Snake Oil Salesman: Difference between revisions

 

Expect to find ''actual'' Snake Oil Salesmen at the local [[Medicine Show]]. The [[Beat Bag]] is his hat.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Dr. Doxey in the ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' comic series.

* ''[[Glengarry Glen Ross]]'' follows the lives of shady real estate salesmen.

* Professor Marvel in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' movie, the [[Loveable Rogue]] type, played by the same actor as the wizard himself.

* [[Danny Kaye]]'s character Georgi in ''The Inspector General'' (1949) starts the film as the assistant of Snake Oil Salesman Yakov, but turns out to be too honest for the job.

* Mr. Merriweather, in ''[[Little Big Man]]''. Protagonist Jack Crabb also becomes one of these as his assistant.

* In the [[Hurricane of Puns]] comic strip ''Sir Bagby'', there was a story arc where Sir Bagby encountered a snake oil salesman; his first reaction was a bemused "I hadn't realised so many people had squeaky snakes."

 

* ''[[Gunsmoke]]'' had Professor Lute Bone, whose "Miracle Tonic's" active ingredient was opium. As a twist on the usual, he was firmly against alcohol abuse.

 

** Also, Chet Rippo, who appears in the first and second. For 39 coins, he will upgrade one of Mario or his partners' stats by two levels, but downgrade all the others one level. In the second game, he's [[Loveable Rogue| more honest about the side effect]]; in fact, it's possible that it's two different people, as they look different in each game.

** Charlieton in the second game, but only when you meet him in Rogueport; when you meet him in the Pit of 100 Trials, he's an [[Intrepid Merchant]] who probably [[Adam Smith Hates Your Guts| took lessons from Adam Smith.]] But in both cases, he's a sleazy merchant. ''However'', if you're ''very'' lucky when you talk to him in Rogueport, he might be selling Jammin' Jellies or Ultra Shrooms, very useful items, for only 120 coins, which is the cheapest they sell for in the game.

* ''[[Pokémon]]'' examples:

** The Magikarp Salesman first appears in the original [[Pokémon Red and Blue]]'' and Blue (and [[Pokémon Fire Red|Pokémon Fire Red and LeafGreen]]''). First seen in the Pokémon Center on Route 4, he offers you a Magikarp for 500 PokeDollars. This is, of course, a ripoff, because you can get a Magikarp anywhere. While he doesn't actually appear in the sequel a boy in Pewter City (which is adjacent to Route 4) will show his Gyrados to anyone who asks, and a girl in the same city claims he bought a Magikarp from a "weird old man" three years prior, and trained it.

** In ''[[Pokémon X and Y]]'', a Magikarp Salesman appears, and ''he's even more crooked than any others''. {{spoiler|After you talk to a hiker that you meet in the hotels enough times, he offers you a "Super Special" Magikarp in exchange for a Gyarados. It's nothing but a plain old Magikarp, and only Lvl 5, lower than one you could catch yourself. (If you knew that the guy's name was "Caveat" and that the Magikarp's name was "Carpe Diem", it might tip you off, but you only learn that if you trade it.) The only compensation is that the Magikarp has an Adamant nature (which lowers Special Attack to boost its Attack) and has a perfect IV in Attack.}}

** There's a guy like this in ''[[Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]''. He doesn't offer a Magikarp, and if you're clever, you can benefit from dealing with him. {{spoiler| After dealing with Groudon/Kyogre, an old man who claims to sell stones appears on Route 114. He speaks highly of one he offers for 40,000 PokéDollars, even higher of one for 80,000, and highest of one for 150,000. But all three are Hard Stones. Two items he sells, which he claims are "for beginners" and tries to steer you away from, only cost 1,500; these are the Mega Evolution stones for the two Starters you ''did not'' choose.}}

 

== Webcomics ==

* They're actually honest about how good their cider-making invention is is, but everything else? [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|He's Flim, he's Flam,]] [[Ear Worm|perfect examples]] [[Villain Song|nonpareliii!]]

* An episode of [[An American Tail|Fievel's American Tails]] features Dr. Travis T. Hippocrates, who commissions an unknowing Fievel to pass out candy to everyone in town that gives them hiccups so that the doctor can sell them a placebo cure.

* In ''[[The Owl House]]'', Eda is the [[Lovable Rogue]] type; she ''literally'' sells snake oil ("nobody wants an unoiled snake") and has her pet owls steal cheap toys and junk from the human world, then selling them to the residents of the Boiling Isles as "human collectibles" for far more than they're worth. Naturally, she's made a lot of enemies; [[Wanted Poster]]s with her picture are common even in her home town.

* Grunkle Stan from ''[[Gravity Falls]]'' has had a long, mostly unsuccessful career as this, mostly doing so running his Mystery Shack, a museum of oddities where ''most'' of them are fakes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Con Man]]

[[Category:Western Characters]]

[[Category:The Trickster]]

[[Category:Doctor Index]]