Escalating War: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

In a sitcom, one character does something slightly bothersome to another. The other retaliates, but goes the first character one better; which the first character tries to top; and so on for the remainder of the episode. At some points it will enlarge with scary speed, in which [[Disproportionate Retribution]] is in effect.

 

Specific variant: [[Truth-Telling Session]]. Compare to [[Zany Scheme Chicken]]. [[Cycle of Revenge]] is the noncomedic and often bloody version of this trope. Not to be confused with [[Lensman Arms Race]].

{{examples}}

* The box war episode of ''[[Rozen Maiden]]''.

* In ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'', new tenant Nikaido says insulting things about the other tenants, leading to a prank war between him and Yotsuya.

* In ''[[Patlabor]]'', The Seven Days of Fire, a civil war between the labor mechanics at Special Vehicles section 2.

 

* In the comic book and various adaptations thereof, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm of The [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]] are involved in an ongoing escalating prank war with each other.

* Ditto with the Human Torch and Spider-Man. Johnny usually ends up the worse of the pair in these confrontations, thanks to Pete's [[Spider Sense]].

* Occasionally happens in Donald Duck comics, between Donald and his neighbour.

 

* [[Donald Duck]] and [[Daffy Duck]]'s (attempted) duet in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''.

* A common occurrence in ''[[Laurel and Hardy]]'' films. "Big Business", for example, is an Escalating War between Stan and Ollie on the one hand, and James Finlayson on the other. There are also variants in which more and more people get dragged in as the conflict escalates, such as the rice fight at the end of "The Hoose-Gow".

* This is the main plotline of the short film ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVFHNgNSH0s Nemesis]''. The film's protagonist actually specifically requested someone to be [[The Rival|his rival]].

 

* In Robert Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' book series, an escalating prank war that began when Garkin (Skeeve's first master) left Aahz with the check at a restaurant resulted in Aahz losing his powers when Garkin used joke powder on him and was killed before he was able to provide an antidote.

* Not really done ''to each other'', but in ''[[More Information Than You Require]], the cities of Richmond, VA and Milwaukee, WI are consistently one-upping each other for the title of "Strange Rain Capital of the United States". [[Widget Series|It's that kind of book.]]

* The first half of [[Roald Dahl]]'s ''[[The Twits]]'' revolves around Mr. and Mrs. Twit doing this.

 

* The Vegas episode of ''[[Friends]]'', where Ross and Rachel try to humiliate one another.

** Or the episode in which Rachel tries to get revenge on Chandler for accidentally seeing her naked after having stepped out of the shower...and accidentally walks in the wrong target. Come to think of it, ''[[Friends]]'' does this ''a lot''.

** While it was only one scene, the incident where a woman hit Lois' car when opening her own car door went from Lois slamming her own door into the woman's car and apologizing (to show the woman how to react when caught doing something like that) to the two women destroying both cars in an impromptu demolition derby may serve as a sort of miniature version.

* The episode of ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'' where Jack, Finch and Eliot make bets about one another is a rare example of a three-way war.

* ''[[Cheers]]'' had an ongoing prank war with Gary's Olde Towne Tavern that spanned six seasons.

** Gary even went so far as to {{spoiler|hire the whole city of Boston including everyone at Cheers to convince Sam that he had killed Gary}}.

* Morgan and Reid have a prank war in the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "Painless". Can be seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ZGdvHNhWc here]. Remember children, [[Beware the Nice Ones]].

 

* [[Defied]] in ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'', eventually. When going out for a three-day holiday, Beetle slaps Sarge on the back just before leaving. He runs after him and whacks him with a chair. After a trashcan thrown from a roof and ''dynamite'', when Beetle is pointing at Sarge with an enormous artillery piece of some sort, Sarge tells him to wait and points out that while what they're doing is fun and all, Beetle should perhaps consider what kind of shape he wants to be in for his holiday.

 

* One of ''[[Worms]] 2'''s introductory movies is an escalating war between two worms showing off ever deadlier weapons, starting with standard weaponry, then moving into missile tanks with more and more missiles on each one. Finally the second worm brings out a vehicle which casts a giant shadow and the first one screams. It turns out to be a tank-mounted hammer the size of the Eiffel Tower. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFfxld5sk0U Smoosh!]

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'''s [[Cold Sniper|Sniper]] and [[Magnificent Bastard|Spy]] were engaged in this (their updates were released at the same time, so most of the new gear is designed for fighting each other.) Brief synopsis: The Spy is always backstabbing the Sniper, so the Sniper taped a car battery to a tribal shield and electrocuted the Spy. Then, it turns out the Spy had a [[Shoe Phone|watch]] that caused him to cloak and feign death when he took damage. Then the Sniper's new weapon turned out to be... [[Refuge in Audacity|a jar of his own piss that shorts out cloaking devices.]]

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' Joker and EDI, an artificial intelligence, end up in one of these. First Joker mutes her until his thumb breaks, so she makes his chair spin, so he puts grease on her camera lenses, and so forth.

 

* The ''[[Insecticomics]]'' routinely has one of these between the Insecticons and Vector Prime.

* Rose Lalonde in [[Homestuck]] is engaged in an escalating war of passive aggression with her Mother (or so she thinks, anyway).

* Tagger in ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'' tried to [[Break the Haughty|loosen up a new student]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/user/BaratsAndBereta Barats and Bereta] use this trope quite a bit in their videos:

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOTBWlt0-Y0#movie_player Windward Reports: Cubicle War 2006] brings this trope to the office.

** The legendary [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fad6eZTDikA Douche Off]

** They also have a video showing escalating [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS46WpexBJ0 April Fools pranks over the years]

 

* Some [[Tom and Jerry]] cartoons have this dynamic: one character will do something minor (sometimes even inadvertently) to irritate the other at the beginning, and then it's battle on.

* A common feature of [[Classic Disney Shorts|Donald Duck]] shorts, particularly those co-starring Chip 'n Dale.

'''Marge''' ''(drinks a glass of water and then sees the walls start to run)'': Ooooh. The walls are melting again. ''(giggles)'' }}

** An episode of [[Show Within a Show|Itchy & Scratchy]] features this trope with each character pulling out bigger and bigger handguns at each other. In the end the guns are the size of the Earth.

* Artha and Moordyrd do this in the ''[[Dragon Booster]]'' episode "Pride Of The Hero." It starts with them getting into a fight at the racetrack, this soon escalates to Artha talking Moordyrd into riding Beau, then their little feud gets out of control when Moordyrd uses a bonemark on Beau. The episode ends with both Artha and Moordyrd realizing their mistakes or as Artha puts it, "Think about that, I will".

* [[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]] and [[Evil Twin|Negaduck]] do this almost accidentally in the episode "Disguise the Limit," when Darkwing is momentarily transformed into a duplicate of Negaduck (I know, it makes my head hurt too) and the two of them keep pulling larger and larger weapons on each other.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': The Peter/Chicken fights were over an expired coupon.

** In the ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' parody episode "Meet the Quagmires", we see that it may have started even earlier, when Peter bumped into the Chicken at the dance.

{{quote|'''Babs:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|I may have gone too far.]]}}

* Bobby and Luanne get in an escalating prank war in an episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', which eventually leads to Luanne convincing Bobby that he got her pregnant. Hank and his friends assist Luanne by arranging a fake [[Shotgun Wedding]] . . . then turn the prank back on Luanne by telling her the wedding was real.

* Dan's feud with the Lemonade Stand Gang in ''[[Dan Vs.|Dan Vs]].'', ''Dan Vs The Lemonade Stand Gang''. It starts with the Lemonade Stand Gang stealing Dan's parking space, strong-arming him and Chris into buying overpriced lemonade, and throwing a lemon with a threat written on it through Dan's window. Dan responds by making Chris dress up as a monster and break into the ringleader's house -- it goes horribly wrong of course. The Gang goes on to outright ''mug'' Chris and Dan for their wallets. Dan and Chris wreck their bicycles with an axe. The Gang wrecks Chris' ''car''. At this point Elise is prepared to ship the Gang to a Korean weapons factory where they would never be heard from again. Chris puts a stop to this insanity and they defeat the gang by showing their parents proof of their crimes.

 

* There was a news story about a [http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/pants.asp prank war] between two brothers-in-law who kept exchanging the same old ratty pair of pants between them for Christmas. The methods they used for "wrapping" the pants became more and more outrageous over the years—to the point where the pants were being embedded within hundreds of kilograms of welded-together copper piping one year and then placed in a car that was filled with cement the next. Alas, the pants were destroyed when a packaging scheme went awry.

* One more real-life example, though farcical: ''[[Firefly]]'' actors [[Nathan Fillion]] and Jewel Staite engaged in a "war of birds". Each came up with more and more creative ways to [[Flipping the Bird|flip the other off]]. Some people believe Jewel won the contest at Comic-Con 2005, when she got the entire audience at the ''[[Serenity]]'' panel to flip Nathan off.

** How about the Space Race?

** This is why the policy of [[wikipedia:Massive retaliation|massive retaliation]] was replaced by [[wikipedia:Flexible response|flexible response]]. By having options that avoided [http://www.stardestroyer.net/Strategy/Basic/Priorities.html total war], the [[United States]] could combat the [[Soviet Union]] without a nuclear war.

** Not anymore. Streeter (Guy B) got back at Amir (Guy A) by making him think he'd won $500,000 by making a blindfolded half-court shot at a University of Maryland basketball game. He did this by having the crowd cheer as loudly as possible no matter how bad Amir's shot was. Amir's shot was wide left, the crowd screamed, he went crazy and then Streeter walked onto the court, in disguise, to give Amir his check. Then the disguise came off.

*** [[It Got Worse]] - Guy B went skydiving, attached to a instructor, of course. [[Moral Event Horizon|Guy A paid the instructor to make it look like they were going to plummet to their inevitable deaths.]] They even rigged the gear to make it look like the ripcord went straight off without triggering the parachute.