History Main / SnakeOilSalesman

* ''Series/{{Fallout|2024}}'': A recurring minor character throughout the first season is a huxter who, when not [[BestialityIsDepraved victimizing chickens]], sells what he claims to be a miracle cure that will heal all that ails. [[spoiler:After Thadius gets his foot mangled, he actually allows the salesman to treat him with this "miracle cure". [[{{Subverted}} Surprisingly]], it actually completely heals his foot. [[DoubleSubversion That's because the "cure" turned him into a ghoul.]]]]

* ''Literature/WagonsWest'': In ''Oregon Legacy'', during a local epidemic, Janessa calls to task a peddler of fake medicines, whose only defense was pointing out that Janessa was a woman, regardless if she was a medical student. (It was the late 1880s, after all).

* Radiation, particularly radium, radon, and uranium, was once considered a miracle designer drug in the early-mid 20th century (known now as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_quackery radioactive quackery]]"), able to cure any number of aliments, rejuvenate your body, and even slow aging! Indeed, it was a high demand item, bought in large quantities and at very high prices. Of course, it's now widely known consuming radioactive water and covering yourself in radioactive substances didn't cure anything, unless the thing you wanted "cured" was ''not'' being subjected to a CruelAndUnusualDeath.

* Such concentrations are part of what is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy homeopathy]], a pseudoscientific form of alternative medicine based on the (supposed) principle of "like cures like", i.e. the belief that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people. Homeopathic "remedies" come in the form of said substances diluted in a concentration so high that there's basically none of the substance left remaining in the solution, i.e. if one were to make a homeopathic concentration of battery acid in water, it'll end up with just water and almost none, if any, battery acid left. This was bluntly ridiculed by a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qxtHet8BMU skeptic]] who questioned the efficacy of homeopathic treatments, as well as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10:23_Campaign public "overdoses"]] where protesters intentionally ingest loads of homeopathic remedies in front of pharmacies selling homeopathic cures alongside conventional medicines to prove their point that they're just glorified sugar pills or vials of distilled water. Unfortunately though, while the practice has been heavily regulated in some countries,[[note]]The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled that homeopathic products cannot include claims of effectiveness without "competent and reliable scientific evidence" and that any claims are based on now-disproven theories.[[/note]] and there have been calls for homeopathy to be banned such as in Russia[[note]]Homeopathy was banned in the Soviet Union since the 1960s, but was legalised in Russia in 1995, four years after the Soviet Union collapsed.[[/note]] and [[https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/11/14/inenglish/1542203925_514487.html in Spain]], such practices still have quite a following in places such as India, where it is ''institutionalised'' to the point that the Indian government established the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) in 2014.

Definitely TruthInTelevision, hearkening back to the late-19th/early-20th century, when there were no standards for practicing medicine or selling goods and "caveat emptor"[[note]]Latin for "Let the buyer beware", an expression citing that the buyer must be careful about the quality or effectiveness of the goods (s)he buys[[/note]] was the rule. The rise of "alternative medicine" and other forms of AllNaturalSnakeOil provides lots of modern examples as well, as do online scams ([[ClickbaitGag think of ads]] along the lines of "doctors hate this man who cured X with one weird trick!"). A Snake Oil Salesman is also known as a "quack", short for "quacksalver", though the term "quack" also covers fraudulent doctors who are nowhere near as skilled as they claim to be, such as the worst {{Back Alley Doctor}}s. Any beneficial results given by the "medicine" are almost certainly down to the PlaceboEffect.