The Dog Was the Mastermind/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: When the least likely character to be the Big Bad or The Man Behind the Man, is.

  • Straight: Detective Bob finds out that Carl the car dealership owner, who sold him a car earlier, is the Mafia boss he had been tracking.
  • Exaggerated: Detective Bob, after investigating several crime lords and shady politicians, find out that his wife Alice's dog, Fido, is the Mafia boss.
  • Downplayed: Detective Bob discovers that Alice herself was behind the crime he's investigating. This shocks him (and the audience) at first, but since Alice was a Jerkass in the first place, it all makes sense.
  • Justified: Carl takes on a normal job, which has no connection to crime, so he would never be suspected.
  • Inverted: Detective Bob suspected Carl from the start, even without any reason to.
  • Subverted: Carl the car dealership owner is a former mafia boss under the Witness Protection Program.
  • Double Subverted: ...who is actually a detective, investigating the true Man Behind the Man.
    • Carl supposedly proves his innocence to Bob, then it is revealed that he had been pulling the strings all along.
  • Parodied: Fido enjoys seeing Detective Bob not suspecting him, just because he is a dog. But it's just a ruse so he could take over the world once all of the suspects (who are his greatest enemies) are arrested.
  • Deconstructed: Fido really was the mastermind, but because he didn't plan ahead, Fido panics and reveals himself out of guilt.
  • Reconstructed: But since Detective Bob thinks that Fido is innocent (as he's just a dog), Fido gets to continue his Evil Plan scot-free.
  • Zig Zagged: The man did it, but wait, he was really behind The Dragon, but The Dragon was really the man behind the mastermind...
  • Averted: The Man Behind the Man is just one of the suspects, not the least likely person.
  • Enforced: "Hey, how about we make the criminals Carl, the car dealership owner? The readers won't ever find out."
  • Lampshaded: "Carl, you're the Mafia boss? How sneaky of you for adopting that ruse,"
  • Invoked: Carl becomes a car dealership owner so he could become a Mafia boss without anybody knowing.
  • Exploited: Since Fido knows that know one will ever suspect him as being a serial killer, he becomes one and frame people left and right, warding detectives off the right path.
  • Defied: Detective Bob refuses to believe that the least likely suspect is the criminal, and Carl doesn't adopt such a silly cover job.
  • Discussed: "Hey, it's probably the dog who did it all, because he knew we wouldn't suspect him." "The dog? Seriously? You've been reading too many cheap mystery thrillers lately." Cut to a scene where Fido makes a Sarcastic Confession.
  • Conversed: "This such a predictable movie... Wait a minute! What just happened? Carl was behind it all? Why? It dosen't make any sense!"
  • Played for Laughs: It's really freaking obvious that Carl is a Mafia boss putting up a ruse as a car dealership owner, but Hilarity Ensues when Bob outright refuses to acknowledge that, even when the evidence is right in front of him!
  • Played for Drama: Fido suscessfully pulls off his Evil Plan, but he wasn't Crazy Prepared enough when he's revealed to be the mastermind. His crimes gets him 260 different life sentences.

Wait, the link called, The Dog Is the Mastermind is the mastermind!

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