History Main / Zonk

* The "Win the Ads" game of ''[[Creator/AntAndDec Ant & Dec]]'s Saturday Night Takeaway'' has prizes of varying value, ranging from holidays and a new car to toilet roll and a tin of baked beans.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': Each Palace ends with the Phantom Thieves stealing a Treasure that represents the thing that the Palace's ruler values more than anything else. In the first palace, it's a gold medal (made of real gold). In the second, it's a valuable painting. In the third, it's a briefcase full of millions of yen... that turns out to be all fake bills. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope But the briefcase itself is very valuable and sells for a lot of money]].]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' had Mr. Krabs set Squidward and [=SpongeBob=] on a little contest to see who can offer the best customer service — and to ensure it ''is'' a contest and not just [=SpongeBob=] making nice to the customers while Squidward exercises his normal disdain, he offers a prize while enticingly brandishing a brochure for a tropical vacation. After Squidward goes to such lengths to beat [=SpongeBob=] that he actually gets put in ''prison'', Mr. Krabs declares that prison or not he's most certainly the winner, and hands him the brochure. It was taking up space in his drawer and he needed to get rid of it.

Contrast UndesirablePrize, which is actually offered ''seriously'' and with the best of intentions. Also contrast ConsolationPrize; it's unlikely anyone who lands on a Zonk will be actually ''consoled'' by it. And, of course, contrast {{Whammy}}, which leaves you with nothing, not even a Zonk. The video game equivalents are PowerUpLetdown and PoisonMushroom, "Power-Ups" that are mostly useless, or actively hurt the player respectively.

''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', the TropeNamer, was famous for offering such booby prizes: animals, absurd amounts of food, old and broken motor vehicles, etc. If the Zonk was an animal, it was usually a goat (or goats) or a cow, although the 2009 revival has also offered other farm animals, and even a "[[JustForPun Zonkey]]" (a donkey painted with zebra stripes). The practice was discontinued in the middle of the first season when [=PETA=] (naturally) complained about it.

* Parodied on an episode of ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'': Teddy enters a radio contest to win a new car after singing the National Anthem at a sporting event. Said car turned out to be a child's toy.

* [[Main/JunkRare Junk Rares]] have also become a thing in all video games with a random drop system.

* Kid's show ''Series/DickAndDomInDaBungalow'' had a real first and second prize, but third prize would be something like a crumpled housing benefit form, or a half-used tube of verruca cream.

[-[[caption-width-right:350:On the bright side, it doubles as a lawnmower and fertilizer.]]-]

->"This deal is worth nothing."

** The pricing game Any Number, where the contestant has to guess digits from 0 to 9 to fill in the five-digit price of a car. The other digits show up in a smaller three-digit prize, and the "piggy bank", a literal cash value of dollars and cents formed from the remaining digits (thus having a maximum possible value of $9.87).

* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has a game called Any Number, where the contestant has to guess digits from 0 to 9 to fill in the five-digit price of a car. The other digits show up in a smaller three-digit prize, and the "piggy bank", a literal cash value of dollars and cents formed from the remaining digits (thus having a maximum possible value of $9.87).

Contrast UndesirablePrize, which is actually offered ''seriously'' and with the best of intentions. Also contrast ConsolationPrize; it's unlikely anyone who lands on a Zonk will be actually ''consoled'' by it. And, of course, contrast {{Whammy}}, which leaves you with nothing, not even a Zonk.

** In the PAX era, a frequent BonusRound prize was a "bed in a bag" worth $50. On a rare occasion where it was not exchanged, host Pat Finn mentioned that it was one of the cheapest prizes in the rotation.