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Comically Small Bribe: Difference between revisions
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== Real Life ==
* The German satirical magazine ''Titanic'' offered a cuckoo clock, sausages and ham to delegates of the FIFA World championship committee to support the German bid to host the 2006 [[The World Cup|World Cup]]. A $20 value for arguably the biggest sporting event in the world. [[wikipedia:Titanic (magazine)#2006 FIFA World Cup bribery affair|Amazingly, it worked]], as one of the delegates who was supposed to vote for South Africa got very confused and abstained, causing the final vote to be 12-11 in Germany's favor. South Africa did get the World Cup in 2010.
* On November 8, 2009, Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals offered an official $1 during a replay challenge on one of his own catches. Even though he was joking, he got hit with a $20,000 fine.
* [http://notalwaysright.com/bribery-adjusted-for-inflation/502 This] [[(The Customer is) Not Always Right]] entry has a customer, convinced that the cashier knows when the store will get more Wiis but is trying to keep it secret, try to bribe him with $20 for the info. As the cashier points out, even assuming he ''did'' have secret knowledge of the store's shipments, $20 is not worth the punishment he'd get for giving out such a secret.
* People find it amusing when politicians and bureaucrats revealed to have accepted bribes turn out to have accepted what seem to be ridiculously small bribes in exchange for their favour. A few million dollars, people can respect that. A few thousand dollars worth of ''furniture'', on the other hand...
** A lot of times the difference is explained by the [[Values Dissonance|odd ethic]] that regards cash as vulgar but ceremonial objects as magnanimous, because the later
** There is also the
* [[Roger Ebert]]'s contests on his blog, such his limerick contest and photo caption contest have always given tiny rewards of "a shiny new dime." In the case of the caption contest, it became satirical [[Serious Business]] when the winning entry was accused of plagiarism, and the prize given to another, only to find that it wasn't and for the original winner to receive his dime after all.
** His "Outguess Ebert at the Oscars" defy this, as being official contests the prizes can range as high as a private screening to the years' Ebertfest or Pixar film. The most recent prize was the highest, $100,000, a year that Ebert only correctly guessed 15 Oscars out of 24.
* Stephen Merchant's harrowing encounter with a nightclub bouncer certainly counts. It's one thing to flaunt your cash in front of some girls, quite another when that attempt consists of offering 7 quid on a 5 quid entry fee.
* After ''[[Franchise Killer|Terminator: Salvation]]'', [[Joss Whedon]] offered to buy the ''[[Terminator]]'' franchise for $10,000. This was apparently not taken seriously, as the rights were up for sale, and ended up not being sold.
* A contestant on ''[[Family Fortunes]]'', whose family had not covered themselves in glory, once offered to buy the rights to that episode so it would never be shown - for £100. The producer had to explain to them that this fell somewhat short of covering the show's £38,000 costs.
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