Paranoia Gambits in Webcomics.
- Doubly subverted in the series beginning from this
Absurd Notions strip. - In Enjuhneer, Kali pulls one of these on Myra, quipping "Laziest April Fools' ever."
- In Freefall, Sam Starfall's reputation for pulling these off is so well-known that it works even when he doesn't actually have a plan.Helix: What sort of devious master plan do you have, Sam?
Sam: None at all. But don't worry, Helix, they'll think of something. - In Homestuck one of the stages of the Condesce's plan to take over the Earth involved pulling one on the entire planet. She announced herself as an alien who will conquer the world and let the nations of Earth start preparing for an invasion that never came. This not only created mass hysteria, ideal for fracturing a society and preventing it from maintaining or defending itself, but also allowed her pick of the weapons built to confront her.
- In The Last Days of FOXHOUND, Psycho Mantis and Revolver Ocelot tend to pull this ploy on each other with various degrees of success. Perhaps the best example is a case where Ocelot implies that he has tampered with Mantis' coffee, (Mantis has a coffee obsession that is extremely Serious Business, as he has his personal supply of coffee that is custom-made and is so expensive he has to rob banks to help finance it) and while it's implied that Ocelot hasn't actually done anything to the coffee, his recently acquired telepathy blocking technology keeps Mantis from being able to tell for sure. In the end, Mantis becomes too paranoid to drink his beloved coffee.Ocelot: You know, back when I was with the KGB, my area of specialty wasn't assassination, it was torture. ... Sure, I was pissed off yesterday, but then it hit me. Even if I can't kill you, I can still make your life miserable. Take that cup of coffee, for instance. Maybe this morning when you weren't looking, I poured in a jar of my own urine while it was brewing. Or maybe I didn't. Anyone else, you could read their mind and find out, but with me you'll never really know. So I think I'll have a very nice day, in fact. Enjoy your coffee.
Mantis: (after several beat panels of staring at his coffee) Goddamnit. - Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: In the Mildly Military future, the Commander is awarded one free pass to sucker-punch his Admiral in retribution for the Admiral's misconduct. He decides to sit on the privilege indefinitely and leave the Admiral to stew.Commander: It ain't about me hittin' him, it's about him knowin' they're gonna let me.
- Miho does this to Largo in Megatokyo, just to mess with him. She tells him she left a present for him in his apartment, which he naturally assumes could be anything up to and including a bomb. She later admits to Piro that she didn't really get a present for Largo, but she hopes he enjoyed it nevertheless.
- Interestingly, Miho may have done him a favor, since Largo's heightened paranoia allowed him to intercept one of Erika's crazier fanboys before he could reach her. Whether Miho planned this or even realized it after the fact is never explained.
- In Misfile, Ash's plan for Heather to beat a rival driver is to act like s/he just gave her a plan.
- Dr. Helen Narbon (senior) is a master of this technique in Narbonic. Roughly 90% of her evil schemes consist of simply saying "Heh heh heh" in answer to any question.Dr. Narbon: Heh heh heh.
Helen: This is how she used to get me to eat cream corn. - Pintsize tries to do this once in Questionable Content, but the rest of the cast don't fall for it.
- In Rusty and Co., Dirk, playing "Gnomish Rules Baseball" (a surprisingly violent sport that combines aspects of a number of other sports), has been getting through with tricks, smoke bombs, and misdirection. With Gelatinous Cube in a position to score, Dirk manages to distract the goalie by asking him where Kris is hiding, suggesting that Kris is about to join in another trick. That, itself, was the trick: Kris isn't even on the field, but the goalie goes nuts looking for him, leaving the goal wide open.
- Sequential Art: Scarlet and her sisters in the "Think Tank" used it when playing a wargame to beat Pip in an embarrassingly simple way.
- In Sluggy Freelance Bun-Bun pulls one of these on Riff, though he later gets revenge in a more direct way.
- In Stand Still, Stay Silent, Tuuri pulls a minor one on her employer's three children: after one of them pushes the wrong button by calling her fat, she tells them that she heard their parents say one of them was adopted and that they loved that child less than the other two.
- In this Subnormality strip, a harassed and undertipped waitress psyches two businessmen into thinking she messed with their free coffee.
- xkcd does this with Rickrolling.
- In Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic the Drow Queen poisoned a Grey Elf representative on a meeting and chose to send Arachne instead of herself to the next one. Knowing this, Arachne decides to give some wine as a "peace offering" from her Queen to the replacement Grey Elf rep. One strip later, Hilarity Ensues.
