History Main / ShaggydogStory

** More Shaggy Dogs: the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks won that day, which would have eliminated the Saints from the playoffs even if they had won.

** ''Film/HorseFeathers'' has a similar exchange between the two. Chico explains how he goes about kidnapping someone; call them on the phone, and then send his chauffeur. Groucho asks what kind of car he has, and Chico says he has no car, just a chauffeur. Groucho wonders why someone would have a chauffeur without a car, and Chico replies that he couldn't afford both so he sold the car. Groucho says he would have sold the chauffeur and kept the car, but Chico says he needs the chauffeur to take him to work. Groucho asks how he does so without a car, and Chico says it doesn't matter because he doesn't have a job.

* ''Film/TimeBandits''. In the end, it's revealed that everything that happened was part of The Supreme Being's plan. The villain defeats himself and the Supreme Being appears to put everything back the way it was.
** But Kevin has the map in a photo so is able to return to Agamenon, and he never liked his parents anyway, so the story wasn't entirely pointless for him in a way...

** The "secrets" are that it's the modern day and the village is just some random village of nutters who fled the "horrors" of modern society (medicine and so forth) to raise their kids in the good old days of ''the dark age of Europe'', even pretending to be surrounded by demons to scare their kids into not leaving the nature reserve that they own. Even when one of the kids is dying because of it, the ''only'' person that they will send for help (because all of the adults who actually have any awareness of the outside world refuse to go) is a blind woman who has no idea what a road is, let alone being able to safely cross it or find a hospital.
* ''Film/RunLolaRun'' ends with Lola arriving up just in time with the money Manni needed for his crime boss, only to discover that Manni managed to settle things himself without much fuss. The last scene is of them both walking off while Manni asks what's in the bag.
** In the second ending (before the second rewind) Lola arrives with the money just to see Manni [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ran over by an ambulance]].
*** Of course, both of those outcomes, just like just about everything else that happens in all three storylines, are caused by Lola's very own interference, which in turn is caused by what happens in the stairwell, albeit one has to watch the movie several times to notice every single causality. It's basically 'Chaos Theory: The Movie'.

* The Finnish AffectionateParody film ''[[WebOriginal/StarWreck Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning]]'' ends with Pirk, Dwarf, and Info trapped in Hawaii during Earth's Ice Age. Info says that if he goes into low power mode he can survive until modern day, at which point he will prevent everything in the film from ever happening... pan out... credits.
** To make the story even shaggier, it's implied that since during the panout, you can see space debris that resembles the space station seen earlier in the movie, they're actually in the NEXT Ice Age with no chance of preventing the events and Info was lying just to give them some vague sense of hope and/or prevent Pirk from somehow making things even worse.

* ''Film/ASeriousMan'' has one scene where a rabbi tells the main character about one of his friends, a dentist, who found Hebrew script meaning "Help me, save me" inscribed on the teeth of a gentile customer of his. After making many attempts to discern their significance, he gave up without knowing how or why they were there. The protagonist is noticeably irritated by the anti-climax. This may be {{foreshadowing}}, given that the movie itself has NoEnding.

* Lots of Middle Eastern movies seem to be about this, and they're depressing. Case in point: ''Kandahar'', which is about a woman who needs to get to Kandahar before her sister, who had both of her legs blown off by a mine, commits suicide. The movie is about her travelling around trying to meet her sister before the date when she said she'd kill herself - but sadly the woman is arrested while trying to cross a border checkpoint. [[DownerEnding and that's the end]]
** Also ''A Time for Drunken Horses'', which if I remember rightly has two little boys on their own without a family, who begin smuggling goods over a snowy mountain pass with horses. To help the horses survive the bitter cold, they are given alcohol (making this movie a case of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin). One day they are smuggling a haul and they give the horses too much alcohol and the horses collapse. The end.

* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' is a superb example of this trope.
** Well, for the ''villains'', sure. They spend the entire movie manipulating and killing each other (as well as anyone who gets in the way) over the eponymous statue of a falcon which is covered in black enamel but secretly covered in jewels. At the end, they form an alliance and attain it... only to find it is a fake. For [[HumphreyBogart Sam]] [[PrivateDetective Spade]], though, it's a grandslam: the falcon lured all these villains out of the woodwork, allowing him to work with them, getting him out from under the police's thumb, make money, and even reveal his heroic colors by setting every last one of them up to go to jail, including the FemmeFatale who killed his partner.

** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' is similar in that the villain ''does'' succeed in the end, and is destroyed by doing so, meaning the same thing would have happened had Indy stayed at home. Still, both of these stories end with him hooking up with Marion, so at least they are good for his social life.

** It's worth noting that it's arguable whether the film becomes implausible if the entire plot is a lie, the final montage tends to suggest a kind of "Only the names have been changed, to protect the guilty." scenario (meaning he tricked all the other "suspects" as well - from the beginning.) This possibility does nothing to change its shaggy-dog-ness from the perspective of Dave Kujan whose pursuit is still meaningless thanks to his dogged attempt to fix the whole thing on Keaton, based on a deeply personal [[ArchEnemy vendetta]].
* ''U Turn''. Sean Penn finds himself in a lot of trouble by accident due to a misunderstanding and is just trying to make his way out of a nasty town when he gets the mob onto him. His only exit out is his car, but then it breaks down and he needs to get it fixed. Meanwhile people are trying to kill him, and the girl he falls for turns against him and is out to kill him too. When the car is finally repaired he finds she stole his keys. Out of desperation to get out of this town he strangles her to death and retrieves the keys. As he lay dying, he finally makes it back to his car to drive off only to find the mechanic who repaired his car duped him and it breaks down again. He resigns himself to his fate.

* ''Film/CitizenKane'': The FramingDevice ends with Thompson not only giving up to find what ''Rosebud'' means, but admitting that knowing it will not explain Kane.
-->'''Female reporter:''': ''If you could've found out what Rosebud meant, I bet that would've explained everything.''
-->'''Thompson''': ''No, I don't think so; no. Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn't have explained anything... I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a... piece in a jigsaw puzzle... a missing piece.''
** Kane's dream was a TragicDream and so, it was never achieved.
--> '''Leland:''' That's all he ever wanted out of life... [[TragicDream was love. That's the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane.]] You see, [[JerkassWoobie he just didn't have any to give]].

* In ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'', the characters spend [[spoiler:almost the entire series]] working on a plot point that is ultimately resolved in Shaggy Dog fashion: [[spoiler:the wish-granting Dream Collet is finally completed, only to be promptly stolen by TheDragon and given to the BigBad, who uses it up by wishing to be beautiful, of all things.]]
* The first series of ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'' has the three main characters working for the entire series to become witches- and succeed- only to give up their powers [[spoiler:to save Onpu]]. This is then turned into a ''double'' Shaggy Dog Story when the first episode of the second series has them regain their powers anyway. Then in the finale of the last series, [[spoiler:they decide not to become witches after all]].

* Early in ''Manga/MidoriNoHibi'', Seiji thinks that Midori has returned to her own body for sure (somehow, she ended up popping out of his right sleeve; replacing his real hand. It's less Nightmare-riffic when you actually read it); it's even a two-parter and he talks about how he misses her. As it turns out, [[spoiler:Midori was just taking a nap.]] ...

** One of these stories turns out to be a BrickJoke. [[spoiler: Klaus's story about Lucky the dog comes up again when Hayate saves Izumi from Lucky (six/ten?) years prior.]]
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'''s Three-Tails filler arc revolved around Konoha and Orochimaru's efforts to capture the three-tailed beast. In the end, [[spoiler:the Leaf Ninja win, but then depart and leave the defense of Three-Tails to a bunch of {{Red Shirt}}s, who are then killed when the Akatsuki show up to take Three-Tails for themselves.]] While this is a filler arc and it cannot go against what happened in the manga, knowing what happens in the manga makes the heroes' efforts seem futile.

** This also applies to the activities of the Konoha nin during the Hunt for Uchiha arc: they spend the whole time searching for Itachi, and while all kinds of plot happens behind their backs (including unwittingly running into Sasuke's group) they fail to make any leads in battling Akatsuki and by the end of the arc [[spoiler:Itachi dies without them ever meeting him]]. The only purpose their involvement ultimately served was to demonstrate [[MadeOfAir Tobi's abilities]] (which he uses to render all of their attacks useless and escape easily).
** A case of it happening ''before'' the story began: the Kannabi Bridge detour was this for Team Minato. After [[CombatMedic Rin]] was kidnapped by Iwa ninja, [[IdiotHero Obito Uchiha]] put [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl her rescue]] before successful completion of the mission, and [[TheAce Kakashi]] followed. They saved her, but Kakashi [[EyeScream lost his eye]] and Obito was [[HeroicSacrifice crushed under a boulder]], so he donates his Sharingan eye to Kakashi before they need to leave him to die, and when their sensei joins up with them later they still complete the mission. What makes it this trope, is that every indication is given that Rin ''died sometime after this'', making the heroism of her teammates utterly pointless with more loss than gain. And as it turns out, [[spoiler:Obito seems to think so as well - he cites this as one reason why he performed a FaceHeelTurn in the first place, becoming [[TheHeavy Tobi]] and setting off the ''entire main plot'' into motion.]]

* The episode "Speak Like A Child" in ''Anime/CowboyBebop''. After receiving a mysterious tape by airmail, Jet and Spike set out to find a way to play the darn thing so they can find out what's on it. In the end they end up going back to Earth and raiding an antique museum in the basement of a condemned building just for a video player and an old TV, [[spoiler:only to discover they brought back a VHS player -- and the tape is Betamax. To compound it, a Betamax player arrives from the same sender, by airmail, shortly afterward.]]

* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', the words whispered of the Rail Tracer (a train-riding murderer of urban legend) to Rachel come across as one of these, particularly when her listeners crack up upon hearing them [[spoiler: "Tickets please."]]

* ''Manga/{{Monster}}'' can be seen as a subversion - Tenma's final decision [[spoiler:to save Johan's life]] renders the entirety of his off-to-kill-the-monster plan moot and pointless in retrospect, but he could not have reached the same conclusion without undergoing the apparently wasted journey.
* The first two arcs of ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'' turn out to be Shaggy Dog Stories, coupled with them being arc long {{Hope Spot}}s as well. However, instead of making those arcs seem pointless and frustrating they help raise the stakes and the tension in the series.
** Kenji and his friend's plan to stop [[BigBad Friend's]] cult taking over the world and destroying Tokyo [[spoiler:with a giant robot]]? [[spoiler: Turns out the robot is a fake, and Friend's plan all along is to frame Kenji and his friends as the ones behind all the chaos whilst making himself appear to be the hero. It works, and results in ''the main character'' being killed, along with a few of his friends (they get better)]].
** Kanna and co's plan to stop Friend from killing [[spoiler:the Pope]]? [[spoiler: The whole thing was another EvilPlan so Friend could 'save' the Pope and increase his grip over the world, propelling him to Godhood. Oh, and he covertly releases a virus at the same time, killing a ridiculous percentage of the world's population]]. Even if the first goal failed, he still had the second.

* In ''Literature/{{Katanagatari}}'', the entire series is more or less this -- ultimately, nobody really gets what they wanted, and nothing really changes because of their actions. Still, the journey was fun, and [[spoiler: Shichika, one of the sole surviving named characters,]] got some CharacterDevelopment out of the whole deal.

** [[HeWasRightThereAllAlong Shinobu was always with Koyomi from the start]] [[spoiler:hiding in his shadow]].

* Much of ''Anime/{{Planetes}}''. Sure, in the end Hachi is happier and more mature (ditto Yuri, Ai) but most everything is about the same as in the beginning. [[spoiler: The Debris Section is still chronically underfunded in its decrepit basement office, most of the cast are ditzy as ever (especially Lucy,) Edel's sleazy husband is back to abusing women, the SDF remains trouble judging by Hakim, and the SDF-Union treaty hasn't had significant impact on third world suffering]]. The final arc's climax serves as a double dip of this, since not only do [[spoiler: all attempts to thwart the SDF threat come moments too late, saved only by the Union caving into their terms; Ai and Claire collapse from asphyxiation in the final tenth of Ai's miles long run for rescue, saved by a lucky passerby; and Hakim's IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim threats get ignored by Hachi, whose innocence is saved purely by a jam or empty magazine]]. No, on top of that, [[spoiler: while the SDF ultimately get what they want, their boarding action on the Von Braun is repelled well enough to prevent them from accomplishing either of their goals (control of the bridge in case the engine came back online, or capturing Locksmith) in assaulting the Von Braun, while the Von Braun crew wasn't able to restore engine control, meaning that pretty much the only violent part of the operation and all the hundreds of deaths during it were utterly meaningless]].

** The episode revolves around a former war vet planning to "Reset the world" by assassinating a government official he works for as a pilot, and spending the time in-between fuming about the current state of the world. [[spoiler: The date he picked for the assassination comes and goes without him doing anything, and Section 9 (who was observing him under the presumption that he might be a member of the Individual Eleven) comes to the conclusion that he very likely never will.]]

* The entirety of ''Manga/ShamanKing'' pretty much [[spoiler: Yoh and his friends fight and struggle through the tournament to stop Hao from getting the prize, [[AGodAmI becoming a god]] and wiping out humanity. But half-way through the tourney they realize [[CantCatchUp theres no way they'll be powerful enough to beat him]] since he has centuries worth of experience and killing him will just allow him to resurrect some years later and start the process anew. Ultimately they let him take the prize but manage to convince him that humanity worth keeping alive just so he can see his initial thoughts about them were wrong. None of the heroes accomplish what they wanted to do had they won the tourney but they're alive to keep seeking other solutions.]]

* ''[[spoiler:VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi]]'': One of the big, subjective questions both in the fandom and in ''the story itself'' is whether the plot is one of these.

** ''High School Boys and the Biography of a Hero'': Hidenori has long idolized "Rubber (Band) Shooter", a masked BullyHunter who saved him eight years ago. So when he returns to the shrine where he first met him upon hearing the same "Music/PachelbelsCanon" he played back then, Hidenori ran up the steps only to see... [[spoiler:Yoshitake]] shooting rubber bands. Hidenori dashed off the stairs.

** In the unanimated skit ''High School Boys and Studying'', [[spoiler:the boys suddenly found the learning curve for the schoolwork getting too steep, and got into a serious study session... before the teacher announced he wrongly used the ''senior textbook'' for the past two weeks]].
** In the unanimated skit ''High School Girls are Funky: Frog'', [[spoiler: Yanagin found a frog perching on the vending machine's coin drop. After unsuccessfully trying to kick the drinks out of the machine, she eventually had to remove the frog on her own... only to find she only has a 1,000-yen bill, which ''can't be used in the vending machine at all.]]
** In ''High School Boys and the Worst'', [[spoiler:Yoshitake spent the whole skit listing examples to prove his sister is the worst, only deduced at the end that he would be the worst by trying to prove himself somebody is worse than himself.]]

** Later subverted as their actions partially motivated Zeref[[spoiler: to start a crusade against humanity, viewing it as stagnantly corrupt.]]
** The Galuna Island arc also qualifies, as the frozen demon Deliora that Leon was trying to revive [[spoiler: was already dead, and shattered into pieces from one blow after the Iced Shell was broken. Apparently cryogenics doesn't work in the ''Manga/FairyTail'' verse.]]

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', Kirito hears rumors of a rare item that can revive the dead, in hopes of bringing back a friend [[MyGreatestFailure who died for him]]. Considering death in the game means [[MostDangerousVideoGame your brain getting microwaved in the real world]], the audience knows from the start this isn't going to end well. He finds the item, while his friends fight off a Thieves' Guild to buy him time, and finds out it ''does'' revive the dead[[spoiler:...if used within ten seconds. So he gives it to Klein, which might make you think it's a ChekhovsGun, but it is never used or mentioned again]].
-->'''Kirito:''' ''(tossing the item to Klein)'' [[spoiler:Use it on the next person you see die]].
* More light-hearted than most examples, but the ''Anime/RinneNoLagrange'' episode "Kamogawa Balloons" is (mostly) this. The Jersey Club is going to lose its clubroom because they aren't a sanctioned club, and they need a fourth member to become one. They find a new member, but she doesn't fit in. Madoka accidentally does a balloon-riding stunt, which she twists into an attempt to inspire the recruit to stay in the club. At the end, [[spoiler:the new girl quits, the council seems to have lost interest in revoking their clubroom rights, and the original clubmembers decide the room isn't that important anyway.]]

* ''Manga/PuellaMagiOrikoMagica'', after a lots of struggle, [[MacGuffinGirl Madoka]] is unexpectedly killed by the antagonist, [[spoiler: Homura then resets time, making everything in the story pointless.]]

* The main story arc of ''Anime/TamakoMarket'' revolves around Dela travelling the world to find a bride for Prince Mechya, and being sidetracked in Japan when meets Tamako and discovers mochi, than Choi shows up to find out why they have heard from him and she finds that Tamako smells of the same flowers that Mechya does, a sign that she is the destined bride [[spoiler:in the final episode it is revealed that the scent Choi found actually cam from flowers at Karou's shop, meaning that Tamako was not the bride after all. Assuming of course, Mechya wasn't lying to avoid taking Tamako away from her life in Japan.]]
* The entire mini-arc revolving around the [[SerialKiller Johnny Hunter]] in ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'', where one of her kidnapped victims starts using a cell phone to post photos and messages on an internet singles board asking for help. After the Eden of the East team discover that the victim has the same bag as Ohsugi, who also isn't answering his phone, and that Ohsugi also frequents the singles board, they come to the conclusion that Ohsugi was the one was kidnapped. After two episodes of the group and Akira trying to track down his location, they finally discover that [[spoiler: the victim is actually a serial rapist who stole Ohsugi's bag, and Ohsugi was somewhere else entirely (and the Johnny Hunter escapes with the victim anyway.)]] About the only thing to come of the situation is Akira meeting a fellow Selecao and learning that [[spoiler: he has something to do with the Careless Monday attack.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' had a mammoth 12-issue story spanning two arcs ("Empathy is the Enemy" and "The Red Right Hand") that ended in a manner that wasn't very well received: [[spoiler:with the fate of the world being decided by the result of a World Cup football game - something that was entirely out of the hands of the main character]].

** Geoffrey St. John's life's work: [[spoiler:Restoring Ixis Naugus was pointless because-despite having a Chaos Emerald-Naugus couldn't stop any enemies, couldn't heal the sickness the first Genesis Wave gave him in the old timeline and as of 252 was stripped of his powers by the first Genesis Wave in the new timeline. All that work and the guy's failure spans ''two'' histories.]]
* ''Comicbook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' features a three-issue subplot (issues #10-12, year 2) involving Officer Stomponato, a corrupt sentient police dog, gradually tracking down Spider Jerusalem in order to exact revenge, [[spoiler:only to have the dog accidentally jump to his death, failing to even attract Spider's attention.]]
** The main plot of those issues has some of this as well. A cult of people who can't stand to be touched have the frozen head of Spider's ex-wife, and hold it hostage to kill him; said wife intentionally broke their laws before having herself frozen, knowing that since she'd be "dead", they would take their revenge on him instead, and she could be resurrected afterward. Spider points out the obvious: ''they have her head''. He chucks it off a ledge ([[spoiler:landing on the dog above]]), and all is forgiven.

* ''[[Comicbook/{{Asterix}} Asterix and the Black Gold]]'' revolves around a quest to find petroleum for the Gaulish village, since it's an essential ingredient of their magic potion. Asterix and Obelix fail to bring back even the ''single drop'' necessary, ''and'' so the Romans attack the village at their full vulnerability - but fortunately [[spoiler: Getafix had experimented with the formula while the leads were away and had found that beetroot juice was an ample substitute.]]
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when [[spoiler:Asterix tells Getafix to, from now on, do his experiments ''before'' sending them halfway across the world.]]

* ''Film/TimeBandits''. In the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:everything that happened was part of The Supreme Being's plan. The villain defeats himself and the Supreme Being appears to put everything back the way it was.]]
** But Kevin [[spoiler:has the map in a photo so is able to return to Agamenon, and he never liked his parents anyway]], so the story wasn't entirely pointless for him in a way...
* In the Disney [[RogerRabbitEffect live action-animation mix]] ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', most of the movie is spent searching for a powerful spell which could help the English in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, [[spoiler:only to find out near the end that it was all in the children's book, making their excursion into cartoon land pointless.]]
** Not only that, [[spoiler:but upon obtaining the needed object containing the spell's magic words and returning home, they discover that they can't take objects from one world into another]], making it a double shaggy dog story.
*** But they ''are'' able to use the magic to [[spoiler: bring the local museum's uniforms of past wars to life, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome essentially enlisting ghosts of all of England's past wars in order to fight back a secret German invasion force]].]]

** The "secrets" are that [[spoiler: it's the modern day and the village is just some random village of nutters who fled the "horrors" of modern society (medicine and so forth) to raise their kids in the good old days of ''the dark age of Europe'', even pretending to be surrounded by demons to scare their kids into not leaving the nature reserve that they own. Even when one of the kids is dying because of it, the ''only'' person that they will send for help (because all of the adults who actually have any awareness of the outside world refuse to go) is a blind woman who has no idea what a road is, let alone being able to safely cross it or find a hospital.]]
* ''Film/RunLolaRun'' ends with [[spoiler:Lola arriving up just in time with the money Manni needed for his crime boss, only to discover that Manni managed to settle things himself without much fuss. The last scene is of them both walking off while Manni asks what's in the bag.]]
** In the second ending (before the second rewind) [[spoiler:Lola arrives with the money just to see Manni [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ran over by an ambulance]]]].
*** Of course, both of those outcomes, just like just about everything else that happens in all three storylines, are caused by [[spoiler:Lola's very own interference, which in turn is caused by what happens in the stairwell]], albeit one has to watch the movie several times to notice every single causality. It's basically 'Chaos Theory: The Movie'.

* The Finnish AffectionateParody film ''[[WebOriginal/StarWreck Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning]]'' ends with [[spoiler: Pirk, Dwarf, and Info trapped in Hawaii during Earth's Ice Age. Info says that if he goes into low power mode he can survive until modern day, at which point he will prevent everything in the film from ever happening... pan out... credits.]]
** To make the story even shaggier, it's implied that since [[spoiler: during the panout, you can see space debris that resembles the space station seen earlier in the movie, they're actually in the NEXT Ice Age with no chance of preventing the events and Info was lying just to give them some vague sense of hope and/or prevent Pirk from somehow making things even worse.]]
* ''Film/MurderByDeath'' is an excellent example of this. [[spoiler: After all of the chaotic happenings in the movie, it appears that no murder took place. One of the characters, when asked if one happened, says "Yes. Killed good weekend."]] The beauty of it is that the movie is hilarious in large part ''because'' of this.

* The climax of ''Film/MediumCool'' is set in motion by a search for the female protagonist's son. Later, he turns up safe at home. [[spoiler: His mother and her boyfriend die in a car crash.]]

* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' follows a bizarre and convoluted RandomEventsPlot where ultimately the protagonist fails at everything he tries to do. Not only that, most of it turns out to have been completely pointless to begin with: [[spoiler: the kidnap victim was just on an unannounced vacation, the ransom notes were sent by opportunistic thugs pulling a con, the BriefcaseFullOfMoney had been empty from the start, and the guy he was working for was just setting him up as the fall guy to cover for a bit of embezzlement. His car has been destroyed, his apartment trashed repeatedly, he's been drugged once and beaten several times, his best friend has caused much of the above by [[TheMillstone Millstoning]] him at every turn, his other best friend is dead from a heart attack, and he never got his freakin' rug back.]] All he has to show for the entire movie is [[spoiler: a night of sex with the admittedly pretty hot Maud Lebowski and potentially an illegitimate child he'll never see]]. But hey, [[AndTheAdventureContinues The Dude abides.]]
* ''Film/ASeriousMan'' has one scene where a rabbi tells the main character about one of his friends, a dentist, who found Hebrew script meaning "Help me, save me" inscribed on the teeth of a gentile customer of his. After making many attempts to discern their significance, he gave up without knowing how or why they were there. The protagonist is noticeably irritated by the anti-climax. [[spoiler: This may be {{foreshadowing}}, given that the movie itself has NoEnding.]]

* ''Big Deal on Madonna Street'': The last shot about sums it up: [[spoiler:a closeup of a newspaper article about an unknown person or persons who climbed in the window of an apartment, broke down a wall and ate some pasta.]]

* ''Film/MyOwnPrivateIdaho'' – [[TheWoobie Woobie]] male prostitute with narcolepsy is looking for his long lost mother with the help of a friend of his. Wherever he goes his mother has just moved on. Eventually he and the friend end up in Italy, [[spoiler: where it turns out his mother has just left. The friend then decides to abandon him, [[DownerEnding and the movie ends with him dumped on a road, alone and asleep, having never found his mother]].]]
* ''The Pledge'': A detective is obsessed with catching a serial killer of children. He sets what he thinks is an infallible trap... [[spoiler:The killer never shows up. Years later, after the detective has ruined his life out of despair, it turns out that the killer was in a car crash on the way to the rendezvous.]]

** Well, for the ''villains'', sure. They spend the entire movie manipulating and killing each other (as well as anyone who gets in the way) over the eponymous statue of a falcon which is covered in black enamel but secretly covered in jewels. At the end, they form an alliance and attain it... only to find it is a fake. For [[HumphreyBogart Sam]] [[PrivateDetective Spade]], though, it's a grandslam: the falcon lured all these villains out of the woodwork, allowing him to work with them, getting him out from under the police's thumb, make money, and even [[spoiler:reveal his heroic colors by setting every last one of them up to go to jail, including the FemmeFatale who killed his partner.]]

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': Not that the plot matters much but it is ostensibly about King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail which Arthur takes seriously whether anybody else does or not. When he gets to the final climatic battle charge, [[spoiler: he's arrested by modern day police officers because one of his knights earlier in the film accidentally killed a historian narrating the tale.]]

* A very unusual example is ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''; the ending reveals that the entire movie was [[spoiler: one great big pack of [[BlatantLies unbelievably audacious lies]] having almost nothing to do with reality]], but this revelation actually sheds a fascinating new light on what has been happening.
** It's worth noting that it's arguable whether the film becomes implausible if [[spoiler: the entire plot is a lie, the final montage tends to suggest a kind of "Only the names have been changed, to protect the guilty." scenario (meaning he tricked all the other "suspects" as well - from the beginning.) This possibility does nothing to change its shaggy-dog-ness from the perspective of Dave Kujan whose pursuit is still meaningless thanks to his dogged attempt to fix the whole thing on Keaton, based on a deeply personal [[ArchEnemy vendetta]]]]

* In ''Film/{{Duplicity}}'', Ray, an ex-MI-6 agent, and Claire, an ex-CIA agent, are each working for separate cosmetics conglomerates; Ray for the one owned by Richard, and Claire for the one owned by Howard. Except Claire's really working as a double agent on behalf of Richard, and Ray and Claire plot to steal a [[MacGuffin new formula]] Howard's company is developing so Richard's company can beat them to the punch. Except Claire and Ray are really working together on their own, and want to steal the formula themselves and sell it on their own. [[spoiler: Except [[MockGuffin there *is* no formula]]; Howard just wanted to make Richard look foolish by having him chase his tail, and he succeeds in fooling Claire and Ray as well]].

** [[spoiler: And to this day he never has]]

** [[spoiler: Jimmy sneaks out and gets hit by a bus. The moral of the story: Look both ways before crossing the street.]]

** [[spoiler: But I can't tell you what it was because you're not a monk.]]
* There's this: A guy goes to the doctor because of a stomach ache, and the doctor gives him some pills, and warns him of the side effect, headaches, so he gives him tablets for headaches, but these would give him a sore throat, so he gives him a syrup for a sore throat, and lastly warns him of the syrup's side effect:
** [[spoiler: Stomach ache]]
* There once was a knight dressed in black and white garb, riding a black and white horse. He decided to get married to a princess and therefore approached the king to ask him for his daughter's hand. But before arriving at the castle, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, encountered a guardian. The guardian said: "I am the first guardian! Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The guardian asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the king's daughter!" The guardian said: "You may proceed!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, rode on. Soon, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, encountered another guardian. The guardian said: "I am the second guardian! Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The guardian asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the king's daughter!" The guardian said: "You may proceed!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, rode on. Then, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, encountered yet another guardian. The guardian said: "I am the third guardian! Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The guardian asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the king's daughter!" The guardian said: "You may proceed!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, rode on. Finally, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, reached the castle. The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, was let to the king. The king asked: "Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The king asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the your daughter!" The king asked: "Do you have a castle of your own?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "No." The king said: "You cannot marry my daughter without a castle of your own!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, left the castle and spent some years amassing the wealth needed for building a castle. Then, he re-approached the king's castle. Again, before arriving at the castle, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, encountered a guardian. The guardian said: "I am the first guardian! Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The guardian asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the king's daughter!" The guardian said: "You may proceed!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, rode on. Soon, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, encountered another guardian. The guardian said: "I am the second guardian! Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The guardian asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the king's daughter!" The guardian said: "You may proceed!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, rode on. Then, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, encountered yet another guardian. The guardian said: "I am the third guardian! Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The guardian asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the king's daughter!" The guardian said: "You may proceed!" So the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, rode on. Finally, the black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, reached the castle. The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, was let to the king. The king asked: "Who are you?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I am the black and white knight, riding on my black and white horse!" The king asked: "What do you want?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "I want to marry the your daughter!" The king asked: "Do you have a castle of your own?" The black and white knight, riding on his black and white horse, said: "Yes!" the king then said: [[spoiler: "Get lost, all my daughters are married already."]]
* A man is on vacation in France, and is enjoying his dinner at a restaurant. Suddenly, a man rushes in, leaves a note on the table, and then runs away. The man picks it up to see what it is and what it says, but the note is in French, which he doesn't understand. When the waiter gives him the bill, the man asks him "excuse me, but what does this note say?" and gives him the note. Upon seeing what it says, the waiter instantly goes into a rage and tells the man to leave the restaurant at once. He does, and brings the note with him, wondering what he got so angry about. Throughout the joke, the man continues showing this note to various people, but gets a worse punishment every time: he gets beaten up, put in jail, and forced to leave the country. When finally at home, he puts the note away in a drawer, seeing how it has brought him nothing but bad luck. Still, he's more curious than ever to what the note says. Later, he befriends a guy that's fluent in French, and after being friends with him for several years, he decides to show this man the note. He puts it in front of him, asking him to translate it for him, but makes him promise that whatever it says, he must not get mad or stop being his friend, just tell him what the note says. [[spoiler: ...As his friend goes to pick the note up, a strong gust of wind blows by and takes the note with it.]]
* A world famous conductor, a marvelous conductor, has decided that he's finally had enough, and he's going to retire. He announced his final performance, and as always, the theatre is completely packed. The performance is amazing, and he decides it's a fitting farewell. He leaves after the performance, but is approached by a group of large, intimidating men. They tell him that he can't quit now, he's just too good, and if he retires, they're going to break his legs. Frightened by the threat, he tries to figure a way out of it. He announces another performance. Again, the theatre is packed, and the performance is marvelous...but at the end, he whips out a pistol and shoots a violinist in the head, killing him instantly. He's arrested and brought before a judge, who asks "How do you plead?". He says "I'm guilty, everyone saw me do it." The judge replies, "Then I have no choice but to sentence you to death by electric chair." Before he's brought to the chair, he's asked for his last meal, and he requests a dozen bananas on a silver platter. He's led to the chair, strapped in, and the machine turned on. It looks like he's dead, but as they're unstrapping him, he twitches a bit, before appearing to come back to life. The executioner says "It is a sign from God to set you free! You may go." This process is repeated several times, each time he commits a bigger crime (bringing out a flamethrower and torching his entire orchestra, throwing a grenade into the audience), going into more detail about his prison stay (his cellmate, the condition of the cell), increasing the amount of power given to the chair (much longer than usual, then enough to short out the entire prison building), and the appearance of the man's death lasting longer (he comes back to life when being taken out of the prison, then scratches are heard from inside his coffin). The last time, the minister giving his eulogy opens his coffin after hearing the scratches and out pops the man, good as new. "How do you keep doing this?" the minister asks. "This is incredible!" To which the man replies: [[spoiler: "Didn't you hear? I'm a bad conductor."]]
* Three men were driving down a lonely country road one night. Suddenly, the car broke down. One man was a mechanic, but try as he might, he couldn't get the car to start. They checked, but there was no cell phone reception for at least a hundred yards in every direction. Looking around, they saw a dim light far in the distance, and with no other option, they headed towards it. About halfway there, the wind was becoming fierce. A storm was brewing. They had a brief debate on whether or not to go back to the car, but decided if they were to go back, the wind would be against them, and so continued on. As the rain started to come down, they found the light was from a bed and breakfast. The proprietor was a skinny old woman, so deaf the men needed to shout to get her attention, but polite enough, and was not at all unhappy about them checking in so late. They decided it was late, so they would call a tow truck in the morning, and went to bed. They woke up the next morning and went downstairs for breakfast. The first man ordered Corn Flakes, the second man ordered Corn Flakes, and the third man ordered Fruit Loops. What's the moral of the story? [[spoiler:Two out of three people choose Corn Flakes.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', particularly the climax. [[spoiler:Harry and Dumbledore go to an extremely dangerous seaside cave in a cliff, fight off [[OurZombiesAreDifferent inferi]] ([[NotUsingTheZWord like zombies but not]]) that are trying to drown them, and Dumbledore has to drink a potion that physically tortures him, all so they can get one of Voldemort's horcruxes, a locket. Dumbledore is then murdered by Snape, and Harry opens the locket to discover... It's not the real horcrux. Somebody else got there first and planted the fake one to mess with Voldemort.]]
** Also, take note that this actually does something in the plot. [[spoiler: Dumbledore not being on the castle at that time makes it possible for the Death Eaters to enter, and gives Harry (and the readers) even more reasons to hate Voldemort. I doubt anyone couldn't feel bad about Dumbledore's dying wish being unfulfilled, and everyone hated the villains more]].
** Further, it may have been according to plan and it allowed things to happen for the "good guys": [[spoiler: it gave Harry a lead on tracking down the other horcruxes (R.A.B) and allowed Snape to finish off Dumbledore allowing Voldemort to be tricked into thinking Dumbledore's wand was bound to Snape when it was actually bound to Malfoy]].

This could be [[SlidingScaleOfCynicismVersusIdealism cynically viewed]] as TruthInTelevision, since a lot of life's events don't seem to have much of a point to them either.

** The Galuna Island arc also qualifies, as the frozen demon Deliora that Leon was trying to revive [[spoiler: was already dead, and shattered into pieces from one blow after the Iced Shell was broken. Apparently cryogenics doesn't work in the "Manga/FairyTail" verse.]]

* Plucky Duck's entire sub-plot in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonsAdventuresHowISpentMySummerVacation'' is this - he joins Hamton's family to go to an Amusement Park, has is comics ruined by Hamton's carsickness, blown out of the car by a wish, tortured by an AxCrazy hitchhiker and when they finally get there, they hit the monorail and... Head back to the car. Hamton's family didn't want to spoil it the first go-round.

** The same happens in reverse, but on Balmorra. While Republic players are busy saving the recolonization effort(s) on Taris, Imperial players are taking over Balmorra and securing its weapon production for the empire. However, someone might go on with a Republic player and watch as everything the Imperials did to secure Balmorra is essentially undone, as the Imperials are run off the planet.

* BunnyMustDie revolves around a bunny-girl getting [[ItMakesSenseInContext cursed with cat ears after getting caught in a Cattomic explosion]] and being convinced to go to the Cave of Devils to remove them. Over the course of the game, she's tricked and possessed by an evil demon lord, is caught in a time loop caused by the elf princess {{Deuteragonist}}, gets the crap kicked out of her until she's unpossessed, unlocks her EleventhHourSuperpower and ends up saving the elf princess from and defeating the demon lord. And then she realizes that she ''still'' hasn't gotten rid of her cat ears.

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} 1'' did this. The protagonist finally defeated the BigBad, only to become corrupted by it's Soulstone and become the new Diablo himself.

* ''ShadowOfTheColossus'' is the story of a man trying to bring back his dead lover by slaying the colossi. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:the colossi's slaying is part of the BigBad 's plot to return to power, using the protagonist's body as a new vessel. This prompts shamans to cast a spell the would forever seal the protagonist and Big Bad.]]

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' (and ''only'' the first game) probably counts in a way. After Olimar spends up to 30 days struggling to survive and get repair his ship, he returns to his home planet, only for the ship he ''spent the entire first game reconstructing'' to get sold for scrap less than 30 seconds into the opening cutscene, at which point he finds out that his company has gained a debt they can't possibly pay off. Then the it turns out the bottle cap Olimar brought back is considered massively valuable on this planet, at which point the president ''sends Olimar back to Earth'' without giving him a chance to do anything else.

** Geoffrey St. John's life's work: [[Restoring Ixis Naugus was pointless because-despite having a Chaos Emerald-Naugus couldn't stop any enemies, couldn't heal the sickness the first Genesis Wave gave him in the old timeline and as of 252 was stripped of his powers by the first Genesis Wave in the new timeline. All that work and the guy's failure spans ''two'' histories.]]

* RanmaOneHalf. Ranma never cures his curse, and the driving WillOrWontThey romance plot ends on [[ShrugOfGod "Eeeeeehh..."]]

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' has a story about the Dalton Brothers' uncle, Marcel Dalton, trying with Luke help to redeem his nephews by buying a bank and having them work in it with him. The whole book focuses on Marcel’s and Luke’s efforts to have the Daltons adapt to this and struggle against the corrupt banker who tries to get rid of them. Of course, StatusQuoIsGod in this series, so just when they are done dealing with said corrupt banker, the Dalton finally snap and decide to turn back to crime, Luke is forced to send them to jail again, and Marcel, realizing his nephew are unredeemable, goes back home after thanking Luke for his help.

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' has a story about the Dalton Brothers' uncle, Marcel Dalton, trying with Luke help to redeem his nephew by buying a bank and having them work in it with him. The whole book focus on Marcel's and Luke's efforts to have the Daltons adapt to this and struggle against the corrupt banker who try to get rid of them. Of course, StatusQuoIsGod in this serie, so just when they are done dealing with said corrupt banker, the Dalton finally snap and decide to turn back to crime, Luke is forced to send them to jail again, and Marcel, realizing his nephew are unredeemable, goes back home after thanking Luke for his help.
[[/folder]]

** This is averted in the sequel where you go back [[spoiler: and finally solve the mystery of the Little People and the astronaut]]

* In VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic, the Imperial storyline on Taris (a planet which was basically wiped out by orbital bombardment in VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic) apparently happens sometime after the Republic storyline- but in the same place. Which means that after your Jedi character single-handedly saves the Taris restoration project, you go back with a Sith character and learn that everything you did has been completely undone. Notably, Republic characters have the option of sending a Jedi to teach a group of Force-sensitive [[OurZombiesAreDifferent rakghouls]] how to use their abilities, nicely subverting the rakghouls AlwaysChaoticEvil characterization in the process. Imperial characters can go to this same group, defeat the Jedi, and convince the rakghouls to go [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor straight back to evil]].

* A throwaway joke in an episode of ''Series/{{M*A*S*H}}'' details Hawkeye telling a story about his tent mate B.J. Hunnicut (in a smoking jacket with a zipper down the back) and Lana Turner (in a pink angora sweater with a zipper down the back).

* [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Hot-Room.aspx The Hot Room]]. Yes, this really happened.