The Whipping Boy is a children's novel by Sid Fleischman.
Prince Horace, better known as "Prince Brat", runs away from home, and forces his servant Jemmy (whose job it is to be whipped in the prince's place whenever the prince misbehaves, since it's illegal to whip royalty) to accompany him.
Winner of the 1987 Newbery Medal.
A TV movie based on the novel was made in 1994.
This book provides examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: Betsy and Petunia arrive in time to stop the thugs from attacking the two boys. And when they refuse to let them go, Betsy yells "Sic 'em, Petunia!", and the bear chases them off.
- Book Smart: Jemmy is a much more diligent student than Horace. His intelligence makes the bandits think he's the prince and Horace is the whipping boy, instead of the other way around.
- Break the Haughty: Prince Horace gets this when he makes the foolish decision to run away. He and Jemmy get kidnapped and held for ransom, where Horace can't convince Hold-Your-Nose-Billy that he is the prince because he's rude and can't write. Then he gets whipped when the boys make their escape and have to navigate the sewers to escape.
- Butt-Monkey: Jemmy, which kind of comes with the territory of being a whipping boy.
- Character Development: Prince Horace towards the end. Jemmy to a certain extent as well.
- Corporal Punishment: Happens more than once, per Jemmy's job. Later when Horace is mistaken for the whipping boy, he gets spanked as well.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The reason why Horace keeps getting into trouble is that he gets annoyed about how Jemmy refuses to scream. Quite ironically, when the kidnappers spank him, he realizes why Jemmy refuses to give them the satisfaction.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Jemmy's job is to take spankings in place of the prince since it's forbidden to touch royalty.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "Prince Brat". Horace is mortified when he hears it and realizes his subjects don't respect him, which is a key moment in his character development.
- Fat and Skinny: Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater respectively.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Betsy's dancing bear, Petunia.
- It's All About Me: Horace, a spoiled brat that neglects his learning, constantly causes trouble and is stuck up and haughty. He gets better about this when running from Hold-Your-Nose-Billy and Cutwater, especially when they strike him.
- Jerkass Realization: Prince Horace doesn't take it well when learning spankings are actually painful when you're the one receiving them, Jemmy doesn't want to be friends with him, and the commoners call him Prince Brat condescendingly.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Prince Horace makes it a point to pull pranks to see Jemmy getting whipped. He even threatens to send Jemmy back to the streets if he doesn't scream. When the boys run away from their abductors, they mistake Jemmy for the prince and spank Horace as punishment. Horace afterward is much mellower, especially when Jemmy asks him why he didn't scream.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Prince Horace. It says something that his whipping boy is the closest thing to a "friend" that he has, and Jemmy makes it clear they are just business acquaintances.
- Mistaken for Servant: When the prince and Jemmy are abducted, the abductors believe Jemmy is the prince and Horace is the whipping boy because Jemmy has better manners and hasn't been shirking his education.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater.
- Pride Before a Fall: Prince Horace.
- Prince and Pauper: Horace and Jemmy don't exactly look alike, but they do manage to be mistaken for each other because Horace is a brat, and Jemmy is a gentleman.
- Royal Brat: Prince Horace, who is even (unbeknownst to him) nicknamed "Prince Brat" by his subjects.
- The Runaway: Prince Horace runs away out of sheer boredom and drags Jemmy along for the ride. Jemmy realizes he doesn't have a choice because the other option is to stay in the palace and get whipped in the prince's place until he's returned. Plus, Horace has no survival skills, but Jemmy does.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivered unknowingly to Horace by one of his subjects while he's in disguise. Horace is abashed to learn that people think of him as "Prince Brat", which becomes a turning point in his Character Development.
- The Scapegoat: Jemmy's role as the whipping boy. He's even blamed for kidnapping the prince when their abductors force him to write a ransom note.
- Silver Spoon Troublemaker: Prince Horace, who's secretly called Prince Brat, counts as one. Though, all the punishments for these antics virtually fall upon Jeremy, the titular character. This bites Horace in the ass when he and Jeremy get taken prisoner by bandits after they run away. The bandits refuse to believe the insolent and illiterate Horace is the actual royal and try to compel "Prince" Jeremy's obedience by beating his servant (since you can't strike royalty).
The 1994 movie adds examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The movie added a lot of other things to the original plot, including Jemmy having been an orphan street rat with a younger sister (who catches rats to sell for rat-catching games). Horace also doesn't run away on a whim, but instead out of anger at his father after a prank where Horace releases rats at a formal dinner gravely offends a visiting ambassador, leaving his father to declare he's had enough, and that there will be no more whipping boy, among other punishments. Jemmy's sister is also arrested on flimsy pretenses after being falsely accused of being a thief by a rich man.
