Bait and Switch: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A type of joke where a character leads the audience or other characters into thinking he or she is going to say or do something, but says or does something unexpected.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The first episode of the ''[[School-Live!]]'' anime adaptation is told from Yuki's point of view, and makes the story look like a typical cute-girls-doing-cute-things series... until the last few minutes, when we discover Yuki has suffered a break from reality and we learn about the [[Zombie Apocalypse]].

* Issue 154 of ''[[Conan the Barbarian (comics)|Conan the Barbarian]]'' had a treatsie of ''Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars'' by Jim Owsley (the assistant editor of the comic)... who soon denounces the book and instead reviews ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws III]]''. [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CkZaytejQXM/Td7HxIhD3MI/AAAAAAAAAKg/G9DFi664ghk/s1600/Conan%2Bpage%2B1.jpg Read it here.]

 

* One of the few notable things about the [[Eddie Murphy]] movie ''[[Metro]]'' is the bait and switch the writers pull on the usual "character opens mirror cabinet, and someone pops up in the reflection when s/he closes it" trope (and they do it twice). [http://www.contactmusic.com/new/film.nsf/reviews/metro_1 Details.]

* In the British gangster film ''Layer Cake'', there's a variation on the [[Mirror Scare]] where the main character, in the middle of an angst-riddled drug- and whisky-fuelled freak out, opens the mirrored bathroom cabinet, music builds and then as he closes it the action suddenly cuts to the next morning, with the character neatly dressed and his problems resolved. It's a very powerful cut, subverting expectations at a moment of high drama.

* Quite cruelly used in ''[[The Artist]]''. Near the end of the film, {{spoiler|George's depression has reached its peak and he prepares to shoot himself. Realizing his intentions, Peppy races after him in her car, despite not knowing how to drive. The scene cuts back and forth between George and Peppy, ultimately ending on George with the gun in his mouth as he tenses up to pull the trigger, and the film cuts to a title card reading "BANG!" Immediately after that, we see Peppy's car crashed into a lamppost and George looking up to see what made that racket.}}

 

* Common in [[Ephraim Kishon]]'s stories. For example, if he describes the Sabras. (An Israeli cactus fruit, or an Israeli born in the country.) "On the outer side, very prickly, but on the inside, completely inedible."

* Christopher Paolini's ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]''. Early on, there are flashes of a dream sequence that show an elven ship, two figures taller than six more that are holding hands, and two dragons flying into the sky. Early speculation figured it'd be Eragon and Arya sailing away, as Eragon was foretold to leave Alagaesia by Angela. However, at the end of Inheritance, {{spoiler|Eragon leaves, but Arya doesn't. The romance everyone thought was going to happen ends up not happening and more than a few readers were completely flabbergasted by this twist.}}

 

* One of the more brilliant examples is from the sketch comedy ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'', in which two characters start the "[[Who's on First?|who's on first]]" skit, but before long one of them realises what's going on and explains at length what the names of the players are and what bases they're playing.

{{quote|'''Chalmers:''' Well, Seymour, it seems we've put together a baseball team, and I was wondering; who's on first?

'''Skinner:''' Yes, not the pronoun, but rather a player with the unlikely name of 'Who', is on first!

'''Chalmers:''' Well, that's just great, Seymour. We've been out here six seconds and you've already [[Don't Explain the Joke|managed to blow the routine]]! }}

* There's a great example in the ''[[Father Ted]]'' Christmas Special: ''A Christmassy Ted''. Father Ted states he wants a nice normal Christmas with no excitement or unexpected interruptions whatsoever. There's an awkward lengthy pause, and then the doorbell rings. An abandoned baby has been left on the doorstep, causing Ted to start. Then a woman appears out of the darkness, picks up the baby and asks, "Is this Mrs. O'Reilly's house?" and Ted directs her next door. On returning indoors he says to Dougal, "Can you imagine how funny it would have been if it had been an abandoned baby? We'd have had real laughs getting into all sorts of scrapes." Dougal replies: "Well, no Ted, it wouldn't have been that funny."

* One of the many [[Catch Phrase]]s on ''[[Get Smart]]'' was the "Would you believe [improbable statement]?" routine, which almost invariably ended with Max being [[Verbal Backspace|beaten down]] to something far more plausible than his opening line. At one point, he claims that "One of our agents was lost in the Pentagon for five days, would you believe it? Five days!" After the obligatory I-find-that-very-hard-to-believe... he begins attempting to remember on which day he entered the Pentagon. Of course, Max is a [[Genius Ditz]] of the first order, so...

** And then the movie ''Get Smart Again'' pulled a Bait and Switch on that very gag: At the end, Max tells 99 "I love you more than the whole world. Would you believe it?" To which wife 99 replies "I believe it!"

* On ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'' the chairman's scripted jokes often include things along the lines of:

{{quote|"This is the news that Anne Robinson has had her face injected with Botox. Deadly poisonous and liable to induce vomiting, Anne Robinson presents ''[[The Weakest Link]]''."}}

 

 

* From ''[[The Goon Show]]'' (one of many examples):

{{quote|'''Grytpype-Thynne''': I thought I saw a Greek urn buried in the sand.

{{quote|"King Juan Carlos of Spain has caused outrage among animal rights campaigners and recession-hit Spaniards by paying £27,000 to hunt elephants in Botswana. Facing rapid extinction and plagued by inbreeding, the Spanish royal family have ruled for centuries."}}

 

* One ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' mission starts out with a NPC being dragged off for termination, strongly suggesting to the players that it's going to be important somehow. It isn't - it's just there to mess with their heads when they fail to find anything else out about it.

 

 

 

* One puzzle in ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]: The Devil's Playhouse'' requires the player to set up what appears in the [[Flash Forward]]s to be a [[Banana Peel]] gag on one of Skun Ka'pe's henchmen. Instead, you lure him over to the banana so that Max can knock him out with a pair of trash can lids.

 

* In one episode of ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', {{spoiler|Tex}} has been continually [[Groin Attack|hitting Grif in the nuts]] throughout the episode. Then Simmons finally manages to shoot a heat-seeking rocket launcher at the tormentor. After a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|really cool]] set of acrobatics with a set of portals, {{spoiler|Tex}} (with the rocket still in hot pursuit) [[Megaton Punch|punches her way]] through Sarge, Tucker, and Simmons, and slides under Grif. Grif cringes, seeing the rocket coming right for him... and it flies harmlessly under his legs. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Which instead]] [[Stuff Blowing Up|blows up the pile of rockets right behind him.]]

* ''[[Asdfmovie]]'':

** "Damnit Jenkins, a giraffe will never be president!" "Yeah, you're... probably right."

** "Die, potato!" "I like trains."

 

* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' is known for this, often either subverting a punchline or using a completely different and wholly unexpected one. Enough so that sometimes it makes a gag out of doubling back on itself. [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=561 Several times, in one instance.]

* ''[[xkcd]]'' has "[http://xkcd.com/850_large/ The World According to a Group of Americans ... who turned out to be unexpectedly good at geography, derailing our attempt to illustrate their country's attitude towards the rest of the world]".

* Harrison's [http://nedroid.com/2011/04/secret-origins/ Origin Story] in ''[[Nedroid]]''. In fact, all of the origin stories are great for the baits and the switches.

* ''[[Cyanide & Happiness]]'' loves these. For example, [http://explosm.net/comics/2731/ that scene] from ''[[The Godfather]]'' so easily turned more disturbing.

* ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'' [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2010/01/11/0128-the-most-precious-thing/ here] with Sandra. And then [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2011/09/05/0305-cuddling/ with Woo].

* ''[[Wondermark]]'' has a sneaky street solicitor in [http://wondermark.com/533/ #533; In which Public Opinion is leveraged].

 

** In another episode, Homer invites most of Springfield's men to get front seats for the Superbowl. But the cards turn out to be faked, and they have to look for another way in. Then they see a waiting wardrobe-on-wheels bearing dozens of marching band uniforms waiting at the rear entrance. They use... the wardrobe-on-wheels to topple two policemen standing next to entrance, and rush past them into the arena's interior. [[Epic Fail|It gets them arrested almost immediately]].

** Of course, in a different episode with a similar scene, the lit barbecue ignites into a mushroom cloud that can be [[Distant Reaction Shot|seen from across the city]].

(wire cuts '''half of his arm off''')

'''Kirk:''' [[Major Injury Underreaction|Ow.]] }}

** Another example is the episode "Mecha-Streisand". Instead of being trampled by [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|the giant metal Barbra Streisand]], Kenny gets strangled playing tether-ball.

* ''[[Futurama]]'':

** In the same episode, Bender has been rigged to a bomb which is set to go off on his most frequently used word. As it goes through the list, it starts to get to his catchphrase, "Number 5:Bite... Number 4: My... Number 3: Shiny... Number 2: Daffodil..."

** In "Bender's Game", when the characters enter a cave called the Cave of Hopelessness:

** One unrelated to the show's running gags occurs in "A Real Boy". Candace gets Stacy to hypnotize her into not wanting to bust the boys anymore, with the result that the phrase "Holy guacamole!" will make Candace give up her urges to bust her brothers, and "Leaping lizards!" will make her go back to normal. When Candace heads off on her date with Jeremy, the two of them spot a ''literal'' leaping lizard, and Jeremy rattles off several treacherously-close synonyms for the code phrase, which actually ends up being said by a passing kid.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', just before Jimmy is about to perform a particularly irresponsible stunt, Beezy tells them to be careful not to break his dad's [[Priceless Ming Vase]]. Jimmy performs the stunt...and misses the vase entirely. Beezy dances around a celebrates... and spikes the vase.

{{quote|'''Circe''': I want something from you that's ''very'' precious. Something you've worked ''very'' hard to conceal. Something when gone, you can never reclaim. Something... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}57zFkL9GSZA soul-shattering.]}}

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' has this in a [[Cutaway Gag]] where a Japanese man in Japan gets a parking ticket and then gets splashed by a car with mud, wondering [[Tempting Fate|how his day could get any worse]]. The man looks up and sees something falling on him from the sky and he utters "[[Oh Crap|Oh...my...God!]]" The gag is dated on the same year [[World War Two|that the United States bombed Japan]] but instead of a bomb falling on the man, it's just a rabid baboon.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Trope Tropes]]