History Main / EscalatingWar

** In the classic episode "Employee of the Month," [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward begin attempting to one-up each other in order to win the eponymous award. It starts with [=SpongeBob=], in his paranoia over Squidward winning the award and breaking his 26-month winning streak, breaking into the latter's house trying to break his clock to keep him from getting up. Squidward is prepared for this, with a cabinet full of clocks as replacements. They then exchange trash-talk, and Squidward, who initially had no interest in actually winning the award, now declares he ''will'' do it just to spite [=SpongeBob=]. What follows is an escalating series of traps to prevent one of them from getting to work first, starting with Squidward putting [=SpongeBob=] to sleep with his clarinet, with [=SpongeBob=] retaliating by digging a hole in front of Squidward's front door, eventually culminating in [=SpongeBob=] pulling himself along while tied to an anchor and Squidward ''dragging a flaming pirate ship behind him!'' They then call a truce, but almost immediately break it, sprinting to the Krusty Krab. Once there, they attempt to win Mr. Krabs' favor by showing who can clean floors/tables/dishes more efficiently, tearing the place apart in the process. The whole thing finally culminates with the two of them trying to out-cook each other, eventually producing so many Krabby Patties that the Krusty Krab explodes, with the Patties raining from the sky. The episode ultimately ends with the issue unresolved, as Mr. Krabs is shown to be more concerned about customers picking up the "free" Krabby Patties without paying for them, while [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward each frantically ask to be named the winner as the episode fades out.

* Escalating prank wars were occasionally seen on ''Series/{{Mash}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCatCameBack'' could be seen as this. Mr. Johnson's attempts to get rid of the cat get increasingly over-the-top, and every time the cat comes back, it causes more and more damage to Mr. Johnson's house.

** Or the episode in which Rachel tries to get revenge on Chandler for accidentally seeing her naked after having stepped out of the shower...and accidentally walks in the wrong target.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' The guild of calamitous intent doesn't take kindly to murder. Dr. Girlfriend said it best: "Then the guild steps up ''their'' game. [[Film/TheUntouchables If you throw a rock, they throw a knife]]. You throw a knife, [[DisproportionateRetribution they come to your house when you're sleeping and murder your family.]]"

* One commercial for digital cameras from the [[TurnOfTheMillennium mid-2000s']] has one guy taking a nap, and his roommate shaving off an eyebrow, and taking a picture. We next see the first guy coming home with his date, embarrassed about the eyebrow, when he opens the door, his roommate is throwing a party with the theme being the first guy taking a nap with his eyebrow shaved off. When the roommate comes into frame, part of his hair was shaved off sometime before the commercial takes place. They shake hands and call a truce before things go any further.

* Actors Creator/MacaulayCulkin and Creator/RyanGosling had a light-hearted one in 2014, which started when paparazzi captured Gosling wearing a vintage t-shirt featuring Culkin. In appreciation, Culkin took a photo of himself wearing a shirt of Gosling wearing that shirt. Gosling was then photographed again wearing a shirt depicting Culkin wearing ''that'' shirt.

* Actors Creator/MacaulayCulkin and Creator/RyanGosling had a light-hearted one in 2014, which started with paparazzi captured Gosling wearing a vintage t-shirt featuring Culkin. In appreciation, Culkin took a photo of himself wearing a shirt of Gosling wearing that shirt. Gosling was then photographed again wearing a shirt of Culkin wearing ''that'' shirt.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' has Sheldon and Raj engaging in this in "The Hot Troll Deviation" episode of season 4.

->"''Of course, you realize this means war!''"

[[quoteright:329:[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/522163_jj.png]]]]

* In Robert Asprin's ''Literature/MythAdventures'' book series, an escalating prank war that began when Garkin (Skeeve's first master) left Aahz with the check at a restaurant resulted in Aahz losing his powers when Garkin used joke powder on him and was killed before he was able to provide an antidote.

** In ''Film/TitForTat'' (the {{sequel}} to ''Them Thar Hills''), they wind up in a similar battle when Stan and Ollie, who have an electronics store, incur the wrath of the grocer across the street, who happens to be a guy they ''already had'' an escalating war with in the previous film. Both of their businesses wind up wrecked.

** In ''Film/TitForTat'' they wind up in a similar battle when Stan and Ollie, who have an electronics store, incur the wrath of the grocer across the street. Both of their businesses wind up wrecked.

** In ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlIXByXcUHw The Battle of the Century]]'', more and more people get pied and are drawn into the pie fight until over 2,500 people are engaging in a close to medium range mass pie fight.

* [[http://deanhunt.com/advert-wars/ This]] famous series of car ads.

* Shows up in many of the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' classics. For instance, ''Rabbit of Seville'', where WesternAnimation/BugsBunny and Elmer Fudd continually pull out bigger guns to point at each other. Or Daffy as Duck Dodgers, claiming Planet X for its supply of the shaving cream atom, and getting into an escalating war over it with Marvin the Martian. Let's just say the results were not pretty, and widely considered something of a parody of the unwinnable nature of nuclear war, something of a worry at the time.

*** As of 2017, it appears that the real prank was on the audience, as both parties admitted on the podcast ''Podcast/IfIWereYou'' that all the videos were staged. It didn't stop them from landing a pretty sweet gig as hosts of the MTV show ''Pranked.''

* Two members of thew on College Humor have been having an [[http://www.collegehumor.com/tag:prank-war/videos escalating prank war]] going on for some time now. It started out innocently enough ([[http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1759697 innocent being a very relative term]] (not quite safe for work)), but at the time of writing, the latest prank involves guy A making guy B's girlfriend think that guy B was proposing to her. On the giant screen at a Yankees game. [[http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1774718 Said girlfriend was not pleased.]]

** Or the episode in which Rachel tries to get revenge on Chandler for accidentally seeing her naked after having stepped out of the shower...and accidentally walks in the wrong target. Come to think of it, ''Series/{{Friends}}'' does this ''a lot''.