Yank the Dog's Chain: Difference between revisions

[[File:CharlieBrownFootball.jpg|link=Peanuts|frame|[[Running Gag|He never learns.]]]]

 

'''Sokka:''' Oh c'mon, [[Tempting Fate|the writers don't hate me that muuuu....]]|''[[Avatar: The Abridged Series|Avatar the Abridged Series]]''}}

 

** And we mustn't forget that poor Ishida is as much of a [[Butt Monkey]] as Orihime is. Hey, you're a Quincy, which is cool, right? Nope! Because [[Mad Scientist|Mayuri Kurotsuchi the maniac scientist]] killed off most of your clan, including your grandpa! But at least there's this girl you like, right? Wrong! She's in love with [[Chaste Hero|Ichigo]] who doesn't even know she likes him! Oh man, you have to fight that scientist dude, so you pull your ultimate technique which {{spoiler|makes you lose all your powers!}} But don't worry, daddy is here to help, except that he has to {{spoiler|shoot you eighteen millimeters from your heart.}} Worked up the courage to tell that girl you like her yet? Oh, wait! She {{spoiler|just got kidnapped!}} So, just follow the hero blindly into a place you have absolutely no knowledge about! GASP! Another [[Mad Scientist]] has shown up, and you're about to die! Oh, it's okay, because {{spoiler|you get rescued by your worst nemesis, the scientist!}} Not to mention that the method he uses to heal his daughter [[Nausea Fuel|will scar you for life]]. Look out, some weirdo creature is attacking Orihime! You try to save her, except {{spoiler|your arm gets cut off!}} So yeah, poor Ishida doesn't have it that easy either.

** Poor [[Worf Effect|Chad]] also receives this during the Hueco Mundo Arc, as he managed to win a fight against a named opponent by effectively showcasing his new powers. Chad has enough resolve to feel that he will be successful in Hueco Mundo... [[Curb Stomp Battle|until Nnoitra showed up.]] That scene is another strong example that Chad is a Main Event jobber namely on how he can handle nameless [[Mooks]] and secondary named opponents but anytime he comes up against a remotely prominent opponent, well... let's just say he was on the floor for quite a while after that scene. In fact the GameFAQs Adult Swim Anime board once summed up the scene like this.

'''Nnoitra:''' LOL, no. }}

** [[The Woobie|Momo Hinamori]]. Oh, so you want to forever serve the man you practically are in love with? How nice... except oh no, he's suddenly dead and you've just found his corpse maimed and pinned to a wall! And after you try to attack the captain you're utterly convinced that did it, you get arrested! But wait, they found a letter from Aizen, revealing the killer's true identity... too bad that happens to be your childhood best friend, Toshiro Hitsugaya! So wracked with grief, you break out of your cell and try to kill ''him'', only to be knocked out soon after; when you do wake up, you follow him around, go to a part of the Soul Society inaccessible to even captain-level shinigami where you find the person you originally tried to kill, but what's this? He says there's someone who wants to meet you! And standing right behind you is ''your captain, perfectly alive.'' You immediately hug him and start to cry, because you're so happy he's alive and well and-- wait a minute, did he just stab you? Hahahah, guess what, ''you've just been betrayed and the man you idolized was all just a lie''. Have fun being stuck in a coma for the next 40 or so chapters and remaining in extremely heavy denial when you wake up! When all of that's done, you remain out of the picture for a while {{spoiler|until chapter 334, where, hooray, you've made a [[Big Damn Heroes|spectacular comeback]] saving Matsumoto, hopefully over the trauma of the whole Aizen ordeal! Erm, not quite: you still refer to him as "Captain Aizen," but hey, you're gonna kick some ass and show every actions speak louder than words, right? Well, not really... despite fending off three Fraccion, you get owned by some freaky chimaera thing and guess what, no redeeming moment for you! ''[[Sarcasm Mode|But lucky you, it gets even better!]]'' Cue about 60 chapters later and you make a return... except, once again, you've been ''stabbed again'', by -- get ready for this -- ''your best friend, Hitsugaya''. Have fun getting over that one!}} Oh, and did we mention you're one of the most hated characters in the Western fandom, for ''all'' of that happening to you? Yeah, it's really fun to be you, isn't it?

* The end of ''[[Blackadder]] Goes Forth''. The Guns fall silent just seconds before they are due to go over the top to certain death and they think the war is over, that they lived through it, The Great War, 1914 to 1917... [[Tear Jerker|oh damn]].

** 'Course, really, this only counts for poor Baldrick, George and Darling. Blackadder knew damn well the whole while, as would anyone else with a little knowledge of trench life during the Great War. Honestly, it's part of the power of the moment that the audience already ''know'' there's a chain being yanked.

*** Even so, he was trying his best to get out. It just didn't work. The real punch is for Darling, who was at his desk at Command, safely away from the lines until Melchett decided he wouldn't want to miss the "fun".

* Poor old Richie in ''[[Bottom]]''. Just about to finally "Doooooo IT" with a beautiful woman... and he collapses from a medical condition. {{spoiler|And then Eddie and said woman "get bored" waiting for the ambulance to turn up: "Don't worry Richie, she was ''crap'' anyway."}}

== Web Original ==

* Any time it looks like [[Homestar Runner|Coach Z]] might be catching a break, something needs to get in his way.

'''Homestar:''' What? [[Big No|No, no-ho-ho!]] No, no, no. No, Coach Z, no. [[Overly Long Gag|No.]] No, you can't. }}

* In a slightly less sympathetic use of the trope, [[The Nostalgia Chick]] puts on some mood music when [[Todd in the Shadows]] finally agrees to sleep with her out of boredom. The "mood music" turns out to be "Reproduction" from ''[[Grease]] II'', and he runs off, much to her anger.

** Later, Rumi gets the news that Heaven is willing to give him a hearing about letting him back into heaven. The catch? The next available hearing is in {{spoiler|73 years. Ash doesn't take it well.}}

* Angus McLeod's ''[[World War One]]: [http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=world+war+one#/d24ibfq Simple Version]'' depicts 1917 as one of these for Germany.

'''Germany:''' [[Oh Crap|FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU]]-- }}

* Patchy got hit with this hard in one of the arcs of ''[[Life of Maid]]''. After Patchy decides to get a new handheld, a Nintendo 3DS, she comes short of the money needed to buy it and decides to go to Remilia for money. But instead of simply giving her the money like in a previous arc, she puts Patchy to work around the mansion. After working her ass off, she finally gets her hands on it -- but just two strips later, she leaves the 3DS unattended to use the little girl's room, only to have it get {{spoiler|eaten by Yuyuko, who mistakes the chicken in the [[Cooking Mama|"Cooking Papa"]] game she was playing for the real deal}}.

* [[The Simpsons|Frank Grimes]]

** Specifically, Mr. Burns sees a documentary about how Grimes went through a hard life and had recently earned a diploma in nuclear physics. Impressed, he tells Mr. Smithers to find him so he can make him his executive vice president. By the time Smithers returns with Grimes, however, Burns had seen a heroic dog on TV and now wants to make ''him'' executive vice president.

'''Smithers:''' [[Yes-Man|Yes sir.]] }}

* Done very cruelly in the final episode of ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'', when Lumpus has finally gotten praise and respect, when a [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] undoes it all, and to rub salt into the wound, {{spoiler|it turns out he was a fake who locked up the real scoutmaster and gets dragged off to an asylum}}.

** And since he's famous for falling in love, only to be rejected, he gets his happy ending in episode 29, which was the so-called "last episode" (they ended up making a lot more, and some didn't get to air due to the cancellation), when a girl gives him a kiss: June.

* Epically subverted in the ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' episode "Fistfuls of Ed". After being falsely accused of being a bully and subsequently ostracized by the entire school, and then [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|beaten to a pulp]] by [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Jimmy]]. Things are finally looking up for Edd, but then we smash suddenly in to a typical episode ending where the [[Abhorrent Admirer|Kanker Sisters]] pop out of the woodwork to set in with their usual "[[Rape Is Love|treatment]]" of the already pathetically tired and beaten-down Double Dee. Eddy, who has as usual been the main source of conflict in the episode, watches in disgust before giving the Kanker Sisters the most singularly awesome chew-out they ever get in the series. As they slink away in terror, he breaks up the lingering awkwardness by giving everyone hotdogs. Double Dee even Lampshades this trope.

* After being tortured, mutilated, and reduced to a [[Brain In a Jar]] throughout the first three seasons of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003), Baxter Stockman finally regains a whole, human body in the episode "Insane in the Membrane". Unfortunately, it's not long before Stockman's new body begins breaking down, and the doctor begins losing limbs. Worse still, he begins losing the one thing he'd managed to keep throughout his tribulations: his mind.

** It gets worse for him in "Good Genes, Part 1." Bishop effectively brings him [[Back From the Dead]] in a pseudo-body to continue their work. Stockman laments this development because he thought that he had finally found peace following his previous appearance.