History Main / SelfPoisoningGambit

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''Series/Scrubs'': The Janitor takes a bite of a cake he offers to J.D. to prove that it's not one of his pranks. Unlike most versions, Janitor has no immunity, and the next shot is both of them sitting in the bathroom from the laxative he put in the cake. J.D. asks, "Who would do this to themselves?!", to which Janitor replies, "Worth it!"

* ''Literature/GoldTreeAndSilverTree'' demonstrates this trope is OlderThanPrint. Gold-Tree learns that her wicked mother Silver-Tree is visiting for what she can reasonably conclude will be a third assassination attempt. However, this time, she, her husband, and [[ReplacementLoveInterest the woman her husband married when he believed Gold-Tree to be dead]] are prepared. The two princesses meet Silver-Tree as she arrives, and the second princess explains that it is regional custom for the guest to take first drink, thus compelling Silver-Tree to drink the same potion she intended to give Gold-Tree. From there, the princesses and their prince live HappilyEverAfter.

->'''Vizzini:''' ''I switched glasses when your back was turned. Ha ha! YouFool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders[...]never go in against a Sicilian when ''death'' is on the line! [EvilLaugh for a few seconds, then stops abruptly and falls over dead]''\\
'''Buttercup:''' ''And to think, all that time it was your cup that was poisoned.''\\
'''The Man in Black''': ''They were both poisoned. I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.''

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' features a "battle of wits" between Vizzini and the Man in Black. The Man in Black sets up two goblets of wine, shows Vizzini a [[PerfectPoison rare, odorless, and colorless poison powder]] then challenges Vizzini to determine which goblet is poisoned. Vizzini does a LookBehindYou and then does the PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, and makes his choice about which goblet to drink. Vizzini then waits for the the Man in Black to drink, and when the Man in Black does so with no hesitation, it leads Vizzini to believe that the Man in Black thought he was drinking from the "safe" cup, which Vizzini now has thanks to the switch, so he drinks too thinking that he has won. The Man in Black had AcquiredPoisonImmunity and [[XanatosGambit had poisoned both cups]], leaving Vizzini OutGambitted (and dead).

[[folder:Film — Animated]]
* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma's plan to poison Kuzco fails because Kronk forgot which cup had the poison, so he had to mix all the drinks together and he and Yzma only pretend to drink with Kuzco. It didn't matter anyway if they had, since Kronk had used extract of llama instead of poison, and only succeeds in turning Kuzco into a llama.

* In ''Exiled: Clan of the Claw'', a Mrem slave tells the ambitious Liskash princess how her seemingly weak PsychicPowers can be used to kill, and talks her into getting herself a KlingonPromotion. He then serves poisoned wine at her coronation dinner, wiping out the Liskash leadership and allowing the Mrem to stage a breakout. When the new queen challenges the slave to drink some of the wine himself before she has any, he does so with a smile, knowing that he's buying freedom for his friends.
-->'''Mrem:''' ''[to dying Liskash queen with his last breath]'' IDieFree. I die for my people. You just die.

-->--''Film/ThePrincessBride''

* A variation is used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. In that episode it's revealed that [[FatIdiot Barry acts the way he does]] because of the pills he takes every day, pills that Stan convinced him to throw away. Off his medication, Barry becomes smarter as well as [[FatBastard meaner,]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] and even talks with a [[EvilBrit British accent.]] Things go back to normal after Steve prepares some drinks and dares Barry to guess which one contains a dose of the meds, and leads to Steve revealing that he spiked both drinks, and consequently Steve acts like Barry until the medication wears off.

* This is how how Gus defeats [[TheCartel the Juarez Cartel]] in ''Series/BreakingBad''. Gus brings a rare and expensive bottle of tequila (which is of course poisoned) to the meeting with the heads of the Cartel where they think Gus is going to surrender to them. [[TheDon Don Eladio]], who is ProperlyParanoid, refuses to drink until after Gus does so. Gus apparently anticipated this, as shortly before the toast he took a pill of some kind and shortly afterward he excuses himself, goes to a bathroom, and tries to vomit up the poison. [[DeconstructedTrope Gus is still affected by the poison and would have died without prompt medical care]], but he fares better than the heads of the Cartel, who drop like flies within minutes.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' features a "battle of wits" between Vizzini and the Man in Black. The Man in Black sets up two goblets of wine, shows Vizzini a [[PerfectPoison rare, odorless, and colorless poison powder]] then challenges Vizzini to determine which goblet is poisoned. Vizzini does a LookBehindYou and then does the PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, and makes his choice about which goblet to drink. Vizzini then waits for the the Man in Black to drink, and when the Man in Black does so with no hesitation, it leads Vizzini to believe that the Man in Black thought he was drinking from the "safe" cup, which Vizzini now has thanks to the switch, so he drinks too thinking that he has won. The Man in Black had AcquiredPoisonImmunity and [[XanatosGambit had poisoned both cups]], leaving Vizzini OutGambitted (and dead).
* In ''[[Film/{{Red}} Red 2]]'' when Bailey is in custody he gets rid of his captors by sliding open the bottom of his shoe to reveal an ampule of nerve gas and a syringe of antidote. He gives himself the antidote and gasses everyone else around.

* This pops up several times in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** At the start of the second book, Stannis' HonestAdvisor Cressen, who loves Stannis [[LikeASonToMe like a son]], attempts to do this to the AmbiguouslyEvil [[EvilSorceror Sorceress]] Melisandre, who he feels is leading Stannis astray. He expects this to be a TakingYouWithMe, however Melisandre is protected by her magic, (and foresaw the event beforehand and gave Cressen a chance to back out) while Cressen dies.
** [[Literature/ArchmaesterGyldaynsHistories In a prequel story]], a DragonRider named Ulf the White turns into TheStarscream in the middle of a civil war and opts to try to crown himself king. A knight from the side Ulf was fighting for comes to talk with him bringing poisoned wine, but Ulf suspects something is up and won't drink until the other man does. The knight quaffs a whole glass, after which Ulf drinks too and they both die.

* A similar incident happened in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', where a tolnedran politician killed another by sharing with them a poison that kills the drinker if they get angry.
* In the Literature/LordPeterWimsey novel ''Strong Poison'', [[spoiler:the villain shares a poisoned omelette with the victim after building up a tolerance to arsenic]]. [[note]]Arsenic does not actually work this way. Unless you have a rare natural immunity, there is no way of creating a tolerance for arsenic, and taking it in small doses will simply cause it to build up in your body, (which cannot process or remove the arsenic) until you hit the lethal dose level and it suddenly kills you.[[/note]]

** In Marlfox, Queen Silth is offered wine by her daughter Lantur. After a round of IKnowYouKnowIKnow PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, a panicking Lantur drinks the wine from her own cup and collapses, Silth drains the wine from the remaining cup... and dies, as Lantur reveals the poison was in Silth's cup the entire time.

* Several Creator/AgathaChristie novels have this.
** In ''Literature/DeathComesAsTheEnd'', the murderer deliberately drinks poisoned wine [[spoiler:before his brother comes to join him, being sure to only drink enough to make him sick. Because he is known as a man of moderation, while his brother tends towards excess, no one is surprised that he has only consumed a little of the wine and survives, while his brother consumes a lot and dies. And because he was the first to drink the wine, it looks like he was the killer's target and the brother was collateral damage.]]
** In ''Literature/SadCypress'', the murderer consumes the same amount of poison as the victim [[spoiler:but has an injection of apomorphine ready at hand and is able to throw it all up at time]].
** In ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'', [[spoiler:Hercule Poirot]] uses his own sleeping pills to render another man unconscious, putting them into both his and his victim's cups. As he had been taking these pills for years, he has a degree of immunity to them himself.
** Brought up in ''4:50 from Paddington'': when the whole family is poisoned and the housekeeper is all right, the latter is suspected at first, until another character points out that any intelligent poisoner would have been careful to pull the gambit. [[spoiler:As it turns out, that character, the family doctor, was the real murderer, so there ''was'' no self-poisoning after all]].
* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', Dr. Yueh Wellington put a poison capsule tooth on Duke Leto Atreides's mouth and told him that when he gets captured by the Harkonnens and delivered to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen himself, he must bite the capsule when the Baron goes near him in order to ensure that the poisoned gas would be released. Since they're both aware that Leto would not make out of this alive, Yueh reassures to him that Jessica and Paul are safe and out of the Harkonnens' way. [[spoiler:The plan nearly worked except Leto only got to kill the Harkonnen's mentat, Piter de Vries, and several soldiers while the Baron was lucky to step out of the distance]].
* In the Creator/DashiellHammett [[Literature/TheContinentalOp Continental Op]] short story "Fly Paper" (1929) a woman wants to poison her abusive boyfriend, but is afraid he'll be suspicious if she gives him something without drinking it herself. After reading ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' she takes small doses of arsenic (extracted from flypaper) to build up an AcquiredPoisonImmunity, but instead fatally poisons herself. In discussing the case afterward the detectives reveal that the book is wrong; while some people have a natural resistance to arsenic, it's not possible to build up an immunity through controlled exposure. The poison of choice in ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' is in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucine Brucine]], and '''is''' subject to Mithridatism.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' [[spoiler:President Snow attempts this with mixed results, as no antidote is perfect and he suffers from mouth ulcers, giving him a permanent smell of blood.]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* When [[TheCaptain Captain Sheridan]] is captured in ''Series/BabylonFive'', he is DeniedFoodAsPunishment for several days to soften him up before [[TortureTechnician an interrogator]] begins torturing him into a FalseConfession. During one of the earliest stages of interrogation, the interrogator begins eating a sandwich right in front of the ravenously hungry Sheridan, and offers Sheridan a piece if Sheridan says what the interrogator wants to hear. Sheridan uses some ExactWords to TakeAThirdOption, and the interrogator appears impressed enough to give Sheridan the food anyway. Sheridan gets paranoid just before eating, until the interrogator points out "You saw me eating it, didn't you?" Sure enough, later in the scene the interrogator reveals that he has AcquiredPoisonImmunity, and the food makes Sheridan sick.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Jeopardy Room". A Soviet commissar tricks a defector into drinking wine mixed with a sleep drug by drinking first. He [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity built up an immunity to the drug by repeatedly taking increasing doses over time]].
* In ''Series/{{Versailles}}'', the lover of Fabien Marchal, [[UsefulNotes/LouisXIV the king]]'s chief of security, is in reality a spy from the faction who wanted to take down Louis XIV. After making fall him in love, she gives Fabien a "love potion" which both drink before making out, just to see her later vomit it thanks to some ingredients she ate previously that would throw out the poison. Later, Fabien is seen not well, including IncurableCoughOfDeath and BloodFromTheMouth.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' Anakin and Obi-wan are partying with Hondo's crew of pirates, and are savvy enough to discretely swap drinks with two of the pirates. But then it turns out all the drinks were drugged and they wake up in a cell.
* A variation is used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. In that episode it's revealed that [[FatIdiot Barry acts the way he does]] because of the pills he takes every day, pills that Stan convinced him to throw away. Off his medication, Barry becomes smarter as well as [[FatBastard meaner,]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] and even talks with a [[EvilBrit British accent.]] Things go back to normal after Steve prepares some drinks and dares Barry to guess which one contains a dose of the meds, and leads to Steve revealing that he spiked both drinks, and consequently Steve acts like Barry until the medication wears off.
[[/folder]]

** In ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'', [[spoiler:Hercule Poirot]] uses his own sleeping pills to render another man unconscious. A

* In the Creator/AgathaChristie novel ''Literature/DeathComesAsTheEnd'', the murderer deliberately drinks poisoned wine [[spoiler:before his brother comes to join him, being sure to only drink enough to make him sick. Because he is known as a man of moderation, while his brother tends towards excess, no one is surprised that he has only consumed a little of the wine and survives, while his brother consumes a lot and dies. And because he was the first to drink the wine, it looks like he was the killer's target and the brother was collateral damage.]]

** Swartt Sixclaw gets rid of a rival warlord by offering him wine and an ornate cup to drink it from. The warlord has his GiantMook drink first before drinking, both enjoying the wine. The next morning, the latter two are found dead, and when the captain interrogates Swartt, he drinks the rest of the wine to prove it isn't poisoned (the wine wasn't poisoned, but the cup was).

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' features a "battle of wits" between Vizzini and the Man in Black. The Man in Black sets up two goblets of wine, shows Vizzini a [[PerfectPoison rare, odorless, and colorless poison powder]] then challenges Vizzini to determine which goblet is poisoned. Vizzini does a LookBehindYou and then does the PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, and makes his choice about which goblet to drink. Vizzini then waits for the the Man in Black to drink, and when the Man in Black does so with no hesitation, it leads Vizzini to believe that the Man in Black thought he was drinking from the "safe" cup, which Vizzini now has thanks to the switch, so he drinks too thinking that he has won. The Man in Black had AcquiredPoisonImmunity and [[XanatosGambit had poisoned both cups]], leaving Vizzini OutGambitted.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' features a "battle of wits" between Vizzini and the Man in Black. The Man in Black sets up two goblets of wine, shows Vizzini a [[PerfectPoison rare, odorless, and colorless poison powder]] then challenges Vizzini to determine which goblet is poisoned. Vizzini does a LookBehindYou and then does the PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, and makes his choice about which goblet to drink. Vizzini then waits for the the Man in Black to drink, and when the Man in Black does so with no hesitation, it leads Vizzini to believe that the Man in Black thought he was drinking from the "safe" cup, which Vizzini now has thanks to the switch, so he drinks too thinking that he has won. Of course, the Man in Black famously had AcquiredPoisonImmunity and [[XanatosGambit had poisoned both cups]], leaving Vizzini OutGambitted.

* In the Literature/LordPeterWimsey novel ''Strong Poison'', [[spoiler:the villain shares a poisoned omelette with the victim after building up a tolerance to arsenic]]. [note]Arsenic does not actually work this way. Unless you have a rare natural immunity, there is no tolerance for arsenic, and taking it in small doses will simply cause it to build up in your body until you hit a lethal dose and it suddenly kills you.[/note]