The Dog Was the Mastermind: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"The real killer was. . . the {{spoiler|guy on the floor}}. After all, no one would have expected the {{spoiler|guy on the floor}}, because he has '''nothing to do with this movie'''!''|'''[[Confused Matthew]]''', in his review of ''[[Saw]]''.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* In the ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' comic book series, a recurring villain is a genetically engineered house cat who fakes his own kidnapping from a research laboratory. Yes, in the Darkwing Duck universe [[Furry Confusion|ducks can keep cats as pets]].

** This is something of a reoccuring theme among Spider-Man villains. The original Green Goblin was eventually revealed to be [[Norman Osborn]], the father of his best friend (this being long before Norman established himself as the Lex Luthor of the Marvel Universe). The Jackal, better known as the villain who set up the [[Clone Saga]], was Peter's nerdy science professor. The Hobgoblin, a villain modeled after the Green Goblin, had a two-for-one deal. He was originally revealed to be a Daily Bugle reporter and longtime minor supporting cast member Ned Leeds until a [[Retcon]] explained that he was yet another minor supporting character who had since faded into near-obscurity.

** One particularly jarring example involves Spider-Man searching for the murderer of a scientist who had created a crime cataloguing supercomputer. {{spoiler|The culprit is none of the three suspects, ''but the computer itself.''}}

* In the third ever [[Justice Society of America]] story in ''All Star Comics'' #5, the JSA bust up a series of rackets headed by a mysterious figure known as Mr X. At the end of the story, an innocuous milquetoast who had appeared in each of the individual chapters turns up the police station. It turns out he is really Mr X and now, with all of his rackets smashed, he intends to turn himself in and live off the state in prison.

* ''[[Rat-Man]]'': one story has the eponymous "hero" meeting Graziello, a stick figure who annoys him by telling corny jokes and laughing in a monotonous way, and Rat-Man can't get rid of him. In the end we discover that everything that happened in the issue was Graziello's plan: as a failed comic book character who never got the chance to be published, he lured Rat-Man to the comic book school and in doing that he had appeared in a ''Rat-Man'' issue, thus finally [[Medium Awareness|being published and read by many people]]!

* In the ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'' novel "Stone and Anvil", the Excalibur crew needs to find the man who created Janos' intelligence to help him extend it. To bad he doesn't exactly know how to do that...the real mastermind is his pet Gribble, a small animal no larger than a rat. {{spoiler|Before the Gribble can do anything, though, Janos eats him.}}

* In ''Accelerando'' by [[Charles Stross]], everything that happened turns out to have been masterminded by {{spoiler|the Macx family's robotic cat.}}

* Quentin Makepeace (a foppish playwright in the prime minister's company) turns out to be the mastermind of all the events in ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]].''

* In ''[[Murder In Pastiche]]'', the killer turns out to be {{spoiler|the ship's purser who was a detective fiction fan and thought it would be a waste if there were so many famous detectives on board and they didn't have a murder to solve}}.

{{quote|...Huh. Who's that?}}

* In ''[[Doorways in The Sand]]'', {{spoiler|there's a near-literal example: the mastermind is in nearly every scene, disguised as the cat}}.

* In William Tenn's 1955 short story ''The Servant Problem'', the ruler of a future [[Dystopia]] is a [[Smug Snake]] subconsciously controlled by {{spoiler|his education minister}}, an [[Out-Gambitted]] [[Magnificent Bastard]] subconsciously controlled by a [[Magnificent Bastard]] {{spoiler|psychologist}}, who in turn was [[Out-Gambitted]] and controlled by {{spoiler|a junior technician}}. Things go pear-shaped for this [[The Man Behind the Man|Man Behind The Man Behind The Man Behind The Man]] when it turns out that {{spoiler|he, like everyone else in the world, was conditioned to worship the ruler; this dystopia is evidently now a dog chasing its own tail}}.

* In one of the ''Agaton Sax'' kids' detective books, someone who appears to be an average-looking member of the crew of crooks turns out to be the criminal mastermind boss himself.

* Good guy version: In the ''[[Get Smart]]'' episode "The Mysterious Dr. T", it turned out the [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|genius inventor]] Dr. T was a {{spoiler|kid seen selling newspapers.}}

* ''[[Sherlock]]'' has already pulled it twice. In "A Study in Pink", the serial killer turns out to be {{spoiler|a cabbie, seen earlier when Holmes and Watson chased down his cab because they thought the passenger might be the killer.}} In "The Great Game", Moriarty is revealed to be {{spoiler|Molly's boyfriend Jim, who showed up briefly earlier in the episode.}} (Though this last {{spoiler|was guessable, considering "Jim" is a nickname for "James."}})

* Many made for TV cop shows have this but it was especially noticeable in ''[[Murphy]]''. The killer is the bloke who is in the background of scenes. If most of the suspects are interviewed in a club it's the barman - also expect him to be a long lost relative of victim or chief suspect.

* Mr. Yang in ''[[Psych]]'' is revealed as this through flashbacks when Shawn meets {{spoiler|''her'' at the end.}}

* The identity of the butcher in ''[[There Will Be Brawl]]'' turns out to be {{spoiler|a duo: Ness and Lucas, who were seen briefly in an early episode}}. This was so effective that ''nobody'' in [[Wild Mass Guessing]] correctly guessed it. [[Word of God]] near-explicitly denied the possibility beforehand, claiming that {{spoiler|Ness or Lucas wouldn't play a large part in the series, since child actors were too hard to work with.}} While not ''[[Exact Words|technically]]'' false, {{spoiler|since they only appeared in those two scenes and had no speaking parts,}} this was a highly misleading statement that helped to divert suspicion from the culprit(s).

* In episode 86 of ''[[Bonus Stage]]'' it was revealed the second version of Evil was {{spoiler|MALCOLM, a very minor character who only appeared in one episode prior and never showed any signs of being evil}}.

* Used/Parodied by [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] in a "previously" that had nothing to do with the comic.

{{quote|'''Linkara:''' You! You're the secret manipulator behind everything! ''*pulls out a stuffed bear*'' BEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!}}

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "About Last Night...", Kyle's toddler brother Ike was the key player in Obama and McCain's ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]''-style heist.

** A variation occurs in the Mysterion Trilogy (''Coon 2: Coon and Friends'', ''Mysterion Rises'', and ''Coon vs. Coon and Friends'') when [[Late Arrival Spoiler|Kenny as Mysterion]] tries to find out the origin of his immortality, learning it has something to do with the Cult of C'tulu. When a [[Superman|Jor-El type]] [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|man in a glowing ball appears to explain everything completely out of nowhere]], it turns out {{spoiler|he was actually talking to Bradley Biggle AKA Mintberry Crunch, a character introduced pretty much entirely for these episodes, who learns he really is a super hero who combines the powers of mint and berry. Kenny never really learns the truth about himself and is as confused by the entire encounter as the audience.}}

* [[Invader Zim]]: It was me! I was the turkey all along! MEEE!!

* In ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', one episode has the Eds track down someone who went to great lengths to frame them for various crimes. {{spoiler|It ultimately turned out to be Jimmy, who was angry at Eddy for casually giving him a wedgie.}}