History Main / DickDastardlyStopsToCheat

* ''Fanfic/ServiceWithASmile'': Jaune's small coffee shop attracts the attention of a much larger chain called Cafe Prime, who quickly move to destroy him before he can establish a foothold and become a real problem. Their initial tactics (offering free coffee to Jaune's primary customer base, opening up a new location just down the street) aren't particularly nice, but they are absolutely legal and nearly guaranteed to ruin Jaune pretty quickly. But then the owner, Alexander Sterling, decides to up the ante by [[spoiler:hiring a street gang to bust up Jaune's shop, buys the location from the landlord, sues Jaune for libel when Jaune didn't say a word, and then tries to evict Jaune [[LoopholeAbuse because Jaune's renter's agreement says he can be kicked out if somebody sues him for anything]]]]. These overt actions attract a ''lot'' of attention, and Cafe Prime quickly becomes reviled by the city. That being said, Weiss points out that now that everything is public Sterling ''has'' to continue. If he publicly apologizes then Jaune will survive in a much better position and gain the respect of the city for surviving past this... while if he continues then Jaune ''will'' eventually be crushed, Cafe Prime will have a monopoly like Sterling wants, and the public will soon forget about what he did to one little coffee shop. Ultimately, [[spoiler:[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Cafe Prime just gets rid of Sterling]], since they already ''dominate Vale's coffee market'' and this grudge match against a single independent shop on a single street is literally not worth their company's time or money, and threatens to get Cafe Prime into legal trouble. It's an anti-climax, and Jaune feels a little disappointed, but it was the best outcome he could expect]].

** This is parodied in the episode "Asspen", where Stan gets stuck in a crappy 1980s-style "win-the-race-to-save-the-old-rec-center" plot. In the final climactic race between Stan and the annoying jerk, the jerk takes a ridiculous amount of time sabotaging the course to keep Stan from winning. Of course, the jerk is an excellent skier, while Stan can barely ski faster than a crawl. He's so slow that the obstacles don't slow him down any further. He just climbs over them. Ultimately the villain is defeated by matters unrelated to the race anyway.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant If you were looking for tropes on Adultery]], go to InfidelityIndex.[[note]]Though there is some overlap: it wouldn't be infidelity if you didn't already ''have'' a partner.[[/note]]

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant If you were looking for tropes on Adultery]], go to InfidelityIndex.

** The most blatant evidence they care more about cheating than winning is the episode where the first half was in desert and the second in Scotland. After three of the four events, the Rottens were leading with 95 points while the other teams had 40 points each. Then the last event started: a three-legged kilt race. ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin A three-legged race where the racers wear kilts]]) The Rottens race on a threadmill attached to a car driven by Dread Baron, who produced a rulebook stating that, [[LoopholeAbuse for as long as they run in three-leg style]], that wasn't cheating. Also, Dirty and Dastardly Dalton disguised themselves as Snagglepuss and created a fake Finish Line to delay the Yogi Yahooeys. In the end, the Rottens lose 25 points for using the threadmill, 25 points for forging the rulebook that made the use of the threadmill seem legal, and 25 points for delaying the Yogis. (Who got 5 points of bonus in reparation, allowing them to beat the Scoobies for the gold medal)

** In “Homer at Bat”, Burns wastes approximately $450,000 hiring nine professional baseball players to work at the power plant so that they can compete in an upcoming game with the team of a rival plant. Ultimately, the nuclear plant's solidly-excellent team could have probably won said on their own, and in the end only one of the players even gets to play due to Burns having them mingle in Springfield, resulting in such events as one player being arrested on trumped-up charges and two more being hospitalised due to illnesses they contracted in Burns’ employ. In the process, the morale of the original team gets shot by Burns's dismissal and their lack of practice, and Homer’s Wonderbat- a home-made bat that had become a symbol for the team- gets broken.

* Lampooned in ''ComicBook/LiliPut'' - While all characters race towards a treasure (in a [[WackyRacing Wacky Races homage]] of all thing)s, Ivan and his gang of dwarfs gets ahead of everyone else. As they cross the bridge Ivan stops and orders his men to destroy the bridge. Rupert questions this idea and gives a speach in which he deconstructs the practicality of this trope, point by point, just for long enough to all the rivals to cross the bridge without the dwarfs noticing it... and then they decide to destroy the bridge anyway, never being aware they are far behind. Dosen't stop them from having an EvilLaugh.

It doesn't apply specifically to WackyRacing, but to any competitive endeavor (for cases that ''are'' Wacky Racing, a RoadSignReversal is a common tactic). This behavior may be deliberately indulged in by a CardCarryingVillain who cares more about VillainCred than actual success. See also CutLexLuthorACheck, of which this could almost be considered a subtrope. This is a subtrope of TwoRightsMakeAWrong.

* Zandramas of ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad The Mallorean]]'' is practically the epitome of this trope. If she isn't blowing past [[MoralEventHorizon Moral Event Horizons]], she's setting traps for the protagonists, or [[KickTheDog kicking puppies.]] This comes back to massively bite her in the behind for two reasons. One, it's frequently mentioned how much of a lead she keeps getting ahead of the protagonists. Yet each of her schemes end up causing Team Light to catch up to her. Two: It does not endear her to Cyradis, whose job is to choose between the Darkness or the Light at the end, quite probably biasing the choice against her.

* In ''VideoGame/FZero'', this can actually happen to the player: attack your opponents in the wrong place and you might send yourself flying off the track. ''X'' and ''GX'' actually encourage such behavior by not only giving you an extra life if you smash five people off the track, but placing a huge RIVAL sign above the opponent who is highest on the leaderboard. Should that racer suffer an unfortunate "accident", the sign moves to the highest remaining opponent... Even then, it's still played straight if you're going on the offense: Attacking costs you speed -- a LOT of it (especially the Spin Attack), and even on [[HarderThanHard Master]] difficulty, the best way to win is simply to stay on the course, and use as much boost as physically possible whenever you can -- not wasting speed to attack... not that killing your rival doesn't help, especially since the game's RubberBandAI will often put the two of you in striking range of one another regardless of how well you're driving. (Not to mention that in ''X'', the controls are finicky enough that [[SomeDexterityRequired it's genuinely difficult to attack]].)

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', a disgraced ninja tries to hypnotize Mifune so the Kages will elect him leader of their alliance. It doesn't work. Mifune then informs him that he was going to nominate him, but no longer intends to do so, and the disgraced ninja attempts to justify his action by claiming that he had to be certain.

* In the penultimate episode of ''Fanfic/CastSwapTotalDrama'''s “All-Stars” season, Sugar chooses to waste time sabotaging Cody and Gwen before retrieving the item she needs to win her challenge. Had she not bothered and instead chosen to retrieve her item and turn it in to Chris ASAP, she would have placed first in the challenge and earned a guaranteed spot in the finale. Instead, not only does Shawn get first place, but Cody manages to place before Sugar despite her sabotaging him, not that it would have mattered if she had placed before him because Shawn had the choice of whether to compete against Sugar or Cody, and he chose Cody.

** ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' has the Slytherins at a distinct advantage over Gryffindor due to their [[BuyingYourWayToVictory new brooms]], as well as a rogue Bludger forcing the Gryffindor Beaters to protect Harry instead of watching out for the rest of the team. This means that Slytherin is able to take an early 60-0 lead without much trouble. But Draco, instead of immediately trying to find the Snitch and win the game, gets so caught up in taunting Harry that he doesn't even notice the Snitch hovering ''inches'' above his own ear - but Harry does. This ends up costing Slytherin the game, and Flint tears a strip off of Draco for it.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'': In the final Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the Slytherins start off with a huge advantage — they're far enough ahead on the scoreboard that Harry can't catch the Snitch until the Gryffindor Chasers score enough goals to close the gap, or else Gryffindor will win the game but lose the cup. But rather than utilize what is essentially free time for Malfoy to catch the Snitch and win the game, they insist on repeatedly trying (and failing) to injure the Gryffindor players, causing Madam Hooch to award Gryffindor multiple free penalty shots. The end result is that Gryffindor is able to close the points gap and, once Harry grabs the Snitch, win the cup.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'': In the final Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the Slytherins start off with a huge advantage -- they're far enough ahead on the scoreboard that Harry can't catch the Snitch until the Gryffindor Chasers score enough goals to close the gap, or else Gryffindor will win the game but lose the cup. But rather than utilize what is essentially free time for Malfoy to catch the Snitch and win the game, they insist on repeatedly trying (and failing) to injure the Gryffindor players, causing Madam Hooch to award Gryffindor multiple free penalty shots.

* ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'' centers around participants in a DeadlyGame where the player with the lowest score at the end of a round may be [[DeadlyEuphemism eliminated]], with the second round having the two lowest scores belong to [[TheHeart Neon]] and Sumida, the resident {{Griefer}}. Both also become {{Zombie Infectee}}s during the round and believe they'll die soon regardless of their scores. While Neon is encouraged to bank on previously-established NoOntologicalInertia and puts in a valiant effort to end the final wave of the round before she turns, Sumida takes a DoomedDefeatist attitude and attacks the other players in an attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe drag them into (un)death with him]]. While the players succeed in wiping out the zombies and causing the infection to vanish, the end result between Neon's zombie-killing spree and Sumida's penalties for attacking other players is that Neon narrowly edges out Sumida in points and the latter is eliminated. Given that his backstabbing was responsible for Neon getting bit in the first place, even the people running the game express relief that his cheating finally killed him off.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Sideshow Bob [[VoteEarlyVoteOften steals the mayoral election]], in a race where Quimby may have legitimately received 0% of the vote.

** The second day, the Red Feathers cut down a bridge over a ravine, leading to TBH leader Phyllis Nefler crossing over a log so they can go refasten it. Though the Red Feathers finish first, they are disqualified because they abandoned their injured troop leader along the way, giving TBH, who finished second, the win.

* In ''Film/TroopBeverlyHills'', the Culver City "Red Feathers" do this twice during the final competition weekend, both aimed at the eponymous troop:
** In the first day, they swap a sign behind them, leading TBH in the wrong direction. This backfires when they get chased to the finish line by a SmellySkunk.
** The second day, the Red Feathers cut down a bridge over a ravine, leading to TBH leader Phyllis Nefler crossing over a log so they can go refasten it. Though the Red Feathers finish first, they are disqualified because they abandoned their injured troop leader along the way, giving TBH, who finished second, the win.

* In the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Megatron has eliminated his greatest physical threat and is on his way to destabilize a StableTimeLoop, the result of which would retcon all of human and Cybertronian history into his personal victory. Instead, [[EvilIsPetty a thought]] crosses his mind: "Hmm, I suppose, given my imminent godhood, these primitives should really be beneath my intention. Ah, still, no score is too small to settle, I always say." As a result of this attempt to attack a primitive human tribe, Megatron vaporizes two of his longest-serving subordinates, weakens his master weapon preventing it from being useful on his final plan, and is complicit in the stalling tactics that led to his defeat. And on top of that, he missed.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': The third chapter's culprit counts, having set up an elaborate death trap to kill a victim, and then had to kill a witness on the spur of the moment. The witness's death left little evidence pointing to the culprit, and only one murder is needed to "graduate", but the culprit instead decided to go ahead with the death trap plan because they didn't want to waste the trap. Turns out, it was the elaborate deathtrap murder that left enough evidence to pin the culprit for both that ''and'' the murder of the witness.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', the TerribleTrio of Team Rocket almost always falls victim to this whenever they get ahead, legitimately or otherwise. It's shown that Jessie, James, and Meowth are surprisingly competent when they're not trying to be greedy jerks, and are [[PetTheDog generally better people than the "twerps" often fight]]. But they just can't help themselves but try to cheat or go for the bigger prize when they already have a lead or a chance to escape. Quite often, they'll try and steal Ash's Pikachu even if they already have a chance to get away with some rare Pokémon, valuable object, or priceless treasure. This always ends up leading to the Rockets losing and [[TwinkleInTheSky getting blasted off again]].

* The video called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL7sNPGKksc These World Record Super Mario 64 Speedrunners Were All Caught Cheating]]" by [=YouTuber=] charliebrown64 touches up on a couple of cheaters across ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''[='=]s entire speedrunning history, ranging from well-known ones like [=ShadowOfMyles=], [=WhiteAris=] and Akikan, to lesser-known ones like fraglilicism. But a particular noteworthy case brought up in the video involves a speedrunner by the name of Marius M. (better known as holymoly2207), who at the time was the only person to contest kirbykarter's 20:46 16-Star record with a 20:00 run in 2005 complete with video proof. However, Holymoly's run was rejected by the admins of Speed Demos Archive because of SensoryAbuse with the video's audio, but it was never suspected to be cheated until 2017 when Holymoly bragged about his record on Cheese's 1:39:57 120-Star world record run. This prompted one of the mods of ''[=SM64=]''[='=]s leaderboards named [=GothicLogic=] to investigate his claim even further, eventually discovering that his 20:00 16-Star run was spliced. The only reason Holymoly partially got away with cheating was because of his relative obscurity and silence over the decade, only getting caught once [[StreisandEffect he broke that silence on someone else's record]].