History Main / ShellGame

** In ''VideoGame/PaperMario'':
** Out back of Koopa Village, you have to play a "shell game" where the prize is... Kooper's shell! The Fuzzy with the shell climbs the tree, then trades places with Fuzzies in other trees several times. Then you have to whack a tree. If it's the wrong tree, you'll have to fight a Fuzzy; if it's the right one, you go to the next round, where they switch around faster. Win that, and you move on to the final round, where they switch even faster. Win that, and you get the shell to give to Kooper.
** Also, on Shiver Mountain and in Crystal Palace, there will be a few points where you have to use Kooper or Bombette, and once you do, there will be one or more Duplighosts mimicking the partner, and you have to decide which is the real one and which are the fakes. This involves watching what they say. (The Duplighosts with the "worst disguises ever" don't count.)

* When you attempt a quest in ''VideoGame/{{Armello]]'', ten icons appear in a circle, are obfuscated, and then spin. The number of "winning" icons depends on your score in the stat used for the quest.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast: A Board Game Adventure'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, the "Where's Chip?" mini-game involves Chip shuffling himself among his similar-looking brothers and sisters. Played with in that you have to find the right-looking cup, not what's underneath it.

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. At the start of "One Eyed Jacks", Amy is demonstrating Three Card Monte for Frank Castle, who is unable to pick the right card despite repeated demonstrations. Amy tries to teach Frank that the smart move is not to play (with the implication that he should learn to walk away from fights [[BloodKnight instead of trying to win them]]). Frank disagrees, saying the only smart move is to make sure that you're the dealer.

* The ''Literature/WolfHall'' trilogy is historical fiction about the life of Thomas Cromwell, who rose from humble beginnings to become the most powerful man in UsefulNotes/HenryVIII's court. A scene early in the trilogy depicts the young Cromwell supporting himself by running a "find the lady" game; later, the adult Cromwell remarks that as Henry's right hand man he's doing the same thing only on a much larger scale.

Notably, the key element of most shell games is that just ''playing'' the game means you lose the game; if you're playing it, you're not paying attention to what the guy running it is actually doing - the KansasCityShuffle. [[RewardingInactivity The only winning move is not to play]].

* A variation is used in ''Manga/OnePiece'' during the Alabasta arc. The Baroque Works Officers are assigned to take out Vivi before she can get to the Rebel Army. However, when the Straw Hats arrive on the Supersonic Duck Squad, they're all wearing the same cloak and hid their faces, so the agents couldn't tell which one was Vivi. When the group split up, the Agents did the same to chase after them. It was then revealed that none of the people in the group were Vivi, the sixth member of the group being Eyelashes the camel. The real Vivi had stayed behind [[WeNeedADistraction while the Straw Hats led the agents away]].

* In Brian Jacques' ''The Angel's Command'', Ben and Ned come across two sea captains playing a shell game in a tavern, and call out the one who's cheating; this endears them to the other, who takes them on board his ship as good luck charms.

* In a ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'' episode, a gambler playing the shell game easily swindles Karadoc out of all his gold. When he tries this with [[TheRainman Perceval]], however, he soon discovers that TheFool just cannot be beaten at this game, a talent which the dismayed gambler dubs "the Eye of the Mole".

In the music video "It's Tricky" by ''Music/RunDMC'', ''Creator/PennAndTeller'' are running a three-card monte con game. One of the victims calls up the gang, who arrive by helicopter and handle the situation in their own unique manner. Interestingly, Penn and Teller did their homework into how this scam runs. If you watch closely, there's a man with a mustache, wearing a hat and overcoat, who's encouraging the mark to keep betting money. He's their shill. When the scene opens, you can see him looking around, watching for the police. When the police do arrive and Penn and Teller take over, you can see him quickly leave in the opposite direction.

Notably, the key element of most shell games is that just ''playing'' the game means you lose the game; if you're playing it, you're not paying attention to what the guy running it is actually doing - KansasCityShuffle. [[RewardingInactivity The only winning move is not to play]].

* In Marv Wolfman's ''Man and Superman'', one of the first things Clark sees in Metropolis is a guy getting suckered at three-card-monte. Clark uses his X-ray vision to win and get the guy his money back.

* How I Unleashed World War II, Part Two, has Franek host a card variant of the game. He plays it straight, losing the little money he was supposed to spend on food, to earn people's trust. He then starts to cheat, playing mostly for food itself, getting enough for dozens of soldiers to feast.

* At least one magic trick inverts this: you pick one of a number of items the magician shows you, and the magician then reveals that he predicted beforehand that you'd pick that item. Like with straightforward shell games, though, this trick is 'rigged' in advance so that the magician always 'wins' with a correct prediction no matter which item you pick. For example, the magician may take out a nickel, dime, or quarter from an envelope and tell you to point to one of them. If you point to the nickel, he tells you to look inside the envelope where he's hidden a note saying that you'd pick the nickel. If you point to the dime, he tells you to flip over the envelope instead to reveal a message he's written on its back about you picking the dime. If you point to the quarter, he tells you to turn over the coins to show you that he's written a message on the quarter only. Thus, no matter which coin you pick, he makes it look like he predicted you'd pick that coin and ''only'' that coin.

** Duke humiliates Joey by placing four playing cards, two red and two black, face down and challenging him to draw two of the same color. Despite Joey's legendary luck, he fails every time. Yugi figures out the trick: although the challenge looks like a 50/50 chance, it's really 1/3, since after you draw the first card, there's only one of the same color and two of the opposite color.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Legend of Korra]]'' fanfic [[FanFic/BookFiveLegends Book Five: Legends]] features a human sized version of this with the BigBad and the use of a PlagueDoctor mask. Keeps the protagonists and the readers alike guessing up until TheReveal midway through the story. And by then, of course, its already [[YouCantThwartStageOne too late]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''FanFic/WeRentTheNight'', Trixie uses this trick on her new partner, Melon Rind, to demonstrate how naive he is. It works.

* [[GuileHero Vexxin]] employs a variant of this in ''FanFic/BurningBridgesBuildingConfidence''. Realizing that she may have to deal with opponents who know what the Fox Miraculous looks like, such as its former holder, she asks Tikki and Trixx to change its form to an armlet, and incorporates the previous design into her outfit in the form of a choker. Sure enough, Rena Rage and Revengance fixate on the latter, mistaking it for the real Miraculous.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

** An example of the actual shell game is found in ''{{Discworld/Jingo}}'', done by Vetinari of all people.
** Not actually done in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' but referred to as "Find the Lady" and how it's a game where a good con can cheat a man by making him think the con's a bad con but he's losing on purpose, y'see. It's a metaphore. Maybe five. The actual con in this case is seeing where the mark keeps his money and picking his pocket later.

* One of the oldest challenge in the GameShow ''Series/FortBoyard'' is a shell game (called "[[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneteau bonneteau]]" in French). Performed by Serge Avril, a stage magician, it consists of finding a little key under the cups; 3 keys (hence, 3 successes) in a limited time are necessary to win the challenge. Very, very few contestants ever made it through, 'cause the gambler is really good.

* ''[[Pinball/IndianaJonesThePinballAdventure Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure]]'' has the "Choose Wisely" VideoMode, where the player must select the Holy Grail from a set of impostors.

** Interestingly played with during the siege of Azure City. The [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]] Xykon is leading the attack, but there appears to be [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0426.html three of him]] - since this is a StickFigureComic, they're all walking skeletons in blue robes, making them more or less identical. Haley mentions the "shell game" aspect in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0428.html "It Takes a Thief"]], specifically the fact that in a "real" shell game, none of the options presented to the player are the correct one. Roy's able to translate this into LaymansTerms for his fellow LawfulGood allies; the enemy has clearly demonstrated the ability to create at least two {{Body Double}}s, so why can't they create ''three'' and have the real one attempt to achieve the InstantWinCondition? [[spoiler:Sure enough, all three of the visible Xykons are decoys, other types of skeletal undead created by Xykon's second-in-command. Xykon himself is actually under an invisibility spell, flying over the city walls on a zombified dragon. Luckily, he's so bloodthirsty and arrogant he abandons the subtle plan in order to attack the heroes]].
** The political variety is run by Tarquin's party. There are three [[TheEmpire big empires]] on the western continent (currently Empire of Blood, Empire of Sweat and Empire of Tears) that rarely clash head-on, but compete over and absorb independent minor powers, Cold War-style. They frequently change names and [[PuppetKing figurehead rulers]], but those rulers' closest advisors end up assisting the next regime, and the one after that. The net result is that the entire continent is controlled by the same six people, who occasionally shuffle partners so no one catches on.

* An episode of the ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' animated series has an ancient creature holding an item of mystic power that the group needs. He puts before them several tests that are borderline IceCreamKoan versions of such things -- such as "stick out your tongue and touch your forehead" (Aladdin sticks out his tongue... [[AmbiguousSyntax and touches his forehead]] [[LoopholeAbuse with his finger]]). One of them is a shell game with three baskets and a sword -- Aladdin notices the creature cheating by the shadow of the sword behind the creature's back. The creature claims to have won after Aladdin chooses, but Aladdin has Abu and Carpet move the other two shells to reveal there was nothing under them... so clearly there must be something under the one he chose. (Invoking the "shell games aren't won by the player" point.)

* In the ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' episode "Prince of the Gypsies," a MAD agent played a ''very easy'' variant of this with Gadget. It was easy because the ball under the cup was a ''bomb'', and he wanted Gadget to find it. Unfortunately, the bomb got stuck inside the cup, and dislodged only when the unfortunate agent looked under it!

* ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble]]'' has an example involving [[HoldYourHippogriffs "sliced"]] (hacked) computer cores a Rebel infiltration team is trying to install to compromise the Imperial capital world's planetary network. An Imperial technician wants to randomly choose which one to install out of a lot, so a disguised Wedge has him choose three out of five; Wedge has an assistant take the other two away. Then he lets the Imperial choose again, and has the unpicked cores taken away. Wedge lets the Imperial pick one last time, the Imperial chooses the normal core, and Wedge decides yep, that's the one that needs to go, leaving the compromised core to be installed. In other words, the Imperial was so focused on pointing at cores that he never caught on that Wedge was the one deciding what the selections meant. Smuggler Mirax Terrik, who is watching over the security feed, can't help but be impressed.

* In three-card monte, one of the real purposes of the game is to distract players so that a confederate in the audience can pickpocket them. Such a person is known as The Dip, or sometimes a "cutpurse" if you're in some sort of EpicFantasy. If you actually win, and you are allowed to keep your money, it's very likely because you do not have your wallet anymore, and it had enough in it to cover their loss and then some.