History Main / PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E11DookuCaptured "Dooku Captured"]], Obi-Wan and Anakin use TheForce to pull this trick off on a gang of pirates. But then they get knocked out anyway between episodes [[AllThereInTheManual because the lead pirate's pet sees them and uses a gas to knock out]] ''everyone''.

''Literature/{{Lux}}'': Wingflare proposes a more complicated variant of this as a game for Jax and Paige. She presents them with three plates of licorice: One is laced with pine-nut extract (which is harmless to Jax or Paige, but which Wingflare is fatally allergic to and unable to regenerate from due to her [[KryptoniteFactor weakness]]), one is laced with ricin (which will kill Jax or Paige, but which Wingflare can recover from with her gifted healing, and one is just licorice. Jax has to choose who will eat from which plate: does he give Wingflare the licorice with the pine-nuts and kill her at the cost of forcing himself or Paige to eat the licorice with the ricin and die of that, or does he give Wingflare the licorice with the ricin and let all three live. [[spoiler: As Jax figures out, it's all a trick. All three plates are just licorice, and Wingflare isn't allergic to pine nuts]].

* ''Series/{{Dracula}}: The Series'': A variation; the involved parties are both vampires and the "poison" is holy water. The exchange happens right in front of the poisoner who doesn't notice due to Dracula's fast reflexes.

* The very first ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' cartoon in ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' featured the black spy and white spy both subtly disposing of the tea they were supposed to be having by tipping it onto the floor. Two cats see the tea and lap it up, and are shown dead in the final panel.
** Another cartoo subverted it. One Spy had a ring they were using to poison the other spy's tea. The other Spy doesn't ''have'' to switch cups. Their own ring has a tiny fan that blows the poison into the first Spy's teacup while it's pouring.

* ''LIterature/{{Discworld}}'', ''Literature/{{Mort}}'': When Mort, who is [[SubbingForSanta subbing for Death]], visits the Agatean Court, a poisoned piece of squishi goes back and forth between the vizier and the emperor's bowls as each thinks of a better reason for the other to eat it.
* ''Literature/DreamOfTheRedChamber'': Xia Jingui's attempt to poison Xiangling in [[DisproportionateRetribution revenge for inadvertently breaking up her potential tryst]] ends with Jingui [[HoistByHisOwnPetard taking the poison intended for Xiangling]] because [[SpannerInTheWorks the maid Jingui tasks with caring for Xiangling in her sickbed switches the bowls around without knowing the one Jinqui intends for Xiangling is poisoned]][[note]](to elaborate further: the maid in question, who feels resentful at being tasked with caring for Xiangling, a fellow maid, decides to play a prank as payback by placing a large number of salt into the bowl she intends for Xiangling, but, upon witnessing Jinqui, who prepares to drink the soup with Xiangling under the pretense of looking after her, swapping the bowls, switches the bowls yet again to escape any potential reprimands from Jinqui for consuming the much-too-salty soup)[[/note]], which results in [[KarmicDeath Jinqui being the victim of her own poison]].

* ''Literature/DreamOfTheRedChamber'': [[DisproportionateRetribution Xia Jingui's attempt to poison Xiangling in revenge for inadvertently breaking up her potential tryst]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ends with Jingui taking the poison that was intended for Xiangling]] because [[SpannerInTheWorks the maid Jingui tasks with caring for Xiangling in her sickbed switches the bowls around without knowing the one Jinqui intends for Xiangling is poisoned]][[note]](to elaborate further: the maid in question, who feels resentful at being tasked with caring for Xiangling, a fellow maid, decides to play a prank as payback by placing a large number of salt into the bowl she intends for Xiangling, but, upon witnessing Jinqui, who prepares to drink the soup with Xiangling under the pretense of looking after her, swapping the bowls, switches the bowls yet again to escape any potential reprimands from Jinqui for consuming the much-too-salty soup)[[/note]], which results in [[KarmicDeath Jinqui being the victim of her own poison]].

* It's "bowl" instead of "chalice" in ''Literature/DreamOfTheRedChamber'', but the premise is the same otherwise. [[DisproportionateRetribution Xia Jingui's attempt to poison Xiangling in revenge for inadvertently breaking up her potential tryst]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ends with Jingui taking the poison that was intended for Xiangling]] because [[SpannerInTheWorks the maid Jingui tasks with caring for Xiangling in her sickbed switches the bowls around without knowing the one Jinqui intends for Xiangling is poisoned]][[note]](to elaborate further: the maid in question, who feels resentful at being tasked with caring for Xiangling, a fellow maid, decides to play a prank as payback by placing a large number of salt into the bowl she intends for Xiangling, but, upon witnessing Jinqui, who prepares to drink the soup with Xiangling under the pretense of looking after her, swapping the bowls, switches the bowls yet again to escape any potential reprimands from Jinqui for consuming the much-too-salty soup)[[/note]], which results in [[KarmicDeath Jinqui being the victim of her own poison]].

* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', there is some in-story discussion of this trope as used by the Borgias. According to one of the men, the chalice contained a secret compartment that released the poison when the cupfiller needed, thus allowing him to serve an entire row of cardinals with only one in the middle one dying.

* It's "bowl" instead of "chalice" in ''Literature/DreamOfTheRedChamber'', but the premise is the same otherwise. [[DisproportionateRetribution Xia Jingui's attempt to poison Xiangling in revenge for inadvertently breaking up her potential tryst]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ends with Jingui taking the poison that was intended for Xiangling]] because [[SpannerInTheWorks the maid Jingui tasks with caring for Xiangling in her sickbed switches the bowls around without knowing the one Jinqui intends for Xiangling is poisoned]][[note]](to elaborate further: the maid in question, who feels resentful at being tasked with caring for Xiangling, a fellow maid, decides to play a prank as payback by placing a large number of salt into the bowl she intends for Xiangling, but, upon witnessing Jinqui, who prepares to drink the soup with Xiangling under the pretense of looking after her, swapping the bowls, switching the bowls yet again to escape any potential reprimands from Jinqui for consuming the much-too-salty soup)[[/note]], which results in [[KarmicDeath Jinqui being the victim of her own poison]].

* {{Inverted}} in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', when Fiona's father the King brings two cups of tea into Fiona's room, one of which he had spiked with a love potion as part of a ploy to get her to marry Prince Charming. Fiona reaches for one cup, but the King says that he wants to drink that one (because it's "decaf"). Fiona obliges and drinks the cup that the King offered to her. At the movie's climax, it's revealed to the audience that the King had actually changed his mind at the last second, instead giving Fiona the untainted cup. The [[RewatchBonus attentive viewer]] can catch that the king switched the cups after putting in the potion.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' had "when dumb animals commit murder", with a cat bringing a dog some wine and loudly and pointedly stating that [[BlatantLies the glass nearest to the dog was not poisoned.]]

* In ''Series/PoliceSquad'' a woman poisoned one of two drinks. It worked, but I'm sure she drank the one with the poison with it. This may have been on purpose; after all, ''Series/PoliceSquad'' was famous for never letting a moment go by without a joke, and packed tons of subtle jokes in-between the over-the-top sight gags.

* In ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', Scott pulls this: after the vegan bass player Todd bests him in a bass battle, Scott attempts to reconcile with him by offering a coffee with soy milk in it. However, as Todd has PsychicPowers as a result of his veganism ([[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum yeah, we know]]), he knows Scott's actually "poisoned" the cup with half-and-half, so he takes the one Scott is going to drink... but it turns out Scott offered him the one with soy milk and held the non-vegan cup close, and merely thought really hard about doing it the other way. The vegan police then come and take away Todd's powers for breaking the code ([[MundaneMadeAwesome yeah, we know]]).
** An AdaptationDistillation from the comics, where Scott had nothing to do with Todd's downfall, beyond [[LampshadeHanging hoping for "some kind of... like... last minute, poorly-set-up deus ex machina"]]. They still keep another element, though. It's not his first time to go against veganism...

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' features a subversion. After going through a long and increasingly incoherent IKnowYouKnowIKnow, Vizzini [[LookOverThere distracts]] the Man In Black and switches the goblets, then carefully waits for his opponent to drink first (since presumably the Man In Black would try to weasel out of drinking if he thought he was about to drink from the poisoned cup). Turns out the Man In Black [[SelfPoisoningGambit poisoned]] [[XanatosGambit both chalices]], revealing to Buttercup afterward that [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity he had built up a tolerance to the poison used]]. Ironically, ''both'' sides of his IKnowYouKnowIKnow were correct — "I cannot choose the wine in front of you" and "I cannot choose the wine in front of me" — even though he was only using them to fish for a reaction.
** And best of all, the Man in Black was playing fair — he never said his opponent had to choose a goblet, only that he had to drink. Vizzini could have avoided danger by refusing both goblets and [[TakeAThirdOption drinking out of the bottle.]]

* ''Film/TheCourtJester'' has an early parody of this trope, although it was trying to remember which cup was poisoned, rather than switching them.
** And there is the truly brilliant rhyme they use to try and remember. [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049096/quotes "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!]]
*** It's only in the flagon with the dragon because they broke the chalice from the palace.

* Creator/AbbottAndCostello sometimes did a variation: Lou gets a necklace from a mysterious woman, detective comes by and says a mysterious woman just stole a necklace, then Lou tries to hide it in Bud's hamburger so they don't get blamed for it. Eventually, Lou ends up eating it, just as the detective comes back and mentions there's a reward for it.

* {{Inverted}} in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', when Fiona's father the King brings two cups of tea into Fiona's room, one of which he had spiked with a love potion as part of a ploy to get her to marry Prince Charming. Fiona reaches for one cup, but the King says that he wants to drink that one (because it's "decaf"). Fiona obliges and drinks the cup that the King offered to her. At the movie's climax, it's revealed to the audience that the King had actually changed his mind at the last second, instead giving Fiona the untainted cup.

* Done in a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short where Bugs and Yosemite Sam keep swapping drinks. Bugs eventually starts the whole table spinning. Sam stops the table and forces Bugs to drink at gunpoint. He still gets the wrong glass.

** Turned UpToEleven in ''Film/TheNaughtyNineties'', where Costello's character ends up having a drink with the BigBad. At one point Costello loses track of who has the poison, so he dumps it into a potted plant. ThatPoorPlant withers away and dies, prompting Costello to wipe his glass out ''very thoroughly.''

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Steve Martin, always eager to protect his status as hosting the show more times than anybody else, once did a skit where he attempted to maintain his status by poisoning Tom Hanks before he could tie the record, by slipping poison from his ring into Tom's whiskey. A series of switcharoos took place before Tom Hanks pulled a fake switcharoo. Steve Martin, now suspecting that, decided to throw out the whiskey and order champagne, which he again poisoned. After another couple switcharoos, Tom resolved the issue by punching Steve in the jaw. Only then did Steve find out that this was only Tom Hank's fifteenth time hosting, meaning he was still one short of tying Steve. Both of them felt very foolish.

* {{Inverted}} in the fantasy film ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', when Fiona's father the King brings two cups of tea into Fiona's room, one of which he had spiked with a love potion as part of a ploy to get her to marry Prince Charming. After talking for a bit, Fiona reaches for one cup, but the King, succumbing to guilt, nervously tells her to drink the other, making up a transparent excuse about one of them being decaf. Fiona obliges, having no reason to be suspicious of her father. At the movie's climax, it's revealed to the audience that the King had actually changed his mind at the last second, instead giving Fiona the untainted cup.

* Subverted in a terrifically cool way in the Hong Kong movie ''Color of the Truth''. Evil Mob Boss visits Hired Mooks in their hideout bearing celebratory bottles of wine. Head Hired Mook suspects this trope, so he demands that Evil Mob Boss takes a swig of the wine first - which he does. Evil Mob Boss leaves the Mooks to their party, then rushes out to a trailer truck parked a short distance away - in which a mobile medical unit is waiting to ''pump the poison out of his stomach.''

* ''Series/GetSmart''. Max is dining out with a female KAOS agent. She is trying to give him a knockout pill, while Max is attempting to spike her drink with truth serum. Both of them keep pointing out things to look at behind the other's back, so they can switch drinks. It ends with Max telling everything he knows to the KAOS agent, who is fast asleep.

** It actually works out well for him-in the end he is correct. The real trick is that there are four candles: trapped short, trapped long, normal short and normal long. Gon's opponent would give him the trapped candle with whatever one he chose, then picked the non-trapped version for himself. But since the contest was to see who's candle goes out first, he just blows on the other guy's normal candle and wins.

* ''ComicBook/AlanFord'': the volume ''New Year's Party'' features a young, hot but greedy artist named Ramon planning to poison his older lover and source of income to inherit her goods, doing so by poisoning her champagne cup. Unfortunately, he had to leave the cups alone for a few moments, which lead to his bumbling sideckicks swapping the two chalices by mistake. In the end, Ramon ends up being forced to drink the poison by his lover at gun point, suffering a KarmicDeath.

* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' had a variation with salt in milk, between Jason and Peter with multiple switches and some alleged fake switches, culminating in the line "We're trying to figure out which of us should be throwing up right now." Turned out Paige had somehow gotten the salt.

* ''Film/ConfessionsOfADangerousMind'' had a fairly straight use of the trope. Patricia brings Chuck Barris a tray with two drinks; Chuck's is poisoned. She loses her attention for a moment, then comes back and notices the tray has been reversed. While Chuck isn't looking, she reverses it again. [[spoiler:And she winds up choking to death on poison. Chuck hadn't reversed the tray, he just moved the objects on the tray around to make it look like he had.]]

* Although not involving poison, the alternate ending to ''Film/{{Die Hard with a Vengeance}}'' plays with this trope. John [=McClane=] faces off with Simon Gruber, a rocket launcher with the sights removed on the table between them. They play the Simon Says game, with the rocket being turned each time Simon Gruber answers a question correctly. Eventually he gets a question wrong, so John tells him to pull the trigger. However Simon turns the rocket launcher one more time before doing so, convinced the muzzle will then be facing towards John. He's wrong.

* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'', Jack Sparrow lies about which chalice contains the mermaid tear, and thus will grant life, while the other one will drain life. [[spoiler: Blackbeard values his own life more than that of his daughter, drinks the one he thinks will give life, and ends up dying.]]

* Played with in ''Film/PrinceValiant1997''. The villain spikes Princess Ilene's goblet with some kind of potion (love potion, sleeping potion... wasn't made clear). Ilene distracts him, switches goblets, and pours candle wax into his goblet. The villain get suspicious and switches them back. He drinks first, and as he chokes on the wax, Ilene escapes.

* ''Film/TheSerpentAndTheRainbow'': After the first time Dennis buys powder that's supposed to cause cause comas/serve as an anesthetic from Mozart and realizes that it’s rat poison, he palms the actual bottle with a different one which he pours into a glass and then drinks, alarming Mozart, before dismissing it as piss.

''[They acknowledge him and drink. The bishop's face contorts. Seconds later, he collapses, dead. The brothers look uncomprehendingly at their cups, and then eye each other suspiciously. Tertius breaks the atmosphere with a laugh, which turns into wheezing, then starts having convulsions, and dies]''\\

* In Creator/RobinHobb's ''Literature/{{Farseer}}'' trilogy, [=FitzChivalry=] ostensibly poisons his "victim"'s glass, and gives him his own. He later takes a few sips of that unpoisoned glass, before noticing, a little too late, that [[spoiler:the ''bottle'' had been poisoned by the EvilPrince. He barely survives, the victim doesn't]].

* ''Literature/InDeath'': Non-lethal drug example. Whenever [[{{Determinator}} Eve]] goes too long without sleep in the middle of a case, Roarke will usually try to push food and sedatives on her. On one occasion, she switches their bowls of soup with a snarky comment and starts to eat -- only to fall asleep. Roarke makes fun of her for for it before she goes under.
* ''Literature/TheInitiateBrother'' has a case where the cups are being switched by the poisoner so as to poison himself. Kogami Norimasa is given non-negotiable orders to poison Shuyun under guise of sharing a drink, but because Shuyun cured his daughter, he wants to back out. Rather than let Shuyun drink the poison, he ensures that it's him who ends up with that cup, leaving Shuyun alive and himself beyond his master's retribution.
* ''Literature/{{Nation}}'', by Creator/TerryPratchett: Half-averted, half-subverted. In order to prevent two men from killing the islanders (and after they had already killed one), Daphne gets them alone and poisons them with undiluted beer. Foxlip, the one who had killed, does ''not'' switch the cups as per the trope, instead having Daphne mix the drinks together so they all get the same. Like ''Princess Bride'', all the cups were poisoned. Unlike ''Princess Bride'', it wasn't that Daphne was immune so much as understood the trick to make the beer safe: Spitting into the beer to neutralize the poison, and singing the ritual beer song to count time it takes to work. Daphne did this right in front of the men and asked they do it too, knowing that they would never partake in "pagan mumbo jumbo". As a result, Foxlip drank and died. The other man survived only because of continued suspicion but was sent running soon after.

** It also occurs in ''Outcast of Redwall''. Swartt convinces Bowfleg that the wine isn't poisoned by drinking some of it straight from the bottle. That's because the poison is actually smeared onto the rim of the goblet that Bowfleg drinks from. The trick is pulled at least once more, and is later subverted by a fox who realized the trick (he's gotten rid of in a less direct way).
* In the Literature/SherlockHolmes adventure ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', the killer uses a variant to get revenge on the people who kidnapped his fiancee, [[TechnicalPacifist without directly killing them.]] He corners each victim and produces two pills, forcing the victim to choose one and he agrees to take the other. The twist is that he deliberately has no idea which is poison, but trusts in fate to punish the guilty. This breaks down when one victim refuses to pick (and instead attacks the perpetrator), forcing the killer to stab him.

* Invoked and played with in the French novel ''The Orange Trees of Versailles'', the heroine learns the royal mistress is trying to poison the Queen and lets the king know. He decides to go the dramatic road and exchange his and the Queen's desserts, letting his mistress think she's actually poisonning him. "Luckily", he has her dog taste it first, and the animal dies in seconds, letting everyone believe someone tried to murder the king.

* Done once on ''Series/TheATeam'' involving a drugged hamburger, as they had knock out BA before flying anywhere. Hannibal gave each person hamburger. BA got wise and switched burgers with Murdock, who take a couple of bites and collapsed. BA then eats the burger he took from him - and collapses. Murdock then "miraculously" revives and asks, "How did I do?"

* Played quite straight in the German comedy ''Klimbim'': 1st round, the heroine switches the chalices, 2nd round, the villainess switches the chalices, 3rd round, the heroine FEIGNS to switch the chalices, 4th round, the villainess switches the chalices. Glug Glug Glug. Hey, you should drop dead now. Drat. Since the villainess isn't completely stupid, she does NOT drink her glass, but don't worry, she gets what she deserves eventually.

* A recurring [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZOoKCOWlbs series of sketches]] on ''[[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook The Mitchell And Webb Situation]]'' was of a servant trying to poison his sick master. In one of them, the servant suspiciously suggests they should have drinks together, and brings in two drink glasses on a rotating tray. But the master catches on quickly and starts spinning the tray around repeatedly until the servant loses track of the poisoned glass. The servant then decides that they should just have drinks later.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Steve Martin, always eager to protect his status as hosting the show more times than anybody else, once did a skit where he attempted to maintain his status by poisoning Tom Hanks before he could tie the record, by slipping poison from his ring into Tom's whiskey. A series of switcharoos took place, before Tom Hanks pulled a fake switcharoo. Steve Martin, now suspecting that, decided to throw out the whiskey and order champagne, which he again poisoned. After another couple switcharoos Tom resolved the issue by punching Steve in the jaw. Only then did Steve find out that this was only Tom Hank's fifteenth time hosting, meaning he was still one short of tying Steve. Both of them felt very foolish.

* Wrestling/TripleH did this with Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon when the latter drugged his water bottle so he would lose consciousness and would have no choice but to join Wrestling/VinceMcMahon’s "[[AssShove Kiss My Ass]]" club. Remembering what happened to Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Triple H got Shane distracted, and switched water bottles, so Shane drank the drugged water instead. Later that night, Triple H pulled a WoundedGazelleGambit on Vince, and acted like he was under the influence of the drugged water. When Shane lost consciousness instead, Triple H got up, and took down Vince with a pedigree.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}} VCR Mystery Game'': This happens multiple times during the dinner scene. It reaches the point were no one ends up eating anything at dinner as no one is sure what has been poisoned and what hasn't. If one pays close attention, the viewer can find one serving on the table that isn't poisoned, but only because the first person to start serving food served himself before trying to poison everyone else's helpings.

* OlderThanSteam: Creator/WilliamShakespeare [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples did it]] in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Specifically, it was done with ''swords''. Laertes cut Hamlet with a poisoned sword in a fencing match, and in the ensuing scuffle Hamlet took Laertes' sword and cut him as well. In the exact same scene, Gertrude (accidentally or not, depending on the director) drinks the poisoned wine Claudius meant to use on Hamlet if the sword trick failed.

** An early 2014 revamp to the Holy Macguffin quest involves an alternate route to get the two halves of the Talisman 'O Nam. Crime lord Shen Copperhead [[RunningGag keeps poisoning you]] into getting various artifacts for him, and one attempt involves him switching around poisoned glasses of champagne.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuest2015'' Episode 1, the final challenge is a battle of wits against Graham's fellow Knight candidate Manny, playing a chess-like game with the added caveat of three goblets of raisin juice, one of which has been drugged with a TruthSerum-like potion. Subverted in that while you ''can'' switch the goblets, it doesn't do any good; you'll always end up drinking the potion. The real solution is to use the recoloring potion you got earlier in the game to mark the poisoned goblet (turning the raisin juice orange, [[FailedASpotCheck which Manny somehow fails to notice]]). This is just one of many {{Actor Allusion}}s to ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', since Manny is voiced by Wallace Shawn.

* ''Videogame/{{Sorcery}}'': A witch who offers the Analander a drink actually poisoned her own cup to test their trust. If you don't switch the cups, she poisons herself; staggers out of the room to grab the antidote and then comes back to talk business.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', the obviously gay Xoan ambassador who is friends with the Apprentice's Mistress offers the Apprentice poisoned food claiming it's all the rage and pours the antidote over his penis in hopes that the apprentice will have to suck it off. The Apprentice says he's going to his room to write a letter to the Mistress saying the Xoan ambassador murdered him. However, when the Ambassador tries to turn it into a mystery drama, including offering a locket with the ambassador's picture inside (which he has a bag of), the apprentice says he doesn't believe it was poison. Later the Mistress calls the Apprentice in to punish him for being in the room that the ambassador had called him to; only for him to collapse from poison causing the ambassador to yell "He's been poisoned!". Later still, when he's sent to be cured in an painfully disturbing way, the ambassador reveals the Apprentice made a smart move because the antidote was poison as well.