply respected as being typically right in his field of expertise, and as such he is usually the de facto leader of the colony.
* Danger Duck of ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' was nearly always relegated to this role. In one episode he even gets in trouble with the group for daring to suggest that people should own up to their mistakes and that it's better for one person to sacrifice themselves when the alternative is doom for everyone else.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', whenever the duo would be acquainted with a new group or fad. Stimpy would often goad a cynical Ren into joining in, of course, between Ren being the ButtMonkey and Stimpy being an imbecile, this usually only led to utter pain for Ren, with Stimpy usually earning a beating for dragging him into it in the first place.
* Inverted by ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'', where Pinky always complains about some kind of flaw in Brain's plan and -- should Brain write off the concern -- it's often an accurate prediction of how the plan falls apart. (Less so when Brain accounts for the flaw or has a genuine explanation for it.)
* Inverted by ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. In the episode "Best of the Nest" Brain tells the group that a hit computer game is terribly inaccurate. They dismiss it as complaining, but he turns out to be right.
* [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]] on ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama.'' She is admittedly bossy and often unpleasant, but this trope really kicks in during the second season. Everyone acts like she doesn't deserve to be back on the show, even though her original elimination really ''was'' the result of outright cheating. In her first episode she's put on the Killer Grips, and basically has to do all the work due to [[KidAppealCharacter Owen]]'s SanitySlippage and [[{{Narcissist}} Justin]]'s refusal to do anything; nevertheless, everyone acts outraged that she thinks they're incompetent. It ends with everyone trying to vote her off (despite knowing that they couldn't) and acting like it was a MoralEventHorizon when Courtney voted for Owen instead, despite him being TheLoad for the entire episode.
* Timmy on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' is often portrayed as selfish and irresponsible whenever he tries to change an aspect of his CrapsackWorld. Even when he's portrayed as having a legitimate complaint, the StatusQuoIsGod nature of the show means his attempts to change it just make the problem worse. The worst example of this is in "Scary Fairies" when Poof's fear of the dark (which he had apparently [[CompressedVice never had or been able to handle fine until that day]] leads Wanda to get Poof a nightlight bright enough to burn through a metal suit of armour and expects Timmy to tolerate sleeping with it. Timmy is then portrayed as the selfish one for complaining about something that would've killed him were he not a cartoon character.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Unikitty}}''. Unikitty and the others have a tendency to brush off Richard's complaints of various situations, purely because they think his ideas are "boring". In the end, being the eldest, the wisest, and the most serious, Richard is the one in the right, forcing the others to relent with much hesitation and agree with him.
[[/folder]]

* Nearly every episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' has the team break into the patient's home; anyone who objects to these illegal searches comes across as paranoid or ungrateful. One episode had them break into a ''wrong'' house, as the patient turned out to be a Gypsy and didn't have a permanent address, so he simply gave them a fake address. They break in and catch a couple having sex. They immediately assume that the guy is the owner of the house, and the woman is the maid, since she doesn't have a ring (and the guy does). Thus, they smugly threaten to expose the affair and casually mention that she's a terrible maid given the state of the kitchen. The woman then reveals it's ''her'' house, and the guy is her lover (although there is still an affair, given that he's married), and demands that they elaborate on the state of the kitchen. The doctors quickly run away before she can call the cops. Naturally, this is PlayedForLaughs.

* Downplayed in ''Manga/BloomIntoYou''. Touko is the only student council member who says she'd rather not the ending of the play, and while she does suggest that there are practical concerns in re-learning the new scenes, she's implied to have been motivated by personal reasons. She ultimately agrees to at least give the new play a try, though.

* Parodied/inverted in comic strips when it comes to family vacations since the complainers are often in the ''majority'' but are forced to go along with the one person who isn't complaining. Basically, the father alone chooses where the family goes on their trip, everyone else is forced to endure a horrible vacation, and then they let the father have it at the end. ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' and ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' were the leaders in this.

This is a surprisingly common [[AnAesop theme]] in children's shows, especially in TheEighties when MoralGuardians promoted it as the primary "pro-social" moral. The essence, as summed up in [[http://www.newsfromme.com/?s=the+complainer+is+always+wrong this article]] by Creator/MarkEvanier, who wrote for cartoons of the time, is this: ''the group is always right; [[TropeNamer the complainer is always wrong]]''. Thus, [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop you should always agree]] with your friends and go along with whatever they want to do without argument -- unless it has to do with {{drugs|AreBad}}, of course. In extreme cases, ThePowerOfFriendship can even be contingent on [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil making the holdout agree with the majority]]. The problems with mindless conformity encapsulated in the JumpOffABridgeRebuttal never come up, since, you know, everyone jumping off a bridge together is ''social'' and LonersAreFreaks.

If this happens frequently in a show, sometimes there's a specific chronic {{com|manderContrarian}}plainer in the show's ensemble whose ButtMonkey status is attributed to this trope being true, often TheLancer. In other cases, [[ConflictBall it rotates]] to fit characterization. In extreme cases, the complainer becomes the DoomedContrarian. Probably the most common FamilyUnfriendlyAesop. A RealLife {{Fandom}} variant would be FandomHeresy.

** The trope is outright subverted in at least one story, in which the other Care Bears spend the entire story trying to cheer Grumpy Bear up but only succeed in irritating him. Eventually they reach the revelation that Grumpy Bear is ''happy being grumpy'' and that they should just let him go on being so. Although one might interpret this as the FamilyUnfriendlyAesop "If someone you care about is unhappy, don't bother trying to cheer them up because it won't work."

** In the episode "Douche and Turd", Stan refuses to vote for either of the titular school mascot replacements because he thinks that both choices are stupid, and gets ''kicked out of town'' for his troubles. In what may be a combination of FamilyUnfriendlyAesop and BrokenAesop (considering Trey and Matt's own voter apathy), the episode ends with a message that a person should vote even if the choice is between a douche and a turd. And then they set fire to the remains of the Aesop by having the whole reason for the election nullified, thus rendering Stan's vote moot anyway.

-->-- '''Creator/MarkEvanier''' [[http://www.newsfromme.com/2008/12/11/scrappy-days-part-five/ about the time he wrote for cartoons on the 80s]]

Alice, Bob, and Carol are friends. Alice and Bob want to paint their clubhouse green. Carol thinks brown would be better. She goes to the paint store to buy brown paint to try and force the issue, but has trouble climbing the ladder with one hand and falls and spills paint everywhere and gets covered in it, and Alice and Bob say that this happened because Carol was so wrong to act alone. Never mind the fact that Carol is already naturally clumsy, or that it was just plain stupid to climb a ladder with one hand.

In its most extreme form this can become UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming: How dare somebody who's suffering speak up about what they're going through?

** It helps that he was finally "[[EpiphanyTherapy convinced]]" not to kill Iron Man and lay down arms by being team [[{{Anvilicious}} tackled by a policeman, paramedic, firefighter and soldier (who were ethnically diverse, at that)]] by showing him the Hulk-level destruction their fighting was causing.

* Parodied/inverted in comic strips when it comes to family vacations, since the complainers are often in the ''majority'' but are forced to go along with the one person who isn't complaining. Basically, the father alone chooses where the family goes on their trip, everyone else is forced to endure a horrible vacation, and then they let the father have it at the end. ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' and ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' were the leaders in this.

* Ace Ray of ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'' falls into this, as well as StrawmanHasAPoint. He gets kicked off the Wonderbolts for complaining about Starfleet, and is portrayed as a loser who lounges around the house all day - even his own sister disagrees with him and has little sympathy. He ultimately ends up getting arrested after threatening to kill his sister in a fit of rage, and is {{Brainwashed}} to like Starfleet. However, he comes off as more accurate than the author intended regarding Starfleet's flaws and failures.

* ''Fanfic/AWandForSteven'': Ron gets hit with this pretty hard, due to some drastic {{Flanderization}} and {{Took a Level in Dumbass}} compared to his canon counterpart. Any wit or insight he displayed in canon has been either downplayed heavily or removed outright, leaving him in solely the role of the guy who complains, or has a different opinion than Harry, Hermione and Steven, and consequently gets proved wrong time and time again. He does avoid becoming RonTheDeathEater; he's a clueless doofus but not a bad-natured one.

* Sebastian gets hit with this ''hard'' in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', since he's the only member of Ariel's inner circle to discourage her love of humans. After she makes a DealWithTheDevil with Ursula, Sebastian is the ''only'' one of her [[NonHumanSidekick animal sidekicks]] to advocate using the limited time Ariel has to cancel the deal with Ursula instead of risking her freedom on the [[WithThisHerring nigh-impossible odds]] set by Ursula. It isn't until he agrees to go along with the group's plan that he's portrayed sympathetically.
* Two-man version in ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot''; Devon and Cornwall are a pair of conjoined dragons who can't agree on ''anything''. Well, okay, they can agree on one thing: They're pretty shrimpy compared to other dragons, and they've had a pretty hard time of it because they can't fly or breathe fire like other dragons. Near the end it turns out that this is because they can't agree on anything; once they find themselves united in purpose, flying and flaming comes naturally (this is actually the most internally consistent thing in the movie, which isn't saying much).

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Alien}}''. Ripley at first seems harsh and wrong for refusing to let the crew in when a face-hugger attacked one of them, coldly citing quarantine procedures. In the end it turns out she was entirely correct and had they listened to her [[spoiler: she might not have been the only survivor]].

* In the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfNarnia'', complaining in the form of failing to maintain a StiffUpperLip is always discouraged (which is fair enough, since the situation is often dire). There's also Trumpkin with regards to the existence of Aslan, and many more. There are also instances of the complainer being right, though.

* ''Literature/TheSistersGrimm'': The main character, Sabrina, says "I don't think we should believe this daft-acting old woman who claims to be our grandma and believes fairy tales are real." Yeah well, She's wrong and her little sister is right. Sabrina says "You know, maybe we shouldn't hang out with a guy who's losing control over the BigBad Wolf that possesses him." That may sound sensible, [[spoiler: and she does end up getting possessed by the BigBad Wolf herself]] but so far as her grandmother and sister are concerned, she's being the bitch to end all bitches. Even something that ought to be sensible, like "I don't think my little sister should be trusted with really powerful magic just yet," results in Sabrina being treated like she's an idiot who can't see that her little sister is all grown-up. At the age of seven. Sometimes Sabrina is genuinely wrong, because she has lots of trust issues and makes bad calls. However, sometimes Sabrina seems to be wrong just because sensible behaviour has been flipped on its back as part of a conspiracy to ensure that she always is.

* Played with in ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', concerning the Runespoor, a three headed serpent. One head constantly plans, another dreams, and a third criticizes the others. It's fairly common to see ''two''-headed snakes in cases where the first two teamed up to bite off the third.

* ''Allegra's Window'': The class was asked what their favorite vegetable was, and they all answered "blue zutabaga," [[note]]a fictional vegetable that often featured in the show[[/note]] except Allegra, who had never had one before, and said that her favorite vegetable was the carrot. Over the course of the episode, Allegra was urged by everyone she knew to try blue zutabagas, until the end, when she finally tasted one, and decided it was, in fact, her favorite vegetable. The ''intended'' Aesop of that episode was likely "[[IDoNotLikeGreenEggsAndHam don't be afraid to try new foods]]," and the classroom scene was probably to emphasize how good everyone thought this vegetable was, so why still insist you won't like it? Good point, [[BrokenAesop bad approach]].

** Turns up again at the end of the pilot episode. While the others have decided they're in, Kimberly is reluctant. They look at her like she has three heads, until she smiles and tells them she's joking.

*** In the episode ''Car Trouble'' Calvin is offered his dream job as a mechanic, but has to quit school to do so. Instead of being genuinely happy for him, the rest of the rangers worry more about him leaving school. The episode then goes out of its way to teach him quitting school for his dream job is wrong.

* Happens to Claire on ''Series/ModernFamily'' to distressing degrees. For example even when armed with videotaped evidence to support that Phil put her in physical danger while he flirted with another woman, the MoralOfTheStory is Claire went too far to prove she was correct while Phil pulls a KarmaHoudini. In fairness, she did describe the lengths to which she went to to prove that Phil [[MinorInjuryOverreaction knocked her over]], which were somewhat extreme. Then she also confessed to [[CrossesTheLineTwice putting Mitchell into a dryer when they were young because a friend told her it wouldn't start with a baby inside]].
* Happens a lot to the main character of ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''; Ray really can never win. [[ScyllaAndCharybdis He constantly gets caught as an unwilling participant in the never-ending battle for supremacy between his mother and his wife]], and no matter what he does to try and make peace, he can never please one without royally pissing off the other. Whenever Ray attempts to insinuate that the whole conflict is pointless and that the family should just make nice, either his overbearing mother will guilt trip him and act like he's betrayed her, or his immature wife will throw a tantrum and beat him up. Or both. And even on one of the few occasions when his mom and wife made peace--so that they could send out a Christmas letter for the sole purpose of spiting a distant relative--Ray ''still'' ends up getting rebuked: he points out "This is Christmas!" and asserts that they really shouldn't be doing something nasty like this, especially at this time of year. His mom and wife jointly give him a death glare and scare him out of his kitchen.

* ''Series/SamuraiGourmet'': Because the show involves so much JapanesePoliteness, this trope features prominently. If a character brings disharmony to the setting, you can be assured they will trigger the [[IndulgentFantasySegue samurai fantasy]]. Of course, once that's over, Kasumi is left to work out exactly how it applies to the real world. Sometimes [[FantasticAesop it doesn't]], or it's beyond Kasumi's audacity. Fortunately, in those cases there's usually [[MakingTheChoiceForYou another solution]].

* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' (Chapter 60: Paradise), [[{{Dystopia}} 4U City]] is built entirely around this notion, though the story itself hardly has this moral. Not only must everyone obey and agree, they are mandated to be happy all the time. If you wake up unhappy, you're given a drug injection, and this is repeated until you wake up happy. Most people are "happy" simply because they're drugged out of their minds. Any actual dissenters are tossed down the "Judgment Chutes" and never seen again. [[spoiler:In the end there is no moral at all. It's revealed that the whole city is periodically "reset", and even the dead are brought back. It's just that the one ruler has higher priorities and can't be bothered with citizens.]]

* Most pages of ''Webcomic/VeganArtbook'' go like this: [[EvilIsSexy Shawn]] says something about eating meat/farming/not being a vegan, one or more of the vegans show up and either beat him down with their words or, occasionally, their fists, Shawn is humilated and beaten, rinse and repeat.

* DonaldDuck is frequently subject to this, especially in his confrontations with Chip and Dale, but "Crazy Over Daisy" is one of the biggest examples: The chipmunks spend the entire short ridiculing, tormenting and abusing Donald to the point where they destroy his bicycle, and when he essentially punishes them by building a new bike that the chipmunks have to power, Daisy scolds and dumps Donald for being abusive to them.

* Similar to Wheeler below, Stan from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' is always considered an abusive {{Jerkass}} no matter what the situation even when the Aesop is completely flip flopped with another character doing the exact same thing Stan will still be presented as in the wrong.

* There was a similar episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', in which the animals attempted to cheer up Eeyore because he spent all his days staring gloomily at clouds. In a nice twist, after each of their heavy-handed attempts failed, Piglet simply sits and talks to Eeyore, who reveals that he's not depressed - he is, in fact, playing an imaginary game with the clouds. A nice avoidance of this trope, in that the gang is encouraged to find out more about Eeyore's unusual behaviour and even appreciate it on its own terms. ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' tended to subvert this frequently with Eeyore, with the others and even himself suggesting making him over to be happier and fit in more, in the end however they usually decide both Eeyore and the others are happy with [[TheEeyore his usual "depressed" self]]. This is occasionally played more straight with Rabbit however, whose objections to the antics of the others (usually Tigger) are usually shot down, though granted his ControlFreak tendencies and extremely prudish demeanor justifies it a little.

* Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' have rather pro-conformity messages. Whenever a members of a hostile subculture appear — far-right Christians, far-left hippies, Canadians, etc — they are usually eventually exposed as selfish, bullying hypocrites of some form or another. In the end, everyone learns to not take their contrarian view of the world seriously.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBusyWorldOfRichardScarry'' has the brothers Pig Will and Pig Won't, who somehow manage to embody this Aesop using only two people. As their names suggest, one agrees to ''every'' request or offer, and the other refuses every offer. In the original book Pig Won't would always say "I won't", without even thinking about it. So one day when their father asks who wants to go with him to visit the fire station, Pig Won't declares "I won't". At the fire station, Pig Will gets to play with the dalmatian, wear a fire suit, play with the fire hose (with adult supervision), and it all ends with an all-you-can-eat hot fudge sundae feast, and when Pig Won't sees all the fun Pig Will had, he immediately becomes Pig Me Too.

** Another reason why they like Gears is because for all his complaining he also tends to point out legitimate flaws that need to be addressed and fixed, and sometimes it's things they hadn't actually thought of until he brought it up.

** Superman also subverted this trope when Darkseid came to the Justice League for help. Superman initially refused, having been [[ContinuityNod brainwashed by him in the past and then let loose on Earth]], something his reputation never fully recovered from. Everyone, even Batman, chalked it up to Superman holding a rather understandable grudge, and went to help anyway. Darkseid ended up stabbing everyone in the back.

** An interesting subversion is the episode "Touchdown Tommy". The B-Plot has the dads watching a big football game, though Chaz wants to watch the chess tournament. They blow him off and he's stuck watching the game. Apparently, he knew what he was saying - because the dads were too busy watching football, the babies covered the living room in chocolate milk and Didi and Betty were ''pissed'' when they got back.

** Also subverted in "Farewell My Friend", after Chuckie is berated into joining the others on an adventure into his dad's greenhouse, and [[WithFriendsLikeThese actually abandoned]] and left to face the assumed "monster" they face, he finally snaps at Tommy, refusing to go back and claiming him to be a bad friend for forcing him to suffer all his schemes. Tommy goes without him and is "captured" inside, leaving Chuckie to rescue him after the twins [[DirtyCoward bail out again]]. While Chuckie admits to over reacting, Tommy admits it was a bad idea and should be more considerate to Chuckie ([[AesopAmnesia for that episode anyway]]).

** Another aversion happens in "The Odd Couple" when Tommy stays with Chuckie. Tommy constantly complains about Chuckie's way of doing things and tries to conform things to work like in his house, eventually leading to Chuckie having an outburst over his selfishness. Tommy is apologetic and tries doing things Chuckie's way, but soon Chuckie himself starts to become controlling, leading to Tommy lashing out this time. In the end both accept that everyone needs equal points they're allowed to do things their own way. What makes this one even more hilarious is that Phil and Lil try to warn them about staying together and both Tommy and Chuckie blow it off, thinking their awesome friendship would help them make it through. However, when each baby confronts the twins later on, they both respond "I hate to tell you this, but...[[IToldYouSo we told you so]]."

** Likewise, Twilight spends all of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen "Feeling Pinkie Keen"]] complaining that Pinkie's "Pinkie Sense" is illogical, and that she intends to prove it's all a big coincidence. By the end of the episode, Twilight is forced to admit that even though she still doesn't understand "Pinkie Sense", it's very much real.
** Rainbow Dash, being the HotBlooded egotist of the group, tended to face the brunt of this in a good few episodes, especially in Season Two. Increased CharacterDevelopment and the show's rotation of the SanityBall tends to keep it downplayed later on however.
*** Played with in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". While Rainbow Dash is the only one of the main six to question the Apple family's (admittedly hap hazardous) dispensing of cider, and is [[ButtMonkey treated accordingly]], she pretty much succeeds in spearheading the rest of the town into agreement.

** Also subverted when the Mane 6 reform Discord. Everypony is convinced Discord can only be changed through force, watching him with their elements at the ready to turn him back to stone if needed. Fluttershy is agreeing with this mindset at first, but quickly realizes that trying to impose authority on Discord only gives him more pleasure in defying it, and against the constant urges of her friends treats him with unconditional trust and kindness. This actually works, much to the surprise of everyone (most of all Discord, who'd just manipulated the Mane 6 into a situation where they would never use their elements on him again before realizing he cared about Fluttershy too much to take advantage of his new position).
** In the episode "What About Discord?" Twilight becomes jealous when all her friends had fun with Discord over the weekend she spent indoors re-shelving her library and all the inside jokes she doesn't understand. She eventually thinks Discord put her friends under a spell and when she lets this thought out her friends are offended that she would think that of Discord and of them, until she breaks down that she is jealous. [[spoiler:Somewhat subverted as it turns out Discord didn't invite Twilight on-purpose to, as he claims, teach her a lesson it is okay to feel jealous as long as you let it out. Though no-one else is happy he did this to her on purpose and that he took joy of rubbing his fun in her face. [[LaserGuidedKarma Discord soon gets a taste of his own medicine though]] when the Mane 6 joke about the experience in front of him and he doesn't get the jokes since he was out of the room.]]

** In the Chinpokomon episode, Kyle is constantly criticized for not keeping up with the latest fad, even when it involves bombing Pearl Harbor. When all the other children abandon the fad, [[BrokenAesop he tries to maintain his independence by going on the bombing run anyway]]. Stan gives him a hastily-thought up speech about following the crowd, and while this doesn't really convince him, he's confused enough to relent.

** The show plays with this trope later in the run when Stan becomes cynical and critical of all the dumb things he and his friends enjoy. In the end Stan reverts to his previous persona but at the cost of becoming a secret drinker....

* Danger Duck of ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' was nearly always relegated to this role. In one episode he even gets in trouble with the group for daring to suggest that people should own up to their mistakes, and that it's better for one person to sacrifice themselves when the alternative is doom for everyone else.

* This is one of the criticisms that often gets thrown at ''VideoGame/Persona4'', in relation to [[spoiler: the murderer, Adachi]]. Particularly during the one scene where the members of Investigation Team "counter" [[spoiler:his]] complaints about life by essentially doing nothing but invoking this in differing wording (e.g. "You're just acting like a whiny child", "your opinions don't matter since you're just a criminal", ect).

* Writers of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' admit that this was one of the bits of ExecutiveMeddling they had to deal with, requiring them to depict the "good" teamwork of the G.I. Joes, and the "bad" arguing of the Cobra organization. However, they also admit this worked out in the end, since the constant squabbles and power-plays between Commander, Destro, Zartan, Baroness, and the Crimson Twins made for better plots, and made them much more interesting characters than many of the comparatively blander Joes.

** One episode featured Garfield, sick of having to deal with them, [[AppleOfDiscord manipulate them into a situation where they couldn't agree]]: [[spoiler:pizza toppings, which Garfield claims ''no'' two people "in the history of Italian cooking" have ''ever'' been able to agree on]].

* This is one of the criticisms that often gets thrown at ''VideoGame/Persona4'', in relation to [[spoiler: the murderer, Adachi]]. Particularly during the one scene where the members of Investigation Team "counter" [[spoiler:his]] complaints about life by essentially doing nothing but invoking this in differing wording (e.g. "You're just acting like a whiny child", "your opinions don't matter since you're just a criminal", ect). ]]

** Another aversion happens in "The Odd Couple" when Tommy stays with Chuckie. Tommy constantly complains about Chuckie's way of doing things and tries to conform things to work like in his house, eventually leading to Chuckie having an outburst over his selfishness. Tommy is apologetic and tries doing things Chuckie's way, but soon Chuckie himself starts to become controlling, leading to Tommy lashing out this time. In the end both accept that everyone needs equal points they're allowed to do things their own way. What makes this one even more hilarious is that Phil and Lil try to warn them about staying together and both Tommy and Chuckie blow it off, thinking their awesome friendship would help them make it through. However, when each baby confronts the twins later on, they both say "I hate to tell you this, but... [[IToldYouSo we told you so]]."

-->'''Chaz:''' I told you we should have watched the chess tournaments.
-->''(The others glare at him)''

-->'''Chuckie:''' I don't think this is a good idea...
-->'''Tommy:''' ''(bored)'' Oh come on, Chu-
-->'''Chuckie:''' ''(angrily)'' I'M NOT GOING! Every time I go on one of these little adventures, I get my head stuck in a tree. Or get chased by some shadow guy or [[AllJustADream fall off a mountain]].
-->'''Phil and Lil:''' Mountain?

** Batman subverts this Trope quite a lot in ''Justice League''. In the episode ''Hereafter,'' while the rest of the Justice League discuss what should be done after Superman's apparent death and who they should recruit to replace him, Batman refuses to take part (although he does show up for the funeral). He instead focuses on trying to find out what happened to Superman, suspecting Big Blue is still alive somewhere [[spoiler:and he turns out to be right, though it should be noted he doesn't actually contribute to rescuing or even finding Superman, and was actually on the verge of accepting Superman might be dead after all when Superman finally made it back]].
** Superman also subverted this trope when Darkseid came to the Justice League for help. Superman initially refused having been [[ContinuityNod brainwashed by him in the past and then let loose on earth]], something his reputation never fully recovered from. Everyone, even Batman, chalked it up to Superman holding a rather understandable grudge, and went to help anyway. Darkseid ended up stabbing everyone in the back.

* Rankin-Bass's '''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' takes the Santa Claus myth in a creepy direction. A know-it-all preteen mouse writes a letter in the paper saying that Santa is a myth and signs it 'All of Us', meaning him and his friends. Santa decides not to deliver presents to the whole town, even though the very concept of a naughty/nice list means he could easily tell who the offender was. Everyone decides they have to build him a giant, expensive clock as a peace offering so he'll come visit. The mouse who started the whole mess is then taken on a tour of the town by his father to show how he "ruined everyone's Christmas with [his] opinions" and "[[KnowNothingKnowItAll doesn't know as much as [he] thinks [he does]]]."

** One episode featured Garfield, sick of having to deal with them, [[AppleOfDiscord manipulate them into a situation where they couldn't agree]]: [[spoiler:pizza toppings, which Garfield claims ''no'' two people "in the history of Italian cooking" have ''ever'' been able to agree on]].

* {{Subverted}} in ''Literature/TheHobbit.'' When the men of Lake-town see fire burning on the mountain most of them think that Thorin and the other dwarves have retaken it and lit their forges, with only one unnamed guy suggesting that, you know, ''maybe it's the dragon that's been living there for almost two hundred years?'' Everyone tells him to stop being so gloomy but he raises the alarm anyway, so it's thanks to him that Lake-town was prepared for Smaug's arrival.

* Played with in ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', concerning the Runespoor, a three headed serpent. While two heads do damage, the third head criticizes them, causing it to get bitten off.

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'': Fozzie Bear. The jokes he tells are booed at regardless. Though it was subverted when Fozzie finally got fed up with the boos and decided to give up jokes. This eventually made everyone sad as they realized that seeing Fozzie miserable is worse than enduring his jokes and at least knowing ''he's'' happy. Piggy ultimately puts it best: "We love to hate your jokes!"

** Of course Brainy Smurf's glasses are smarter than him, not to mention his ego could cause a solar eclipse....

** There's even a ''third'' instance of this happening. The episode "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" has Tommy and the twin convince Chuckie to take Chaz's favorite CD so they can play with it. When Angelica sees it and pulls a cruel LookBehindYou to steal it, Chuckie quickly blames the babies for its disappearance without even thinking Angelica might have done something to it. However, it takes its so hard that he declares ItsAllMyFault and ends up initiating the ItsAWonderfulPlot when he thinks he shouldn't have been born. The trio ''are'' very sorry for what happened and try to make up for it by giving him even ''more'' [=CDs=] to replace the one lost. Thankfully, LaserGuidedKarma hit Angelica.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in Disney's ''Disney/SnowWhite'', which has Grumpy being ridiculed for his fears that Snow White will lead the Queen right to them. Turns out he's [[ProperlyParanoid bang on the money]] on that one.
* Sebastian gets hit with this ''hard'' in Disney's ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', since he's the only member of Ariel's inner circle to discourage her love of humans. After she makes a DealWithTheDevil with Ursula, Sebastian is the ''only'' one of her [[NonHumanSidekick animal sidekicks]] to advocate using the limited time Ariel has to cancel the deal with Ursula instead of risking her freedom on the [[WithThisHerring nigh-impossible odds]] set by Ursula. It isn't until he agrees to go along with the group's plan that he's portrayed sympathetically.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers''. Gears complains about everything but the other Autobots actually like having him around because they find his complaints amusing and his behavior never leads him to trouble. In fact, the one time he was content and helpful it was because the Decepticons were controlling him. Played straight with Starscream, whose constant complaints about Megatron's leadership often gave the Autobots an opening for victory. The complainer is always wrong even when the group is evil.

Not to be confused with VocalMinority. Also not to be confused with PeripheryHatedom, when unjustified scorn and hatred about characters or shows come from complainers that are not in the intended demographic of the show.