Operation: Jealousy: Difference between revisions

 

 

A specific type of [[Zany Scheme]]: Two characters, [[Alice and Bob]], are an [[Official Couple]]... or they would be, if Bob wasn't [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|so mired in the river of denial]] that he insists that the water flowing all around him is solid ground. Alice, who is not in denial and ''very'' aware of Bob's feelings, gets fed up with his refusal to [[Cannot Spit It Out|spit them out]] and takes matters into her own hands. Confronting him directly with the [[Subtext|evidence]] might cause him to run for the hills, so Alice gets into a faked or temporary relationship with [[The Beard|Convenient Charley]], to make Bob insanely [[Green-Eyed Monster|jealous]] enough to come clean first.

[[Hilarity Ensues|Yeah, right...]]

 

 

Very unlikely to be [[Truth in Television]] for anyone with serious feelings, as most people who believe they are in love try to ''avoid'' upsetting the people they think they're in love with. Also using people is a mean thing to do especially when the person doesn't know. Then again....

 

* It was also done in ''[[Sailor Moon Abridged]]'':

* Akira tries this with Kei in ''[[Special A]]'', and it backfires in the worst way. Not only can Tadashi see all the little clues (like Kei doing all he can to avoid physical contact with Akira) that show that the two are barely tolerating the other, he and Hikari end up ignoring their feeble attempts and just have a good time, making Akira and Kei the ones growing jealous.

** Sometimes, Ranma realizes what she's trying to do, but refuses to take the bait out of stubbornness.

** [[Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond|When Shampoo starts acting like she despises him,]] an upset Ranma acts cozy with Akane to make Shampoo jealous.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In the ''[[Insecticomics]]'', Thrust tries to talk Dreadmoon into dating someone else to make Starscream jealous. When Thrust suggests he be the Convenient Clancey, it becomes rather obvious that the [[Zany Scheme]] is at least half a plot to hook up with Dreadmoon himself.

 

 

 

== Film ==

'''Warren:''' You must've been a real jerk, because no matter what I do, I can't get them to stop talking to me. }}

* In ''[[The Thomas Crown Affair]]'', Thomas the [[Gentleman Thief]] likes Catherine the Hot Detective, but he doesn't know if he can trust her. So, he lets photos leak of him dating a supermodel to see if he gets a rise out of Catherine. It does. They hook up.

* The main characters of ''[[Drive Me Crazy]]'' form a fake relationship to make the people who dumped them jealous. Predictably, by the end of the film they can both have their respective love interest, but they no longer want them and have fallen for each other.

"Everyone." }}

 

== Literature ==

** She then attempts this strategy with another couple. It backfires because she didn't know that the guy was trapped by a promise not to marry anybody.

** She even used it herself. She has rejected Gilbert, who is now seeing Christine Stuart. She's not really in the mood to go to a party, and acts rather distant on the walk there, but the very minute she enters the room she starts pretending to be the most fascinating and wonderful girl present, drawing all attention (including Gilbert's) to herself.

*** Obviously, "Why didn't I think of that?" has one meaning directed to Harry ("It would prevent us from being embarrassed") and one directed to the reader ("Operation Jealousy would have worked even better").

** It's worth noting that Hermione was ''not'' doing this with Viktor. As far as Harry (and the readers) see, she actually liked Viktor, and he her. Which is probably why she got so angry when Ron accused her of "snogging the enemy." She was trying to move on from worrying over Ron, and he was being petty about it (out of his own jealousy).

* Tom and Becky do this in ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]],'' making it [[Older Than Radio]].

* Kitty tries this on Jack in [[Georgette Heyer]]'s ''Cotillion''. A subversion, in fact, since {{spoiler|it works, to a point, but by that point Kitty's in love with Freddy.}}

* ''[[Daisy Miller]]'': An [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] that Daisy was using Giovanelli all along to make Winterbourne jealous after she felt he let her down in Vevey, or that she decided to mess with Winterbourne's head when she saw how much her flirting with Giovanelli annoyed him, started such a heated [[Fan War]] that [[Word of God|Henry James]] had to write his friend and assure her that Daisy was never planning anything of the sort; she was too clueless in the politics of romance to plan such a thing. [[Shaggy Dog Story|Not that it matters, anyway...]]

* In ''[[The Sword of Truth]]'', Richard's former girlfriend didn't like their relationship developing too slowly. So, she let him catch her screwing his brother and '''invited him to join'''. Got a blank stare, and that was it.

 

 

* ''[[Drake and Josh]]'':

'''Josh''': Not that smart. [[Lampshade Hanging|They've done it on every sitcom since the 1950s.]] }}

* On ''Chef!'', Savannah tried to attract Gareth by inventing a boyfriend. She sent herself flowers in the mail and everything. It was almost sad, but mostly hilarious.

** April tries to use Operation Jealousy AGAINST Andy too, by flirting with Jean-Ralphio, and later with her new boyfriend Eduardo. The first fails because Jean-Ralphio is a [[Casanova Wannabe|douche]], the second because Eduardo and Andy actually get along really well.

* In ''Seacht'', after Eithne slept with Mícheál, his girlfriend, Paddy, came to the show and shagged Pete, who was Eithne's boyfriend at the time. Drama ensued. Oh, and to make matters worse, Eithne and Paddy are sisters.

* On ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' Blair brings home a British lord from her vacation in Europe to make Chuck jealous. Later on Chuck and Vanessa team up to make Blair and Nate jealous.

* Been done a couple of times on ''[[Glee]]'':

** Rachel said the main reason she agreed to date Puck was in the hopes that it would make his best friend Finn jealous - it worked a bit, to go by Finn's facial expressions during Puck's song performance to her.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Spike does this on a couple of occasions when Buffy rejects his advances. [[Played for Laughs]] when the girl Spike chats up turns out to be a [[Robot Girl]] who responds by [[Destination Defenestration|throwing Spike through a window]]. Played straight in "Hell's Bells" when Spike brings a [[Goth]] girlfriend to Anya's wedding after Buffy dumps him. Buffy acknowledges that she is hurt and Spike, no longer angry at her, just leaves quietly.

* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'': Sheldon tries to ask Penny out in an attempt to make Amy jealous. Penny sees right through it and convinces him to just go tell Amy how he feels.

 

== Video Games ==

** Of course, if you're paying a fair amount of attention (and selecting the right conversation options), you can see this coming from fairly early on.

 

 

* In ''[[Treading Ground]]'', [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] Rose attempts this before her friend can explain this was ''not'' what she had in mind. It sinks her wrecked relationship even deeper.

* In [http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/250 this strip] of ''[[Loserz]]'', one girl (name's Carla) ''thinks'' this is the case.

* In ''[[Misfile]]'', James and Cassiel are doing this to try and break up their exes Ash and Rumisel and reclaim them. Thanks to the main plot of the comic (Ash is a boy who was [[Gender Bender]]'d by cosmic screw-up, Rumisel's just pretending to date "her" to keep other guys away), it's extremely unlikely to succeed.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', Kitty possesses [[Rich Bitch|Paulina]] and dates the main hero who has a crush on her, all in order to make her on/off boyfriend Johnny 13 jealous.

* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' was the victim of this twice in the first season. Once by a [[Talking Animal|antelope]].

* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had Beezy using [[Butt Monkey|Samy]] as a pet in order to get his real pet Rocky away from Jimmy.

* Parodied twice on ''[[Family Guy]]''. The first time Stewie fell in love with a girl at day care and then held hands with another girl when he thought she was seeing someone else.

** The second time Brian wanted Jillian to notice him and Lauren Conrad suggests that he remind his ex how much she misses him. [[Wholesome Crossdresser|Stewie]] says the best way is by going on a date with a beautiful woman.

'''Stewie''':Whoa! You're angry at her, not me. No wonder you're alone. }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Alice and Bob]]

[[Category:Envy and Jealousy Tropes]]