Comically Small Bribe: Difference between revisions

Sometimes gets inverted; the initial bribe is very large, at least by the standards of the person offering it. The other character refuses it but accepts something comparatively worthless instead, maybe even making the reduced counter-offer themselves. This is more likely to be a dramatic example than the normal way around-- typicallyaround—typically because the person taking the "bribe" has reasons of their own to do what's asked of them, but want to make a statement of some sort with the token payment. A specific example common in the real world is taking a single dollar (or local equivalent) as payment for services rendered; this is done because both sides have to give '''something''' [[wikipedia:Consideration|in order for a legal contract to exist]].

* ''[[Austin Powers]]'': The concept is used in the first movie -- Drmovie—Dr Evil, who's been in outer space since [[The Sixties]], asks for a million dollars or he'll destroy the world. All the diplomats to whom he gives his request laugh their arses off, because it's such a small sum. The sequel plays it in reverse. Dr. Evil asks the US government in 1969 for $100 billion and they laugh because, "[[As You Know|This is 1969!]] That amount of money doesn't even exist!" The third movie [[Double Subversion|Double Subverts]] it by having him hold the world ransom for "one million billion shaba-daba-illion... yen", and having the world leaders agree that this is reasonable.

** In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Making Money|Making Money]]'', Cosmo Lavish offers Moist von Lipwig ten thousand dollars in exchange for [[Mister Muffykins|Mr. Fusspot]], getting a rather indignant reaction. (Moist will get twice that per year just for ''not'' selling him, and that's without considering the associated contract with the Guild of Assassins.) [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]]d later on during the scenes in which Cosmo talks with other Lavish relatives - he ''deliberately'' offered a [[Comically Small Bribe]] in an effort to get Moist to underestimate him.

** The inverted version occurs in ''Labyrinth.'' A refugee from [[Wretched Hive|Jackson's Whole]] hands Miles and Bel Thorne her entire life's savings in cash, hoping it will be enough to engage them as mercenaries to get her off the planet. Bel tells her the price is wrong-- thenwrong—then peels one single dollar off the stack, hands her back the rest, and tells her this is more like it. Needless to say, It's Personal for Captain Thorne.

* On ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Anya once tried to bribe a demon with promises that she would have sex with him, and the demon responded that he didn't find a human-looking creature like Anya to be sexually attractive (thus [[Averted Trope|averting]] the [[Mars Needs Women]] trope that has certainly been played straight elsewhere in the Buffyverse). Of course, Anya was insulted that her sexual bribery turned out to be a [[Comically Small Bribe]]. (There's a [[Double Entendre]] in there somewhere, but not quite as easily as if it were a male getting turned down.)

* In ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'', [[Cloudcuckoolander|Arnold's grandmother]] attempts to bribe someone with, "Maybe a picture of Lincoln will change your mind..." -- and—and shows the guy [[Literal-Minded|a small framed portrait of Abraham Lincoln.]] Arnold steps in and bribes him successfully with an actual $5 bill.