''Cheating'' is a short 1950s film on the temptation and dangers of cheating. We follow John Taylor as he struggles with math and faces down the temptation of cheating.

He cheats and later gets caught.

And from there his high school life goes down the drain.

For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version, please go to the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E15TheWildWorldOfBatwoman episode recap page]].
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!!The short provides the following tropes.

* AnAesop: Cheating is bad. And you should study.
* FelonyMisdemeanor: When Johnny is caught cheating, he's shunned by ''the entire school'' and nearly unanimously kicked out of the student council.
* GoshDarnItToHeck: "Aw golly, Mary, I don't get any of this stuff!"
* HowWeGotHere: The film starts with John receiving a phone call; we hear only John's side, but it's clearly bad news. At the end of the short, we finally see the other side of the call -- it's Jim telling him he's been voted out of student council.
* ScareEmStraight: We get treated to dark depressing scenes of John's life collapsing around him.
* SeriousBusiness: This film is Anvillicious that CheatersNeverProsper.
* TechMarchesOn: The montage of kids calling each other on landline phones that were ''all identical to each other'' wasn't due to low budget - there was only [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_302_telephone one model of phone]] in one color available to most American consumers in the early '50s.
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