Basic Trope: A work of fiction looks on the surface like it might be appropriate for children, but eventually turns out to be far from it.
- Straight: Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is an animated cartoon with a cutesy art style that also happens to feature violence, swearing, and some sexual innuendos.
- Exaggerated:
- Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is an extremely violent movie with sex scenes that border on hardcore pornography, yet the cover, along with the misleading title, causes everyone to incorrectly assume it's a film appropriate for kids.
- The in-universe show Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is basically The King in Yellow, complete with expected side effects and supernaturally evil origins.
- Downplayed: Other than some occasional questionable references, Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is actually appropriate for children to watch.
- Justified:
- A mature work of fiction that initially gives the impression of being child-friendly has a better chance of sticking out from other works of its kind.
- The show is an Affectionate Parody of or a Darker and Edgier revival of a children's show whose target audience are likely adults now.
- The work sets out to deconstruct many tropes that are common within kid-friendly media and/or want to depict the teen protagonist's Dark and Troubled Past as accurately as possible so troubled children watching it get a reminder that You Are Not Alone. The adult rating slapped on the story due to this is collateral damage.
- It was considered child-appropriate in the 1930s, but not today.
- Inverted: Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is stated to be about "trouble brewing" at the titular bar, and the DVD cover depicts the scene in a dark noir style. Despite the grim art style used and the misleading wording, it turns out that the real protagonists are Bob's nephews who go to his bar because he always gives them fruit juice free of charge, and get to go through a kid-friendly adventure.
- Subverted:
- The pilot for Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is decidedly adult, but when it is picked up for a series, the show becomes more appropriate for children.
- The show's more inappropriate moments are edited out in post, so to most people it's an ordinary children's show.
- Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse starts out with a very adult joke, but this was just a moment of Demographically Inappropriate Humour in a pretty tame show.
- Double Subverted:
- Poor ratings in the children's time slot results in Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse being moved to a time slot where only adults are likely to be watching it, which also comes with the show being retooled into being as raunchy and mature as the original pilot.
- It turns out the opening was a hint of the show's eventual trajectory into adult territory.
- Parodied:
- Throughout the show, all the characters make very poor attempts at denying the show's content, such as always addressing the audience as "kids" or calling out other characters for saying or doing things that are inappropriate for children's shows.
- The writers think they're making the show as horrifying as possible, even though it's actually quite kid-friendly. Uncle Bob never does anything worse than grounding his kids for not doing their homework.
- Zig Zagged:
- During production, everyone involved has trouble deciding over whether Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse should be for children or an adult program that only superficially resembles a children's show. After that, they decide to test one idea before seeing if the other will work better.
- Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse/Robert's Rippers are two series in one with a Shared Universe. Uncle Bob's double life as a family-man and business owner and ruthless hatchetman for The Mafia. Both series can standalone but alternating reading gives a more complete story that shows two conflicting halves of the same man at the cost of some major Mood Whiplash and Fridge Horror.
- Averted: Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse is either intended for adults only or for all audiences and doesn't try to mislead its viewers about the show's content.
- Enforced: The creators want their adult program to stand out, so they make it look like it might be a show appropriate for children in order to lure in curious viewers.
- Lampshaded: "Gee, Uncle Bob. If this show really were intended for children, we'd be up to our necks with angry letters from Moral Guardians by now!"
- Invoked: Uncle Bob is tired of being nice and wholesome and kid-friendly, so he starts acting crude, hits on his love interest in an inappropriate manner, and encourages his co-stars to follow his example.
- Defied: Uncle Bob and the other characters refuse to pander to adult audiences by including inappropriate content in their children's show.
- Exploited: Uncle Bob knows that children will end up watching the show regardless of content, so while he's at it, he uses that opportunity to give An Aesop about serious subject matter that's important to know but cannot normally be approached properly by genuine kids' shows due to network standards.
- Discussed: "They actually showed Uncle Bob's girlfriend giving him oral sex? I'd feel pretty sorry for the poor schmuck who bought the DVD thinking this show was intended for kids."
- Conversed: "The only chances of that happening would be if they were too stupid or careless to pay attention to the rating."
- Implied: A child expresses interest in watching a DVD that looks like it's a child-friendly cartoon, only for their parents to insistingly reply that the movie isn't for kids.
- Deconstructed: Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse fails because most audiences are put off by an innocent-looking cartoon being heavy on adult themes and references.
- Reconstructed: In spite of the backlash, Uncle Bob's Wonderful Clubhouse gains a cult following made of people who appreciated the adult humor and were impressed by the decision of giving the series the aesthetic of a children's show.
- Played For Laughs: Every time things get obscene or risque, one of the characters protests "Please! There are fucking children watching this shit!"
On today's episode of Subverted Kids' Show, we'll teach you kiddies some inappropriate words you can shout to scare your folks!
