- Lampshaded in an episode of Adventures in Odyssey, which takes an oddly indecisive stance on the subject. When pressed, chronic troublemaker Rodney Rathbone ad-libs a story about being locked in the basement by his parents, then promptly admits that no, it was just something he heard on TV. That said, outright abuse aside, a lot of his behavior can undoubtedly be attributed to his upbringing.
- In another episode, presumably by another writer, a one-episode bully named Brock is revealed to have a bad home life dominated by a drunken father. While it is stressed that this doesn't make him unaccountable for his actions, a little sympathy (properly executed) can go a long way.
- Parodied in the penultimate episode of Bleak Expectations season 3, "An Evil Life Sort of Explained". Card-Carrying Villain Mr Gently Benevolent turns out to have been raised by an evil mother, who married (and then murdered) a succession of evil stepfathers in order to ensure her son was properly evil (and in addition it's also Villainous Lineage, the Benevolents are evil because they're descended from Judas's accountant). However he came very close to rising above this, and then his childhood sweetheart married someone else before he could escape from the Boarding School of Horrors.
- And Gently would have managed to get to the wedding just in time... save that his sweetheart's guardian delayed him repeatedly. It takes an annoying child pointing out his bad luck to fully push him right over the edge.
- Old Harry's Game: Thomas Crimp has alluded to his evilness being the result of being The Unfavorite.
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