History Main / DarkHorseVictory

* The 2010 British election debates were like this. Basically, there's Labour (led by Gordon Brown) and the Conservatives (led by David Cameron) both hovering between 30% and 60% of the seats at any one time in the past hundred years, and the Liberal Democrats (led by Nick Clegg) holding all but around 30 of the remaining seats.[[hottip:* :Before dissolution, it was 350 Labour, 197 Conservative, 62 Liberal Democrats, 27 Regional parties, 6 Indepedents, 3 Vacancies, and the non-voting, unaffiliated, Speaker]] So, obviously, they had to invite Clegg on as it was likely he could hold the balance of power in the next parliament. What wasn't expected was him to figuratively curb-stomp the other two in the first debate, and hold his ground against Cameron in the second debate, mostly because he's a damn good orator (being an atheist Europhile with an aversion to nukes should've destroyed him, especially his Europhilia, but he made it work by noting the eurosceptic parties in the European Parliament [[ChewbaccaDefense failed to support anti-pedophile legislation and efforts]]). And between the first and second debate, the Lib Dems jumped from clear third to ''joint first'' in the polls as well.
** Hell, even after the election it essentially was a victory for the Lib Dems, despite not getting more seats than the 2005 election the Conservatives failed to get a majority, resulting in a hung parliament meaning that both Labour and the Tories tried to court the Lib Dems into forming a coalition government to gain an overall majority, since they essentially had the balance of power on their side. The Tories successfully agreed a deal with them and Nick Clegg was installed as the Deputy Prime Minister, although as entering into a coalition, especially as a junior partner, involves plenty of compromising and changing policy to accomodate the other party, LD support has dropped significantly and resulted in demonization as the other parties seek to squeeze disaffected LD voters to their side, having to rely on years to rebuild and banking on a good economy to recover position(reversing on tuition fees cost them huge support, but reversing on civil liberties to accomodate Labour would also have cost them huge support it is worth remembering).

** Hell, even after the election it essentially was a victory for the Lib Dems, despite not getting more seats than the 2005 election the Conservatives failed to get a majority, resulting in a hung parliament meaning that both Labour and the Tories tried to court the Lib Dems into forming a coalition government to gain an overall majority, since they essentially had the balance of power on their side. The Tories successfully agreed a deal with them and Nick Clegg was installed as the Deputy Prime Minister.
*** Incidentally, due to being forced to go back on so many of his party's campaign promises and appearing to eschew all of his Liberal principles in favour of those held by his Conservative partners, Nick Clegg is now one of the most hated men in Britain and the Lib Dems have plummeted in the polls. A pyrrhic victory at best.
**** To claify, the major factor in the Lib Dem's sudden surge in popularity was a vow to if not abolish then at least lower university tuition fees. The government has recently voted to RAISE said fees to about three times what they are now. Since a lot of the Lib Dem supporters were students, and that most people able to vote for the first time at the next general election will also be considering whether or not to go to university, this move could become very very bad for the Liberal Democrats. Watch this space in four years or less...

** Hell, even after the election it essentially was a victory for the Lib Dems, despite not getting more seats than the 2005 election the Conservatives failed to get a big enough majority, resulting in a hung parliament meaning that both Labour and the Tories tried to court the Lib Dems into forming a coalition government to gain an overall majority, since they essentially had the balance of power on their side. The Tories successfully agreed a deal with them and Nick Clegg was installed as the Deputy Prime Minister.

has a chance to score a terrific apartment, but learns that the tenant board wants to give it to an Andrea Doria survivor instead. George works laboriously to prove that his life has contained more suffering and hardship than that of the shipwreck survivor. He succeeds, as his tales of the mishaps he endured in previous episodes leave the tenant board in tears. In the end, however, Elaine's boyfriend gets the apartment by giving the super a fifty dollar bribe.

*** No, because that would be too easy to notice. Also, it's on Fox. Fox, a network joined at the hip with Fox News. All of us tropers most likely know about Fox "we are batshit insane and sometimes, like in the case of MassEffect, just make up stories" News already. So it's actually pretty fucking plausible.
* In the ''{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Andrea Doria", George has a chance to score a terrific apartment, but learns that the tenant board wants to give it to an Andrea Doria survivor instead. George works laboriously to prove that his life has contained more suffering and hardship than that of the shipwreck survivor. He succeeds, as his tales of the mishaps he endured in previous episodes leave the tenant board in tears. In the end, however, Elaine's boyfriend gets the apartment by giving the super a fifty dollar bribe.

** [[BrokenBase which unfortunately, led to widespread accusations of homophobic hatred, pandering to Christian voters, and/or having an underlying and devious Christian agenda]], all of which would mean, if true, Adam would have been thrown out LONG BEFORE reaching this point.

* A priceless Super Bowl Coke commercial where Macy Balloons of [[FamilyGuy Stewie]] and {{Underdog}} are fighting (aka bumping into each other) in order to get that balloon of a coke bottle. Eventually, the bottle starts to float away, both characters turn and see a round shape on the horizon. It's [[{{Peanuts}} CHARLIE]] [[TheWoobie BROWN]], [[ThrowTheDogABone who then wins the prize.]]

** In addition, if you focus on specific regions, the Wii's sales are not that much higher than either console (especially given the low price tag). The issue is the Xbox 360's success in the American region has hurt the PlayStation 3's sales in that region, while the reverse is true in Japan. As such, both consoles do get marketed more specifically to those regions rather than going for broader success, like the Wii.

* ''BabyLooneyTunes'': Bugs and Lola are racing Daffy in a toy car race, with Sylvester and Taz seeming only to make up the numbers... until Daffy's car bumps Bugs and Lola's car off the course, leaving the other car (Sylvester and Taz's) the only one to finish and win.

* ''TheSimpsons'' did this with the aptly named ''Lisa's Rival'', where Lisa replaces Allison Taylor's diorama of Edgar Allan Poe's ''The Telltale Heart'' with a bloody cow heart, but the guilt gets to her and she reveals Allison's real diorama (getting off the hook despite her feeble excuse), but Allison still doesn't win; Principal Skinner is unimpressed. Lisa does not think she deserves to win after trying to cheat, but she is still surprised when she does not (the audience does not see her entry). In the end RalphWiggum wins simply by putting ''StarWars'' figures in a box. Lisa and Allison decide to be friends and even befriend Ralph despite his initial gloating ("I beat the smart kids! I beat the smart kids!")
** We ''did'' get to see Lisa's entry, actually: it's the same the painfully reconstructed entire cast of Oliver Twist (sans bitter snowstorm) which she showed to Bart earlier in the episode. She must have remade it.

* Played with in the Talent Show episode of ''TheWeekenders''. Lor isn't competing against anyone in particular, other than her own lack-of-confidence (and inability to remember that the lyrics to "Home on the Range" are NOT "where the deer and the cantaloupe play"). She gives a good performance, but loses to Bluke's "Incredible Flying Hams" act, which consists of him throwing ham in the air and running away, terrified.

** This was also a very real threat during the 2008 elections, with Hillary Clinton supporters [[FanDumb threatening to defect to [=McCain=]]] should Obama take the nomination (and, in fact, some did).

* Timmy Turner invoked this trope in FairlyOddParents, sending [[TheDitz Cosmo]] into a race with two villains, figuring they would cheat each other but ignore him.
* In ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' Grim and Mandy face Billy and Irwin in a go kart race. They are both close up to the final lap, but are beat by a mystery racer in a red wagon, a previously unnamed character named Puddin.

* The 2010 British election debates were like this. Basically, there's Labour (led by Gordon Brown) and the Conservatives (led by David Cameron) both hovering between 30% and 60% of the seats at any one time in the past hundred years, and the Liberal Democrats (led by Nick Clegg) holding all but around 30 of the remaining seats.[[hottip:* :Before dissolution, it was 350 Labour, 197 Conservative, 62 Liberal Democrats, 27 Regional parties, 6 Indepedents, 3 Vacancies, and the non-voting, unaffiliated, Speaker]] So, obviously, they had to invite Clegg on as it was likely he could hold the balance of power in the next parliament. What wasn't expected was him to figuratively curb-stomp the other two in the first debate, and hold his ground against Cameron in the second debate, mostly because he's a damn good orator (being an atheist Europhile with an aversion to nukes should've destroyed him, especially his Europhilia, but he made it work by noting the eurosceptic parties in the European Parliament failed to support anti-pedophile legislation and efforts). And between the first and second debate, the Lib Dems jumped from clear third to ''joint first'' in the polls as well.

*** Victory for the Lib Dems maybe (or at least a chance to be ineffectual IN government), but you have to question if anyone's really "won" when the Tories get in. [[MargaretThatcher Some of us haven't fucking forgotten.]]

* The point of the name "Dark Horse Comics" is to invoke this trope's thought in buyers. It's not really working.

* In ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the Miss Macross contest appears to be in the bag for famous actress Jamis Merin, with Roy Focker going as far as suggesting that the whole contest was just a publicity stunt for her (or else she'd have been a judge rather than a contestant). However, Minmay ends up winning, likely due to the fact that the audience was full of soldiers who frequented her restaurant.

*[[spoiler: Shuffle! The competition ends because the winner offically joins.]]