Con Crew: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

 

Sometimes, [[The Con]] can be carried out by a single person - the [[Con Man]] - especially if it's a simple confidence scheme. Other times, there's just too much work for one person to do, or the particulars of the con are such that a group of people are needed to have any chance to pull it off.

* In the opening to ''[[Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels]]'', the [[Anti-Hero]]es are selling stolen goods in the street. One of them, playing the shill, triggers the audience's enthusiasm by saying "Did you say ten pounds? That's a bargain; I'll take one."

* In [[The Marx Brothers]]' first film ''[[The Coconuts]]'', Groucho employs Chico as an shill to bid up the prices of the plots of land he has for sale. Chico does this ''too'' well and ends up winning each auction.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "The Long Con," Cassidy shills for Sawyer. In "Left Behind," Kate plays the shill to help Cassidy avoid arrest.

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' did a series of sketches (later repackaged as a [[Super Bowl Special|Superbowl ad]]) starring "[[MacGruber]]," a crappy [[MacGyver]] knockoff who was too busy singing the praises of his corporate sponsor Pepsi to defuse the assorted time bombs he was presented with.

** When Albert took the role, demonstrating an anti-back pain medicine, his cover was catastrophically blown when his "sudden recovery" became a full tap-dance routine. A later case involving Albert however - with the Peckham Spring - was successful enough to allow the scam to eventually fool literally the entire country.

* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' in which Neelix and Tom are trying to prove they're still "street", they decide to pull the cup-and-pea trick on the Doctor. To get him interested, they let him see Tom successfully finding the pea.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In the online detective game ''[[Sleuth (online video game)|Sleuth]]'', your character's license as a [[Private Detective]] will be revoked if you make three wrongful accusations. However, you can go to a Fixer - the shady character who hangs out in the back of the downtown bar - and pay them to clear your record to avoid this. The more often this happens though, the more expensive it gets. The flash version of the game even specifically calls this character The Fixer.

* John plays the Shill (however unwillingly) early on in ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' at one point for [[Snake Oil Salesman|Dickens]], in a bid to [[Medicine Show|sell his 'medicinal' tonic]]. He gives incredibly neutral responses to any questions that Dickens asks him, and even openly spits out the foul-tasting tonic when made to drink it in front of the crowd. Fortunately for Dickens, John is [[Badass]] enough to display above-average ability in marksmanship and combat, which was enough to convince the crowd to buy the stories. It does, however, come back to bite them later when Dickens attempts to repeat this in another community, and gets called out for his fraudulence.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** [[BBC]]3's ''Blindboy Undestroys the World'' auditioned Instagram influencers to promote [https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-50837267 Cyanora], a fictional diet drink which claimed to have included the ingredient hydrogen cyanide.

** [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]'s ''Marketplace'' managed to buy a website, a mobile burner phone and a stack of glowing online reviews for [https://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/faking-it-cheezed-offs-great-reviews Cheezed Off], a mobile food truck which purported to sell grilled cheese sandwiches. "Cheezed Off has mastered the art of creating the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. I love comfort food and could not pass up an opportunity to try this nostalgic meal from a food truck while in downtown Toronto. I ordered the classic sandwich and my boyfriend ordered the Hellzaoppin sandwich. Both of these were made quickly and tasted absolutely delicious. This food truck knows their way around a grilled cheese." Only one problem... the truck doesn't exist, except as a [[Photoshop Filter of Evil|photoshop]] invention of a few bored CBC staffers who faked multiple photos of it in front of various [[Toronto]] landmarks.

 

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