History Main / BlameGame

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'': [[spoiler:After the Koopa General destroys Donkey Kong's kart, he blames Mario for letting the Koopa General do a KamikazeAttack on his kart. Their argument lasts until they land into the water and get eaten by the Maw-Ray.]]

* When Dick Dastardly's plans on ''WesternAnimation/YogisTreasureHunt,'' he immediately blames Muttley for it.

* The 1972 ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' cartoon "Shanghai Woody" has the captain of a ship offering his first mate five pounds to shanghai our hero. As Woody has his way on the ship, pecking it full of holes, the captain blames his first mate for it.

* In the 1949 WesternAnimation/{{Tex Avery MGM Cartoon|s}} ''The Counterfeit Cat'', a cat rips a neighbor dog's scalp and ears (in one piece) off said dog's head to wear on his head and disguise himself as a dog in order to catch and eat a canary that's guarded by another dog. By the end of the short as both the cat and the guard dog are deprived of what they seek (the canary and bones), the scalped dog comes at them and sees the guard dog wearing his scalp. The guard dog puts it on the cat's head, who then does the same, and both of them keep literally pointing fingers at each other. The scalped dog then gets his scalp bag, and rips the scalps of off both the cat and the guard dog, switches them of place and leaves.

* In the 1949 WesternAnimation/{{Tex Avery MGM Cartoon|s}} ''The Counterfeit Cat'', a cat rips a neighbor dog's scalp and ears (in one piece) off said dog's head to wear on his head and disguise himself as a dog in order to catch and eat a canary that's guarded by another dog. By the end of the short as both the cat and the guard dog are deprived of what they seek (the canary and bones), the scalped dog comes at them and sees the guard dog wearing his scalp. The guard dog puts it on the cat's head, who then does the same, and both of them keep literally pointing fingers at each other. The scalped dog then gets his scalp bag, and rips the tops off both the cat and the guard dog, switches them of place and leaves.

* Frequently played in the ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomverse''. Chloe [[TheRunaway runs away from home]] and blames everyone back in Vermillion for it: her parents for ignoring how badly she was being bullied at school, said bullies, Goh for being a neglectful ChildhoodFriend, Ash for being TheAce and [[WhyAreYouNotMySon the kind of child her father wanted]]... and back home, everyone proceeds to get into vicious debates among themselves about how much the ''others'' are at fault. Such as Professor Cerise reading one of his assistants the riot act after learning they'd seen how miserable Chloe was, but hadn't said anything... because they'd assumed the Professor was already aware and addressing matters privately.

* Played for laughs in ''Anime/SonicX'' episode 46. Doubly funny when you realize that, because he built and programmed them, [[FridgeLogic it's entirely Eggman's fault that they're "lead heads" in the first place]].

'''Buzz:''' ''[outraged]'' ''MY-my'' fault? If you hadn't pushed me out of the window in the first place...\\
'''Woody:''' ''[fumes indignantly]'' Yeeeaaahh? Well, if ''you'' hadn't shown up with your stupid little cardboard spaceship and taken away everything that was important to me...\\

* ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' has a book of this verbatim. Whenever Brother and Sister break something, they end up blaming each other. It took Papa to explode in anger for the cubs to finally learn their lesson in the end.
* In ''Literature/TheBible'':
** [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Genesis 3]], {{God}} confronts Adam about his having disobeyed His commandment not to eat the ForbiddenFruit. Adam says, "The woman You put at my side—she gave me of the tree, and I ate", thus passing the blame not only to Eve, but to God. Eve, in turn, says, "The serpent duped me, and I ate." God punishes all three of them.
** The [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel Book of Samuel]]. When Samuel confronts Saul about making a sacrifice without waiting for him, Saul answers "You were late, and the people were demanding it". Samuel immediately reads out the death sentence of Saul and his family... irresponsible kings won't be tolerated.
* The Dayao in ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'' attempt to shift the blame upon each other when the war goes badly for them. They are big on the NeverMyFault when it comes to the leaders.

* In a skit on ''Series/MrShow'', a group of film executives each try to pass the buck for greenlighting ''Coupon: The Movie'', an abysmal flop. Each time the buck is passed, the group starts chanting the name of the new accusee, until the last man in the room realizes that he's chanting his own name.
* This seems to be the main skill that they are looking for on ''Series/TheApprentice''. UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump is most likely to send home the Project Manager of the losing team, so [=PMs=] will find someone else to blame for the loss.
* During an ''Series/{{ER}}'' storyline in which a patient died because he was misdiagnosed by one doctor and consequently given the wrong medication by another, their supervisor blasts them for the error, to which they both respond that she should have been there to oversee them.

* As Music/{{Skyclad|Band}} put it in "Eirenarch",
--> Successes have fathers -- but failure's a bastard.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XdNXHY97hU This]] Brazilian song concerns marijuana being found in a bus. The driver claims it's the collector's, the collector claims someone seated owns the joint, and the chorus goes "I think the joint is from someone standing!"

--> You're like a little girl yelling at her brother 'cause she lost his ball.

* ''TabletopGame/AyeDarkOverlord'' is made of this trope. One player plays the [[EvilOverlord Dark Overlord]], and the rest play a group of goblins who just failed yet another mission. The gameplay consist of deflecting blame on another player through making up excuses. It is a [[LiteralMetaphor literal blame game]].

* [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Friedrich Schiller's]] ''Theatre/IntrigueAndLove'' ends like this, until the hero's father finally accepts responsibility for his actions.

** In the episode "The Prank," after the prank war between Gumball, Darwin, and Richard goes a little too far and wrecks the house, Nicole angrily demands to know who caused all the damage. All three of them immediately yell "It was him!" and point at each other.

---> '''Mrs. Beakley:''' "Mr. [=McDuck=]!"
---> '''Scrooge:''' "Kids!"
---> '''Louie:''' "Mrs. Beakley!" [{{Beat}}] "Sorry, I was just trying to keep this blame circle going."

'''Betty:''' ''(turns around)'' It's ''your'' fault! ''(The camera pulls back to reveal that Betty is staring at herself in a mirror)'' Wait a minute...let's do that over again and ''I'll'' start it this time.

* WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie: [[spoiler:After the Koopa General destroys Donkey Kong's kart, he blames Mario for letting the Koopa General do a KamikazeAttack on his kart. Their argument lasts until they land into the water and get eaten by the Maw-Ray.]]

** Genesis 3, {{God}} confronts Adam about his having disobeyed His commandment not to eat the ForbiddenFruit. Adam says, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate," thus passing the blame not only to Eve, but to God. Eve, in turn, says, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." God punishes all three of them.
** The Book of Samuel. When Samuel confronts Saul about making a sacrifice without waiting for him, Saul answers "You were late, and the people were demanding it". Samuel immediately reads out the death sentence of Saul and his entire family... irresponsible kings won't be tolerated.

* ''TabletopGame/AyeDarkOverlord'' is made of this trope. Literally: one player plays the [[EvilOverlord Dark Overlord]], and the rest play a group of goblins who just failed yet another mission. The entire gameplay consist of deflecting blame on another player through making up excuses. It is a [[LiteralMetaphor literal blame game]].

* Politicians, political parties, and even countries seem to love to play the Blame Game at each other for all the political problems that they have to face, even if all or even no parties are at fault. Even if it isn't political, the Blame Game can still occur whenever an argument devolves into an argument about who started the original argument. We won't list examples; that would be [[SelfDemonstratingArticle playing the Blame Game in itself]].

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', every time a plan formulated by the Auditors goes wrong, some time is spent on this one. The outcome inevitably goes like this: the plan was a group effort, therefore it's everyone's fault, and if it's everyone's fault, it's no one's fault, because the amount of blame that attaches is as close to nothing as makes no difference. They're very corporate that way.

* In ''IntoTheWoods'', when the protagonists are in their lowest moment, they start blaming each other for what happened, which proves to be their main weakness. Only by stopping it can they earn their happy ending.

* Four generals at the end of a film version of ''Film/TheChargeOfTheLightBrigade'' all try to avoid blame for the order for the charge.

* ''Film/MysteryMen'' features a blamethrower that ''makes'' a couple groups of [[{{Mook}} mooks]] do this, allowing the heroes to beat them while they're distracted.

* Debriefings in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', unless you [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder kill everyone else first]] and [[DeceasedFallGuyGambit perjure yourself on a Biblical scale, without needing to worry about their testimony]].

* In the first ''{{WesternAnimation/Toy Story}}'' movie, Woody and Buzz pull this when their EscalatingWar gets them stranded at a gas station. It loses track a little by the end:

* As Music/{{Skyclad}} put it in "Eirenarch",