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Second Place Is for Losers

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"Second place? That's a fancy word for losing!"
Bender, Futurama

You gotta face it: no matter how happy you are to be on that awards stand, first place is still better than second. But sometimes a person takes this a bit too far. When somebody starts acting like second place is for losers, it doesn't matter if you were in a race against everyone on earth and beat 7,999,999,998 people. All that matters is you didn't beat the one.

Essentially it's being a Sore Loser, just, y'know, for those who only "lost" very slightly.

Some real-life athletes feel this way quite deeply, coming so close and yet missing the mark. For example, one scientific study analyzed photographs of the facial expressions of many Olympians as they learned how they had placed. Gold of course was almost always ecstatic, and Bronze medalists were happy to have placed at all, but a Silver winner usually showed disappointment or dejection at coming in second best, unless it was their first time competing. This is especially true in tournament-style sports like basketball and hockey, where the bronze team had won their game, but the silver medalists lost the game for gold. And then the presentation ceremony takes place immediately after the last match, giving the runners-up no time to compose themselves and put on a sporting face.

In a narrative sense, this can be used to give An Aesop about sportsmanship, or at can be used to squeeze some extra angst from a character, especially if the second-placing character was hoping to use the competition to impress a "Well Done, Son" Guy parent.

Please note that many leagues (especially youth leagues) consider this attitude very bad sportsmanship.

This trope is the prime reason Underdogs Never Lose.

Note this trope is only about characters getting second place, or at least placing highly enough to get a medal/trophy/etc., and then focusing on the fact that they still didn't win first. It's NOT about:

  • A genuinely mediocre-to-poor showing.
  • When the character(s) entered the contest specifically to win the first-place prize, such as money to save their beloved school from closing, or there's some other consequence for not coming in first.
  • When a video game requires you to win a competition to advance the story.
  • A head-to-head match where there's only two competitors; whoever doesn't take first is definitionally the loser.
  • When there really is no prize or recognition for second place.

Compare Unsportsmanlike Gloating, The B Grade, Losing Is Worse Than Death. If it happens all the time, it can become a case of Always Second Best. See also Rejecting the Consolation Prize, which could be the end result.

Contrast The Runner-Up Takes It All, Second Place Is for Winners. Compare and contrast Disqualification-Induced Victory. See also Medal of Dishonor and Damned by Faint Praise. Sub-Trope of Second Prize, when a character was expecting a different outcome in a competition.

Not to be confused with Tough Act to Follow.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • Nike famously misread their target market with their advertising campaign featuring Andre Agassi that ran during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta with the tagline "You don't win silver, you lose gold." A huge backlash condemning the campaign for being against the Olympic spirit led to it being swiftly withdrawn and never mentioned again.
  • An ad for NBC show Go On featured gymnast Shawn Johnson being brought to the support group and asked to talk about losing, having "lost" by getting three silver medals. Johnson herself is portrayed in the commercial as falling into this trope, insisting "I won" based only on her gold medal.
  • Defied in a short campaign of Snapple ads from the '90s, where they claimed their stated goal was to be the number three soft drink in the country because it's an easier title to keep. (It didn't go over well.)
  • In one ad for a home version of Time Crisis, a trophy-shaped tombstone is shown and says, "Sorry loser, this ain't like a race. Here's your reward for second place."

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Assassination Classroom, the principal of the high school, Asano Sr, has this mentality despite preaching that "everyone has a chance to get better". However whenever E-Class starts pulling ahead, he goes to utterly ridiculous lengths just to smack them down. Hell, when his son even came in first on two separate occasions (during 1st semester finals and during a festival event), it's still not enough for him because it's not a complete victory due to E-Class coming close to beating him. When E-Class trounces A-Class in the second semester finals, he responds by trying to demolish the E-Class building.
  • In Asteroid in Love, Because of her upbringing, Moe is extremely confident of her pastry-making skills among her peers. As a result, her moon-phase pancake getting the second place during the School Festival's booth food competition sends her to Heroic BSoD for a few days.
  • In Bakuman。 Mashiro and Takagi are crushed to learn that they got third place with "The World is All About Money And Intelligence," (losing to Eiji and someone else) even though it surpasses all their previous efforts since it means they will not be able to submit it for serialization. Otherwise, this trope is largely averted with a few exceptions (mainly Iwase), as when the main characters are starting out and want to get up past ninth place, Miura tells them that rather than try desperate tactics to go up, they should maintain their ranking, as anything above 10th place will not come up for cancellation.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Goku got second place at the 21st and the 22nd Martial Arts Tournaments. He was specifically told by Master Roshi not to expect to win since he was still inexperienced. Goku didn't care and went for the win and was visibly upset that he lost. The second time, he lost to Tien after having the bad luck of running into a truck as he was falling and hitting the ground first (it's a long story). When Krillin tried to congratulate him Goku says, "A loss is a loss."
    • In fact, Goku's loss in the 21st Tournament was to Master Roshi himself (in the guise of Jackie Chun), specifically because he wanted to teach Goku and Krillin not to go through this trope since there's Always Someone Better''. As demonstrated above, it didn't take, but years later Goku responds to the idea of stronger opponents with child-like enthusiasm.
    • Vegeta's primary story arc throughout Dragon Ball Z is that he hates being Always Second Best to Goku in power; in his view, Goku is a lower-class Saiyan, born at the absolute bottom of the pecking order, and thus should be a nobody while he's the Saiyan prince and should be the strongest by default. It all reaches a head in the Buu Saga, where he sells his soul to Babidi for the sake of becoming stronger than Goku, and during the subsequent fight, he goes off on a furious rant about how Goku's very existence is an insult to his honor and how he's done being second to him.
      Vegeta: It is time to take back what is mine! I will not live my life as your second! That time is over!
  • Invoked in Eyeshield 21. It's made clear that many of the teams have players who are on their last chance to make it to the finals, and none of them are content with being 2nd.
  • Saber Tooth's guild master in Fairy Tail believes this to the point that the guild model is effectively "To be the strongest". To drive the point home, he expels anyone who loses during the Grand Magic Games in the most humiliating way possible.
  • Kaginado: This is parodied with Key's secondary heroines (the heroines that are usually billed directly under the main heroines), which are comprised of Nayuki, Kyou, Komari, Kotori and Yurippe. This is juxtaposed with the main heroines (Ayu, Nagisa, Riki, Kagari and Tenshi), as both groups hold a slumber party next to each other's rooms. The main heroines wear pajamas and are barefoot (except for Kagari because of her Limited Wardrobe), eat bakery sweets and drink juice, have (mostly) fun conversations and sit in a well-lit room. The secondary heroines wear tracksuits and socks, eat junk food and drink soft drinks, they cynically complain the entire time and sit in a dark room. The secondary heroines even form the "Loser Heroine Gang".
  • Ayaka, the protagonist of Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, considers being second in the exams the ultimate dishonor and will work herself to death to repair this anomaly. Even when the n°1 is The Ace and almost had the maximum score minus 2 points. Yurine wishes nothing more than for Ayaka to best her though, and falls in love with her partly for this reason.
  • My Hero Academia: Endeavor is one of the greatest superheroes on Earth, beloved and feared in equal measure, but none of it is good enough for him because he's stuck in second place in official rankings to All Might. His obsession with getting out of second place leads to him being an absolutely horrible father and husband to his family, while also pushing himself past the breaking point, all in the name of glory. He gets his wish when All Might is forced into retirement after an especially grueling battle... and utterly hates it, knowing that he didn't properly earn first place and realizing that he was being a hero for all the wrong reasons (as well as how much everybody despises him because of it).
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion takes this trope to the logical extreme. Initially, when Shinji first surpasses Asuka's synch ratio, she's just pissed at him. Later, after being curbstomped three times in a row with Shinji always scoring the kill instead of her, she becomes extremely distraught, due to her past: she always prided herself on being the best so that she won't need any kind of help from anyone. By not being the best anymore and her rival consistently having a stellar performance, she's afraid of being put to the sidelines and as a result, her synch ratio is plummeting; seeing this, she also becomes afraid that if she drops low enough, she will be relieved of her duties which to her would be equal to being publicly humiliated in the worst way possible for a human. And the best part in all of this? She knows what's wrong but her pride doesn't let her admit it to herself. Oh, it gets even better. Right after her third defeat (technically second since she couldn't attack Leliel, much less harm it), she's sent into battle again, knowing that this is the last chance the NERV leadership is giving for her: if she screws up this time, it's game over. Not only does she not get a single shot off at Arael, she undergoes the Trope Namer for Mind Rape instead. And she gets saved by the person she hates the most. Next time she's sent up against Armisael, she can't even get her Eva to move anymore and is withdrawn; as an indirect result, Rei-II is killed by the Angel despite Shinji's intervention ("you didn't send him out for me... am I really that worthless?"). What do NERV does in this situation? Do they try to solve Asuka's psychological problems and cheer her up? Noooo, they send her into early retirement and fetch a replacement instead - who just so happens to be the final Angel.
  • Happens in Paradise Kiss. While the other members take it better, winning the second prize in the School Festival contest is the catalyst that sends George into a life crisis, believing he can't connect with the public (and thus achieve success as a fashion designer) without compromising his personal artistic vision. Yukari also takes it rather dramatically. Angst ensues, they break up. It's not the only reason, but it sure creates a lot of drama.
  • In Pokémon: The Series, one league contender believes hard in this — Guzma in Sun and Moon (as Plumeria finds out seeing dozens of broken second place trophies and silver medals in his room), which may explain why he broke off from his apprenticeship with Hala and formed Team Skull.
  • Tiger & Bunny has Keith Goodman/Sky High struggling with this after Barnaby Brooks Jr. takes his place as the highest-ranking superhero. However, being the Nice Guy to end all Nice Guys, he's not angry over no longer being the best so much as he's afraid that he can no longer live up to the expectations people have for him.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul :Re, this trope is discussed almost to the letter.
    Takizawa:"Being second is just a consolation for the loser. Yes, a consolation for them not to think that, as long as there is someone above them, they're nothing but a loser. The gap between a perfect 100 mark and a 99 is not just one point."
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: This is Seto Kaiba's outlook on life. He lost his Duel Monsters Champion title to Yugi and he didn't manage to defeat Yugi in a fair duel in the Duelist Kingdom. He creates the Battle City tournament to gather all Egyptian God Cards and to defeat Yugi in his tournament. However, Kaiba loses to Yugi in the semi-finals, so after the end of the Battle City, Kaiba blows up Alcatraz and the whole island to. After Battle City, Kaiba loses his goal of becoming number one in favor of focusing on his Kaiba Land project, but defeating Yugi still remains a symbolic goal in his eye, proven by the way he blows his top in the DOMA Arc (anime only) when he finds out his rival has lost to Rafael.
  • Kaiba's Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds expy Jack Atlas gets hit with this hard in his duels with Yusei Fudo. When their first Riding Duel gets interrupted by the Crimson Dragon crashing the final play, Jack sees a video recording of their cards and is shocked to learn that Yusei would've won the duel, sending him into a funk until he gets the chance for a rematch in the Fortune Cup. This duel ends with Yusei winning; once Jack loses his champion status, his fanbase almost completely disappears. On the plus side, this teaches Jack a hard lesson about the fickle nature of fame and the need to stick with one's true friends.

    Comedy 
  • Jerry Seinfeld has a bit that perfectly illustrates this trope.
  • An English countess organizes a horsemanship competition in a village, with the prizes kept a mystery until the end. The third-place winner gets a sports car, and the second-place winner gets a cake.
    Contestant: A cake!? Are you kidding me?
    Organizer: It was baked by the countess hersel-
    Contestant: FUCK the countess!
    Organizer: Impossible, sir. That is the first prize.

    Comic Books 
  • An Archie Comics story in the 1970s had Reggie, Riverdale High's ace athlete, suffering a sprained ankle just before a decathlon competition against Central High. Archie is recruited to replace Reggie with the result of Archie coming in second and third, time after time, event after event. But this competition is judged on the points system. Dilton Doiley points out that Archie's constant second and third place finishes add up which gives Riverdale High the victory. Reggie—on crutches—is livid as Archie is hoisted on the shoulders of the school faculty in victory.
  • This is basically Doctor Doom's fatal flaw. Yes, he's a brilliant scientist, a powerful sorcerer, and the ruler of a successful nation... but because there's always someone who is better than him at each of those things (Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, Reed Richards, Black Panther, and especially Reed Richards) his ego does not allow him to leave well enough alone. Never mind that his rivals only best him in one field each, being merely a Master of All just isn't good enough for him.
  • Scrooge McDuck's rival Flintheart Glomgold is the Second Richest Duck in the world, Scrooge being the richest. Given how rich Scrooge is, that's no easy feat. An Evil Counterpart of Scrooge, Flintheart is depicted as a miser, plutocrat, and tycoon, every negative quality associated with wealth, and despite having more money than most countries, is obsessed with surpassing his rival as the richest. He has been known to be willing to undertake any endeavor, no matter how dishonest, unethical, or illegal they are to meet this goal. How one man (or rather, one duck) could be so shallow is a mystery best left unexplored.

    Don Rosa's epic The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck actually explores this and reveals Glomgold's origins. He was a petty thief from South Africa during the diamond rush in the late 19th century and made a living through grifting, small theft, and con jobs. That is, until he met Scrooge, whom he promptly betrayed and robbed. When Scrooge hunted him down and humiliated him in front of the entire town before having him tossed in jail, Glomgold became so infuriated that he dedicated his entire life to building a fortune just to get revenge on Scrooge. Scrooge doesn't even know that his arch-enemy was that random jerk he met some 40 years ago, since he never got his name, and likely doesn't even remember the incident. The only reason Glomgold gives a single shit about being the Richest Duck In the World is that he wants to humiliate Scrooge.

    Fan Works 
  • In Ash and Serena's Atomic Odyssey, Serena's rival in Pokémon Contests, Sayaka, states that "Runner-up is only a fancy way of saying loser".
  • A personal example in Brokenhearted. Kagami dumps Adrien after seeing that he is still in love with Marinette. She refuses to be his “silver medal”.
  • In Memoirs of a Master:, Oogway turned down Tai Lung as the Dragon Warrior, but he was planning to dub him Master of the Thousand Scrolls instead for his unprecedented feat mastering them. However, when Tai Lung began his rampage, it was obvious he would not have settled for that.
  • In Nouvelle Soma, despite coming in second place overall in the Autumn Election, is shown privately kicking himself over his loss, partly motivated by the fact that he was determined to become the best out of all the first years. He also notes that strictly speaking it was partly as much a matter of luck in who was paired up with who in the matches that allowed him to go this far; had he been against Akira (who was the winner of the Autumn Election) right from the start he probably would have been "merely" fifth place alongside all the others who lost their first matches.

    Films — Animation 
  • Cars: Subverted in the first film, where Lightning McQueen doesn't get first place Because he stopped short of the finish line and reversed to help an injured King cross it for his final race, allowing Chick Hicks, who had caused King to be injured, to cross first. Despite this, McQueen is still offered the chance to be Dinoco's spokescar, because in the owner's own words, "There's more to racing than just winning".
  • In Disney's Hercules, Phil's training song talks about wanting a more successful protege. "The kind who wins trophies, won't settle for low-phies, at least semi-pro-phies, but no! I get the greenhorn!" As he sings, Phil receives Amusing Injuries after polishing an old trophy a student won for 11th place.
  • Subverted in The Incredibles at the end, when Dash (who has Super-Speed and could win extremely easily) deliberately takes second place in a race to maintain the masquerade. Dash is more interested in the socialization than the actual race.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games: Crystal Prep has this mentality, with Cinch encouraging it to keep the school's spotless winning streak intact. After she realizes CHS has access to magic, she pressures Human Twilight into using the magic she collected to even the odds, which has disastrous consequences.
  • Thoroughly subverted in Surf's Up. Big Z humorously calls Cody a "loser" because he didn't come in first, and Chicken Joe is shocked he won — he was just having fun and it isn't clear he even knew he was in a contest. During the entire film, all of the interviewed characters say that loser is as loser does, regardless of whether they come in first or not — save Tank of course.
    Cody: [amused) Well, I lost.
    Big Z: [amused] Yeah. Me, too. Come on, loser.
  • Briefly referenced in Turning Red when Meilin's parents test her claim of getting her emotion-triggered transformations under control by showing her pictures of things that they know would upset her. A photo of her taking second place at a years-ago spelling bee forces her to retreat to her Happy Place lest she transform to her giant red panda form at the kitchen table.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Dylan Chu's father in Akeelah and the Bee makes it clear that to him, getting 2nd for the 3rd time in this spelling bee will make him "2nd your whole life!"
  • Played with in Beyond the Lights. Ten-year-old Noni is proud to be named the first runner-up in a talent contest. Macy, on the other hand, is so disgusted that she forces her daughter to chuck her trophy.
  • Miranda Frost in Die Another Day betrayed her country solely because she got a silver medal in the Olympics, and the villain of the movie offered to make it look like the gold winner cheated.
  • Averted in Fired Up!, in which a perpetually losing squad ends up nineteenth in a tournament, but the captain feels it's an accomplishment because it's ten places better than the previous year.
  • In First Man, the Americans are determined to get to the moon because the Soviets have beaten them at every major space accomplishment so far. Ed White is stunned when he learns that they have just beaten him at being the first EVA.
  • In Gattaca, this trope is the reason Jerome's in the wheelchair in the first place. He tried to kill himself by stepping out into traffic because he got second place in a high-level swimming competition. It's implied that he couldn't deal with not coming in first because of the movie's society maintaining that those with superior genes (like Jerome's) are supposed to be perfect.
    Vincent: [looking at a medal] That's very nice.
    Jerome: Are you colorblind, too? It's silver.
    Vincent: So?
    Jerome: Jerome Morrow was never meant to be one step down on the podium.
  • Glengarry Glen Ross, both the film and play, deal with a struggling real estate sales agency. The head office sends a big shot who flaunts his wealth and success while describing a change to the ongoing sales contest. First prize, as before, is a Cadillac. Second is a set of steak knives. Third is you're fired. By the way, there are four salesmen in the agency. It is well worth watching simply for its amazing cast.
  • This is the primary motivation for Eddie Felson throughout The Hustler (1961) — it's not enough that he's already a great pool player, he must defeat Minnesota Fats and have Fats acknowledge him as the best.
  • In The Karate Kid Part II, Johnny Lawrence, the Cobra Kai bully from the first film, seemed to be okay with his 2nd place trophy, but Sensei Kreese wasn't. In fact, Kreese smashes the trophy and physically attacks his student so viciously that Mr. Miyagi has to step in and teach him some manners.
  • Robert De Niro's character in Meet the Fockers reacts this way to Greg's parents keeping all of his awards even though he never placed very high, derisively saying that he doesn't want to encourage mediocrity in his own family.
  • The coach of the Hawks in the first Mighty Ducks movie gazes at the one second-place banner in a long-row of first-place banners and remarks, "I sure wish they'd take that one down." Apparently, being perceived as not even making the top 3 or 4 teams that year is better than getting second. It's easier to overlook a missing year than it is to overlook a lone yellow banner in a sea of black first-place finishes, especially as it is standard practice to place all banners next to each other in the rafters (meaning there wouldn't be a physical gap where 1973 would have been).

  • Famously subverted in Rocky, where the film wasn't about Rocky winning, but showing that he was able to go the distance in a boxing match against World Heavyweight Champion Apollo Creed despite what everyone believed. although the sequels tilt toward it.
  • Averted in Rush: James managed to fight his way to a high enough position to take the championship from Niki at the final race in Japan, but Niki (who suffered a massive crash that burned him alive midway through the season, and who later withdrew from the Japanese GP because he felt it was too dangerous) was just glad he was alive to try again next year and tells his wife Marlene he has no regrets about withdrawing from Japan. For what it's worth, Niki was defending champion, and would later get two more titles in real life.
  • In Season of Miracles, Zack and his dad are both believers in this trope. When Zack says, "Third place feels like I... failed," his dad says, "Good! It's first place or nothing, son! That's the American way!"
  • The Social Network has the race where the Winklevoss twins, as well as the rest of the Harvard rowing team, lose against the opposition and place 2nd. They are clearly displeased about it, and it becomes a Compliment Backfire when Prince Albert says repeatedly how he "never saw a race so close!"
  • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby "If you ain't first, you're last." Ricky Bobby bases his entire life on this one phrase his father told him and earnestly believes it to the point that he can't deal with the idea of someone being better than him. He has a nervous breakdown when he wrecks in his first race against Jean Girard and needs training just to know how to go fast again. Subverted later on in the movie when Ricky's Dad says "Oh hell, Son, I was high that day. That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell, you can even be fifth."
  • Mentioned in Top Gun, although it's a marginal case. On the one hand, only top-performing crews are selected to compete, so just going is an achievement in itself, making the line "There are no points for second place" ring a little hollow. But on the other, it is combat training, and second place in a real firefight means you're either hors de combat or dead – in which case, the aforementioned line is a simple statement of fact.
    • Ultimately averted in the movie. The protagonist Maverick doesn’t win the trophy, because a fatal crash that kills his Guy in Back causes him to lose confidence and drop out - but with enough points accrued so far to still graduate. His rival Iceman wins the trophy. But then Maverick saves the day in an actual dogfight and gets the prize Iceman is entitled to - a billet as a Top Gun instructor.
    • Averted in the actual Top Gun school: Pilots are sent to the school to learn dissimilar combat training skills, which they return to their squadrons to teach to the other pilots in their squadron. There is no contest nor a trophy. In essence, Top Gun is a school to teach fighter pilots how to teach. If it were a contest, pilots would go to extremes to win instead of learning techniques to teach their squadron mates.
  • First played straight, then gloriously subverted in Whip It. In Bliss' first game, the Lovable Loser Hurl Scouts celebrate with "We're Number Two!" after losing, but it's largely an ego defense against the fact that they haven't won a game in several years. In the championship game, the celebration is more true-to-form (and true-to-derby) in that the Hurl Scouts played themselves from Oh-for-three-years losers to second place in the entire league (of six teams).
  • Played with in The Wild One: one of Johnny's gang steals the second-place trophy from a local motorcycle race and gives it to him; Johnny complains, "Why didn't you steal first?" "It was too big." Johnny displays the trophy prominently on his bike.

    Literature 
  • In one The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes, Brianna gets the second-most-important role of Wendy in a school production of Peter Pan, but isn't satisfied because she didn't get the title role.
  • Subverted in Bills New Frock by Anne Fine. During a race in gym class, all the other kids agree that they will let a disabled boy win, but because of this trope, Bill can't bear to come second and so he speeds up and wins. However, the disabled boy is thrilled with second place because it's the best performance he has ever made in the class.
  • The Berenstain Bears: This is zigzagged in one of the chapter books. There's an auto show going on, and local tycoon Squire Grizzly has entered his four best cars (all extremely rare and well-maintained) in order to ensure that he wins all three trophies for first, second, and third. At the end of the book, Papa Bear's roadster (the last car made by a well-known car company before it went out of business) manages to win third. Papa is happy with winning third given how stiff the competition was, while the Squire is envious about not winning all three trophies for the best cars in the country.
  • The Gordon Korman book The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom: A Collection of Poems About School, Homework, and Life (Sort Of) includes a subversion in the form of the poem "The Olympian", in which Jeremy claims he's in training to become the greatest athlete of all time (though also admitting he stinks at every sport). The subversion comes in that while stating that he'll come in first in nearly everything, he freely admits that he'll gladly accept a bronze medal in boxing, having been knocked out by a three-year-old during practice.
  • Friendly neighborhood witch Nanny Ogg in the Discworld series is perfectly aware of this— her best friend, Granny Weatherwax, is acknowledged as the best witch on the entire Disc. For Nanny's part, she prefers to come in second, because if you come in first, people are constantly trying to beat you and you're under pressure to keep coming in first. She likes coming second, because it's the runner-up that people pat on the back, and say "It was a good try," and buy drinks for.
  • Subverted in the Kim Newman short story "The Germans Won", in which an alternative version of John Major lives life as a humble bus conductor.note  During an argument about the World Cup, one of the characters brings up this trope in relation to Britain and how they always come second at everything and how that makes them losers. The normally shy Major finds himself moved to argue this point with surprising passion:
    "You're wrong, Jeffrey. There's nothing wrong with losing in a final. Being Second Best In The World means something. There's nothing wrong with being top of League Division Two. There's nothing wrong with being honestly Second-rate."
    "Show me a good loser, John, and I'll show you a loser."
    "Results don't matter, Jeffrey," said John. "Playing the game does. Life isn't results. When you die, they don't calculate your goal average and judge whether you should be promoted or relegated. Life is the game, the process of the game, moment to moment. If you do your best, no one can blame you. If you play fair, no one can argue with you. Better a successful dustbinman than a wash-out field marshall."
  • "No Second Place Winner" by Bill Jordan, a Border Patrolman and Marine during World War II. The book covers that in gunfights, very often there is no second place, you win or die. The idea for the title comes from a man getting second place at a gun tournament, then being told that, in essence, "At least you got second". The response was, "I wouldn't wish second place on my worst enemy."
  • In the Red Dwarf novel Backwards, a scene in Rimmer's childhood shows him nearly winning a race before another boy trips him up, and we're told his father's favourite phrase is "Winning isn't everything, but losing is nothing". But then we're shown Ace Rimmer in the same sports day, and he throws the race, because he realises another boy really needs to win it. While his mother stares in disbelief, he thinks "After all, losing is nothing."
  • Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Played for Laughs when Vera Miligan loses the election for Student Council President in a surprise upset. She really wanted to be Kimberly's first pro-Inhumanable Alien Rights Student Council President, and is first shocked into silence, then drinks herself unconscious. Tim Linton appoints her as one of his councilors and even has the council take on most of the debts she ran up during the campaign, but she really wanted the top job. She's gotten over it by the start of the next school year, though.
  • Neal Shusterman's The Shadow Club takes and deconstructs the trope. Perennial second-place kids decide to play pranks on the first place kids to show them up, but soon things violently escalate. Its sequel, The Shadow Club Rising, has the kids suspected of doing it again to a new, popular boy.
  • In Star Trek: Balance of Power, an auction is selling off a well-known inventor's works to the highest bidder. The coveted lot is a Wave-Motion Gun, with the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian governments all bidding on it. The auctioneer invokes a rule that requires the second-highest bid to pay up as well, without getting anything in return. This works to drive up the price of the item. Picard (representing the Federation) and Worf (representing the Klingons) agree to pool their latinum into a single high bid to overcome the Cardassian bid, resulting in the Cardassian representative being forced to fork over a lot of latinum for nothing. But then the photon pulse cannon turns out to be a dud. Luckily, they come up with a way to screw over the Cardassians yet again by having a Ferengi "steal" the plans for the cannon and sell it to the same Cardassian representative.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm:
    • This viewpoint is expressed by Ceranna Babineaux, who ironically is the second-ranked student in her evil Wizarding School. Ceranna was allowed to select two handpicked rookies to join a new class of student witches, but all the rookies are required to attempt a dangerous and potentially lethal obstacle course, and her handpicked choices only come in third and eighth on their first run through the course. Even though forty of the fifty rookies didn't finish at all, and even though the first and second students are both extremely powerful in their own right, Ceranna is infuriated that her students did as 'badly' as they did.
    • By contrast, a rookie named LaTasha explicitly rejects this trope and says that all she cares about is surviving the school's cruel tests. Beyond that, she couldn't care less if she comes in second or even last.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Parodied in The Addams Family, where Morticia's sister rejects the second-richest man in the world because "mother always said never to settle for second best. (Later she hooks up with someone who's rich and thinks he's Napoleon.)
  • On The Big Leap, Tanya Lovewell taught her children that second place is for poor people, and we see in a flashback that she intentionally taunted them by going through an ice cream drive through and refusing to get them anything as punishment.
  • Boy Meets World: Corey is excited to receive a coming-of-age birthday gift from his father, and is angry to learn that it's a necklace instead of the cool hunting knife his older brother got. He isn't pacified to learn that it's the second-place prize his father won for boxing (since there are only two men in the ring, second place for any given match is literally the loser). Eventually, his father explains that it wasn't for a single match; he won second place in a tournament and had to beat out several other men to get there, and Corey warms up to the gift.
  • Deconstructed in CSI: NY: "Kill Screen" involves the murder of a video game tournament leader who let the winner cheat to win big so the game would become more popular. Mac has a "Eureka!" Moment and says, "Second place is the first loser." That guy had the most to lose and immediately becomes the primary suspect. Mac is right, he's the killer.
  • On Dance Moms, Abby Lee Miller likes to remind the girls that "Second place is the first one to lose".
  • Family Matters: Season 5's "Presumed Urkel" had a one-time antagonist by the name of Dexter Thornhill, who, over the years, was Steve Urkel's academic rival and always took second place in the science fair while Steve took first every year. Thornhill became so jealous of Steve over the years, he tried to get him expelled from Vanderbilt High School by framing him for blowing up the school science lab by tampering with his latest science project, a graffiti remover, by filling his beaker with explosive chemicals and turning up the Bunsen burner to the maximum point. Laura, who was still annoyed of Steve's constant calls for love at the time, agreed to defend him in Vanderbilt's student court, where she eventually outs Thornhill as the true culprit, upon which he himself is expelled and likely sent to juvie.
  • On Glee, it's usually considered a failure if a show choir does not come in first place at Nationals. It doesn't matter how highly they did place, or that competition is not the focus of show choir; if they don't place at the very top, they might as well be at the bottom. Season One and Season Five at least justify this by stating that the school is only willing to fund them if they demonstrate enough success to encourage alumni donations to the school.
  • The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Hothouse" features a school for genius that promotes this attitude. Harshly deconstructed, as it drives one student to kill her rival.
  • Power Rangers:
    • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers has its famous Green With Evil storyline that introduced the very first Sixth Ranger. It begins with Jason facing Tommy, a new kid in town, in a martial arts contest which ultimately ends in a tie. As Jason returns to his friends, the first words that come out of his mouth are "I didn't win." Granted, he doesn't dwell on it anymore after this one moment, but it's still an odd thing for a character like Jason to be concerned about.
    • In Power Rangers Ninja Steel, resident egotistical Jerk Jock Victor Vincent loses his title as the school's tennis champion in "Abrakadanger". Subverted in that it's his sidekick Monty who is dismayed that "You came in last", while Victor, though still annoyed at his loss (since winning would have earned him his fiftieth trophy), accepts the ribbon and reminds Monty that "It says second".
  • Normally averted on RuPaul's Drag Race, where simply appearing on the show is enough to grant a Drag Queen superstar status in the gay community and nightclub circuit. However, Season 4 runner-up Chad Michaels did little to hide her disappointment at losing to Sharon Needles. When Chad reappeared on All Stars, she joked that Sharon was "borrowing" her crown and the other queens commented that she seemed to be still sore about losing. She would go on to win the All Stars season, but a conspiracy theory is that RuPaul only conceived of it in the first place as a Consolation Prize for Chad.
    • Season 5 runner-up Alaska Thunderfuck had a very similar attitude about losing the crown to Jinkx Monsoon. When she went on to win All Stars 2, it was considered by fans to be just as much of a consolation prize as All Stars 1 was for Chad. Queens in later seasons have been much more gracious about their placement, for the most part (their fans on the other hand...).
  • In the Smallville episode "Hothead", football coach Walt Arnold has this mentality and cannot tolerate losing. When he gains Playing with Fire abilities, he demonstrates them to his team and threatens to kill them if they ever lose, until he gets stopped by Clark Kent.
  • It's a theme in the second season of Sports Night. An athlete sets a new world record during a long jump competition; five minutes later, another athlete breaks this new record and wins the gold. Dan tells his therapist that no one will ever remember the first guy because he lost.
  • This is Archer's attitude in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, where he's is remembering humanity's first Warp 3 flight. Archer is upset to be passed over for the test flight. When a bartender points out that he'll probably fly the next one, Archer asks her if she knows what Buzz Aldrin said after stepping on the Moon. She doesn't. Archer says that no one does, because Neil Armstrong was first. His attitude changes later, though. In fact, he ends up captaining Starfleet's first Warp 5-capable ship.
  • Played with on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Bashir was second in his class, and outwardly kicked himself for the simple blunder on the test that caused him to be such. However, he reveals shortly that's it's part of how he comes on to girls. Plus after the Retcon about his "enhancements," it may be that he deliberately made the mistake as to keep his cover.
    • Even before the reveal, its lampshaded that a preganglionic fiber and a postganglionic nerve are nothing alike and a student of his caliber couldn't have mistaken them, suggesting some motive or psychology for throwing the test.
  • Several people who came in second for reality TV shows such as Survivor and the American Big Brother have acted like they lost the game because they didn't win.
    • Notably averted on The Amazing Race, where second place teams rarely ever take it badly. Of course, there is the occasional racer like Boston Rob who accuses the producers of fixing the race against him. But then, considering what other reality show he finished second on...
      • When Reality TV contestants go on a show after they get kicked off/voted out etc. (like doing an appearance on David Letterman or Today) they'll have all of the losing contestants...until the Grand Finale where the winner is announced. Then they'll only have the winner on, never mind the 2nd place (and possibly 3rd & 4th) who were established during the same show.
    • In Survivor, Russell Hantz won second place in Samoa, then third in Heroes vs. Villains. After Samoa, he acted like he was slapped in the face and practically murdered when he came in second out of twenty people, then third out of twenty people, all of which were former players and several of which were considered the best. however when he won the Sprint player of the year award, he immediately begun the typical Victory dance in Heroes vs. Villains.
    • Russell basically acted like a terrible sport in Heroes vs. Villains. Instead of congratulating Sandra in not angering potential votes, Russell began to attack the game itself saying that it was "Flawed" if someone who played differently than him could win, and immediately proposing an alternative rule(set) that would most definitely favour him. Basically, he came across as someone who played the game well and deserved more recognition from the fellow players...or a terrible sport who needs to learn that the game is not just played his way.

    Music 
  • Lamented in Alabama's song "I'm In A Hurry (And Don't Know Why)" in the bridge:
    Oh, I hear a voice...
    That says I'm running behind; I better pick up my pace.
    It's a race, and there ain't no room for someone in second place!
  • The Top Gun line "No points for second best" is used in the Cheap Trick song "Mighty Wings." Which happens to be in the movie's soundtrack.
  • David Glen Eisley says in his song "Sweet Victory", "You don't win no silver, you only lose the gold."

    Professional Wrestling 

    Radio 
In the primary series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), Deep Thought was designed to be the greatest computer to have been created, but it defers to second best as it would divulge seven million years hence that the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything was "42". Deep Thought readily admitted it was not able to compute the actual question, but it could design the computer that could: the Earth.

    Sports 
  • American gymnast McKayla Maroney has been gracious in her public comments, saying that she is grateful and appreciative of her silver medal in the vault despite being an overwhelming favourite for gold. Still, her face when receiving her medal could sour fresh cream, as well as having launched a meme (which, to her credit, she's had fun with) – and, given that she would have won if she'd not sat down her second vault, it's difficult to blame her for kicking herself.
    • When the US women's gymnastics team made history at the 1996 Atlanta Games by winning the first team gold, the Russian and Romanian teams (the silver and bronze medal, respectively) were shown to be in tears, clearly feeling this way.
    • In another case in gymnastics, two Russian gymnasts won silver and bronze in the 2012 women's all-around final. Silver medalist Viktoria Komova was in tears after losing to American Gabby Douglas. On the other hand, bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina was quite happy after winning a tie-break against American Aly Raisman.note 
    • In the 2018 World Championships, the Russian men's team lost to China by less than half a tenth of a point and they took it quite badly. Artur Dalaloyan in particular spent a long time crying and unable to stand up. The situation reversed the following year when Russia won over China and Sun Wei had the same exact reaction.
    • Going back to an earlier era, Czechoslovak gymnast Věra Čáslavská was very unhappy about her silver-medal finish in the balance beam final and tying for gold rather than winning outright in the floor final at the 1968 Olympics, despite winning gold in the other three individual finals, and made no efforts to hide it. In her case, it's understandable: both of those finishes were highly questionable (the floor final especially, where a gymnast's score from an earlier round was retroactively boosted to the exact number needed to put her in a tie with Čáslavská), and both decisions were to the benefit of Soviet gymnasts, a country which Čáslavská had a personal hatred for as they had recently invaded her homeland.
  • In the NFL, losing the Super Bowl is always going to be a crushing disappointment that pretty much overshadows the accomplishment of getting there in the first place. Additionally, while a few teams have at least managed to salvage a little of their legacy and go down in history as losing despite a valiant effort because the showing they put up was just that good (such as the 1999 Tennessee Titans, the 2008 Arizona Cardinals and the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles (see below)), it's more likely that the loser will be remembered as a team that choked or otherwise couldn't get it done on the biggest stage. See below for some egregious examples:
    • The Buffalo Bills made it to the Super Bowl four straight years, only to lose all four times. Instead of being thought of as a team that dominated the AFC by winning it four straight timesnote , they're thought of as chokers, and spawned the initialism Boy, I Love Losing Super Bowls. Their Super Bowl XXV loss against the New York Giants were perhaps the most heartbreaking, as kicker Scott Norwood missed what would have been a game-winning field goal in the last seconds of the game, and this would partly inspire the plot of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
    • The 2004 Philadelphia Eagles had one of the best seasons in the history of the franchise. They won 13 games in the regular season (a team record at the time) and had finally managed to win the NFC title game after losing it in the three consecutive years prior. Still, the most indelible memory of that magical season was team's horrible mismanagement of the clock and quarterback Donovan McNabb's apparent fatigue in Super Bowl XXXIX.
    • The 2007 New England Patriots were undefeated in regular season play and were expected to win the championship. Analysts were calling them the greatest team of all time. Then they lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII and suddenly an 18–1 season just wasn't good enough to be the best.
    • The 2013 Denver Broncos arguably had the most prolific offense of all time, with quarterback Peyton Manning throwing an NFL-record 55 touchdown passes. They won 13 games, secured home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, and beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC title game. The season is mostly remembered for a different kind of history, however. The Seattle Seahawks drubbed the Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII, one of the biggest blowouts in Super Bowl history.
    • The next year, those same Seahawks were down by 4 in prime position to score a winning touchdown in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, only to instead lose on a goal-line interception. The question of exactly what went wrong and who if anyone is to blame has been a hotly debated one in NFL circles ever since, but there's no doubt it was a bitter pill to swallow for the Seahawks.
    • The 2015 Carolina Panthers were one of only seven NFL teams in history to win 15 games in a regular season. Little is remembered about that season today except for a sullen press conference by quarterback Cam Newton following a 24-10 loss to the Broncos in Super Bowl 50 (which proved to be Peyton Manning's final game).
    • To say nothing of the 2016 Atlanta Falcons, who had their best season of the 21st century with their MVP quarterback Matt Ryan and made it to Super Bowl LI against the Patriots, where they squandered a 25-point lead, allowing the Patriots to tie the game and ultimately win in overtime when it had looked like they were going to walk out with an easy victory.
    • The 2018 Los Angeles Rams were led by Sean McVay, who at 33 years old was the league's youngest head coach, and his team put up a whopping 527 points in the regular season and an extra 56 points between their two playoff games against the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. That made him the youngest coach to reach the Super Bowl, the team's first in 17 years, facing the team that defeated them last time at Super Bowl XXXVI, the Patriots. Despite sloppy play by both teams, the Patriots once again defeated them 13-3 at Super Bowl LIII, tying the lowest losing score with the Miami Dolphins at Super Bowl VI. It didn't help that the Rams won the NFC Championship Game against the Saints in large part due to the officials' failure to throw a flag on a blatant pass-interference penalty, which made many people, especially Saints fans, feel that they didn't deserve to play in the Super Bowl in the first place. (McVay did manage to largely repair his image by winning a Super Bowl three years later.)
    • The 2021 Cincinatti Bengals were the "Cinderella" team of the 2021 postseason. After being the worst team in the league in 2019 and only marginally better in 2020, the Bengals, led by 2020 first overall pick Joe Burrow, shocked the league by winning their division and won their first playoff game in 30 years before going on to knock off the top-seeded Tenessee Titans and powerhouse Kansas City Chiefs en route to a Super Bowl appearance. The Bengals played a mostly solid game in the Super Bowl but ultimately couldn't convert for a critical first down on their final drive and lost to the Los Angeles Rams. While many of the individual players, including Burrow, got out with the "valient loser" narrative, the team as a whole was criticized for poor play-calling on the final drive and for their season-long failure to address their weak offensive line, with the predominant narrative being that the team could have won if they'd handled those things better.
    • The 2022 Philadelphia Eagles had a 14-3 record with quarterback Jalen Hurts taking a mammoth leap in his second full season. Their defensive line was also the best in almost four decades, amassing a whopping 70 sacks in the regular season. They were the top seed in the NFC playoffs and steamrolled the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers by a combined score of 69-14 to reach Super Bowl LVII, where his team jumped out to a 10-point lead right before halftime. Unfortunately, the defense was nonexistent in the second half, and the final score ended up being 38-35 in favor of Kansas City (aided by a controversial holding call after the two-minute warning). However, Hurts put up an amazing performance, being the first player in NFL history to throw for 300 yards, run for 70 yards, complete 70% of his passes and rush for three touchdowns in any NFL game. The Eagles did fall short, but because of Jalen's amazing performance, which Patrick Mahomes even praised in his postgame presser despite the loss, you can almost argue that this trope was averted, especially given that Hurts' performance is still talked about even by non-Eagles fans to this day.
  • One of Liverpool FC's most famous and successful managers, Bill Shankly, who founded the 'Boot Room', a managing dynasty that led to Liverpool dominating the English game for the best part of twenty years after he left the club, once said, "If you are first, you are first. If you are second, you are nothing."
    • Ironically, Liverpool had not been champions of English football since the 1989-90 season, even before the Premier League era, and they're the highest profiled of the Big Six of English football that had never won it (the other being Spurs). In the meantime, they've been surpassed by Manchester United in the most titles won race due to the efforts of Sir Alex Ferguson, and came close to winning it in the 2013-14 and 2018-19 seasons, but having won 10 domestic cup titles and 5 European competitions including 2 Champions Leagues and 1 UEFA Cup. In the 2019–20 Premier League, this streak finally came to an end, as they finally were crowned champions of England.
  • Averted by the Croatia national basketball team in the 1992 Olympics; they talked about how happy they were to be winning silver before the gold medal game was even played. They were going up against the Dream Team led by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, and had no illusions about winning. In the event, they put out a respectable performance.
  • A quarter of a century later, the Croatian football (soccer) team lost the 2018 FIFA World Cup final to France. While the team did look disappointed during the presentation ceremony itself, that soon evaporated. The Croatian capital had scenes of celebration.. After all, gritty, hard fighting underdogs representing a small nation of 4 million don't usually reach a World Cup Final.
  • LeBron James is a straight example. Because of the constant expectation and pressure to be the best of his generation, and the critics comparing him to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, just to name a few, he is very disappointed when he comes up short in the basketball season, despite reaching the Finals 10 times and winning four of them, also becoming the only NBA player to have won with three franchises (Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Lakers).
  • The 1972 United States Olympic basketball team still has not accepted their silver medals, as they contend the officials in the gold-medal game against the Soviet Union robbed themnote ; the medals remain in a Swiss vault. They don't intend to do so any time soon: one player has even written into his will that his relatives and descendants are forbidden from accepting the medal on his behalf when he dies. note 
  • A great aversion is the 2008 Summer Olympics and the men's 100m sprint in track and field, which was dominated by Jamaica's Usain Bolt (who got a world record at 9.69s effortlessly). But the silver medalist, Walter Dix of Trinidad and Tobago, acted like he won the gold after edging American bronze medalist Rudy Gay. Even Gay didn't look very heartbroken.
  • Nancy Kerrigan clearly had this feeling after winning the silver medal at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, given her snarky to the point of cruelty comment regarding gold medalist Oksana Baiul's uncontrollable weeping as well as the clearly displeased expression that she wore throughout. It's slightly understandable given that (a) she lost the gold by a ridiculously slim margin (a mere tenth of a point gave Baiul the gold), (b) skated what is unanimously believed to be her best performance yet, and (c) a myriad of problems had to be overcome – succumbing to nerves, a polemic attack, and subsequent physical injury, tremendous pressure to win. Still, petty and needless as Hell, and the skating fandom hasn't forgotten it.
    • Similarly, although Japan's Midori Ito probably did not behave this way herself – she won silver at the 1992 Albertville Games after a disastrous week that left many wondering if she would win a medal at all – she knew her fellow countrymen would, especially since she had come into the games as the favorite. As such, she made a public apology for not winning the gold medal.
    • After being edged out by Yuka Sato in the 1994 World Championships, French skater Surya Bonaly initially refused to come out for the medal ceremony, then refused to get onto the platform, then yanked off her silver medal, feeling that Sato, who was Japanese, had won solely because the competition was being held in Japan.
    • Despite a magnificent career that concluded with her being the most decorated figure skater in US history—12 US Championship medals, nine of them gold, 9 World Championship medals, five of them gold, and two Olympic medals, a feat achieved by very few skaters, Michelle Kwan is remembered for the fact that she never won an Olympic gold medal, thanks to the uncharacteristically mediocre performances she turned in at both of her Olympic ventures in 1998 and 2002, where she'd been the projected favorite.
  • Hilariously, after failing to defend his title and finishing second in the men's individual figure skating at the Vancouver Olympics, Evgeni Plushenko initially displayed a platinum medal on the splash page of his website, instead of the silver he won. When the media picked up on this, the page was quickly edited to show the silver medal.
  • There was significant media controversy in Australia during the London Olympics centered around this attitude being incredibly prevalent towards the Australian swimming team, to the point where conflict around the long-standing tendency for this trope to be employed towards the team overshadowed the Olympics themselves for the first several days of competition, particularly Emily Seebohm all but bursting into tears in an interview after placing second in 100m backstroke because she thought she'd disappointed everyone, which many thought exposed just how much pressure the sporting culture places on athletes and how much backlash they really do have to fear if they take home anything other than gold. Todd Sampson summed it up on The Gruen Transfer: "We like to think we're a sport-mad nation. The truth is, we're a winning-mad nation."
  • Chinese athletes at the Olympics are typically under such overwhelming pressure from their home nation to win gold that anything less than first place is a massive disappointment for them. One example of this is Qiu Bo being caught crying on camera after David Boudia unexpectedly beat him for gold in men's 10m platform diving at the 2012 London Olympics, in stark contrast to Great Britain's Tom Daley who was so ecstatic to win bronze that he did a victory dive into the pool.
  • Canadian swimmer Elaine Tanner came into Mexico City 1968 as a heavy favorite and returned home with 3 medals, 60% of the country's tally that edition. But given none were gold, she was deemed a disappointment, nobody received her back home, and led to depression and retirement at just 18 - and one hell of a Trauma Conga Line life, where she even considered suicide before meeting her current husband. Tanner later said to be relieved to see Canada celebrating silver medals in later Olympics, but cringed at seeing Nike promoting Atlanta 1996 with billboards saying: "You don’t win silver – you lose gold."
  • The Canadian Women's Hockey team was in tears with their heads hung low after losing to the United States in the gold medal game of the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, ending their 4-gold streak. When the medals were hung around the players' necks, one of the Canadian players took off her silver medal right away.
  • The Brooklyn Dodgers were called "Dem Bums" in part because they would repeatedly win a league pennant before losing the World Series after, mostly against the Yankees. The Dodgers would finally win the World Series in 1955 before losing again in 1956 and moving to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.
  • Similar to the Yankees, if a Canadian national hockey team doesn't win a tournament they're playing in, it's deemed a failure. If enough of the various tournaments (IIHF Junior, Men's/Women's Olympic, World Cup) are lost in a row, a national discussion on whether we're "losing our game" ensues. The fact that on the NHL side of things the last Canadian team to win the Cup was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 doesn't help; the national teams are supposed to bring redemption for Canada's "NHL failures". Doesn't mean the wins aren't appreciated. The irony of this situation is that even now when players come from all over the world to play hockey in the NHL, the league is still around 50% Canadian. In short, even when American teams win in the NHL, Canada still technically wins because as often as not, more than half of the players on the winning team are Canadian.
  • One of the most famous quotes of Enzo Ferrari is that "The second one is just the first among the last".
  • Dale Earnhardt was often quoted saying "Second place is just the first loser".
    • A slogan which appears on various T-shirts, and may have been adapted for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
    • A popular saying among NASCAR fans is that "No one remembers who finished second in the Daytona 500". Which is ironic given that one of the things Earnhardt is remembered for is finishing second in the Daytona 500 over and over and over...note 
    • Cale Yarborough had said "If he crowded me on the track it would be ok but when they ran us down we lost it". Basically the racing driver's way of saying "I don't like being shoved out and crashing but I really hate being outrun and finishing second".
  • For three seasons (2011, 2012, and 2013) NASCAR season, driver Martin Truex Jr. finished more closest to first than every other driver in NASCAR by coming in second in race after race after race after race. Rather than this consistent performance being rightly seen as a mark of a highly skilled driver, pretty much all of NASCAR (including Truex and his fans) consider him "underperforming".note 
  • UCLA Bruins football coach Red Sanders and, more famously, Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, are both known for saying that "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
  • The Bayer Leverkusen squad which finished second in all three of the Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, and the domestic German cup in the same season was nicknamed "Neverkusen" by the media, even though it was probably the best season in the whole history of the team.
  • One of tennis star Serena Williams' more famous quotes; "At the end of the day, if you aren't first, you're last."
  • The 2013 Indianapolis 500 was Carlos Múñoz's first-ever and his first time in an IndyCar race (Indy Lights notwithstanding), yet he managed to finish second behind Tony Kanaan. Most people would have been thrilled with this result, but he was disappointed with himself for not winning.
  • When Denmark lost the final of the 2011 handball world championships, the Danish star player Mikkel Hansen quickly took off his silver medal. The story goes that he tossed it into Øresundnote . He also took it off after the lost final in 2013 and put it under his tracksuit after the loss at the European championships in 2014. Hansen does not like silver medals.
  • The almost eternal "curse" of the Chilean soccer club Universidad Católica, which finished fourty-four times as second place in diverse Chilean championships until they finally won in April 2016. From The Other Wiki:
    "Since 2012, the club has always been in the fight for the championship, however, by one reason or the other, it has been unable to finish first, thus becoming the target of jokes by its rivals and adopting a reputation of a "2nd place team". The lack of titles and frustrating important match losses against bitter rivals and smaller clubs has infuriated a demanding fan base that is now looking for changes at the top level. The hardcore fans have been expressing their anger at the games by blaming the club's executives for keeping the club between the elite, not opening up the club to the masses, lack of investment in acquisition of players and poor decisions in the acquisition of a few foreign players that were not up to the club's standards."
  • The most famed curse in football/soccer belongs to the Portuguese side S.L. Benfica. After considerable success in European competitions in the 1960s, coach Bela Guttmann quit the club after an argument with the club's board of directors over his wages. He proceeded to say that Benfica would not be European champions in 100 years, in what became known as "The Curse of Bela Guttmann". Ever since then, Benfica have reached five European Championship finals (1963, 1965, 1968, 1988, and 1990) and three UEFA Cup/Europa League finals (1983, 2013, 2014), losing them all. We're barely past half a century into the curse, approaching 60 years now while Benfica still waits.
  • The famed Italian side Juventus F.C. has lost the European Championship/UEFA Champions League a record seven times, the most ever while winning it twice. They've lost five finals (1996–97, 1997–98, 2002–03, 2014–15, 2016–17) ever since their last win in 1995-96. While there is merit in those accomplishments (as their fans argue), they are far behind AC Milan and behind Inter Milan in European competitions, the latter two's fans arguing that Juventus' second places mean considerably less than Juventus' fans would like to think.
  • Until 2021, Mexican side Cruz Azul hadn't won a LigaMX championship since 1997. They reached the finals six times in between (1999, 2008-I, 2008-II, 2009-I, 2013-II, 2018-I), losing them all. What makes it more aggravating is that in most of those tournaments (and in 2011-I, where they didn't reach the final) they completely dominated the table and showed the makings of champions, only to lose them miserably in the final. A verb ("Cruzazulear" or to-Cruz-Azul) has been colloquially coined by Mexican fans to describe domineering teams that lose at the very last minute. And is now an officially recognized Spanish word. The drought would eventually end in 2021, as Cruz Azul won their 9th LigaMX by defeating Santos Laguna.
  • Colombian side America de Cali entered professionalism in 1948, a decision that didn't sit well with ex-player and director Benjamin "Garabato" Urrea ("garabato" meaning "doodle" or "stick figure" due to his thinness and height). He thus proclaimed that the team might become professional, but that they'd never win the Colombian league. Thus began a 31-year drought where America couldn't win anything until 1979. Though "The Curse of Garabato" appeared to be lifted once and for all, it's considered that it was prolonged and plagued America in the Copa Libertadores stage, where they've become the South American side that has lost the most Copa Libertadores finals with 4 (losing once with Argentinos Juniors and Peñarol, and twice with River Plate).
    • The famed and historied America striker Antony "El Pitufo" De Avila ("Pitufo" meaning "Smurf" due to his small size) lost all those continental finals with America, plus another one while playing for Ecuador's Barcelona de Guayaquil, becoming the player who has lost the most Copa Libertadores finals with 5 to his name.
    • America's town rival, Deportivo Cali, has lost the most finals in the Colombian league by an ample margin, having won 9 and lost 14, having the worst winning to losing rate out of all teams that have won championships. Independiente Medellín have a similar rate (6:10 to Cali's 9:14), but they haven't participated in as many finals as Cali. This has earned Cali the Embarrassing Nickname "Deportivo Casi" (casi, meaning "almost")
  • Colombian side Atlético Nacional, though being successful in Copa Libertadores (having won twice), has reached the finals of the Copa Sudamericana three times, losing two (to Argentina's San Lorenzo (2002) and River Plate (2014)), and ceding the dispute of the 2016 title to Brazil's Chapecoense due to a plane crash that killed most of the Brazilian team while en-route to Colombia to play the first leg of the finals. The gesture was greatly received and earned the Colombian team CONMEBOL's Centennial Fair Play Award, and a well-deserved place in the history of the competition. The gesture was made further special due to the fact that Atletico Nacional was the last ever South American team to have had the opportunity of winning a continental treble of Libertadores/Sudamericana/Recopa in 2016 had they won against Chapecoense (as they had won the Copa Libertadores earlier in the year, and won the Recopa later against the same rivals), and could have played for an intercontinental flush in the FIFA Club World Cup that would take place some weeks after the Sudamericana finals. At the Club World Cup, the Colombians were defeated 0-3 by Japan's Kashima Antlers and reached 3rd place after defeating America de Mexico on penalties. No South American side ever won the Libertadores/Sudamericana/Recopa treble, and due to the fact that the scheduling format for the South American competitions was changed in 2017 (as Sudamericana and Libertadores did not use to overlap), the possibility of any other team winning a continental treble became impossible because the tournaments became simultaneous.
  • The Argentina National Football Team is considered one of the most important national teams in the world and a powerhouse of South American football ever since its inception. However, the last international championship they've won has been the 1993 Copa América. Ever since then, they've reached four Copa América finals (2004, 2007, 2015, 2016) and a FIFA World Cup final (2014) and lost them all while boasting some of the highest-profiled, highest-paid, and most celebrated players in the world in their ranks ever since the '90s. Though there have been call-outs about the players' lack of commitment to the national colors, it's largely blamed on AFA's mismanagement of the team and lackluster oversight over benefits and logistics. This, however, has finally ceased first in 2021, as Argentina won the Copa América against Brazil, and subsequently won the FIFA World Cup in 2022 against France.
  • Utterly subverted by Yael Arad, who won the silver at women's judo in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She was hailed as a national hero in Israel for the simple fact that she was the first Israeli athlete to ever win any Olympic medal, and so was touted as a champion despite coming in second. What made things even funnier was that her last name literally means 'bronze' in Hebrew, so the joke was that she actually exceeded expectations by one medal.
  • Hockey player Alexandre Daigle, after being picked first overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, said "I'm glad I got drafted first, because no one remembers number two". And then heapfuls of irony kicked in, as Daigle was an underachiever who was out of the league by the age of 25 (he came out of retirement 2 years later, but only had some success playing in Switzerland!), while the second pick, Chris Pronger, was a dominating defenseman who won a Stanley Cup, two Olympic golds and an MVP award.
  • Gonzaga headed into the 2021 NCAA men's basketball championship game with a 31-0 record, having spent the entire season ranked #1. While they were expected to have a tough challenge in Baylor, the prospect of becoming the first undefeated national champion since 1976 seemed like it would've been a huge motivation for the Bulldogs to put in their best effort. Instead, they got hammered by Baylor, 86-70, with the Bears leading by a double-digit margin for basically the whole game, and the game will likely be remembered more for Gonzaga's choke job than as Baylor's first title. Gonzaga coach Mark Few later took the blame for the underwhelming performance, saying he didn't prepare the team well enough.
    • Butler's 2010 championship game appearance will forever be remembered as the plucky underdog taking powerhouse Duke Down to the Last Play before losing in one of the greatest games of all time. Unfortunately, Butler's return to the championship game in 2011 will forever be remembered for a truly horrendous performance by the Bulldogs: blowing a halftime lead and shooting an abysmal 12 of 64 (19%) from the field. In fact, many people forget who actually won the game (Connecticut, 53-41).
  • The Olympic Games medal count for the two countries that started to top it in Turn of the Millennium was such Serious Business that they made efforts to keep themselves at #1:
    • In 2008, hosts China made the United States miss on the top spot for the first time since 1992. American media would never concede the top spot, and their count was always by total medals (which the US ended up with 12 more) rather than the regular weighted "most golds on top". This was also prevalent in the 2020 games, as only in the final day the US managed to get enough gold medals to surpass China (39 to 38).
    • In a combination of this and the Sore Loser, 2020 had China blatantly tried to fudge its 2020 Olympic medal count by including those won by Taiwan, Macao, and Hong Kong as a way to put themselves ahead of Team USA's last-minute squeaker. The Chinese Olympic Committee was mocked for such a trivial matter.

    Theatre 
  • Referenced in "The Ballad of Sara Berry" in 35MM: A Musical Exhibition. When it becomes increasingly clear the title character will come in second to the Wheelchair Woobie in the Prom Queen election, she might still qualify for a place on the prom court - but her father's attitude contributes to her obsession with winning at all costs.
    There's just no future for a princess at Prom.

    Video Games 
  • The Adventures of Willy Beamish actually averts this. The Tootsweet Frog Jump is considered a big deal where Horny must beat Turbofrog, but you can keep going in the game if you only make second place, as you still win enough money to enter the Nintari championship, plus the jet-ski you need to reach Humpford Manor.
  • Battlefield 3 includes an achievement called "First Loser" for having the second-highest point total in the match. Although this goes against a theme of the Battlefield series, which usually rewards teamwork and downplays individual skill. Also, get this achievement if you are the best player on the winning team but were bested by someone on the losers.
  • This also applies to anyone who doesn't place first in Crash Team Racing and its remake. ESPECIALLY Nitros Oxide and Isabella, though Megumi averts this by being a Graceful Loser about it, while Geary tends to zigzag between this trope and respectfully applauding the winner at the same time. It's however averted online where everyone on the podium will play their winning animations.
  • For the Musketeer in Darkest Dungeon, this is her greatest failure. During one fateful sharpshooting competition, as she was lining up her shot she suddenly catches a glimpse of an eldritch eye on her mark, causing her to miss the shot, putting her on second place. Her motivation on joining the Hamlet was to find what that eye was, and one of her Crimson Court trinket is the second place trophy, which in her comic she seems to have discarded.
  • Dicey Dungeons: Yolanda's nan told her that she's not satisfied that Yolanda's shop isn't No. 1, even if it's the only one in the dungeons. Yolanda feels the same way, aiming to ensure that all of her customers are as satisfied as possible with their purchases.
  • In one mission in Elite Beat Agents, you are trying to get a runner with a cold back to health in order to win the big race. Depending on how well you do, he reacts with roughly equal enthusiasm to winning Gold or Silver but is very distraught to have only won 3rd, even if that is pretty good for someone who just got over a cold.
  • In the Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) and Rune Factory series, winning a contest gets you high praise and affection from the other villagers. Don't win, even finishing in second, and everyone (even your spouse, if present) reacts with the same "You lost? You suck!" manner, whether it was second place or dead last, and lament your poor showing.
  • Katamari Damacy:
    • Royal Second Cousin Miki is stated to always try to at least make the top three but tends to end up around sixth place.
    • Also featured in the story of We Love Katamari. As a child, The King of All Cosmos took second place in a boxing tournament - while walking home, his father pitches the silver trophy in the river to the King's dismay. Later, the King and his father get in a fight - when the King goes to apologize, he sees his father looking at the silver trophy, and realises that his father must have fished it out of the river. This may also explain the King's attitude towards the player if he turns in a small katamari.
      The King of All Cosmos: If We were doing it, it would be much, much bigger.
      The King of All Cosmos: Is this all you want out of life? Mediocrity?
  • The first LEGO Racers back in 2000s did the same, where finishing second only unlocks the next championship event instead of the character and bricksets, and finishing second in an event usually concluded with the player character being angry of, well, finishing second.
  • From Mario Kart: Double Dash!! until Mario Kart 7, it was absolutely necessary to win gold trophies in Grand Prix mode if one wanted to unlock new characters, karts, and cups (though since 7 forgoes pre-built karts for customizable karts, unlocking all but three parts comes down to collecting a certain amount of coins, a system that continues in Mario Kart 8). Mario Kart 8 averts this, though, as placing anywhere between 1st-3rd will unlock a random character, as well as unlocking cups and mirror mode (update 4.2, though, makes mirror mode a default engine class).
  • At the end of Pokémon Red and Blue, Professor Oak gives Blue a speech on how disappointed he is in him, and how he needs to learn to treat Pokémon well like Red does, almost completely ignoring how Blue's methods got him past all the gyms and the Elite Four, and he'd still be Kanto's champion if Red hadn't shown up. Given that Blue is a complete asshole who lost to Red every time they met, there's definitely something wrong with both his technique and him as a person.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield takes this literally in the Rotom Loto-ID. The fourth and third-place prizes are a PP Up and a PP Max, respectively—useful items and difficult to find anywhere else. First place, as usual, is the coveted Master Ball. Second place, though, is a Rare Candy. In older games, this would have been a decent reward, but the newly-added Max Raids bombard you with so many XP Candies that the classic Rare Candy is practically worthless, other than as a moderately uncommon collectible.
  • In R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, the first two races require a 3rd place finish or better, the next two require 2nd or better, and the final four require first-place finishes. In the races where you can qualify without getting first, doing so will result in some pretty upset comments from your crew. (Failing to qualify will just take you to a retry/quit screen with no commentary.)
  • In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, upon finishing a race, if your character takes 1st place, he or she (or it) will be happy and excited. Taking any other position, however, including 2nd, will have them look disappointed and depressed. Contrast this to the Mario Kart series, where characters are pleased as long as they didn't place in the bottom half of the positions.
  • In Tales of Graces, this is what prompted Hubert to grow from whiny crybaby to freaking general badass.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Mrs. Reid holds this against Shania when the latter ranks 8th out of a 100 people for the Ouroburos test. She dismisses Shania's happiness towards the success by saying it's no better being dead last, then rubs it in that every Reid before her made the main team and that Titania could have done so easily if she were alive.

    Visual Novels 
  • Double Homework: In her epilogue, Rachel wins the bronze medal in the Olympics. She’s down in the dumps, mainly because nobody will ever remember her for it, but the protagonist tells her that the silver medalist probably feels worse, since they were only one place away from the top spot.

    Web Animation 
  • Eduardo from Eddsworld takes this philosophy to heart, though it’s eventually revealed that it’s due to constant bullying as a kid due to coming in second place in an art contest.
  • In RWBY, Qrow mentions that he heard about how Team RWBY nearly stopped the train, pointing out, though, they don't give medals for "almost". Ruby's reaction? "Yes, they do, and it's called 'silver'!"

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • According to Acts of Gord (an early 2000s website where a video game retailer posted stories of annoying or ignorant customers), he had a video game tournament for Tekken 2 where this was invoked:
    And the winner of the tournament won the controllers that were opened for the tournament (worth $80), and $20 in cash. Second place was a can of coke and an autographed picture of Gord. Third place was $20.
    The Gord likes to remind people that second place is just the first loser.
  • Quinta Brunson has the video on TikTok, "If I came in 2nd place at the Winter Olympics" where she plays an athlete being interviewed about her "loss". She's unceasingly satisfied with her position, citing that it's a ranking on a global scale, she doesn't come from a place with regular snow to train in and further she only lost out to someone from Germany who does. She did her best and came in second in the Olympics, which is a big deal to her no matter what.
  • A Downfall parody video showing World of Warcraft guild SK Gaming reacting to their rival Nihilum getting the World First defeat of the Eredar Twins in Sunwell Plateau has Hitler/bds yelling "Shut up Mackelina you faggot! Second place is for fucking losers".

    Western Animation 
  • American Dad!:
    • Stan believes that when it comes to sports, you either win or you're just a pathetic loser. The episode "Every Which Way But Lose" has Stan constantly belittling his son, Steve, for not coming in 1st place in any sport. When Steve teams up with Roger and beats Stan's team in a football game, Stan takes the loss so badly that he almost commits suicide, believing he would rather die than to live life with a loss on his record.
    • Also played with in an episode where Stan goes with Francine to her high school reunion, happy that he's married to the homecoming queen. Francine points out that she only won by one vote, and the runner-up had gone on to be fat, unattractive, and miserable since (she left the prom to eat at a Dunkin Donuts). But when the ballot box is shown, two uncounted votes for the runner-up are discovered. Francine happily gives her tiara to her, while Stan is unhappy to learn that he didn't marry the homecoming queen after all.
    • The mother of Steve's Japanese friend Toshi, and his on-off-again romantic interest Akiko believes in this trope wholeheartedly, being a Tiger Mom Education Mama who relentlessly pressures her daughter to study and work on countless competitions. When Steve beats Akiko in a spelling bee, Steve ends up forfeiting the win to her when he sees her mother openly berate her and promising to be even stricter from now on. Strangely, this ONLY applies to Akiko, as the mother is never seen doing much parenting with Toshi.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball shows Gumball's mother Nicole grew up to believe this trope was "first place for losers" by her overbearing and controlling parents, (besides telling her that being female is no excuse for getting an "F" in ''gender''). She is shown to shut off her parents' comments, though.
  • Archer mocks Ray for winning bronze in Olympic Slalom, saying that he lost, while Ray argues that third in the world is hardly the same as losing. Then, when Archer walks away, he starts crying, admitting it was a huge disappointment.
  • Batman Beyond: In "Hidden Agenda", after scoring second-highest on an exam, one character was told by his mother "that would make you the winning loser." Said boy then strikes a vendetta against the top scorer, who happens to be Batman's best friend. To point out how ridiculously high the standards of the guy's mom were, he got 2391 out of 2400. The only person above him got a perfect score.
    Mom: Almost doesn't get you anywhere in life. Almost gets you almost.
  • An episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog had Katz attempting revenge on Muriel because he always came in second to her in Nowhere's cooking contests.
    Katz: [Receiving 2nd place trophy] Sad, isn't it?
  • Touched on in Daria's Musical Episode, where Helen and Quinn have a Distant Duet about their similar drives to succeed in their chosen fields:
    Helen: Coming in second wouldn't be the worst...
    Quinn: ...as long as no one else was first.
  • In an episode of Futurama, Bender enters Zoidberg in a pet show. When Zoidberg wins second place, Bender says the page quote — even though he cheated to get there.
  • In the Hey Arnold! episode "Grand Prix", Arnold's team takes second place behind the team of Helga and Phoebe. Eugene, who drove the second half of the race, is excited to have take second and finished in a kart that was falling apart, but teammate Stinky complains that they didn't win.
  • The Racing Drones from Hot Wheels Accele Racers fall into this category due to them being made by the Accelerons as test drivers for the Racing Realms in order to test the Human drivers if they are worthy to inherit their knowledge. Gelorum broke away and took the entirety of the other Racing Drones with her on a crusade to beat the Racing Realms, claim the Accelechargers, and finally kill off the Accelerons.
    Gelorum: We were created to win! Winning is all there is!
  • The Misfits from Jem were the number one band in America until Jem and the Holograms came along. Even then, they're just barely in second place. Despite this, they absolutely hate being second and are frequently trying to dethrone Jem's band (usually by violence or other improper means). When it comes to their lead singer Pizzazz, this is related to her Freudian Excuse. Her mother abandoned her and her father when she was young and her father was very distant and preferred to throw presents at her rather than spend time with her. She came to crave attention and uses her fans as a substitute for it. Pizzazz wants to be the number one band and won't take second place. In one episode The Misfits lost a contest with the Holograms where the objective was to sell more records, losing by one sale. Stormer even reminded her two friends that they had managed to sell a million albums (the equivalent of a platinum) but Pizzazz was still furious.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • Kagami’s mother has this idea drilled into her daughter’s head, insisting that a Tsurugi has to be the best at what they do. Because of this, Kagami felt shame when she thought she had lost a fencing match, and even said in her family, “there are no second chances”.
    • In "Guitar Villain", record producer Bob Roth demonstrates these views, telling Jagged Stone that he'll be dropped from the label if he remains at #2 on the charts. Jagged angrily points out to him that #2 on the charts is still good, and that any other record label would be more than eager to take him if he was dropped. It's an especially odd view for Bob, since his label does represent the new chart topper, Mr. XY. How can he expect to represent two #1's if they're directly competing with each other?
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • This is Rainbow Dash's general attitude, considering her cutie mark appeared when she was winning her first race. She does get better about losing in later episodes, but in early ones, if she doesn't get anything less than first place, expect her to mope about it.
    • In "Wonderbolts Academy", Rainbow Dash meets a fellow pegasus who believes this even more than she does... leading to the episode casting her as the voice of reason by comparison.
    • Outright subverted during the running of the leaves. Twilight is extremely proud of herself for coming in 5th place, which is highly respectable considering it's her first race ever. Even the competitive Applejack and Rainbow Dash don't berate her for it; they're too busy moping about tying... for dead last.
    • Rarity was traumatized as a filly when the go-kart she designed for the Applewood Derby got second place for creative design, though the fact that she lost to Derpy's go-kart which looked like a bunch of planks nailed together probably didn't help. Years later as an adult mare the memory of her loss still drives her to bitter tears.

  • Taken to the extreme in Peanuts whenever Charlie Brown comes second...
    • You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown shows Charlie Brown coming in second in the spelling bee and the rest of the kids giving him hell for it.
    • In A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown makes it to the National Spelling Bee Championship (having won the State one) and comes second, only for everyone to see him as a miserable failure. However, this is a rather bizarre conclusion considering that, while misspelling a relatively easy word like "beagle" is embarrassing (especially when his pet Snoopy is one), the fact remains that Charlie Brown beat almost everyone else in the entire country. Surely that should count for something?
  • King of the Hill:
    • Subverted when Hank doesn't win a shooting competition, and his dad won a bet he wouldn't. Then Bobby walks up and says, "Wow, Dad. Second place in a real competition." It's worth noting that Hank was established throughout the episode as being a really crummy shot to begin with, and was only worried about letting his own son down.
    • Happens in a later episode where Bobby takes to growing roses and fails in a florist competition. He's disappointed and depressed about it but shocked when he sees Hank (who he actively hid his roses from in the beginning) planting his flowers in the garden. When Bobby asks why he'd do this even if he didn't win, Hank explains, "Well, the Cowboys don't win every game, but I still cheer them on year after year."
  • The Simpsons:
    • Mocked in "The Old Man and the C-Student", when the Olympics commissioner reaffirms the purpose of the Games: "giving out medals of beautiful gold, so-so silver, and shameful bronze."
    • Also in "Lisa's Rival" when she considers her predicament:
      Lisa: Hey, I am above average! So what if Alison's ahead of me? There's no shame in being second.
      [Imagine Spot with Lisa and a band in front of a large audience]
      Announcer: And now, Avis Rent-A-Car is proud to present the second best band in America. Will you welcome Garfunkel, Messina, Oates, and Lisa singing their number two hit, "Born to Runner-up".
      [Band plays; audience boos loudly]
      Lisa: Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?
    • Inverted in "I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can". Lisa gets second place in the Spellympics and is hailed as a winner in Springfield—after all, second place makes her "the biggest winner this town's ever produced". Heck, because she lost honorably instead of taking a bribe to take a dive, they fashion a sign that says: "2 good 2 be #1."
    • Parodied in "Deep Space Homer." One of the astronauts coming along on the mission is Buzz Aldrin, who insists that "second comes right after first," leading to awkward glances between the other characters.
  • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: This is the motivation behind the Ice Dancers becoming the villains for the season. They've won first place in every ice dancing competition they've ever entered, except for the Olympics, where they came in second. The first few legs of the race, they always come second, never first, never lower, and it gradually drives Josee to madness. Even when they start winning, it's not enough to shake them out of that mentality.
  • Uncle Grandpa has Priscilla Jones, who got second place in the science fair when she was a little girl because Uncle Grandpa accidentally chipped it, and instead of helping her fix it, took her on an adventure involving playing hackey-sack with Martians. Her reaction? She lost it and vowed to take Uncle Grandpa's job, taking on the alter ego "Aunt Grandma".
  • In the Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) version of Contest of Champions (1982), the Grandmaster taunts the Collector with "Second place means first loser!"
  • Played with on The Weekenders. Tino got 3rd place in a horseshoes competition, during a weekend sports meet, which he was pretty proud of, considering he took up the sport that weekend. His friends didn't see what the big deal was, since he didn't win. Probably had to do with the fact that they all won their competitions.


 
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Bob Roth doesn't want to be #2

Bob Roth's attitude toward Jagged being the #2 musician on the charts. Jagged himself is insulted that the #2 musician on the charts is at risk of being fired for holding that position, and rightfully points out that other record companies would be thrilled to hire someone so successful.

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