"Gift of the Magi" Plot: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A plot reproducing ''[[
This plot has shown up numerous times, usually in a [[
For a more encouraging ending, sometimes the characters will manage to get their original possessions back as well, often as a gift from a third party.
This is a [[Sub
Compare [[Do They Know It's Christmas Time?]]
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* [[Ditzy Genius|Miyako]] of ''[[Hidamari Sketch]]'' invoked this as [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship|Hiro and Sae]] exchanged gifts... [[Cultural Cross-Reference|Of course nobody understood what she said.]]
* Subverted and lampshaded in a ''[[Lupin
* In chapter 4 of ''[[Franken Fran]]'', a high school couple unknowingly swap genitals. The girl [[Rape
* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', this is part of Hiei's backstory. One of the conditions the demon surgeon made Hiei agree to before implanting Hiei's [[Evil Eye]] was that Hiei could never reveal his true identity to his [[Separated
* One of the [[Christmas Episode|Christmas Chapters]] of ''[[
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* In an [[Archie]] story, Betty gives up the money she's saved all year for a new dress to buy Archie snow tires for his car. Archie decides to buy Betty an expensive diamond pin to go with her new dress, but ends up forced to sell his car to afford it. Fortunately, Veronica realizes what is going on, and when Christmas comes presents Betty with the dress and Archie with his car. Moral of this story: have a millionaire friend.
** Another story starring Cheryl Blossom's family, Cheryl's dad, fed up with the 'who-can-buy-the-most-expensive-gift' contest Cheryl and Jason have going on between each other, refuses to fund their Christmas shopping, telling them to sacrifice something for the holiday. After some initial confusion on the definition of sacrifice, the Blossom siblings get to it. Since Cheryl loves bossing people around so much, Jason gets her a staff for a beach home she owns, selling his new car to pay them. cheryl, meanwhile, sells that very home to buy a tricked-out garage for Jason's new car. In the end, the kids simply ask their father for new things to replace the stuff that was sold.
* The anthology ''Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children'', issue #5, was ''The Crypt of the Magi''. Sylvia sells her eyes to a medical school to buy Claude some brass knuckles to protect him from bullies, but Claude has lost all of his fingers in an accident at the machine shop where he has been
== Film ==
* Parodied in ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]''. First Rizzo tells Gonzo he sold his rare cheese to buy a crystal petri dish for Gonzo's mould collection, but Gonzo sold the mould to buy a diamond tipped cheese slicer ("Did you keep the receipt?"). Then Beaker sold his autographed periodic table to buy a stand for Bunsen's electron microscope, but Bunsen sold his microscope to buy Beaker rare mutagenic elements. Then Sal Manella explains that he sold his motorbike to get Johnny Fiama a solid gold record player. Much to Sal's outrage, Johnny's response is an offhand "Oh. Thanks, Sal."
* ''[[Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas
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* In the Steve Martin short-short story ''Gift of the Magi Indian Giver'', Carolyn sells her cuticles to buy Roger shinbone polish, while Roger of course sells his shinbones to buy Carolyn cuticle frames.
* In ''[[The Princess Diaries]]'', Mia sells one of her Buffy figurines to get her boyfriend something. Her boyfriend sold the thing that her present to him was supposed to compliment to get her the last figurine in her collection. Whoops.
* "The Little Blue Dishes", a traditional story, comes at this sideways. Only Peter knows what Gretchen wants. He has only a penny so he buys her candy instead. Hans eats the candy and makes up for it with the blue
* An odd variation in [[Christopher Moore]]'s ''[[The Stupidest Angel]]''. At the start of their relationship, Molly finally agreed to stay on her antipsychotic medication, which among other things prevents delusions of being an [[After the End]] [[Hot Amazon]] ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]), and in return Theo finally gave up his pot habit. But when Christmas comes Theo wants to get her a priceless antique sword that would be absolutely perfect for her [[Hot Amazon]] persona. To afford it, he starts growing pot again to sell it, and falls off the wagon. Meanwhile, she's getting him a massive, elaborate bong. To afford that, she stops taking her meds.
* Subverted in ''[[Discworld|Hogfather]]'', when the Dean gives the Bursar a box to keep his dried frog pills in. The Bursar, naturally, doesn't have any pills to put in it ... because the Dean already swiped them from the Bursar's room, so he wouldn't have to shell out any more money to give him a ''full'' pillbox.
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== Live Action TV ==
* One episode of ''[[Alice]]'' has Flo selling her Black Velvet Elvis to buy her son some
* An episode of ''[[The Single Guy]]'' has the single guy and one of the female characters encountering this situation, the exact gifts being a Russian Doll and a comic book. At the end, the single guy makes a quip that [[I Should Write a Book About This|someone should write a book about this]]. [[Lampshade Hanging]], anyone?
* Bert and Ernie did this in the 1978 TV special ''Christmas Eve on [[Sesame Street]]''. Bert trades his paperclip collection to Mr. Hooper for a soap dish for Ernie to put his rubber duckie in. Ernie meanwhile trades his rubber duckie for a fancy box to hold the paperclip collection. Of course, Mr. Hooper stops by the apartment on his way home and gives them back the items they traded.
* Parodied and subverted on a Xmas episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' when TV's Frank gives Dr. Forrester a watch band as a gift but reveals that he paid for it by selling Dr. Forrester's watch. Dr. Forrester then gives Frank a book about death and reveals he paid for it by stealing Frank's blood while he slept and then selling it "so I wouldn't have to use my own money". To which Frank responds, "Oh, Henry!"
** Parodied ''again'' in their other Christmas episode: Frank shaved his head and bought Dr. Forrester a watch fob (although apparently the two events were not related), but Dr. Forrester had neglected to buy Frank ''anything''. He tried to save face with a $25 savings bond, but Frank was, to say the least, not pleased with the results ("My hair! My beautiful head of TV's Frank hair!").
* There was a one way version of this in an episode of ''[[The Honeymooners]]''. Frantic to find Alice a Christmas present, Ralph sold the bowling ball he had bought recently to get money. On Christmas morning, Ralph opens his present from Alice to discover that it's a bowling ball bag.
* In the 3rd season [[Christmas Episode]] of ''[[
* ''[[Little House
* On the original run of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', [[John Belushi]] is the husband, and Laraine Newman the wife. As per the story, he sells his watch, and she
** The opening sketch for a [[Christmas Episode]] in the early 1990's centered around Donald and Ivanna Trump exchanging their Christmas gifts to one another. Donald got Ivanna a gold-plated, bejeweled door for her mansion, and Ivanna got Donald a gold-plated, bejeweled anchor for his yacht. Shortly afterward, Ivanna breaks down in tears, explaining that she had to sell her mansion to afford the anchor, to which Donald says that he had to sell his yacht to afford the door.
* ''[[
* One episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', "The Long Morrow", has a variation of this: A young couple is faced with the issue of the man having to go on an 80-year-long space mission that involves [[Human Popsicle|suspended animation]] which will keep him young while she ages back on Earth. The woman decides to put herself into suspended animation so that she will still be young when he comes back, only to learn that he took himself out of his own suspended animation so that he would be as old as her when he came back.
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== Web Comics ==
* [http://countyoursheep.com/d/20030808.html This ''Count Your Sheep'' strip] is an interesting variation on the trope.
* ''[[
* [[Joyce and Walky|Walkerton]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140210103734/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20061223.html doesn't quite get it right].
* A transformation-based version happens in ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'' . Euryale, a gorgon, pays a wizard to turn her into a human so she won't turn her boyfriend to stone, but at the same time he's paid someone else to turn him into a rock-skinned being so she wouldn't have to worry about doing the same.
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Torg and Riff buy each other a flannel shirt and a new overcoat... but they both sold their shoulders to medical science to pay for the others gift.
* ''[[Wonderella]]'' gives us [http://nonadventures.com/2009/12/19/where-the-toys-are/ half a gift.] The other half involves toy hamsters.
* [[Nedroid]] knows [http://nedroid.com/2008/12/beartato-135/ exactly] what to make of this.
* In ''[[Troper Works/Stubble Trouble|Stubble Trouble]]'' Liasonya the foxtaur sells her [[Rapunzel Hair]] to buy a gift for her boyfriend. [http://www.drunkduck.com/Stubble_Trouble/index.php?p=648215 It doesn't turn out so well...]{{Dead link}}
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== Web Animation ==
* Parodied in Episode 7 of ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* In the first ''[[Rugrats]]'' Christmas special, "The Santa Experience", Angelica [[Invoked Trope|puts]] [[Half-Identical Twins|Phil and Lil]] in a
* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]:'' Zoidberg gave combs to Amy, who sold her hair to buy combs for Hermes, who sold his hair to buy combs for Zoidberg. Zoidberg thanks him, saying this will go great with his new
** [[Fridge Logic|Zoidberg is usually impoverished. How did he buy a comb and 2 hair pieces while Amy, daughter of billionaries, and Hermes, an accountant, had to sell their hair to afford combs?]]
*** [[Rule of Funny]]
* One of the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts saw the object of Pepe Le Pew's affections finally realize that Pepe was the only male giving her attention at all. So, in an attempt to make the relationship work, she hung around a limburger factory to gain a bad smell. Meanwhile, Pepe finally realized that it was his stench that had put the cat off and hung around a perfume factory to gain a good smell. The end of the short sees a nice turnaround to the [[Mad Love]] scenario: the cat chasing the skunk.
* Happened in ''[[
* Played with in the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' [[Christmas Special]]. Jeremy gives Candace a pair of earrings that she wanted (and was going to have her good necklace made into a pair like them), but he sold his guitar (which he was going to trade in for a silver one) to pay for them. Candace, meanwhile, buys the silver guitar by selling her good necklace, so instead of them both losing something they valued for a useless gift they both ended up with the same things they would have if neither bought any presents at all.
* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' had a great parody of this story- the wife naturally sells her hair to buy a chain for her husband's pocket watch. When we see the husband trying to buy his wife some combs, the shopkeeper suggests he sell his watch to afford them... only for the husband to point out that his watch is an antique in perfect working condition and is worth way, way more then a pair of combs, no matter how fancy. "What are they, solid gold?"
* One of the stories told in ''Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas'' sees Minnie Mouse selling her watch to buy Mickey a case for his harmonica, while Mickey has pawned his harmonica to get her a chain for her watch. As in the original short story, no setting-right takes place come Christmas morning.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Christmas Tropes]]
[[Category:"Gift
[[Category:
[[Category:Shout-Outs Index]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gift of the Magi Plot}}
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