History Main / MovingTheGoalPosts

** A very minor version occurs in the opening of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': the Old Man offers to give you his paraglider after you get a treasure out of a nearby shrine for him. After you do so, he decides that actually you need to go to the other three shrines on the plateau as well. The way the player chooses to respond to his statement changes whether he plays this trope or ExactWords: an indignant "That wasn't the deal!" has the Old Man simply state that he's changed his mind, whilst a more humble "So I need more now?" has him point out that he simply said 'treasure', which may be singular or plural given his context. The Old Man wanted Link to go through the four shrines all along in order to prepare for the journey ahead, and he apologizes for the deception when he reveals his true intentions.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' sees its eponymous lead on the receiving end of this trope in true ''Star Wars'' fashion thanks to, of all characters, [[spoiler:[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Bo-Katan]]]], who requisitions his help in taking an Imperial transport's cargo. He's only going along with the plan because [[spoiler:she has information on the whereabouts of a Jedi]], and he needs to find one so he can return the Child to his species, in spite of the fact that his creed of "The Way" is staunchly different from [[spoiler:her]] more lax interpretation of tradition. When they take the cargo, [[spoiler:she]] then tells him that they need to take the hold ship. He tries [[NotInThisForYourRevolution to back out]], but [[spoiler:she]] reminds him of their bargain by mocking his very words. He does live up to his end of the deal, however, and [[spoiler:she]] lives up to hers by telling of the one he seeks: [[spoiler:[[WhamLine Ahsoka Tano]]]].

* The US TV game show ''Series/TruthOrConsequences'' used this. The show was based on asking each contestant a 'skill testing question' which had to be answered correctly both to win a prize and to avoid facing the 'consequence' of appearing in some mildly embarrassing stunt for the audience. The questions tended to be trivial, but obscure. In the rare event that a contestant answered correctly, the MC Bob Barker would reach into his pocket and reveal that it was really a two part question. In at least one case a third part had to be revealed. It would have been a nice touch for the producers to have turned the tables on Bob by planting a contestant that could answer very many questions, perplexing him until the contestant pointed out the cameras and gave him a birthday present.

* ''VideoGame/Doom3'' was like this: Whenever you reach whichever location you were previously ordered to go, your squadmates have already gone ahead and your commander would radio you to go someplace else, making it feel as if you were accomplishing ''nothing'' in the game. Or rather, nothing beyond killing a lot of zombies and stuff, which is [[JustHereForGodzilla the real point anyway]].

The trope name comes from a British idiom in which a hypothetical football/soccer player is told he has to score a goal from a certain spot on the pitch, only to have the goalposts moved further away after scoring the goal and told that the first goal didn't count. Essentially, it's changing the previously-set standards for something after those standards have already been met.

This set up can end in a number of ways in fiction. Sometimes, just to add insult to injury, Alice will manipulate Bob until she gets bored or has everything she needs, then tells Bob "sorry, but it'll never happen" (e.g. someone else has already been given the promotion that Bob's been chasing all this time). Sometimes this will result in a FreakOut and some well-deserved retribution. Alternatively, Alice will develop a conscience (or a third party will hammer one in) and she'll finally live up to her promise. A third option is that Bob will realize what Alice is up to and call the whole thing a wash, choosing to walk away (usually with a few choice words for Alice in the process -- ironically, that may [[SweetAndSourGrapes lead to Alice finally letting Bob have the now-worthless bargaining chip]]). In {{Fairy Tale}}s, the king setting {{Impossible Task}}s may eventually decide it's not worth it, but, usually, one of the tasks backfires on him. Badly.

* In ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'', during a rescue mission, the protagonist Akira sells expensive {{Nanomachine}} medicine to the rescued Levin and his men to enable them to escape alive, but since they can’t afford it, this puts them into his debt. The unscrupulous ArmsDealer Katsuragi, just gives Akira replacement medicine in exchange for taking on their debts in his place. The contract he signs with the rescued men, has the requirement that they search the ruins that Katsuragi picks, buy all their equipment in his shop, and sell all the LostTechnology relics they find there too. Since Katsuragi makes sure to pick ruins Levin is not equipped for, he ends up in an endless spiral of debt and IndenturedServitude.

* In ''LightNovel/CookingWithWildGame'', the businessman protagonist does this to ''himself''. His goal is to make the racist townsfolk accept that Forest Edge's cuisine is good (ItMakesSenseInContext) and he won't be satisfied by anything else (even though he makes boatloads of money off of egalitarian foreigners who ''do'' like his creations). When he opens a food stall in the town, he dramatically declares that the "battle" to humble them starts now. Then a day passes with no townsfolk buying anything, and he goes home and rationalizes that ''actually'' everybody knows that new stalls barely get any customers anyway, so the ''real'' battle starts...now. His LoveInterest, watching him get all fired up again, questions whether he will be satisfied by anything.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'' had a very small-scale one: Sam is trying to get a list of companies from the head of a local Better Business Bureau type group. The contact keeps saying he will have it soon -- at every (expensive) lunch meeting they have. Probably by the next meeting. Eventually Sam claims to be DEA, and frightens the contact into turning over the list.

--->"The thing about doubling anyone is that the more they do for you, the deeper they get. The deeper they get, the more you can make them do. Great if you're running them, but hard on the source. The suicide rate is... above average."
* In ''{{Series/The Crown|2016}}'', the royal handlers don't approve of Margaret's intention to marry Peter (who's both a commoner and divorced), but they don't want a direct confrontation either. They point out that, if she waits until she's 25, she can get married without the queen's consent, avoiding any troublesome legal issues. When she reaches the proper age and still wants to marry, they inform her that turning 25 only allows her to ''apply'' for the right to get married, but she still needs parliamentary approval.

** Needed in Series 7 of its modern era. This is exactly what Creator/StevenMoffat did with the Doctor's [[TheNthDoctor twelve-regeneration limit]] in 2013 when he had to deal with the fact that the Doctor had used up the entire set. The limit was introduced in "The Deadly Assassin" as a major plot point, but it effectively backed future writers into a corner because it meant the Doctor was subject to this regeneration cap, and thanks to a slew of actors who didn't hold tenures as the Doctor for very long on TV due to either personal reasons that urged them to pass the torch or having their runs CutShort, and a couple of major plot twists that accelerated the time table two whole regenerations, it fast-forwarded the Doctor to the end of his limit. He stated verbatim in an interview that it was easier to "move the goalposts"- rather than have the Doctor outright [[OutOfContinues die]] (an idea which was played with all throughout the tenure of Creator/MattSmith, whose Doctor did not have enough regeneration energy left in the tank to make it to his next incarnation). Fittingly, the Doctor got blessed with a new regeneration cycle as a reward from the Time Lords and went past the limit with another set of (at least) twelve regenerations to burn through.

* Fuels the story of ''Series/ForAllMankind'': In an AlternateUniverse where the Soviet Union manages to land a man on the moon before the United States, NASA tries to save face by changing the end-goal of the Space Race, such as declaring they'll land the first ''woman'' on the moon or that they'll build a full-blown MoonBase. This causes problems at NASA which has to keep developing then scrapping lengthy and expensive programs as the political winds change. [[ForWantOfANail As a result]], the Space Race gets dragged out way further than it was in RealLife, with corresponding knock-on effects.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode, "In the Pale Moonlight", when the character Tolar protests that he has fulfilled his obligations to Sisko and Garak: "We had an agreement." Sisko responds with the words, "I'm making a new agreement." -- Thus implying that their previous arrangements are invalid.

* In March 2016, following the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch [=McConnell=] refused to consider a nomination for a new associate justice from President UsefulNotes/BarackObama, a Democrat, saying that the vacancy should not be filled during a presidential election year (the election being eight months out) and "[t]he American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice" by allowing the new president to select the justice. In September 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, creating a vacancy less than two months before the presidential election, with Republican incumbent UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump up for reelection. [=McConnell=], still majority leader, pushed through the nomination for a new associate justice, with the Senate voting on Amy Coney Barrett's nomination a week before the election. [=McConnell=] justified the appointment by [[https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/22/mitch-mcconnell/mitch-mcconnell-flip-flops-considering-supreme-cou/ claiming that]] presidential year appointments actually ''were'' allowed, so long as one party (his) controlled the Senate and the presidency. Even some Republican senators [[https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-live-updates/h_73403b4eaf42724ec9db79154591d223 called out]] the obvious moving of the goalposts.

* In March 2016, following the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to consider a nomination for a new associate justice from President UsefulNotes/BarackObama, a Democrat, saying that the vacancy should not be filled during a presidential election year (the election being eight months out) and "[t]he American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice" by allowing the new president to select the justice. In September 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, creating a vacancy less than two months before the presidential election, with Republican incumbent UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump up for reelection. McConnell, still majority leader, pushed through the nomination for a new associate justice, with the Senate voting on Amy Coney Barrett's nomination a week before the election. McConnell justified the appointment by [[https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/22/mitch-mcconnell/mitch-mcconnell-flip-flops-considering-supreme-cou/ claiming that]] presidential year appointments actually ''were'' allowed, so long as one party (his) controlled the Senate and the presidency. Even some Republican senators [[https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-live-updates/h_73403b4eaf42724ec9db79154591d223 called out]] the obvious moving of the goalposts.

** For example, they will insist that the NIST simulation of the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories 9/11 World Trade center collapse]] is incorrect because it doesn't show ''exactly'' what happened. Never mind that the rest of their reasoning holds up, or that precisely simulating the billions of pieces of furniture and fittings and individual components of the building would be impossible on any computer known to man, even if they somehow knew their exact locations.

** Both ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' titles work this way. In the old days, you were simply [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle in the wrong castle]], but this time around ''every single fortress/castle'' is the one containing the princess, but you'll watch her get swept away to the next one seventeen times in a row, Mario.
** Unless you use a cannon, in which case the bad guys graciously move the princess ahead for you.

** World Star-4 in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' features a ''literal'' moving goalpost. What appears to be a simple 8 second BreatherLevel turns into a frantic chase as the winged goalpost moves ever further away from you.

*** During Chapter 4, Doopliss will steal Mario's name and body (just roll with it), but will agree to give them back if you can guess his name [[note]]you can't because the letter "p" is missing from the input menu, and you need to find it[[/note]]. Once you're able to properly guess Doopliss' name, he runs off in astonishment; you now need to chase Doopliss back to Creepy Steeple and defeat him there to actually recover Mario's name and body. In Doopliss' "defense," there's no way for Mario to know his name when asked to guess - this is to prevent players who already know who Doopliss is from messing with the story.

* ''Series/{{MADtv}}'': In "Apollo 13: Jason Takes Nasa", the NASA flight director partakes in this.

* ''Film/CoolRunnings'': The Olympic Committee members do this to try to keep Jamaica from qualifying. First, they keep shortening the time requirements. When Jamaica makes the cut anyway, they try to claim that it doesn't count. [[WhatTheHellHero Irv calls them on it big time]], and they relent. It's implied that it wasn't the Jamaicans who were the problem, but Irv himself, whose bobsledding career ended after [[spoiler:he was caught cheating]]. For the record this never happened in RealLife. The Jamaican Bobsledding team was freely welcomed by the committee and the bobsled teams of other countries.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Clockwork Origin", Dr. Banjo insists that Prof. Farnsworth provide a "missing link" between humans and prehistoric apes. With each link the professor provides, Dr. Banjo demands a link between that link and the prehistoric ape. This continues for a long time until the professor can no longer provide a link. Farnsworth then declares that he's going to go find "Missing Missing Link"... and ''does''! However, when The Prof. triumphantly dumps it in front of the scientific committee, Banjo uses it to support his own theory, leading to this rather [[{{Memes/Futurama}} meme-tastic]] quote from Farnsworth:
-->'''Farnsworth''': I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

** In "Your Ed Here," [[JerkJock Kevin]] finds out Eddy's EmbarrassingMiddleName, and uses it as blackmail material to make Eddy do all sorts of publicly humiliating stunts before telling everyone Eddy's middle name anyway.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** "Neptune's Spatula" had [=SpongeBob=] trying to be declared the greatest chef ever. Neptune at one point added more and more conditions a person must meet to be the greatest chef (such as "must be left-handed"), often contradicting previous conditions ("Must wear red underwear, no, BLUE!"). [=SpongeBob=] kept meeting ALL of them.
** In the episode "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" [=SpongeBob=] is trying to get into the Jellyspotters, but their leader Kevin keeps stringing him along with increasingly difficult tasks, at which [=SpongeBob=] succeeds with ease. When they finally come up with something sufficiently impossible, it winds up in Kevin being HoistByHisOwnPetard as the fake "queen jellyfish" he creates attracts a real king jellyfish, and [=SpongeBob=] saves the day, revealing Kevin as a complete loser. When Kevin ''still'' tries to deny [=SpongeBob=] entry, the other Jellyspotters get fed up and take Kevin's crown (which was actually part of his head) and give it to [=SpongeBob=].
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' had a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpE_xMRiCLE sketch]] playing with the famous moment from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. In the sketch, Vader keeps adding ridiculous elements to the deal ("Furthermore I wish you to wear this dress and bonnet!" "Here is a unicycle, you are to ride it wherever you go" "Also you are to wear these clown shoes and refer to yourself as 'Mary'") whenever Lando says "[[TemptingFate This deal's getting worse all the time!]]". It only stops when Lando figures out what's happening and says, "This deal... [[TaughtByExperience is very fair and I'm happy to be a part of it]]."
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' episode "Crisscross", Airachnid kidnaps Jack's mother and says she'll let her go if Jack finds her within a time limit. Jack does so, but at the last second Airachnid changes the challenge from "find her" to "rescue her"; since Jack didn't save her from where he found her, Airachnid takes that as her excuse to kill them both.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', Buster wants to be friends with a couple of skateboarding older kids. The skateboarders promise to let him hang out with them if he performs a humiliating dare. He does, but then they tell him he must perform another dare if he wants to be "initiated." After a series of ever-more humiliating dares, Arthur manages to convince Buster that they're just stringing him along for entertainment value.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', a literal example occurs. In a football game, the opposing team actually moves the goal posts.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' revolves around this. In the episode, Wilt was about to watch his favourite basketball game until Bloo tricks him into leaving the room and getting him chips. Every time Wilt tries to go back upstairs to watch the game, he is bombarded by other imaginary friends asking for favors and eating the chips, due to Wilt's inability to say no. It gets even worse when Wilt ends up traveling all over the world doing favors for strangers (such as walking an old lady across the street, substituing an astronaut he accidentally injured, working as a pizza delivery guy, etc.) When he finally comes back, he realizes that he missed the entire game and finally lets out a BigNo [[HereWeGoAgain only to once again be sent by Bloo to get him chips.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw''. In the first episode featuring Birdgirl, Harvey tells her that she cannot be his assistant in the following dialogue.
-->'''Harvey''': And don't come back until you're all grown uuu-\\
''*Birdgirl climbs out the window, showing a lot of leg and a panty shot.*''\\
'''Harvey''': -until you've been to Law School!
* In "Fright of Passage" on ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'', Tuffnut and Ruffnut do this to Snotlout, repeatedly adding to a list of ridiculous demands that he has to meet in order to get into their shelter. Each time he brings back what they want, they just add something else, until finally the Frightmare threat is driven away and then Snotlout is able to get in, only to find that everyone is gone and the party he was hoping to attend is over.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Fool Coverage", Daffy Duck is an insurance salesman, and he sells Porky Pig an accident policy which pays him $1,000,000 for a black eye. The catch is that Porky must get a black eye in a ridiculously specific accident, occurring as a result of a stampede of wild elephants in his own living room on the Fourth of July -- of any year -- between the hours of 3:55 and 4 P.M. during a hail storm. Sure enough, as soon as Porky agrees to the policy, he gets into an accident that meets these requirements and gets a black eye from it. As Porky tells Daffy to pay up, Daffy quickly adds that the policy actually specifies a stampede of wild elephants ''and'' one baby zebra, making the AsideComment, "I just added that one." [[TemptingFate Then a baby zebra runs in.]]
** In "Boobs in the Woods", after Porky catches a large fish, Daffy asks, "Do you have fishing license?" prompting Porky to show his license. "A dog license?" Porky produces a dog-tag. "A license to sell hair tonic to bald eagles in Omaha Nebraska?" Porky pulls a card out of his hat that Daffy reads, "Hair tonic...bald eagles...Omaha Nebraska."
* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', [[LaughablyEvil Scaramouche]] is reduced to a bouncing head and is told by a ship guard "No shirt, no shoes, no body, NO SERVICE". So he comes back pretending to have a dog's body, only for the sign to suddenly say "No shirt, no shoes, no body, no dogs, NO SERVICE".
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' episode "The Great Gladiator Gig", Mario and Luigi get trapped in the arena of a coliseum that Emperor Koopa has taken over. Koopa forces the Bros. to fight Tryclydius, and states that if they can defeat him, they'll be allowed to leave. When Mario and Luigi ''do'' manage to defeat Tryclydius, Princess Toadstool makes a point of telling Koopa that he needs to let them go. Instead, Koopa orders his guard to release two lions into the arena. When Toadstool calls Koopa out, his response is "One of the nice things about being evil is, you get to lie a lot!"
* A fairly literal example happens at the beginning of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Muppet Babies|1984}}'' episode "Kermit Goes to Washington". The babies are racing toy boats across the bathtub. When Gonzo wins, Piggy announces that she's changing the rules, and states that it now takes ''two'' laps to win, instead of just one. Piggy then creates a distraction and finishes the race. Naturally, the other babies complain that Piggy shouldn't be able to change the rules mid-game, and Nanny ultimately tells Piggy that she had been unfair.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E8BombadJedi Bombad Jedi]]" Senator Farr discovers to his horror that Gunray's promises of food shipments are primarily contingent on having Padmé in his custody, and afterwards, the request will be placed under consideration.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', every time Marinette tries to call out Lila's BlatantLies, she manages to re-rail them with even more blatant lies (she says she "got tinnitus" from saving Jagged Stone's pet cat, Marinette says that the man is allergic to pet fur, hence why he has a pet alligator, Lila just says that this meeting was before Stone found out that he was allergic) or ExactWords (she says that she will meet "her esteemed close friend" Prince Ali soon, Marinette points out that Ali is in New York at the moment, Lila just says that she got the ''invitation'' to meet Ali, they will meet when he travels to France soon).
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkPantherAndPals'': In "Pinxellated," Big Nose runs an arcade where the prizes are all the same plushie. There is a sign saying, in pictures, "one ticket = one plushie." A boy comes up to the prize booth with a ticket, but Big Nose decides he doesn't want to give away the plushies, so he changes the sign to make it say "two tickets = one plushie." The boy walks away, disheartened. Pink Panther starts winning arcade games to give the boy his tickets, and Big Nose keeps driving up the price of the plushies so that Pink Panther will have to get more tickets. By the end, the sign reads "1000 tickets = one plushie," but by that point, Pink Panther has a truck full of tickets, and Big Nose is trapped inside an arcade machine, so he can't change the sign again, and Pink Panther and the boy each get a plushie.

* Inverted in one episode of ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'', when a woman, joined by Monica, has difficulty completing an obstacle course designed for men, specifically that rope n' wall thing. She trains hard to overcome the difference, then the chauvinist Drill Sarge tells her that she doesn't have to complete the same course as the men, being allowed to skip said wall. Monica finishes, and the woman falls behind. Just before she crosses the line, she stops and asks the Sarge whether command actually sent that order, instead of it just being the Sarge's requirement. Then she goes back, climbs the wall, and makes it across the line just in time.
* This seemed to be what was going on in ''Series/KungFu1972''. Whenever Caine would complete a task, it seemed his master would come up with something else he had to do (snatch the pebble from my hand, walk on rice paper without tearing it, etc.).

* The "blackmail" variant was used on ''Series/TheOfficeUS'', when Phyllis made increasing demands of Angela to keep her silence about the latter's affair.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In various series and films, the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] is the ultimate in moveable goalposts. [[FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow When, where and how it is applied is completely variable]], and Starfleet and the Federation government, which are the ones imposing it, are highly-prone to treating it as anything from an inviolable law with a specific set of conditions to an abstract moral ideal that is more of a guideline than a rule. In general, its applicability is driven by RuleOfDrama on an episode-by-episode basis.
** This was especially prevalent in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', where both Picard and Janeway were not above countermanding ''their own orders'' if they had a change of heart on a particular matter, often to the bewilderment of their crews, who then had to respond to changes in what had previously been seen as fixed plans.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode, "In the Pale Moonlight", when the character Tolar protests that he has fulfilled his obligations to Sisko and Garak: "We had an agreement." Sisko responds with the words, "I'm making a new agreement." -- Thus implying that their previous arrangements are invalid.
** PlayedForLaughs in an earlier episode of ''Deep Space Nine'', where Rom temporarily defects from Quark's to work for a competitor who promises him a one-fourth share of the profits. When said competitor ends up needing all the money for an investment, he tells Rom that the one-fourth was "after expenses", and the investment counted as an expense. Rom quits indignantly, declaring that if he's going to be cheated regardless, he might as well be working for his sibling and not a stranger.
* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', {{the computer|IsACheatingBastard}} does this to Teal'c during a virtual reality battle scenario, and the characters even refer to it by name. Every time he completes the scenario, it adds an additional element to keep him from winning. It does eventually hit a wall, but it took a while. On top of that, Teal'c was moving the goalposts ''himself''. The scenario was designed to program itself around an individual's own beliefs and experiences; at this point in the story, Teal'c was convinced of the righteousness of fighting the Guoa'uld, but still firmly believed that it was a fight that was impossible to win, hence every "victory" quickly becoming a [[DiabolusExMachina surprising defeat.]]
* Was revealed to be the motive in an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}''. After being blackmailed with evidence that he'd killed his wife, the victim decided to kill the blackmailer when their demands grew too high. Knowing that it was one of several people, but not who, he started killing them one by one, resulting in a string of seemingly random murders.

-->"The thing about doubling anyone is that the more they do for you, the deeper they get. The deeper they get, the more you can make them do. Great if you're running them, but hard on the source. The suicide rate is... above average."
* ''Series/HappyDays'' featured a later episode where Joanie and Jenny Piccolo were trying to join a sorority-type club called the Rydells. The group wanted Joanie as a member, but not Jenny, so Joanie was given a simple task (get a phone book), while Jenny was given an ImpossibleTask (memorize every number in the book). When Jenny actually managed to complete her task, they came up with another ImpossibleTask for her: stealing a statue from the park.
* On ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Francis comes up with a pair of Monster Truck rally tickets, and keeps making deals with his brothers for them only to renege. When he eventually ditches all of them to take a girl, they respond by framing him for kidnapping.

* On ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'', the Romans do this constantly, in addition to their ChronicBackstabbingDisorder. Indeed, virtually any agreement anyone makes usually gets altered by whichever side currently holds the advantage. Glaber, Batiatus and Crassus are the most notable offenders, but all the Romans also do it too.

* President Bartlet in ''Series/TheWestWing'' is doing this to himself, according to his psychiatrist [[WellDoneSonGuy regarding his long dead, abusive father's love.]]
-->'''Dr. Keyworth:''' It can't be easy being you. I don't mean the job. I meant being inside your head. [...] They keep moving the goalposts on you, don't they? Get As, good college, Latin honors. Get into the London School of Economics. Get a good teaching job, Ivy League School, tenure. Now you got to publish, now you got to go to Stockholm --\\

'''Bartlet''' ''[Hiding the cut from that last remark]'' Well, I'm told that most men lead lives of quiet desperation.\\

* In the 2015 reboot series of ''Series/BattleBots'' the #1 seed Tombstone, a devastatingly powerful bar spinner tipped to win the contest, was defeated via judges' decision in the Grand Final by #3 seed Bite Force, a control robot equipped with clamping/lifting arms and a thick frontal armour wedge they added to deal with spinners. For the 2016 series the producers [[ExecutiveMeddling changed the rules]] so robots that used "defensive additions" like the one Bite Force had used would actually ''lose'' points for aggression and would not score any damage points for damage opponents did to themselves with the recoil of their own weapons against these, rendering control bots competitively inviable, in a painfully transparent attempt to prevent a control-bot from winning over a pure damage bot like Tombstone again. [[DownerEnding They got their way]] when, with almost nothing left in the tournament tough enough to stand up to Tombstone's weapon[[note]]beta came closest with their thick frontal armour below their hammer weapon, but still lost the judges' decision due to the damage Tombstone did to their hammer when they rode up the front wedge[[/note]], Tombstone won the 2016 series fairly easily.
* In ''{{Series/The Crown|2016}}'', the royal handlers don't approve of Margaret's intention to marry Peter (who's both a commoner and divorced), but they don't want a direct confrontation either. They point out that, if she waits until she's 25, she can get married without the queen's consent, avoiding any troublesome legal issues. When she reaches the proper age and still wants to marry, they inform her that turning 25 only allows her to ''apply'' for the right to get married, but she still needs parliamentary approval.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Used to political effect in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E4TheSunMakers The Sun Makers]]". Earth was dying, when a mysterious "Company" swoops in and provides a(n) (olive/company) branch to help humanity, led by the greedy "Collector". They provided a viable living environment for humanity first on Mars, and when the Doctor and his current companion, Leela, happen to arrive on the scene, now on Pluto. The Collector and his foppish, snooty, and boot-kissing right-hand flunky, Gatherer Hade, tax and police the population, ranging from ever-increasing exorbitant fees on payments, to declaring being out in the sunlight illegal, to controlling the population with a fear-inducing chemical. (claimed to be an air-purification chemical by The Company.) How badly does the Collector and the Company move the goalposts? When we, the viewers, arrive in-media-res, a worker in his city has saved up enough of his money (80 telmars) to help give his ailing father a painless assisted suicide. Upon presentation of the money to Gatherer Hade, the worker is instead told, nonchalantly, that the Collector has recently increased the fees on payments, meaning that what would normally be paid in 80 telmars is now '''117''' telmars. Add to this that he is now expected to increase his workload, which only pays '''3''' telmars per shift, to pay off the debt, despite the fact that he already works '''''21 hours''''' a day, and is now expected to be awake ''and'' working all the time until the debt is paid off!
--->'''Cordo:''' ''[constantly nervous]'' I'm a foundry work unit, your honour. Always respectable. All my life I've met the production quotas, paid my dues and taxes, praise the Company.\\
'''Mandrell:''' Stuff the Company. Mouth those mindless parties down here, Citizen Cordo, and you'll get your throat slit. So, you're in trouble with the Gatherer, eh?\\
'''Cordo:''' Yes. I couldn't meet my father's death taxes. It was more than I was told, and I--\\
'''Mandrell:''' [[EvilDebtCollector It's always more than they tell you.]] I've heard the story a thousand times. You stay with us, you'll have to earn your keep.
** Needed in Series 7 of its modern era. This is exactly what Creator/StevenMoffat did with the Doctor's [[TheNthDoctor twelve-regeneration limit]] in 2013 when he had to deal with the fact that the Doctor had used up the entire set. The limit was introduced in "The Deadly Assassin" as a major plot point, but it effectively backed future writers into a corner because it meant the Doctor was subject to this regeneration cap, and thanks to a slew of actors who didn't hold tenures as the Doctor for very long on TV due to either personal reasons that urged them to pass the torch or having their runs CutShort, and a couple of major plot twists that accelerated the time table two whole regenerations, it fast-forwarded the Doctor to the end of his limit. He stated verbatim in an interview that it was easier to "move the goalposts"- rather than have the Doctor outright [[OutOfContinues die]] (an idea which was played with all throughout the tenure of Creator/MattSmith, whose Doctor did not have enough regeneration energy left in the tank to make it to his next incarnation). Fittingly, the Doctor got blessed with a new regeneration cycle as a reward from the Time Lords and went past the limit with another set of (at least) twelve regenerations to burn through.
* An episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' with shades of VerySpecialEpisode had Will and Carlton pledging for a fraternity. The leader takes an instant dislike to Carlton (as he's from a well off family which the leader considers as a sell out) and begins singling him out by making the tasks specifically difficult for him. Will tries to tell Carlton that he shouldn't let them treat him like this but [[{{Determinator}} Carlton pushes through them all because he's so desperate for membership]]. In the end, Carlton completes all the tasks but the leader still refuses his membership, leading to Will giving up his membership in disgust, Carlton calling the man out on his bigotry and a more reasonable senior member telling the current one that he plans to get the university committee to have him removed.
* In the ''Series/GameOfThrones'' Season 6 episode "No One", a group of Sparrows come to take Cersei for a meeting with the High Septon. She refuses, and The Mountain, set to be Cersei's champion in her upcoming trial by combat, kills a Sparrow. The next day, her son, King Tommen, announces that "after much prayer and reflection", he has decided to abolish trial by combat as a barbaric custom imposed by a previous dynasty that does not reflect the will of the gods and return to having cases heard by a panel of seven septons, [[spoiler:forcing Cersei to resort to more drastic measures to avert the trial in the season finale]].
* ''Series/{{Rome}}''. Octavian is made consul by the Roman Senate who believe his youth will make him an [[PuppetKing easily-controlled puppet]]. They quickly discover otherwise.
-->'''Octavian''': As my first act, I propose a motion to declare Brutus and Cassius murderers and enemies of the state.\\
''[The gathered Senators begin muttering angrily at this. A deeply rattled Cicero rises and goes over to Octavian]''\\
'''Cicero''': My dear boy, this is ''not'' what we agreed!\\
'''Octavian''': It is not. Nevertheless, here we are.\\
'''Cicero''': Brutus and Cassius still have many friends. You will split the chamber, the unity of the Republic!\\
'''Octavian''': [[TranquilFury Step away from my chair]].\\
''[Cicero's expression is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone one of unmitigated horror]] as he reluctantly returns to his seat. Octavian stands up and points to the Senate floor]''.\\
'''Octavian''': ''My father died on this floor. ''Right there''. Stabbed 27 times. ''Butchered'' by men he called his friends. ''Who'' will tell me that is not murder? ''[Roman soldiers begin filing into the Senate chamber; the gathered Senators begin raving in outrage] ''Who'' will tell my Legions, who love Caesar as I do, that that is not murder?! ''[The soldiers draw their swords and the chamber falls deathly silent]'' ''Who'' will speak against the motion?
* Fuels the story of ''Series/ForAllMankind'': In an AlternateUniverse where the Soviet Union manages to land a man on the moon before the United States, NASA tries to save face by changing the end-goal of the Space Race, such as declaring they'll land the first ''woman'' on the moon or that they'll build a full-blown MoonBase. This causes problems at NASA which has to keep developing then scrapping lengthy and expensive programs as the political winds change. [[ForWantOfANail As a result]], the Space Race gets dragged out way further than it was in RealLife, with corresponding knock-on effects.
* ''Series/{{MADtv}}'': In "Apollo 13: Jason Takes Nasa", the NASA flight director partakes in this.
-->'''Gene Kranz:''' No American has ever been hacked to pieces in space by a hockey mask-wearing homicidal maniac and it sure as hell isn't gonna happen on my watch!
-->'''Technician:''' But Gene, it just happened to two of them.
-->'''Gene Kranz:''' Okay, no THREE Americans have ever been hacked to pieces in space by a hockey mask-wearing homicidal maniac on my watch!
* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' sees it's eponymous lead on the receiving end of this trope in true ''Star Wars'' fashion thanks to, of all characters, [[spoiler: [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Bo-Katan]]]], who requisitions his help in taking an Imperial transport's cargo. He's only going along with the plan because [[spoiler: she has information on the whereabouts of a Jedi]], and he needs to find one so he can return the Child to his species, in spite of the fact that his creed of "The Way" is staunchly different from [[spoiler: her]] more lax interpretation of tradition. When they take the cargo, [[spoiler: she]] then tells him that they need to take the hold ship. He tries [[NotInThisForYourRevolution to back out]], but [[spoiler: she]] reminds him of their bargain by mocking his very words. He does live up to his end of the deal, however, and [[spoiler: she]] lives up to hers by telling of the one he seeks: [[spoiler: [[WhamLine Ahsoka Tano]]]].

* The same thing happens in "Lazy John". This time, the titular character has the lady buy various articles of clothing to complete his outfit, and at the end, [[spoiler:admits that he has a wife and ten children at home]].
* The Song "Sixteen Tons", describing the life of a miner. ''Sixteen tons, and what do you get / another day older and deeper in debt / St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go / I owe my soul to the company store''.
* In Music/TaylorSwift's "[[Music/SpeakNow Dear John]]," she accuses her ex-boyfriend of this, telling her he expected a certain sort of behavior from her, but then turning around and deciding he wanted something else when she complied, all as a means to "test" her love for him.

* Norwegian singer Wenche Myhre's song "Jåmpa Joik" (from the film "Operasjon: Sjøsprøyt") is about a woman who starts out demanding of her suitor that he own eight reindeer for her to agree to marry him, increasing the number every time he comes back with the number she asked. In the last verse she demands two hundred reindeer, but at thet point [[TakeAThirdOption he marries someone else]].

* Mercenary players are warned of this as a possible screw-job tactic by unscrupulous employers in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. In an effort to save money, some employers may claim that mercenaries 'failed to do their utmost' even if the mercenary unit successfully completed their mission (for instance, claiming that mercenaries failed a defensive mission by not [[LeaveNoSurvivors killing or destroying every enemy on the field]] even when they drove off the opponent and kept their objective safe). Frustration over this led to the formation of the [[NGOSuperpower Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission]], which oversaw contracts and offered neutral arbitration in the event of disputes. Unfortunately for mercenaries, the Word of Blake Jihad resulted in the MRCB's destruction. The Successor States are also known to put mercenary units out of business with the "Company Store" gambit (as detailed in the Real Life section) by nickel and diming them for parts and transport and charging premiums, forcing them to become more and more dependent on their employer for supplies until they're so in debt to them they can't afford to leave. In lore, the end of the Refusal War between Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon involved this: as Clan Wolf had committed their military force to the war, the Falcons claimed that their loss constituted a Trial of Absorption and laid claim to Clan Wolf's resources. Luckily for the Wolves, a witness to the end of the war turned out to be NotQuiteDead.
* On a meta level, bad [=GMs=] will often do things like this if the players do [[OffTheRails something unexpected and throw a monkey wrench in their plot]]. An example would be if a player attacks a character they aren't "supposed" to attack/kill yet and roll a hit and the GM reacts by secretly increasing the target's armor class so the attack actually misses.

* In the ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series of video games, your character moves into a new town full of animals. The local shopkeeper, Tom Nook, sets you up with a place to live... and then gives you a bill that you cannot possibly afford. Even after [[JustifiedTutorial your stint as his personal assistant]], it will still take you some time to pay off the debt. Once you do, he offers to renovate your house, and ends up doing so [[ButThouMust whether you agree or not]]. And sticks you with ''that'' bill as well. It takes many iterations of this pattern before he is content to let you ''not'' be in his debt. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] started with ''New Leaf'', where you get to decide when and how your house is upgraded, if at all.
* In their first conversation in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', Dennis offers the protagonist a deal that each shall pursue only two girls in their class (Johanna being off-limits). However, as time goes on, Dennis keeps adding new conditions to the deal, and when the protagonist pushes back, Dennis calls off the deal entirely, and tries to bed all five girls in the class, plus Tamara.

** Chapter 5. [[spoiler: Euden and his party catch up to his father, Emperor Aurelius, who had been possessed by [[SealedEvilInACan The Other]] into restarting the Dyrenell Empire. It turns out it's too late because now the Other...has switched bodies to his sister and is now Empress Zethia.]]
** Chapter 10. [[spoiler: The party learns the origins of the Second War of Sealing between King Alberius and Morsayati, the true name of the Other, and that he had sealed the demon's power within himself and the dragon Cthonius. All Euden can do is to MercyKill his ancestor, but it works for the Other as now he regains his full power, and Euden's own siblings join him whether for power, scientific curiosity, loyalty or just to spite him.]]
** Chapter 15. [[spoiler: Even after his hidden older brother Beren had saved Euden from being possessed by Morsayati by absorbing his soul, Volk, the Agito of Wind, kidnaps Zethia to where a dark figure who looks exactly like Euden, awaits the party. The party make their way to the border to North Alberia and are greeted by the man calling himself Nedrick who drops a bombshell: He is the true Euden who had died of wyrmscale as a baby while the one that players have played with is an impostor. To prove it, he brings out a royal book that will only glow with the touch of those with royal blood. Zethia touches it and it glows. When Euden does so... it doesn't. Even after the party fights through a crazed Valyx and his dragon Thor, Zethia teleports the party back to the Halidom and he's lost her again.]]

* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfVermilion'' a greedy king makes you go through three progressively larger and harder dungeons in order to get a ring you need. In the end, the hero gets fed up and forces the king at swordpoint to hand the ring over. [[spoiler:And it turns out the ring is a fake.]]
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6:'' [[spoiler:Simmons forces Helena to help him with his plan to assassinate the President by holding her little sister hostage, and soon after decides to simply use said little sister as a C-Virus test subject regardless.]]

* ''VideoGame/Doom3'' was like this: Whenever you reach whichever location you were previously ordered to go, your squadmates have already gone ahead and your commander would radio you to go someplace else, making it feel as if you were accomplishing ''nothing'' in the game. Or rather, nothing beyond killing a lot of zombies and stuff, which is [[JustHereForGodzilla the real point anyway]].
* Both ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' titles work this way. In the old days, you were simply [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle in the wrong castle]], but this time around ''every single fortress/castle'' is the one containing the princess, but you'll watch her get swept away to the next one seventeen times in a row, Mario.

* ''[[VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors Samurai Warriors Katana.]]'' Tachibana Ginchiyo in Savior Story's last stage. First, she tells you to get to the top of an inclined plane without taking any damage. You will fail this part repeatedly because the game doesn't adequately explain how to strafe, the specific control scheme is ONLY used in that area, and you can't attack. When you reach the top, she sends 30-ish enemies at you and expects you to defeat them without any attacks landing successfully on you (you can block attacks and deflect arrows as usual). Fail here, and you have to do the first part again. Only thing saving it from being ThatOneLevel is that once you deal with the enemies, Tachibane concedes that you're actually strong and doesn't make you fight her.
* You're working to bring ale to The Snake in one mission in ''VideoGame/{{Stronghold}}''. The quota is low first, but it's likely that as soon your industry begins to run, he makes an excuse to demand more. He mercifully stops after a while, allowing you to complete the mission. If you know this is coming (one of the level hints points out that the Snake isn't trustworthy, but that's it), you can stockpile a large amount of hops before you start brewing ale. If you subsequently make enough brewers, you can complete his task before he moves the goalposts, but it's tough.
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV'', the BigBad captures Rosella and sets her to a task to earn her freedom. Upon completing that task, she is given a second one, followed by a third. And then instead of freeing Rosella, she affiances her to Edgar.

'''Guard:''' Hah, you and your fancy 'currency' based on 'international finance.' I'll take a brick of an arbitrarily precious metal over this newfangled 'money' any day!
* ''VideoGame/BlastCorps''. [[ItsUpToYou Save the world from the missile carrier]]! [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Now save this random shuttle]]! [[ExcusePlot Now go the moon]]! [[OneHundredPercentCompletion Now get all the gold medals]]! [[BonusDungeon Now go to more planets!]] [[TimeTrial Now do it faster]]! [[NintendoHard Now go for Platinum]]! [[spoiler:You Can Stop Now.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', a LoanShark dupes you into being the prey in a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame attraction that he runs, promising that if you fight your way out he will release a debtor. When you do, he kills the debtor, declaring "This is my game, and I'm changing the rules!" [[MuggingTheMonster Last mistake he ever makes.]]
* Crisis City as Classic Sonic in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' has a literal example of the trope. When you reach the goal sign, the flaming tornado in the background ''uproots it and carries it away''. You'll have to play through the level a bit more to reach the goal sign that was moved.
* In ''VideoGame/AlwaysSometimesMonsters'', you can try negotiating with your CrankyLandlord by offering to pay him whatever money you've scrounged together so that you can stay in your apartment that night, even if you can't afford the full $500. He'll consider this, and potentially agree... but if you pissed him off by [[spoiler:refusing to hand over your key]], he'll add that you ''also'' have to pay a $5000 security deposit upfront to cover the cost of [[spoiler:replacing the locks]].
* Abathur from ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm''. His job is to try to make the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Zerg Swarm]] perfect. However, "perfect" is different from moment to moment. He is well aware that he'll never achieve perfection, and takes it in stride, settling for chasing it.
* ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'': The rules of Grestin border checkpoint change in the matter of ''days'', as the gameplay becomes a lot more difficult toward the player. Aside from making your life harder, this significantly affects some entrants who do not adapt to sudden changes, rendering their passports invalid.
* In the third case of ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsPhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', Phoenix uses witness testimony to prove that his client couldn't have dropped a particular piece of evidence. Inquisitor Barnham is taken aback, but then he declares that witchcraft alters people's memories and tells the witnesses to "rethink" their testimony and try again. In other words, any time the testimony contradicts the Inquisition's case, it doesn't count. (Phoenix responds by [[MakeTheDogTestify parrot testimony]], which isn't subject to said witchcraft.)
* Absolute Virtue in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' was supposed to be impossible to kill, but players had found a way to do it. The developers then made a patch to stomp out the strategy used so it would no longer work. Players would find another way to beat the boss while the developers patch the game to make Absolute Virtue immune to the previous strategy while also banning players for supposedly cheating. This went on for years.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': When you first encounter the younger Beaver brother, he will offer you an empty bottle if you can complete his swim-through-the-rings minigame. When you do that, the older Beaver brother will show up, stating that you must now also complete ''his'' slightly harder version of the minigame before giving you their bottle.
* A very minor version occurs in the opening of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': the Old Man offers to give you his paraglider after you get a treasure out of a nearby shrine for him. After you do so, he decides that actually you need to go to the other three shrines on the plateau as well. The way the player chooses to respond to his statement changes whether he plays this trope or ExactWords: an indignant "That wasn't the deal!" has the Old Man simply state that he's changed his mind, whilst a more humble "So I need more now?" has him point out that he simply said 'treasure', which may be singular or plural given his context. The Old Man wanted Link to go through the four shrines all along in order to prepare for the journey ahead, and he apologizes for the deception when he reveals his true intentions.
* Played with during Therion's route in ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler''. Therion is a thief who needs to get into a heavily guarded mansion, so he goes to a former friend of the mansion's owner. He's told that he'll be given a means of getting into the mansion if he procures a rare material, but as soon as he returns with it he's told to go fetch something else. This happens three times before [[spoiler:the man reveals that all of the materials Therion got for him were components he needed to make a key that will get Therion into the mansion's vault]].
* A [[JustifiedTutorial training flashback]] in ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' revealed that when Agent 47 was first recruited into the International Contract Agency, his performance (on both simulations and aptitude tests) showed him to be the most promising recruit since Erich Soders, a legendary UsefulNotes/ColdWar operative. [[TheNeidermeyer Soders]], [[GreenEyedMonster jealous of the young upstart and not wanting to see his records broken]], replaced the normal Final Exam scenario with a custom simulation based on one of his toughest missions from TheSeventies, [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation cranking the difficulty up]] to ensure 47's failure. Fortunately, [[MissionControl Diana]] figured out what Soders was up to and helped 47 as much as she could.
* ''VideoGame/MyDearBoss'': Reach the boss's home at 100000 m? Now reach the hospital at 500000 m in the next launch. Did that? Get him to the cemetary at 1000000 m. The game pushes new goals like this two times and replaces the previous ones on the progressbar.
* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'': So Aidoru/Sam Idol's Goal Slide technique consists in pushing a specifically-made papier-maché goal out of the ball's trajectory, therefore preventing the goal by ''literally'' moving the goalposts.
* When you beat Clair in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', she will ask you to follow her into the Dragon's Den and answer a few questions by some men there. Once you finish that, they will then warn her to give you the badge you earned, lest they report such actions to the league.
* ''VideoGame/TheGreatGaias'': Captain Baffa knows the location of the [[BrutalBonusLevel Archipelago]], but refuses to take the party there because he doesn't think they're ready. Every time the party asks, Baffa gives them a seemingly Herculean task, only to come up with another one until the party completes every other sidequest in the game. This is intended to be a humorous way to help the player find undiscovered sidequests.
* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemptionII'', Dutch's end goal frequently changes. First, it was to evade the government, then continue moving further west, and then collect enough money to escape to Tahiti. [[MissingStepsPlan The steps to getting to said goal also changes depending on the situation.]]
* The Subcon Forest level from ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'' features this trope prominently. At the start of the first Act, [[TrapIsTheOnlyOption the only way forward is into an unavoidable trap]]. To escape the trap, you must [[DealWithTheDevil give your soul to the Snatcher]] and do some work for him. Supposedly, once you complete the tasks on the contract, you'll get your soul back, but the Snatcher just forces you to sign more contracts since you're such a great worker. Once he's out of contracts to give you, [[spoiler:he just decides that YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and tries to kill you.]]
* ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'': As Majima's story begins, he is forced to work at The Grand cabaret under the thumb of sleazy Omi yakuza named Sagawa, in order to work off a debt to Sagawa's blood brother Shimano, Majima's former boss in the Tojo Clan. Initially his debt is around ¥100 million, but just when Majima makes a payment towards that goal, Sagawa arbitrarily ups it to ''¥500 million'', then twists the knife further by having The Grand's most popular hostess transferred to one of his other clubs, just to make it harder for Majima to earn his keep. Even when Majima, making the best of the situation, negotiates a deal with a rival club for their best girl to come work for him instead, Sagawa smugly suggests that he could easily call up the other club and cancel the whole deal to pressure Majima into taking a hit job for him, which kicks off the bulk of Majima's plotline.

* ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'': It's mentioned that the {{Hell}} equivalent for LawfulEvil people is an endless cycle of being punished for every inadequacy, then having the goalposts moved if you ever stop being inadequate.
* This is a major part of ''Webcomic/JoeVsElanSchool'', and it's PlayedForDrama. As the narrator describes it, the titular "school" is a cover for institutionalized abuse, and only serves as a cash cow for its millionaire owner. The school offers "graduation" to its inmates, but only at the school's discretion, and they can (and ''will'') cancel it if they decide an inmate needs to stay longer. The narrator explains that this is done so the school can milk tens of thousands of dollars of tuition from parents and from the state; an extended stay means much more additional profit.

* Done in the ''Blog/WhatIf'' entry [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/43/ "Train Loop"]] in order to allow for an interesting answer (as in, other than "no"). "Could a high-speed train run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers staying comfortable?" becomes (changes bolded) "Could a '''modified and reinforced''' high-speed train '''with a jet engine on top''' run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers '''surviving'''?"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Clockwork Origin," Dr. Banjo insists that Prof. Farnsworth provide a "missing link" between humans and prehistoric apes. With each link the professor provides, Dr. Banjo demands a link between that link and the prehistoric ape. This continues for a long time until the professor can no longer provide a link. Farnsworth then declares that he's going to go find "Missing Missing Link"... and ''does''! However, when The Prof. triumphantly dumps it in front of the scientific committee, Banjo uses it to support his own theory, leading to this rather [[{{Memes/Futurama}} meme-tastic]] quote from Farnsworth:

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* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' Suletta, Mioriene and the rest of Earth House work to get their emerging new company, GUND-ARM Inc., off the ground. However, Mioriene discovers that [[spoiler:Shaddiq used his authority to change the rules of student-started companies so that they have to prove that what they’re producing is safe, which GUND-ARM can’t prove until they launch. Shaddiq, to his credit, knows that Mioriene won’t let this stand and will challenge them to a duel]].

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/fishring.html The Fish and the Ring,]]'' ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/russianwondertales/vasiliiunlucky.html Vasilii the Unlucky,]]'' ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/29devilgoldhairs.html The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs,]]'' Literature/TheKingWhoWouldBeStrongerThanFate, and many other fairy tales, a man who discovers his child is [[SelfFulfillingProphecy doomed]] to marry a poor child tries to kill them with many tasks, before and after the wedding; in the end, he fails.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/126ferdinandfaithful.html Ferdinand the Faithful,]]'' whenever Ferdinand does whatever the king asks, the king decides it's time to ladle another task on him as the price of not executing him. Until finally, [[spoiler:the princess decides she'd rather marry Ferdinand than the king and tricks the king into letting her kill him]].
** Similarly in ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/hopomythumb/stories/bootstroll.html Boots and the Troll,]]'' ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/hopomythumb/stories/ebsenwitch.html Esben and the Witch,]]'' ''[[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/240.htm The Gold-Bearded Man,]]'' and ''[[http://www.widesky.org/stories_poetry/fire.html The Firebird and Princess Vasilia.]]''
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/dapplegrim.html Dapplegrim,]]'' the king sets more tasks before he allows the hero to marry the princess.
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/fairgoldilocks.html Fair Goldilocks,]]'' the princess tries to put off a wooer with {{Impossible Task}}s.
** As did Princess Kaguya from the Japanese folktale ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.]]''
* In ''[[http://duress.tripod.com/hansi.htm Hansi and the Nix,]]'' a young cowherd named Hansi falls in love with (variously) a [[ElementalEmbodiment water spirit]] or a [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent freshwater mermaid]] he calls "Nixie." But then fall comes, and she doesn't want to come up to the surface of the lake anymore because it's getting too cold. So Hansi agrees to live with her. But then he starts to get homesick for the classic aspects of YodelLand. He misses his dairy cow, and when Nixie brings her to him, he wants to sample the cheese he made from the cow's milk a few months back. When Nixie brings him some of the cheese, Hansi gets wistful for wildflowers. [[spoiler:Nixie responds by bringing his entire village down into the lake.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Vader makes a "deal" with Lando that, if Lando turns Han over to TheEmpire, then the Empire will leave Cloud City alone. Vader then turns Han over to Boba Fett and tells Lando that Leia and Chewie will have to remain prisoners on Cloud City. When Lando complains, Vader asks if he thinks he's being treated unfairly...because [[ShameIfSomethingHappened it would be unfortunate if he had to leave a garrison there]]. It's also suggested that Vader is going to leave a garrison anyway. Then Vader decides that he's taking Leia and Chewie with him. When Lando calls him on it, Vader threatens him: "I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further!" Lando finally catches on and decides that if Vader won't keep his end of the deal, ''he'' won't either.
** A more benign version happened in ''Film/ANewHope''. Luke Skywalker has been promised that he can enroll in the Imperial Academy "next year" by his Uncle Owen for the past few years or so. Luke is understandably frustrated, since many friends have long gone on to the Academy and he feels that his uncle is stringing him along. [[note]]In hindsight, it's even more sympathetic, as it's likely that Owen was trying to prevent the Empire from becoming aware of Luke in order to protect him.[[/note]]
** Palpatine does this to Anakin in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', stringing him along with promises of teaching him Plagueis' ability to save people from death. When he's being threatened by Mace Windu, he claims to have the power himself, but after Anakin saves him he immediately backtracks and states that only Plagueis ever knew it but they can discover the secret together if Anakin keeps doing his bidding. Ultimately he drops the pretense after Padme's death, and it's left ambiguous whether he actually knew the ability- and, at least in the films, whether or not it ever existed at all. Anakin, for his part, did realize Palpatine was manipulating him, but went along with it out of inertia and desperation.
* Subverted in ''Film/OfficeSpace'': Joanna's annoying boss ''attempts'' this, guilting her about wearing the "bare minimum" number of pieces of flair. She never takes the bait, and eventually after a particularly long and insistent chat about this, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere walks out]].
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': The Knights Who Say "Ni!" tried to do this to King Arthur and his knights. After getting a shrubbery (which was the initial requirement to pass), the Knights then demand another shrubbery, and for King Arthur to cut down a tree [[WithThisHerring with a herring]]. Lucky for Arthur, he accidentally hits their WeaksauceWeakness.

* In ''Film/ThePentagonWars'', featuring a fictionalized version of events about the development of the Bradley fighting vehicle, the tests are blatantly set up to favor the Bradley and cover up its woefully deficient armor (shooting it with poor-quality ammunition that will bounce off as duds instead of exploding, draining the fuel tanks so they can't catch fire even if punctured, etc).
** An especially notable example comes when a rival officer claims that you cannot know what will happen until you actually put live soldiers inside the vehicle for testing. Which would obviously kill them.

* ''Film/CoolRunnings'': The Olympic Committee members do this to try to keep Jamaica from qualifying. First, they keep shortening the time requirements. When Jamaica makes the cut anyway, they try to claim that it doesn't count. [[WhatTheHellHero Irv calls them on it big time,]] and they relent. It's implied that it wasn't the Jamaicans who were the problem, but Irv himself, whose bobsledding career ended after [[spoiler:he was caught cheating]]. For the record this never happened in RealLife. The Jamaican Bobsledding team was freely welcomed by the committee and the bobsled teams of other countries.
-->'''British Official:''' We must also be concerned about the potential for embarrassment.\\
'''Irv:''' Oh, pardon me. I didn't realize that four black guys in a bobsled could make you blush.
* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': [[spoiler:The Gamemasters announce that two people can live if they're from the same district, then revoke it at the end when two actually manage to fill that condition. Katniss showed them up by threatening suicide with Peeta, forcing them to make good on the original promise so they'd have someone to crown a victor instead of a martyr. The head Gamemaster Seneca Crane ends up being punished for it by President Snow]].

* ''Film/{{Selma}}'' features this in its first scene, where Anna Lee Cooper, a black woman living in Alabama, tries to register to vote. The registrar asks her to recite the Constitution's Preamble, and she does so. He then asks her to name the number of county judges in Alabama. "Sixty-seven". He then demands that she name them, at which she gives up. This is more or less TruthInTelevision -- voting registrars had power over what sort of test to give a person, and would give hard or outright impossible ones to black voters. A lot of the tests also featured ambiguous wording, meaning the registrar could fail it for equally ambiguous reasons -- for instance, one question asked to draw a line around a letter, which meant a registrar could fail it on the basis of "[[LoopholeAbuse you drew a circle, not a line.]]"
* In ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'' the boys are killed and have to win a contest against Death to be resurrected. The tests end up being mostly tabletop games and Twister with the boys winning every time; however, Death keeps upping the win requirement (2 out of 3, 3 out of 5...) Death eventually relents.
* ''Film/DarkWaters:'' [=DuPont=] first drags their feet in court, then agrees to pay a large settlement to their victims if an independent science panel can prove its effects. They then throw all the mud and obstacles they can to delay that study, and when it finally is released, flat out renege and ignore the agreement they made, forcing Robert to take them to court yet again. Very much TruthInTelevision.
* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'': After abducting her baby brother Toby, Jareth the Goblin King gives Sarah [[ThirteenIsUnlucky 13 hours]] [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve to make it through the labyrinth to his palace where he's holding him prisoner]]. At one point, Jareth decides to check in on Sarah's progress. When she says the labyrinth is a "piece of cake", [[DoNotTauntCthulhu he decides to take an hour away from her remaining time]].
-->'''Sarah:''' That's not fair!
-->'''Jareth:''' [[ShutUpKirk You say that so often, I wonder what your basis for comparison is]]?

* Creator/TamoraPierce's ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'' series features the first girl to openly train as a page. The training master, Lord Wyldon, doesn't approve of female knights and puts her on probation. If she can't keep up with the boys, she will be dismissed. The girl, Kel, excels at her training... but rather than lift the probation, Wyldon keeps setting her more and more difficult tasks, sometimes moving the goalposts (or at least the archery target/jousting target) in an attempt to dissuade her, while not demanding the same standard of his male trainees. He ends up conceding defeat in the end, though, only because Kel is ''that'' good. (At one point, he shouts at her for screwing up at jousting, something she normally excelled at -- why was she suddenly waving her lance all over the damn place? "I'm terribly sorry, sir, I forgot to ask for a weighted one at the armory. This one's too light.")
** In ''Squire'', he admits that even though she passed every test and [[{{Determinator}} worked uncomplainingly through everything he threw at her]], even though she kept going when he thinks most of the boys she was training besides would have quit, he almost didn't let her pass her first, probationary period. His honor made him let her pass, but it was a close thing, and by that point the thought of how close it was shames him.
* This is the method used by the N.I.C.E. in C.S. Lewis' ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'' to recruit Mark Studdock and others. Mark desperately wants to be in "[[InWithTheInCrowd the inner circle]]" and the various evil members of the N.I.C.E. use the promise of a sure position or moving up in the N.I.C.E. to manipulate Mark into more and more compromising acts.

* A major part of the colony world of Harmony And Reason in the ''Literature/RatsBatsAndVats'' novels. All 'Vats', or cloned citizens, are charged for the cost of being cloned, raised, and trained by the government. This charge is put to absurdly high compound interest, plus additional charges for mandatory 'luxuries' like training camps owned by Shareholders. If a Vat lives very frugally and has a very successful career, he might theoretically buy himself out of debt and purchase a single share in the colony before dying of old age (a Vat who owes money to the Colony cannot purchase shares). Why? Because only Shareholders can vote, and they don't want the Vats getting enfranchised.
* In ''Literature/HonorHarrington: Echoes of Honor'', an admiral who didn't care for a new technical development managed to get himself put in charge of the evaluation board, and started putting more and more restrictions on how the weapons could be used in an effort to get a test battle in which the new [=LACs=] would be decisively defeated, and use this to justify scrapping the project. The captain in charge of the final stage of the project retaliated by sending memos to the admiral's superiors mentioning her concerns about the test parameters, which would presumably lead to the higher-ups looking at the results of ''all'' the tests, rather than just the one where the [=LACs=] failed, and realizing that they lost because the admiral stacked the deck. This counter was never actually needed, as an attack on the base where the tests were conducted forced the [=LACs=] into actual combat early, in a battle where they decisively defeated the invading fleet.
* The Battle School in ''Literature/EndersGame'' uses this principle. Ender is virtually unbeatable in his war exercises, so the administration of the school start stacking the odds against him. Ender's opponents are given such benefits as head-starts to strategically place their troops, partial immunity to Ender's weapons, and eventually are allowed to attack him with vastly superior numbers. Ender starts using technically-legal but unconventional strategies to win, which the administration always makes illegal after every victory. Ender eventually gets so pissed off at the blatant cheating that he starts outright breaking the rules of combat himself, which it turns out was [[HiddenPurposeTest exactly what the administration wanted]]. Most army commanders start resenting Ender for his unending string of victories (which isolates Ender and pushes him toward the mixture of empathy and sociopathy that he needs to win the war). Bonzo in particular keeps claiming that the teachers are rigging the game in ''Ender'''s favor. Only an idiot would believe that[[note]]Bonzo isn't an idiot, no one in Battle School is, but he is blinded by pride and hatred of Ender[[/note]], given all the advantages the other armies get.

* The Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse:
** The trilogy ''Literature/TheQContinuum'' gives us 0, an entity as powerful as Q but infinitely more evil. When 0 suggests that they test younger races, Q is eager. However, while Q is willing to accept failure, 0 is not. When the Calamarain refuse to allow 0 to take control of them, he turns them into a block of ice. When Q asks why he did that, 0 simply says that the Calamarain cheated and must be punished. The next "test" is to put the powerful Tkon Empire (which is trying to replace their dying sun with a new one) into a state of civil war. When the leader of the Empire manages to convince both sides to stop fighting and complete the project, the enraged 0 causes the dying star to become a supernova and destroy the race. Once again, the shocked Q confronts 0 about this. 0 says that any younger race that overcomes a challenge set to it by a powerful entity like 0 [[MortonsFork must have either cheated, or the challenge wasn't sufficient]]. Q privately disagreed, and while he did test "younger" races in the future (especially the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Enterprise-D]]''), he always left in at least one achievable victory condition, and was a relatively GracefulLoser when they "won" (at the very least, no DiabolusExMachina).
** The novel ''Literature/KobayashiMaru'' goes into enough detail of the progression of the eponymous test (especially in Chekov's and Scott's experience with it) to reveal that it's one long series of goalpost-movement on the part of the administering AI. No matter what the cadet taking it does, the AI will add something more that they have to beat. Defeat one Klingon cruiser? Two more show up. Beat them? Four more. Somehow beat them? Well, hi there, Klingon Dreadnought, fancy meeting you here... Mainly it does this because the KM scenario is [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation supposed to show cadets]] that you ''can't'' always fight your way out and sometimes retreat is the best option, even if it means abandoning people to die.
* Sellar and Yeatman's ''Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat'' (TheAbridgedHistory of Britain) has this humorous perspective on UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion:
-->''"[[UsefulNotes/WilliamGladstone Gladstone]] spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question..."''
* In Creator/TaylorAnderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'', the Empire of New Britain has a long-standing practice of "obligations" applying to women purchased from the Holy Dominion (or to women fleeing the Dominion requesting passage). Ideally, the women work off the cost of the transportation by doing anything requested (surprisingly, non-sexual but involving manual labor) until the obligation is worked off, and the woman is free to marry an Imperial citizen (she herself cannot become a citizen, but her children can). Unfortunately, over the centuries, this has caused all women (both free and those under obligations) to be treated as second-class citizens and gave enormous power to the Honourable New Britain Company that holds these obligations. The titular destroyermen quickly pointed out the obvious LoopholeAbuse -- a holder of an obligation may simply move his obligated women from one island to another, constantly increasing their obligations by the cost of the journey (see similar examples in the RealLife section below). Once it's revealed how widespread this practice is, the whole obligation system is abolished. It also helped that the Company executives were selling out the Empire to the Dominion.
* The members of the ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' put Mallory through numerous pointless trials so that she can join. Fed up with their unfair treatment, she quits, making them realize that they've been acting like jerks.
* Similarly, in a ''[[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley Twins]]'' book, Jessica bullies a girl who wants to be a member of the Unicorns by giving her impossible tasks to complete, to the point where even the ringleaders of the group tell her she's taking things too far. Sure enough, the girl finally grows a spine and tells her off.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series. Mordechai Anielewicz's son Heinrich asks his parents if he can get a pet beffel (an alien creature resembling a mix of a lizard and a dog). Mordechai's wife Bertha assigns a seemingly impossible task, telling Heinrich that if he can catch a beffel, he can keep it. When he does so, she tries to go back on her promise, but Moedechai countermands her and says that they need to keep their word in order to set a good example for their son.

* In ''LightNovel/CookingWithWildGame'', the businessman protagonist does this to ''himself''. His goal is to make the racist townsfolk accept that Forest Edge's cuisine is good (ItMakesSenseInContext) and he won't be satisfied by anything else (even though he makes boatloads of money off of egalitarian foreigners who ''do'' like his creations). When he opens a food stall in the town, he dramatically declares that the "battle" to humble them starts now. Then a day passes with no townsfolk buying anything, and he goes home and rationalizes that ''actually'' everybody knows that new stalls barely get any customers anyway, so the ''real'' battle starts...now. His LoveInterest, watching him get all fired up again, questions whether he will be satisfied by anything.
* ''Literature/GoingHomeToTeach:'' In recounting how he and his wife Cathy got married in Jamaica, author Anthony Winkler says that they had to deal with a marriage officer who kept stonewalling them because the official thought they should get marriage counselling first despite their declarations that they didn't want or need it. On their first visit, the official said he couldn't wed them that day because he had to officiate at another function; then they had to get all their previous marriage documents on hand; then they had to bring witnesses; and then when they brought the witnesses, Winkler's two sisters, they were told that there had to be at least one male and one female witness. The rigmarole finally ended when [[HenpeckedHusband the official's wife browbeat him for imposing his university-based beliefs about marriage counselling on these innocent people]].
--> '''Wife:''' Is counselling you want? You want counselling? Go marry di people dem or I goin' give you some counselling you never forget!

* The ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4668040/1/Bella-Hale Bella Hale]]" sees Bella being adopted by the Cullens when she’s six after Charlie and Renee are killed in a car crash. The Volturi learn about her life with the Cullens when she’s still little, making it clear that Bella must be turned once she’s eighteen or be killed. When the Cullens return to Forks once Bella’s sixteen and meet the Quillettes, after the Cullens tell Billy and other members of the pack about the Volturi’s ultimatum, Bella asks Billy to make an exception to the pack’s rule against the Cullens changing others on the grounds that she is basically a Cullen already. She explicitly points out that if the Volturi want her to be a vampire, it’s better for the Cullens to do it than for the Volturi to take Bella away and turn her in Italy, where she may end up being allowed to feed on humans.

* There was a music contest between Apollo and [[DependingOnTheWriter someone else (the myths vary)]]. Apollo with his lyre and the challenger with his flute duke it out musically and the judges (except Midas) all agree that Apollo is the better musician. Incensed that someone might disagree with that, he promptly challenged his opponent to play the instrument [[DependingOnTheWriter upside down or while singing (the myths vary)]], which lets him win handily (and in one version, [[DisproportionateRetribution flay the loser alive]]).

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13526309/18/I-am-Bitch-the-Shield-Hero-s-Slut I am Bitch, the Shield Hero's Slut]]'', Malty levels up high enough to earn her class upgrade shortly before the Wave but when she and Naofumi go to the church, the nun there demands an exorbitant price (triple the canon price). Once Naofumi proves he has the money needed, another nun brings up that actually there's been a royal decree that no one in the Shield Hero's party is allowed to get a class upgrade.

* ''Webcomic/DragonBallReboot'': [[https://www.deviantart.com/ginereboot/art/02-DBReboot-Spin-Off-ENGLISH-876529811 As a little girl]], Gine dreamed of becoming a strong fighter and asked a local GangOfBullies whether she could train with them. Their leader, Aikon, told her that she could join them if she managed to hit him in a fight. When she does just that, an embarrassed Aikon gives several flimsy excuses for why it didn't count before changing the conditions so that she has to fight his entire gang at once.

** Palpatine does this to Anakin in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', stringing him along with promises of teaching him Plagueis' ability to save people from death. When he's being threatened by Mace Windu, he claims to have the power himself, but after Anakin saves him he immediately backtracks and states that only Plagueis ever knew it but they can discover the secret together if Anakin keeps doing his bidding. Ultimately he drops the pretense after Padme's death, and it's left ambiguous whether he actually knew the ability -and, at least in the films, whether or not it ever existed at all. Anakin, for his part, did realize Palpatine was manipulating him, but went along with it out of inertia and desperation.

* The "argument of kinds" is an odd version of this used by Creationists, especially in the 90's and 2000's. Essentially, the argument states that the theory of evolution cannot prove a change of kinds, and that only microevolution is possible. The essense of this argument is that a "kind" can be anything depending on what is convenient for the creationist. For example, they will argue that wolves evolving into dogs does not count as a change of kinds because they are both a part of "dog kind". [[CriticalResearchFailure If it's brought up that speciation has been observed many times in bacteria and other single-celled organisms, they'll say it doesn't count because the bacteria is still bacteria.]] Basically, a kind can be anything from a species to a ''kingdom'' depending on how little the creationist knows about taxonomy. The argument isn't scientific or logical in any way, [[ConfusionFu the whole point is to confuse people about how evolution works, make it difficult for informed people to argue, and keep them from questioning Biblical creation]].

* ''Webcomic/DragonBallReboot'': [[https://www.deviantart.com/ginereboot/art/02-DBReboot-Spin-Off-ENGLISH-876529811 As a little girl]], Gine dreamed of becoming a strong fighter and asked a gang of local bullies whether she could train with them. Their leader, Aikon, told her that she could join them if she managed to hit him in a fight. When she does just that, an embarrassed Aikon gives several flimsy excuses for why it didn't count before changing the conditions so that she has to fight his entire gang at once.