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Prize Letdown: Difference between revisions
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* The former [[Trope Namer]] was the Flokati rug on ''[[Press Your Luck]]'', which is probably second to the ceramic Dalmatian as the most recognizable example. It always showed up in the second round despite retailing for about $300 (making it the least-valuable space on the board).
** And for those of you who don't know what the heck one of those are, a Flokati rug is an area rug usually used in bathrooms because they're soft, feel nice on your feet, are sound dampeners, and are in no way comparable to winning a Jet-Ski.
* During the time when winners on ''[[
** This was referenced in an episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'' where Didi wins on a game show, and to her husband and father-in-law's dismay, chooses the dog statue as her prize.
** There's also a ''[[Family Guy]]'' gag in which a ceramic dalmatian is the first prize Peter buys. Though in this case it's not the most expensive item in the showcase, plus at the end he asks for his unused funds on a gift certificate.
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* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' producers were rather fond of a large, wheeled, popcorn cart during Bob Barker's tenure as host. Contestants were usually less-than-convincingly enthused when it showed up.
** ''Price'' used to be loaded with these, with antique gas pumps and carousel horses also favorite "prizes". The frequency of these has gone down significantly in the Drew Carey era, however, since replaced by outlandish and bizarre prizes (seriously, ''365 pairs of shoes''?!)
** Many a contestant groaned when they passed a Showcase with a car and a trip and took a gamble, only to find the second Showcase was "[[Exactly What It Says
*** Or, [[It Got Worse|even worse]], the dreaded "Train Depot", "Port O'Price", or "Department Store" Showcases. Cue visible [[This Is Gonna Suck]] looks from less-than-enthused contestants. (Several other contestants have been shown scowling at any showcase that did not contain a car, and at least one could be shown mouthing the words, "I don't want it!")
*** Every time a trip is offered to somewhere that just so happens to be the contestant's hometown or close to it. While they usually throw in a luxury hotel and a few touristy things, winning a trip to something you live an hour away from would be kind of dull, all things considered. Still, it was on the show's dime.
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** Nick was notorious for this. All of their game shows usually had prizes which included a year supply of canned ravioli and moon boots.
** Subverted in Season 1 of [[Figure It Out]]. All of the prizes awarded for clearing round one were old props and set pieces from shows like [[All That]] and [[Legends of the Hidden Temple]].
* ''[[Whammy (TV series)|Whammy]]!'' had tons of these, especially in Round 1. Who wanted $300 worth of M&M's when $300 was also the lowest cash amount on the board? Just look at all the prizes on [http://gscentral.net/nprize.htm this list] worth $300 or less.
* ''[[High Rollers]]'': On the late 1970s NBC version, the producers were known to offer off-beat or otherwise unusual prizes, such as African musical dolls, an antique Chinese fishbowl (with a stated value of $10,000), gift certificates to Kentucky Fried Chicken (dubbed "Sunday Chicken for a Year," this was effectively 52 $10 gift certificates to the fast-food chicken chain) and a trip to the Kentucky Derby with $100 bets on each horse. And those were just a few of the examples.
* The 1969 show [[Rowan and
* In the dreadful children's game show ''Thousand-Dollar Bee'', the prize for the ''entire season'' was a $1000 savings bond for college; in this decade, probably enough for a handful of credit hours or a quarter of your required textbooks. No wonder so many of the kids weren't even trying.
* ''[[The Bozo Show]]''. Not really a game show, although the "Grand Prize Game" (a skill-based throwing game, the objective being to throw a pingpong ball into six buckets, placed progressively further from the line) had an element fitting this trope ... a dinky consolation prize worth about $2 for anyone who failed to either -- depending on the year -- get the ball in the first bucket or complete the mission. An urban legend persists that one child was so upset with the consolation prize (tellings vary, the most common gift is a towel with Bozo's likeness on it) that he told Bozo to "Cram it, clown!"
** This would more likely fall under the [[Zonk]] category.
* The kids' game show ''[[Treasure Mall]]'' offered a '''sewing machine'''. A ''kids' show!!!'' Granted, the grand prize haul, if won, more than made up for it...
* Of all the video game systems available in [[The Nineties|the early-to-mid 1990s]], ''[[Legends of the Hidden Temple]]'' offered a [[Philips
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* ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'': An early episode from 1988, named "The Binky Show," sees Garfield go on a game show to win a gift for Jon. Unfortunately for the cat, the game show is a ridiculous quizzer named "Name That Fish," the host is the obnoxious Binky the Clown, and the prizes range from ostrich scrubbers to tomato squeezers and other junk. (Obviously, the cartoon short is a satire poking fun at the unusual and bizarre gifts sometimes offered on game shows.)
* Pretty much par-for-the-course with the prizes on the ''May I Have a Word?'' [[Show Within a Show]] interstitials on ''[[Word Girl]]''.
* One episode of ''[[
* There was an episode of ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' that played with this. Rocko's kitchen gets destroyed (don't ask) and he goes on a game show to win a new one. He wins, but it turns out he only won a single spoon, and has to keep winning every day for the rest of the summer to get the whole kitchen.
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* Since the point is to have fun playing the games, the "prizes" in arcades usually stink, especially those low valued "use your last few tickets prizes," like pencils and Chinese finger traps. Even the expensive prizes aren't better, when you realize that you've sank $30 in tickets for a $5 teddy bear.
* Many video games let you trade casino winnings for items. Sometimes, however, these items are usually rare. Sometimes, however, items you can get for cheaper in a store than you can buying coins to use on them. ''[[Pokémon]]'' lets you trade coins for an Abra; if you like Abra, fine, but you can catch one pretty easily too.
* ''[[
* Toad's house in [[
** The inclusion of a Frog Suit in the boxes after the water levels, where it would have been useful, may also qualify.
* ''[[Peanuts|You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown]]'' features a motocross race where the prize was originally two tickets to the Pro Bowl...but they couldn't get them, so they got a gift certificate good for five free haircuts at the last minute. Of course, this is the one thing that Charlie Brown ''actually wins''...and gets a gift certificate that's worthless to him because his dad is a barber, and of course, [[Charlie Brown Baldness|his unique baldness]].
* ''[[Late Night]] With Jimmy Fallon'' parodies this with "Wheel Of Carpet Samples", whose prizewinners get [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Conan]]'' does it as well - winners on "Basic Cable Name That Tune" are awarded such dubious prizes as a sack of barber hair, a cake that nobody ever picked up from the bakery (with the frosting reading "Hope your operation was a success!"), or a jar full of an unidentified white ooze with a handwritten label reading "NUZZ".
* The [[Eurovision Song Contest]] winner has to host next years's contest. While this entitles the winner to show huge amounts of tourism ads, getting them made and hosting a contest is basically a huge, expensive hassle and financially impossible for most smaller countries. Often, countries that can't afford to host Eurovision will send in limp squib songs or odd novelty acts in order to avoid winning (resulting in occasional [[Springtime for Hitler]] moments when the novelty ends up being more interesting than anything else in the contest).
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