History Main / UnderlingWithAnFInPR

* ''Discworld/SoulMusic'': Ridcully and Stibbons are trying to study the "music with rocks in" phenomenon, which they do by trapping the music in a box. Unfortunately, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (the biggest and least successful conman on the Disc) sees them, and Stibbons starts explaining what they're doing "[[NerdsAreInnocent with the undirected excitement of the true discoverer and idiot]]", despite Ridcully [[BeQuietNudge stomping repeatedly on his foot]]. Sure enough, Dibbler is next seen trying to replicate the wizards' experiment, but since he's using a crappy GarageBand instead of the actual rock players the results are disappointing.

* ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'': In "La Révolte", Arthur and Léodagan are negotiating with peasants on strike, in a brilliant display of Leodagan's inimitable take on diplomacy.

* UrbanLegend holds that when the French president Felix Fauré went OutWithABang, the priest brought in to administer the last rites asked the police officer at the door "Le président a t-il toujours sa connaissance?" (meaning "is the president still conscious?", but can also be interpreted as "is the president's [[UnusualEuphemism acquaintance]] still there?"). To which the officer replied "Oh no, your reverence, she already went out the back door!".

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': Two supers on the StarterVillain team were putting on an appearance at a children's hospital. Or rather, one put on a show with his ShockAndAwe powers, the other raided the supply cabinet. As the team's leader put it later [[{{Blackmail}} when pictures of this have been sent to them]]:

* ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'': Hellboy is a BigRedDevil who's part of a secret government agency charged with eliminating supernatural threats before the public gets wind of them. Hellboy apparently didn't get the memo on that last part, because he enjoys having his picture taken with people, [[BeleagueredBoss much to the director's chagrin]]. Note that in the comics, his existence is in no way a secret, and in fact nobody ever bats an eye at his appearance.

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Roose Bolton's hopes of uniting the North by marrying his son Ramsay to Sansa Stark fall apart because Ramsay rapes and abuses Sansa, which only makes the rest of the North, which is intensely loyal to the Stark family, hate the Boltons even more. [[spoiler:When he tries to curb his son's behavior, Ramsay murders him and kills off his wife and child.]]

* In ''Series/LukeCage2016'', the entire conflict of the first season is kicked off when Cottonmouth’s right-hand man, Tone, disobeys his orders and shoots up Pops’ barber shop in a clumsy effort to kill a target who’s hiding there, despite the fact that said barber shop is supposed to be neutral ground. This earns Cottonmouth’s gang the ire of both Luke Cage and the entire Harlem community, and things generally go massively downhill from there. Even worse, Pops was a close personal friend of Cottonmouth and ends up dying in the shootout, while the actual target gets away, making the whole thing pointless. [[YouHaveFailedMe No points for guessing what Cottonmouth does to Tone after hearing about all this]].

* If you have a product or service to sell, learn from Ocean Marketing's mistake and never hire [[https://venturebeat.com/2011/12/27/ocean-marketing-how-to-self-destruct-your-company-with-just-a-few-measly-emails/ this guy here]] to do any of your P.R. work.

Having met Ainz in person, Jircniv knows that allying with him is a [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness temporary measure at best]], and that other nations must witness Ainz' power firsthand in order to see the threat he poses and ally against him, so he asks Ainz to use his most powerful spell during the annual battle during the Empire and the Kingdom (using Ainz' territorial claims as the ''casus belli'').\\

Jircniv's reputation takes a dive as it's widely believed he knew what would happen and made a DealWithTheDevil, meaning other nations view with with suspicion and not a little horror.Ainz, of course, is completely unaware of the implications: the reason he used such a flashy and overkill spell was to attract the attention of any other people TrappedInAnotherWorld like himself, he could just as easily have won the battle with the 500 Death Knights he'd brought along.

* ''Discworld/SoulMusic'': Ridcully and Stibbons are trying to study the "music with rocks in" phenomenon, which they do by trapping the music in a box. Unfortunately, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (the biggest and least successful conman on the Disc) sees them, and Stibbons starts explaining what they're doing "[[NerdsAreInnocent with the undirected excitement of the true discoverer and idiot]]", despite Ridcully stomping repeatedly on his foot.

:: Sure enough, Dibbler is next seen trying to replicate the wizards' experiment, but since he's using a crappy GarageBand instead of the actual rock players the results are disappointing.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'': The leader of the Repliforce, called General, announced their intent of exiling into space to give themselves a new home, supposedly without violence. As Repliforce is supposed to be an army that answers to the government to deal with Maverick threats[[note]]and that, prior to this, they were accused for being responsible for [[ColonyDrop the Sky Lagoon incident]][[/note]], this is met with much suspicion, with the Maverick Hunters (our heroes' group, who, until this point, was Repliforce's ally) declaring the whole Repliforce to be Maverick. Then several elite Repliforce members are dispatched to defend themselves from the Hunters... and 2 of them, Jet Stingray and Storm Owl, would go on to terrorize cities to distract their attention, basically making their "vow of non violence" moot and justifying their Maverick branding.

An underling or ally (usually for a VillainWithGoodPublicity, HeroWithBadPublicity or other SlaveToPR) who does not get that his boss' orders are meant to be carried out with secrecy and subtlety, that the pretense that the boss is good/reformed needs to be upheld in front of witnesses, or that just because the underling is CardCarryingEvil doesn't mean [[AffablyEvil the boss is]]. Often prone to StupidEvil, EuphemismBuster and IdioticPartnerConfession. Very likely to be the cause of a BeleagueredBoss.

* ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'': Robo is prone to sing his mistress' praises in unexpected ways, such as informing people of how foresighted she is by bringing lots of extra kleenexes when going to meet Crono ([[BraStuffing kept in her bra where she won't lose them]]).

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_boy_hoax "balloon boy" hoax]] was busted when the kid was asked why he didn't come out of the attic when called and [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes revealed that his parents told him it was for a TV show]].

A subtrope of CringeComedy. Often seen in conjunction with InstantlyProvenWrong (where the underling inadvertently contradicts his boss), NumberTwoForBrains or OverzealousUnderling (where this is a result of the character's idiocy/overenthusiasm), PoisonousFriend (who will do dirty deeds behind their friend's back in order to support their cause), and LiarRevealed (where the underling's indifference to the need-to-know policy reveals his boss' machinations). The more intelligent villains may point out that AtLeastIAdmitIt when told off for not using code. LeaveNoWitnesses may ensue, depending on how many people heard the incriminating words.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram Zimmermann telegram]] was a secret German proposal to ally with Mexico during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, promising to return the 1838 borders in exchange for Mexico declaring war on the US (preventing them from sending supplies to Europe). As the US could not say how they got the telegram without revealing that the British had cracked German codes, the telegram was accused of being a British FalseFlagOperation... until Zimmermann (the man who'd written the telegram in the first place) helpfully told everyone that it was very much real. The US quickly went to war with Germany, who'd started sinking American ships, while Mexico made no attempt at [[MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack reconquering its former territories]] (being in [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution the middle of a civil war]] at the time).

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_boy_hoax "balloon boy" hoax]] was busted when the kid was asked why he didn't come out of the attic when called and revealed that his parents told him it was for a TV show.

** Ainz' underlings in general have great difficulty in being even remotely friendly towards humans (as all of them are heteromorphic species, "no humans allowed" being one of the basic rules of the guild), which goes against Ainz' dream of peace and cooperation between the many races of the new world. And while he no longer has the means to directly change their personalities, he's also loath to order them to act nice, because they aren't responsible for the personalities their creators gave them (and as some of their creators were going through an edgelord phase, quite a few of those personalities have serious issues).

* ''{{ComicBook/Asterix}}'': In ''Recap/AsterixInCorsica'', the Roman governor is planning to pull a ScrewThisImOuttaHere with the year's taxes (and leaving the garrison to their fates) when the Corsicans inevitably attack. Unfortunately, the one soldier he uses as his co-conspirator for his idiocy also shouts out the plan unprovoked when two other Romans talk to him, leading to the garrison demanding an explanation, rebelling when they find those explanations unconvincing and putting ''him'' in the (very) front line against the Corsicans.
* ''{{ComicBook/Tintin}}'': In ''Recap/TintinTheRedSeaSharks'', Captain Haddock finds himself in charge of a cargo ship full of black Muslims. When the villains' buyer (who think Haddock is substituting for the usual captain) comes aboard and starts examining the passenger's muscles and teeth, Haddock angrily tells him the man isn't a slave, and the buyer rebukes Haddock for using the "s" word instead of "coke"[[labelnote:*]]a type of coal and the slavers' codeword throughout the book, in the same way "ebony" (a dark-colored wood) was the euphemism for African slaves in the 19th century[[/labelnote]] in front of witnesses. [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil Haddock goes ballistic]], bellowing insults at the fleeing slaver even after he's out of hearing range.
* Subverted in ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'', where a young Starr is tasked with eliminating two journalists who managed to get info on the Grail and are currently being held in a mental hospital. Starr justifies his blowing up ''the entire hospital'' by pointing out that killing just the journalists would posthumously prove them ProperlyParanoid .

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* ''{{Film/Hellboy}}'': Hellboy is a BigRedDevil who's part of a secret government agency charged with eliminating supernatural threats before the public gets wind of them. Hellboy apparently didn't get the memo on that last part, because he enjoys having his picture taken with people, [[BeleagueredBoss much to the director's chagrin]]. Note that in the comics, his existence is in no way a secret, and in fact nobody ever bats an eye at his appearance.
* In ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', when Louis Renault closes Rick's Cafe early, his underling Emile undermines his stated reason for shutting the establishment down:
-->'''Rick:''' How can you close me up? On what grounds?
-->'''Louis:''' I am shocked, ''shocked'', to find that gambling is going on in here!
-->'''Emile:''' ''[handing him a stack of bills]'' Your winnings, sir.
-->'''Louis:''' Oh thank you very much. ''[shouting to casino patrons]'' Everybody out at once!
* ''Film/ThePatriot'': Colonel Tavington, the field commander of the British dragoons, adopts extremely harsh policies towards the Americans, having wounded enemy soldiers gunned down and setting fire to the homes of non-combatants who sheltered them. General Cornwallis berates Tavington for his savagery, calling it unbecoming of AnOfficerAndAGentleman and reminding him of the King's wishes that there will be a reconciliation with the colonists (their fellow countrymen) after the rebellion is put down. He later rightfully points out that [[CreateYourOwnHero Tavington's cruelty has directly motivated men like Benjamin Martin to take up arms]].
* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming''. Adrian Toomes/The Vulture sets up an underground arms dealing ring. One of his coworkers, Jackson Brice, unwittingly draws attention to the organization by demonstrating their weapons out in the open, getting Spider-Man on their case. Adrian is ''furious'' at him, but Jackson doesn't change his stubborn, loose-cannon ways, and [[spoiler:it ends up getting him killed.]]
-->'''Adrian''': How many times have I told you not to fire them out in the open?
-->'''Jackson:''' Hey, you said "move the merchandise."
-->'''Adrian:''' Under the radar! ''Under'' the radar! That's how we survive!

* ''Literature/TrickyBusiness'': The BigBadWannabe's BrainlessBeauty secretary (hired on the basis of her bra size) is ordered to inform the MediaScrum outside that he's not here. She does this by announcing "He says he's not here!".

--> '''Ridcully:''' Never give a monkey the key to the banana plantation.

* ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'': In "La Revolte", Arthur and Leodagan are negotiating with peasants on strike, in a brilliant display of Leodagan's inimitable take on diplomacy.
-->'''Guethenoc:''' And how do you explain that nothing ever improves?
-->'''Leodagan:''' Because we've got more important things to deal with!
-->'''Guethenoc:''' What!? Revolt!!! We'll burn everything down, no need to ask where that came from!
-->'''Leodagan:''' I'm going to sic the guards on your asses, we'll see how fast it takes to get the harvest in!
-->'''Arthur (aside to Leodagan):''' I'm going to negotiate by myself for a while, if you don't mind.
-->[...]
-->'''Guethenoc:''' Just to feed the nobs, we work 20 hours a day! We spend our lives freezing our asses off! Feet in dung from morning to night! We carry so much crap that at 25 we're half-dead! And what do we get out of it?
-->'''Leodagan:''' A good kick in the nuts!
-->'''Arthur:''' Will you shut UP?!

-->'''Kurgh:''' I rule this city with an iron fist! This place is trembling in fear under the heel of my spiked boot!
-->'''Pamela:''' Mayor Kurgh? Excuse me, but I need your signature on this grant for the abandoned puppy help centre.
-->'''Alien:''' "Iron fist". Riiiight...
-->'''Kurgh:''' Thanks a lot, Pamela!

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* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony:'' In "Batshy Crazy", Apple Bloom accidentally spoils Applejack's attempt to say she wasn't trying to kill Fluttershy.
-->'''Twilight:''' And since Fluttershy is our friend, we're going to help her out of this problem, instead of just killing her.
-->'''Applejack:''' Well, of course, Twilight! I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way.
-->'''Apple Bloom:''' Hey, Applejack! I found your shotgun that you said you wanted to murder Fluttershy with, just like you specifically told me!

* WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': One episode has Mayor Quimby remember he forgot to deliver Chief Wiggum's bribe for the month and give it to him... in front of most of Springfield's citizens.
--> '''Chief Wiggum:''' And when you break the law, you gotta go to jail.
--> '''Mayor Quimby:''' Uh, that reminds me, er, here's your monthly kickback.
--> '''Chief Wiggum:''' You just... you couldn't have picked a worse time.

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* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram The Zimmermann telegram]] was a secret German proposal to ally with Mexico during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, promising to return the 1838 borders in exchange for Mexico declaring war on the US (preventing them from sending supplies to Europe). As the US could not say how they got the telegram without revealing that the British had cracked German codes, the telegram was accused of being a British FalseFlagOperation... until Zimmermann (the man who'd written the telegram in the first place) helpfully told everyone that it was very much real. The US quickly went to war with Germany, who'd started sinking American ships, while Mexico [[MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack made no attempt at reconquering its territories]] (being in the middle of a civil war at the time).

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* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram The Zimmermann telegram]] was a secret German proposal to ally with Mexico during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, promising to return the 1838 borders in exchange for Mexico declaring war on the US (preventing them from sending supplies to Europe). As the US could not say how they got the telegram without revealing that the British had cracked German codes, the telegram was accused of being a British FalseFlagOperation... until Zimmermann (the man who'd written the telegram in the first place) helpfully told everyone that it was very much real. The US quickly went to war with Germany, who'd started sinking American ships, while Mexico [[MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack made no attempt at reconquering its territories]] (being in the middle of a civil war at the time).

** The Katze Plains massacre is perhaps the best illustration: Having met Ainz in person, Jircniv knows that allying with him is a [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness temporary measure at best]], and that other nations must witness Ainz' power firsthand in order to see the threat he poses and ally against him, so he asks Ainz to use his most powerful spell during the annual battle during the Empire and the Kingdom (using Ainz' territorial claims as the ''casus belli''). Ainz dutifully casts Dark Young, a spell that eliminates three quarters of the opposing army by first instakilling 70,000 soldiers and uses their deaths as fuel to summon five {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that stomp on the soldiers who didn't flee in time. Jircniv's reputation takes a dive as it's widely believed he knew what would happen and made a DealWithTheDevil, meaning other nations view with with suspicion and not a little horror. Ainz, of course, is completely unaware of the implications: the reason he used such a flashy and overkill spell was to attract the attention of any other people TrappedInAnotherWorld like himself, he could just as easily have won the battle with the 500 Death Knights he'd brought along.

(alt title: UnderlingWithAnFInPublicRelations)

** The Katze Plains massacre is perhaps the best illustration: Having met Ainz in person, Jircniv knows that allying with him is a [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness temporary measure at best]], and that other nations must witness Ainz' power firsthand in order to see the threat he poses and ally against him, so he asks Ainz to use his most powerful spell during the annual battle during the Empire and the Kingdom (using Ainz' territorial claims as the ''casus belli''). Ainz dutifully casts Dark Young, a spell that eliminates three quarters of the opposing army by first instakilling 70,000 soldiers and uses their deaths as fuel to summon five EldritchAbominations that stomp on the soldiers who didn't flee in time. Jircniv's reputation takes a dive as it's widely believed he knew what would happen and made a DealWithTheDevil, meaning other nations view with with suspicion and not a little horror. Ainz, of course, is completely unaware of the implications: the reason he used such a flashy and overkill spell was to attract the attention of any other people TrappedInAnotherWorld like himself, he could just as easily have won the battle with the 500 Death Knights he'd brought along.