You get detention, suspension, or even expulsion for something you did not even do, or something meant to be harmless.
In some examples, you can clear your name, but there are cases where it's impossible.
However, this isn't just limited to anything at school; it escalates to other forms of punishments as well.
An inversion is that somebody actually does commit the crime yet somehow gets away with it. If this pertains to the backstory of a magical girl, that's You Messed Up, Now You're the Magical Girl.
See also You Are Fired and "Jetson, You're Fired!". A school-specific subtrope is Crocker Grading System.
Examples[]
- Cartoon Network, Corus-owned networks, and anime have their own pages.
- In Yandere Simulator, you can get your rival expelled via favors from Info-Chan. Your rival (or Kokona in the debug builds) will lampshade that she didn't do it.
- Markiplier's playthrough even had an entire part centered around this trope.
- Looking forward to joining a club? Well, guess what? This trope is subverted if you kill a person or even carry a corpse in front of a club leader. Provided that the leader isn't a placeholder, you'll be outright banned from the club and won't get to participate in any club activites. Not even those for non-club members.
- A less extreme version happens when a club member that isn't the leader sees Yandere-chan killing anyone or dragging anyone around. You still get to interact with the club leader, but you can't join the club. Sure, you can still spar with the Martial Arts Club, but that has not been implemented yet, according to YandereDev.
- An inversion can occur if you kill someone and not manage to stain your clothes. Sadly, these only occur with some rival elimination methods and certain easter eggs.
- Senpai can be killed via a glitch and several easter eggs, despite YandereDev not wanting Senpai to be killable in the first place.
- Carry any criminal evidence but not a corpse, and Yandere-chan won't get apprehended, but expelled, if the police doesn't get to Akademi High first. Even if she stood in front of a brainwashed student.
- Yandere-chan only kills her rivals just to get her Senpai, so her punishments are innocent provided that she only eliminated her rival. As for the rest of the students, though...
- When Yandere Dev set up his own website for the game, he added a contact page that gives you a surprise if you click on the buttons for questions, suggestions, and requests.
- WarioWare: Twisted! introduces 9-Volt's friend, 18-Volt, who gets punished on his first day at Diamond City Elementary. For pumping music into the classroom. Though the music had no offensive content whatsoever, as it's a Nintendo game.
- In WarioWare: Touched!, Vanessa impersonates Mona, intending to be harmless and scooping up all the fame... but she gets pelted on instead.
- Game & Wario has a "punishment" for Ashley due to her spell book turning to another page: She got sent into a world of happiness for everybody but Ashley.
- The Loud House has so many examples that the show might need its own page:
- The Loud siblings were once forced to sit in the living room for an entire weekend, so this might apply to Lily, too. Lincoln doesn't get the sting as much as he knows there's a sweet spot in the living room.
- Lincoln gets punished for something he was only half-guilty on, while Lucy, also half-guilty, gets away with it.
- Lincoln took the fall for Lucy, though...
- Inverted once. After Lincoln went through dealing with vomiting, sand in his pants, a freezing shower, and a mad cow costume, he votes for Scratchybottom Campgrounds as punishment for all 10 of his sisters being mad at him. He does end up making his sisters' vacation great, at the cost of his own.
- Lori sabotages Leni's driving test all because Lori wants to be the only one in the Loud family with a driver's license.
- She later apologizes and tries to make it up for her.
- Lori racks up a bunch of innocent punishments in "No Guts, No Glori", an example being taking away Lincoln's video games until she dropped her Mad Drill Instructor attitude.
- If only one (or very few) of the Loud children do something bad at a pool that isn't their own, all of the children are suspended from said pool. This meant that excluding any pool they bought, they were banned from all pools within a 60-mile radius.
- Lincoln did an innocent punishment on his sisters and Bobby by kicking them out of his own pool.
- The "no cannonballs" warning seem like an innocent punishment, but it's actually subverted. The "don't remove the label" one, too.
- The label outside his pool (labeled "Paradise for One") is why he thought it over with the pool he bought. The pool his sisters bought was destroyed when he did a cannonball in that pool. This forced Lincoln to un-ban everyone from his own pool... when he suggested it.
- Clyde confronts Lincoln for dumping their friendship... only to Lincoln to say that he'll never give up their friendship.
- A biker group who rides bicycles kick Lincoln out of said group for telling the truth about his hand-me-down bike.
- Lincoln lets Frank escape accidentally, and Leni (and later, the Exterminator) uses poisonous gas on Frank. He escapes both times.
- Lincoln only went on strike for a different chore. His sisters went on strike until he ended his.
- "The Butterfly Effect" has a dream sequence summed up like this:
- Lori disowned Leni, something Lincoln didn't want Lisa to do with him. And then she later broke up with Bobby.
- Leni got injured, and somehow became smarter than Lisa.
- Luna uploaded a song, got a ton of hits, and was invited on a music tour... and then got kicked out of said tour not long after.
- Luan becomes an activist after watching a lot of cable news.
- Lynn got kicked off all her sports teams because she was failing school.
- Lucy got bitten by Lana's liberated vampire bat.
- Lola got hit with Lynn's soccer ball and declared her pageant career over not long after.
- Lana got inside a bubble as she didn't want to take any risks.
- Lisa dropped out and became a gas station attendant.
- Last but not least, Lynn and Lola turned to a life of crime, and Lily became a giant.
- Five Nights at Freddy's. Let your power run out, and you get jumpscared unless you are very close to 6AM.
- Punk-O-Matic. Cancel your show (or play very badly) and you get not only an angry crowd, but all the cash will be given back as well to prevent a riot.
- Well, this trope is technically subverted if you play in Sid's Garage. Anywhere else? Ouch.
- Overlaps with Sacrifice of a Hero in Gravity Falls; Stan Pines sacrifices his mind to save Gravity Falls, even though he doesn't have anything Bill Cipher wants. How? By switching clothes with his brother, Ford.
- In Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Brad got sent to reform school, despite the fact that Brad was trying to get Kick sent to reform school in the first place.
- Inverted in the episode "Stumped", where Billy Stumps calls Kick out for wrecking his truck... only to say it was awesome.
- The Twilight Zone (1985):
- In "Examination Day", Richard Jordan, Jr. exceeded government standards and was executed.
- In "The Misfortune Cookie", Harry Folger received a fortune cookie whose fortune simply read "You're Going to Die". As the cookies' fortunes come true, Harry Folger died soon after, but what we see was just him getting an aching bit of hunger. Luckily there was a Chinese restaurant, so he ate there, and then he read a fortune: "You're Dead".
- In "The Card", Mrs. Wolfe signed up for a card that had "severe penalties". The Financial Failure that she is, she began getting delinquent on her payments until they repossess their children. Eventually, she herself was repossessed.
- The most probable thing that happened next, was that she herself ended up an "acquisition".
- Ever heard of Chuck Jones of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies fame? Well, he was almost fired due to a limited animation style on one of his cartoons. Even if he just wanted to direct cartoons. However, this ended up subverted as Jones was kept on the payroll for a few more decades.
- And then Jones, in violation of his WB contract, directed a UPA film, which caused him to get fired... and this did not fit this trope, by the way.
- George Jetson sometimes gets hit with this, especially with his boss, Mr. Spacely:
- In "Private Property", George became a temporary VP... and then Cogswell brought that to an end.
- The Fairly OddParents: In "Switch Glitch", Timmy says "I'm happy" (but not "and I don't need my fairy godparents anymore"). This later backfired on Vicky, who said the entire line when she had Cosmo and Wanda.
- In "Dimmsdale Daze", when Chloe Carmichael wishes to be a parent (while her voice somehow hasn't changed), Timmy, since he and Chloe are in a fairy-share scenario, loses his fairies. This is despite Timmy wishing to be an adult in "The Big Problem" and yet he keeps his fairies via bribing the fairy bellboy with $5 in order for his fairies to stick around for a while.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Karate Choppers", SpongeBob performed karate with Sandy while Mr. Krabs saw it, and he was fired.
- You can never guess why Squidward got so many tickets in a day: littering, even though Squidward didn't litter much (maybe just a piece of chewed-up gum, but that shouldn't count).
- Because of SpongeBob messing up on his driving test, Mrs. Puff either inflates (she is a blow-fish, after all), gets hurt and/or angry at SpongeBob, or gets sent to jail after the test. It just depends on how bad SpongeBob does.
- And what's subverted is that SpongeBob either doesn't get a license, or gets his ripped up. This is actually due to Nickelodeon wanting the character to attend a school (like they do in most of their Nicktoons).
- When Sandy loses her helmet, she can't breathe well.
- Squidward inverts this whenever he is asked to sub for SpongeBob at the Krusty Krab. All he does is burn everything to a crisp.
- SpongeBob can get fired for the stupidest reasons the creator invented. One of them was all because of a nickel.
- Trying to use an ineffective move in any Pokémon game? Bad decision- especially against the more-powerful Pokémon. Using an ineffective move when battling a legendary Pokémon is a one-way ticket to an instant K.O.
- It's not a good idea to flee from shiny Pokémon, since it would be hard to look for another one. The chances of getting a shiny in the Gold/Silver versions are very slim.
- If all your Pokémon faint, you have no choice but to run to the nearest Pokémon Center, or even to your house.
- GoAnimate in its entirety was almost nothing but grounded videos during its first eight years, before Alvin Hung started transitioning the whole site to a business site. Not surprisingly, people started disowning the site and/or stopped using it altogether.
- Phineas Gage's accident which was caused by an explosion... and it took 11 years to kill him. The only good thing coming out of it is that we now know more about the brain than we have in the 19th century.
- The Principal's Office, a TruTV series about situations between high school students and principals, is summed up as Innocent punishment: The Reality Show. It would take its own page to state what punishments are handed out over the course of the short-lived series.
- South Park:
- Randy yelling at his son Stan for spending money on a freemium game, to the point where Stan is compared to his grandfather.
- The people of South Park losing faith in Christmas commercialization, due to the movie the boys worked so hard to make breaking.
- Well, this "innocent punishment" technically didn't last long due to the movie starting back up, but still...
- Technically averted in "Margaritaville"- Kyle uses his credit card not for personal gain, but rather to pay off the debt of everyone else in town. Sheila then reminds him that he'll be in debt for the rest of his life, but he keeps paying off the debts of everyone else anyway. Until he passes out.
- Most of Kenny's deaths, save for the one in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is this in some way.
- The people demanding that the crowdfunding "Redskins" change their name after a football game the night before; Cartman decides to go back to school rather than change the name.
- "The Spirit of Christmas", an early prototype to South Park, has this trope occur in the second short.
- A show named after a planet gets cancelled because its inhabitants are becoming too aware of their fame. And then uncancelled.
- Inverted by Cartman so much he's only been arrested six times as of December 2017.
- The slightest goof-up in South Park, and Butters is punished by his parents. Sometimes it's for no reason at all.
- South Park: The Stick of Truth even has these:
- Inverted when the player character (Dohvokiin) smashes mailboxes and parking meters. Doing things like that would be considered vandalism and a felony respectively in the US, yet the people of South Park don't notice.
- Another inversion: Dohvokiin isn't punished for crashing a UFO onto South Park Mall, completely obliterating it. And yet, people are fooled into thinking a large Taco Bell is opening up in South Park.
- Also, the Underpants Gnomes: "If you can't beat 'em, shrink 'em!"
- Technically averted if you defeat the gnomes a third time.
- When Kyle realizes that it's past everyone's bedtimes, he exclaims that he would "get it". Fortunately, it seems like none of the punishments to the main cast are in effect for more than the rest of the night.
- You can receive a message saying that fights between humans and elves are banned inside City Wok due to complaining.
- Clyde is "banished from space and time" (meaning that he is no longer allowed to play the game) for letting his guard down.
- Clyde comes back, though, forming a third army. Cartman then proceeds to "banish" him (and presumably the rest of his army) "from space and time", this time for "breaking the rules of the Stick".
- Averted when Dohvokiin refuses to join the Big Bad Government Guy by simply not going to him. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Kenny.
- This can even result in a game over, thanks to the hall monitors calling up Dohvokiin's dad. It's implied that he'd have to march up to his room after that. Considering this results in a game over, it's implied it means that his punishment was longer than a single night.
- Dohvokiin not being in bed when it's super late results in this (but only for a single night). Fortunately, the only thing that changes is his parents getting him and his bedroom door getting locked. In other words: his mother will still tuck him in, and he will still be allowed to play with his friends the next day. It's possible to trigger this twice, though on the first day, it's not that easy.
- You can either choose to fool the Prince of Canada into thinking Dohvokiin killed the Bishop of Banff (resulting in the Prince of Canada being fooled as well as two friend requests) or outright killing the Bishop (resulting in the Prince of Canada still thanking Dohvokiin anyways, but the Princess of Canada would be surprised at Dohvokiin for what he did, though you can ignore this by simply not speaking to her).
- However, the Princess of Canada will never be outraged enough to actually fight Dohvokiin, but will still mention the Bishop's passing should you talk to her enough times afterward.
- If you don't defeat Princess Kenny in the final boss battle, Kenny would proceed to kill Cartman.
- Averted for Kenny. No matter which side you betray (Kyle or Cartman), Princess Kenny will still turn out to be Super Evil in the end.
- Ironically, Dohvokiin can go into space, despite what happened in season 13.
- As much as Butters gets this trope as his civilian state, his alter-ego "Professor Chaos" inverts this so much that Butters is never punished for what Professor Chaos did.
- If a planet discovers warp speed and keeps the space cash all to themselves... well, the planet gets stuck in a cube-shaped force field. Presumably forever, but season 15 (and The Stick of Truth, see above) retconned this.
- If Mickey loses money (millions of dollars' worth), pray help from above and hope he doesn't burn you.
- Some companies will ban fanworks completely, inflicting this on the fans, while some will bar fanworks from being sold for profit, again inflicting it on the fans intending to do so (the latter for obvious reasons). For example:
- Archie Comics bans fanfiction completely, and will actively take down fanfiction if they spot it.
- Sanrio bans fanworks, especially if they're sold for profit. This led to the author of RWBYpet taking his own fanfic down for good measure.
- RKO General was banned from broadcasting in 1987. Since that was all they did at the time, the FCC effectively banned them from doing business or even operating at all, leading RKO General to shutter its operations by 1991.