History Main / TestSubjectForHire

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/TheInvisibleWoman1940'', Kitty Carroll answers Professor Gibbs' newspaper ad offering $300 to anyone willing to participate in an invisibility experiment. He wasn't expecting a female applicant, but he hires her anyway.
* ''Film/{{Innerspace}}'': Tuck Pendleton's role in the miniaturization experiment seems to be this. He is a disgraced former military pilot who took a job with a private research firm, he has to give himself (and his manager) a pep talk about how [[BlatantLies not nervous he is]] before starting, and Dr. Niles states that he was the only volunteer.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'', a pair of college students, Andy [=McGee=] and Vicki Tomlinson (the future Mrs. [=McGee=]), agree to participate in an experiment conducted by a psychology professor at their school, involving what's supposedly a harmless low-grade hallucinogen (Andy very explicitly doing so in order to earn money to supplement his income from scholarships and teaching assistant jobs). The experiment's actually being conducted by a sinister U.S. intelligence agency nicknamed "[[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction The Shop]]", the "harmless low-grade hallucinogen" is an extremely dangerous PsychoSerum that causes horrific psychotic reactions in a number of the students...and gives the survivors varying degrees of psychic and telekinetic powers. The eventual daughter of Andy and Vicki winds up with even more powerful pyrokinetic abilities.

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': Sally nearly signs up for a study where solvents would be rubbed in her eyes. She also states that she might volunteer for the hornet-sting study ("But I didn't bring a bathing suit."). Ultimately averted when Mary offers to hire her as a research assistant, though notes that it doesn't pay hornet-sting money.

** "[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS1E15ThePorkChopIndeterminacy The Porkchop Indeterminacy]]": Raj becomes fed up with his [[CannotTalkToWomen selective mutism around women]] and signs up for a field trial for an experimental drug that boosts confidence and self-esteem. They work and he happily converses with every girl he comes across, but he experiences side-effects including uncontrolled, repetitive hand gestures. He later tries to ask Sheldon's sister Missy out, where he's the only person she shows interest in, but predictably his medication runs out at that point and he ends up whining like a puppy.
** "[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS4E22TheWildebeestImplementation The Wildebeest Implementation]]": Raj gets offered a new drug that's supposed to be "the next big thing" for sufferers of social anxiety. They decide to test them out and are delighted to find they work when Raj charms a girl in a coffee shop, but they work a little ''too'' well as Raj's libido has skyrocketed and he starts taking off his clothes in public until he's ''completely naked''!
* ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'': Superheroes, which are sponsored by the [[MegaCorp Vought Corporation]], are said to have been created by God to protect mankind. In reality, [=VoughtCorp.=] looks for pregnant women, who are then paid to be treated with [[SuperSerum Compund-V]], so that they can give birth to super-powered babies, who are told that they were divinely gifted with their abilities and become superheroes/cash cows for Vought.
* ''Series/CarolineInTheCity'': One episode has a B plot where {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Charlie ropes Del into being a "bio-slut" as they both need extra cash. After getting side effects, Del decides to quit, until both of them [[HereWeGoAgain see an ad for volunteers]] for another study.

* ''Series/{{House}}'': One of the patients of the week in "[[Recap/HouseS5E03AdverseEvents Adverse Events]]" is making a living by being a test subject for multiple different drug trials. The drugs he's taking turn out to be accumulating in a mass in his stomach, causing multiple various baffling symptoms.

* ''Series/Millennium1996'': A doctor intentionally induces psychosis in an experimental group for a new mood stabilizer in the episode "Walkabout."

* In an episode of the sketch comedy show ''Series/TVFunhouse'', the puppets endure scientific experiments for cash. Later, they're attacked by fundamentalist suicide-bombing puppets against the idea of [[AnimalTesting animal research]].
* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'': PlayedForLaughs in one episode. Charlie has run low on money and the pair risk having to sell the house. A panicking Alan volunteers as a test subject for some new pharmaceutical drugs in return for money, and mistakenly believes himself to be in the placebo group. He eventually realizes he was wrong when his hair begins falling out.

[[folder:Traditional Games]]
* One of the job cards in ''TabletopGame/ChezGeek'' is "Professional Research Subject". They can't use Weed, Shrooms or Booze cards to gain Slack.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/GothamKnights'': [[ComicBook/NightoftheOwls The Court of Owls]] uses a complicated process to voluntarily turn Court members into Talons, dangerous and feral enemies the [[Characters/BatmanBatFamily Bat-Family]] has to fight often. The Court is a type of AncientConspiracy and their Talon experiments are considered a form of HumanSacrifice, since the experiment requires the death of the volunteer.
* ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'': In the first game, [[EvilInc Ultratech]] needs human guinea pigs and offers money or favors to get them:

* In his ''WebVideo/{{Hermitcraft}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Px_43-tVw Season 6 Episode 10]], Grian hired himself out to other hermits in exchange for diamonds, the most commonly used currency on the server. There is even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti1ckkIJDRM a song made]] from it by elybeatmaker.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E8FamilyGay Family Gay]]", Peter becomes a human guinea pig to help pay for damages caused by his mentally-challenged racehorse, leading to the main plot where he's injected with a "gay gene".
* In "WesternAnimation/RunawayBrain", WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse needs money for a Hawaiian vacation to make up for forgetting his and Minnie's anniversary, so he answers an ad. Unfortunately, he has unwittingly volunteered for a MadScientist's experiment to switch minds with a FrankensteinsMonster.