History Main / SpringTimeForHitler

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Fred gets a second job working at Bedrock Towers. Unfortunately, his job at the quarry has a strict no moonlighting policy and Mr. Slate intends to rent an apartment at the complex. Fred [[WigAccentDress disguises himself with a wig and mustache]] and tries to dissuade his boss from moving to the apartment building. Unfortunately, every one of Fred's discouraging attempts backfires and make Mr. Slate more intrigued in the apartment to the point that he takes it after all.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Fred gets a second job working at Bedrock Towers. Unfortunately, his job at the quarry has a strict no moonlighting policy and Mr. Slate intends to rent an apartment at the complex. Fred disguises himself with a wig and mustache and tries to dissuade his boss from moving to the apartment building. Unfortunately, every one of Fred's discouraging attempts backfires and make Mr. Slate more intrigued in the apartment to the point that he takes it after all.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Fred gets a second job working at Bedrock Towers. Unfortunately, he learns that his boss Mr. Slate intends to rent an apartment at the complex. To keep Mr. Slate from learning he was moonlighting, Fred uses a wig and moustache diguise and tries to dissuade his boss from moving to the apartment building. Unfortunately, every one of Fred's discouraging attempts backfire and make Mr. Slate more intrigued in the apartment to the point that he takes it after all.

* [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/27/russian-man-trapped-chinese-reality-tv-show-voted-out-lelush-vladislav-ivanov-produce-camp Vladislav Ivanov]] aka Lelush is a Russian model who served as a translator for the Chinese singing talent show Produce Camp 2021, and after the producers of the show noticed his good looks he was signed up as a contestant. Lelush quickly regretted the decision, finding the weekly training sessions and isolation to be grueling, but cannot leave the show without breaking his contract. So he deliberately performed badly in hopes of being voted off the show. But instead, fans found his grumpy, defeatist attitude to be endearing and managed to vote him to stay until the final episode.

* Donald Crowhurst entered the 1968 ''Sunday Times'' Golden Globe Race, which gave a a £5000 prize to whoever was the fastest to sail around the world solo without stopping. Crowhurst had to mortgage his home and his business as collateral for sponsorship with the condition that if Crowhurst didn't finish, he would lose everything. When the race started, Crowhurst realized his boat was not ready for the rigors of sailing around the world, so Crowhurst started dithering around the Atlantic while reporting fake positions on his journey. Crowhurst knew that he would be exposed if his logbook was scrutinized, so he planned to come in last place. With nearly every other competitor dropping out, Crowhurst's last hope was to finish behind the only other remaining contestant, Nigel Tetley. Unfortunately for Crowhurst, Tetley drove himself too hard to "catch up" and capsized his boat, meaning Crowhurst was going to get the speed record prize by default, wherein his logs would be examined and he would lose everything he owned. Facing utter financial ruin, Crowhurst killed himself by jumping over his boat.

* [[CatGirl Diona]] from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is such a good bartender that ''any'' drink she mixes is guaranteed to be exceptionally delicious, which is very at odds with her goal of ruining the wine industry by making terrible drinks. As shown in a particular route in her Hangout event, even when she deliberately messes up all the mixing steps and does the ''exact opposite'' of what a winemaker (i.e. Connor) did, the resulting beverage is anything but terrible; in fact, aforementioned winemaker has to admit the drink is a "true display of craftsmanship". It turns out she's stuck supernaturally good alcohol because she was blessed by a fairy when she was a child.[[/folder]]

* [[CatGirl Diona]] from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is such a good bartender that ''any'' drink she mixes is guaranteed to be exceptionally delicious, which is very at odds with her goal of ruining the wine industry by making terrible drinks. As shown in a particular route in her Hangout event, even when she deliberately messes up all the mixing steps and does the ''exact opposite'' of what a winemaker (i.e. Connor) did, the resulting beverage is anything but terrible; in fact, aforementioned winemaker has to admit the drink is a "true display of craftsmanship".
It turns out she's stuck supernaturally good alcohol because she was blessed by a fairy when she was a child.[[/folder]]

* [[CatGirl Diona]] from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is such a good bartender, that ''any'' drink she mixes is guaranteed to be exceptionally delicious. As shown in a particular route in her Hangout event, even when she deliberately messes up all the mixing steps and does the ''exact opposite'' of what a winemaker (i.e. Connor) did, the resulting beverage is anything but terrible; in fact, aforementioned winemaker has to admit the drink is a "true display of craftsmanship".

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* [[spoiler:Alita Tiala]] in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' hires the title character, thinking he would be incompetent enough to lose [[spoiler:and get Wocky Kitaki convicted,]] due to Apollo being a rookie. Apollo manages to get his client off, and pin [[spoiler:Alita as the real murderer]].
[[/folder]]

* Shorting a stock can become an example of this: someone borrows shares of stock in a company from another person at interest, sells the stock at a high price, and then hope the stock price goes down so they can buy the stocks back cheap and make a profit. However, if the price of the shorted stocks goes ''up'', it forces the person who shorted the stock to buy it back at a loss, therefore losses can be infinite. A particularly notorious example occurred in January 2021, when [=GameStop=] was one of the most shorted stocks, particularly by hedge funds who were certain of the chain's collapse with more and more games moving to digital delivery. This was noticed by a number of Reddit users (specifically the subreddit r/wallstreetbets), who started buying up [=GameStop's=] stock and forcing the value through the roof, effectively costing the hedge funds billions of dollars, and benefitting [=GameStop=] in the process - to the ire of those who betted on it failing.

* Donald Crowhurst entered the 1968 ''Sunday Times'' Golden Globe Race, which gave a trophy and a £5000 prize to whoever was the first and the fastest respectively to sail around the world solo without stopping. Crowhurst had to mortgage his home and his business as collateral for sponsorship with the condition that if Crowhurst didn't finish, he would lose everything. When the race started, Crowhurst realized his boat was not ready for the rigors of sailing around the world, so Crowhurst started dithering around the Atlantic while reporting fake positions on his journey. Crowhurst knew that he would be exposed if his logbook was scrutinized, so he planned to come in last place. With the trophy already claimed by Robin Knox-Johnston and nearly every other competitor dropping out, Crowhurst's only hope was to finish behind the only other remaining contestant Nigel Tetley, who was rapidly catching up. Unfortunately, Tetley drove himself too hard to "catch up" and capsized his boat, meaning Crowhurst was going to get the speed record prize by default, wherein his logs would be examined and he would lose everything he owned. Facing utter financial ruin, Crowhurst killed himself by jumping over his boat.

* A rather tragic example of this was the story of Donald Crowhurst: an electronic engineer and amateur sailor, Crowhurst decided to get publicity for his failing business by entering the 1968 ''Sunday Times'' Golden Globe Race, which gave a trophy and a £5000 prize to whoever was the first and the fastest respectively to sail around the world solo without stopping. Crowhurst had to mortgage his home and his business as collateral for sponsorship from caravan entrepreneur Stanley Best, with the condition that the latter would get his money back if Crowhurst didn't finish the race -- ''i.e.'' if Crowhurst didn't finish, he would lose everything. When the race started, Crowhurst rapidly realized his boat was not ready for the rigors of sailing around the world and he would likely die if he tried, so Crowhurst started dithering around the Atlantic while reporting fake positions on his journey. Despite his meticulousness in doing so, Crowhurst knew that if his logbook was heavily scrutinized he would be exposed, so he planned to fake coming in last place. However, the occasional error and some misinterpretations from Crowhurst's publicist of the former's messages caused Crowhurst to "become" a serious contender for the speed record, which Crowhurst was forced to go along with. With the trophy already claimed by Robin Knox-Johnston and nearly every other competitor dropping out, Crowhurst hoped to finish behind the last remaining contestant Nigel Tetley, who was rapidly catching up. Unfortunately, Tetley drove himself too hard to "catch up" to Crowhurst and capsized his boat, meaning Crowhurst was sure to win the speed record prize and have his logs rigorously examined. Facing utter ruin, Crowhurst ended up going insane and committed suicide by jumping overboard.

*** Both cases show that it was ultimately Hillary Clinton's toxic presence that drove the populist backlash that drove the 2016 election.

** Brexit was also part of how outsider candidate Jeremy Corbyn gained the Labour leadership in 2015 -- Conservatives who were afraid of losing their majority lobbied hard for Corbyn, even encouraging readers to join the Labour Party (it cost just £3) to vote in the leadership election for Corbyn. The idea was that Corbyn was hard-left and so unpalatable to the electorate that people would vote in the Tories just to avoid him. Once the referendum came down, Theresa May called a snap election in 2017 hoping to take advantage of the distaste for Corbyn and pick up an electoral mandate to make Brexit happen. It backfired on her, as the Conservatives ''did'' lose their majority[[note]]and to boot, had to form a coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party, based in Northern Ireland and ''not'' happy with May's plans to make Brexit happen while avoiding a hard border with the Republic of Ireland by effectively cutting Northern Ireland off from the rest of the UK[[/note]]. The Tories lucked out in 2019, once the popular Boris Johnson was the PM and they battered Labour in [[CurbStompBattle their worst defeat since Margaret Thatcher was elected]].

See also ReversePsychology and BlackSheepHit.

** In "Wacky Delly", Ed Bighead's cartoonist daughter Rachel ([[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} who was still closeted as "Ralph" at the time]]) wants to get out of a contract for a second show, so she uses Heffer's idea of making a cartoon about "deli meats", and even lets Rocko and his friends help her make the cartoon. Rachel hopes the resulting mish-mash will be canceled quickly and she can get on with a career as a serious artist. Unfortunately for Rachel, ''Wacky Delly'' becomes a hit, despite her best efforts to sabotage production, which include [[InconvenientDarkroomIllumination overexposing the film]], doing an episode consisting of nothing but a still image of a jar of mayonnaise, doing an episode that's nothing at all, and attempting to flood all of "Holl-o-wood" by melting the ice caps with an [[KillSat orbital laser]]. A speech from Rocko inspires Rachel to enjoy her success and make the show "real art," so she makes a high-brow ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''-like episode, which gets it promptly canceled. Then she goes off into the desert and spends ten years carving a bowl of fruit out of a rock formation, prompting a conveniently placed bystander to say "Hey, not bad -- but have you seen ''Wacky Delly''? The first season, that is – before that new guy ruined it."

* Draft systems often encourage losing. The way it works is that teams choose players in reverse order of their record, so the team with the worst record picks first. The idea is to allow struggling teams a way to restock and compete again. The problem is that this encourages "tanking", in which teams that are clearly not going to be contending for a title will ''try'' to lose in order to get better draft positioning (in some cases with the aim of taking one particular prospect they ''really'' want and can only get with a very high draft pick, if not the very top one). Some leagues (most notably the NBA and NHL) use a "draft lottery" system which gives the not-quite-the-worst teams a chance to win a higher pick, but the winner will still likely be a terrible team, and fans would go ''apoplectic'' if one of the best teams in the league now gets a top prospect in addition to all their success. In the end, sports people have pointed out that ''players'' rarely "tank" (part of it is that their pride will not allow them to lose, and part of it is that they know that if their team is rebuilding, ''they'''re not going to be a part of the future success -- the new picks will), but the ''fans'' will encourage tanking. It leads to the utterly bizarre -- and frankly sad -- experience of seeing fans cheering when their team ''loses'' and berating them for winning. By sport:

** At the beginning of "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", after Kyle asks to go to a concert where the band's name alone tips them off that they shouldn't let him, they say he first needs to clean out the garage, shovel the snow out of the driveway, and [[ImpossibleTask bring democracy to Cuba]]. This results in Kyle writing a letter that moves Fidel Castro to tears and decide to fufil his wish, which of course ends up making the news.

** In "Wacky Delly", Ed Bighead's cartoonist daughter Rachel ([[{{Transgender}} who was still closeted as "Ralph" at the time]]) wants to get out of a contract for a second show, so she uses Heffer's idea of making a cartoon about "deli meats", and even lets Rocko and his friends help her make the cartoon. Rachel hopes the resulting mish-mash will be canceled quickly and she can get on with a career as a serious artist. Unfortunately for Rachel, ''Wacky Delly'' becomes a hit, despite her best efforts to sabotage production, which include [[InconvenientDarkroomIllumination overexposing the film]], doing an episode consisting of nothing but a still image of a jar of mayonnaise, doing an episode that's nothing at all, and attempting to flood all of "Holl-o-wood" by melting the ice caps with an [[KillSat orbital laser]]. A speech from Rocko inspires Rachel to enjoy her success and make the show "real art," so she makes a high-brow ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''-like episode, which gets it promptly canceled. Then she goes off into the desert and spends ten years carving a bowl of fruit out of a rock formation, prompting a conveniently placed bystander to say "Hey, not bad -- but have you seen ''Wacky Delly''? The first season, that is – before that new guy ruined it."

* The book ''Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'' was written by Bruce Feirstein to satirize views on [[MasculinityTropes masculinity]] in America, however it became popular with men using it as an unironic guide on [[TestosteronePoisoning "how to be a man"]] [[PoesLaw completely missing the satire altogether]]. "Quiche-eater" has even entered the lexicon for an unmasculine man.

* The JidaiGeki film ''Film/{{Harakiri}}'' is probably the cruelest, most gruesome example of this trope. Motome, a desperate young ronin who needs money to provide for his family, approaches the local daimyo and ask his permission to commit {{Seppuku}} there so that he may have the honor of being buried on his land. He expects that the daimyo will refuse his request and instead give him a few coins to go away. Unfortunately, the daimyo calls his bluff and forces him to go through with the act. To make matters even worse, Motome is so destitute that he has already sold the metal blades of his swords, so he has to disembowel himself with a blade made of ''bamboo''.

* ''Film/LobsterManFromMars''. A Hollywood film producer screens a science fiction BMovie in order to get out of paying millions in back taxes, only to go to prison when it's a [[SoBadItsGood great success]].

* A more dramatic version of this trope appears in the 1937 film ''Film/StageDoor''. Creator/KatharineHepburn plays an aspiring actress who hopes to make it on Broadway, which is against her father's wishes. [[spoiler:So her father invests in a play on the condition she star in it, and since she's not only green but also questions everybody, it's thought the play will flop and she'll come back to her father. However, Hepburn finds out right before the curtain is to go up that TheWoobie wanted the part she's playing and killed herself because she didn't get it. Completely heartbroken, Hepburn's character gives the performance of her life, critics love it, and the play becomes a smash hit, meaning she'll never go back to her father.]]

* ''Film/AllTheQueensMen'' ends up [[spoiler:featuring]] this trope. An English Colonel sends his bumbling secretary, a disgraced U.S. soldier, a socially inept language expert, and [[Creator/EddieIzzard a transvestite]] on a mission to steal an Enigma machine in 1944. The plan is to have them dress up as women and infiltrate the factory where the machines are made and steal one; unfortunately, the mission ends up going south from the beginning when the city they're supposed to airdrop near is just a façade. Attempting to radio command for help doesn't give them any help and nearly gives away their position. But in the end they infiltrate the factory and steal enough parts to make an Enigma machine thanks to [[ChekhovsSkill the secretary's skill with repairing typewriters]]. [[spoiler:But when the secretary comments that Germany won't even notice that a machine is missing since they only stole the parts, they realize what's really going on -- the Allies already ''have'' an Enigma machine and have cracked its codes, so stealing one wasn't their mission. Their ''real'' mission was to ''attempt'' to steal one in such an obvious and ridiculous way that they'd be caught immediately -- so that when the Germans interrogate them, they'll say that their mission was to get an Enigma. Thus the Axis would still think that the Allies didn't have one, so that the Axis powers would continue using the already-cracked codes. The secretary tries to give himself up out of a sense of duty to the Allies so that they can complete the real mission, but the others rescue him. While doing so, they make sure to try, and fail, to keep the Enigma machine. Final analysis: they subvert the trope by providing enough of a hint that they were after an Enigma machine to allow the Axis to believe it, fulfilling the true purpose of the mission while at the same time finding a way to escape captivity.]]

* Invoked intentionally in ''Film/AngryVideoGameNerdTheMovie'': at the beginning of the film, Mandi of Cockburn Incorporated discussed how the titular Nerd has made gamers foster BileFascination, buying and playing video games that are terrible and reviled. As such, she has developed a follow-up to the infamous ''[[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial Eee Tee]]'', designed to suck even more than the original, thus causing copies to fly off the shelves thanks to the Nerd's influence.

* The Girl Scout detailed in [[https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/02/girl-scout-s-cookie-sales-explode-after-dirty-jobs-mike-rowe-r/21706043/ this article]] wrote a brutally honest and negative review of her organization's cookies. ("The toffee-tastic is a bleak, flavorless, gluten-free wasteland. I'm telling you, it's as flavorless as dirt.") The result? Her sales have skyrocketed, nearly hitting the group's record.

* At the beginning of "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", after Kyle asks to go to a concert where the band's name alone tips them off that they shouldn't let him, they say he first needs to clean out the garage, shovel the snow out of the driveway, and [[ImpossibleTask bring democracy to Cuba]]. This results in Kyle writing a letter that moves Fidel Castro to tears and decide to fufil his wish, which of course ends up making the news.

* Music/KurtCobain wanted to make Music/{{Nirvana}}'s third album, ''Music/InUtero'', a noisy punk album in an attempt to get rid of the mainstream audience they'd picked up with ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''. It still shot to number one on the ''Billboard'' charts.

* Draft systems often encourage losing. The way it works is that teams choose players in reverse order of their record, so the team with the worst record picks first. The idea is to allow struggling teams a way to restock and compete again. The problem is that this encourages "tanking", in which teams ''try'' to lose because there's one particular prospect they ''really'' want and can only get with a very high draft pick, if not the very top one. Some leagues (most notably the NBA and NHL) use a "draft lottery" system which gives the not-quite-the-worst teams a chance to win a higher pick, but the winner will still likely be a terrible team, and fans would go ''apoplectic'' if one of the best teams in the league now gets a top prospect in addition to all their success. In the end, sports people have pointed out that ''players'' rarely "tank" (part of it is that their pride will not allow them to lose, and part of it is that they know that if their team is rebuilding, ''they'''re not going to be a part of the future success -- the new picks will), but the ''fans'' will encourage tanking. It leads to the utterly bizarre -- and frankly sad -- experience of seeing fans cheering when their team ''loses'' and berating them for winning. By sport:

* An example that's not related to money or contracts: Creator/WesCraven intended for ''Film/{{Scream|1996}}'' to [[GenreKiller kill]] the SlasherMovie once and for all, by parodying its tropes and making it impossible to take seriously anymore, in the same way that ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' killed the air disaster movie. Not only was it a smash hit, it spawned three sequels and kick-started a wave of [[PostModernism post-modern]] teen horror films (many of which were, you guessed it, slashers) that ran for the rest of TheNineties and much of TheTwoThousands. Particularly notable in that the slasher genre was already basically dead by the time the movie came out, so the movie wasn't even necessary. Interestingly enough, by spurring interest in PostModernism in mainstream films, he may have [[ComedyGhetto inadvertently ruined the parody film]] by [[PoesLaw putting most of the smarter jokes in regular movies]], leaving parodies to make do with [[ShallowParody dated pop-culture references]] (so Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg might have Wes Craven to blame for their failures).

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': In "Bojack the Feminist" Mr. Peanutbutter is upset that he isn't considered tough enough to play dangerous characters or get cast in anything dark or gritty, so he spends the whole episode trying to get in a fight but everything he does ends up helping people in some way. In the end it's because of his clean, nice guy image that he gets cast in the gritty detective series Philbert after their origional choice, Vance Wagner creates to much controversy.