History Main / WithThisHerring

Frequently overlaps with NoHeroDiscount. Contrast with BagOfSpilling, in which equipment/power-ups don't carry over to the next part; and GivingTheSwordToANoob, where a powerful weapon ends up in the hands of an incompetent such as TheChosenZero. An alternative to this trope is ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest, where useless looking equipment turns out to be unexpectedly vital later on. May lead to MagikarpPower if there's a way to improve your starting kit from beginning to end. If it's ''literally'' a herring, see ShamuFu.

No relation to RedHerring, nor to the WithThisRing trope. The fanfiction ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'' is rather the opposite, starting the protagonist out with one of the greatest weapons in the universe. May overlap with ImpossibleTask (as the TropeNamer does).

* [[WithThisHerring/{{Film}} Film - Live-Action]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Police Chief Bogo gives rookie cop Judy Hopps 48 hours to solve a missing person case, and gives her no leads, resources or help from her colleagues, with only her meter maid jacket and car. And if she fails, she's fired. This is despite the rest of the police department making no progress on the case in ''two weeks''. Nick Wilde [[WhatTheHellHero calls the Chief out]] on this once he finds out, realizing the Chief was making a pretense to fire Judy.
-->'''Nick:''' Look, you gave her a clown vest, and [[TheAllegedCar a three-wheeled joke-mobile]], and two days to solve a case you guys haven't cracked in two weeks? Yeah. [[FantasticRacism No wonder she needed to get help from a fox. None of you guys were gonna help her, were you?]]
[[/folder]]

Frequently overlaps with NoHeroDiscount. Contrast with BagOfSpilling, in which equipment/power-ups don't carry over to the next part; and GivingTheSwordToANoob, where a powerful weapon ends up in the hands of an incompetent such as TheChosenZero. An alternative to this trope is ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest, where useless looking equipment turns out to be unexpectedly vital later on. If it's ''literally'' a herring, see ShamuFu.

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[[quoteright:279:[[Webcomic/SluggyFreelance https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2008_07_31.png]]]]

->''"You must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest wiiiiith... a herring!"''
-->-- '''The Knights Who Say Ni''', ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

* Done even more brutally in full-on RPG parody series ''Manga/MagicalCircleGuruGuru'' when the king loudly disavows himself of all responsibility for the child heroes after giving them a small amount of gold.
* Played straight in ''Manga/TheFiveStarStories'': [[EnsignNewbie Mishalu Ha Lonn]] had to find and rescue her Emperor from a large (about an army-sized) and heavily armed mercenary force with a single lousy division [[NewMeat of inexperienced recruits]] and just four [[HumongousMecha Mortar Headds]] of dubious stats against her enemy's nine. Her detachment [[HeroicResolve manages to hold long enough]] for TheCavalry to arrive, though.
* Played with in ''Anime/BikiniWarriors'', where the king who is trying to send the heroines on a quest only gives them 10 gold to work with. The heroines try to convince the king to supply them better, ending with Dark Elf giving an ultimatum to decide between his kingdom or his money. [[spoiler: He winds up throwing the heroines in the dungeon, naked and tied up with ropes.]]

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', Goku begins the quest for the Dragon Balls in the Red Ribbon arc with nothing but a magical cloud, an extending stick and some martial arts skills. With them, [[OneManArmy he wipes out the entire Red Ribbon Army at the end of the story]]. He's in a similar situation at the start of the King Piccolo arc (a villain who can blow up cities all by himself), only this time he quickly loses the cloud!

-->'''Twilight Sparkle:''' I've been thinking about that a while. That having a few ''soldiers'' along for a ''dangerous mission'' might be a good idea. At least since, you know, that one time you sent me and five other ''teenage mares'' up a mountain to evict a ''giant firebreathing dragon.'' Or when you sent us out alone to face ''Discord.'' Or that time---
-->'''Celestia''': You were in no danger from that dragon--
-->'''Twilight Sparkle''': NO DANGER? That dragon nearly had hickory smoked pony for a bedtime snack!!
* Experienced by the four at the beginning of ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World''. They're brought back to C'hou and (eventually) told they're there to help save the world, but all they have to live on initially is Ringo's pouchful of money—which turns out to be worth a LOT less than it used to, meaning they have to start finding money just to stay alive pretty damn quick. Rather shabby treatment for champions brought over by the gods...

* A number of Literature/FightingFantasy books such as Literature/HouseOfHell and Literature/BloodOfTheZombies are set in modern times and has your character an ordinary civilian who's been imprisoned by sinister forces. No sword and bag of provisions, so you better find something sharp soon and avoid getting hit. Other books like Literature/AppointmentWithFear and Literature/CreatureOfHavoc have you equipped with nothing because your character is a superhero or hulking monster who don't need equipment to win their fights.

'''Erasmas:''' Our opponent is [[spoiler: an alien starship packed with atomic bombs]]. We have a protractor.

* Subverted in Creator/PhilipKDick's ''Paycheck''. The hero has just had his memory of the last two years of working on a top-secret project erased, and when he picks up his paycheck he discovers that for some reason during those two years he decided to ask to be paid not in money but several weird and almost worthless items like a small piece of wire and a bus token. However, it soon turns out that the project was a window into the future, and [[ChekhovsArmoury he picked each of these items for some specific purpose to help him survive the dangerous situations he will shortly find himself in.]]

* The two-man British improv show ''S&M'' did a skit once where the Yoda-like mentor (Mike [=McShane=]) was preparing the local Skywalker-surrogate (Tony Slattery) for battle against the BigBad. As Tony prepares to leave: "Do I get a ''lightsaber''?" "No, just one of these naff sticks," handing him the flimsy prop cane he's holding.

* ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' - in the "Film/TheDayTheEarthFroze" episode, the evil witch challenges the hero to plow a field of snakes - when he challenges her on this point she replies "Hey, ''I'm'' the curse boss here!" In the actual movie, she's deliberately wasting his time.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' "Wishology" trilogy, Timmy is told he has to fight [[BigBad The Darkness]] and sent on his way... with nothing, not even his fairies, to help him. He also loses everything at the beginning of the next two parts, forcing him to start over.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Police Chief Bogo gives rookie cop Judy Hopps 48 hours to solve a missing person case, and gives her no leads, resources or help from her colleagues, with only her meter maid jacket and car. And if she fails, she's fired. This is despite the rest of the police department making no progress on the case in ''two weeks''. Nick Wilde [[WhatTheHellHero calls the Chief out]] on this once he finds out, realizing the Chief was making a pretense to fire Judy.
-->'''Nick:''' Look, you gave her a clown vest, and [[TheAllegedCar a three-wheeled joke-mobile]], and two days to solve a case you guys haven't cracked in two weeks? Yeah. [[FantasticRacism No wonder she needed to get help from a fox. None of you guys were gonna help her, were you?]]

* OlderThanRadio: The title character of the European folk tale "Literature/TheBraveLittleTailor" is dragooned into setting out to save the kingdom from giants, with no special equipment or training. And [[IdiotPlot one word of explanation might have gotten him out of it]]. The story was collected by such 19th-century folklorists as Creator/TheBrothersGrimm. Of course, [[UriahGambit the king doesn't actually]] ''[[UriahGambit expect]]'' [[UriahGambit him to survive or succeed]].

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[-[[caption-width-right:350:Maybe the monsters are up to settle this with a game of tennis?]]-]

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[[caption-width-right:350: Maybe the monsters are up to settle this with a game of tennis?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Lampshaded by Nick Wilde, [[WhatTheHellHero when he calls Chief Bogo out]] for giving Judy, a rookie cop, 48 hours to solve a case that the police didn’t even manage to crack it in two weeks, with little to no existent resources and means at her disposal and no help from her colleagues (and if she fails, she will be fired).
-->'''Nick (To Chief Bogo):''' Look, you gave her a clown vest, and [[TheAllegedCar a three-wheeled joke-mobile]], and two days to solve a case you guys haven't cracked in two weeks? Yeah. [[FantasticRacism No wonder she needed to get help from a fox. None of you guys were gonna help her, were you?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Zootopia'': Lampshaded by Nick Wilde, [[WhatTheHellHero when he calls Chief Bogo out]] for giving Judy, a roockie cop, 48 hours to solve a case that the police didn’t even manage to crack it in two weeks, with little to no existent resources and means at her disposal and no help from her colleagues (and if she fails, she will be fired).
-->'''Nick (To Chief Bogo):''' Look, you gave (Judy) a... a clown vest, and [[TheAllegedCar a three-wheeled joke-mobile]], and two days to solve a case you guys haven't cracked in two weeks? Yeah. [[FantasticRacism No wonder she needed to get help from a fox. None of you guys were gonna help her, were you?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Zootopia'': Lampshaded by Nick Wilde, [[WhatTheHellHero when he calls Chief Bogo out]] for giving Judy, roockie cop, 48 hours to solve a case that the police didn’t even manage to crack it in two weeks, with little to no existent resources and means at her disposal and no help from her colleagues (and if she fails, she will be fired).

* ''WesternAnimation/Zootopia'': Lampshaded by Nick Wild, [[WhatTheHellHero when he calls Chief Bogo out]] for giving Judy, roockie cop, 48 hours to solve a case that the police didn’t even manage to crack it in two weeks, with little to no existent resources and means at her disposal and no help from her colleagues (and if she fails, she will be fired).