Shantae: Awww... Your adventures sound kinda cooler than mine.
Bran-Son: They are! And I'm also an excellent role model!
Shantae: I'm not, on account of my bad temper and outlandish outfit.
Bran-Son: They are! And I'm also an excellent role model!
Shantae: I'm not, on account of my bad temper and outlandish outfit.
An Inappropriate Role Model is a person who is uncouth, unsavoury, or insane; A person who really shouldn't be idolised or emulated, yet (s)he is, often by some poor misguided fool.
May be a result of Little Brother Is Watching. Compare also Anti-Role Model.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Miko from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has idolized Fujiwara ever since she was a child, something that outright baffles the other members of the student council.
- Meowth from Pokémon: The Series fawned over Giovanni, Team Rocket's boss, ignoring the fact that Giovanni is actually a power-hungry crime lord who doesn't really care about him, Jessie, or James since they never can capture truly powerful Pokémon for him.
Comic Books
- Ollie Osnick idolised Dr. Octopus, even building his own tentacles in hope of working with him. After Octopus tried to kill him, he switched to idolising Spider-Man instead.
- Captain America villain Crossbones idolizes the Red Skull and ends up as his devoted minion (in a dark parallel to Bucky's relationship with Cap).
- Harleen Quinnzel a.k.a. Harley Quinn picked the worst possible role model to become obsessed with — The Joker.
- Invoked in the Supergirl storyline Red Daughter of Krypton by Guy Gardner, who believes Supergirl should stay with her cousin Superman instead of staying with his Red Lantern squad because the Red Lanterns -a group of berserker, battle-hungry, moody, mad-like-hell anti-heroes- aren't exactly role models even at their best .
Films — Live-Action
- In the first Problem Child movie, Junior idolizes the Bow Tie Killer. Well, until the Bow Tie Killer escapes from prison and visits his "youngest fan". With clearly murderous intentions.
- Played for Drama in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, where Jean Brodie sees herself as a mentor and role model for her 'Brodie Set'. But she's a rampant fascist with all sorts of dangerous ideas. She plans to groom one girl into having an affair with the art teacher (in her place) and another is influenced to run off to fight in the Spanish Civil War.
- Despite his Redemption Equals Death Heel–Face Turn, the evil of Darth Vader from Star Wars is the main source of inspiration for Kylo Ren, who happens to be his grandson, formerly known as Ben Solo.
Live-Action TV
- In an episode of The Brady Bunch, Bobby suddenly considers Western outlaw Jesse James as his hero.
- On The Parent 'Hood, youngest son Nichaolas decides to do his Black History Month presentation on Buckwheat from The Little Rascals, even going so far as to dress up as him. Everyone else in the family is offended because Buckwheat engaged in Uncle Tomfoolery, giving black people a bad name.
Another father at the show: Who's he going to be next year, the guy who posed for the Lawn Jockey statue?
- Nicholas doesn't explain himself until the presentation, where he describes Billie Thomas [the actor who played Buckwheat] doing the best he could given the times.
- In an episode of Herman's Head, Herman had an opportunity to meet a role model of his who was a writer. Intellect was delighted with this, but the other aspects of Herman's personality kept trying to offer better role models. After Compassion listed "Albert Schweitzer in Africa, Mother Teresa in India...", Paranoia added, "Peter Lorre in Casablanca." This caused Intellect to snap and yell that no one in his right mind considers Peter Lorre in Casablanca to be a role model.
Music
- Morrissey's song "Last of the Famous International Playboys" is from the point-of-view of a man in prison who wanted to impress Reggie and Ronnie Kray,
English organized crime bosses.
- Taylor Swift's "Dear Reader," the final track of the 3 am edition of Midnights, has the narrator giving the listener life advice... before saying they absolutely should not listen to her, because she herself is an insecure, drunk, lonely wreck.
Tabletop Games
- Chronicles of Darkness: Innocents, a Sourcebook for child characters, has the 21-year-old maybe-gangster Darius Summers. Though he's "a punk and probably a criminal", he can become Guardian to a Player Party — yet he's absolutely against any other kids turning out like him, and firmly intervenes if it looks like a child is too interested in the lifestyle.
Theater
- In The American Play, a theater piece about Misaimed Fandom, two men begin idolizing and trying to emulate Patrick Bateman of American Psycho.
Video Games
- In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, Adell's younger sister Hanako idolizes Etna and wishes to be a powerful Demon Lord like her. The optional DLC for Dark Hero Days shows that she succeeded.
Visual Novels
- Dennis from Double Homework tries to model his behavior on that of his father, a manipulative, abusive man who conducts some business fraudulently and commissions “drug banquets” for his corporate functions.
Webcomic
- Twisted Tropes: The strip shows Immortan Joe teaching kids how to fish using human corpses, use a man as a toy car prop and pissing on the crowd to let them have something to drink.
Western Animation
- South Park:
- In the first Halloween Episode, Eric Cartman comes to school dressed as his hero, Adolf Hitler. The so-called adults try to fix things by quickly making him a "ghost" costume, which looks like a Ku Klux Klan robe. Chef is not amused.
- In a later episode, Cartman fawned at the feet of Rob Reiner, a Jerkass anti-smoking activist.
- In the Futurama episode "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV", Bender becomes the new star of All My Circuits and many kids, including Dwight, Cubert and Tinny Tim, start idolizing him to the point of copying his bad language and habit of stealing stuff.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002): Odiphus idolises villains, performing illicit acts in the hope of being allowed to "join up."
- Iron Man: Armored Adventures: Justin Hammer idolises Nero, a very twisted Roman emperor. Tony even brings up Nero's faults in front of Hammer.
- Batman Beyond: The Jokerz are a street gang with a clown motif inspired by the original Joker. Ironically, another street gang, the Ts, imitates the appearance of superhero Mr. Terrific.
- Kaeloo: Stumpy's role model is Mr. Cat, who is an Ax-Crazy sadist.
