If I Were A Rich Man - Television Tropes & Idioms

If I had a million dollars...
Well I'd buy you an exotic pet.
Yep, like a llama, or an emu...

-Barenaked Ladies-"If I Had A Million Dollars."

A character has a fantasy about being rich, filthy rich, and the sybaritic

lifestyle they would lead. Usually done when a character has just made up a get-rich-quick scheme that you know is not going to work. Such fantasies typically include bathing in pools of money, and other forms of Conspicuous Consumption.

Note that this is just a daydream of it, not an alternate reality, possible future, or the actual result of a wish.

A subtrope of Imagine Spot. If the character is pretending to be rich (and not just imagining it), then the trope is Mock Millionaire.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

As seen in the pic, Pokemon's Team Rocket has these often.
Kotaro in Papuwa. Keeping in mind that this Dude Looks Like A Lady (to the point that some viewers have refused to believe that he's a boy), he occasionally has fantasies along these lines... which involve him living in a castle in an elaborate dress, like a princess. As it happens, his family actually is rather wealthy, he just doesn't know it.
Hasn't Lina Inverse done this?
Mako of Nerima Daikon Brothers is prone to these.

Comic Books

The Firefly spin-off comic Better Days has these for almost the entire crew. They range from Shepherd Book's hookers and blow ("Kidding. Reckon I'd give it to the abbey.") to River's fantasy wedding. To a fish.
- Ah... you know what, to hell with it. Who wanted the fish?
- Of course, River is insane, and her words never come out quite the way she wants them to. It may have made sense in her mind, but the way it came out....

Film

What would Lawrence from Office Space do if he were a rich man? "...two chicks at the same time, man."
- What would Peter Gibbons Do? "Nothing."
- "Well you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Just take a look at my cousin, he's broke, don't do shit."
The new film version of the musical Mamma Mia! has the heroine and her friends sing 'Money, Money, Money' by ABBA while having a fantasy about lying around on a private yacht being waited on by handsome sailors.
Fiddler On The Roof - the song "If I Were A Rich Man".

Live Action TV

Happens on an episode of The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody when they take a Inept Aptitude Test. Zack (the slacker doofus) gets the result of "millionaire". Cody (the studious dork) gets "custodial engineer". Cody's even in the fantasy to sweep up...
- In the treasure hunt episode, everyone in the main cast has one. Zack imagines that he's married to Maddie and has his own private arcade, Cody imagines winning the Nobel Prize in every subject (plus baking), Maddie imagines becoming the president, Esteban imagines becoming manager of the Tipton Hotel and making London a bellhop, and London... imagines it to be just like her life is right now, as she's already filthy rich.
Done horribly in Roseanne. "Guess what?" the last episode says gloatingly. "The entire last season? It was alllll a novel. Or a fantasy, or something. Oh, and Dan's dead. Take That, John Goodman!"
When the Scrubs gang enters the lottery, they imagine what they'd do with millions of dollars. This provides a few opportunities for other characters to do JD's "imagine for a bit, oblivious to the world, then come back with a bizarre statement" thing. Dr. Cox imagines putting Jordan into a box. "I gotta call my glass guy."
Jackie has one of these in the That70s Show episode when she find out that Hyde has potential, judging by his SAT score. "Now we don't have to be poor!" After, Hyde remarks "Was there a string quartet? If we're rich, we're getting Led Zepplin or something" and Fez complaining about always being the butler/servant in their fantasies.
Only Fools and Horses is made of this trope. Every single business deal Del enters into is part of his get-rich plan. He is constantly saying "This time next year, we'll be millionaires!" He and Rodney actually sing the song in the hilarious episode "And the Unlucky Winner Is ...", when they thought they'd won a million pasetas. Of course, because they told all those lies, they are unable to collect the money.
In one episode of Little House On The Prairie , Laura and one of her schoolmates discover what they believe to be gold in a nearby stream, and secretly begin sifting it out into a wheelbarrel. In the days it takes to do this, Laura has ongoing dreams of her and her family being gorgeously dressed while everyone else in town looks on enviously while covered in filth and rags. Of course, the 'gold' turns out to be pyrite.
The Saved by the Bell cast imagine what life would be like after oil is found as shown here [1]

Music

The Barenaked Ladies song "If I Had a Million Dollars.", as referenced in the above quote.
- And the Brobdingnagian Bards cover/parody "If I Had a Million Ducats".
Gwen Stefani's song "Rich Girl". (Partly to the tune of "If I Were A Rich Man") Not the video as much.

Theater

The Trope Namer is a song from Fiddler On The Roof which also toys with it. The only real thing he shows humbleness towards is that he would be able to work less so he could spend more time in Synagogue praying, which points up why he is willing to have his daughters tutored.
Perchik: Money is the world's curse!
Tevye: May God smite me with it. AND MAY I NEVER RECOVER!
- A Shoggoth on the Roof (Fiddler on the Roof: THE LOVECRAFT VERSION!) has the song If I Was a Deep One.
The song "Disgustingly Rich" from the obscure Rodgers and Hart musical Higher And Higher.
In The Musical In The Heights, there's a song called "$96,000", which is all the characters fantasizing in counterpoint about what they'd do if they were the ones with the winning lottery ticket.
The ironically titled song "Money Isn't Everything" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro.

Western Animation

Homer Simpson has a few of these.
- In one instance, upon hearing of an opportunity to earn "become a moderately wealthy man", Homer imagines himself rolling in a small pile of money and shouting, "I'm sort of rich! I can rent anything I want!" Another has him making $11 on the stock market, and fantasizing about getting a carwash.
- One of his odder ideas was becoming a 100-foot tall gold-plated demigod. Or living in a house made of pearls and losing his teeth to his breakfast, a bowl of pearls. Or having his own recording studio.
- In another, he imagines what his life would be like if he robbed the Quik-E-Mart, and sees himself sitting in a rocking chair outside a huge mansion, wearing a top hat, smoking cigars, monocle and a sash saying "Governor", while Marge go-go dances in a swimsuit next to him.
- After sinking his money into a doomed stock, he assures the broker that he knows the risks... as he imagines himself in a Broadway revue, singing "We're in the Money" with a group of scantily-clad female dancers as the curtains open to reveal a giant gorilla roaring and holding fistfuls of cash.
  Homer: You heard the monkey, make the trade.
- "With ten thousand dollars we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things, like... love!"
- Bart got in on this once. After being told of winning $500 in a lawsuit, he imagines hitting Vegas, betting it all on roulette. And loses. He still chuckles after the dream plays out.
So does Peter Griffin, though he usually think of some ridiculous thing he would spend the money on. In fact, in the very first episode, a computer error at the welfare office resulted in them getting a huge check from the government, which he used in part to build a moat around the house (to keep the Black Knight away, of course).
Done in Xiaolin Showdown in an illusion made by Wuya to help her We Can Rule Together Speech. Raimundo sees himself in a mansion with his own video arcade, a skateboard park, and a butler serving him pizza and soda- basically, anything and everything he wants or could ever want... She does however give him these things later after his Face Heel Turn, though.
Tom And Jerry: The Movie had a song that riffed on the concept.
In Jimmy Neutron, the kids ponder what they will do with the money they'll get after they acquire Astro Rubies.
Radcliffe in Pocahontas has one when he imagines how rich he will be once he finds gold in the New World.
Beavis And Butt Head do this when they hear that there's a reward being offered for their missing friend. Butt-head imagines laying next to a pool while a girl brings him a drink. Beavis does the same thing...except his girl brings him a detonation plunger.