History Main / EscalatingWar

* TD's feud with Blueblood in ''[[FanFic/{{The Non-Bronyverse}} TD the Alicorn Princess]]'' quickly starts to get out of control after Blueblood sets up a machine that pies TD in the face.

* Several ''DeadliestCatch'' captains (most notably the Hilstrand brothers) pull successively elaborate pranks using the boats' fishing lines. If I recall correctly, it went: tying bags of flour to the line to bomb the crew; tying a ''porta-potty'' to the line; the grand finale was ''tying a '''[[CrazyAwesome truck]]''' onto the line''. Even the victim was [[MagnificentBastard impressed]] by that.
** The sequel was ''Northwestern'' Jake stealing one of the Hilstrand's beloved USA jacket, then being [[TooDumbToLive dumb enough]] to brag about it on camera so the ''Time Bandit'' crew ''hung and later [[KillItWithFire burned]] him in effigy'' (they claimed they burned it just to get rid of the effigy's ''Northwestern'' sweatshirt, which they felt was jinxing them).

* The ''MagnumPI'' episode "Paper War" pushes the usual format of "Magnum solves a crime" into a B-plot to focus almost entirely on an increasingly petty prank war between Magnum and Higgins.

* Jim and his brother-in-law Andy from ''AccordingToJim'' do this... ''over a grill''. In two separate episodes, to boot.

** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ_JZBCkqvA Two Tars]]'', more and more people get mad and suffer from road rage until everyone starts wrecking cars.

** In ''[[* In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ_JZBCkqvA Two Tars]]'', more and more people get mad and suffer from road rage until everyone starts wrecking cars.

* ''{{Yeralash}}'' has an episode based on that. First, boys push each other. Then, one calls for his brother. Ends up with a nuclear war.

** This also happened among the trolls. To summarize, Tavros became crippled because of Vriska, so as revenge Aradia tormented Vriska with the ghosts of the people she'd killed. Vriska in response arranged for Aradia to be killed by Sollux, who, just to rub salt in the wound, she had a crush on. Terezi then set up Vriska to lose her arm and eye when her 8 ball exploded in her face, and in retaliation Vriska had Terezi blinded. Terezi and Vriska finally agreed to a truce to settle this, but then Aradia came back as a robot and kills Vriska, though DeathIsCheap so it doesn't really stick and Vriska ascends to God Tier and kills Tavros, and ''then'' Terezi and Vriska have their final confrontation, wherein Terezi kills Vriska for good. Whew.

* In ''Videogame/MassEffect2'' Joker and EDI, an artificial intelligence, end up in one of these. First Joker mutes her until his thumb breaks, so she makes his chair spin, so he puts grease on her camera lenses, and so forth.

* The UsefulNotes/FirstWorldWar started out with the public assassination of a single man and his wife. Four years later, tens of Millions of people have been killed in a conflict that covered most of the world's countries.
** Arguably that assassination was just one of a hundred events that could have started the war, some of which might have seemed less trivial at the time.

* In the ongoing Discworld/sci-fi/crossover saga ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/SlippingBetweenWorlds Slipping Between Worlds]]'', lord Vetinari is greatly concerned about the Visitors to Discworld. If any of them were to reveal the secrets of their high-technology weaponry to one of the world's powers, whether for ideological or mercenary reasons, he can see the existing balance of power so badly skewed that simmering hostilities and an uneasy peace between finely-balanced enemies could erupt into first local war, then into all-out world war as the Superpowers (Klatch and Ankh-Morpork) are forced to step in to support their allies/client states. As Vetinari's foreign policy relies on keeping the balance of power by ensuring both sides remain equally balanced (through a sort of Mutually Assured Inconvenience), the prospect disturbs him. Hell, he doesn't even want ''Ankh-Morpork'' to have ''gonne'' technology...

* Octopussy: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Orlov Orlov's]] plan to invade Western Europe is [[RenegadeRussian villified]] by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politburo Politburo]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Gogol Gogol]] and another official state that the Soviet military is for defending the Motherland.

** That was confusing, considering that it's official Catholic doctrine that animals do not have souls. Still pretty funny.

* ''[[TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete The Adventures of Pete & Pete]]'' had an episode entitled, "Apocalypse Pete", which starts over a race...between Petes' dad and a neighbor using an R/C car. The height of the war sees both sides using technology that [[FamilyFriendlyFirearms neither one of them could conceivably afford...or get a hold of.]]

* The FirstWorldWar started out with the public assassination of a single man and his wife. Four years later, tens of Millions of people have been killed in a conflict that covered most of the world's countries.

* The first half of Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/TheTwits'' revolves around Mr. and Mrs. Twit doing this.

* This is the main plotline of the short film ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVFHNgNSH0s Nemesis]]''. The film's protagonist actually specifically requested someone to be [[TheRival his rival]].[[/folder]]

[[Folder:FanWorks]]

[[Folder:Film]]

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[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In the comic book and various adaptations thereof, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm of The Comicbook/FantasticFour are involved in an ongoing escalating prank war with each other.
* Ditto with the Human Torch and Spider-Man. Johnny usually ends up the worse of the pair in these confrontations, thanks to Pete's SpiderSense.
* Occasionally happens in Donald Duck comics, between Donald and his neighbour.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck and WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck's (attempted) duet in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''.
* A common occurrence in Creator/LaurelAndHardy'' films. "Big Business", for example, is an EscalatingWar between Stan and Ollie on the one hand, and James Finlayson on the other. There are also variants in which more and more people get dragged in as the conflict escalates, such as the rice fight at the end of "The Hoose-Gow".
* The entire point of ''Film/ChangingLanes'' until the ConflictKiller rears his head.

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