Do Not Do This Cool Thing / Live-Action TV

• In the anti-marijuana Afterschool Special episode "Stoned", Scott Baio plays an uptight and unpopular high school student who starts smoking pot moderately and then learns to loosen up, makes some friends, meets a pretty girl and saves his brother's life after a potentially fatal boating accident.
• In-universe example in Arrested Development when George Sr. is invited as a "Scared Straight" speaker to talk teens out of committing crimes and going to jail. He accidentally picks the wrong Scared Straight tent and ends up talking to a group of gay teens who feel increasingly enticed by the thought of being locked up in a jail full of bad boys.
• Similarly, Breaking Bad has the same effect of showcasing the appealing aspects of the drug business, even when the bad parts are fueled with endless paranoia, and by contributing to the business in some form or fashion, you'll hurt so many different people along the way. And oh yeah, Drugs Are Bad. But boy is it tough not to reap the rewards of selling pure meth, ain't it?
  • The show's protagonist, Walter White, has been described as a deconstruction of the Escapist Character, by initially seeming like a fun character for the audience to project themselves onto, only for the show to depict his gradual transformation into a ruthless, vicious monster. Despite that, he is nevertheless depicted as an extremely intelligent and powerful villain, and one feared and respected by his peers and by the police and DEA, while the show's voice of reason, his wife Skyler is widely reviled by fans. Many viewers not unreasonably perceive White as cool (indeed, the show's creator Vince Gilligan has used the term "badass" to describe the character).
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • The show had a subtle anti-smoking message for the first season or two — every character who smoked either turned out to be a villain or died soon after they were introduced. But Spike, who started out as a villain, ended up being a regular and a well-liked character... who often smoked cigarettes. James Marsters is well aware of this trope and tried to limit the time his character spent smoking on-screen.
  • The fourth season episode "Beer Bad" tried to show that beer was evil by turning anyone who drank it into cavemen. But the transformation ends up mostly positive for Buffy, who finally gets over being dumped after a one night stand because of it. The concept might be seen as parody, but the episode was written as a sincere grab for government anti-alcohol PSA dollars. (It didn't work.)
• Done intentionally on an episode of Community. The main characters put on an anti-drug show for a group of elementary school children, but they love Pierce's performance as "Drugs" so much it backfires. The situation is ultimately remedied by forcing Pierce to leave and replacing him with Chang. It ends up being a more effective portrait of addiction as a result, because the children loved drugs then drugs turned on them.
• Mandy Patinkin left Criminal Minds because he felt that this trope was in play. Criminal Minds is about people who catch horrible criminals by figuring out the mindset of those criminals — how they think. It is a long-running, popular show. Patikin thought that the show was becoming sick fantasy fulfillment for people and couldn't be a part of it anymore.
• When Communist Romania broadcast Dallas, the idea was that the people would be disgusted with the pettiness and decadence of capitalism. This was, in fact, part of the reason the series was created in the first place — you probably are supposed to be vaguely disgusted with the way the Ewings live. It didn't work in either country. What was seen was, "Ooh, shiny! I want!" In a few years, communism fell and the USA had a Misaimed Fandom for Wall Street.
• On Degrassi, Ellie's storyline was meant to show people how cutting is not okay and should never be done no matter what the circumstances. However, despite this, many fans were inspired to cut after seeing Ellie do so.
• Dollhouse: Turning people into objects is bad! Even when they're hot, attractive objects with blank stares and bare feet... oh hey, it's time to show Sierra getting raped again!
• Downton Abbey can really make living in The Edwardian Era look appealing, despite occasional attempts to portray how bad women and the lower class had it. It doesn't help that most of the servants are portrayed as perfectly happy and content in their jobs, and with the sole exception of Gwen, the few who aren't are either petty and cruel, or stupid.
  • In addition, in order to make the characters sympathetic to modern audiences, the creators tend to give them more modern views than most people of that era actually had. This creates the impression that Edwardian views weren't that different from our own.
• In-universe example on Everybody Loves Raymond: Frank pays off his mortgage and invites the family over to celebrate. As he burns the paperwork, he declared that the bank can kiss his ass. Debra reminds him that the grandchildren are listening, and Frank replies, "Oh yeah. Kids—don't say 'ass'".
• Played with in the anti-alcohol episode of Glee. The Glee club is asked to perform a song showing the dangers of underage drinking, but they end up getting really drunk the night before, having a great time but screwing up the assembly. The attitude of the episode is best summed up by Coach Beiste, who tells Will that drinking is fun, and kids are going to do it and it'd be hypocritical of him to lecture them on the dangers of drinking when he himself falls into the same pitfalls the students do. The lesson? Drinking is cool and fun, but you have to be responsible about it.
• Guest from the Future has the following Fantastic Aesop, spelled out by the narrator: if you find a time machine, never turn it on without the adults' permission. The characters in the series do turn it on without permission... and end up stopping two major villains and averting a potential galactic war. It has led the fans to assume the show's narration stealthily employs Sarcasm Mode.
• Fox News, while more fiscally conservative than socially conservative, pays lip service to the Moral Guardians by doing stories condemning various media as "immoral" (especially on The O'Reilly Factor). But they punctuate these condemnations with lurid video clips and bring on Ms. Fanservice-type anchors and nagging correspondents who are more amused than angry. Thirty years ago, much of what we see on Fox News would have never been shown on basic cable. No, not even CNN. Fox going after spring break might just take the cake.
• Similar to the "Marijuana is bad because it's illegal" commercials, there's an episode of House in which a drug dealer is being disparaged by the team. His response is basically "So your big problem is not that it's immoral but that it's illegal. Sounds like we've got the same problem."
  • House in general had this problem with the titular character. Dr. House was suppose to show it was bad to be a misanthropic, drug-addicted Dr. Jerk, but the show never showed a serious problem with that. His boss once commented House was paid in peanuts because no one else would hire him, but you wouldn't know it from House's nice apartment, or wardrobe, or the surprisingly attractive prostitutes he hires. His drug addiction never seriously affected his ability to do his job unless he took way too much Vicodin (which usually only happened when some dramatic plot twist happened). And his terrible personality never stopped his co-workers from respecting him, his boss having the hots for him, or his best friend interacting with him.
• Played with in The Inbetweeners when the boys (bar Will) decide to experiment with marijuana:
  Jay:You're a mummy's boy. Go on, petal, have a puff. Show us you're not scared.
  Will: I would, but I don't actually smoke because...what's that thing you get when you smoke?
  Neil: Sex?
  Will: No, cancer, Neil.
  • Subverted by the end of the episode, as Will caves into peer pressure and ends up embarrassing himself, while Simon gets a mouthful of someone else's vomit, Neil blacks out and Jay has an attack of paranoia.
• On the Investigation Discovery channel, this happens often with the dramatizations of real crimes. The most egregious examples are the shows Sins and Secrets, Wicked Attraction, and Deadly Women. They usually discuss how sick and wrong the killer(s) are, but they then show reenactments of their scandalous affairs by attractive actors in about as much detail as you can have on cable TV. It's so bad that some of the shows have Content Warnings. Sometimes the softcore is accompanied by the narrator and interviewees going on about the unfaithful spouses' sexual needs and how they were being awesomely fulfilled by their lovers. And also that cheating and murder is bad, really.
• An episode of Joan of Arcadia had an in-universe deconstruction of the trope. The Girardi kids learn that Will once shot and killed a robber during a bank heist. Luke remarks "Dad blew a guy away. That's so cool"—and Will immediately rips into the teen for saying it. He goes on to explain that the fact that he killed a man is the precise opposite of cool, and how he's still struggling with the guilt of leaving a man's family to bury their loved one, regardless of his being a criminal.
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver:
  • He pokes fun at a Singapore anti-gambling ad aired the week before the 2014 World Cup in which a young child despondently tells his friends that his dad bet all their money on underdog Germany to win. The problem? In an upset victory, Germany DID win, meaning that the kid and his family are set for life! A follow-up ad was aired the next week in which the same kid reveals that his dad turned around and spent all of their winnings on more gambling, but, as Oliver points out, as long as the dad's streak keeps up, this isn't much of a problem. Even if we assume it doesn't, the Aesop could easily be interpreted as "quit while you're ahead" or maybe "take half of a big windfall and put it into something responsible like a college fund or a house and then let the other half ride" as opposed to "gambling is bad."
  • Another episode where he talks about the drug scare of the 1980's features a segment where he tries to deduce the message of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
    John: Listen, if you do drugs, all your favorite cartoon characters will show up and talk to you. Is that what you want? Is that what you want!?
• In-Universe on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Underbelly". Belinda says she got the idea to go into prostitution from watching Pretty Woman over and over.
• LazyTown:
  • Ziggy and Robbie Rotten's love for candy, and in the latter's case, other junk food, is meant to be seen as a vice. However, the food itself looks very tasty.
  • Pixel's love of technology is meant to be a character flaw, but his games and inventions are pretty cool-looking. Not to mention, in "Sportacus Who?", the backup files on his computer actually helped save the day by curing Sportacus's amnesia.
• Life On Mars, series one. The impression the viewer gets is that the first series of Life on Mars was written to paint Sam's contemporary attitudes as what the viewer was supposed to sympathise with, but the public response was overwhelmingly in favor of Gene Hunt's Good Old Ways. The second series and all of Ashes to Ashes (2008) was written accordingly.
• Lizzie McGuire: Kate has the cheerleading squad diss Lizzie with a routine based around "U-G-L-Y". While it's just another demonstration of what a bully she is, you can't deny that a whole cheerleading routine as a Diss Track is quite a stylish way to mock it (especially as Lizzie had owned up to starting a mean rumor about Kate). Extra points for the implication that Kate came up with the routine on the spot.
• Mad Men is about deconstructing the myth of the good ol' days and is supposed to be about the 'dark side' of social conformism, corporate careerism, and white male privilege in '60s white collar America. The show demonstrates this by endlessly displaying hot (and frequently undressed) women, acts of debauchery, plentiful alcohol, smoking without guilt, fabulous outfits, and snazzy Jet Age decor. Wait, there's a dark side to making tons of money and being able to tell people what to do?
• In-universe in Malcolm in the Middle; Hal would tell his sons about his youthful escapades, supposedly as cautionary tales. As Lois puts it, "Cautionary tales do not end with 'It was so cool!'"
• The show Manswers, on Spike TV, when talking about illicit drug use or other criminal activities or dangerous acts, will include a disclaimer to not do so. But if you do do it, you can get laid, according to them.
• MythBusters has become the living embodiment of this trope, the hosts and cast reminding the viewers multiple times per show not to attempt the awesome and ridiculously dangerous experiments they show. Adam even promised to track down and kick the ass of anyone who tried to reproduce the million match heads burnout experiment. Their cold open and ad break cards have become "Do not try this at home" warnings after the first few seasons.
  Adam: Remember, kids, no matter how much fun I'm having, under no circumstances should you try this at home.
  • A great example would be when they were test whether drafting behind a big rig to see if doing so could increase mileage. Despite the fact that they spent nearly as much time stressing how crazy attempting to draft a big rig is as they did actually testing the myth, for some people, that's just not quite enough to balance out the simple fact that it actually works.
  • This was actually parodied in "You Spoof Discovery", in which a flash cartoon depicted Jaime saying this:
  Jaime: Remember kids, don't try this at home - even though it's really cool and we're giving you step by step instructions on how to do it!
• Narcos ran into some similar problems like Breaking Bad only this show is based on real-life drug lords such as Pablo Escobar. His son, Sebastian Marroquin, accused the show for glorifying drug lords after young people are asking him on how to be like his late father.
• Parodied in Parks and Recreation when Andy and Leslie go to TP the house of the kid who broke into City Hall and TP'd their office:
  Leslie: This is really fun! (Looks at camera) But I don't condone it!
• Power Rangers Wild Force has strong environmental themes, as do a lot of Power Rangers seasons, but, as Power Rangers is also a marketing vehicle for toys, quite a bit of screen time is devoted to how awesome their motorcycles are and making riding motorcycles like that look fun and cool. A motorcycle even defeats Serpenterra. The message to reduce the carbon footprint is somewhat undermined by showing how great it is to drive around in fast vehicles like this. It's not helped that the motorcycles, save for the Silver Ranger's, do NOT come from the Japanese series Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, so the Power Rangers producers can't play the "we were stuck with what was in the Japanese footage" card.
• Professional Wrestling is built on this. See that awesome 720 corkscrew suicide dive? Don't do that.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Despite how many times Sabrina laments that magic just makes her life even more stressful, it still seems as though it would be a lot of fun to have her powers.
• Saturday Night Live's false ad for "Amazin' Laser" was full of this. While Chris Elliot exalted the virtues of using this precise, powerful and ridiculously powerful disintegrator raygun, subtitles gave more and more precise instructions. "Do not use Amazin' Laser on live targets." "Terrorists, please do not use Amazin' Laser." "On second thought, please do not buy Amazin' Laser."
• The Shield often got accused of this. as while it wasn't trying to endorse Vic Mackey and the Strike Team's long-list of crimes (as evidenced by the fact that he kills a cop in the FIRST episode so he won't rat on the team), they ended up with a lot of defenders. This included many real-life cops, much to the disturbance of Shawn Ryan, many of whom said that Terry deserved to be killed for "being a rat". Part of this is the fact that Vic's methods—while extreme—are often shown to be justified: the criminals he kills and brutalizes are often FAR worse then anyone on the team, and it's made clear that several criminals would've gotten off scot-free without Vic's illegal methods. Plus, the team are often shown reaping the rewards of their criminal enterprise with hot women, money and other benefits. When Forest Whitaker played IA agent Kavanaugh, who was trying to take down Vic, he was shocked by how much hate his character got and how much hate mail he received from Vic fans (which was rumored to have been the inspiration for his infamous "pissing" speech).
• Sons of Anarchy is yet another example of this, like many modern crime series. The series is suppose to show the stressful, painful, and tragic lives of SAMCRO and the people whom are associated with them, because of secrets, lies, backstabbing, and murder. The storyline is based off Hamlet. However, the show also glamorizes the biker gang culture. SAMCRO are shown as misunderstood, anti-heroes whom are protecting a small town from negative outside influences - when they are just career criminals. Drugs, booze, and loose women are promoted as being plentiful and great fun for inspiring bike enthusiast. Even being a Corrupt Cop is cool, as long as that cop is being corrupt for their friends.
• The Sopranos was even MORE realistic and de-glamorized than Goodfellas. It lampshaded that mobsters love The Godfather and Goodfellas. Guess who loved it? And many viewers who weren't gangsters also missed the point and saw Tony and crew as heroes and anyone who ratted on them as deserving of death.
• Squid Game, a series depicting a hellish contest where the rich force the poor into playing murderous versions of kids games where the sole survivor will win a cash prize, was an unexpected success in the West, especially for a non-English drama series from Korea. Much to the chagrin of some fans it was immediately followed by people recreating the games in various video games with level creators, as many found the idea of performing high-stakes versions of kids games a surprisingly fun idea and overlooked the whole "death" thing. However, this took on a whole new level when MrBeast recreated the contest itself for a Youtube skit (only without the death and with a much smaller cash prize) and many people criticized him for missing the entire point of the show, however some defended him on the basis that everyone who appeared in the video was paid and therefore he was ultimately doing a good thing.
• 13 Reasons Why caused this reaction among some critics, leading to schools sending warnings home to parents and Netflix adding extra Content Warnings. The show's graphic depiction of Hannah's suicide, as well as the tapes she left behind explaining how the people at her school caused her suicide is part of the reason. Critics claim that, instead of raising awareness of bullying, this may cause already vulnerable teens to think that suicide will solve all their problems (since, in the end, Hannah's tapes achieve her desired outcome of making everyone who wronged her feel guilty).
• Tiger King has been accused of this, especially regarding Joe Exotic and his private zoo, which the series focuses on. While Joe is undeniably portrayed as a terrible person, a lot of viewers find him to be awesome and even sympathetic, and his hobby of collecting live predators to look exciting.
• Although bigoted, Alf Garnett from Till Death Us Do Part was intended to be a figure of fun showing the stupidity of racism. He became a cult hero for misogynists and xenophobes. The same goes for the show's loose American remake. All in the Family was, officially, intended to show that bigotry is bad, but Archie Bunker came across as a fairly fun, likable guy in spite of it. The more progressive "Meathead" often came across as self-righteous.
• Occasionally played with on Top Gear when, for instance, the presenters solemnly (and with perfect insincerity) state that they strictly obey the speed limit at all times, or state "this is something we mustn't do" before engaging in impromptu drag races on public streets.
• Lampshaded and played with in an episode of The War at Home, first with Dave's speech at the beginning:
  Dave: When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was sneak into "R" rated movies. In my mind, "R" stood for "really good." Nowadays, there's warnings and ratings on everything; video games, music, booze, cigarettes. You think these warnings would keep kids away from all these things. When, actually, it's sending up a flare saying, "Hey, look. Good stuff over here.
  (Disclaimer appears on screen: "Due to the mature subject matter, the following episode may not be suitable for all family members.")
  Dave: (glances down at disclaimer) See? Makes you wanna watch even more, doesn't it?
  • Then the main plot of the episode involves Hilary and her friend Brenda getting drunk off her parents' liquor, then Vicky worries that their drinking is a bad influence on Hilary and to Dave's annoyance, implements a rule that no one in the house can drink. Vicky only lasts two days before secretly drinking in the garage, then both Dave and Vicky get drunk off free liquor and make a scene in front of Brenda's parents, causing much embarrassment and end up lecturing Hilary that they can drink because they're the parents.
• The Wire: For all of its social criticism on the dysfunctions of modern society, a significant portion of the show is given to the gang wars waged between extremely colorful and badass drug lords. While almost all of them come to bad ends, the big shot dealers sure seem to have a lot of fun while they're on top.

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