Expensive Glass of Crap: Difference between revisions

Okay, so [[Wine Is Classy]]. The classiest of wine drinkers can tell you the difference between the wine of 1993 and 1995 from their favorite vineyard. And then this jokester shows up. He presents a bottle of bum wine from the corner store as a fancy wine much more expensive than it actually is. And the drinkers never catch on, enjoying the cheap wine. In subversions, the drinker catches on, or in extreme cases is harmed by the substitute.

This can effect any commodity that is perceived to be mainly appreciated by snobs, not just wine. The object has to be presented as a quality brand, but doesn't have to be a real brand.

(Note: This does not cover blind taste tests. Differences [or lack thereof] between brands goes in [[Brand Names Are Better]].)

* ''[[Lupin III]]'': In [[Lupin III/Recap/S2 /E12|"The Sleight Before Christmas"]], the gang steals a bottle of wine being given as a gift to the US President, that was originally supposed to be a gift from Napoleon to Empress Josephine, and replace it with a much newer bottle of wine. Lupin and his crew watch the president enjoy the fake bottle of wine on TV. Then they open theirs and realize that they've stolen a 200 yr old bottle of vinegar.

* In the ''[[Serenity]]'' comic "Wash Out", fancy-ish champagne is switched for cheap rotgut at Wash's eulogy. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that Wash liked the rotgut better.

* The [[Roald Dahl]] short story ''The Butler'' told of a homeowner who developed a taste in wine, sought to amass a large wine collection and lectured his guests extensively on the subject. The story's end reveals that his butler, who guided him on his journey, had been fooling him and had always served him the same cheap blend.

* ''[[Penn and Teller Bullshit]]'':

** In the episode "The Best" they pass off items ranging from a tv-dinner to canned tomatoes as the best ingredients to diners. They also use a real review for an expensive wine to describe a cheap wine. Most of the diners enjoy their dinner.

** In another episode, they have a guy go into a restaurant and offer dinners speciality bottled waters with different descriptions. They were all filled with tap water from the same hose.

* [[Played With]] on ''[[All in The Family]]''. An old friend of Archie's is coming over, he likes an expensive scotch. Archie gets an empty bottle of the expensive stuff and fills it with a cheap scotch instead, saying his buddy won't know the difference. When the friend comes over, he mentions that he's been having money trouble and is forced to drink substandard scotch; his taste buds have gotten so used to it that even the fine scotch Archie is serving him tastes like the cheap stuff now.

* ''[[Bones]]'': The [[Victim of the Week]] is a wine critic; he's killed by a man who he discovered was bootlegging expensive wine, filling knockoff bottles with his cheaper wine

* ''[[CSI: NY]]'' had an episode where cheap wine was being passed off as expensive, though that wasn't ultimately why the vic was killed-it involved the killer trying to squash the guy's jewelled cockroach.

* In ''[[Black Books]]'', Manny and Bernard housesit for a friend and accidentally drink a ridiculously expensive and rare bottle of wine he was going to present as a gift to the pope. They brew their own and put it in the bottle, reasoning that "all wine tastes the same". Their brew kills the pope and the friend arrested for it.

* Referred to in [[The Bible]], the story of the wedding at Cana; It was the custom to switch out the good wine for inferior stuff once the guests were buzzed, but Jesus turns water into the ''good'' stuff and people can tell the difference.