History Main / TheButlerDidIt

* Played with in ''Webcomic/PvP'' by having the butler secretly playing the role of "hero". Creator Scott Kurtz's explanation of the idea was essentially "if anyone ever discovered the secret lair beneath the mansion, they would obviously suspect the [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob millionaire playboy]] as the hero's secret identity. Meanwhile, [[BeneathSuspicion the butler]] would have skipped town and hired his services out to the next rich employer far away, where he would start his hero gig anew."

** In one of the first issues, when Spider-Man defeated Electro for the first time and unmasked him, he thought "If this was a movie, I would be saying 'Good Heavens! The ''butler''!'" but admitted that he had never seen him before.

* ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'' presents "[[http://dresdencodak.com/2009/05/11/42-essential-3rd-act-twists/ 42 Essential 3rd Act Twists]]", the 37th of which is "All the Butlers Did It". Provides the page image for ExaggeratedTrope.

* ''VideoGame/GrabbedByTheGhoulies'' features a kindly old butler named Crivens who helps you out for the majority of the game. When the final boss battle comes about, Crivens rushes in and seems to have things well under control after beating the boss for you. It is then revealed that [[spoiler:Crivens staged the entire fight and is in fact was the final boss the entire time.]]
-->Foolish boy! Did you like my little disguise? Bet you never guessed that the butler did it?!

* In Rare's commercially unsuccessful ''VideoGame/GrabbedByTheGhoulies'', Ghoulhaven's [[CloudCuckoolander looney master]] Baron Von Ghoul has a few servants, but all of them aside from the also-mad Dr. Krackpot seem like generally good folk displeased with his actions.[[spoiler: It's revealed near the end that Crivens, the butler who seemed genuinely very helpful from the start, was actually Baron Von Ghoul himself in a LatexPerfection mask. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when the Baron himself states that he [[DidntSeeThatComing didn't think Cooper expected]] the butler to have done it]].

* [[https://youtu.be/AQvTu1BKfxQ In this]] ''Series/StudioC'' sketch, someone tries to murder the guests and pin it on the butler [[LightsOffSomeoneDies during breif power outages caused by lightning strikes.]] Unfortunately and hilariously, he can’t quite get the timing right and kills the victims in front of everyone and despite that still tries to blame the butler.

** ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll Justice for All]]'' [[ZigZaggingTrope mostly]] plays this straight in [[spoiler:the final case, where the killer is revealed to be a butler who later is revealed to be a hitman, disguised as a butler, who was hired by the defendant]].
** Played straight in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'''s DLC case where the culprit turns out to be the family butler, who committed the murder to [[spoiler:avenge the death of his fiancée; by [[FrameUp framing the fiancée of her brother]], who caused the car accident she died in]]. The murder victim also happens to be a butler, who was trying to kill Ellen(the defendant) t the time.

** Straight with a twist in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Justice For All]]''. The butler technically did it--but he's not actually[[spoiler: Matt Engarde's butler, he's assassin Shelly de Killer posing as a butler.]] The player knows this before Phoenix does, so it's a bit of FridgeHorror when you realize[[spoiler: Phoenix is in the same house as the kidnapped Maya, but has no idea she's only two doors away.]]
** A DoubleSubversion in the DLC case of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'': [[spoiler:The victim is a butler that tried to kill the defendant, but ended up being killed by ''another'' butler, who was his partner in crime]].

The stereotypical example is that a bunch of people are invited to a dinner in a wealthy man's country estate (a ClosedCircle), and the wealthy man is poisoned while they are all eating dinner. All the guests debate who among them is the killer, only to discover during the climactic {{summation gathering}} that the guilty party is none other than... [[TheJeeves the butler]], who [[BeneathSuspicion nobody bothered to think twice about]]; he's just {{BeneathNotice part of the furniture}}, as if the table was the culprit.

The stereotypical example is that a bunch of people are invited to a dinner in a wealthy man's country estate (a ClosedCircle), and the wealthy man is poisoned while they are all eating dinner. All the guests debate who among them is the killer, only to discover during the climactic {{summation gathering}} that the guilty party is none other than... [[TheJeeves the butler]], who [[BeneathSuspicion nobody bothered to think twice about]]; he's just part of the furniture, as if the table was the culprit.

The stereotypical example is that a bunch of people are invited to a dinner in a wealthy man's house, and the wealthy man is poisoned while they are all eating dinner. All the guests debate who among them is the killer, only to discover during the climactic {{summation gathering}} that the guilty party is none other than... [[TheJeeves the butler]], who [[BeneathSuspicion nobody bothered to think twice about]]; he's just part of the furniture, as if the table was the culprit.

* Definitely played with in ''VideoGame/MySims Agents''. In one part of the story, a fortunite crystal, which is able to let people see the future, is the most-sought part of Cyrus [[=LeBodreaux=]]'s estate. However, when Madame Zoe goes into the crystal room for a pre-dinner reading, you find that the crystal there has been smashed! You follow the evidence which leads you to the conclusion that Carl, the zombie butler, was the one who smashed it. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that Zoe, a skilled hypnotist, was whispering hypnotic suggestions to him as he slept. Not only that, but it turns out that the crystal in the crystal room wasn't even the real fortunite crystal! Zoe, having foreseen that she wasn't the named inheritor of her uncle's estate, had intended to make people believe the fortunite had been destroyed so that the other potential inheritors would leave, allowing her to keep the estate anyway.]]

The expression "The butler did it" is commonly believed to have been coined by mystery author Mary Roberts Rinehart in her 1930 novel ''The Door'', although this is actually a real-world example of BeamMeUpScotty. The actual plot device goes back still further, and was already regarded as hackneyed even then; the earliest ''verified'' explicit statement of disapproval regarding its use dates to S.S. Van Dine's 1928 essay [[http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Van+Dine%27s+Twenty+Rules+for+Writing+Detective+Stories "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories"]]. (It might be noted that these rules would disqualify the authors who defined the genre, including Creator/WilkieCollins, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, and Creator/ArthurConanDoyle -- indeed, rule 20 says that a good mystery should not include certain types of clues that Doyle introduced into the mystery genre on the grounds that [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny they were now overused]] — and Van Dine's essay could more accurately be titled "Twenty Rules for Writing a FairPlayMystery".) [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030926.html This]] article explores in detail the origin of this strange semi-existent trope. It's possibly related to the RealLife stereotype that, if something goes missing in a home, the [[InsideJob hired help likely stole it]].

* Possibly the first work to depict a butler who "did it" appeared in 1915 - when E. Phillips Oppenheim, at the time a well-known writer, authored a thriller called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Box_(serial) "The Black]] [[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17197 Box."]] Successful as both a book and a film serial, it features an American gangster who goes to England and manages to gain the impeccable mannerisms of a perfect British butler. He gets the complete confidence of Lord Ashleigh, a rather gullible aristocrat of ancient lineage. Eventually, when Lord Ashleigh decides to send his daughter to study music in New York and gives her as a parting gift the Ashleigh Diamonds (a priceless family heirloom), he sends along his trusted butler "to keep an eye on her". The tragic result is that once across the Atlantic, the butler proceeds to murder the girl and abscond with the diamonds. However, the nasty butler is no match to the dashing star detective Sanford Quest, who lays him by the heels after just a few pages. The true challenge comes from a lesser servant (not a butler), who is implicated in various other murders and villianies, who is endlessly resourceful and slippery, and who leads the book's merry band of band of detectives on a wild chase all around the globe - which takes the bulk up the bulk of the plot.

* In Rick Veitch's ''Creator/BratPack'', BigBad Doctor Blasphemy, responsible for the deaths of... the entire cast, is revealed to be King Rad's butler Fredo in the final pages.

* William Marsh Rice was poisoned by his butler in a conspiracy [[NoodleIncident involving one of his attorneys and a fake will]]. The mystery was solved by another of his attorneys, and his university endowment was restored.

* William Marsh Rice was poisoned by his butler in a conspiracy involving one of his attorneys and a fake will. The mystery was solved by another of his attorneys, and his university endowment was restored.

** In ''Where Are You!'''s "Nowhere to Hyde", all clues initially point to the housemaid Helga, but in the end it turns out that all those clues were planted by the real villain, who reveals himself when Shaggy and Scooby accidentally find a true clue.

** Used in another episode where the killer turned out to be a guy who had turned up in exactly one scene beforehand. Namely, the apparent personal assistant to a near-senile political matriarch.

* No murders involved, but ''Film/{{Fitzwilly}}'' takes this trope UpToEleven by starring a butler who's a ConMan criminal mastermind. Subverted in that all the other domestic servants in the household also Did It.

* ''Webanimation/RaceToTheMansionOfTomorrow'': ZigZagged in ''Chicken Tech Inc''. [[spoiler:[[EnfantTerrible Oliver]]]] manages to blow up a whole building, Sochiebot asks who the culprit is and Peanut shows a photo of a shadow at the crime scene that looks like one of Sochiebot's butlers, Tropica, thus leaving everyone else to believe he is the culprit.

* Played with in ''Webcomic/PvP'' by having the butler secretly playing the role of "hero". Creator Scott Kurtz's explanation of the idea was essentially "if anyone ever discovered the secret lair beneath the mansion, they would obviously suspect the [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob millionaire playboy]] as the hero's secret identity. Meanwhile, [[BeneathSuspicion the butler]] would have skipped town and hired his services out to the next rich employer far away, where he would start his hero gig anew."

* ''WebVideo/WhoKilledMarkiplier'' has Benjamin Butler, who takes the main character down into a dark basement, making it seem as if he's going to kill them. The camera then pans down to reveal a broken wine bottle on the ground, and Benjamin begins wining about how awful the mess is. The broken bottle being there actually does have story significance, but in the moment it just acts as a way to establish that Benjamin most definitely isn't the killer, and simply brought the protagonist into the basement to complain to them about the mess he had to clean up.

** Additionally, the Saikis are known in Tokyo for employing highschool and college-aged young men as a mix of boarding students and servants, sponsoring their education in exchange for their housework. Two of them are vital to the story: the protagonist Masataka (who [[BreakTheCutie gets pretty screwed up]] but isn't a criminal) and [[spoiler: the {{Yandere}}[=/=]MadDoctor [[FromNobodyTonightmare Katsuragi]] (who is a {{Domestic Abuse}}r, rapist and murderer, and commited some of his worst crimes when he still was a butler)]]

* In ComicBook/JannahStation, this is one of the possible outcomes, [[spoiler: depending on the reader's point of view]]

* On one episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', a group of people get off a bus and gather at a cafe where they are served food and drinks by the local counter jerk and dine. It is later revealed by the police that one of the people on the bus seems to have been an alien. TenLittleMurderVictims ensues, the resolution of which is only a half-subversion of TheButlerDidIt: one of the people from the bus ''was'' The Mole, but the cafe worker who served them all and remained very much in the background throughout the story was also an enemy alien from a different planet, and was two steps ahead of The Mole the whole time.

* Joe from Literature/StatlessAndTactless assumes this is the case. Poor Archibald...

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'' involved Dr. Wily programming one of Dr. Light's new housekeeping robots to kill Megaman. After one attempt fails, Megaman utters, "I have a sneaking suspicion the butler did it". [[spoiler: Actually it was the [[NinjaMaid maid]].]]

* Possibly the first work to depict a butler who "did it" appeared in 1915 - when E. Phillips Oppenheim, at the time a well-known writer, authored a thriller called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Box_(serial)/ "The Black]] [[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17197 Box."]] Successful as both a book and a film serial, it features an American gangster who goes to England and manages to gain the impeccable mannerisms of a perfect British butler. He gets the complete confidence of Lord Ashleigh, a rather gullible aristocrat of ancient lineage. Eventually, when Lord Ashleigh decides to send his daughter to study music in New York and gives her as a parting gift the Ashleigh Diamonds (a priceless family heirloom), he sends along his trusted butler "to keep an eye on her". The tragic result is that once across the Atlantic, the butler proceeds to murder the girl and abscond with the diamonds. However, the nasty butler is no match to the dashing star detective Sanford Quest, who lays him by the heels after just a few pages. The true challenge comes from a lesser servant (not a butler), who is implicated in various other murders and villianies, who is endlessly resourceful and slippery, and who leads the book's merry band of band of detectives on a wild chase all around the globe - which takes the bulk up the bulk of the plot.

** In the Mystery Puzzle series, the butler is usually the one who figures out who actually killed the victim.

* This is what sets the plot of ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' in motion, pretty much. Butler Edgar is second in line for the fortune his wealthy mistress wants to leave to her cats, and so knocks them out with sleeping pills and tries to get rid of them. This being Disney, the kitties live, and then have wacky adventures before Edgar's comeuppance is delivered. Also played within that the audience (but not the characters) knows it's Edgar right off the bat.

* It's possible for this to be the case in the game ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'', if Mrs. White (the maid) is the randomly selected murderer. In the VCR Mystery Game, the butler's ''name'' is "Didit". But he's not actually a suspect.