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Shaggy Dog Story: Difference between revisions
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* The episode "Speak Like A Child" in ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''. After receiving a mysterious tape by airmail, Jet and Spike set out to find a way to play the darn thing so they can find out what's on it. In the end they end up going back to Earth and raiding an antique museum in the basement of a condemned building just for a video player and an old TV, {{spoiler|only to discover they brought back a VHS player -- and the tape is Betamax. To compound it, a Betamax player arrives from the same sender, by airmail, shortly afterward.}}
** Jet even lampshades it in the preview, stating that the story goes nowhere at all, makes no sense, and all the action is small-scale.
* In ''[[Baccano!]]'', the words whispered of the Rail Tracer (a train-riding murderer of urban legend) to Rachel come across as one of these, particularly when her listeners crack up upon hearing them {{spoiler|"Tickets please."}}
** 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.
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* 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.
* A throwaway joke in an episode of ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'' details Hawkeye telling a story about his tent mate B.J. Hunnicut (in a smoking jacket with a zipper down the back) and Lana Turner (in a pink angora sweater with a zipper down the back).
{{quote|'''Hawkeye:''' She throws her arms around you, but you push her away!
'''BJ:''' I-what? I push her away? Why?
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* ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'' has one happen to Paula and Luna, the ''We Challenge You!'' sidequest involved running around all over the world searching for hidden clues, at the end of the search, the whole thing was revealed to be {{spoiler|a prank left behind by Zamuel meant for anyone who happens upon his clues.}}
* The endings of both ''[[Earthworm Jim (video game)|Earthworm Jim]]'' games, of the comedic kind. In the first game, the cow launched by the hero in the first level suddenly plummets into the ending and crushes the newly rescued [[Damsel in Distress]]. In the second, it turns out the [[Love Interest]], the [[Big Bad]] and the eponymous earthworm -- [[Tomato Surprise|were all cows in disguise]].
* The plot of the [[Tower Defense]] game ''[[Immortal Defense]]'' is a Shaggy Dog Story of truly ''epic'' proportions. At the end of the game, after nearly a hundred missions of defending your beleaguered home world against increasingly impossible odds, you finally learn that {{spoiler|the enemy really ''did'' wipe out all life on your planet at the end of the second campaign, your character has gone insane, all the "transmissions" you've been receiving from the planet were in fact hallucinations, and you've spent the past ''million years'' defending a lifeless ball of rock}}. Of course, it's arguably worse for your enemies, as this revelation also means that {{spoiler|they've spent countless lives and lost thousands of vessels trying to ''invade'' that lifeless ball of rock}}. And to top it all off, unless you've gotten [[
** 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...
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