Basic Trope: A character in a competition starts to celebrate when a winner is declared, only to discover it's not them.
- Straight:
- Alice is running against Bob for the mayor of Trope City. When the results of the election are read, she immediately starts to thank everyone who made her win possible...only for the results to name Bob as the winner.
- Charlie is in a twelve hour automobile race against David. When Charlie crosses the finish line, David is nowhere in sight. Charlie goes up to the winner's podium and proudly accepts the win. Then David walks out of the bathroom and says he can continue officiating his victory.
- Exaggerated:
- When the results of the Trope City mayoral election are read, Alice runs to the window and yells out that she is their next mayor and rattles off a series of insults towards Bob. It turns out she actually lost by a landslide.
- Charlie crosses the finish line in his race against David and doesn't find him anywhere. He runs up to the podium and starts gloating over his victory and badmouthing David at every moment. The officials then tell him that David had actually finished a long time earlier and has already collected his winnings and gone to bed.
- Downplayed:
- Alice defeats Bob in the Trope City mayoral race and goes to give her acceptance speech. In it, she speaks nicely about Bob and offers sympathy for such a serious defeat. She's then informed that she only beat him by one vote.
- Charlie wins his race against David and accepts the prize for victory. When he confronts David, he congratulates him on a good race and hopes he doesn't mind the victory gap. David then points out that the gap was only about twenty seconds in a race that lasted over twelve hours.
- Justified: Alice and Bob are fierce rivals as are Charlie and David and Alice and Charlie would be absolutely devastated to lose to them, so they naturally assumed they're the victors in their competitions with them.
- Inverted:
- The Trope City mayoral race ends with Bob being declared the winner. Alice goes on television to give her concession speech, only to be interupted by a news report that the results from one district weren't counted and Alice actually won the election.
- Charlie reaches the finish line to find David waiting for him. After checking in, Charlie goes up to David and congratulates him on his victory. David then tells him that his car broke down, he had to abandon the race, and the officials flew him to the finish line to see who won. Charlie won after all.
- Subverted:
- Just after Alice's celebration is cut short by the news she lost the election, it's revealed that the results from one district were miscounted and she did win.
- Just after Charlie's celebration is cut short by the news that David actually won the race, it comes out that David broke a rule and has been issued a time penalty...just long enough to make Charlie the winner after all.
- Charlie wasn't celebrating him defeating David, he was celebrating his personal victory of actually completing a race.
- Double Subverted:
- But then the results of another district are revealed to have been miscounted and the correct count makes Alice the loser again.
- But then it's discovered that Charlie broke the same rule and has been issued the same time penalty, thus negating David's penalty.
- Parodied: Alice frequently declares herself the winner of contests and elections as soon as the results are read...even when she hasn't entered them.
- Zig-Zagged: The results from the Trope City mayoral election come in one district at a time. Sometimes, Alice starts to celebrate her win just before it's announced that Bob won that district. Other times, she starts to celebrate her win just before she is announced as the winner. Other times still, she waits for the results to actually be read before celebrating. By the time the final results are read, she's not sure how to react.
- Averted: Alice and Charlie both actually won before they decided to celebrate.
- Enforced: The producer doesn't like Alice and asks the writers to give her a bit of additional humiliation when she loses the election (which was going to happen all along).
- Lampshaded: "Ooh, wait 'til the results are announced before celebrating, why don't you?"
- Invoked:
- Eric sees that Alice is going to lose the election, but tells her she's going to win for laughs.
- Fred reports over the radio that David has gotten lost, knowing that Charlie is listening, even though David is right on course.
- Exploited:
- Eric sees that Alice is going to lose the election and bets with her that she'll lose.
- Fred makes a bet with Charlie that he'll win the race even though he can see Charlie will lose.
- Defied: Alice and Charlie decide to wait until the results actually are confirmed before celebrating.
- Discussed: "I know you're excited about the results, but please listen and make sure you've actually won before celebrating your victory."
- Conversed: "I think the only thing more embarrassing than this would be cheering for victory before finding out someone else won."
- Implied: Eric calls up Alice after she loses the election and asks if she's okay. She says that she was able to accept her loss. Cut to her in the middle of her campaign headquarters which is decorated for a party. Some of the party favors have clearly been used.
- Played for Horror: Just before the results of the election are read, Alice turns to the heads of Trope City's various departments and sternly informs them that as soon as she's in office, she's going to lay down the law and rule over them with an iron fist. As soon as it's announced that Bob actually won, they all look at her with murderous looks.
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