If I Were a Rich Man: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''If I had a million dollars...

''Well I'd buy you an exotic pet.

 

A character has [[Imagine Spot|a fantasy]] about being rich, filthy rich, and the sybaritic lifestyle they would lead. Usually done when a character has just made up a [[Get Rich Quick Scheme]] that [[Failure Is the Only Option|you know]] is [[Hilarity Ensues|not going to work]]. Such fantasies typically include [[Money Fetish|bathing in pools of money]], and other forms of [[Conspicuous Consumption]].

 

{{examples}}

* Commercials for the Canadian lottery "Lotto 6/49" encourage this trope on the part of the viewer, using the slogan "Imagine The Freedom".

 

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'s'' Team Rocket has these often.

* Kotaro in ''Papuwa''. Keeping in mind that this [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]] (to the point that some viewers have ''refused'' to believe that he's a boy), he occasionally has fantasies along these lines... which involve him living in a castle in an elaborate dress, like a princess. As it happens, his family actually ''is'' rather wealthy, he just doesn't know it.

* This is one of the things Keiichi mulls over when Belldandy appears to grant him a wish in the second episode of the ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' TV series.

 

* The ''[[Firefly]]'' spin-off comic ''Better Days'' has these for almost the entire crew. They range from [[Badass Preacher|Shepherd Book]]'s [[Hookers and Blow]] ("Kidding. Reckon I'd give it to the abbey.") to River's fantasy wedding. [[Cloudcuckoolander|To a fish]].

 

* What would Lawrence from ''[[Office Space]]'' do if he were a rich man? "...two chicks at the same time, man." What would Peter Gibbons Do? "Nothing."

* ''[[Mamma Mia!]]'' has the heroine and her friends sing 'Money, Money, Money' by [[ABBA]] while having a fantasy about lying around on a private yacht being waited on by handsome sailors.

* At the start of the remake of [[The Italian Job]], the robbers fantasize about what each will do with his share of the loot. One wants an expensive stereo set-up, one wants a car, one wants a mansion with a room just for his shoes. {{spoiler|You get to see their dreams come true at the very end of the film, once they get the loot back from Steve who, with no ideas of his own, stole each of theirs along with the money.}}

 

* ''[[The Twelve Chairs]]'' / ''[[The Little Golden Calf]]'': This is [[Magnificent Bastard|Ostap Bender]]'s motivation in both books he appears in.

* Dorothy Parker wrote a short story called "The Standard of Living" about two girls who like to play "If you had a million dollars..." It ends with them going to a jeweler's to look at a necklace, guessing that it costs a thousand dollars, or maybe ten thousand.... The jeweler tells them it's $250,000. As they walk away, one of them asks the other what she would do if, say, someone died and left her ten million dollars.

 

* Happens on an episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' when they take a [[Inept Aptitude Test]]. Zack (the slacker doofus) gets the result of "millionaire". Cody (the studious dork) gets "custodial engineer". Cody's even in the fantasy to sweep up...

** In the treasure hunt episode, everyone in the main cast has one. Zack imagines that he's married to Maddie and has his own private arcade, Cody imagines winning the Nobel Prize in every subject (plus baking), Maddie imagines becoming the president, Esteban imagines becoming manager of the Tipton Hotel and making London a bellhop, and London... imagines it to be just like her life is right now, as she's already filthy rich.

* ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' is ''made'' of this trope. ''Every single business deal'' Del enters into is part of his get-rich plan. He is [[Catch Phrase|constantly saying]] "This time next year, we'll be millionaires!" He and Rodney actually sing the song in the hilarious episode "And the Unlucky Winner Is ...", when they thought they'd won a million pasetas. Of course, because they told [[Fawlty Towers Plot|all those lies]], they are unable to collect the money.

* In one episode of ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'' , Laura and one of her schoolmates discover what they believe to be gold in a nearby stream, and secretly begin sifting it out into a wheelbarrel. In the days it takes to do this, Laura has ongoing dreams of her and her family being gorgeously dressed while everyone else in town looks on enviously while covered in filth and rags. Of course, the 'gold' turns out to be pyrite.

 

* Gwen Stefani's song "Rich Girl". (Partly to the tune of "If I Were A Rich Man") Not the video as much.

* The 1959 hit, "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6xkT7FMyTc Money (That's What I Want)]"

* [[ABBA]], "Money Money Money" ("All the things I could do, if I had a little money!")

 

* ''[[Peanuts]]'' had a strip in which Lucy tells Charlie Brown that if she had a million dollars, she'd spend it all on marshmallows.

* [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin]] has frequently fantasized about this, although for him rich is [[Comically Small Bribe|ten dollars.]]

 

 

* The [[Trope Namer]] is a song from ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]'' which also toys with it. The only real thing he shows humbleness towards is that he would be able to work less so he could spend more time in Synagogue praying, which points up why he is willing to have his daughters tutored.

{{quote|'''Perchik''': Money is the world's curse!

* Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist" has many characters fantasizing about what they'd do with the Philosopher's Stone. Sir Epicure Mammon gets the longest speech; he plans on feasting on exotic delicacies like quail tongue and lampreys, and he'd be so rich that feather mattresses would be too course—he'd have to have air...he'd set up a system of aqueducts to carry milk and rose-water to everyone...

 

* Seven of ''[[Off White]]'' does this. The things she has fantasized about include fancy stilettos, pink googles, comics, fur coats, rings, [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others|frag grenades, anti-tank rocket launcher...]]

 

** In one instance, upon hearing of an opportunity to "become a moderately wealthy man", Homer imagines himself rolling in a small pile of money and shouting, "I'm sort of rich! I can rent anything I want!" Another has him making $11 on the stock market, and fantasizing about getting a carwash.

** One of his odder ideas was that winning the lottery would let him become a 100-foot tall gold-plated demigod. Or living in a house made of pearls and losing his teeth to his breakfast, a bowl of pearls. Or having his own recording studio.

** "With ten thousand dollars we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things, like... love!"

** Bart got in on this once. After being told of winning $500 in a lawsuit, he imagines hitting Vegas, betting it all on roulette. And loses. He still chuckles after the dream plays out.

** Another episode has Bart dreaming that he is a rich and famous rock star. Of course, his dream just shows him insulting his fans onstage, throwing a liquor bottle at Milhouse after being criticized for his spoiled, hedonistic attitude, and (strangely) having a British accent.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Peter Griffin, though he usually think of some ridiculous thing he would spend the money on. In fact, in the very first episode, a computer error at the welfare office resulted in them getting a huge check from the government, which he used in part to build a moat around the house (to keep the Black Knight away, of course).

* On ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'', [[Speaks Fluent Animal|Eliza told Darwin]] she'd buy, among other things, [[Everything's Better with Chocolate|a swimming pool full of chocolate]]. When Darwin asked whether she could eat it all, she said, "No, and I don't care!"

 

* Who hasn't fantasized about what they would do if they won the lottery?

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Luxury Tropes]]

[[Category:Money Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]