History Main / TheBarnum

* Subverted by an actual character named Barnum in the second ''{{Fable}}'' game. Going along with his moneymaking ventures usually ends up with the object of his venture becoming much more lucrative, such as fixing a broken-down bridge, which restores a failing in to prosperity, or building up a tent-town into a thriving village.

** In ''Transformers: Animated'' [[hottip:*:where he was voiced by Fred Willard]] he conned humans into stealing things for him, engaged in sales banter with Megatron, and sold random objects out of a hammerspace drawer in his chest, including some helmets from various G1 characters.

** 19th-century gambler & con artist "Canada Bill" Johnson was fond of saying "It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money."

* Don Draper on ''MadMen'' will happily sell any product, if there is money in it. In the first episode he comes up with a new ad campaign for Lucky Strike Cigarettes after promoting safer cigarettes is outlawed. [[BasedOnATrueStory Don Draper is based off of the character who invented the Marlboro Man]] His solution being, Lucky Strike: It's Toasted, Lucky Strikes' slogan in RealLife.

* Moist von Lipwig from ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' and ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', although he's so good at it that even the ''reader'' thinks he's sympathetic, charismatic, and all-round awesome. He kind of feels bad when he realizes that one of his scams got his girlfriend fired, but not for long.
** Well, you know, apart from ''abandoning being a con-man entirely'', including a nightmare vision of ''dying'' if he tries to return to his old life.

* Moist von Lipwig from Discworld/GoingPostal, although he's so good at it that even the ''reader'' thinks he's sympathetic, charismatic, and all-round awesome. He kind of feels bad when he realises that one of his scams got his girlfriend fired, but not for long.

* M. Thenardier from ''LesMiserables,'' following his persona from the book, though he's not entirely serene. (Depending on the actor) he is shown as delighting in tricking and scamming his guests, but hungry to move his predatory activities to more savory prey.

* Nick Naylors from ''ThankYouForSmoking'' is a tobacco lobbyist fully aware of what he's doing, but quite happy to keep doing it with a smile. The rest of the M.O.D. fits as well.

** As Faceman once put it:
--->'''Face:''' I just don't understand it: I lie, I cheat, I steal, and I just don't get any respect.

* Don Draper on ''MadMen'' will happily sell any product, if there is money in it. In the first episode he comes up with a new ad campaign for Lucky Strike Cigarettes after promoting safer cigarettes is outlawed. [[BasedOnATrueStory Don Draper is based off of the character who invented the Marlboro Man]] His solution being, Lucky Strike: It's Toasted, Lucky Strikes slogan in RealLife.

Named for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pt_barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum]], an American showman, businessman, and entertainer famous for founding one of the circuses that merged to form the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, as well as putting forward various hoaxes. He [[BeamMeUpScotty did not]], however, say "There's a sucker born every minute." That was actually said by a [[http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html rival of Barnum's]] when they got into what could only be described as a "hoax war."

It is worth noting that though cynical, they may not necessarily be unprincipled. After all, [[YesMinister Sir Humphrey]] and the Civil Service effectively ran the country, performing damage control on the whims of the elected politicians who were, after all, only pandering to their electorate and not necessarily doing what was best. Naturally, Sir Humphrey ''always'' knew what was best.

* Nabiki Tendo from ''[=~Ranma ½~=]''. An excellent example of the unprincipled type, having actually been [[WordofGod described by the author]] as having "no maidenly heart". This gets [[{{Flanderization}} really extreme]] as the series progresses, culminating in her [[spoiler: ruining her own little sister's wedding because she believes that inviting Ranma's other fiancees and his rivals will bring in more cash as wedding presents]]. {{Fanon}} often bumps her into a HighSchoolHustler, but this is arguable, as her schemes tend to mostly be limited to quickly taking advantage of situations, and her ongoing "business" is mostly limited to selling a large amount of soft-porn prints and images, some non-working merchandise or unreliable information, using blackmail or swindling opportunities, and investing in stocks. On occasion she has employed schemes with [[ManipulativeBastard several stages of efficient outrageous planning to them however, and she is an expert actress]]. Mostly, in a series populated by {{Made of Iron}} {{Jerkass}}es with SuperStrength, she survives through a combination of knowing when to get when the getting's good, and sticking to taking advantage of people who would never actually attack her (Akane, Tatewaki, Ranma..), and not being so irritating to those who would that a cheated customer considers it worth their time to just kill her. This accidentally happened with Shampoo and Kodachi in the manga, and Ukyo at least initially attempted to threaten and beat her up, but Ranma came to her rescue, whereafter his paramours apparently decided to leave her alone.

* Lazarus Long of RobertAHeinlein's ''FutureHistory'' is often described this way. And being the unrepentant MartyStu that he is, he always [[JerkSue gets away with it, too]].

* Basi from the Nigerian TV show ''BasiAndCompany'' was a man whose goal in life was to become a millionaire without ever doing work. (His CatchPhrase was "To be a millionaire, think like a millionaire!") As a point of honor, he pulled all of his scams while unemployed and living in a crumbling boarding house, which didn't hurt his spirits at all.
** Suddenly, all those emails from supposed Nigerian royalty wanting access to your bank account make sense.
* Ethan Rayne from ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' could be considered TheBarnum. He's a trickster who worships chaos and shows no remorse for what he does.
** However, his stint in a military prison seems to have changed his outlook.
* ''{{Psych}}'''s Shawn Spencer has no apparent respect for anyone or anything as he brazenly lies to the police. Considering that the lie started as a way to get out of jail time for ''solving'' half a dozen open cases from his armchair, it's little wonder.
** One of the things Shawn ''does'' respect is the sanctity of life. When it comes down to it, he'll never let a ''violent'' criminal get away, although he's not above making light of their acts.

* Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck from ''[=~The A-Team~=]'' genuinely and unrepentantly ''enjoyed'' being a ConMan. He would occasionally gush and revel in explaining his latest scheme to the other members of the A-Team. For instance, he once started telling Hannibal about how he was starting his career as a movie producer by taking a student film, dubbing it over in another language, and then adding subtitles so that he could market it as a foreign film. Another time, the A-Team had to live in a suburban house for a few days to protect a client, and as soon as they get there, Face goes on a tangent about how he bought the house with a certain type of mortgage specifically so he could make more money when he sold it. He also loved living the high life by scamming his way into hotel penthouses and fancy beach houses, mostly because he could.
** Face also enjoyed seducing women by pretending to a high-ranking film executive or director or even a neurologist and never, ever felt bad about it.
* Sir Humphrey Appleby of ''YesMinister'', and Mr. Humphries of ''[[AreYouBeingServed Are You Being Served?]]''. Sir Humphrey had a cynical motto for everything ("Gratitude is merely the expectation of future reward"; "The Official Secrets Act exists to protect officials, not secrets"), and was always cool -- except when some honesty broke into his perfect world. Mr. Humphries knew how ridiculous his job was, and did it just as absurdly as he was supposed to. After all, he was never the one who had to face the consequences -- that was the boss or the customers.
* Don Draper on MadMen will happily sell any product to the consumer at large (as long as he thinks it will make his client money). In the first episode he comes up with a new ad campaign for Lucky Strike Cigarettes after promoting safer cigarettes is outlawed. [[BasedOnATrueStory Don Draper is based off of the character who invented the Marlboro Man]] His solution being, Lucky Strike: It's Toasted, Lucky Strikes slogan in RealLife.
* Kingfish from AmosNAndy, has sold tickets to fake raffles and fake tickets to a real ballet. When said tickets were revealed to be fake, he refunded the money...in counterfeit bills. He also took Andy for a grand tour of the entire United States, which is rather impressive since they never left Central Park. He briefly dabbled in selling shares in a uranium mine, and sold overpriced rabbits as chinchillas. Finally he sold a ring found in a box of crackerjacks for quite a sum, [[spoiler: only to find out it was actually worth quite a bit more.]]

* Swindle of the [[{{Transformers Generation 1}} Combaticons]], especially in the episode "B.O.T." His Combaticon comrades were blown to their component parts, and Swindle took the opportunity to sell them to both USSR ''and'' Middle Eastern stereotypes. When a predictably enraged Megatron made him get them back, it is generally assumed that he didn't return their money.
** Even better was his ''Transformers: Animated'' appearance, where he was voiced by Fred Willard, conned humans into stealing things for him, engaged in sales banter with Megatron, and sold random objects out of a hammerspace drawer in his chest, including some helmets from various G1 characters.

* Honest John from ''{{Pinocchio}}'' -- he swindles Pinocchio twice due to his gullibility and it had been suggested that he had been doing that for years.
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<<|{{Tricksters}}|>>

->'''Dilbert:''' I'm just curious: Do you have any qualms about your business plan? Any at all?
->'''Dogbert:''' I'm not sure. Do qualms make you wag?
-->--''{{Dilbert}}''

It is worth noting that though cynical, they may not necessarily be unprincipled. After all, Sir Humphrey and the Civil Service effectively ran the country, performing damage control on the whims of the elected politicians who were, after all, only pandering to their electorate and not necessarily doing what was best. Naturally, Sir Humphrey ''always'' knew what was best.

* The characters played by Robert [=DeNiro=] and Dustin Hoffman in ''Wag The Dog.''
* "Captain" Hector Barbossa of ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' definitely fits the bill, as a trickster who seemed nothing but content with his own cruel, selfish, and dishonorable schemes.
** Jack Sparrow also qualifies, at one point tricking a man who saved him from hanging into joining the crew of the Flying Dutchman and subsequently trying to "harvest" another ninety-nine to save his own skin.
* Nick Naylors from ''ThankYouForSmoking'' is a tobacco lobbyist fully aware of what he's doing, but quite happy to keep doing it with a smile.
** The rest of the M.O.D. fits as well.

* Moist von Lipwig from the ''{{Discworld}}'' novels ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' and ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', though he definitely shows actual signs of guilt when directly confronted with the harm he's caused. Reacher Gilt, the villain of ''Going Postal'', is a more straight-up example.
* Dolokhov from ''WarAndPeace'' becomes TheBarnum at times, feeling that given his low station in life, he might as well make the most of his natural ability to trick people into handing him wads of cash.
* Thenardier in ''LesMiserables''.
** He doesn't really fit the "happy and serene" part of it, though.

* Sylvester [=McMonkey=] [=McBean=] from the DrSeuss story "The Sneetches."
* Ostap Bender from the Russian novels ''TheTwelveChairs'' and ''The Little Golden Calf'' by Ilya Ilf and Eugene Petrov. If there ever was a Russian TVTropes, this trope would be called "The Ostap" there.
** Or rather "Great Combinator" ("Velikiy Kombinator"), after his in-universe nickname

* Greg House from ''{{House}}'' is an example of TheBarnum who still does good.

* Arthur Daley from ''{{Minder}}''.

* [[strike:Most]] All of the ad executives in MadMen.
* Kingfish from AmosNAndy.

* By TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples, we have two {{Shakespeare}}an examples: Sir John Falstaff from ''HenryIV'', and Autolycus from ''[[TheWintersTale The Winter's Tale]]''. There may be more, but those two leap to mind right away.
** How can you forget Iago from ''Othello''?

* Kevin Harnisch from ''[[{{OGrady}} O'Grady]]''.

->''"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money."''
-->--'''Canada Bill Jones''', 19th century poker player

Two classic examples of this trope come from 1980s British television: Sir Humphrey Appleby of ''YesMinister'', and Mr. Humphries of ''[[AreYouBeingServed Are You Being Served?]]''. Sir Humphrey had a cynical motto for everything ("Gratitude is merely the expectation of future reward"; "The Official Secrets Act exists to protect officials, not secrets"), and was always cool -- except when some honesty broke into his perfect world. Mr. Humphries knew how ridiculous his job was, and did it just as absurdly as he was supposed to. After all, he was never the one who had to face the consequences -- that was the boss or the customers.

** Or rather "Great Cominator", after his in-universe nickname

* Sam Starfall in ''{{Freefall}}'' prides himself on being a trickster and at one point has to convince himself that there's nothing inherently wrong with taking a well-paying but completely legal job. He has claimed that his habits are because his race evolved from scavengers who stole food from under the noses of predators.