Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him."''|[[Evil Overlord List]], No.83}}

 

Two enemies are sharing a drink and one of the glasses contains poison. At ''least'' one of them will attempt to poison the other by switching glasses while the other's back is turned. Common joke is either that someone poisons a chalice, then they get switched over, or someone [[I Know You Know I Know|knows he's got a poisoned drink]], and tries to find a chance to dispose of it without being obvious, or pretending to swap the glasses, waiting for the enemy to really swap them and drink.

 

A [[Discredited Trope]], more often parodied than played straight these days. When switched and switched back, this is [[Two Rights Make a Wrong]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

== Commercials ==

* A TV commercial announced that, on Mondays, a DVD with episodes of a British crime show would be included when you bought the Swedish evening paper ''Expressen''. In the commercial, a British woman is preparing tea for herself and her husband, and secretly pours poison into his cup.

'''Wife''': "Bury him with the others, James." }}

 

 

== Comic Books ==

* In a flashback in ''[[Batman]] R.I.P'', we see Bruce Wayne drinking with a little Asian man in the Far East. The man then reveals he poisoned Bruce's cup. However, {{spoiler|the man himself begins to fall victim to the poison. Turns out, according to Bruce, "You blinked. I switched the cups. [[Crazy Prepared|Force of habit]]."}}

* The very first ''[[Spy vs. Spy]]'' cartoon in ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' featured the black spy and white spy both subtly disposing of the tea they were supposed to be having by tipping it onto the floor. Two cats see the tea and lap it up, and are shown dead in the final panel.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind]]'' had a fairly straight use of the trope. Patricia brings Chuck Barris a tray with two drinks; Chuck's is poisoned. She loses her attention for a moment, then comes back and notices the tray has been reversed. While Chuck isn't looking, she reverses it again. {{spoiler|And she winds up choking to death on poison. Chuck hadn't reversed the tray, he just moved the objects on the tray around to make it look like he had.}}

* ''[[The Court Jester]]'' has an early parody of this trope, although it was trying to remember which cup was poisoned, rather than switching them.

** And there is the truly brilliant rhyme they use to try and remember. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049096/quotes "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!]

*** It's only in the flagon with the dragon because they broke the chalice from the palace.

** In the book, all the brothers are [[Genre Savvy]] enough to only drink wine they themselves have poured from a sealed bottle.

* [[Inverted]] in ''[[Shrek|Shrek 2]],'' when Fiona's father the King brings two cups of tea into Fiona's room, one of which he had spiked with a love potion as part of a ploy to get her to marry Prince Charming. After talking for a bit, Fiona reaches for one cup, but the King nervously tells her to drink the other, making up a transparent excuse about one of them being decaf. Fiona obliges, having no reason to be suspicious of her father. At the movie's climax, it's revealed to the audience that the King had actually changed his mind at the last second, instead giving Fiona the untainted cup.

** Turned [[Up to Eleven]] in ''[[The Naughty Nineties]]'', where Costello's character ends up having a drink with the [[Big Bad]]. At one point Costello loses track of who has the poison, so he dumps it into a potted plant. [[That Poor Plant]] whithers away and dies, prompting Costello to wipe his glass out ''very thouroughly.''

** Happens to Lou again in Pardon My Sarong, when he and the island chief are having a "friendly" drink. Lou comes out on top of for this one.

* Used in multiple ''[[The Three Stooges]]'' shorts. In one notable instance, Shemp and the villainess take turns distracting each other and swapping their wine glasses. The [[Genre Savvy]] villainess, however, simply taps the glasses together when it's her turn, causing Shemp to swap the glasses around again and give himself the poison.

* Another variant appeared in Bob Guccione's ''[[Caligula]]''. Emperor Tiberius warns young Caligula that somebody is going to kill Caligula, and hands him a goblet of wine. Caligula hesitates and hands the glass to his brother. Tiberius intercepts the goblet and passes it to a slave, who takes a drink and promptly dies.

* In the Czech film ''Císařův pekař - Pekařův císař'' a group of conspirators attempt to poison Emperor Rudolf II. The plot is derailed when the chalices of wine - including the poisoned one - are used to demonstrate Copernicus' heliocentric system.

** An [[Adaptation Distillation]] from the comics, where Scott had nothing to do with Todd's downfall, beyond [[Lampshade Hanging|hoping for "some kind of... like... last minute, poorly-set-up deus ex machina"]]. They still keep another element, though. It's not his first time to go against veganism...

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean|Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides]]'', {{spoiler|Jack Sparrow lies about which chalice contains the mermaid tear, and thus will grant life, while the other one will drain life. Blackbeard values his own life more than that of his daughter, drinks the one he thinks will give life, and ends up dying.}}

* At the end of ''[[The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane]]'', as Rynn is making tea for herself and [[Affably Evil|Frank]], she puts potassium cyanide in her own cup. It's not clear if she anticipated that Frank would be suspicious and switch, or if she was initially intending to kill herself rather than submit to Frank's blackmail. But either way, Frank becomes suspicious and demands that they switch cups, so he ends up dying.

 

* ''[[Nation]]'', by [[Terry Pratchett]]: Half-averted, half-subverted. In order to prevent two men from killing the islanders (and after they had already killed one), Daphne gets them alone and poisons them with undiluted beer. Foxlip, the one who had killed, does ''not'' switch the cups as per the trope, instead having Daphne mix the drinks together so they all get the same. Like ''Princess Bride'', all the cups were poisoned. Unlike ''Princess Bride'', it wasn't that Daphne was immune so much as understood the trick to make the beer safe: Spitting into the beer to neutralize the poison, and singing the ritual beer song to count time it takes to work. Daphne did this right in front of the men and asked they do it too, knowing that they would never partake in "pagan mumbo jumbo." As a result, Foxlip drank and died. The other man survived only because of continued suspicion but was sent running soon after.

* In [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''Farseer'' trilogy, FitzChivalry ostensibly poisons his "victim"'s glass, and gives him his own. He later takes a few sips of that unpoisoned glass, before noticing, a little too late, that {{spoiler|the ''bottle'' had been poisoned by the [[Evil Prince]]. He barely survives, the victim doesn't}}.

** In ''Curtain'', {{spoiler|20th century Iago Stephen Norton has manipulated Barbara Franklin into trying to poison her husband. While everyone else is looking at meteors, Hastings, completely unsuspecting, swivels the table around to get at a book, and Barbara drinks the poisoned coffee.}}

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Frasier]]'' had a variant in one of their end-of-episode silent sketches. Roz brought some coffee to a woman she disliked but then got a call on her mobile; while she was distracted, the other woman switched the coffee. Then she got distracted, so Roz switched them back. This cycle of distraction and switching continued for some time until at the end, Roz just poured both cups down the sink.

* ''[[Skithouse]]'': The inviting host enters with one, and only one, glass of wine on a tray. He puts it down, lays a distraction, adds the poison, and he and his captive play out the distract-then turn scene, while the single glass is in the center of the tray and not moving at all. In the end, the host picks it up, and drinks.

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'': Steve Martin, always eager to protect his status as hosting the show more times than anybody else, once did a skit where he attempted to maintain his status by poisoning Tom Hanks before he could tie the record, by slipping poison from his ring into Tom's whiskey. A series of switcharoos took place, before Tom Hanks pulled a fake switcharoo. Steve Martin, now suspecting that, decided to throw out the whiskey and order champagne, which he again poisoned. After another couple switcharoos Tom resolved the issue by punching Steve in the jaw. Only then did Steve find out that this was only Tom Hank's fifteenth time hosting, meaning he was still one short of tying Steve. Both of them felt very foolish.

* Seen in a ''[[Morecambe and Wise]]'' [[Hamlet]] parody in which Eric and Ernie resort to ever more desperate measures to distract each other as they switch the poison chalice concluding with; Ernie: Look, there's a naked lady. Eric: Look there's an even nakeder lady.

* ''[[Dracula]]: The Series'': A variation; the involved parties are both vampires and the "poison" is holy water. The exchange happens right in front of the poisoner who doesn't notice due to Dracula's fast reflexes.

* An episode of ''[[CSI]]'' does this, with peanut butter. (The intended victim was highly allergic.) The murderer changes her mind and takes the 'poisoned' cup but the victim ends up with it anyway. {{spoiler|Just as well that what actually ended up killing him was a bee sting.}}

* On ''[[I Love Lucy]]'', Ricky tries to slip Lucy a sedative to calm her down, but Lucy thinks he's trying to poison and kill her, which leads to...

'''Ricky:''' I know you did. I ''switched'' them back. }}

* In ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'' serial "Done To Death," the two detectives suspect [[Femme Fatale|Blanche]] has poisoned their food. They both make several attempts to change their plates with hers; in the end, they both think they've succeeded and start eating, only for Blanche to remark innocently that she's got her original plate back. {{spoiler|Fortunately, the food wasn't poisoned in the first place.}}

** Assuming the killer was telling the truth a variation is created. {{spoiler|No matter how clever Sherlock is he cannot figure out where the poison is because the killer doesn't know and has just been lucky.}} Naturally Sherlock ''doesn't'' believe him and gets sucked in.

* Chespirito has done it as the Chapulin Colorado and in historical or mythical sketches

* A variation occurred in ''[[Boy Meets World]]''. Sean and Corey decide to mess with Dingus's meal by placing a ton of salt and a huge amount of cream sauce inside Dingus's burger while he left the table. Dingus was apparently [[Genre Savvy]] enough to suspect that the did it when he returned to the table, and then told them to look elsewhere while he lifted the plates up and down. Corey and Sean likewise suspect he switched the plates, and do the same method to get it back to him, only to realize that Dingus had in fact faked them out, and that they ended up getting the messed with meal that was intended to be for Dingus.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

* In ''[[Suikoden II]]'', the King gets poisoned not because there was poison in the cup or the wine given to him by Jowy; but because Jowy had poisoned ''himself'' before he symbolically bled himself into the wine to symbolize his loyalty. He then took a lot of antidote, but was still almost died.

* While not being entirely 100% on the Trope, there is a story in a book in the ''[[Elder Scrolls]]'' games which recounts the story of a noble man inviting his most trusted followers to a great meal. Most attendees feared that the food was poisoned and thus faked eating it. Once the meal was finished, the lord said that instead of the meal, the cutlery was poisoned, but if attendees who deserved to be poisoned would confess of their wrongdoings against him, they would receive the antidote. {{spoiler|One man admitted consorting behind the lord's back and received the antidote. At this point the lord admitted that the meal and drink were perfectly fine and the "antidote" was actually an incurable deadly poison.}} At the end of the book the writer deduces that the ploy was more to inspire fear into the lord's servants than expose any spies and requests from his employer to be resigned from his position.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

* The [[James Bond]] parody in ''[[Concession]]'' mocked this trope:

* In ''[[Oglaf]]'', the obviously gay Xoan ambassador who is friends with the Apprentice's Mistress offers the Apprentice poisoned food claiming it's all the rage and pours the antidote over his penis in hopes that the apprentice will have to suck it off. The Apprentice says he's going to his room to write a letter to the Mistress saying the Xoan ambassador murdered him. However, when the Ambassador tries to turn it into a mystery drama, including offering a locket with the ambassador's picture inside (which he has a bag of), the apprentice says he doesn't believe it was poison. Later the Mistress calls the Apprentice in to punish him for being in the room that the ambassador had called him to; only for him to collapse from poison causing the ambassador to yell "He's been poisoned!". Later still, when he's sent to be cured in an painfully disturbing way, the ambassador reveals the Apprentice made a smart move because the antidote was poison as well.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Done in a ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short where Bugs and Yosemite Sam keep swapping drinks. Bugs eventually starts the whole table spinning. Sam stops the table and forces Bugs to drink at gunpoint. He still gets the wrong glass.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Toxic Tropes]]

[[Category:Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo]]