What An Idiot / Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

There's a reason why this franchise isn't called Grizzly Tales for Genius Kids.

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General

• The child is often told off for misbehaving and warned that they'll suffer a gruesome fate unless they clean up their act.
  You'd Expect: The child would listen.
  Instead: They seldom do, often mocking the person giving the warning.
  As a Result: The child usually ends up dead or in an unenviable situation with no foreseeable hope of escape.
• The parents are often to blame.
  You'd Expect: Them to discipline their kids.
  Instead: They seldom even try to, and when they do, they make a very poor job of it. Special mention goes to Mr. and Mrs. Gaslamp below.

Specific

• The New Nanny
  • After getting two nannies fired, Tristam and Candy get an alligator for a nanny. She makes it clear that she'll eat them for breakfast if they try any nonsense.
    You'd Expect: Tristam and Candy to heed her advice.
    Instead: Candy says they aren't afraid of her, and Tristam hits her with his bat.
    As a Result: She proceeds to gobble them up. (Averted in the TV adaptation, where the alligator eats them before they can do anything.)
• Sweets
  • Thomas Ratchet, a Bratty Half-Pint extraordinare, hates shopping.
    You'd Expect: He would try and behave himself so he gets some sweets.
    Instead: He behaves hideously.
  • Thomas complains to his mother that she never buys him sweets. She responds that she might if he behaves himself.
    You'd Expect: Thomas to listen to her.
    Instead: He calls her horrible, says he never wants to see her again, and runs off.
• An Elephant Never Forgets
  • Percy and Belinda have gotten an elephant's foot from a baby elephant. It turns out to be magic, and eventually, Belinda wishes for the baby elephant to return to life. Unfortunately, it has only three legs and can't walk properly.
    You'd Expect: Percy to wish the elephant away.
    Instead: He keeps begging Belinda to do it while Belinda is frozen stiff from fear.
    As a Result: The elephant falls on them.
• School Dinners
  • A boy named Elgin has such disgusting manners that the narrator soon develops a dislike for school dinners.
    You'd Expect: He would try telling the Matron or his parents about it. Hopefully, they'd be able to get to the root of the problem.
    Instead: He never does.
• The Chipper Chums Go Scrumping.
  • Farmer Tregowan has planted an orchard of apple trees, but he has laced them with pesticide.
    You'd Expect: Him to put warning signs to detract anyone who wants to take his apples.
    Instead: He puts none.
    As a result: The Chipper Chums come to take his apples and are poisoned. He then crushes their bodies with his cider press.
• Prince Noman
  • The aging king of Misery has just had a boy with a young lady. He decides to name the boy Prince Norman.
    You'd Expect: Him to make sure everything is intact for the Naming Ceremony.
    Instead: He forgets his reading glasses and accidentally names the boy Noman, resulting in him eventually becoming invisible.
• The Dumb Clucks^note renamed The Dumb Klutzes for TV
  • The people of Dork basically have this as their hat. One day, a stranger comes in claiming to be the son of God (or the Almighty Wish Bringer in the TV adaptation) and puts them through a series of weird tasks if they all want to meet him.
    You'd Expect: The Dorks to smell something fishy.
    Instead: With the exception of Mr. Pojo (or Mr. Scoffman), everyone falls for it and complies to his demands.
    As a Result: The stranger's father is revealed to be a huge, carnivorous, one-eyed giant, who eats them alive.
• Little Fingers
  • Daffyd can never seem to keep his fingers to himself.
    You'd Expect: After he cuts himself, Daffyd would try to kick his bad habit.
    Instead: He keeps it up.
  • Daffyd's parents decide to go on vacation for a fortnight.
    You'd Expect: Them to leave him with someone who's capable of looking after him.
    Instead: They leave Grandma Gwyneth.
    The Result: There is no one to help Daffyd when he accidentally calls the mafia and is kidnapped. He loses all of his fingers until his parents return.
• Jack in the Box
  • Jack is invited to Mr. Frankenstein's magic store. He starts to get freaked out by what he sees and says he has to go.
    You'd Expect: Him to do just that.
    Instead: He goes into a series of tangents and is turned into a ventriloquist dummy.
• Revenge of the Bogeyman
  • Dee Doodah, a habitual nose-picker, digs out the Bogeyman, who tells her how upset he is at her constant nose-picking and asks her if she'll stop.
    You'd Expect: Dee to listen to him and promise she'll stop.
    Instead: "But I like picking my nose!"
    As a result: The Bogeyman puts her through an ordeal of being picked. She gives up nose-picking, but starts picking her ears. It's implied that she'll eventually dig out the Wax Woman.
• The Pie Man
  • Donald is a habitual thumb-sucker, which worries his parents, because they fear he'll summon the Pie Man.
    You'd Expect: Them to try slowly bringing him out of the habit.
    Instead: They give him a dummy, to which he soon grows addicted until they give it to the baby of the Loch Ness Monster.
• Superstitious Nonsense
  • Pylon Gaslamp (renamed Araminta for TV) is an incredibly superstitious girl. One day, after her father digs up an alder, Pylon develops a hatred for her parents, and makes up a bunch of stuff to her liking.
    You'd Expect: Mr. and Mrs. Gaslamp to see through the very obvious lies.
    Instead: They fall for everything their daughter says.
    As a Result: The family goes broke.
• Wolf Child
  • Garth MacQueen is insanely jealous of the attention his baby sister, Moira, is getting.
    You'd Expect: Garth would try helping his parents look after Moira, which would surely get him some attention.
    Instead: He resorts to acting like a baby, which gets him some attention, but not the good kind.
  • Garth's father warns him that unless he stops this behavior, wolves will come to eat him. This fills Garth with fear^note only in the TV episode; in the book adaptation, he simply mocks the warning, as he worries that the wolves will come after him rather than Moira.
    You'd Expect: He'd follow his father's advice and behave himself.
    Instead: He only decides to after a nightmare about wolves. By then, however, it's too late, and he starts turning into a baby. He tries to call his parents, but can only make baby noises.
    You'd Expect: Garth's father to recognize the baby noises and come to Garth's rescue.
    Instead: "Ignore the selfish boy. He's just seeking attention again."
  • The next day, Garth's parents realize that he was not just seeking attention again and truly is turning into a baby. Just then, they hear a howl and fear that Moira, who was put outside for fresh air, might be eaten. Leaving Moira alone in the first place could be seen as idiotic in and of itself, but it's the next action Mr. and Mrs. MacQueen take that really drives the stupidity home.
    You'd Expect: One to stay behind while the other looks after Gareth.
    Or: They could take Gareth with them.
    Alternatively: They should make sure the wolves have no way into the house.
    Instead: They both go after Moira, leave Garth behind, and don't bother plugging up the entrances, allowing the wolves to get Garth.
• The Soul Stealer
  • Poppy is a Phoneaholic Teenager who's constantly having conversations with her friends, much to her parents' chagrin.
    You'd Expect: Them to put their foot down and tell her they'll confiscate her phone.
    Instead: They offer her a Nikisson 5000. Unsurprisingly, this only worsens Poppy's behavior instead of improving it, and she turns into a blackmailer.
• The Piranha Sisters
  • Dorothy May is taking a bath after pranking her younger sister, Petie, at her birthday party, but then the water rises up the faucet, and then spurts out toy submarines painted up to look like piranhas. She start to think about a warning said to her by a ghostly skeleton.
    You'd Expect: Dorothy May to immediately go out of the tub.
    Instead: She just sits there looking at the toy submarines.
    As a Result: Just as she gets the idea to leave the tub, the submarines turn into real piranhas and eat her alive leaving only her skeleton.
• Tom Time
  • Tom is always one hour late for everything. The end of the world is approaching, and his mother is trying to hurry him along.
    You'd Expect: Her to just drag him along with her if the need arises.
    Alternatively: If it's a known factor that Tom is always one hour late for everything, then Tom's mom could tell him to be at the rocket launch at a time earlier than the launch itself, so that Tom's lateness doesn't doom him.
    Instead: She just leaves him to get ready by himself.
    As a Result: He doesn't get to the launch until a full hour after the rocket has already left.
• The Ugly Prince
  • Prince Spencer crosses his godmother and is cursed to be ugly until he says sorry. Years later, he tries to ask his crush, Princess Britney to marry him, but she says no. Years after that, he learns she is trying to kiss frogs to find a prince, and in a desire for revenge, he goes to his godmother, takes a potion, turns himself into a frog, and hops into her garden, where the grass is being mowed to reveal frogs.
    You'd Expect: Spencer to stay on the fence.
    Instead: He hops in the grass and gets shredded by the mower.
• Hear No Weevil, See No Weevil
  • Broccoli Brassica has planted a garden of the biggest (and strangest) plants imaginable. A horde of giant weevils burrows from underground and start eating the plants.
    You'd Expect: Anything but what Broccoli actually does.
    Which Is: Running right at the weevils and spraying at them with a can of pesticide!
    Naturally: A tiny girl and her tiny can of pesticide vs. an army of giant and genetically modified weevils goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Tinkerbell^note renamed Tinklebell for TV
  • Gilbert is such a fussy eater, his parents have contacted a man named Tinkerbell for help. Tinkerbell offers a spell to make anyone eat what's on their plate.
    You'd Expect: Gilbert's parents to explain their son's bad habit and tell Tinkerbell that only he needs the spell.
    Instead: They not only neglect to specify who they want it used on, but also neglect to specify that they want it used only on him.
    As a Result: This bites them in the backside when Gilbert tells them to eat him and is served up as a meal.
• The Dragon Moth
  • In the TV adaptation, Josiah's constant refusal to obey signs has gotten him in a lot of trouble. He gets splashed by a malfunctioning toilet, and gets his finger stuck up his nose.
    You'd Expect: After these incidents, Josiah would get it through to his thick skull that warning signs are there for a reason, and start obeying them.
    Instead: He keeps constantly disobeying them, and keeps saying they warn of stuff that won't happen. This is after the aforementioned incidents.
• Sick To Death
  • Vicky is a Bratty Half-Pint who's constantly vomiting to get what she wants. Her mother has a weak constitution and can't clean up the vomit.
    You'd Expect: Her to find someone nearby to clean up the vomit.
    Instead: She leaves it for her husband to clean up. He is not happy about this, and ultimately storms out when she reveals she's called a vacuum salesman.
  • After she buys a vacuum, Mrs. Spew starts tackling vomit with no trouble whatsoever.
    You'd Expect: Upon seeing that her vomiting has ceased to have any effect on her mother, Vicky would give up the practice.
    You'd Also Expect: Her to keep in mind the salesman's warning that the vacuum behaves strangely when it's full.
    Instead: She keeps constantly spewing and filling up the vacuum.
  • After a while, the vacuum says it's full. This sends Vicky into a panic when she remembers the salesman's warning.
    You'd Expect: Vicky to either politely ask her mother to empty the vacuum, empty it herself, or ask someone else nearby.
    Instead: She keeps yelling at her mother to empty the vacuum, telling her the salesman's warning. Her mother doesn't believe her, saying he also said it would stop her screaming.
    The Result: The vacuum sucks up Vicky, piece by piece.
    Unfortunately: Due to her weak constitution, her mother can't try to get her out.
    You'd Expect: She'd take the vacuum to someone else to look inside.
    Instead: She stores it in the attic and decides to wait for her husband to return. He never does.
    As a Result: Vicky is left stuck permanently in the attic.
• Message in a Bottle
  • Popering's father makes a living making a pear grow in a bottle and daring people to guess how he got it in. Popering is constantly teased about this. One day, when he's hiding in his father's pear tree, a tiny Frenchman tells him to destroy the tree. Popering does, and then tells him to go in the bottle. The offended Frenchman says something else will make his family's fortune, but it is not him.
    You'd Expect: Popering to sense a chance at revenge and suggest one of his schoolmates who is always teasing him.
    Instead: He asks what it is. The Frenchman says it is him and stuffs him in the bottle.
• The Flat-Pack Kid
  • Humpty Egg is constantly taking things apart, but never putting them back together again. His father, who is not good at DIY, is growing annoyed by this behavior and calls DIY Dave. Dave refuses payment for his work and says that if he never has to clean up after Humpty again, that will be payment enough.
    You'd Expect: Mr. Egg to either call a different handyman or try to teach Humpty to clean up after himself.
    Instead: He just tries (unsuccessfully) to fix the damage himself, and keeps calling Dave.
    As a Result: This all comes to a head when the house is destroyed, and Dave takes Humpty apart.