History Main / PromotedToScapegoat

* This is how ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' gets started. They're looking for a new Sheriff for a town, and the protagonist, who is a black man about to be executed, gets appointed sheriff, chosen in an effort to ruin the town. Hedly Lamarr was trying to buy up all the land the railroad was going to use.

* During World War One the German Supreme High Command ran the country as a virtual military dictatorship. On realising the war was lost however, they handed over power to a civilian government. After the war Hindenberg and Lundendorf would promote the idea of an undefeated Germany being stabbed in the back by those same civilians, a myth eagerly taken up by the Nazis.

* Germany's post-World War One democratic government ended up becoming the fall guy for Germany's military defeat.

* The plot of ''TheFlintstones'' [[TheMovie live action movie]] is Fred Flinstone being promoted to an executive position, chosen solely for his high level of stupidity. It turns out that he is being used by a CorruptCorporateExecutive to embezzle money out of the company and leaving Fred to take all the blame.

* On the US version of ''TheOffice'', Dwight is promoted to a VP position as a reward for overseeing the Sabre Store project. Unbeknownst to him, Robert California is planning to shut down the project and fire him because a store for Sabre proucts would be an awful idea. Jim manages to keep him from the meeting where it's supposed to go down long enough for Todd Packer to take both the promotion and the fall.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In the ''Belleville'' books by French author Daniel Pennac, Benjamin Malaussène gets a job in a publishing house as [[spoiler: an actual scapegoat. That is to say, whenever someone gets into the building to complain, he appears, says it's all his own fault and looks so miserable that the complainer feels sorry for him and goes away.]]

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-> ''They were hardly going to give me the job when everything was going really ''well'', were they?''

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A character has just been promoted to a position within his workplace that he is very clearly unqualified for, as part of some scheme by the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive higher ups]] or because no one else is stupid enough to take the job. They may even get promoted on their [[NewJobEpisode very first day]] of a new job without having any experience. This may be because the job has a HighTurnoverRate, or because it's extremely dangerous, or the character could be being used for something more malicious. The person who receives the promotion will usually never suspect that there is anything fishy going on, despite their lack of credentials.

Note that this trope is only for when there seems to be some kind of ulterior motive for the promotion. A person who is too highly positioned for their level of competence is a PointyHairedBoss. A person who receives a promotion simply to get them out of the way is KickedUpstairs. Placing a relative in an important position is {{Nepotism}}.

!!Examples:

* This is how ''BlazingSaddles'' gets started. They're looking for a new Sheriff for a town, and the protagonist, who is a black man about to be executed, gets appointed sheriff, chosen in an effort to ruin the town. Hedly Lamarr was trying to buy up all the land the railroad was going to use.

** Specifically, he's shoved in front of a camera for a live news interview about 3 minutes after getting the job; 30 seconds into his interview, the truth of the company's financials breaks and he ends up as the face of the corporate cover-up (making it impossible to get a new job) because he's literally the one on TV telling everybody the company is doing fine as the stock tanks and the shit hits the fan.

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* Admiral Doenitz from the ''{{That Mitchell and Webb Look}}'' sketch ''The New Fuhrer'' is thrilled to have been promoted as Fuhrer, oblivious to the massive bombing of Berlin going off in the background. It lasts until his second in command gives him the items he needs to take his first decision: a tactical review of the dismal position of their armies (summed up 'in one rude word'), Eisenhower's phone number and a written translation of 'We surrender' in English, thus making it clear that he won't get a chance to implement his ideas about pensions or the housing shortage. He ''does'' get a "Heil Doenitz" for his troubles, though.

* On ''{{Futurama}},'' Zapp's incompetence causes the space cruise ship ''{{Titanic}}'' to get sucked into a black hole, and while everyone is evacuating, declares that a captain should go down with his ship. He then promotes [[BeleagueredAssistant Kif]] to captain and flees.

-> ''They were hardly going to give the me the job when everything was going really ''well'', were they?''

* Admiral Doenitz from the ''{{That Mitchell and Webb Look}}'' sketch ''The New Fuhrer'' is thrilled to have been promoted as Fuhrer, oblivious to the massive bombing of Berlin going off in the background. It lasts until his second in command gives him the items he needs to take his first decision: a tactical review of the dismal position of their armies (summed up 'in one rude word'), General Eisnhower's phone number and a written translation of 'We surrender' in English, thus making it clear that he won't get a chance to implement his ideas about pensions or the housing shortage. He ''does'' get a "Heil Doenitz" for his troubles, though.

* At the end of ''SluggyFreelance'' "Dangerous Days", Heretti research scientist Chen gets promoted just as the corporation comes under federal investigation

* ''InNomine'' supplement ''You Are Here''. When Jeanne Delarue was made director of the Board of Trustees of Progressive Banking, she was being set up to fail. The trustees intended to declare bankruptcy, blame her for it, split up the remaining money and leave her to face the music.

Also contrast TheUriahGambit, which is putting someone on the front lines during combat in the hopes that they will end up dead, ReassignedToAntarctica, when a person receives a job as a punishment, and YouAreInCommandNow, when a person in a military position is forced to take control because everyone else is unavailable.

* Subverted in ''TheSimpsons'' but also a great example for this, when it's revealed in "C.E. D'oh" that the legal owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is in fact a Canary bird. This is done to clear the real owner from any wrongdoing. Homer then releases the Canary and tells Mr Burns that nuclear inspectors are visiting the plant. Burns, unable to find his Canary, panics, so Homer agrees to become the new "owner". This turns out to be a bad idea.

** Specifically, he's shoved in front of a camera for a live news interview about 3 minutes after getting the job; 30 seconds into his interview, the truth of the companies financials breaks and he ends up as the face of the corporate cover-up (making it impossible to get a new job) because he's literally the one on TV telling everybody the company is doing fine as the stock tanks and the shit hits the fan.

* The Jim Carrey movie ''FunWithDickAndJane'' has Carrey's character Dick Harper promoted to Vice President of the company just in time to see the company go into a nose dive.

** That's HE...no wait you got it right. Force of habit, sorry.

* In ''DistrictNine'', Wikus gets assigned to lead a team into the eponymous alien district to deliver eviction notices despite being obviously not fit for the job in question. His father in law assures us that he didn't promote him just because he was married to his daughter. In fact, one gets the suspicion that he was trying to get him killed.
** My interpretation is Wikus knows right where he stands. It's not that he doesn't fit the trope it's somehow more unconfortable to realise he ''knows'' he's the sap but willing to play along to keep his job, his lovely wife and keep things all nice with the boss man, boy. Now turn the camera off, eh?

* Admiral Doenitz from the ''{{That Mitchell and Webb Look}}'' sketch ''The New Fuhrer'' is thrilled to have been promoted as Fuhrer, oblivious to the massive bombing of Berlin going off in the background, until his second in command gives him the items he needs to take his first decision: a tactical review of the dismal position of their armies (summed up 'in one rude word'), General Eisnhower's phone number and a written translation of 'We surrender' in English.
** He ''does'' get a "Heil Doenitz" for his troubles, though.

** He ''does'' get a "Hail Doenitz" for his troubles, though.

* Admiral Doenitz from the ''{{That Mitchell and Webb Look}}'' sketch ''The New Fuhrer'' is thrilled to have been promoted as Fuhrer, oblivious to the massive bombing of Berlin going off in the background, until his second in command gives him the items he needs to take his first decision: a tactical review of the dismal position of their armies, General Eisnhower's phone number and a written translation of 'We surrender' in english.

* In ''TheHudsuckerProxy'', the protagonist gets promoted to president of a company on his first day working there after the president commits suicide, as part of a stock scheme set up by a member of the board of directors.

A character has just been promoted to a position within his workplace that he is very clearly unqualified for, as part of some scheme by the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive higher ups]] or because no one else is stupid enough to take the job. They may even get promoted on their [[NewJobEpisode very first day]] of a new job without having any experience. This may be because the job has a HighTurnoverRate, or because it's extremely dangerous, or the character could be being used for something more malicious. The person who recieves the promotion will usually never suspect that there is anything fishy going on, despite their lack of credentials.

Note that this trope is only for when there seems to be some kind of ulterior motive for the promotion. A person who is too highly positioned for their level of competence is a PointyHairedBoss. A person who recieves a promotion simply to get them out of the way is KickedUpstairs. Placing a relative in an important position is {{Nepotism}}.

Also contrast TheUriahGambit, which is putting someone on the front lines during combat in the hopes that they will end up dead, ReassignedToAntarctica, when a person recieves a job as a punishment, and YouAreInCommandNow, when a person in a military position is forced to take control because everyone else is unavailable.

* The Jim Carey movie ''FunWithDickAndJane'' has Carey's character Dick Harper promoted to Vice President of the company just in time to see the company go into a nose dive.

* Admiral Doenitz from the ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' sketch ''The New Fuhrer'' is thrilled to have been promoted as Fuhrer, oblivious to the massive bombing of Berlin going off in the background, until his second in command gives him the items he needs to take his first decision: a tactical review of the dismal position of their armies, General Eisnhower's phone number and a written translation of 'We surrender' in english.

* In the setting of ''{{Exalted}}'', the kind yet incompetent Regent of the continent-spanning [[TheEmpire Scarlet Empire]] was appointed because nobody knew what had happened to their vanished ruler, the [[PhysicalGod Scarlet Empress]], and nobody else was stupid enough to risk being found in charge if she ever turned up.

* Subverted in ''TheSimpsons'' but also a great example for this, when is revealed in "C.E. D'oh" that the legal owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is in fact a Canary bird. This is done to clear the real owner from any wrongdoing. Homer then releases the Canary and tells Mr Burns, nuclear inspectors are visiting the plant. Burns, unable to find his Canary, panics, so Homer agrees to become the new "owner". This turns out to be a bad idea.

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* Admiral Doenitz from the ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' sketch ''The New Fuhrer'' is thrilled to have been promoted as Fuhrer, oblivious to the massive bombing of Berlin going off in the background, until his second in command gives him the items he needs to take his first decision: a tactical review of the dismal position of their armies, Winston Churchill's phone number and a written translation of 'We surrender' in english.

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