Massive Multiplayer Scam: Difference between revisions

You have just been the victim of a [['''Massive Multiplayer Scam]]'''.

The [['''Massive Multiplayer Scam]]''' is [[The Con]] [[Up to Eleven|taken to its logical extreme]], engineering circumstances on a large scale in order to defraud the victim, enlist his unwitting cooperation in a larger scheme, teach him an important lesson, or simply make him suffer. These schemes are usually [[Gambit Roulette|ridiculously complex]], and often involve the cooperation of ''everyone'' who is not the intended victim.

* In ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'':

* ''[[April FoolsFool's Day (Film)|April Fools Day]]''

* ''[[The Game (Filmfilm)|The Game]]''

* ''[[Birthday Girl (Film)|Birthday Girl]]''

* ''[[StateandState Mainand (Film)Main|Stateand Main]]''

* ''[[Man On Fire (Film)|Man Onon Fire]]''. Subverted to hell and back that {{spoiler|Pita's Dad of all people staged the kidnapping to extract the kidnap money from the insurance company to make up for his own father's massive debts. The kicker is that his lawyer, the cops and the racketeers are all either in cahoots with or backstabbing each other for the money. When it all goes wrong, the bodyguard deals with the scam by killing basically everyone.}}

* ''[[OceansOcean's Eleven]]'' (the remake), in which the crew accomplishes their heist by {{spoiler|intercepting the 911 call and posing as the SWAT team sent to break up their very own robbery}}.

* In ''[[Murder Onon the Orient Express]]'', {{spoiler|[[Everybody Did It]]. Except for Mrs. Andreyi. And Poirot, of course.}}

* ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]]''. {{spoiler|There were only two scammers, [[Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?|but they fooled a whole lot of gods]].}}

{{quote| "[[Unusual Euphemism|We work on an alternative revenue stream.]]"}}

{{quote| '''Will:''' [[Double Entendre|Come on, Grace, everyone knows that four Queens beats a Straight]].}}

* A latter-season episode of ''[[MASH|M* A* S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]'' features B.J. betting Hawkeye that he is the greatest prankster in the 4077th's history. To prove it, he will prank every member of the main cast in the next 24 hours...with Hawkeye last. Over the next day, B.J. fells every single one of the other characters, while Hawkeye grows progressively more and more paranoid and resorts to ever-more-bizarre measures to avoid being pranked. {{spoiler|The next morning, Hawkeye triumphantly announces that he has emerged unscathed. It is then the others reveal that all of the pranks on them were phonies. The whole thing was a set-up to [[Paranoia Gambit|drive Hawkeye nuts]] all along.}}

* This happened a ''[[Good Is Dumb|lot]]'' to [[Wrestler/Sting (wrestling)|Sting]] in his [[WCW]] run, often at the hands of [[Ric Flair]] and [[The Four Horsemen]] or Lex Luger. Perhaps the most famous example occurred in an angle involving our hero and Flair in 1995. Flair lost a match to Arn Anderson at Fall Brawl due to interference from Brian Pillman, and spent the next month trying to convince an extremely wary Sting to be his partner against the duo for Halloween Havoc. After weeks of vehement refusal, Flair finally got Sting to relent, but not before the latter threatened to mess up the former real good if he got screwed. Before the match, Anderson and Pillman ambushed and seemingly injured Flair, forcing Sting to face the heels by himself. However, in the middle of the match, as Sting was getting his ass kicked, Flair appeared to the roar of the crowd and took his place at Sting's corner. Sting played [[Ricky Morton]] for a long time, getting closer and closer to making the tag to Flair each time. When he finally made the tag, the arena went nuts, and Flair looked prepared to ''kill'' Arn and Pillman...and then [[Face Heel Turn|proceeded to immediately lay out Sting]], revealing that the entire incident was a set up to re-form [[The Four Horsemen]] and humiliate Sting.

** It got so bad that in one match it was lampshaded when Sting gave his valet Elizabeth a can of mace to use in case any of the heels tried to make a move on her. Predictably, she turned around and used the mace on Sting later in the match--onlymatch—only it wasn't mace, it was ''silly string''! This was the only time Sting ever managed to outsmart someone.

* The third game, fourth case of ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' is about how a cop's sister is kidnapped by her boyfriend, asking for a ransom of an expensive diamond of their father's at a mountain river. {{spoiler|It was all staged in order to sell the diamond and split the millions of dollars amongst themselves. However, all of THAT was a scam; the sister planned this all along and jumped into a river with the diamond, keeping it for herself. (Until it was lost in the river, leaving her with nothing but a criminal background and a lot of karma to hit her over the head later.)}}

* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' involved Bart and Homer working as con artists. Grandpa Simpson pretended to help them, but secretly lured them into a trap where they were arrested by a government agent who robbed them and turned out to be a con artist. Bart and Homer made up a story to explain the robbery, which inadvertently led to Willie being arrested, put on trial, found guilty, and given a long prison sentence. Out of desperation, Willie steals a bailiff's gun and starts shooting. When Skinner is apparently killed<ref> Actually a ruse with blanks, squibs, and a blood pack</ref>), Homer finally confesses, only for everyone else to admit their deception, down to the judge revealing himself to be Grandpa in a mask and wig. It turns out the whole town was working together to teach them a lesson.

{{quote| '''Homer''': I can't believe everyone was in on it!<br />

* The ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' episode "I Only Have Surprise For You?"

* ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'', the April Fools episode, played for laughs. Squidward attempts a prank on Spongebob to get back at him, and it ends up being rather... Cruel, which actually upsets Spongebob, and make Squidward look like a total jerk (which he is). This makes Squidward so guilty that he spends the rest of the episode trying to apologize to Spongebob, and when he finally does... ''Everyone'' shows up inside the pineapple house (including a now cheerful Spongebob), with a hearty "April Fools!", implying that they planned the whole thing. Squidward immediately ''snaps''.

* In a somewhat troperrific episode of ''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|Batman Beyond]]'', a surgeon specializing in cybernetic prosthetic limbs is coerced into providing some punks with weaponized cybernetic enhancements because they've kidnapped his girlfriend. Of course, the girlfriend was working with the gang all along, and the whole thing was probably her idea. {{spoiler|The doctor eventually finds out, but the gang's leader doesn't realize he knows, and comes to the doctor for repairs one last time...}}

{{quote| [[Fade to Black|"I understand...no holding back."]]}}