History Main / SecondPlaceIsForLosers

When people think SecondPlaceIsForLosers, it basically means that if someone gets second place in a competition (that has more than two contestants), it's little better than coming in last. It doesn't matter if you've won a footrace with everyone on the planet, and bested 7 billion people. All that matters is you didn't beat the one.

->'''Bender:''' "Second place? That's a fancy word for losing!"
-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''

** On the game side, at the end of ''PokemonRedAndBlue'', Professor Oak gives Blue a speech on how disappointed he is in him, and how he needs to learn to treat Pokémon well like Red does, almost completely ignoring how Blue's methods got him past all the gyms and the Elite Four, and he'd still be Kanto's champion if Red hadn't shown up.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' takes this trope to [[{{Deconstruction}} the logical extreme]]. Initially, when Shinji first surpasses Asuka's synch ratio, she's just pissed at him. Later, after being [[CantCatchUp curbstomped three times in a row with Shinji always scoring the kill instead of her]], she becomes extremely distraught, due to her past: she always prided herself on being the best so that she [[IWorkAlone won't need any kind of help from anyone]]. By not being the best anymore and her rival consistently having a stellar performance, she's afraid of being put to the sidelines and as a result, her synch ratio is plummeting; seeing this, she also becomes afraid that if she drops low enough, she will be relieved of her duties which to her would be equal to being publicly humiliated in the worst way possible for a human. And the best part in all of this? '''She knows what's wrong but her pride doesn't let her admit it to herself.'''

* Similar to the Yankees, if a Canadian national hockey team doesn't win a tournament they're playing in, its deemed a failure. If enough of the various tournaments (IIHF Junior, Men's/Women's Olympic, World Cup) are lost in a row, a national discussion on whether we're "losing our game" ensues. Doesn't mean the wins aren't [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuJH2WXJGHI appreciated.]]
* Olympic bronze medalists are said to be happier with their lot than Olympic silver medalists: A bronze medalist was close to not medalling at all, while the silver medalist ''could have had gold''.

* ''BatmanBeyond'' had an episode where, after scoring second highest on an exam, one character was told by his mother that that makes him "the winning loser." Said boy then strikes a vendetta against the top scorer, who happens to be Batman's best friend.

** American gymnast McKayla Maroney has been gracious in her public comments, saying that she is grateful and appreciative of her silver medal in the vault despite being an overwhelming favorite for gold. Still, her face on the medal stand provides the picture for this trope as well as launching a meme (which, to her credit, she's had fun with).

* UCLA Bruins football coach Red Sanders said:
-->''"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."''

* Vince Lombardi lived by this rule saying "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing".

[[quoteright:300:[[OlympicGames http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/McKayla_is_not_a_happy_camper_8462.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[=McKayla=] just won silver. She is '''not''' impressed.]]

*** Averted by the Croatian basketball team in 1992; they talked about how happy they were to be winning silver ''before the gold medal game was even played''. They were going up against the Dream Team[[hottip:*:1992 was the year professional athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Thus, the USA Basketball team consisted of the best players in the ''NBA'']], and had no illusions about winning.

* When there are ''actual'' consequences for getting second place (like some being threatens to destroy the world if not beaten).

Please note that, real or fictional, this attitude is almost never shown in a positive light, and most leagues (especially youth leagues) consider it ''very'' bad sportsmanship.

*** Averted by the Croatian basketball team in 1992; they talked about how happy they were to be winning silver ''before the gold medal game was even played''. They were going up against the Dream Team[[Hottip:*:1992 was the year professional athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Thus, the USA Basketball team consisted of the best players in the ''NBA'']], and had no illusions about winning.

*** Averted by the Croatian basketball team in 1992; they talked about how happy they were to be winning silver ''before the gold medal game was even played''. They were going up against the Dream Team (The USA Basketball team that year consisted of the best players in the ''NBA''), and had no illusions about winning.

Some athletes really do feel that way, coming so close and yet missing the mark. For example, one scientific study analyzed photographs of the facial expressions of many Olympians as they learned how they had placed. Bronze medalists seemed happy to have placed at all, but a Silver winner usually showed disappointment or dejection at coming in second best (Gold was of course almost always ecstatic).

* Fans have criticized the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' anime for never letting Ash win any of the various League tournaments he enters. Such complaints ignore the fact that ''hundreds'' of trainers enter each of these tournaments, and the lowest Ash has ever finished is 16th overall (an impressive feat on its own, since it was his first time entering an official Pokémon League competition). And then there's the fact that he's competed in special RunTheGauntlet challenges against groups of highly skilled trainers and won both times. The same has been said for Dawn, particularly after she placed second in the Grand Festival behind one of her best friends and sources of advice and encouragement.

[[folder:{{Film}}]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* Nanny Ogg in the {{Discworld}} series is perfectly aware of this, and prefers to come in second, because if you come in first, people are constantly trying to beat you and you're under pressure to keep coming in first. She likes coming second, because it's the runner-up that people pat on the back and say "It was a good try" and buy drinks for.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

** In ''{{Survivor}}'', Russell Hantz won second place in ''Samoa'', then third in ''Heroes vs. Villains''. After ''Samoa'', he acted like he was slapped in the face and practically ''murdered'' when he came in second out of ''twenty'' people, then third out of ''twenty people'', all of which were former players and several of which were considered the ''best''. however when he won the Sprint player of the year award, he ''immediately'' begun the typical Victory dance in ''Heroes vs. Villains''.

* Played with on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Bashir was second in his class, and outwardly kicked himself for the simple blunder on the test that caused him to be such. However, he reveals shortly that's it's part of how he comes on to girls. Plus after TheReveal about his "enhancements," it may be that he deliberately made the mistake as to keep his cover.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* One of the anecdotes on ''Website/ActsOfGord'' deals with a fighting game tournament Gord ran, in which first prize was a set of expensive game controllers and $20, second prize was a can of Coke and an autographed photo of himself and third prize was $20. The author of the website justifies this by saying, "The Gord likes to remind people that second place is just the first loser."

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

* Nascar driver Cale Yarborough had said "If he crowded me on the track it would be ok but when they ran us down we lost it"

* Played with on StarTrekDeepSpaceNine: Bashir was second in his class, and outwardly kicked himself for the simple blunder on the test that caused him to be such. However, he reveals shortly that's it's part of how he comes on to girls. Plus after TheReveal about his "enhancements," it may be that he deliberately made the mistake as to keep his cover.

* Vince Lombardi lived by this rule saying "Winning isnt everything its the only thing".

* U.S. Presidential elections are often like this. A candidate or an incumbent who loses is branded as a failure.

-->'''[[ImagineSpot Announcer]]''': And now, Avis Rent-A-Car is proud to present the [[AlwaysSecondBest second best band in America]]. Will you welcome [[{{Garfunkel}} Garfunkel, Messina, Oates, and Lisa singing their number two hit, "Born to Runner-up"]]. [Audience boos]

* An episode of ''CourageTheCowardlyDog'' had [[CatsAreMean Katz]] attempting revenge on Muriel because he always come in second to her in Nowhere's cooking contests.
* Played with on ''TheWeekenders''. Tino got 3rd place in a horseshoes competition, during a weekend sports meet, which he was pretty proud of, considering his took up the sport that weekend. His friends didn't see what the big deal was, since he didn't win. Probably had to do with the fact that they all won their competitions.

* In {{Bakuman}}, Mashiro and Takagi are crushed to learn that they got third place with "The World is All About Money And Intelligence," (losing to [[TheRival Eiji]] and someone else) even though it surpasses all their previous efforts, since it means they will not be able to submit it for serialization. Otherwise, this trope is largely averted with a few exceptions (mainly Iwase), as when the main characters are starting out and want to get up past ninth place, Miura tells them that rather than try desperate tactics to go up, they should maintain their ranking, as anything above 10th place will not come up for cancellation.

*** Averted by the Croatian basketball team in 1992; they talked about how happy they were to be winning silver ''before the gold medal game was even played''. They were going up against the Dream Team (The USA Basketball team that year consisted of the best players in the ''NBA''), and had no allusions about winning.

* Miranda Frost in ''DieAnotherDay'' betrayed her country solely because she got a silver medal in the Olympics, and the villain of the movie offered to make it look like the gold winner cheated.