Shaggy Dog Story: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The classic example is a man who bankrupts himself trying to return a shaggy dog to a rich family in England for reward money—when he finally makes it there, he's told that the dog "wasn't ''that'' shaggy" before the door's slammed in his face. The End.

This could be [[Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism|cynically viewed]] as [[Truth in Television]], since a lot of life's events don't seem to have much of a point to them either.

 

 

Not to be confused with ''[[Scooby-Doo (animation)|Scooby Doo]]'', which is a cartoon featuring [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Shaggy's dog]]. Also not to be confused with the Disney's movie ''[[The Shaggy Dog (1959 film)|The Shaggy Dog]]''.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

** Until they realize what that [[Red Herring Shirt|means]].

* ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' can be seen as a subversion - Tenma's final decision {{spoiler|to save Johan's life}} renders the entirety of his off-to-kill-the-monster plan moot and pointless in retrospect, but he could not have reached the same conclusion without undergoing the apparently wasted journey.

** Kenji and his friend's plan to stop [[Big Bad|Friend's]] cult taking over the world and destroying Tokyo {{spoiler|with a giant robot}}? {{spoiler|Turns out the robot is a fake, and Friend's plan all along is to frame Kenji and his friends as the ones behind all the chaos whilst making himself appear to be the hero. It works, and results in ''the main character'' being killed, along with a few of his friends (they get better)}}.

** Kanna and co's plan to stop Friend from killing {{spoiler|the Pope}}? {{spoiler|The whole thing was another [[Xanatos Gambit]] so Friend could 'save' the Pope and increase his grip over the world, propelling him to Godhood. Oh, and he covertly releases a virus at the same time, killing a ridiculous percentage of the world's population}}. Even if the first goal failed, he still had the second.

* Much of ''[[Planetes]]''. Sure, in the end Hachi is happier and more mature (ditto Yuri, Ai, and arguably Claire,) but most everything is about the same as in the beginning. {{spoiler|The Debris Section is still chronically underfunded in its decrepit basement office, most of the cast are ditzy as ever (especially Lucy,) Edel's sleazy husband is back to abusing women, the SDF remains trouble judging by Hakim, and the SDF-Union treaty hasn't had significant impact on third world suffering}}. The final arc's climax serves as a double dip of this, since not only do {{spoiler|all attempts to thwart the SDF threat come moments too late, saved only by the Union caving into their terms; Ai and Claire collapse from asphyxiation in the final tenth of Ai's miles long run for rescue, saved by a lucky passerby; and Hakim's [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]] threats get ignored by Hachi, whose innocence is saved purely by a jam or empty magazine}}. No, on top of that, {{spoiler|while the SDF ultimately get what they want, their boarding action on the Von Braun is repelled well enough to prevent them from accomplishing either of their goals (control of the bridge in case the engine came back online, or capturing Locksmith) in assaulting the Von Braun, while the Von Braun crew wasn't able to restore engine control, meaning that pretty much the only violent part of the operation and all the hundreds of deaths during it were utterly meaningless}}.

* The ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex|Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex]]'' 2nd Gig episode NIGHT CRUISE has no relation to the overall storyline, follows a one-shot character for 90% of the episode, and features the Major and Batou in what could easily be cameo appearances.

* The entirety of ''[[Shaman King]]'' pretty much {{spoiler|Yoh and his friends fight and struggle through the tournament to stop Hoh from getting the prize, [[A God Am I|becoming a god]] and wiping out humanity. But half-way through the tourney they realize [[Can't Catch Up|theres no way they'll be powerful enough to beat him]] since he has centuries worth of experience and killing him will just allow him to resurrect some years later and start the process anew. Ultimately they let him take the prize but manage to convince him that humanity worth keeping alive just so he can see his initial thoughts about them were wrong. None of the heroes accomplish what they wanted to do had they won the tourney but they're alive to keep seeking other solutions.}}

* In the [[Hentai]] anime ''Onmyouji - Ayakashi no Megami'' there's a big fight between the good and bad guys, with many sacrifices for the good guys. Finally the main heroine succeeds with her plan to unite with the antagonist to stop her. Then the antagonist wins. No explanation given.

** ''High School Boys and the Biography of a Hero'': Hidenori has long idolized "Rubber (Band) Shooter", a masked [[Bully Hunter]] who saved him eight years ago. So when he returns to the shrine where he first met him upon hearing the same "[[Pachelbel's Canon|Pachelbels Canon]]" he played back then, Hidenori ran up the steps only to see... {{spoiler|Yoshitake}} shooting rubber bands. Hidenori dashed off the stairs.

{{quote|''"Who do you admire the most?"''

'''Hidenori''', after: [[wikipedia:Hideyo Noguchi|Hideyo Noguchi]]. }}

** ''High School Boys and the New Semester'': The boys spent the whole skit discussing the winter break while waiting for the first class of the spring term. Their class teacher came in... and announced that due to a typographical error, school should have started ''the day after''.

** ''High School Boy and Ringo's Troubles'': Ringo came into North's Student Council to ask whether she is actually too short. After deciding the other members were too [[Nice Guy]] to be honest, she decided to ask the [[Student Council President]] in the next room instead. The Student Council, fearing that the President was going to say something stupid again, tried to prevent her from leaving the Council room. While their tactics didn't work, the President's answer wasn't stupid either... and Ringo still beat him up.

{{quote|'''Emi''': And so, my summer ended without me able to do anything.}}

* Various cults and evil mages have spent great amounts of time and effort in schemes to resurrect the dark wizard Zeref in ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. Then it turns out that Zeref was alive the whole time, and not pleased when he finds out that a bunch of cults have committed many evil acts in his name...

 

== Comic Books ==

** Or, it means that Casey is a schizophrenic prone to confabulation, which actually fits very well with the rest of his character

* The Crusader subplot in ''Avengers: The Initiative'' was quite compelling - Crusader was a Skrull advance agent who [[Becoming the Mask|went native]], and joined together with the heroes of Earth (in human form) to repel other Skrull invaders. At the end of the story, he has saved the day, gets congratulated by Nick Fury himself... and is shot through the head by 3D-Man, who can see disguised Skrulls. 3D-Man simply shrugs his arms and says "[[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|Skrull]]."

** Recent Star Wars comics ''love'' this. [[Old Soldier]] Able was a clone trooper who survived alone on a forsaken planet for years before the Rebellion found him and recruited him and put him into a commando squad. He was by far the most practical and cynical man there, which sometimes irritated the other Rebels, but he tried to adapt and look out for the last Jedi, Luke. ...And then a comic came out where the whole squad got [[The Virus|transformed into rakghouls]] by a Sith talisman.

* ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]] #28'': Peter Parker sees the Rhino tearing up Manhattan on the news, and rushes to go fight him. Over the course of the issue, he's [[Title Drop|sidetracked]] by various other problems, including a parent-teacher conference, Flash Thompson being a dick, and Gwen Stacy crying in a dumpster. By the time Spider-Man gets to the scene, Iron Man has already easily subdued the Rhino.

* Almost every tale by Edward Gorey has elements of this, notably, ''The Headless Bust'' and ''The Unstrung Harp''.

 

 

== Film ==

* A classic example of this trope is found in the [[Marx Brothers]] film ''[[A Night at the Opera]]''. Groucho and Chico spend several minutes haggling over a contract. Chico keeps objecting to the terms, and Groucho keeps tearing off the sections that Chico won't agree to. Finally, nothing remains but the space where Chico has to put his signature, and Groucho hands him a pen. "I can't write," Chico admits sheepishly. "That's all right," replies Groucho, "There's no ink in the pen, anyway."

* ''[[Time Bandits]]''. In the end, it's revealed that {{spoiler|everything that happened was part of The Supreme Being's plan. The villain defeats himself and the Supreme Being appears to put everything back the way it was.}}

* In the Disney [[Roger Rabbit Effect|live action-animation mix]] ''[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]'', most of the movie is spent searching for a powerful spell which could help the English in [[World War II]], {{spoiler|only to find out near the end that it was all in the children's book, making their excursion into cartoon land pointless.}}

** Not only that, {{spoiler|but upon obtaining the needed object containing the spell's magic words and returning home, they discover that they can't take objects from one world into another}}, making it a double shaggy dog story.

** The "secrets" are that {{spoiler|it's the modern day and the village is just some random village of nutters who fled the "horrors" of modern society (medicine and so forth) to raise their kids in the good old days of ''the dark age of Europe'', even pretending to be surrounded by demons to scare their kids into not leaving the nature reserve that they own. Even when one of the kids is dying because of it, the ''only'' person that they will send for help (because all of the adults who actually have any awareness of the outside world refuse to go) is a blind woman who has no idea what a road is, let alone being able to safely cross it or find a hospital.}}

* ''[[Run Lola Run]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Lola arriving up just in time with the money Manni needed for his crime boss, only to discover that Manni managed to settle things himself without much fuss. The last scene is of them both walking off while Manni asks what's in the bag.}}

*** Of course, both of those outcomes, just like just about everything else that happens in all three storylines, are caused by {{spoiler|Lola's very own interference, which in turn is caused by what happens in the stairwell}}, albeit one has to watch the movie several times to notice every single causality. It's basically 'Chaos Theory: The Movie'.

* ''[[Cabaret]]'' is a very long, drawn-out version of this trope with singing and dancing. Not only is the entire story totally pointless by the end, but none of the characters have developed in any way whatsoever.

* The ''[[Final Destination]]'' series movies are about a group of people who somehow escaped death and then find themselves dying from improbable accidents one after another. They spend the movie trying to figure out death's plan and finding a way to defy it and live. They invariably fail and succumb to the inevitable.

* [[Monster a Go-Go!|"But there was no monster!"]]

* ''[[A Serious Man]]'' has one scene where a rabbi tell the main character about one of his friends, a dentist, who found Hebrew script inscribed on the teeth of a gentile customer of his. After making many attempts to discern their significance, he gave up without knowing how or why they were there. The protagonist in noticeably irritated by the anti-climax.

** {{spoiler|This may be [[Foreshadowing]], given that the movie itself has [[No Ending]].}}

** This is how the original book ended, as well.

*** Though in the book it was Britain who faced the aliens.

* The late-60s Israeli comedy Sallah Shabbati uses one of these as a side plot: the poor immigrant's latest scheme to get cash (so he can get his family out of the refugee camp and into an apartment) is to answer a newspaper ad asking for a dog. When he shows up at the posh Tel Aviv house with a stray he found in the camp, the woman there reacts in horror: "That's not my Pookie!"

* Lots of Middle Eastern movies seem to be about this, and they're depressing. Case in point: ''Kandahar'', which is about a woman who needs to get to Kandahar before her sister, who had both of her legs blown off by a mine, commits suicide. The movie is about her travelling around trying to meet her sister before the date when she said she'd kill herself - but sadly the woman is arrested while trying to cross a border checkpoint. [[Downer Ending|and that's the end]]

** Also ''A Time For Drunken Horses'', which if I remember rightly has two little boys on their own without a family, who begin smuggling goods over a snowy mountain pass with horses. To help the horses survive the bitter cold, they are given alcohol (making this movie a case of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]). One day they are smuggling a haul and they give the horses too much alcohol and the horses collapse. The end.

** Well, for the ''villains'', sure. They spend the entire movie manipulating and killing each other (as well as anyone who gets in the way) over the eponymous statue of a falcon which is covered in black enamel but secretly covered in jewels. At the end, they form an alliance and attain it... only to find it is a fake. For [[Humphrey Bogart|Sam]] [[Private Detective|Spade]], though, it's a grandslam: the falcon lured all these villains out of the woodwork, allowing him to work with them, getting him out from under the police's thumb, make money, and even {{spoiler|reveal his heroic colors by setting every last one of them up to go to jail, including the [[Femme Fatale]] who killed his partner.}}

* In ''[[Eyes Wide Shut]]'', Bill suspects that his wife is having an affair and gets himself embroiled in some dark sexual circles while trying to sow his own wild oats. It turns out that his situation was not nearly as dark as he thought it was, he decides against having sex with anyone after all, and his wife was never disloyal to him in the first place.

* ''[[Burn After Reading]]'' ends with the CIA director and Palmer sitting in an office contemplating what the heck happened. The only thing they learned, they muse, is to not do it again, if only they knew what, if anything, they did to cause the whole thing in the first place.

 

== Jokes ==

* Or the infamous "Passion fruit Story": A boy has to do an assignment on tropical fruits for a geography assignment, as he hands it in, the teacher asks: "What did you do your assignment on?" the boy replied "Passion fruits". The man is then overcome with rage and sends him out of the class. As the principal walks by, he asks why the boy is out of class. The boy replies, "I did a report on passion fruits". The principal expels him on the spot. The boy goes home, tells his mother about the passion fruits and she throws him out. The boy is homeless, and lying on a park bench when a police officer arrives, asking him why he is homeless. Cue the boy getting a (25 year) life sentence. As he gets his case appealed, he explains the passion fruit story. He gets another 25 year life sentence. Near the end of this sentence, the 65 year old man gets approached by someone saying he can explain the whole passion fruit incident, and to just say you murdered someone to avoid another life sentence. The man goes to his hearing and says "I killed a man, won't do it again" and he is freed. As he crosses the road, about to find out what the hell is going on he crossness the road without looking and ''gets hit by a car''.

** A variation is "Beaver". The joke opens with a teacher in a class of third-graders going around the classroom asking students what their favorite animal is. While you get the usual puppies and kittens, a kid known for being a troublemaker says his favorite animal is the beaver. Offended, the teacher leads the student up the chain of command demanding he repeat what he said and each person being offended, from vice-principal to principal to superintendent and on and on until he ends up in front of the president of the United States, who decides the best way for the kid to atone for his behavior is to apologize on the floor of the UN. At the UN, the boy says what he said in class, and a member of the general assembly considers what he said so offensive he runs out into the street and gets hit by a car. Final line: "And the moral of the story is: Look Both Ways Before You Cross the Street!".

 

== Literature ==

** Readers today can also see the Aesop as "Honesty is the Best Policy". If the borrower had simply told the truth at the beginning, they would have avoided all their problems.

** An alternate Aesop overlaps with [[Character Development]] - the woman in question was bitchy, and used money that her husband would have used to go on a holiday to buy a dress for herself for the party (she didn't borrow it, just the necklace), and borrowed the necklace because she couldn't stand the thought of people seeing her in anything less than stunning attire—all her self-worth came from her appearance and what people thought of her. After having to move down a couple social classes to pay back their debts, she learns to sympathise with others, to value herself for who she is, not what she looks like, and becomes a much nicer person as a result. An alternate Aesop could easily be that hard work builds character and looks aren't everything.

** Also, the Chaos troops would probably have moved on to attack other hive cities had they succeeded in destroying Vervunhive.

* In the ''[[Dragon Age]]'' [[Prequel]] novel, Rowan is in love with Maric, who she's been politically arranged to marry. {{spoiler|Turns out that Maric doesn't love her that way and falls in love with an elven woman, Katriel. Rowan is understandably upset by this turn of events but it gets worse. She gets over Maric and falls in love with his best friend, Loghain instead. However, near the end of the book, Maric kills Katriel for being an [[Capulet Counterpart|enemy spy]] and Rowan finds herself going along with the original betrothal agreement and ultimately marries Maric out of duty and not out of love.}} What was the entire point of that?

*** Yeah, but Cailen would have been born ''anyway'' had circumstances been different. Only this time Rowan wouldn't have been in a position she hated. So I ask again: What was the point of that?

*** To emphasize just how far Maric and Loghain value duty over their personal feelings and desires, and giving each of them reasons to become bitter at old age. In case you missed it, it's not a love story, and it isn't supposed to be.

* ''[[American Psycho]]'' by [[Bret Easton Ellis]] (and the film adaptation) - Patrick Bateman becomes increasingly insane and homicidal and a lot of people die at his hands, culminating in him confessing to his lawyer... but in the end, no one believes him, and the book and film end as they begin, with him making boring small talk with boring, self-absorbed people. Patrick himself says at one point: "There has been no reason for me to tell you any of this. This confession has meant ''nothing''..."

* ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]''; the entire book is spent trying to find a cure for said strain, only to reveal at the end that {{spoiler|it had already mutated into a non-infectious form. Because of breathing quickly (but that's another matter entirely)}} Granted, it's still dangerous, but...

** Also , take note that this actually does something in the plot. {{spoiler|Dumbledore not being on the castle at that time makes it possible for the Death Eaters to enter; and gives Harry (and the readers) even more reasons to hate Voldemort. I doubt anyone couldn't feel bad for Dumbledore's dying wish to be unfulfilled, and that everyone hated the villains more}}.

* ''[[My Sister's Keeper]]'' by [[Jodi Picoult]]: Anna was conceived to be a donor match for her sister Kate, who has had aggressive [[Littlest Cancer Patient|leukemia]] since she was 2. When her parents ask Anna to donate a kidney when Kate's kidneys fail, she {{spoiler|sues them for medical emancipation. It is successful and she gains medical emancipation, only to be in a car accident on the way back from court one day with her lawyer. Anna is brain dead, so they pull the plug and give Kate her kidney anyway, thus rendering Anna's court case useless.}}

** Made even worse in that {{spoiler|Kate asked Anna to take her parents to court so they would let her die}}. [[Jodi Picoult]] writes this a lot.

* [[Isaac Asimov]] wrote a short story about an idealized future floating city, ruled by an emperor-like leader, that in the end is brought down under the weight of a bunch of military spaceships - all in service of setting up the last line of the story, which is a [[Feghoot|fairly bad pun]]. The title of the story? "Shah Guido G." As Asimov himself admitted in commentary, it's all there in the title. (If you don't see it, split the title between the "i" and the "d." Now read.)

** Oddly enough, despite the lampshade it isn't actually all that good an example - sure, the point of the story was to set up a bad pun, but as the other character in the framing story points out, the narrator ''did'' bring down the floating city (it just happened to be by manipulation), and that led to a better, more vibrant society being established. In other words, the struggle of the story is not unexpectedly rendered moot when it ends.

* While ''[[Catch-22]]'' itself is not a Shaggy Dog Story, it's made of them. For example, the protagonist Yossarian is a bombardier in WWII. He asks his friend Doc Daneeka to ground him. Yossarian has flown dozens of combat missions and is due to be replaced, but his [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] of a commander insists on sending his men into greater danger and more missions than any other bomb group. Yossarian asks on the [[Stealth Pun|grounds]] that he's crazy. Doc Daneeka points out that anyone who is crazy must be grounded. Of course, they have to ask to be grounded in order to be grounded. Asking to be grounded in the face of danger is a sign of sanity. [[Failure Is the Only Option|Anyone asking to be grounded must therefore be sane, which means they ''cannot'' be grounded.]] Doc Daneeka informs Yossarian of all this and sends him back up to fly. This is where we get the colloquial expression Catch 22 for a situation where the rules of an organization result in damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't. The book is full of similar scenes. It works as a rich source of [[Black Humor]] and as a means of delivering the book's Aesop.

* In ''[[True Grit]]'' and the 2010 movie based on it, Mattie goes to great effort to see Rooster Cogburn for the first time 25 years after he saved her life and vanished into the night. Would have been a touching reunion if he hadn't died three days before.

* Kevin J. Anderson's ''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy|Darksaber]]''. At least, the part about the eponymous superweapon. To make a long story short: the [[Big Bad]] built it using shoddy labor and substandard material, and the first time he tried to use it, [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] (literally, in this case). All the good guys had to do was show up, and their contribution to the finale was complete.

* R. J. Rummel's ''Reset -- Never Again'' {{spoiler|is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]}}. The entire book could have been excised from the series and it would not have affected the overreaching plot at all.

* The first chapter of ''[[Wayside School|Wayside School is Falling Down]]'' has Louis carry a heavy and fragile package from the first floor of Wayside School, to Mrs. Jewls' classroom, located on floor 30. After he climbs 30 flights of stairs and reaches her door, he has to hold it up for several ''more'' minutes, while the kids decide who should open the door. After Louis finally brings the package inside the room, Mrs. Jewls unpacks a computer from inside it, and proclaims that the computer will help her students learn new things more quickly. {{spoiler|She then demonstrates the concept of gravity by dropping the computer out the window and letting the kids see how quickly it can fall to the ground and smash.}}

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Law and Order]]'' frequently uses serious shaggy dog stories, where the suspect avoids being convicted only to be caught for another crime, dying unexpectedly (and sometimes spectacularly), or otherwise being punished by the forces of Fate. Also, frequently the controversial issue of the day which the defense attorney's scheme is hinged around [[Debate and Switch|ends up being irrelevant]] when a simple, personal motive appears in the last five minutes.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Fans who did dislike RTD's stint as Head Writer usually complain about these. One noted example built up the return of a Dangerous species, and then dismissed them with hardly any time on air.

* In an episode of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', Richard and Emily are drawn closer as they try to find the owner of a stray dog that had happened upon them, leading the audience to expect that the experience will lead them to end their separation. In the end, though, the dog's owner claims it and it's back to status quo. The only real revelation to come from the affair is the gender of the dog, which was not what they had thought—it was a ''very'' shaggy dog.

* New characters Nikki and Paolo from season three of ''[[Lost]]'' turned out to be one big Shaggy Dog Story; after an entire episode spent setting up their circumstances and motivations, they are killed off (horribly) before they can affect the plot in any way. This is mostly the viewers' fault, though- they'd been planned to be more important but nobody liked them so they were quickly written out.

** Depending on who you talk to, the show has quite a few examples, up to and including the entire thing.

* The ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Move Along Home" has several main cast members struggling to escape from an incredibly lifelike game—only to eventually fail, and end up back in reality with no consequence except that Quark [[Status Quo Is God|doesn't get to keep a bunch of gems he would have won]] from the aliens of the week. Said aliens are rather surprised at their relief to still be alive; after all, "It was only a game!"

* ''[[iCarly]]'': Both plots in "iSpaceOut". Carly gets [[Space Madness]] and the trio lose the chance to go into space, whilst the mute freaky little girl that spooked Spencer just leaves without talking or any explanation about who she is or where she came from, except that Carly could see her ruling out the previous ideas of a hallucination or vision from Spencer.

{{quote|'''Hawkeye:''' She throws her arms around you, but you push her away!

'''BJ:''' I-what? I push her away? Why?

** Pretty much every girl that Ted falls in love with and hooks up with. Particularly Robin. We know right from the first episode that Robin is not the mother but a large part of Season 1 and 2 and in a few other seasons is dedicated to Ted pining over Robin, Robin pining over Ted, getting together and breaking up, thinking of restarting their relationship, having a non-strings attached relationship and then deciding they are [[Better as Friends]].

** In-Universe, there's an episode where Marshall, Lily and Barney spend the entire time trying to guess which Canadian celebrity invited Robin over to look at which collectible and propositioned her to engage in which sex act. At the end, she finally tells them. They probably would have been more impressed if they had known who The Frozen Snowshoe was, what Harvey's trays were or how one performs an [[Noodle Incident|Old King Clancy.]] And then, the audience is shown that Robin was being an [[Unreliable Narrator]] anyway.

 

== Music ==

* [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al Yankovic]]'s song ''Albuquerque'' is a long, rambling story about the singer's escape from his mother "who tied [him] up and force-fed [him] nothing but sauerkraut until [he] was twenty-six-and-a-half years old" (because "IT'S GOOD FOR YOOOOOOOOOOOU!") and his subsequent escape, journey to Albuquerque, plane crash, battle with a hermaphrodite with only one nostril, encounter with flesh-eating weasels, donuts, marriage, kids, divorce, job at Sizzler, and so forth. Near the end, he loses his train of thought after telling a few vaguely related anecdotes and then remarks that the only thing he was trying to say with the story was that [[Does Not Like Spam|he just really hates sauerkraut]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGVYki-oyQ ''Trapped in the Drive-Thru''] deserves a mention as well. A husband and wife argue over what to have for dinner, and finally decide to go to a fast-food place. At the drive-thru, another argument ensues over what to order, followed by the husband realizing he doesn't have his wallet. Wife offers her credit card but they don't take credit, and she only has $3 in cash on her. Husband scrounges through the car looking for loose change to cover the difference, doesn't have enough and is ultimately forced to cancel the wife's chicken sandwich ("I wasn't even really hungry in the first place"). A 10-minute-long buildup that ultimately culminates in the husband biting into the burger at a red light only to realize {{spoiler|they forgot the onions.}}.

{{quote|'''Arlo:''' ''(after finishing the initial story)'' "That's not what I come to talk to you about, though. I just thought I'd mention it."}}

* [[King Crimson|Robert Fripp]] once penned a [[Roald Dahl]]-styled children's story called "The Saga Of Rodney Toady", about a man who is constantly picked on for being fat and ugly. Neighbors would make fun of him behind his back, girls would ask him out to dates just so they can stand him up and his parents would tell him to find a fat and ugly girl to marry. The end of the story just has Rodney buying "rude books with rude pictures in them". It can be found on the 1968 album ''The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp'', which includes, [[Madness Mantra|among other]] [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|things]], other Shaggy Dog Stories in the form of songs like "Call Tomorrow", "Digging My Lawn" and "The Elephant Song".

* The Fiery Furnaces. Pick a song. Any song.

** Special mention goes to "My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found" for being a ''literal'' shaggy dog story.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** Scott Adams in general is fairly fond of this trope, often times inspired by [[Ripped from the Headlines|real life stories from readers]] about [[Pointy-Haired Boss|Pointy Haired Bosses]].

* When the extended flashback in the strip [[9 Chickweed Lane|Nine Chickweed Lane]] began, it was promoted as being the story of how Gran fell in love with her husband; it finished as being how marrying O'Malley was a consolation prize because her true love and Juliette's birth father had to return to Austria.

 

== Radio ==

** Garrison Keillor in general is a master of this trope.

 

 

== Theater ==

** Any Beckett play with a plot fits this trope.

* Gyorgy Ligeti's opera ''[[wikipedia:Le Grand Macabre|Le Grand Macabre]]'': Death (called Necrotzar) announces the end of the world. People prepare for the final moment. At the end: nothing happens, except Death dies. Cue [[Epileptic Tree]] justifications.

 

== Video Games ==

** The game's creator has said that {{spoiler|some or all of the last campaign is a hallucination, so the enemy isn't really wasting ships or lives at that point (it also explains how so many of the unique boss enemies reappear)}}.

* Original ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' was this so much, it hurts: April goes on an epic quest, discovers that she is supposed to {{spoiler|become the [[Physical God]] to [[Save Both Worlds]],}} sees all her friends and acquaintances {{spoiler|killed or maimed in process, screws up all her previous life...}} only to discover that she was {{spoiler|, after all, only mistaken for [[The Chosen One]] and is, after all, not really needed anywhere.}} Of course, one could argue that she did save the Twin Worlds but...

* In ''[[Hellgate:London]]'', the humans are trying to kill Sydonai and expel all the demons from Earth. {{spoiler|After you kill Sydonai, Murmur appears to tell you that he use you to kill Sydonai so he can get his position, and there's no indication that the demons are leaving just because Sydonai was killed.}}

* ''[[Prince of Persia]]'': The 2008 game.

*** To be fair, the game IS a trilogy, so not having a definitive ending is kind of to be expected. Plus, it doesn't seem like sealing Ahriman was actually the point, but rather what mattered was the Prince's transformation.

*** I thought that was the [[Multiple Endings|bad end]], i.e. you have the option to walk away from the can to get the good end. Or is [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|Stupidity your only option]]? Or, worse yet, is it [[Cutscene Incompetence]]?

* ''[[Diablo (series)|Diablo]]'' 1 did this. The protagonist finally defeated the [[Big Bad]], only to become corrupted by it's Soulstone and become the new Diablo himself.

** And this is because the protagonist believes that they are strong enough to fight the spirit of Diablo.

* Both of the first two ''[[Monkey Island (series)|Monkey Island]]'' games deploy this trope comedically. The first involves the protagonist attempting to rescue a [[Damsel in Distress]], only for her to escape the villain's clutches on her own, and you bungle her attempt to destroy the villain. The second is about the protagonist searching for a legendary treasure, {{spoiler|except it was [[All Just a Dream|All Just The Overactive Imagination Of Two Children Playing Together.]]}}

** In the first game, Guybrush spends a lot of time searching the potion which can destroy ghosts: but {{spoiler|the potion is actually root beer, which can be found in the vending machine on the very island where the game begun!}}

* There are only two things that are clear from the ending of ''[[Contact (video game)|Contact]]'': The bad guys weren't really evil, and- despite deceiving both Terry and the player- the Professor isn't either. So... why all the drama?

* Every entry in the ''[[Geneforge]]'' series, except possibly the last. Each game concludes its plotline with the player victorious- and usually on a hopeful note for the world at large, [[Multiple Endings|if you play right]]. But then the next game rolls around, and the world has gotten more [[Crapsack World|Crapsack]], the bad guys more threatening, the good guys less sympathetic, and your achievements in the previous games are barely mentioned. An air of hopelessness and futility hangs over the proceedings by the end of ''Geneforge 3'', and never goes away.

* At the end of ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man (video game)|Ultimate Spider Man]]'', you as Peter Parker/Spider-Man have to fight Eddie Brock/Venom to the finish to keep him from killing Bolivar Trask, the man who apparently had something to do with both of your parents' deaths and get your hands on the file which tells you the truth about the incident. During the cutscenes after beating Venom you don't actually get to find out what was in the file and {{spoiler|Eddie tracks down and murders Trask in prison anyway}}. And then the game got retconned.

** It's only a Shaggy Dog Story for Eddie, ''not'' Peter and the player as we ''do'' get to see what was in the file during the final cutscenes. {{spoiler|Eddie's father took a sample of his and Richard Parker's (Peter's dad) research, then tried it on the plane, which transformed him into a Venom-like creature and caused the plane to crash. Also, Eddie cites his captivity by Trask and Trask only getting three years as his reasons for killing Trask.}}

* In the brilliantly-written ''[[Time Hollow]]'', the intrepid hero finds himself in a completely altered reality, with no memories whatsoever of how it happened and no idea how to set things right. All he has is a mystical pen with the ability to alter something that happened in the past, each time changing his present reality in drastic and unpredictable ways. Sometimes solving a problem creates an entirely different problem, which he must then seek out and fix. After countless twists, turns, harrowing confrontations, and narrow escapes, the pieces ever-so-gradually fall into place (with several pieces falling out in the meantime). It turns out that if the hero goes to a certain location to save a certain person's life, this will avert the long chain of events which caused time to go out of whack, and everything will return to normal. Of course, by then it should be readily apparent that had he just known that beforehand, he could've just done that right away and saved several weeks of trouble. {{spoiler|Even better, once you finish the game, you can start a new one and do just that! Meet your enemy on the street, let him know that you're onto his scheme, and offer to set things right. He'll grudgingly give you one night to make good on your offer, which is more than enough. Go to the school, get the pen from your dad, save the girl, done. You even get a special ending for your trouble.}}

** That feels like a "Did not do the Research" comment, considering that in game, the story is fine until the very end. {{spoiler|After you complete the first 3 stories using Sonic, Shadow, and Silver, Mephilis the Dark appears behind Sonic and kills him, Elise cries at Sonic's Death, Iblis is released, Mephilis merges with Iblis, and Solaris is born anew and pissed, which does, in theory, make everyone's efforts at keeping all of this from happening kinda moot. But then Everyone works together, revives Sonic, he goes Super with Shadow and Silver, they beat the Final Boss, and then Sonic has Elise blow out the Flames of Disaster once and for all, eliminating Solaris from the time line, and then making the story itself a moot point,}} which then means that the game is a Shaggy Dog Story for the player.

*** More referring to Sonic's part of the main game, not the last story. Silver and Shadow actually have the meat of the plot (Iblis, Mephiles, etc), but Sonic just runs around saving Elise like 7 or 8 times, and fighting Eggman, who also doesn't do very much. Sonic has more relevance in last than his own story despite {{spoiler|being dead for most of it}}.

* The recent updates to ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' have turned it into a Shaggy Dog Story.

** Arguably the original too, since it's revealed during the credits that {{spoiler|it was all part of the experiment}}.

* In the ''A Crystalline Prophecy'' add-on scenario for ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' was a cross between a Shaggy Dog Story and [[All Just a Dream]]. You can [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|get some actual decent gear rewards]] from the missions, but the story itself would have resolved in the same manner had you not been involved, not to mention that none of the NPCs involved remember anything that happened or mention it ever again.

* In ''The Lost Crown'', you can have Nigel collect photos and recordings of various hauntings, as well as find the legendary Saxon crown. In the end, {{spoiler|he not only has to return the crown, but all his hard-sought ghost evidence is sabotaged.}}

* At the end of ''[[Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent]]'' {{spoiler|the foreman you were trying to save is taken away screaming by the Hidden Ones. Tether's superior doesn't care about this in the least since the eraser factory is open again...despite the fact that the President (the factory was the main eraser supplier for the White House) ''didn't even notice'' the eraser shortage.}}

** The three most visible cases are: the The Geth War-{{spoiler|There is only one ending that even allows them to exist as [[A Is]] rendering all the work to force peace with the Quarians meaningless}}; Krogan Genophage-{{spoiler|With the bulk of the Krogans off their homeworld the loss of the Relays means that regardless of being cured or not they won't make it home to continue their race and may just die out}} and the Salvation of Earth-{{spoiler|With Humanity's entire military and civil government gone and no way to get assistance then Earth will likely degenerate rather then be saved (barring if it was just incinerated)}}.

{{quote|''As a side note: There is a DLC being made to remedy the lack of resolutions (which forced the inferences as to the conclusion listed above). As to whether this will retroactively "Un-Shaggy Dog Story" the game as released is [[Broken Base|highly debatable]].''}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Gastrophobia]]'', almost all the chapters end with the plot getting humorously undermined.

* Almost every single arc in ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' is one of these.

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]:'' In the Fantasy arc, [http://irregularwebcomic.net/516.html in strip 516], the heroes receive their epic quest to find the Ruby of Dwarven Might. [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/3106.html About 2500 strips later], they finally locate the Ruby: {{spoiler|one of them had been wearing it around his neck since the beginning of the quest, completely unaware of its true origin}}.

* The ''[[Electric Wonderland]]'' comic "Day of Fools" has Trawn race to warn Aerynn of a scan for hackers and magicians. {{spoiler|She fails to warn Aerynn in time, but it turns out the scans never detect Aerynn's brand of magic.}}

* Frequently used in ''[[Mountain Time]],'' but most notable in [http://mountaincomics.com/2010/08/16/the-unstartled-giraffe/ one instance] that took 12 episodes to reach its shaggy conclusion -- notable because Mountain Time stories hardly ever last more than ''one'' episode.

* ''[[DM of the Rings]]'', a webcomic running the plot of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', is resolved in exactly the same way as the book... Except Frodo and Sam aren't [[Player Character]]s at that point. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are, and are essentially [[Railroading|railroaded]] into distracting the [[Big Bad]] and doing nothing of value while an NPC wins the campaign by succeeding at a Will Save. The players are underwhelmed.

 

== Web Original ==

* The Story Guy videos from ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' are based almost entirely around this trope. Installments such as [http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/14/grilled_cheese Gilled Cheese] and [http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/36/rare_book Rare Book] have the Story Guy go on at great length for what is eventually revealed to be no point at all.

** Dear God!

* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', this occurs more often than not, due to the [[Anyone Can Die|brutal nature]] of the game. Entire arcs can be left either unresolved or rendered entirely meaningless when someone integral simply dies.

* [[Charlie the Unicorn]] always ends up on quests like this.

* In his review of [[Taylor Swift]]'s ''Fifteen'', [[Todd in the Shadows]] tells the story of a heart wrenching break up from his past. He then destroys the mood of the story by revealing that it never happened to him but was instead the plot of an episode of ''[[Saved by the Bell]].''

* [http://travalicious.tumblr.com/post/3007256993/why-are-you-gay "Why are you gay?" "Well, a long time ago, I was sitting at home on the computer..."]

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s Dark Nella Saga didn't change the show's [[Black and Gray Morality]] at all. The Chick's still a [[Jerkass]], Nella's still the abused friend, and Dr. Tease is still evil. [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] however; the [[Dysfunction Junction]] they have going is just too fun to die.

* The ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' episode "The Viper is Coming" featured the Joes discovering several COBRA bases and plots around the world based on cryptic phone calls from someone calling himself "The Viper". Characters on both sides try to discover who the Viper is as he seems to predict COBRA's every move. Finally, the Viper's latest call warns them that: "This is the Viper. I be there at noon today. Be ready." The Joes call in reinforcements and barricade the house where the calls were being received. Right at 12 PM, an old immigrant in overalls shows up. In a heavily accented voice, he declares: "I'm the Viper. I've come to vipe your vindows."

** An episode of ''[[Animaniacs]]'' which spoofed the Three Musketeers used the same Vindow Viper gag.

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', after 10 minutes' screen time of "Procrastination", frantically writes a 800-word report for Mrs. Puff's driving school on what not to do at a red light and runs off to school to send it in. He encounters Mrs. Puff who tells him two things: There's a field trip to a red light today, and the assignment has been canceled. Probably a good thing, since the resulting report (filled with things like "karate chopping the TV" and "shooting the breeze with the mailman") would probably get him an F if it actually mattered.

** Not that Spongebob [[Failure Is the Only Option|can ever get a passing grade anyway]].

*** Even more metaphorical, as in the end it's the actions of a single person (Stan or P. Diddy, depending on how you look at it) that renders the votes of everyone else null and void.

* A ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short featuring [[Porky Pig]] had him being "hounded" by a stray dog throughout the picture. When he finally gets home, he sees a news report asking for the return of the dog and offering a big reward. Porky gets the dog (who reversed himself from jumping over a bridge) and head over to the mansion where the owner lives. The dog replaces himself with a toy dog while Porky isn't watching, and Porky is told that the dog is not the owner's, additionally saying that the missing dog was a talking dog. As Porky ponders over this revelation, the lost dog, who up to this moment didn't talk, lifts up Porky with his arms and says, "Well buddy, you've got yourself a dog!"

** Of course, one might argue that the Professor gained the important knowledge of {{spoiler|who his son actually was, something he learned in the fantasy world rather than the real world}}, although this was never really made perfectly explicit.

** Also, Bender's plotline in "[[Freaky Friday Flip|The Prisoner of Benda]]". He attempts to steal Robo-Hungarian Emperor Nikolai's jewels while in possession of his body, and once everything is resolved...

** Also, the episode where Grandpa sets out to find the Sword of Ekchuah, in the Mayan temple. They fight off Enoch and his forces constantly through the episode and even a Mayan guardian alien type thing. At the end, however the sword turns to dust as soon as Enoch touches it. What a waste of time

*** That part is lampshaded by Max who jokes that "that's what happens when your weapon is 5,000 years old".

* Used beautifully in the "Winter" part of the ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' episode "Four Seasons of Death". A tribe of yeti-like humanoids harvest a giant crystal from a cave and forge it into an [[Infinity+1 Sword]]. They do battle with each other for the right to wield it, the most powerful of their tribe coming out on top. He stands on a mountain pass, bearing the mighty sword, and awaits Jack's arrival. Jack arrives... and defeats the yeti-man with one hit, shattering the sword. He walks on, oblivious to the effort the tribe had expended in trying to stop him.

** Done ''again'' in an episode focusing on a group of Bounty Hunters that gather and discuss their plans and reasons for going after Jack. When the moment of truth arrives, Jack defeats them all in the time it takes for a drop of melting ice to fall.

{{quote|'''Brian:''' So what you're saying is that what you experienced in the simulation didn't really happen, or even matter?

'''Stewie:''' Yes, that's correct.

'''Stewie:''' Oh, at least it didn't end like ''[[The Sopranos]]'', [[Tempting Fate|where it just cut to black in]] [[Smash to Black|mid-sen-]] }}

** "Partial Terms of Endearment" was about Lois becoming a surrogate mother for her college girlfriend and her husband, but after becoming pregnant, said girlfriend and husband end up dying, leaving her and Peter with the conflict over having an abortion. The final scene of the episode is made as though it's about to introduce a "new member of the Griffin family", only for Peter to [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|break the fourth wall]] and say, "[[Status Quo Is God|"We had]] [[Crosses the Line Twice|the abortion]]," and the episode ends on that abrupt note.

* On one episode of ''[[Goof Troop]]'', Pete is given money to pay a contractor to renovate a lakeside house his wife Peg was selling. Pete spends it on a harpoon gun for his boat instead, kicks out the contractor and tries to fix the house himself with help from Goofy. Naturally, the house gets destroyed, and Pete has to buy an identical house from across the lake - which belongs to the contractor, who asks for Pete's boat in return. After going to all the trouble of replacing the house before Peg arrives with the buyers, the sale is made, only for the new owners to demolish it immediately afterwards because they were only interested in the land. Cue Pete having a nervous breakdown.

** Yet ''another'' episode involves Pete stealing Goofy's mortgage money. When Peg lets Goofy stay at ''their'' house as a result, Pete tries to give back the money only to find it lost. He spends the rest of the episode trying to pay Goofy back with his money with Goofy refusing out of decency. When he ''finally'' gets Goofy to take the money, PJ and Pistol earn that exact same amount in their work program Pete established. Pete pays them the money, and they give it to Goofy. Then Goofy finds his actual mortgage money in a device that's been around the whole time. Cue Pete having ''another'' nervous breakdown.

* One episode of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' has Arnold accidentally dropping his grandpa's favorite pocket watch down the sewer where it is stolen by a crazy man called "The Sewer King". After a battle of chess and a long chase sequence through the sewer, Arnold finally returns home, exhausted and filthy, with his Grandpa's pocket watch. Grandpa then accidentally drops the watch into the garbage disposal and it falls down the drain ([[Suspension of Disbelief|how? God knows]]). He then just grabs another pocket watch... ''from a drawer full of identical pocket watches.'' Cue Arnold taking a long depressing walk outside, as well as [[Here We Go Again|fetching a quart of milk for Grandpa]].

* ''[[Wakfu]]'''s first season revolves around a certain troubled time mage trying to turn time back to prevent the whole arc from happening. {{spoiler|He succeeds, though only managing to turn time back 20 minutes out of the about 200 years.}}

* This happens a few times in ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]''. One in particular is where a pair of nomads put a curse on the hero's town where it would get hotter and hotter all because the eponymous hero asked an innocent question about their merchandise. Dave was then forced by his older sister to go a journey to find the artifact that could break the curse. After a perilous quest where the heroes are captured by a gang of dragons and their own pet temporarily turns against them, they return with the artifact only to find that the sister who made them go on the quest in the first place had managed to convince the nomads to remove the curse.

* The ''[[Storm Hawks]]'' episode "Thunder Run" has the gang rush to save their friend after he pissed off a mob boss. The mob boss asks for "Rosen Yoga" and gives the team until sundown to retrieve it. They do, and "Rosen Yoga" turned out to be Frozen Yogurt (the Mob Boss has an incredibly bad lisp that makes him mispronounce things). {{spoiler|What really makes this a shaggy story is that the mob boss later got impressed with Junko's eating habits, and filled up on food after an eating contest before the Storm Hawks got back, not to mention giving his respects to his new-found friend. Piper was understandably pissed after learning all of this.}}

* In one episode of ''[[Doug]]'', Patti invites Doug to a dinner party she'll be hosting that weekend, with [[Stock Yuck|liver and onions]] on the menu. Doug is horrified, but doesn't dare back out for fear of offending her, so he spends the entire week trying and failing to make himself eat liver and onions so he'll at least know what he's in for. When he finally forces himself to try it at a restaurant on the night before the party, he realizes that it isn't anywhere near as bad as he thought it'd be. The next evening, he arrives at Patti's house, ready to chow down, only for her to tell him that she was ''joking'' about the liver and onions; everyone's eating hot dogs instead.

 

== Other ==

* The Great White Sheet Game: Typically played at co-ed college parties with some amount of alcohol, often on road trips where the participants have multiple hotel rooms. One person who has never played before is chosen as the Player, while all those who have played before take on the roles of "Master" (for the leader of the game) and "Others". The Player sits on a bed, and has a sheet tented over him. The Master then explains that this is a test, and that the Player must follow the instructions that the Master or the Others give, to the letter. The game then proceeds, first with the Master describing a scene: "You are walking through the desert. It is hot, and you are thirsty. You realize you don't need to be wearing as much as you are. Take something off, and pass it to me." Usually, the Player removes something inconsequential—jewelry or shoes. The Others then continue in the same vein—embellishing and otherwise confounding the statement, but always with the admonition to remove something the Player is wearing needlessly. As time goes on, articles of clothing start coming off and getting passed out. {{spoiler|The game ends when the Player figures out he's supposed to take off the damn sheet. If he's already naked underneath, well, then the Master and Others won the game.}}

** [[Scout Out|Boy Scouts of America]] has a version where a number of newer scouts stands before a crowd and all place blindfolds on themselves. They are ordered not to make a sound for the duration of the game and are told to take an article of clothing off. The ones who take the blindfold off are quietly told to remain silent and the game is ended when the boys all have their blindfolds off or there are any boys reduced to their undergarments.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* The [[wikipedia:Balloon boy hoax|balloon boy hoax]]: a balloon built for science experiments flew off, and the police were tracking it over several hours because they thought a six-year old boy was trapped in there. It turned out the boy was hiding in a box in his home the whole time. Not only that, but the family staged the entire thing just to get on TV.

* [http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Hot-Room.aspx The Hot Room] Yes, this really happened.

** Incidentally you will try to invoke this whenever something particularly bad happens.

* The infamous tale of the [[Indy Car|Indy Racing League]].

[[Category:Shaggy Dog Story]]

[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]