Got Volunteered: Difference between revisions

* [[The Chooser of the One|The guy in charge picks people]] and simply calls you "volunteers."

* The person who suggested the job in the first place is volunteered.

* The heroes are faced with the challenge. In unison, everyone turns to look at one person.

* When one person is out of the room for some reason, the rest have a vote and elect the unlucky absentee to the post.

== Anime and Manga ==

* Almost any anime with an [[Unwanted Harem]] is going to have the leading man be "volunteered" for an unwilling date.

** He's told that it's a tradition for newcomers to handle garbage, after which he [[The Stoic|doesn't ask about it again and just does it without a word]]. Much later, he actually incorporates this into his [[Badass Boast]].

{{quote| '''Confused and or scared Mook''' Who are you?<br />

'''Sousuke''' I take out the garbage. }}

 

 

 

== Fanfiction ==

 

 

* "That's why he's called [[Dirty Harry]]."

* In the film version of ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'', Harry is "volunteered" to approach the hippogriff as his classmates step backwards (although in the book he actually volunteers)

* In ''[[Reign of Fire]]'', Van Zan does this to the members of Quinn's survivor group so that he would has enough of troops to siege the Dragon-occupied London.

* Chief, from an early scene in ''The Wackiest Ship in the Army'': "I need one volunteer. ([[Beat]]) You. (grabs random sailor and orders him to climb the mast)"

* ''[[Star Trek Generations]]''.

{{quote| '''Chekhov:''' You, and you. You just became nurses.}}

* ''[[Rat Race]]'' ended with this trope, portrayed as comeuppance.

* ''[[Mystery Team]]''. Apparently the task of sticking one's hand in a filthy toilet inside a gentleman's club restroom is a job for the Boy Genius.

 

== Literature ==

* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''[[Operation Chaos]]'', the narrator notes that he never got actually asked if he volunteered.

* Used unusually in ''The Book Thief.'' The commander asked for one man who would stay out of battle that day. Nobody can volunteer without being branded a coward, but if you [[Got Volunteered]]... (and Hans Hubermann does).

* In ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'', after a riot gone bad, some soldiers under Cain's command are sentenced to death by "volunteering on the next suicide mission". Cain is satisfied with this judgment (he had maneuvered to avoid an execution that would be disastrous for morale) until he's himself required on a very dangerous mission, meaning he has to take ''them'' along instead of more reliable soldiers.

* Happens in the novel [[Horatio Hornblower|''A Ship of the Line'']]. As his ship was undercrewed, Hornblower had exempted sailors from the merchant convoy he was escorting press-ganged in his crew. When the captains of the convoy protested he said his sailors had misunderstood his orders and that he had sent them to search for volunteers, and that he'd check who was a volunteer and who was pressed... And as soon as the convoy captains return to their ships, he sends the signal "All volunteers".

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** One could also interpret Blithe's state of mind at that point to be in permanent [[Got Volunteered]]. He does not want to be in the war but he does not have a choice. Winters might have asked for volunteers but The War has already volunteered Blithe for the patrol.

* ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' had an episode called "Guide to Volunteering", in which ''no'' voluntary volunteering took place, just school-required community service.

* Happened all the time to Oliver on ''[[Green Acres]]''. Typical plot: The town's residents would come up with a [[Zany Scheme]], Oliver would rise to protest and get cut off as everybody thanks him for volunteering to lead the scheme.

{{quote| '''Worf:''' I did not expect you to be the first, Doctor.<br />

'''Bashir:''' ''*looks at others*'' Neither did I. }}

* [[Myth Busters]] Build Team method of choosing a volunteer, Ro-Sham-Bo, generally ends with Tory having two fingers pointed at him.

** Another method used is for the other two members to say "not it!" before the third even finished explaining the myth.

{{quote| '''Xander:''' Note his interesting take on the word "volunteer".}}

* On ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]'', in the season 2 episode "Baseball", Gus has to volunteer staff members, including Dave, Damien and George to play in a corporate game of baseball. Alex is offended when she ''isn't'' volunteered, being a woman.

* In ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', Logan volunteers his father to donate money to a soup kitchen. He does so publicly enough and with grand enough reception that his father can't back out without looking like an ass.

** In another episode, they stumble upon their personnel files. Rimmer's says "There's a saying amongst the officers: if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well. If it's not worth doing, give it to Rimmer'".

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' encourages PCs to throw their underlings under the bus this way, while pretending that you're doing them a favor ("Suck-R, go disarm that berserk scrubot, you'll probably get a commendation for it"). If the underling seems devious enough to actually pull it off, then you may need to pile on some complications ("oh, but leave your toolkit here, we wouldn't want it to get damaged").

 

 

== Theatre ==

 

 

== Videogames ==

{{quote| '''Morrigan:''' Oh, I shall, shall I? Tis so kind of you to volunteer me.}}

* While you were out adventuring in the [[Kingdom of Loathing]], your guild had a meeting, and decided that Gorgolok/Stella/Spaghetti Elemental/Lumpy/Spirit of New Wave/Lopez is ''your'' Nemesis, so you [[Got Volunteered]] for the single longest spanning quest in the game.

** In an interesting twist, you do have a chance to [[Refusal of the Call|refuse the call]]. It's an optional quest, in that you don't need to complete it to finish the game, so you can completely ignore it without affecting the storyline of the game.

* In the first ''[[Fallout]]'', one of the premade player characters has as his back story that he was simply the only one dumb enough to leave the vault (the other two characters were ones who [[Jumped At the Call]]).

** Whealtey's done this too. {{spoiler|In the final battle, he boasts that Chell isn't the first test subject he broke out of Cryo-Sleep and sent off to get a portal gun. Just the first to survive. There's a chance he's lying given the circumstances, though.}}

* In ''[[Quest for Glory I]]'', none of the fairies want to give the hero any fairy dust, so they make a fairy named Mikey do it.

== Webcomics ==

* Robin in ''[[Books Don't Work Here]]''gets "volunteered" in the first page and has yet to be given the chance to back out.

** In one of the greatest [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moments in history, they got two teenagers to {{spoiler|kill someone when it would be easier and faster for them to go to the authorities, more reliable and wouldn't have put two girls in the first year of high school in mortal danger}}. To summarize how much of a jackass the Immortals where being, see [http://egscomics.com/?date=2010-05-31 here]

* In ''[[Red String]]'', Miharu's cousin Karen volunteers Miharu to help at the family restaurant, causing Miharu to miss a date.

 

 

== Web Originals ==

* Done several times in ''[[AH Dot Com the Series]]'', usually with perennial [[Butt Monkey|Butt Monkeys]] Luakel or Michael as the "volunteer".

 

* The "everyone steps backward" variant happened in ''[[Cars]]'' when Sheriff asks for volunteers to be McQueen's attorney. Mater, the one left out, gladly accepts.

* The "everyone steps backward" variant also happened in the cartoon ''[[Northwest Hounded Police]]'' where every member of the mounted police stand back, except for Sgt. McPoodle, alias Droopy, who then has to go capture the villain.

* ''[[Mulan]]'' features the "stepping back" variant when Yao gets "volunteered" to retrieve the arrow shot into the top of the post by Shang.

** Though, that one may have had something to do with Shang calling Yao's name, and nocking an arrow. When the guy in charge points an arrow in your general direction, it's generally a good idea to try and remove yourself from the field of fire.

* When the ''[[South Park]]'' kids are desperately trying to find a TV in town they can watch, Cartman tries to get a bar to let them stay with "Butters will give handjobs in the corner for a dollar!" Earlier in the same episode, Butters was volunteered to [[It Makes Sense in Context|go to the store for tampons]] and risk missing the trailer, the excuse being a game called "if your name is Butters you have to go."

** In another episode, Cartman volunteers Butters as a sacrifice to [[Squick|NAMBLA]] so the other boys can escape.(This sort of thing happens to [[Butt Monkey|Butters]] on a fairly regular basis.)

* The "stepping back" variant was used in an episode of ''[[Histeria (Animation)|Histeria]]'', with [[No Indoor Voice|Loud]] as the "volunteer".

* In ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'', Team Victory does this to DJ for a very unpleasant pinball challenge.

** Later, Courtney, Heather, and Sierra do this to Gwen, and Owen and Noah do this to Tyler to have them [[It Makes Sense in Context|strip down guards.]]