Crack Defeat: Difference between revisions

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** Vocal Adrenaline's performance was (allowing for differences in taste) quite good, however, it WAS clear that the intent of the episode was that the New Directions should have ''at least'' taken second place.

* This kicks off the plot of a ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'' story arc. Shotaro's [[Joshikousei]] informants Queen and Elizabeth enter an ''[[American Idol]]''-style singing contest, and do well in their first two weeks.<ref>Bearing in mind that the girls are played by members of [[AKB48]]</ref> In the third week, they come up against a guy [[Brown Note|whose singing is so terrible it knocks birds out of the sky and causes earthquakes]], but the judges absolutely adore him. Naturally the girls are suspicious, so they hire Shotaro to investigate. {{spoiler|No points for guessing that a Dopant is involved, but not in the way it might seem.}}

* The British TV series ''[[Robot Wars]]'' has had several crap robots beat the stronger ones over the years, but possibly the most infamous example is when Hypnodisc fought and '''''lost''''' to German entry, Nasty Warrior in a one off UK vs Germany fight. The only reason Hypnodisc lost the fight is because it beat up the wooden Nasty Warrior so much that the wooden splinters found their way into the body of Hypnodisc, jammed its internal mechanics, and caused the then two time Grand Finalist to cease all movement entirely.

* The British TV series ''[[Robot Wars]]'' has had several crap robots beat the stronger ones over the years, but possibly the most infamous example is when Hypnodisc fought and '''''lost''''' to German entry, Nasty Warrior in a one off UK vs Germany fight. The only reason Hypnodisc lost the fight is because it beat up the wooden Nasty Warrior so much that the wooden splinters found their way into the body of Hypnodisc, jammed its internal mechanics, and caused the then two-time Grand Finalist to cease all movement entirely.

** In the University Challenge special in ''Extreme II,'' Behemoth was the best robot in its three way bout with CV and Infernal Contraption. It initially dominated the fight, until CV landed an axe blow on top of Behemoth... which is where its safety link just so happened to be. The result is that the axe cut through the wiring of said device, and Behemoth was dead in the water.

**Chaos 2's shockingly early exit in the Second World Championship; as it was tossing Mastiff around the arena (while Manta and Ansgar have their own dual elsewhere), driver George Francis tried to pull off a spectacular flip that could've sent Mastiff down the pit; instead, Chaos 2 flipped Mastiff ''away from the pit'', surged forward, and fell in itself! Justified in the fact that this was a driving error on George's part.

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=== Real Life ===

* In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Roy Jones Jr. ~~pummeled~~ Park Si Hun in the final, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. But after the bout, the judges gave Park a 3-2 win, and an ill-deserved gold medal. Jones would later go on to become a famous pro boxer.

* In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Roy Jones Jr. pummelled Park Si Hun in the final, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. But after the bout, the judges gave Park a 3-2 win, and an ill-deserved gold medal. Jones would later go on to become a famous pro boxer.

** That was more [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]. 4 years earlier, South Korean officials had gone to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in order to observe the Americans. After a number of controversial decisions went the Americans' way (Of the 38 boxing matches involving Americans that went the full three rounds, 37 ended up being judged as American victories). ~~One~~ Korean Olympic official is quoted as saying "We came here to learn a lot about the Olympic Games, because we are the hosts in 1988, and we've decided there's nothing to learn." Except how to get revenge.

** That was more [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]. Four years earlier, South Korean officials had gone to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in order to observe the Americans. After a number of controversial decisions went the Americans' way (of the 38 boxing matches involving Americans that went the full three rounds, 37 ended up being judged as American victories), one Korean Olympic official was quoted as saying "We came here to learn a lot about the Olympic Games, because we are the hosts in 1988, and we've decided there's nothing to learn." Except how to get revenge.

** It's pretty much an unwritten rule of the Olympics that the host country is not allowed to be embarrassed. Thus all but the most blatant cheating on their behalf (and sometimes even that) will be ignored, and judges will favor them whenever possible.

* Sometimes, if someone has a really great idea for a TV show/video game/cartoon/line of pencil moisteners, but doesn't have the creative freedom to just make whatever random-ass idea pops into their head, they'll make the accompanying pitches as terrible as they possibly can on purpose, in the hopes that the decision-makers will hate it and choose the one the creator likes. But, as the [[Executive Meddling]] page demonstrates, executives are notorious for having terrible taste, so sometimes the gamble doesn't pay off and they're stuck working on a really shitty show which they deliberately designed to be so.

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=== Literature ===

* Obligatory ''[[Discworld]]'' example: At the end of ''[[~~Discworld/Maskerade|~~Maskerade]]'', Agnes's annoying and tone-deaf roommate Christine is the one who looks forward to a brilliant future as a diva while Agnes, who actually did all the singing every time Christine appeared onstage, is shunted off to one side. The stage manager {{spoiler|Walter Plinge}} tells her that yes, she was very good, better than Christine will ever be even after years of training - but Christine is naturally a star, which in the opera world is more important than being talented.

* Obligatory ''[[Discworld]]'' example: At the end of ''[[Maskerade]]'', Agnes's annoying and tone-deaf roommate Christine is the one who looks forward to a brilliant future as a diva while Agnes, who actually did all the singing every time Christine appeared onstage, is shunted off to one side. The stage manager {{spoiler|Walter Plinge}} tells her that yes, she was very good, better than Christine will ever be even after years of training - but Christine is naturally a star, which in the opera world is more important than being talented.

* Justified in [[Piers Anthony]]'s [[Apprentice Adept]] novels, where Stile and Clef compete in a contest to see who's the master musician. Clef's first piece is technically perfect, but doesn't attempt to appeal to the audience at hand. Stile's piece does so, allowing Clef to learn to suit his music to his audience. Although the audience clearly finds Clef's second performance to be the best of the lot, the judges aware the victory to Stile, because Clef's skills benefited more from hearing Stile's piece than vice versa. So, Stile is the master and ~~Clef—however~~ refined his ~~technique—is~~ the apprentice under the circumstances.

* Justified in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' novels, where Stile and Clef compete in a contest to see who's the master musician. Clef's first piece is technically perfect, but doesn't attempt to appeal to the audience at hand. Stile's piece does so, allowing Clef to learn to suit his music to his audience. Although the audience clearly finds Clef's second performance to be the best of the lot, the judges aware the victory to Stile, because Clef's skills benefited more from hearing Stile's piece than vice versa. So, Stile is the master and Clef — however refined his technique — is the apprentice under the circumstances.

** Also noteworthy in that both the audience response ''and'' the AI computer analysis had Clef as the winner. However, they only get to submit ''advisory'' opinions; the judges' vote is binding.

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=== Video Games ===

* In ''[[Breath of Fire]] 2'', Petape hits upon the idea of flushing out the impostor pretending to be her brother Tapeta by holding a cooking contest. For all his [[Cloudcuckoolander]] tendencies, Tapeta is a superb chef, and Petape suspects rightly that he will easily beat the impostor, especially with the high-quality ingredients the party obtains from [[Let's Meet the Meat|the powerful insect monsters]] lurking in the castle's basement. While the head chef gives high marks to the impostor's dishes, he's positively ''ecstatic'' about Tapeta's - but each time, he finds some nit-picky reason to deduct points. This comes to a head when the chef comes to a dessert made using only [[Foreign Queasine|the most rare and exquisite fly in existence]] and Petape calls him out. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the ~~impostor~~ has rigged the vote.

* In ''[[Breath of Fire]] 2'', Petape hits upon the idea of flushing out the impostor pretending to be her brother Tapeta by holding a cooking contest. For all his [[Cloudcuckoolander]] tendencies, Tapeta is a superb chef, and Petape suspects rightly that he will easily beat the impostor, especially with the high-quality ingredients the party obtains from [[Let's Meet the Meat|the powerful insect monsters]] lurking in the castle's basement. While the head chef gives high marks to the impostor's dishes, he's positively ''ecstatic'' about Tapeta's - but each time, he finds some nit-picky reason to deduct points. This comes to a head when the chef comes to a dessert made using only [[Foreign Queasine|the most rare and exquisite fly in existence]] and Petape calls him out. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the imposter has rigged the vote.

=== Web Comics ===

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* ''[[Rocket Power]]'' included a sand castle contest. The various entrants spent lots of time and effort on elaborate sand sculptures, but first place went to a little girl who made a tiny sand tower with a bucket. Reason? It was a sand ''castle'' contest, and hers was the only one that could be called a "castle".

* In an episode of ''[[Pepper Ann]]'', the eponymous character completely wins over the judges of a beauty pageant with her heartfelt speech about being herself... but another girl wins because the entire pageant was rigged to give her the prize—she's the daughter of the president of the company that organized it.

* In ''Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks'', the Rainbooms advance to the final round of the Battle of the Bands despite ''completely tanking'' their semi-finals performance, being unfairly advanced over the objectively superior performance done by Trixie and the Illusions. Justified in that this is part of the villains' Xanatos ~~Gambit—the~~ Dazzlings gain power from negative emotions and discord, and set up the Battle of the Bands in the first place to power-up off of the strife and competitiveness it would produce among the school. By having the contest be unfairly rigged in such a blatant manner, they guaranteed the entire audience would be ragingly pissed off and powering them up to the maximum, while at the same time driving the mind-controlled Trixie far enough over the edge that she'd sabotage the Rainbooms and take them out of the final round entirely. (Of course our heroines escaped for the final act and won, but the Dazzlings made a ''very'' respectable effort.)

* In ''[[Equestria Girls]]: Rainbow Rocks'', the Rainbooms advance to the final round of the Battle of the Bands despite ''completely tanking'' their semi-finals performance, being unfairly advanced over the objectively superior performance done by Trixie and the Illusions. Justified in that this is part of the villains' [[Xanatos Gambit]] — the Dazzlings gain power from negative emotions and discord, and set up the Battle of the Bands in the first place to power-up off of the strife and competitiveness it would produce among the school. By having the contest be unfairly rigged in such a blatant manner, they guaranteed the entire audience would be ragingly pissed off and powering them up to the maximum, while at the same time driving the mind-controlled Trixie far enough over the edge that she'd sabotage the Rainbooms and take them out of the final round entirely. (Of course our heroines escaped for the final act and won, but the Dazzlings made a ''very'' respectable effort.)

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