Easy Come, Easy Go: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''"...[[Gratuitous Panning|Little high, little low]]''
''Any way the wind blows''
''Doesn't really matter to me, to me..."''|'''[[Queen]]''', ''Bohemian Rhapsody''}}
Line 8:
If the character gets a financial windfall, then it'll disappear or turn out to be [[Funny Money]]. If they get the supermodel's phone number, then they'll lose it. If they gain a seat of power, then they'll be forced to give it up.
As these plots repeatedly happen to characters over a long period of time, it creates a world in which some people seem to experience insane amounts of good fortune, only to squander it every single time.
In a variation of this trope, a handicapped character is temporarily cured, but is re-handicapped soon after. Usually used for comedy.
Line 40:
* ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' lives his life like this. He may find great riches in one book, but he'll spend or lose them quickly and be broke again by the time the plot calls for the next tomb to be robbed. (Unlike the RPG heroes who followed in his footsteps, he didn't spend his loot on better gear that he could use to loot bigger tombs, ad nauseam.)
** This is not uncommon with Robert E. Howard's barbarian heroes. Consider Bran Mak Morn in "Worms of the Earth":
{{quote|
* [[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser]] also cheerfully piss away fortunes.
== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'', Klinger is deafened when landmines start exploding due to cold contracting the soil they are buried in. Klinger's hearing quickly recovers, but his elation is instantly deflated when he is told that he would have been invalided out of the Army for being deaf. True to form, Klinger then attempts to fake it, but Col. Potter doesn't buy it.
* Even when they succeed in their various criminal activities, the [[Trailer Park Boys]] usually end up blowing the money in a matter of days or weeks, forcing them to come up with next season's get-rich-quick scheme.
* ''[[Micro Men]]'': Chris Curry and Clive Sinclair build huge personal fortunes on the back of the personal computer boom of the early eighties, only for it to all be wiped out again when the market comes crashing down in '84
* ''[[
* Even the ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' "upper" ending of the 1996 Christmas special, {{spoiler|where they finally become millionaires because of a lucky find, and end the episode in a mansion}} was overturned when the next special episode showed them back in the flat in Peckham.
* Played with in ''[[Desperate Housewives]]''. In between season four and five Bree went from being an unemployed housewife to a nationally renowned celebrity chef and cook book author, and owned her own well off catering company. Though by the end of season six she loses the company, but is not too bothered by it, as she says she can simply build a ''new'' empire all over again.
Line 57:
* In ''[[Radiata Stories]]'', Jack meets an old man {{spoiler|who turns out to be the fire dragon}} that pays him one million dagols to find a member of the castle hierarchy. But, by the time the old man is gone, Jack discovers it's fake money. He even falls for the same trick again later in the game!
* In ''[[Suikoden]]'':
{{quote|
'''Kanaan''': Well, thank you very much.
''Found 10,000 bits!''
'''Kanaan''': This is dangerous, so I'll hold on to it.
''10,000 bits stolen!'' }}
* ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' acquire massively inflating amounts of money that they casually drop on Bosco for 'inventions' that experience has already shown will be a lame household item. A billion dollars for a snot rag? Sure, here you go!
Line 66:
== Webcomics ==
* As part of the [[Running Gag]] about Bob's roof repeatedly getting destroyed in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Bob will frequently wind up, through some [[Deus Ex Machina]], with a sum of money that is just enough to cover the expense of repairing the roof and whatever other collateral damage happened during the story.
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Aylee and Torg's web design business is shut down after legal charges are filed against their [[Parent Company]], Hereti Corp. [[Continuity Nod|Six years later]], however, the charges are dropped, their accounts unfrozen, and suddenly Torg and Aylee are millionaires.
* In ''[[Ozy and Millie]]'', Timulty is given a lot of money just for mentioning that he knows something about the internet (the comic was parodying the dot com bubble before it burst). He immediately blows all of it on candy.
Line 73:
== Western Animation ==
* [[Ren and Stimpy|Stimpy]] once won 47 million dollars and instant celehbritydom as part of a television contest. When Stimpy finds that his newfound fame and fortune are [[Celebrity Is Overrated|meaningless]] [[The Power of Friendship|without his best friend Ren]] he "gives away" all his money and returns home. Ren is less than joyous about this.
* In an early episode of ''[[Futurama]]'', Fry discovers his savings account has ballooned to <s>millions</s> billions of dollars through 1000 years of compound interest, but loses them when Mom's sons trick him into revealing his PIN number. Like most characters who go through
** [[Running Gag|His pin number, by the way, is 1077 - the price of a large pizza and soda at the pizza place he used to work at.]]
** The amount of money in Fry's account after a thousand years of compound interest is accurate. They've [[Shown Their Work]].
Line 79:
* In an episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', Mr. Krabs acquires a novelty hat worth a million dollars, but when he tries to sell it he discovers it has become worthless.
** Easy comes? He had to fight ''an entire'' army of undeads in order to recover it, even if he fooled spongebob to buy it from him in the first place, you can't avoid feeling a little bad for the poor guy.
** An earlier episode has Spongebob and Patrick ending up in possession of a magic pencil, with the latter promptly asking to have a magic mustache drawn on him, so that his dreams could come true ([[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|no, we don't know what they are]]). When said mustache flies away, Patrick says the trope name word-for-word.
* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', Joe Swanson falls down a hill and temporarily regains the use of his legs. He loses them again a second later when his son plows into him.
** Not to mention the episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walkin' on Air." He gets donor legs, {{spoiler|only for the episode to end in an inversion of [[We Want Our Jerk Back]], since before he was a nice and mostly relatable guy before he became a massive prick}}.
** An odd implementation of the trope in the episode "Peter Peter Caviar Eater." One of Lois' forebears dies and leaves her a luxurious home. Peter, attempting to fit in with upper-class society, bids $100 million for a vase at an
*** Although Lois never seems to mind the fact that she grew up incredibly rich only to marry someone with little money and live as middle class.
* May be an inversion: In ''[[American Dad]]'' Stan Smith is put in a wheelchair by a bullet only to be later be brought out of it - by a bullet.
Line 96:
* ''[[The Flintstones]]'' - a variant example is used where Fred and Barney earn a cash reward for capturing some crooks. Instead of losing the money, Wilma announces that the money will be saved for Pebbles' and Bam-Bam's post-secondary education which means that the money would not be mentioned again, while serving to explain how the kids get into college without the expense being a major issue.
* ''[[Tale Spin]]'' used this trope often.
** "The Road to Macadamia": When Baloo and Louie save the desert kingdom of Macadamia from an [[Evil Chancellor]], they expect a huge cash reward. Instead, the king pays them only the paltry sum he owed them at the beginning of the episode.
** "Your Baloo's in the Mail": Rebecca wins a lottery, then entrusts Baloo to turn in the winning [[Lottery Ticket]] before the deadline. To make a long story short, he doesn't.
** "Pizza Pie in the Sky": When Baloo opens a pizza-delivery service, the money he earns is ''just'' enough to pay for all the health code violations he racks up while running the operation.
Line 104:
** Not to mention the number of times they've turned Professor Nimnul's inventions against him, often leading to his arrest.
* An episode of ''[[Goof Troop]]'' takes the "worthless currency" variant up a notch. Pete acquires a chest full of valuable-looking coins, only to be informed that they are Pestoozas, which happen to be worth '''less than nothing'''.
* Happens on one episode of ''[[Earthworm Jim (animation)|Earthworm Jim]]''. Jim has lost his super suit, and tries to gain super powers in order to fight evil, using ideas from comic books. One of his attempts involves flying into a cosmic storm, but according to Peter Puppy that's actually how the hero met his untimely end. Luckily, Jim and Peter not only survive, but become Wonder Worm and the Dog of Destiny.
{{quote|
'''Peter:''' Oh well. Easy come, easy go. At least we didn't get hurt.
''They get struck by lightning'' }}
* Used often enough in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' that it seems like a stock plot point. There's Tucker's ghost powers in ''What You Want'', Danny getting Paulina as a girlfriends in ''Lucky In Love'', the Fentons getting rich in ''Livin' Large'', etc. This isn't helped by the fact that the "good luck" is usually part of some nefarious plot, either.
| |||