History Main / ChainLetter

* An episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo]]'' featured the tittle character recieving one of these.

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* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'': "Chains" revolves around Calvin and Susie receiving these. Susie rips hers up, and proceeds to have bad luck for the rest of the episode.

* In an episode of ''Series/ICarly'', Freddie gets a chain letter regarding Consuelo, a Spanish woman who had died. He must pass it on, or suffer such misfortunes as red socks getting mixed with white shorts, his sandwich getting run over, making it absolutely gigantic (at least the size of his torso), and his computer shorting out and making weird popping sounds.

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** Subverted though, because Sam caused all that misfortune. Freddie catches her in the act though and gets back at her at the end of the episode.

* In ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'', the ''malleus epistula'', or "hammer-letter," is one of these. This document provides advice for battling against demonic and pagan magic, teaching an [[KnightTemplar uncompromising ideology]] of "torture and kill them all; God will know his own," along with the basics of the ArsGoetia to banish demons with and MindManipulation techniques that help the inquisitor [[KangarooCourt extract confessions]]. At the end of the letter, the recepient is instructed to keep the letter a secret, but to make [[NumberOfTheBeast six]] copies of it and pass them along (anonymously) to other members of the Church, or else some curse (depending on the particulars of the letter) will befall the recipient. [[spoiler: If you haven't already guessed, the letters were in fact originated by demons, and the inquisitors who study the letter become infernalists.]]

* In the ''BabySittersClub'' book "Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery", the club starts having bad luck after Mary Anne throws out a chain letter.

--> Why would I just fall off of my seat?!

--> That's stu...*thunk*

Often utilized for a specific type of SuperstitionEpisode.

If the horror movie with the same name is what you're looking for, [[Film/ChainLetter see here.]]

* A ''Series/KidsInTheHall'' sketch had a company's CEO presenting a chain letter to his board and asking them what to do. Only one character refuses to take it seriously.

* In ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' Russia got one saying that if he not mail it to three other people within three days [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment his capital will become Warsaw]]. Poland, points out that, since he doesn't have friends, he'll freak out. It doesn't work since Russia just send it to his subordinates instead.

* [[{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]] (of course) once got a chain letter and agonized about sending it or not. He finally decides to tear it up. Then it starts raining.

* Even ''TheWizardOfId'' had a chain letter arc. [[spoiler: The King ended up mailing it on, even though nothing bad had actually happened yet, because...well...better safe than sorry.]]
* ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "Chain Of Fools" (issue #30) starts with Bubbles getting a chain letter. When she doesn't respond to it, she has her powers zapped while the girls are fighting a monster. She immediately flies home and sends out chain letters--to her sisters and Mojo Jojo, and when ''they'' don't respond, the same thing happens to them.

* Premise of the 2010 SlasherMovie ''Film/ChainLetter'' was that if the characters didn't forward the chain letter, they would die agonizing death involving...chains.

* In the ''[[BabySittersClub Baby-Sitters Club]]'' book "Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery" the club starts having bad luck after Mary Anne throws out a chain letter.

* A rare CommonSense moment had Red of ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'' ignoring a recent chain letter craze over the Lodge until Dalton pointed out that Harold, who started it, got a $100 bill from it. By the final act, chain letters are going out like crazy until Harold reveals he didn't get a $100 bill - it was a bill for $100 from the library. It also provides a rare case of the sender getting the bad luck, not just from the bill, but from the others dipping into his cash box to pay for all the letters.

* In a ''[[Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' episode, both Dick and Mary receive chain letters. Mary throws hers out right away and tells Dick to do the same. Dick ambivalently holds on to his and leans more and more toward sending it out when Mary is repeatedly hit by bad luck. Eventually, Dick ends up taking superstitions seriously to such an outrageous degree that they totally run his life.

* ''TheAndyGriffithShow'' has an episode where Barney gets one of these, Andy convinces him to throw it out, and...well, you can guess the rest.
* ''TheMaryTylerMooreShow'' has an episode where Mary gets one of these from Lou Grant.

* One episode of ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' began with Brain planning to send a chain letter as part of his latest plan. He was beaten to the punch by his [[TheRival sworn enemy, Snowball]], whose letter had ''the exact same text'', except the subliminal message (the key element to the plan) was changed from "You will bow before the Brain" to "You will bow before Snowball".
* In a ''[[{{Sixteen}} 6teen]]'' episode, Jen gets a chain email, ignores it, and has bad luck throughout the episode. She then tries to get a number of people's email addresses, but later it is revealed those people have Jen's email address, so she has more chain letters to send.

if you dont copy this to [[ThreeHundred 300]] trops in the next minute\\

* In ''SuburbanKnights'', the Nostalgia Critic accidentally reveals that the map he received was part of a chain letter.

* A ''KidsInTheHall'' sketch had a company's CEO presenting a chain letter to his board and asking them what to do. Only one character refuses to take it seriously.

* In an episode of ''ICarly'', Freddie gets a chain letter regarding Consuelo, a Spanish woman who had died. He must pass it on, or suffer such misfortunes as red socks getting mixed with white shorts, his sandwich getting run over, making it absolutely gigantic (at least the size of his torso), and his computer shorting out and making weird popping sounds.

* A ''KidsInTheHall'' sketch had a company's CEO presenting a chain letter to his board and asking them what to do. Only one character (the recurring Danny Husk) refuses to take it seriously.

Character receives a letter, one which informs the recipient that he must mail it to a certain number of people or suffer bad luck. Though warned by his credulous friends, the skeptical character mocks the very concept of luck, and vows to ignore it. Disaster proceeds to befall him on a scale which would make Job from Literature/TheBible look like a paragon of good fortune.

Chain letters in real life have nowhere near the credibility that they do in media, and are ''annoyingly'' common in e-mail spam and on comment pages and message boards. In fact, the reason why a chain letter is an obvious fraud is the same reason why a pyamid scheme is a fraud. (If one person sent, say, twenty letters to twenty people, and all of them did the same, and so on, then after only a few repetitions, the chain would exceed the population of the Earth.)

Character receives a letter, one which informs the recipient that he must mail it to a certain number of people or suffer bad luck. Though warned by his credulous friends, the skeptical character mocks the very concept of luck, and vows to ignore it. Disaster proceeds to befall him on a scale which would make Job from TheBible look like a paragon of good fortune.

Character receives a letter, one which informs the recipient that he must mail it to a certain number of people or suffer bad luck. Though warned by his credulous friends, the skeptical character mocks the very concept of luck, and vows to ignore it. Disaster proceeds to befall him on a scale which would make Job look like a paragon of good fortune.

-->-- Creator/TerryPratchett, ''Discworld/SmallGods''

--> That's stu...*thunk*