History Main / MilkmanConspiracy

* A scene in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E8MortysMindBlowers Morty's Mind Blowers]]" posits that the controllers of the world are squirrels. They even talk about chem trails, Monsanto deals and fermenting unrest in Brazil.

** In another episode, Dexter infiltrates a secret lair in pursuit of some {{masquerade}}[=-shattering=] photos his mother dropped off at the local photo development booth. The zit-faced teen running the booth turns out to be TheManInFrontOfTheMan.

** In "The Losers", Simon loses sight with the trunk in which Marshall is attempting to TrojanHorse his way into the compound, because his view is obstructed by a milk truck.

* ''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49'' features a vast conspiracy (W.A.S.T.E -- '''W'''e '''A'''wait '''S'''ilent '''T'''ristero's '''E'''mpire) which is either a secret postal service masquerading as a swingers' club, or an eccentric dead man's estate masquerading as a secret postal service masquerading as a swingers' club, for a prank. Needless to say, [[MindScrew the protagonist's just as confused as you are]]. Don't expect anything to be explained.

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob'': among the more prestigious Illuminati, Reptilians and the Deep State, the UsefulNote/{{Juggalo}}s are apparently in control of the world economy.

* Imagine if [[Franchise/GIJoe Cobra Command]] was a real-life secret terrorist group ''[[ComicBooksAreReal as well as]]'' the famous fictional organization. This is the case in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', except replace "Cobra Command" with "The Guild of Calamitous Intent".

A Milkman Conspiracy is any conspiracy operating from an organization so pathetically uninfluential that it should by all rights barely be able to overcome zoning regulations, yet is somehow able to sink its fangs into vast swathes of the Earth. Named for a level of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' in which the paranoid fantasies of one of the characters involves them being a milkman-spy at the center of a war between an army of secret agents and a troop of [[GirlScoutsAreEvil homicidal Girl Scouts]].

* AEGIS from ''VideoGame/GateKeepers'' is a secret global unit created to wage a secret war against the Invaders. It has the highest military clearance and it has authority over any army. It just so happens its most visible members are ''high school students''.
* In ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' spinoff ''[[Anime/RODTheTV Read or Die the TV]]'', the governments of the world are all merely puppets, secretly being controlled by that wretched hive of scum and villainy: The British Library.
* In ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'', the French research institution CERN--here called [[BlandNameProduct SERN]]--have secretly been trying to create time travel, killing at least 14 human tests subjects in the process, and have a network of armed agents called Rounders that are recruited through cellphone texts. In the timelines where they complete it they immediately use it to take over the world and turn it into an impossibly bleak {{dystopia}}. The visual novel subverts this by establishing early on that they are merely a front group for the [[TheIlluminati Committee of 300]].

[[folder:Card Games]]
* The card game ''TabletopGame/{{Illuminati}}'' occasionally displays this. While you typically need to have groups that would logically be powerful, small ones help you out as well, such as the Furries, the Secret Masters Of Fandom, the Boy Sprouts, and the Congressional Wives.
[[/folder]]

* The 1967 film ''Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst'' features a plot to enslave all humanity masterminded by [[spoiler:TPC ('''T'''he '''P'''hone '''C'''ompany)]]. This group, or at least its real-world equivalent, used to have a bit more power and influence than most in this list.
* Hilarious subversion in the film ''Film/TheStupids''. The [[TheDitz eponymous family of ditzes]] ''believe'' they've uncovered one of these, involving the police, garbage collectors, the New York Times, the local deli, the local Chinese restaurant, and bees ([[MemeticMutation my God]]) to steal all the world's mail and deliver it to a man called "Sender" (Creator/ChristopherLee!) (because the father, who used to be a mailman, got suspicious about all those letters that said [[LiteralMinded "return to sender"]]). The twist is that, not only does this conspiracy not exist, but in their efforts to thwart it, the Stupids manage to [[SpannerInTheWorks mess up an actually dangerous conspiracy entirely by accident]]. Oh, and they find Sender, and he turns out to be, not Christopher Lee, but [[Series/CaptainKangaroo Bob Keeshan]]!

** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'': The Center for National Security aka the "Nine Eyes" joint intelligence program [[spoiler:is actually another front for the same Illuminati-like conspiracy that Bond fought in ''Quantum of Solace'']]. Its head [[spoiler:is actually a high-ranking member of SPECTRE and is allowing the criminal group to use the intelligence it's gathering from the major spy agencies to permanently stay ahead of its enemies.]]
* In ''Film/DrStrangelove'', General Ripper tries to start nuclear war with the Russians over one such conspiracy. While tampering with our water supply would be a good way to deal a lethal blow to major population centers in the United States, Ripper comes to the conclusion that the Russians are doing this because when he tried having sex his "essence" was denied exit from his body. If he had seen people dying or getting sick from drinking water then there would be some validity to Ripper's claim, but as it stands The General brought on nuclear war with Russia just because he couldn't get it up.
* ''Film/TheInternational'' is about a corrupt bank that secretly has for clients everyone from democratic governments to dictators, criminals and terrorists, and considered so big and important that FailureIsTheOnlyOption for the heroes trying to bring it down, as if they succeed another such bank will simply take its place. To make matters worse, it was inspired ''by true events''.
* ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'' features a benevolent one in the Society of the Crossed Keys, a clandestine international network of hotel concierges. Based on the examples of their influence given by M. Gustave (himself a member), they normally serve to arrange private appointments and secure highly contested reservations on extremely short notice. After escaping from prison in the latter half of the movie, Gustave calls upon their services to [[spoiler:find Serge X., the sole witness to a murder in which the main suspect is Gustave (he is also the victim's butler).]]
* The Friends of Italian Opera in ''Film/SomeLikeItHot''.
* The ending of ''Film/TheCobbler'' has Creator/AdamSandler's character discover that Cobblers are secretly an elite group dedicated to fighting crime with shape-shifting powers.
* According to ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'', "the fashion industry has been behind every major political assassination over the last 200 years," including John Wilkes Booth ("the first actor/model") and [[WhoShotJFK "those lookers on the grassy knoll" who really shot John F. Kennedy]].

* ''Film/{{Mutafuckaz}}'': Luchadores ''are'' black-ops superheroes who work with a genius scientist to stop an alien conspiracy from destroying the world for resources.

* In ''Literature/TheDemonHeadmaster'' series, the headmaster of a small [[TheGoodOldBritishComp comprehensive secondary school]] attempts to take over the world using (in order): a school, a computer summer camp, a MerchandiseDriven TV show, a small-time lab, a university computer lab and, most amusingly, a nightclub. And then, a school. Again. This time a different school, with a different plan, but still a school.
* In ''Literature/TheIlluminatusTrilogy'', the ''real'' Illuminati, [[spoiler:the one of which Hagbard Celine is Primus,]] maintains its control over world affairs by operating through [[spoiler:Discordians and anarchists, two groups of people who by their very nature are disorganized and individualistic.]]

* ''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49'' features a vast conspiracy which is either a secret postal service masquerading as a swingers' club, or an eccentric dead man's estate masquerading as a secret postal service masquerading as a swingers' club, for a prank. Needless to say, [[MindScrew the protagonist's just as confused as you are]]. Don't expect anything to be explained.
** W.A.S.T.E - '''W'''e '''A'''wait '''S'''ilent '''T'''ristero's '''E'''mpire.

* In the book ''Literature/{{Michaelmas}}'', the benevolent secret ruler of the planet is a respected TV journalist in the Walter Cronkite mode.
* In ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'', Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is only the head of the mess hall, but manages to become more powerful than any of the generals by organizing a vast international trading company through the mess hall.
** By the same token, ex-PFC Wintergreen (yes, ''ex-Private First Class''; he keeps getting demoted, but at the end of the book he's an ex-Corporal), the mail room clerk, is the most powerful man in the US Army and the de facto European Commander because he handles all significant communications between the brass and every time he sees an order he doesn't like, he chucks it in the trash. At one point it is claimed that he delayed the Normandy invasion until more armor was committed.
*** Highly exaggerated form of TruthInTelevision.
* The Literature/DarkHeresy novel ''Scourge'' the Heretic briefly mentions this when it becomes apparent that a people-smuggling conspiracy has its hideout in a former mining shaft now in use for growing mushrooms (by the Fraternity of Comestibles for the Cultivation of Edible Fungi), though it's immediately noted that they probably just don't have any idea what goes on in their holdings.
* Creator/BrandonSanderson's middle-grade series ''[[Literature/AlcatrazSeries Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians]]'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The librarians secretly control the whole world (or what we Hushlanders know of it, anyway.) Though if you think about it, knowledge IS power...
* Deconstructed in ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': Nemo and his crew use the submarine ''[[CoolShip Nautilus]]'' as a means to [[Fiction500 loot lost sunken treasures]], [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters which they use to finance insurrections against]] [[TheEmpire imperialistic nations]], and more directly as a WeaponOfMassDestruction (for its time) against one of those nations. They have [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy severed all contact to the civilized world]] [[FromMyOwnPersonalGarden and get all their resources from the sea,]] [[ConLang have created their own language]], and [[{{Egopolis}} have reached and claimed the South Pole]]. The ''Nautilus'' [[StartMyOwn is truly a new society]] with NGOSuperpower status composed of... [[OddlySmallOrganization less than sixty persons]]. Less than four years after its creation, Nemo's existence has been discovered by TheEmpire, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror all the Western nations have organized against them and are chasing them implacably]]. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Their numbers are declining because of war casualties and normal accidents]], and the leader, [[TheCaptain charismatic Captain Nemo]] is not only bitterly aware that their days are numbered (he plans to use a MessageInABottle when the last of the crew die, so all his sea research would not be lost), [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity but is slowly breaking down as a result of using a]] WeaponOfMassDestruction to cross the MoralEventHorizon once and again.
** In ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'', only the arrival of the colonists saves Nemo from dying alone with all of his crew dead and the ''Nautilus'' trapped at Lincoln Island -- and gives him a new, arguably more noble purpose.

* The Literature/{{Discworld}} ''[[AllThereInTheManual Fools' Guild Diary]]'' reveals that jesters of the Guild regularly report the public and private doings of their respective royal patrons to Dr. Whiteface, leader of the Guild. In effect, it's a huge spy network that covertly monitors various petty kingdoms in the region, to its own profit and advantage.
** The [[SecretCircleOfSecrets Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night]] from ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' is made up of one ambitious and cunning manipulator who makes all the plans, and a whole bunch of petty losers who are in the secret society business to get revenge on people like "the lady at the fruit stall who keeps looking at me funny" and "my brother-in-law who just bought a fancy coach that I wouldn't be able to afford."
* The eponymous witches in Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/TheWitches'' use the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" as a front for their plot to exterminate the children of England.
* The Order of Maesters from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is just seen as a bunch of learned old men who mentor the children of the nobility. It is becoming gradually however revealed that the Maesters have influenced Westeros history from behind the scenes, and that [[spoiler:they, the Faith of the Seven and House Hightower are part of a vast conspiracy to suppress magic and replace it with science]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** It featured another literal milkman conspiracy in the episode "False Witness", with the added twist that the dairy produced was absolutely central to their scheme. The series also featured, on other occasions, sinister cabals of nannies, window cleaners, hoteliers, romance novelists, secretaries, farmers, retired Vaudeville performers, butlers, knitters, a cemetery and a matchmaking service.
** The 'British Fanatics' who killed government ministers by tricking them into getting off trains at disused stations, and then murdering them. Why? Because the trains no longer run on time under the current government...

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': In the ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S09E11DevilFish Devil Fish]]'' episode, Mike and the Bots start making fun of dolphins, only to find out that dolphins are a space-faring race that attack the Satellite. Later, Mike gets cocky and starts teasing an electrician, only for him to call in his dolphin buddies to start blasting the Satellite again.

** Likewise, the "serial impersonator" originally posing as Mr Radford appears later impersonating a milkman.

* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "[[Recap/MonkS1E9MrMonkTakesAVacation Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation]]" featured a secret ring of chambermaids that used confidential information left lying around in hotel rooms to engage in insider trading. When one of their number wants out (or wanted more money), they kill her and use their position and [[TheNonDescript near-invisibility]] to disappear the body and cover up the crime to the point where Monk looks like (more of) a lunatic for even trying to investigate.
* In the "Secret Service Dentistry" sketch for ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', the hapless protagonist Lemming finds himself caught in the middle of an elaborate spy game between the British Dental Association and a conspiracy of evil dentists working under the employ of the Big Cheese. [[spoiler:And then it turned out that Lemming was himself a member of the BDA]]
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Los Pollos Hermanos. On the surface, a regional Chilean-influenced [[BurgerFool fried- and roast-chicken chain]], with its head, the mild-mannered Gustavo Fring, [[HonestCorporateExecutive a pillar of the community and a friend to law enforcement]]. Go deeper, and you find that Los Pollos Hermanos is a front for the largest and most sophisticated methamphetamine ring in the Southwest, with an industrial-scale lab producing large amounts of high-quality crystal meth to be distributed in the chain's buckets of ''fried-chicken batter''. And Fring? A truly ruthless, [[MagnificentBastard devious]], and vengeful kingpin.
* ''Series/TheBlacklist'':
** It gives us The Cyprus Agency, an adoption agency for the wealthy that offers to scour the globe in search of your "ideal" infant child- hair colour, ethnicity, sex, genetics...you name it, they'll find it. In reality, the babies are abducted from their mothers at birth, [[spoiler:and the mothers are dozens of abducted women who fit the various genetic profiles and who are kept comatose in a fertility clinic, impregnated by artificial insemination and give birth ''all while unconscious.'' What truly makes it this trope is that while most of the agency is in it for profit (or fear), the boss is the father of Every. Single. Child. and he does all this because wants to leave a ''legacy''.]]
** The Amnesty Collective, a prison rights organization protesting the death penalty, was co-founded and run by The Judge, a KnightTemplar who gets revenge for miscarriages of justice by abducting the officers or officials they hold responsible for the length of time the innocent (or "innocent", as the case may be) is themselves held. If the miscarriage leads to the death penalty, The Judge is prepared to execute in retaliation as well. While most of the organization seems entirely legit, The Judge is helped by at least a few members.
* The 2000 [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] series ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'' places its super secret Agency in a division of the federal "Department of Fish and Game". It is explained they are repeatedly shuffled around on paper to be part of whatever federal organization happens to have a surplus in their budget they can use for their own operation. A later episode briefly sees them operate as part of Weights and Measures Division.
* In French NewsParody Groland, there is "Le Complot des Vieux" (the old people conspiracy). They are organized with secret cameras everywhere... [[ParodiedTrope To create everyday annoyances]] like filling buses to the brim so that young people have to stand up when going somewhere, always coming in front of younger people at the supermarket and taking as long as humanly possible to pay for their groceries... Stealing the elevator from younger people...
* Done in miniature in ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'' when he finds out that all the mishaps that regularly happen to him at the office are caused by four menial workers who hate him for one reason or another.
* Happens in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' when she believes human flesh is being served at the Doublemeat Palace. Subverted ultimately as its only secret (although a big one) is that [[spoiler:the 'meat' is almost entirely vegetarian. Employees keep disappearing not into the meat grinders but into the stomach of a demon who happens to be a regular customer.]]

* The title characters in the ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' story "The Head Girls" are spies who are trained as secretaries, then placed with high ranking scientists and government officials, giving them access to their bosses' secrets.

* From a real life example: ''Podcast/{{Revolutions}}'' discusses the Patriotic Society for the Development of Agriculture and Livestock (which started out as exactly what it sounded like, but was coopted as a revolutionary political organization) in its fifth season on South American revolutions. They even made a t-shirt for it!

* The Mak Attax cabal in ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' [[spoiler:who have infiltrated [[WritingAroundTrademarks "the world's largest fast-food chain"]] in order to spread magic randomly through the population.]] [[spoiler:It is also heavily implied that they saved the world from disaster at least once, by performing a powerful ritual on the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999.]]
* ''TabletopGame/JAGSWonderland'' has [[spoiler:the Orange-Peel Men, Whirls who gather together to try to control Chessboard Zero, but only influence it in exceedingly strange ways, such as trying to get people to adhere to Red Shirt Tuesday.]]
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', one of the Sidereal Charms allows them to create these on the spot. As long as the Sidereal Exalted supports it, it avoids being just a BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats by virtue of, well, being supported by a member of an AncientConspiracy that controls the entire world from the offices of Heaven. Should they abandon them or they and the conspiracy have disparate goals and capabilities, it quickly falls apart.

* The setting for ''TabletopGame/OverTheEdge'' can be summarised as Cold War-era Berlin but on an island, and instead of East vs West, its almost a hundred of these vying for power while staying hidden, e.g. every fraternity and sorority at the university is pursuing some sort of hidden agenda for power. Just about the only people who aren't involved in one or more of these are the occasional mugger and a quarter of the tourists visiting the island.

* The teams in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' operate this way. Reliable Excavation and Demolition and the Builders' League United are fronts for two organizations that secretly control every government in the world and are constantly at war with each other. Signs in the game's maps reveal more fronts for these organizations, such as Red Bread and Blu Corn. It's hinted that every major corporation in the world ultimately has ties to one or the other. [[spoiler:The core of their schemes is the massive stockpile of {{Unobtainium}} intentionally hidden beneath this otherwise worthless land - along with the firearms company using these assets to invent the bleeding edge technology, which is also used by the mercenaries to kill intruders as well as each other.]]
** Of course, it reaches a new level when you find out that [[spoiler:they're both run by the same handful of people]] apparently out of misanthropy and spite.
* In season 2 of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', the mysterious "Them" that has Bosco living in fear is revealed to be [[spoiler:three mariachis (actually, three time-shifted versions of the same mariachi) who travel through time and space so they can perform at every birthday ever.]]
** There is some truth in that [[spoiler:Bosco is also being watched by Flint Paper. He was hired by Mama Bosco to find the one that [[StableTimeLoop ruined her store in the 60s]]. Someone's been spying on poor Bosco since ''before he was born''.]]
** In season 1, it's revealed [[spoiler:the government ''does'' spy on Bosco. And keep nukes aimed at his shop!]] [[ProperlyParanoid It's not paranoia if you're right]]!
* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'':
** The TropeNamer is the famous Milkman Conspiracy level, centered around a pyromaniac milkman-spy and his secret group of {{Girl Scouts|Are Evil}} who are fighting against government agents, with the lone security guard Boyd Cooper trying to unravel the conspiracy. Although in this case the conspiracy is all in the head of the one man who knows about it. No, literally; the conspiracy is carried out by constructs within his mind, who represent the mental blocks that prevent [[spoiler:his destructively psychotic, hypnotically implanted alter-ego, the Milkman, from surfacing until he's been given a code phrase]], and challenged by ''other'' constructs which represent his attempts to sort out what it is he won't let himself know. Except he suspects himself as much as anyone else, so he fears both sets of constructs equally.
** The real world in the game has one too- as it turns out, the secret plot to steal the brains of the campers at Whispering Rock and use them to [[spoiler:power tanks and TakeOverTheWorld]] is being masterminded by a lowly [[DepravedDentist dentist]] who escaped from an insane asylum and [[spoiler:the chief camp counselor]], under the noses of the government itself.
** ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': The Delugionary mole in the Psychonauts, responsible for resurrecting the BigBad of the game, [[spoiler:[[FluffyTheTerrible Nick Johnsmith]] AKA Gristol Malik, the crown prince of a tyrannical Eurasian dynasty]], is for all intents and purposes ''an overpaid blue-collar worker ([[spoiler:mailman]])''. They manage to completely fool an agency filled with literal mind-readers ''for years'' despite being a pathological narcissist.
* The ultimate culprit behind all the events in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' is revealed in the GoldenEnding to be [[spoiler:a random gas station attendant who, up to that point, wasn't even important enough to warrant [[NominalImportance a name or portrait]]]]. If you pay attention to [[spoiler:said apparently unimportant NPC when they appear (notably only on days when it rains) you may pick up hints that they know more than they let on, but this requires paying attention to what appears to be a single, ordinary NPC in a reasonably-populated small town, with no hint as to their significance except for a single slight cue ''from outside the fourth wall'', about 70 hours of gameplay ago.]] Ironically, the only people likely to do this are those already in on the spoiler, having got the GoldenEnding and are on NewGamePlus.
* Rare heroic example in ''VideoGame/SteelStrider'': The organization that deploys the protagonist in their souped-up HumongousMecha, periodically drops supplies and weapons, and supplies arms to rebellions against tyrannical planetary governments is... [[UnstoppableMailman an interstellar shipping company]].
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''; Cro Threadstrong, an orc who sells leatherworking supplies in Shattrath City, continually rants about how the Fruit Vendor is leading an army of ogres trying to eliminate the Horde. Among other things. (The Fruit Vendor in Shattrath is a sweet old lady named [[MeaningfulName Granny Smith]], so it's likely he's just a loon. Still, at least one Guild on one server [[AscendedMeme has called itself Fruit Vendor Army]] out of inspiration.)
* The backstory of ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' shows that the entire world was brought to heel and taken into a state of AnarchoTyranny by the Ultimate Despair, a cult of ''high-school students'' (from an elite academy for the best of the best, but still). In addition, said students manage to capture a major robotics company that they used to built their armies.

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', a rivalry between raptor-riding banditos and a man so ripped that he grew a fart-fueled jetpack is revealed to have been the result of a sinister plan orchestrated by [[spoiler:the local Fox affiliate's 10 o'clock news]]. The plan is foiled, however, by [[spoiler:[[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/3p43/ the weatherman.]]]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Mechanicsburg's 'aristocrats' (crime lords who were rewarded for siding with the Heterodynes and their barbarian horde) had to restructure when the last generation of royalty turned their backs on raiding and villainy. So, they decided that their leadership would be decided by one front organization - the Giant Snail Racing Club. The big races only occur at the end of a leader's term, and the grand prize is secretly the control mechanism for Mechanicsburg's greatest assassins[[note]]if the leader doesn't surrender the controller at the end of their term, they lose complete control and the assassins go straight for ''them''[[/note]]. This is partly to add an element of randomness, and because 'investing' *cough*cheating*cough* in the snail races runs the risk of lagging behind in their regular business.
* In ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'', the Betty Crocker brand of baking products is secretly a front for [[spoiler:a genocidal alien empress hellbent on conquering the world and wiping out humanity.]]

* Several videos in the WebVideo/BosnianApeSociety channel warn viewers about how to guard against the threat of apparently innocuous inanimate objects, such as military hardware including main battle tanks and aircraft that in truth are plotting to destroy their belongings. One video in particular details the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blT1il0g72Y Conspiracy of Mailboxes]] and how various events in the Cold War related to it.
* Website/CollegeHumor: Played for laughs in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbl-vMN2gzo "Deceptive Deceptions"]] video, which reveals that the ridiculously massive ConspiracyKitchenSink designed to control humanity is being led by the dorky members of the College Humor staff.
* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', a bizarre Milkman Conspiracy is set off when [[spoiler:Vic, the obnoxious dispatch operator back at "Blue Army Headquarters," is told, in the past after some time travel, that "Red and Blue are the same thing." Vic takes this literally and it eventually turned out that because of all this, the commander-in-chief of both Red and Blue armies is, in fact, Vic, who has been setting them at war with one another over one offhand comment.]]
** The conspiracy deepens: [[spoiler:Vic manages to do this because he's actually ''the computer that's running the Capture the Flag game that everyone is playing''.]] At least, that's what the last episode implied.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** The Freemason-esque "Stonecutters" from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E12HomerTheGreat Homer the Great]]" are shown to have infiltrated the Egg Council, for their own nefarious ends -- and also claim to control the British crown, keep [[TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay the metric system]] down, and keep {{Atlantis}} off the map and kept the Martians under wraps, held back the electric car, made Steve Guttenberg a star, robs cavefish of their sight, and choose the winners every [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar night]]. (Something of an InformedAbility, seeing as they really don't do much [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats except sit around and drink beer]].)
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper Brother's Little Helper]]", while under the effects of an ADD drug, Bart discovers the secret machinations of... Major League Baseball.
** The cabal from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E6TheComputerWoreMenaceShoes The Computer Wore Menace Shoes]]" who fill flu vaccine with some sort of drug to increase sales during the Christmas shopping season.
** A secret colony of [[OurElvesAreDifferent super-powerful elves]] extend their influence... through horse racing.
** Every time an UsefulNotes/AlGore book is scanned at your local bookstore, it sends a coded message directly to [[spoiler:the Pentagon, so they can relay the news to Al Gore's office]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', Huey Freeman believes that every white man is in on the conspiracy, and that you can't bribe them with cheese.

* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' had a SuckECheeses which was a front for an secret organization which made a WeCanRuleTogether offer to Dexter.
** Another episode had Dexter infiltrate a secret lair in pursuit of some {{masquerade}}-shattering photos his mother dropped off at the local photo development booth. (The zit-faced teen running the booth turns out to be TheManInFrontOfTheMan.)
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'', at least before the TimeSkip. The world's last, best defense against the alien supermenaces (apart from Ben) are the "Plumbers", an organization formed to plug “leaks” in TheMasquerade, incidentally made up of guys who spend most of their time in blue collar jobs such as crossing guards, electricians, school teachers and most likely, actual plumbers. When aliens show up, they drag the battlesuit out from the back of the closet and fire up the laser rays they keep in a false bottom.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' episode "Employee of the Month", Beast Boy discovers that the local burger chain hides intelligent space tofu that kidnaps cows to use as fuel while selling a "Meaty Meaty" substitute through a store front managed by an android made of tofu.
* The villain in the final episode of the first series of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' masterminded her plan to wreck the earth from a hotdog stand. Which was bigger than an office building.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' falls into this trope with some of the weird conspiracies it's shown. One involved a club of fourth-grade girls whose leaders [[ItMakesSenseInContext forged a vote over boys' cuteness in order to get shoes]]. [[SeriousBusiness It ends with a gunfight on the roof of the school]], of course.
** Phase 1: Collect Underpants. Phase 2: ? [[MissingStepsPlan Phase 3: Profit]].

* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' had a few:
** The well known "Cold Slither" episode involved Cobra using ThePowerOfRock via their own rock band (the Dreadnoks) with subliminal messages in music. (Two mistakes here - one, the name of the band was something of a giveaway once trouble started, and two, well, it might have been a big case of CutLexLuthorACheck, seeing how fast the group's popularity spread.)
** Another episode had them buy up the Red Rocket franchise of fast food places to turn them into actual rocket silos. This may have worked had they not exposed themselves by being a little too insistent towards the one location that refused to sell. (The one that belonged to Roadblock's folks.)
* The Question from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' has an [[StringTheory all-encompassing conspiracy theory]] that includes more typical things (governments, major corporations) and many unusual ones. Girl scouts? Seriously? To make things more screwy, he may have been right about at least one of them (apparently, Baskin-Robbins had been engaged in suspicious activities to cover up the existence of their thirty-''second'' flavor).
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'':
** The titular group in the episode The Secret Snake Club wants to be one of these: a trio of nerds who will take over the world and issue in geek utopia. They're about as effective as you'd expect until they get hold of Grim and his magical powers.
** Meanwhile, Billy has been recruited by the junior CIA club at school and finds a ''real'' Milkman Conspiracy: [[spoiler:The Macrame Club! They were selling their products to fund a giant laser that would alter everyone's vision so they'd all need glasses like Irwin. Of course!]]
* This happens in ''WesternAnimation/TheMask'' when Stanley becomes [[BlandNameProduct Putterware's]] best salesman thanks to The Mask's antics and is welcomed into it's inner circle which is run like a cult, complete with brown robes. Putterware's founder is a MadScientist who used to work for a rival company that booted her out for her insane research; To keep food so fresh it's practically alive. She created Putterware for the sole purpose of destroying her former employers... and Edge City.
* A scene in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Morty's Mind Blowers" posits that the controllers of the world are Squirrels. Even talking about Chem trails, Monsanto deals and fermenting unrest in Brazil.

* In ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'', Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder ([[MagnificentBastard magnificent bastard extraordinaire]]) is only the head of the mess hall, but manages to become more powerful than any of the generals by organizing a vast international trading company through the mess hall.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', a secret colony of [[OurElvesAreDifferent super-powerful elves]] extend their influence... through horse racing.
** Also in ''The Simpsons'', the Freemason-esque "Stonecutters" are shown to have infiltrated the Egg Council, for their own nefarious ends--and also claim to control the British crown, keep [[TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay the metric system]] down, and keep {{Atlantis}} off the map and kept the Martians under wraps, held back the electric car, made Steve Guttenberg a star, robs cavefish of their sight, and choose the winners every [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar night]]. (Something of an InformedAbility, seeing as they really don't do much [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats except sit around and drink beer.)]]
** Also, while under the effects of an ADD drug, Bart discovers the secret machinations of... Major League Baseball.
** Not to mention that every time an UsefulNotes/AlGore book is scanned at your local bookstore, it sends a coded message directly to [[spoiler:the Pentagon, so they can relay the news to Al Gore's office]].
** Or the cabal who fill flu vaccine with some sort of drug to increase sales during the Christmas shopping season.

* Question from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' has an [[StringTheory all-encompassing conspiracy theory]] that includes more typical things (governments, major corporations) and many unusual ones. Girl scouts? Seriously? And to make things more screwy, he may have been right about at least one of them (apparently Baskin-Robbins had been engaged in suspicious activities to cover up the existence of their thirty-''second'' flavor).

* Question from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' has an [[StringTheory all-encompassing conspiracy theory]] that includes more typical things (governments, major corporations) and many unusual ones. Girl scouts? Seriously? And to make things more screwy, he may have been right about at least one of them (apparently Baskin-Robbins had been engaged in suspicious activities to cover up the existence of their thirty-''second'' flavor).

* Several videos in the [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwkDQ8tE_3UhB8LcnvUv0Fw Bosnian Ape Society]] channel warn viewers about how to guard against the threat of apparently innocuous inanimate objects, such as military hardware including main battle tanks and aircraft that in truth are plotting to destroy their belongings. One video in particular details the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blT1il0g72Y Conspiracy of Mailboxes]] and how various events in the Cold War related to it.

* ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'' features a benevolent one. M. Gustave is a member of the Society of Crossed Keys, a secret international network of hotel concierges. In a late part of the movie, Gustave requests their help to [[spoiler:find Serge, the witness of a murder which main suspect is Gustave (he is also the victim's butler).]]

* Several videos in the [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwkDQ8tE_3UhB8LcnvUv0Fw Bosnian Ape Society]] channel warn viewers about how to guard against the threat of apparently innocuous inanimate objects such as battle tanks and aircrafts that in truth are plotting to destroy their belongings. One video in particular details the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blT1il0g72Y Conspiracy of Mailboxes]] and how various events in the Cold War related to it.