History Main / DelegationRelay

** An episode has Mr. Burns order a subordinate that a package must absolutely be mailed today. A Delegation Relay ensues, ultimately ending at Homer, who promptly runs the package back to Mr. Burns's office, who angrily tells Homer that his name is on the ''return'' address.

** In "Gelegnite" we see the convoluted process via 1950's telephone technology that takes place whenever Princess Margaret wants to place a routine phone call to her sister Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

* In one ''Webcomic/BasicInstructions'' strip, the Moon Emperor delegates the task to executing Rocket Hat to the Moon Minion. The Moon Minion delegates the task to his only subordinate, Rocket Hat himself. After the pummeled Moon Emperor demands to know why the Moon Minion thought Rocket Hat would kill himself, the minion explains that he was just being a good boss by giving his subordinate the chance to exceed his expectations.

** In ''Literature/TikTokOfOz'', Queen [[PunnyName Ann Soforth]] of Oogaboo fields a similar one-private army with only seventeen men. The first proper order that the private receives from his Captains (who got it from the Majors, who got it from the Colonels, who got it from the Generals, who got it from the Queen) is to bind some innocent bystanders as prisoners; he finds this so objectionable that he resigns on the spot.

* In ''Literature/TheLegendOfSunKnight'', the Demon King [[spoiler:Grisia]] enjoys tormenting his minions, particularly his (sort-of) predecessor's [[TheDragon General and Dragon]], Illu. At one point, he orders Illu to go fetch inventory, which is way beneath the dignity of a general, so Illu orders one of his EliteMooks to do it. She finds it beneath her dignity as well, so she orders two skeleton minions to do it.
* ''Literature/ManiacMagee'': When Maniac comes to live at the home of the [=McNab=] brothers, they all see a dog taking a leak on the floor. Oldest brother John tells one of his younger brothers to clean it up. That brother tells the third to clean it up. The third brother ignores them. Maniac finally finds some newspaper and cleans it up himself.

* ''Literature/LandOfOz''
** In ''Ozma of Oz'', the Tin Woodsman's army consists of twenty-seven soldiers, only one of whom is not an officer. The one time they actually fight, all the generals give the order to attack, which is then passed down to all the officers of the next rank down, and so forth until every officer has sounded the order to charge in decreasing order of rank, at which point the one private attacks the Nomes.
** In ''Tik-Tok of Oz'', Queen [[PunnyName Ann Soforth]] of Oogaboo fields a similar one-private army with only seventeen men. The first proper order that the private receives from his Captains (who got it from the Majors, who got it from the Colonels, who got it from the Generals, who got it from the Queen) is to bind some innocent bystanders as prisoners; he finds this so objectionable that he resigns on the spot.

** In ''Tik-Tok of Oz'', Queen [[PunnyName Ann Soforth]] of Oogaboo fields a similar one-private army with only seventeen men. The first proper order that the private receives from his Captains (who got it from the Majors, who got it from the Colonels, who got it from the General's, who got it from the Queen) is to bind some innocent bystanders as prisoners; he finds this so objectionable that he resigns on the spot.

* In ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Ozma of Oz]]'', the Tin Woodsman's army consists of twenty-seven soldiers, only one of whom is not an officer. The one time they actually fight, all the generals give the order to attack, which is then passed down to all the officers of the next rank down, and so forth until every officer has sounded the order to charge in decreasing order of rank, at which point the one private attacks the Nomes.

* In ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Ozma of Oz]]'', the Tin Woodsman's army consists of 100 soldiers, only one of whom is not an officer. The one time they actually fight, All the generals give the order to attack, which is then passed down to all the officers of the next rank down, and so forth until every officer has sounded the order to charge in decreasing order of rank, at which point the one private attacks the Nomes.

* Played for drama (and some BlackComedy) in ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' where crucial decisions keep getting kicked upstairs to the Prime Minister, partly because many of those involved in the VastBureaucracy are reluctant to make a decision, but also because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome there are simply no laws or procedures to deal with a giant rampaging sea monster]], so the PM has to make all the decisions because the buck stops with him.

* A Delegation Relay is used as a safety device in Creator/MaryHigginsClark's ''While My Pretty One Sleeps.'' A powerful man wants someone killed. The hitman he speaks to gives the job to another hitman, who passes it on to someone else, and so on. By the time the assignment has filtered down through several people, the one doing the actual killing has no idea who ordered it or why. That way, if he's arrested, he won't be able to tell the police anything significant about the crime.

* In one ComicBook/ArchieComics story, Mr. Weatherbee asked Archie to deliver a message to a teacher. Archie delegated the duty to another student, who did likewise, until the chain went to Big Moose... who forgot to do it. Angry at what happened, Weatherbee demanded that Archie deliver another message to another teacher... who's in Africa. The story ends with Archie writing to Weatherbee in the jungle, saying that he should catch up to the teacher's safari in another week or so...

* Happens as a RunningGag in the Creator/CarlBarks ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' comic "Lost in the Andes"; the head of the expedition for the square eggs gives an order to his assistant for an omelet. The assistant passes this order to the second assistant, who passes it to Donald, who passes it to his nephews, who make an omelet with some ancient square eggs as they have no normal eggs. After the research team gets food poisoning from the omelet, the head opts out, and puts his assistant in charge. The assistant also opts out, and puts ''his'' assistant in charge, who puts Donald in charge. Donald almost opts out himself, but realizes that would mean leaving the expedition to Huey, Dewey, and Louie charges his mind.

* Occurs in a ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' strip. The general gives his lieutenant a document to deal with; the LT passes it to Sarge, who then delegates it to Beetle, who finally just puts the paper back on the general's desk.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'': "Mind the boat", eventually coming down the parrot, who then passes it on to the mute Mr. Cotton.
* From ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'':
-->'''Skroob:''' ''[to Dark Helmet]'' They're getting all their air back! Do something!\\
'''Dark Helmet:''' ''[to Colonel Sandurz]'' Do something!\\
'''Sandurz:''' ''[over the PA]'' [[RuleOfThree DO SOMETHING!]]
* Charlie Chaplin's ''Film/TheGreatDictator'': A huge gun fails to fire properly, and the shell just drops out of the barrel. The general turns to the colonel and says: "Check the shell." The colonel turns to the captain and gives the same order. The captain gives the order to the lieutenant. The lieutenant delegates to the private (Chaplin). The private turns to his left... and finds out that there's nobody left to delegate to, so he has to do it himself.

* ''Film/BugsyMalone''. "Get Babyface, get Babyface, get Babyface..." and so on down the line until they actually get to Babyface. "Get Babyface... I ''am'' Babyface, what am I saying?"

* In ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'', Hamish's Dad gets shot with an arrow. That night, Hamish is handed a red hot poker with the instruction: "You do it. I'll hold him down." Hamish then looks at the poker, and hands another nameless Scot the poker and tells him, "You do it. I'll hold him down." The nameless Scot then does what he's told and HilarityEnsues.

* From the AfterTheEnd BMovie ''Film/{{Battletruck}}'' (a.k.a. ''Warlords of the 21st Century'').
-->'''BigBad:''' ''[to The Dragon]'' Tell the men to [[UnusualEuphemism Inventory and Requisition]].\\
'''TheDragon:''' ''[to his mook]'' Tell the men to Inventory and Requisition.\\
'''{{Mook}}:''' ''[to everyone else]'' [[TheTriple LOOT! LOOT!]]
* The 1990s Czech comedy film ''Tank Battalion'' (adapted from the novel ''Republic of Whores'') opens with the commander ordering his underling to stand guard and threatening retribution if he doesn't wake him up for tomorrow's exercise. The underling does the same to his 2IC, going down the line until a private is told to stand guard. Naturally with his superiors bunking off the private does the same, and they all get in trouble with the political commissar for sleeping in.
* ''Film/CarryOnHenry''. Conte di Pisa tells Cardinal Wolsey that to annul King Henry's marriage to Queen Marie, the Pope needs to be paid 5,000 pieces of gold. Cardinal Wolsey tells Cromwell, but gives the figure as 10,000, to skim half of it for himself. Cromwell then does the same when he tells King Henry it'll be 20,000 pieces of gold.
* ''Film/CarryOnUpTheKhyber''. The Khasi of Kalabar demands proof that the feared Scottish soldiers aren't wearing anything [[ManInAKilt under their kilts]]. Unfortunately the soldiers have secretly started wearing underwear, so each officer passes the buck down to their sergeant-major who can only stand there embarrassed and refuse to obey the order.
* In ''Film/IntolerableCruelty'', Miles Massey tells his partner their key witness will undoubtedly be one with a "funny name". When he announces his choice to the judge -- "Heinz, the Baron Kraus von Espy" -- the name is echoed by the judge, the bailiff, and two court ushers.
* A RunningGag in ''Film/ShootOutAtMedicineBend'' has Captain Devlin giving an instruction to Sergeant Maitland, who immediately repeats it to Private Clegg. Clegg then grouses about it, but goes off to do it anyway. In the final iteration of the joke, as the wagons are about to pull it, Maitland goes to repeat the order to Clegg, only to discover Clegg is not there.
* Played for drama (and some BlackComedy) in ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' where crucial decisions keep getting kicked upstairs to the Prime Minister, partly because many of those involved in the VastBureaucracy are reluctant to make a decision, but also because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome there are simply no laws or procedures to deal with a giant rampaging sea monster]], so the PM has to make all the decisions because the buck stops with him.

* In Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/ThePrinceAndThePauper'', this is used as social satire to show how ridiculously overblown royal ceremonies were in Tudor England.
* In ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Ozma of Oz]]'', the Tin Woodsman's army consists of 100 soldiers, only one of whom is not an officer. The one time they actually fight, All the generals give the order to attack, which is then passed down to all the officers of the next rank down, and so forth until every officer has sounded the order to charge in decreasing order of rank, at which point the one private attacks the Nomes.

* A Delegation Relay is used as a safety device in Mary Higgins Clark's ''While My Pretty One Sleeps.'' A powerful man wants someone killed. The hitman he speaks to gives the job to another hitman, who passes it on to someone else, and so on. By the time the assignment has filtered down through several people, the one doing the actual killing has no idea who ordered it or why. That way, if he's arrested, he won't be able to tell the police anything significant about the crime.
** This is also mentioned as a standard practice in the original novel of ''Literature/TheGodfather''. All orders coming from TheDon go through multiple layers of cutouts before they reach the people actually doing the job, to make it harder for the police to tie anything to the upper echelons. The first example given is the attack on the men who disfigured Bonasera's daughter: Vito ordered Tom Hagen to handle the matter, Tom took it to one of the caporegimes, and the selected capo chose a few men to actually perform the attack.
* ''Literature/ConradStargard'':
** Used to show the size of Conrad Stargard's army when they march out against the Mongol invasion. Conrad gives the order to advance to his three kolomels; it's then passed on to their eighteen barons, their hundred commanders, their six hundred captains, their 3,600 platoons, their 21,000 knights, and their 126,000 soldiers (who of course only say, "Yes sir!").
** Conrad confesses his real identity as a time traveler to his priest, who can't decide whether this is an act of God or the Devil. So he refers the matter to the Holy Inquisition in Rome. Conrad spends years with this threat hanging over his head, but it turns out someone at the higher levels of the Church always refuses to believe the report and sends it back to the local church authority for verification. But as Conrad's star rises the priest keeps getting promoted as well, because naturally the Church want to maintain their influence over any powerful figure. So the report keeps getting referred back to his friend as the local authority, and therefore just goes round in circles without reaching Rome.
* ''Literature/ManiacMagee'': When Maniac comes to live at the home of the [=McNab=] brothers, they all see a dog taking a leak on the floor. Oldest brother John tells one of his younger brothers to clean it up. That brother tells the third to clean it up. The third brother ignores them. Maniac finally finds some newspaper and cleans it up himself.
* Used for an EstablishingCharacterMoment in Creator/EricFrankRussell's ''[[http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.htm "And Then There Were None,"]]'' showing the invaders from Earth are [[ArmedFarces overly-military and not-too-bright]].
-->Captain Grayder turned to Colonel Shelton. "His Excellency wishes to speak to that farmer." He pointed to the faraway figure.\\
"That farmer," said Shelton to Major Hame. "His Excellency wants him at once."\\
"Bring that farmer here," Hame ordered Lieutenant Deacon. "Quickly."\\
"Go get that farmer," Deacon told Sergeant Major Bid-worthy. "And hurry -- his Excellency is waiting."\\
Bidworthy sought around for a lesser rank, remembered that they were all inside, cleaning ship and not smoking, by his order. He, it seemed, was elected.

* The final season episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'' "Give And Take" had the officers passing the buck on being Charity Collection Officer, starting and ending with Winchester.

* A beautiful circular example occurs on ''Series/TheWestWing'' when Leo is delegating the relatively pointless task of picking a subject for the next postage stamp:
-->'''Josh:''' ''[laughs at Toby]''\\
'''Toby:''' What?\\
'''Josh:''' It's just... you have to do the stamp thing.\\
'''Toby:''' Leo, I could use some help with the stamp thing.\\
'''Leo:''' No problem, get Josh to handle it.\\
'''Toby:''' Congratulations, you're picking the next stamp.\\
'''Josh:''' Wow, that happened ''fast.''
* ''Series/TheNewsroom''. A woman comes into the newsroom with information about Anthony Weiner's infamous tweets. The distasteful task of conducting her pre-interview is delegated down by the entire staff until arriving at Maggie Jordan, the newest producer.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. During the Battle of Blackwater, Hand of the King Tyrion Lannister is about to put his plan into action, while doing his best to ignore King Joffrey who keeps chiming in with stupid questions.
-->'''Joffrey:''' Hound, tell the Hand that his ''king'' has asked him a question.\\
'''The Hound:''' ''([[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe exasperated]])'' The king has asked you a question.\\
'''Tyrion:''' ''(not looking up)'' Ser Lancel, tell the Hound to tell the King that the Hand is ''extremely'' busy.\\
'''Lancel:''' The Hand of the King would like me to tell ''you'' to tell the ''King'' that--
* In one episode of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', Ms Piggy asks someone to watch over her dog while she's performing. That person immediately invents an excuse as to why he can't do it and gives the task to someone else. This goes on for a while (including Gonzo's memorable excuse "[[IHaveToIronMyDog Oh my God! I left an anvil in the oven!]]") until the last person realizes that there's nobody else in the room to pass the dog off to.
* ''{{Series/Blackadder}}'': One gag demonstrates Baldrick's ButtMonkey status when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE7EjC86BHc the Prince annoys Blackadder]], Blackadder kicks the cat, the cat pounces on a mouse, the mouse bites Baldrick's rear, and if Baldrick wants to do any kicking down Blackadder says he'll have to find an earwig.
* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'': PlayedForDrama with Lieutenant Dike who has a habit of delegating everything to his junior officers and [=NCOs=] and then hangs back waiting for more orders from his superiors. This means that he rarely interacts directly with the frontline privates who lose respect for him and start viewing him as a coward. This is contrasted with First Sergeant Lipton who will delegate a task but then supervise to make sure that it is completed correctly. Dike is portrayed as an empty shell while Lipton is considered the true leader of Easy Company.
* A scene in ''Series/SiliconValley'' inverts this, showing a ''lack'' of delegation. Someone tells [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Gavin]] that a project will be ready in 6 weeks. Gavin leaves, and then the person's subordinate comes over and says that 6 weeks is impossible and Gavin should have been made aware of all the bugs in the current build. A more accurate figure is more like 6 months. The project head responds that he didn't want to upset Gavin, and leaves. Then the ''subordinate's'' subordinate comes in, asking "how could you say '6 months'? The project is way buggier than you said." "I wasn't going to tell ''them'' that!" This cycle repeats a few times.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' has Magneto and Mystique turn on Apocalypse. In an example of the "for extra fun" variation, the incredibly powerful Apocalypse summons all his henchmen, then tells the reasonably powerful Mr Sinister to kill them. Sinister then delegates this task to Vertigo, whose only power is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin giving people vertigo.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' has an interesting variant. In "Maiden Voyage", Sissi makes fun of Jérémie for his less-than-stellar performance in Phys. Ed. Jérémie asks Odd if he minds cracking a joke to get her off his back, but Odd, who has his mouth full, delegates the joke-telling to Aelita, who blows a good joke wide open.
-->'''Sissi:''' Well sourpuss, having a hard time lifting your brain with those string bean arms?\\
'''Jérémie:''' Odd, d'you mind?\\
'''Odd:''' Aelita, I hate to talk with my mouth full. Would you mind taking over?\\
'''Aelita:''' Sissi, your head is so full of helium, you can float to the top!

* ''Literature/CrossTimeEngineer'':

The task to be done gets delegated all the way to the unfortunate who is, socially or literally, at the [[ButtMonkey bottom of the ladder]]. Occasionally, perhaps with a bit of applied PolitenessJudo, the task gets delegated back to the leader himself.

* From the AfterTheEnd BMovie ''Battletruck'' (a.k.a. ''Warlords of the 21st Century'').

* ''Film/CarryOnHenry''. An envoy from the Vatican says that while the Pope is shocked at the idea, a royal divorce can be arranged... for a price. The papal envoy is asked how much of this money is being skimmed off for his own benefit, which he indignantly denies. As the Delegation Relay brings this message to King Henry the Eighth, each person doubles the price so he can skim half the bribe for himself.

----
TheBigGuy turns to TheChick. "Chick, dig a trench."

* Used for an EstablishingCharacterMoment in Creator/EricFrankRussell's ''[[http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.htm "And Then There Were None"]]'', showing the invaders from Earth are [[ArmedFarces overly-military and not-too-bright]].

* The [[WebVideo/RoosterTeethShorts Rooster Teeth short]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncePIYlE7Hc "Chain of Thought"]], which also twists this trope by having the order be carried out by the guy who first ordered it.

* One episode of the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' animated series has Magneto and Mystique turn on Apocalypse. In an example of the "for extra fun" variation, the incredibly powerful Apocalypse summons all his henchmen, then tells the reasonably powerful Mr Sinister to kill them. Sinister then delegates this task to Vertigo, whose only power is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin giving people vertigo.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MuzzyInGondoland'': When Bob is caught trying to elope with Silvia by the king, the queen, Corvax, and the army that they stuffed into their helicopter, the king gives the command "Take him away" to Corvax, who then passes it to a high ranking soldier, who passes it to another soldier, who passes it to another soldier, who then passes it to all of the other soldiers, who just keep repeating the command as a song as they all march away with Bob.

* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'': PlayedForDrama with Lieutenant Dike who has a habit of delegating everything to his junior officers and NCOs and then hangs back waiting for more orders from his superiors. This means that he rarely interacts directly with the frontline privates who lose respect for him and start viewing him as a coward. This is contrasted with First Sergeant Lipton who will delegate a task but then supervise to make sure that it is completed correctly. Dike is portrayed as an empty shell while Lipton is considered the true leader of Easy Company.

[[folder:Radio]]
* In ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'' One and Two have a fiery argument over the quality of latter's recent play for the Ministry's amateur theater, and afterwards refuse to talk to each other and try to use Mildred as a relay. She, however, isn't having any of it and quickly forces them to make an agreement.
[[/folder]]