History Main / FoodAsBribe

* The protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' is motivated to do great deeds and work his butt off in training... for food. He uses this to his advantage while brawling Tai Lung for the Dragon's Scroll, which ends up stuck on top of a building during the scuffle. He immediately imagines it as a peanut cookie and effortlessly scales the building to get it. Tai Lung thinks the scroll is giving him power.

* ''FanFic/AMothersTouch'' subverts this. Yoko arrives during the tense meeting of Reiji wanting buy You Show with boxes of store-bought sushi. Himika looks down on this, thinking that this nothing but a bribe to make the Akabas go away. Turns out it wasn't. Yoko honestly did want to buy sushi for everyone and she reveals that, as co-owner of You Show, she doesn't do bribes.

* While everybody involved denies it, it's widely believed that, when the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels were hired to provide security at the Altamont Free Concert in 1969, they were paid in $500 worth of cold beer, which they proceeded to drink during the concert. [[DidntThinkThisThrough Sure enough]], having security provided by an untrained mob of surly, drunk outlaw bikers ended in disaster, and played a major role in Altamont going down in history as one of the worst concert disasters of all time, as documented in ''Film/GimmeShelter1970''.

* While everybody involved denies it, it's widely believed that, when the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels were hired to provide security at the Altamont Free Concert in 1969, they were paid in $500 worth of cold beer, which they proceeded to drink during the concert. [[DidntThinkThisThrough Sure enough]], having security provided by an untrained mob of surly, drunk outlaw bikers ended in disaster, and played a major role in Altamont going down in history as one of the worst concert disasters of all time, as documented in ''Film/GimmeShelter''.

* ''Between Silk and Cyanide'': Leo Mark's relatives provide him with cakes for his superiors so they won't post him to the front line (they don't know that he's a codebreaker, who'll never get posted there for security reasons). This leads to a RunningGag when various VIP's are impressed by his delicious cream cakes, demanding to know where he got them in a rationed [=WW2=] Britain.

* In ''Healing Wars'', Danello makes a peace offering to Nya of fish cakes and stuffed peppers in an attempt to convince her to speak to him again after an [[ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike unwanted rescue]]. It works.
* The four heroes of ''Musketeer Space'' bring an enormous amount of cake (Porthos's engineer is a stress baker) when the try to talk their boss, Amiral Treville, into letting them rush off and track down [[MagnificentBastard Milord de Winter]]. Unfortunately, it doesn't help.

* You have the option use a donut to do this at two occasions during Nugget's mission in ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}''.

* In the Creator/TimDorsey novel ''Orange Crush'', a lobbyist considers the food and drink he provides at campaign functions to be part of the lobbying, with the impact being about ten cents on the dollar (a free meal worth fifty dollars provides as much influence with a politician as a $500 donation to his campaign).

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' this apparently partially[[note]]The fact that he was almost killed when his old boss, Valmont, ordered him to fight Shendu had something to do with it, too[[/note]] precipitated Tohru's HeelFaceTurn. It's actually based on a BrickJoke two episodes earlier. Jackie tries to convince Tohru that working at Section 13 would be better and states that every Tuesday is Donut Day. He then [[IronicEcho repeats this statement]] when confronted with the Chans.

* ''FanWorks/AMothersTouch'' subverts this. Yoko arrives during the tense meeting of Reiji wanting buy You Show with boxes of store-bought sushi. Himika looks down on this, thinking that this nothing but a bribe to make the Akabas go away. Turns out it wasn't. Yoko honestly did want to buy sushi for everyone and she reveals that, as co-owner of You Show, she doesn't do bribes.

* A surprisingly sensible variation occurs in ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' when adventuring party Vox Machina agree to deal with a monster terrorising a farming community in exchange for a supply of fresh produce for the staff at their keep, as the farmers could not afford cash payment for their services.

* The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' features this in the seventh dungeon, as you have to buy a bait to pass a particularly hungry Moblin enemy.

* For much of the Johto arc, ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'''s Team Rocket are dirt poor and thus almost entirely food motivated. They often postpone a crime for the sake of free food and will happily help anyone who gives them a meal, regardless of which side they're on or how many Gyarados are involved.

* Many parents offer to give their little ones candy, ice cream, cookies, or any other kind of sweets if the child behaves himself or herself.

* The police will often offer the criminals they interrogate free food in the hopes that it will make them more relaxed and thus more likely to talk and offer up information.