History Main / CheatersNeverProsper

* Averted in ''Anime/{{Monster}}'', where Tenma and Gillen come in second and first in their class, respectively, after cheating on a major test.

* Generally played with in the ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' comics. The Roman team (which includes Asterix) at the Games is humiliated by the various Greek cities, and because they're so useless, the Greeks come up with a special Roman-only event. The Roman competitors take this extremely seriously, so Asterix induces them all to take a dose of the magic potion, which constitutes a drug offence. [[spoiler: In the race the next day, Asterix, the only competitor not to cheat, comes a distant last, but the Romans are exposed and Asterix is declared the winner. He then gives away the laurel wreath to one of the Roman competitors, who gets all the credit back in Rome and is promoted as a result.]]

* In ''FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'', Dusk Shine [[spoiler:drugs Celesto's water during a tournament to determine who will guard Celestia. He gets caught, stripped of his rank, and banished]].

* ''LightNovel/ChivalryOfAFailedKnight'':

* Waver Velvet is the only Master in ''LightNovel/FateZero'' who doesn't cheat at some point through the Fourth Holy Grail War. [[spoiler: He doesn't win, but he makes it through the war alive and is the only one of the surviving Masters who is better off at the end of the war than he was at the start.]] Several of the others have their LoopholeAbuse come back to hurt them pretty badly, the worst easily being [[spoiler: Kayneth, who made his fiancée his servant's [[{{Mana}} prana]] source so he wouldn't need to use his own, but in the process, she fell in love with said servant and made her a target, ultimately getting them both killed.]]

** Likewise, in the [[LightNovel/FateApocrypha Great Holy Grail War]], [[spoiler:''both'' the masterminds working for the Grail bend or outright break the rules in an effort to stack the deck in favor of their own faction... and again, [[YankTheDogsChain neither gets the Grail]].]]

* Zigazzed in ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife''; most enemies attempt to cheat Shiro and Sora. They usually lose because Shiro and Sora can cheat a lot ''better''. On the other hand, the siblings never cheat if their enemies don't cheat either and Jibril doesn't cheat ever, no discussion. That said, attempting to cheat Jibril equals a suicide declaration.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': A rookie witch named Elzbieta is forced, along with all her potential classmates at an evil WizardingSchool, to compete in a potentially lethal obstacle course as part of orientation. She tries to get the older students to bend the rules and exempt her from the curse. They curse her so badly she's in agony for days. [[AllForNothing And, of course, she still has to run the course.]]

* In ''Anime/IsekaiQuartet'', [[LightNovel/OVerlord Ainz]] tries to use [[TimeStandsStill Time Stop]] to [[MundaneUtility cheat on a test]]. However, before he can even attempt to do anything, he finds that [[LightNovel/KonoSuba Aqua]], [[LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil Tanya]] and [[LightNovel/ReZero Subaru]] are all immune, leaving him unable to do anything. Aqua attempts to cheat herself (among other mischief) and is caught standing when Ainz cancels the spell, leading to her being punished. Tanya and Subaru, who didn't exploit the Time Stop, manage to return to their seats in time and avoid punishment, while Ainz finds another way to pass the test.

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The words [[SpoiledBrat Malty Melromarc]] and fair play ''do not'' go hand in hand. The evil Princess uses others to fight her battles for her, or utilises lies and dirty underhanded tactics to try and get what she wants. The two best examples for this trope however, occurred in Volumes 1 and 2 of the light novels/Episodes 4 and 5 of the anime.

* During the Davy Back Fight in ''Manga/OnePiece'', the Foxy Pirates use several tricks to tip the odds in the favor against the Straw Hats. Naturally, the Straw Hats BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame.

* During the Davy Back games in ''Manga/OnePiece'', the Foxy Pirates use several tricks to tip the odds in the favor against the Straw Hats. Naturally, the Straw Hats BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame.

* Team Rocket in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

** In the former, Malty deliberately goaded [[IdiotHero Motoyasu]] into fighting Naofumi, for custody of the Shield Hero's companion, the demi-human Raphtalia. When Naofumi started to win, Malty [[IntheBack illegally intervened]] causing the Shield Hero to be falsely declared the loser. Unfortunately for Malty, Raphtalia not only [[ArmorPiercingSlap thoroughly]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech chewed Motoyasu out]], the two other heroes, [[EvenEvilHasStandards Ren and Itsuki]] called the Princess out on her actions, ensuring that [[AllforNothing nothing changed at all!]]

** ''Anime/YuGiOhSEVENS'': Arata Arai/[[DubNameChange Buff Grimes]] uses a device in his duel disk that allows him to swap out his set cards and stack his deck to control what he draws. He loses both of his duels, first against Romin when Luke sabotages his device, then against Luke due to Luke's pure skill. Luke calls him out on his cowardice and lack of skill to resort to cheating.
* Risho and his manager of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' trapped two of the five protagonist team members before their match in the [[TournamentArc Dark Tournament]]; the protagonists were already at a disadvantage by being forced to fight two teams in one day. [[TheLancer Kuwabara]] was already nearly dead, so [[TheHero Yusuke]] and [[TheSmartGuy Kurama]] were left to split five consecutive matches between the two of them. Before Yusuke begins the last fight against Risho himself, the manager bribes the judges to get Yusuke off on a technicality. Both of them get what's coming to them when Kuwabara gets in the ring despite his injuries and defeats Risho, while up in the booth [[DragonInChief Toguro]] easily murders the manager, [[EvenEvilHasStandards because he felt the man was disgusting,]] although he reasons (correctly) that if Yusuke's team is worth his time, they should be able to overcome their predicament.

** In the original manga, a common formula is for Yami Yugi to challenge the unscrupulous antagonist of the chapter to a high-stakes Shadow Game, only for the antagonist to try to cheat, and either get caught or fail in spite of their cheating. Either outcome leads to unpleasant results for the antagonist.
** First and second series anime:

** In the original manga, a common formula is for Yami Yugi to challenge the unscrupulous antagonist of the chapter to a high-stakes Shadow Game, only for the antagonist to try to cheat, get caught, and be punished accordingly. Otherwise the antagonist would typically be outwitted in the Game, lash out at Yugi, and then get punished for not accepting their loss.

* Zig-zagged in ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure''. Episode 29 has the villains forcing the Cures to [[ItMakesSenseInContext play games with them]]. They're not playing fair one bit though by having Akanbes holding up the girls. So the Cures decide to cheat as well and they win every single challenge. The funny thing is that while the bad guys are just using cheap tricks, the Cures have no problem using their powers to harm them (like Happy blasting the Akanbe-moles and repeatedly whack them with a hammer, Peace electrocuting the Akanbe-pins or Beauty freezing Wolfrun and a shark-like Akanbe).

Even if the cheaters don't fail by their own fault, [[DefeatingTheCheatingOpponent the honest competitors will beat them anyway, though it may be a close call]]. The [[MoralOfTheStory message here]] is that while the cheaters put all their energy into cheating, the honest players spent time getting good at the game in order to come out on top without having to resort to dirty tricks.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh''
** First and second series anime along with the manga as well.

*** Earlier on, Dark Yugi spends his time [[KnightTemplar making sure]] that people who cheat against him [[strike:never prosper]] are subject to horrible MindRape for the rest of their lives.

*** In a filler arc, despite not needing to, Noa cheats like crazy during his duel with Kaiba out of petty sadism, using a mind-controlled Mokuba as a human shield to prevent Kaiba from attacking him, and "wins" by turning both Kaiba and Mokuba to stone. This however brings the wrath of Yugi and Yami down on Noa's head.

*** Then there's Takasu, the warden of the facility. In his duel with Yusei, he has them both wear [[ShockCollar Shock Collars]] designed to shock a duelist when they lose Life Points; ''his'' was purposely not working. He also uses a security camera to look at Yusei's hand during the whole duel; however, this backfires on him ''badly'' when another inmate hacks the facility's system to turn his ShockCollar on and then kills the power so that he briefly can't use the camera, causing him to make a mistake. (In general, the reason for Takasu's downfall is that he abuses the inmates so much, they are all more than willing to help Yusei bring him down.)

*** Inverted with Yuma and Astral, who go so far as to fabricate entirely new cards on the spot to win some of their later duels and do nothing but prosper for it. Granted it's kind of a kill or be killed sort of thing, but still.

!!Examples:

* CheatersNeverProsper/Film

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', on the last leg of the final lap of the Piston Cup tiebreaker race, when Lightning takes the lead and is about to win the race, longtime second-placer Chick Hicks, determined to at least come in ahead of his longtime rival Strip "The King" Weathers once before the latter's retirement, desperately PIT maneuvers the King, sending him into a horrifying rollover crash that astonishes everyone. When Lightning sees what's happened, he, not wanting his idol's career to end the same abrupt and unceremonious way that his mentor Doc Hudson's (aka the "Hudson Hornet") did, stops short of the finish line, allowing Chick to win the Piston Cup, and goes back to help the King finish his final race and retire with the dignity he deserves. The fans, media, and sponsors all become touched by Lightning's act of true sportsmanship and cheer him on as the race's true winner, and Dinoco even offers him the sponsorship they'd promised the winner (which he ultimately turns down), while Chick, despite finally beating the King and winning the Piston Cup, is denied said sponsorship and the fame and glory of the victory, and is booed off the stage with his trophy by everyone for his act of cheating and unsportsmanlike behavior.
* Minor example in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''. After Nala pins Simba for the first time, Simba tries to get back at her by pouncing on her while she has her back turned on him. He ends up accidentally sending them both rolling down a nearby hill, and Nala still ends up pinning him anyway, now even more smug about it than the first time.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'', one fraternity is disqualified in the first round of the Scare Games because it was discovered that they were cheating (the challenge involved avoiding hazards and they used a gel to protect them). Later, [[spoiler:Sulley secretly cheats to win the last round, rigging the device so that Mike will get a flawless result no matter what he does, and decides to confess when his teammates' disappointment in him makes him feel guilty]].
* Oogie Boogie from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' is a demonic killer who uses a casino-themed DeathTrap, and he ''blatantly'' cheats. For example, when he rolls a two, he slams his fist on the table, knocking the dice so they read a better number. While this does help him win at gambling, this results in him having to face Jack mano-a-mano, where he's finally taken down.
* The bullies at the end of ''WesternAnimation/RaceForYourLifeCharlieBrown'' use some really nasty tricks (even life-threatening to the Peanuts gang), but at the end can't reach the finish line due to their raft sinking.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'', Bromley cheats twice, first playing chess with Derek and again during the training session with the musicians, and he still loses both times.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/TheBlindSide'', a defensive lineman on the OpposingSportsTeam [[UnnecessaryRoughness deliberately kicks Michael when he's down and after the play has already ended]], and the referee not only ignores the kick but penalizes the Wingate Crusaders when Coach Cotton complains. This triggers Coach Cotton's PapaWolf moment, which motivates Michael to lead the MiracleRally.
* At least one of the opposing teams in ''Film/RememberTheTitans'' gets a big leg up from blatantly racist referees. The Titans, of course, go undefeated. Of course, in this case, it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]] because one of the Titans' coaches threatened to expose the refs' rigging of the game to the press if they didn't start calling the game fairly, so the refs backed down.
* Effectively the moral of ''Film/TheBigShort'':
-->'''Mark Baum:''' What bothers me isn't that fraud is "not nice," or that fraud is "mean." It's that for fifteen thousand years, fraud and short-sighted thinking have never, ever worked. Not once. Eventually, you get caught, things go south. When the hell did we forget all that?
* Zigzagged with Sebulba, Anakin's pod racing rival from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', at least according to a few ExpandedUniverse sources. He clearly cheated to win; his racer's design violated many rules and was often equipped with weapons that he could use to disable or destroy his opponents' racers. ''However'', losing to Anakin clearly did not teach him a lesson or keep him down for long. [[spoiler: When Anakin put his racer up for sale, Sebulba was the one who bought it (through an intermediary, of course, because he knew that Anakin would never deal with him), made a few improvements, and continued his cheating ways; all he could say when he learned that Anakin had left Tattoine was "good riddance". Eventually, however, this trope may still apply, as his underhanded tactics ''did'' lead to him upsetting someone he shouldn't have, with unfortunate - and lethal - results.]]
* ''Film/KickboxersTears'', starring Creator/MoonLee, had Moon fighting an elite boxer opponent (imagine ''Rocky'' with kickboxing). When the opponent resorts to cheating by sprinkling hot chili on his gloves, causing his punches to blind Moon and paralyze half of her face, Moon responds by retaliating with a flurry of kicks and backflips, culminating in her shoving her knees into the back of his neck and spine, turning the cheating champ into a human vegetable for life.
* ''Goal 2'' both subverts this trope and plays it straight. In the first minute of the Champions League Final, a (fictional) Arsenal player dives to win a penalty, the subversion being that he scores the one he dived to win, but then, with his team 2 goals ahead with less than five minutes left, his teammate wins a penalty fairly and he misses. Cue {{Miracle Rally}} from Real Madrid.
* The penultimate ChariotRace of ''Film/{{Magadheera}}'' between the hero, Kala Bhairava, and the princess' evil, power-hungry cousin, Ranadeev Billa, has Billa cheating by arranging for mercenaries to sabotage Bhairava's chances of winning and attempting to make Bhairava crash into [[QuicksandSucks a pool of quicksand]] when the race course reaches a desert. Bhairava wins, nonetheless, and the disgraced Billa is forcefully exiled from the kingdom as a result.
%%* Spelled out word-for-word in the final shot of ''Film/SpeedRacer''.
* ''Film/JamesBond'' examples:
** In ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', Bond uncovers Goldfinger's attempts at cheating during games of gin rummy and golf, making him lose.
** Similarly, in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Bond subtly reveals Kamal Khan's attempts at cheating in backgammon, beating him with his own loaded dice.
** In ''Film/AViewToAKill'', during a horse race, Zorin uses remote-controlled obstacles to trip up Bond's horse, then has thugs jump onto the track and attack Bond. Bond fights them off and ''still'' pulls ahead. However, when Bond decides he's had enough and abandons the race, Zorin declares himself the winner.
* In the Disney Channel Original Movie ''Film/{{Hounded}}'', Jay Martin (played by Creator/TahjMowry) is a smart kid who prepares a presentation to apply for a scholarship to a prestigious school. His main competitor is Ronny Van Dusen (played by Creator/ShiaLaBeouf), the lazy son of [[EvilPrincipal the school headmaster, Ward Van Dusen]] (played by Creator/EdBegleyJr) and the scholarship is the only one of its kind available. After Ward confiscates Jay's presentation notecards, he tells Ronny to use the notes as a reference and come up with a better speech. Ronny, being lazy, copies Jay's speech word-for-word and presents it ahead of Jay. Jay doesn't do his speech, as it would sound as if he's the cheater. It seems as if the trope is averted in that Ronny gets the scholarship. However, by the end of the film, the truth is out, and Ronny is shipped off to military school (under the command of Jay's DrillSergeantNasty older brother, Mike), while Ward is demoted to secretary, [[spoiler: with his father-in-law, whose ancestors founded the school, coming out of retirement and retaking his old position as headmaster,]] and Jay is rightfully awarded the scholarship.
* The final showdown of ''Film/ShanghaiNoon'' has [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy Roy]] facing [[TheDragon corrupt Sheriff Van Cleef]]. Roy's down to his last bullet, so Van Cleef fakes a sense of sportsmanship and lies that he's emptied his guns so that he and Roy both have one shot left. [[spoiler: Every single one of Van Cleef's shots miss. Roy's one shot hits Van Cleef in the chest, right through his badge no less.]]
* ''Film/BadGenius'' plays with the trope. On one hand, Lynn's piano code [[spoiler: is never found out, but the school finds out that she completed a classmate's test for him, resulting in her losing her scholarship. Nevertheless, the students who paid her for it get the grades they need.]] In the end, the students in on the scheme [[spoiler: get the [=STIC=] scores they wanted, but Bank is caught, banned from studying abroad, and expelled from the school. He attempts to blackmail Lynn into running another heist with him, but Lynn decides to blow the whistle on the operation herself.]]
* In the second match in ''Film/TheMightyDucks'', Coach Gordon Bombay tries to get District 5's team to win by having his team fake injuries to get. Unfortunately, the team was [[BadBadActing about as good at faking injuries as they were at playing Hockey]] and lose the match anyway.
* The entire point of the educational film ''Film/{{Cheating}}''. Johnny gets away with cheating on one test when he asks his friend Mary for help. When he tries again, he's caught by his teacher and both get zeroes on their tests. However, the film goes all-out DisproportionateRetribution by also stripping him of his Student Class President title and ostracizing him from his peers. When featured on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', it's parodied when Crow copies Gypsy's paper and Tom Servo wants him dead for it.
* Averted in the RomanticComedy {{Film/IQ|1994}}. Ed Walters, an uneducated mechanic, falls in love with Catherine Boyd. She's a doctoral candidate at Princeton and is only interested in men who are academically gifted. With some help from his mentor, [[ItMakesSenseInContext Albert Einstein,]] he attempts to pass himself off as a genius. He cheats on a cognitive function test and also presents a previously unpublished paper written by Einstein [[PlagiarismInFiction as his own.]] His ruse is eventually uncovered, but despite this, he still ends up with Catherine in the end.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Several times throughout the ''Literature/HIVESeries'' do [[InsufferableGenius Otto]] and [[GadgeteerGenius Laura]] compete to steal the answers to upcoming exams. Justified in that they both know they would do fine without the answers, they are only doing it for the challenge. When they do this with the rest of their squad, however, [[spoiler:thirty-six Alphas are captured or killed, four of whom were directly involved with the heist, and Otto is himself expelled.]]
* In ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'', the titular Academicals play a game of football against Ankh-Morpork United, which includes [[AxCrazy Andy Shank]] and his thuggish friends. Said thugs proceed to cripple the Academicals' best player, while a supporter poisons the Librarian, who is playing goalkeeper. This backfires spectacularly on them when the replacement players ([[spoiler: Mr. Nutt and Trev Likely]]) manage to win by playing by the rules ([[LoopholeAbuse in a manner of speaking]]). The bad guys also failed to take into account that even if they won the match, they would have made enemies of both the wizards and the Patrician. With enemies like that, they would have most definitely not prospered for long. The Librarian alone is likely to break a lot of bones belonging to the people who messed with his bananas. This is lampshaded by one of the professional players on the AU team, who would have been more than happy to play a clean professional game and beaten the amateur Academicals through skill alone.
* Icarus, a chariot driver in ''Literature/DetectivesInTogas''. He manages to push his opponent Ben Gor from his chariot - but the horses keep running well without their driver, and without his weight, they're much faster.
* Despite using performance-enhancing drugs and shortcuts, George Hellebore in ''Literature/SilverFin'' ends up being beaten in a cross-country race by [[Literature/YoungBond young James Bond]], who, while using the same shortcuts he is, manages to beat him with his naturally developed athletism.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', Gilderoy Lockhart claims to have defeated several magical creatures and has written books about his alleged exploits. In fact, the creatures in question were defeated by other witches and wizards, with Lockhart wiping their memories and stealing the credit. When Harry and Ron find out about this, Lockhart tries to erase their memories as well, but uses Ron's wand [[note]]which has been malfunctioning since Harry and Ron crashed a FlyingCar belonging to Ron's father into the [[WhenTreesAttack Whomping Willow]] at the beginning of the school year[[/note]] and gets [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hit by the spell he was trying to use on the two boys]]. He is next seen (in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'') as a long-term patient in Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies.
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Malfoy and three other Slytherin students try to scare Harry in the middle of a Quidditch match by dressing as Dementors. Harry's team still wins the match; Harry, rather than panicking, uses his Patronus charm successfully for the first time (scaring the four of them half to death); and they're nabbed by a ''very'' angry [=McGonagall=] and given detention. They also end up costing Slytherin 50 house points.
* Towards the end of ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears and the Big Road Race'', the orange and yellow cars have both been eliminated from the race, leaving only the green, blue, and extremely slow red cars. The red car is going so slowly that the driver of the green car describes the situation as a "two-car" race. After pulling a dirty trick that blows the blue car's tires, the driver of the green car decides to be a LastSecondShowoff and orders a burger at a fast-food restaurant. Because of the determination of the red car's driver (who is all but said to be Brother), the burger ends up costing more than money.
* This is a recurring theme in the ''Literature/ExtremeMonsters'' book series, with the Extreme Monsters' rivals Team Pendant always attempting to win the games by cheating and the Extreme Monsters prevailing simply by not stooping to their rivals' level. The most notable instance happens in the third book ''Meet Mr. Hydeous'', where Doc's nephew Gerald competes in the winter games under the guise of Mr. Hydeous, a monster alter ego obtained from drinking a botched diet formula his uncle created, and ends up disqualified and banned from further participation when it is revealed that his monster form wasn't affected by his Neutralizer Wristband (a PowerLimiter monster athletes are required to wear during competitions to prevent their abilities from giving them an unfair advantage over human athletes).
* In the gamebook ''Literature/TheReturnOfZaltec'', the final boss battle is unbeatable without solving a certain puzzle. However, the battle page tells the player to turn to a certain page if they beat the boss (which is impossible). If the player cheats and turns there, they are given a (fake) mediocre, unsatisfying ending.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* 50% of the time, if a {{Heel}} attempts a cheating tactic, they will immediately lose.
** Rush at Wrestling/JohnCena with a steel chair or similar object and he will duck under you and hit you with the Attitude Adjustment anyway.
** One time, Road Warrior Animal slapped on brass knuckles and tried to punch Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, but Chris caught his punch and locked him in the Crippler Crossface for victory.
* Several times, when jobber Iron Mike Sharpe would be on the verge of winning a match, he would pull a foreign object out of his trunks and put it in his arm brace. He would then set up his opponent for a clothesline, who would duck under and hit their finisher on Mike.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples:

!!Example Subpages:

!!Examples:

!!Examples:

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', a show all about {{Karmic Death}}s, has many instances where a victim cheats in a competition, and their outcome after the fact is very self-explanatory.
** "Cock-a-Doodle-Die": A man cheats in a cockfight by putting razors in his rooster's talons, which enabled him to kill his opponent's rooster. The opponent catches on and forms and angry mob to kill the cheater, but the cheater's own rooster does the job for them, slashing his jugular vein with the hidden razors.
** "Texas Fold 'em": A junkyard owner playing poker with gang-connected heavies always cheats, and when one player catches on, they chase the cheater through the junkyard. The cheater hides in a wrecked minivan and manages to give the gang members the slip, but the van is slated to be junked that day, and he is crushed to death.
** "Slippery When Dead": During a oil-wrestling match, one contestant who cheats constantly loses her footing and impales her head on a spiked wrestling bell, with the announcer demanding to know whose idea it was to put a spike on said bell.
** "Chain on You": A motocross racer loses a race and her opponent is about to advance to the next race. Before the race starts, the cheating racer places a screw on her opponent's motorcycle chain, and once the race began, the screw would cause the chain to break and she would lose the race as a result. However, it backfires on the cheating racer big-time: when the chain snaps off, it flies into her neck, causing her to bleed to death.
* Subverted by ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' when Al Bundy uses a mistakenly issued senior citizens discount card to get into, and eventually win, the senior Olympics, beating out an honest competitor who had refused to do the very thing Al was in the process. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at episode's end with the narration "I bet you thought Al was going to let the old guy win. Well, then you haven't been paying attention these past years."
** With Al himself giving the BrokenAesop [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught "It's only cheating if you get caught."]]
* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': The fifth-season episode "Quarterback Sneak" deals with the ethics of cheating and thwarting cheaters. Here, Greg, quarterback of the Westdale High football team, suspects that Marcia's new boyfriend, Jerry Rogers (the quarterback from rival Fairview High), is out to steal his team's playbook as his team is struggling to find a way to beat Westdale at the latter's homecoming. After a failed attempt to swipe the playbook during his first visit to the Bradys, Jerry invites himself over again and succeeds in the theft. Greg -- instead of reporting to his coach the first theft attempt (especially since Bobby had seen Jerry try to steal the playbook, and thus would have been a reliable witness) -- had prepared by creating a phony playbook. The boys laugh about how they've "put one over Jerry," but Mike overhears the boys' revelry and brings them down to earth by saying what he's done was just as dishonest and was unfair to the Fairview players and coaches who were playing by the rules. Eventually, the Fairview High coach finds out about Jerry's theft and kicks him off the team; it is not known what, if anything, happens to Greg ... although he is able to lead Westdale to a 20-7 victory.
* In the hit UK Realty Show ''Don't Tell The Bride'' where Grooms arrange their wedding without their bride's knowing went through the unthinkable when the Bridal Party went through the Groom's Emails using his Ipad, the bridesmaids slipped up on the secret trip to Paris where the service was to be done and so the Producers checked and cancelled the wedding.
* Game shows have had more than their share, but one lesser-known example comes from the 1980-1981 NBC game show ''Las Vegas Gambit'', a Q&A-type game married to blackjack hosted by Wink Martindale. In an episode that pitted male-female teams of people previously strangers to each other, Martindale asks the question, "From what direction does the east wind blow -- east to west or west to east?" The team answers, "West to east," which Martindale momentarily doesn't hear, and asks the team to repeat their answer. Perhaps realizing they gave a wrong answer, they try to change it to "east to west," but the off-stage judge -- having heard the original response -- signals to Martindale, who immediately snaps at them to repeat their first answer ... which they sheepishly do. To date, it is one of the only times Martindale has been upset (albeit briefly), and even that incident was quickly forgotten. The episode in question, by the way, originally aired in the summer of 1981, and was rerun on November 27 of that year ... the show's last broadcast day. (Incidentally, that airing is far better known for Martindale appearing -- during the show's final act -- in a box, announcing that the show had been canceled and that ''The Regis Philbin Show'' would take over the following Monday.)
* In a ''Series/GrowingPains'' episode, Mike prepared cheat notes on the soles of his shoes for an important test. However, when doing the test, Mike found that he was able to do the test honestly since he legitimately knew the answers. However, Mike's notes are discovered at the end and the teacher logically assumes he used them to cheat and it takes the rest of the episode for Mike to convince his parents and teacher of the truth, both to allow him to prove that he knows the material and for his parents and teacher to drive home the point that preparing to cheat is wrong in itself, Mike retakes the test, on top of the desks, barefoot, and in his underwear to make sure he is using no unauthorized materials.
** In another episode, this philosophy is seriously subverted. Ben has the opportunity to cheat on a test but does not; he ends up getting a bad grade and is scolded by his parents. His friends ''do'' cheat, get ''excellent'' grades, and are rewarded by their parents. Ben's father is forced to concede that, in reality, cheaters prosper and win very often (saying that "in some cases, they even win the White House", an obvious reference to Watergate), although he does say that being honest can be far more rewarding in the long run.
* Zigzagged in ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. When a crook tries to cheat Sam and his customers in rigged poker games, the ConArtist Harry the Hat agrees to help them because, in his own words, [[HypocriticalHeartwarming "I don't like the idea of someone else plucking my pigeons."]] While the crook cheats, Harry manages to win because, well [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame Harry is a better cheater.]] [[spoiler: (And it helped that [[ObfuscatingStupidity Coach was helping him cheat.]])]]
* ''Series/CobraKai'': Towards the end of season 4, Tory discovers that Terry Silver paid off the referee to favor Cobra Kai, making Tory's win a tainted one. When confronting him in the next season, Silver makes no hesitation of denying it, calling it an "insurance policy". However, when he does bribe the referee during the Sekai Taikai tryouts, the only instance that this backfire is that Sam manages to beat Devon ''clean''. In the finale, Tory, along with the rest of Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang expose Silver's cheating, ultimately leading to the mass exodus of Cobra Kai students discarding their shirts once Silver is defeated by Daniel.
* In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' pilot, Jeff asks Professor Duncan for every answer to every test he is due to write at Greendale. Duncan responds by quoting the trope name and doesn't give Jeff the answers.
* In an episode of ''Series/MacGyver1985'', a race car driver tries to use an illegal NitroBoost, which causes him to lose control of his car and spin out on the shoulder.
* In a ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' episode which deals with tests, aptly named "Survival Guide to: Cheaters". AlphaBitch Bitsy Johnson constantly keeps copying off of Moze's papers despite her efforts to block her from looking at them. Eventually, Moze comes up with the idea to just put the wrong answers on her Spanish test and take a failing grade to get her to stop. When Bitsy complains to Moze about it and announces she can always find someone else to cheat off of, their Spanish teacher happens to walk by and overhear her. Bitsy is taken to the principal's office and her name plaque is removed from the honor roll board.
* In the ''Series/SideHustle'' episode "Thumb and Thumber", Presley squares off with her childhood thumb-wrestling rival, Rago, in a thumb-wrestling tournament where the grand prize is a brand-new boat so she, Lex and Munchy can finally pay off Tedward's old boat after they destroyed it. Rago's mother supposedly kisses his thumb for good luck before each match, which the trio finds totally gross, but she's kissing it with thumb grease, which allows Rago to slip out of his opponents' pins and win each match, which is supposedly how he was able to easily defeat Munchy in a practice round, [[spoiler: breaking his thumb in the process]], and Presley when they were seven years old, and perhaps win every tournament he competed in. After Munchy catches everything on video before Presley can face Rago in the final round, he and Lex secretly steal the thumb grease from his mother before she can give him the kiss. Without the grease, Rago is forced to prove to his mother he can beat Presley on his own as he did when they were seven years old, but Presley defeats him fair and square and she, Lex and Munchy are able to pay off Tedward's boat, until the trio ends up back at square one when they destroy Jagget's dune buggy.
* Used repeatedly throughout the ''{{Series/CSI}}'' franchise, [[AlwaysMurder always ending]] with the cheater (or the cheated) becoming the VictimOfTheWeek (be it because the objective of using the cheat was to kill the other guy, they pissed off someone enough to drive them to murder with the cheat, an opportunist third party with vested interests rigs the cheat so it is fatal, or the cheater (or cheated) is TooDumbToLive and trigger the cheat ''just'' right).
* While ''Series/TopGear'''s racing competition with their Australian counterparts [[SubvertedTrope subverts this]] handily, since most of the tricks they pulled[[note]]Replacing the engine of a Ford Transit van with that of a Jaguar [=XJ220=] supercar in the drag race, installing the top cars of the Aussies' vehicles (the part with the steering components) upside-down in the "Double-Decker cars" event and having [[BadassDriver The Stig]] impersonate James May in the final rally[[/note]] work out as planned, for two events their cheating backfired on them:
** In the "Synchronized Drifting" event, the UK team tried to stack the deck by appointing Hammond and May as "fair and independent" judges of for both teams. After the Aussies' go, they both attempted to give them a score of 1.1, but Hammond mixed up his score cards and gave them an ''11'' instead, giving the Australians a combined score of 12.1, which was .1 higher than what they had given Clarkson for his run, handing the Aussies the event.
** In the "Sheep Herding" event, Clarkson had attempted to slight the Aussie team by giving them ''Austrian'' made bikes instead of ''Australian'' made ones. The Australians don't even care because the Austrian bikes are "THE best bikes", and are able to run circles around their sheep. Not that they needed the extra help anyway since the Brits are absolutely hopeless with motorbikes.
* Sidestepped on ''Series/HeadOfTheClass''. Charlie had to take an economics course in order to keep his teaching certification (and his job) but was shown struggling with the subject matter, as it's out of his area of expertise. When he's gearing up to take his final exam, the IHP kids put together a composition book that contained all the formulas he would need to ace the test (they said he would be given two workbooks at the exam - one to write the answers in, one to use as a workbook and he could just substitute their workbook to use). The next day, when they ask how he did on the exam, he says he thinks he did fine - then pulled the workbook they gave him out of his desk, showing he didn't use it. When asked why he didn't use it, knowing he could lose his job if he failed the exam, he said, "I wouldn't be the teacher you deserve if I did."
* In the ''Series/KnightSquad'' episode "Do the Knight Thing", the students from the sorcery school are battling with Phoenix Squad for the chance to stay at Knight School. The sorcery school students constantly use their magic to cheat and ultimately are disqualified for doing so.
* When cheating takes place in ''Series/SavedByTheBellTheNewClass'', expect the whole scheme to become undone before the end of the episode. Below are some examples:
** In the Season 2 episode "Tommy the Tenor", [[DoggedNiceGuy Brian]] decides to join the Glee Club after seeing Rachel getting accepted into it. Unfortunately for Brian, he's HollywoodToneDeaf, so he gets help from Tommy, who shows no desire of entering it, by lip-synching his piece during his audition, while Tommy, hiding in the nearby hallway, sings for real, resulting in Brian not only being accepted into the Glee Club but getting a solo part as well. When the school board director comes to hear the Glee Club rehearsing, Brian enlists Tommy's help once again, but this time the plan fails because Mr. Belding and the school board director encounter Tommy in the hallway on the way to said rehearsal and, assuming Tommy is there for moral support, drag him into the Glee Club classroom, forcing Brian to do his solo part, well, [[{{Main/Pun}} solo]]. [[EpicFail It goes as well as one would expect.]]
** In the Season 3 episode "Driving School", Maria is failing her Driver's Ed class as she's getting her car for her 16th birthday, so she gets Screech to tamper with her Driver's Ed test score to get her passed. Later on, she hits Mr. Belding's car while driving her own with the other students, and Mr. Belding finds out at the end despite the best efforts from Screech and the students to cover it up.
** In the Season 5 episode "Her Brother's Keeper", [[HighSchoolHustler Ryan]] and Eric learn of a movie trivia contest where the winning prize is a jet ski. Ryan can't enter due to being an employee of the sponsoring franchise that's behind the contest, so he gets Eric to enter in his stead, training him via having Eric watch many movies to get him prepared. When that fails to work, Ryan resorts to cheating by [[RepeatAfterMe having Eric wear a concealed earpiece while Ryan, hiding out of sight, whispers answers on a coordinated device for Eric to repeat]] to the contest proper. Too bad for them Screech spots Ryan in the act on his mall security guard shift as the scheme is ongoing, prompting Screech to stage an EngineeredPublicConfession [[HoistByHisOwnPetard using the same means Ryan uses for cheating]] before he proceeds to bust Ryan and Eric on the spot, which gets Eric disqualified.
-->'''Screech''': [[RepeatAfterMe *speaking to the device* I'm a phony and I've been cheating.]]
-->'''Eric''': [[EngineeredPublicConfession I'm a phony and I've been cheating.]]
* ''Series/NancyDrew2019'': A subplot in "The Trial of the Missing Witness" has George entering a cooking competition against a rival restaurant. Her younger sister discovers that the rival restaurant actually stole a recipe for chowder that belonged to George's family and used it to win the previous competitions. Despite this, George still manages to win.
* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': This trope serves as the moral of the episode "Going for the Gold", where Arwin always managed to lose to his rival, Irv Wheldon, [[spoiler: who works for the Tipton's rival hotel chain, the St. Mark,]] year after year in a competition for hotel maintenance engineers. Arwin believes he's not as good as Irv, but the twins, confident he could beat him, find out Irv was cheating year after year, but each time they try to expose him, Irv always manages to cover his tracks very well. During the last leg of the race, [[spoiler: after the boys try to even the playing field, only for Arwin to stop them, preferring to come in second fairly than cheat,]] Irv tries to cut corners by jumping over the railing of the stairs in the hotel lobby, only to end up hurting himself, leaving Arwin to rightfully get ahead of him and win.
* In the tenth season of the US version of ''Series/TheApprentice'', Trump confronts Anand about allegations that he was texting friends to come buy from him and boost his sales numbers. Anand [[BlatantLies lies to Trump's face]] and claims he never did, only to admit his misdeeds when Trump ''reads the texts aloud''. Anand is then [[NonGameplayElimination fired on the spot]]. The best part? None of the people he texted showed up during the challenge.
* Exaggerated DeconReconSwitch in ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne''. Gai Amatsu flagrantly cheats during the Workplace Competition in various ways; being in on [[MonsterOfTheWeek the enigmatic Raiders]] that disrupt the competitions, attacking his rival Aruto constantly (forcing him to use a RestrainingBolt that [[SuperpoweredEvilSide hijacks him whenever he does]]), engaging in a tangential conspiracy to [[spoiler: take over the mind of A.I.M.S.' Isamu Fuwa alongside Fuwa's reluctant partner]] and generally waging copious amounts of corporate warfare at all given times. He's playing so much XanatosSpeedChess he doesn't just counter Aruto's attempts to expose him in the final round, but outright reverses it into positive PR. The cherry on the sundae is when he [[spoiler: arms the Humagear of the final round with a [=ZetsumeRiser=] ''on live television'' and allows it to run amok to demonstrate Raiders as a self-defense tool]]; managing to pin the entire debacle on Aruto and sway the public against Humagears. Even with Aruto taming the SuperpoweredEvilSide with [[HopeSpot a workaround and Isamu defeating Gai in battle repeatedly]], [[TheBadGuyWins Gai wins the competition in the end]]; exiling Aruto on the spot. Then he finds out the previous CEO [[spoiler: linked the trademark for Hiden Intelligence's unique tech (The reason Gai wanted Hiden at all) to the ''family name rather than the company name]],'' meaning Aruto isn't stripped of anything other than his position despite the losses and Gai now has a useless puppet-company. Gai's cheating was both foolproof and [[MeaninglessVillainVictory absolutely pointless]]. Cue OhCrap followed by six whole episodes of back-to-back [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp Battles]] headed in his direction as the "winner" devolves into puppy-kicking StupidEvil and everyone, including the local band of genocidal robo-terrorists, [[HateSink put their differences aside to demolish him in all capacities]].
* During the second semifinal of the 2022 ''Series/EurovisionSongContest'', the juries for Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino were all disqualified and had a substitute jury vote created for them, based the (legitimate) jury votes from countries with similar voting records to theirs, in both that semifinal and final. According to one of Belgium's broadcasters, they had made agreements to vote for one anothe
[[/folder]]

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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Used as the moral in a "Sonic Sez" segment in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''.
* The ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'' episode "Jungle Games" has King Julien make a bet with his EvilUncle with the fate of the kingdom on the line. Both teams begin cheating but only against each other, which ends up allowing a third team to pull ahead of both of them to win the gold.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AroundTheWorldWithWillyFog'', Sullivan hires a cunning master of disguise known as Transfer to make sure Fog loses the wager by keeping him from completing his trip around the world within the eighty-day time limit. In the end, however, Fog evades every one of the traps which Transfer lays and reaches the Reform Club in time to claim victory. Shortly afterwards, Sullivan is dismissed from his position as governor of the Bank of England for "misappropriation", having used the Bank's funds to pay for Transfer's travel expenses.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' where Toph, Sokka and Aang spend an episode cheating Fire Nation folk out of their money with such varied methods as cheating a cheater in Three-card Monte to a full-on flopsy scheme. They end up in trouble, but only because they indirectly become famous. They never give back any of the ill-gotten goods either.
** Though played straight because earlier in the episode there's a man playing the "three cups with something in one of them" game, and he picks Toph because she's blind. It's revealed that the reason no one's been able to win is that he was either flipping the object under the cup into his sleeve and sticking another in a different cup than what they'd be watching or leaving all three empty. Toph, an [[DishingOutDirt earth-bender]] who has learned to sense vibrations, detects the sleight of hand and puts one of the rocks back under the cup without him even knowing, [[LaserGuidedKarma cheating the guy.]]
** In the ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' "[[Recap/TheLegendOfKorraS1E6AndTheWinnerIs And the Winner Is...]]", Tahno and the Wolf-bats resort to cheating to beat the protagonists in a pro-bending tournament. Thanks to the fact that he bribed the referee, they're declared the winners. [[spoiler: The stadium is promptly attacked by the local WellIntentionedExtremist, who kicks their butts, removes their powers and takes the time to [[EvenEvilHasStandards call them out for cheating during his radio broadcast]].]]
* Bianca from ''WesternAnimation/BeverlyHillsTeens''. Several of her ''successful'' attempts to sabotage Larke during a competition are actually seen by the judges as an original touch deserving a first place.
* In the classic cartoon "Rabbit Transit," WesternAnimation/BugsBunny (offended by the story of The Tortoise and the Hare) challenges a turtle to a race. Bugs cheats like crazy and loses but only because the turtle outcheats him (he had a jet engine under his shell and in the earlier "Tortoise Beats Hare" uses dozens of other turtles).
* Spike the bulldog in several WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}} cartoons. Whenever the two are on a competition, he tries to sabotage Droopy, but as Droopy is BornLucky, they end up backfiring on Spike, or even actually ''helping'' Droopy win. One cartoon has Spike tricking Droop into signing a document stating that he cheated, thus disqualifying him and making Spike the winner; but, Spike got his in the end: the prize was a kiss from the Queen of Sports - who was [[AbhorrentAdmirer hideously ugly]].
--> '''Spike:''' '''Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!'''-''*Tree or wooden pole falls on him rather than Droopy*''-ber.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'':
** [[BabysitterfromHell Vicky]] is notorious for this; you name that competition, she will cheat in it:
*** In "Hex Games", she and Timmy battle it out for the title of Queen/King of the Skatepark in a skateboarding competition. After Vicky flattens the wheels of Timmy's skateboard on the larger half pipe and blows up the big ramp, [[spoiler: only for Chester to save him, thanks to the new state-of-the-art multipurpose braces he was fitted with when his other braces fell off in a skateboarding accident]], Timmy still wins, but Vicky refuses to relinquish her crown, until she is plowed into the ground by [[TheBully Francis]] following his attempt on the big ramp.
*** In "Miss Dimmsdale", she competes in a BeautyContest in the hopes of winning a $10,000 cash prize and being Mayor of Dimmsdale for a Day so she could torture every child in town like there's no tomorrow. Despite sabotaging all of her competition [[spoiler: (the only known contestants besides her were AJ's mother, Mrs. Crocker, Principal Waxelplax and Mrs. Turner)]], and bribing, blackmailing or, in the case of Timmy and Creator/AdamWest ([[AnimalThemedSuperBeing alias]] [[CatGirl Catman]]), almost killing the judges, Vicky still loses and is beaten up by the other contestants [[spoiler: after last-minute contestant Mr. Turner shows up and clumsily wins the pageant, proving men ''can'' compete in beauty pageants]].
** The Anti-Fairies and Pixies cheat at everything, as noted in "Pixies, Inc." and "Fairly Oddlympics".
** "The Big Bash" is an aversion: Remy cheats, but ties with Timmy, but the real winner was Cupid, as not only did he cheat everyone out of rule free wishes, but the "Scavenger Hunt" turns out to be his shopping.
** The chapter book ''Scout's Honor'' provides another contest between Timmy and Remy, with [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney the latter cheating using his money]]. It's thanks to Cosmo and Wanda exposing Remy's cheating that Timmy wins the bet.
* While generally subverted With Bender in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', in the episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", Bender cheats at poker by using X-ray glasses. However, after winning, [[SayingTooMuch he hints too strongly at them]], and when he's exposed, he's promptly beaten up by the others.
* In the Tom Slick short in ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', every of Tom's lead opponent (mostly Baron Otto Matic) cheat in every way to win the race and always fail.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', [[TheDitz Billy]] decides to replace the fake skeleton in the class with Grim so he can help him cheat on his history test. Turns out Billy was wrong and it was actually a ''math'' test, and Grim explains that he knows nothing about math.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'', there is an episode based on the fact that cheaters never win. The cheater does end up winning, but they also fall over a waterfall because they were too busy gloating to notice it. The moral: even when cheaters win, they lose.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In the episode "Let's Play Golf", Kaeloo [[OutOfCharacterMoment cheats]] at golf by distracting the others, HulkingOut and hitting the ball. When the others find out, they accuse her of being a "dirty cheater" and Kaeloo proceeds to hit herself over the head with her golf club as a form of self-inflicted punishment.
** In Episode 101, Stumpy, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat all cheat in various ways in an Olympics-style sporting event, so Kaeloo gets annoyed and beats them up before crossing the finish line herself and winning.
** Subverted in [[spoiler: Episode 95]] where Stumpy's team does win after cheating.
* Every episode of ''Scooby's All-Star WesternAnimation/LaffALympics''. The Rottens cheated in absolutely every event and almost always came in last. However, this is one of the few shows in which while the results were subsequently discounted due to the team's cheating, several of their tricks during were accepted as not actually being against the rules, and the Rottens indeed were able to come in first place at the end of the episode, albeit very rarely.
** There's one 'pity win' episode where the Rottens get away with every single trick they pull.
** In one episode, an attempt to cheat didn't help them win, but it did get them a bonus to their score for [[AchievementsInIgnorance accidentally breaking a world record.]]
** Other characters occasionally get called on doing questionable things, but they tend to be less outright cheating and more trying to bend the rules and failing.
* Mertle Edmonds from ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' does this constantly through every contest she and Lilo are in and actually manages to get away with it in some cases. In the episode "Yapper", she and Lilo compete in a a dog sho, where she sabotaged Stitch's water bottle by replacing it with a bottle of a particularly strong blend of coffee (if you saw [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch the first movie]] then you know what caffeine does to Stitch) and ended up winning the contest, but conceded the trophy because the duo helped rescue her dog, Gigi (actually an experiment), from Gantu. Another case was the episode "Slick", where she used the titular experiment against Lilo (not that Lilo didn't use it first) during a fundraiser and once again won, but she overbinged on the prize (a supply of shave ice) making it a case of [[WasItReallyWorthIt Not Worth It]]. The trope is played straight in the episode "Spike", where they competed in a quiz contest between their two families; Mertle uses her friend, Teresa, to feed her the answers through an earpiece, but Lilo and Stitch find out halfway through the contest and use the titular experiment to infect Teresa with his intelligence-reducing quills, making her give Mertle the wrong answers. Come next round, Mertle is on her own and promptly loses.
** There's another case in the episode "Slugger" where Lilo and Mertle bet their prized possessions in a baseball game (Lilo her Music/{{Elvis|Presley}} records, Mertle her dolls). Lilo thought it was going to be a baseball like they had done at the start of the episode. But Mertle, upon seeing an experiment that would give her an advantage, changed it to a basketball game and had Gantu brought in as a ringer. In addition, Gantu was placed on Mertle's team and if Mertle won, Gantu would get to take Slugger. Ironically she wound up losing thanks to ''Pleakley'' who played a similar sport on his planet and was a natural. The look on Mertle's face when she's forced to hold up her end of the bet is pretty satisfying, especially considering she was a major {{Jerkass}} in this episode.
** In the episode "Sprout", ''Lilo'' was the one who tried to cheat. She and Mertle bet that whoever won an orchid contest at the Kokaua Town Fair would have private access to a secret beach for a week. The problem for Lilo was that she didn't have an orchid in time and was ill-prepared, so she took one of Jumba's experiments, a living plant-like one, and entered it in the fair. However, at the fair, Mertle knocked it over by legitimate accident and the experiment grows out of control to a monstrous size. Despite the chaos it caused, Lilo actually won the blue ribbon, but she realized she didn't win fair and square. So she relinquished the ribbon and the bet to Mertle and also accepted being grounded by Nani for a week (Lilo was accepting of a month, but Nani reduced it as she felt that her sister learned her lesson).
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LittleBear'' episode "Little Bear's Sweet Tooth", Mitzi cheats during the Harvest Day sack race by swinging on the trees and is disqualified so Owl and Emily's Granny teach her a lesson even after she cheers that she won. Therefore, Cat and Emily are the real winners of the sack race.
* During the music video for the song "Cheaters Never Really Win" at the end of the ''WesternAnimation/LittleDogsOnThePrairie'' episode "Cheating", the main characters participate in a sack race but nearly all of them cheat in various ways (Darcy uses [[{{Balloonacy}} balloons to float over everyone]], Hollister spills marbles on the ground to cause Gilroy to slip and fall, Patterson keeps his sack over his legs but rides a bike at the same time, etc). All of the cheating methods wind up backfiring on them. Sport is the only one who does not cheat and he winds up winning the race.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'' episode, "Gonzo's Coop Dreams", Gonzo substitutes for Beep in a game of basketball against the Bad Eggs when the latter [[InjuredLimbEpisode injures his wing]]. Because Gonzo has never played basketball before, he has a difficult time trying to score points. When he finds out that Bunsen and Beaker's Cant Lose Shoes allow whoever wears them to win any game, he [[LookBehindYou distracts Bunsen and Beaker]] so that he can borrow the shoes while they aren't looking. Gonzo manages to catch his score up to that of the Bad Eggs, but his ruse is exposed when he gets the shoes wet and they malfunction. Gonzo agrees to play fair for the rest of the game, and despite his best efforts without the Can't Lose Shoes, the Bad Eggs still win. Thankfully, the Bad Eggs and Gonzo are good sports, and they agree to play another game against each other soon, this time with Gonzo playing fair the whole game.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
** In "Fall Weather Friends", Applejack and Rainbow Dash get so competitive with each other, they attempt to cheat one another during a race. In the end, they both come in last. However, in this case, it's justified as they were cheating ''each other'' so much they didn't notice everyone else had gotten ahead of them. [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat They're both formidably athletic, so if they hadn't been busy cheating, they would probably have arrived among the first.]]
** The Flim-Flam brothers in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". Once the Mane Six and the rest of the Apple family start to outpace the cider machine during the cider contest, Flim and Flam skip the quality control process to get back in the lead. Though this wins them the contest, the resulting product is so terrible that they get run out of town, which would have happened anyway if they lost. At least if they had lost on even terms, it wouldn't have completely ruined their business.
*** Amusingly, had they just run the competition straight up - without allowing for the "honorary family members" to join in - they would have won handily AND had quality cider.
** In "Rarity Takes Manehattan", Suri Polomare basically cheats her way through the fashion industry- she takes advantage of her assistant Coco Pommel for all the actual work, and cheats Rarity by stealing a special fabric (she told Rarity she'd be using it to make accents, but actually used it to copy Rarity's dress designs and claimed the fabric as her own). While she isn't caught, she doesn't come out well either- Rarity manages to pull off a last-minute fashion line using [[MacGyvering stuff she found around her hotel room]] that won the contest legitimately, and Coco Pommel is inspired by Rarity's kindness and quits, leaving Suri with no way to actually capitalize on her reputation for making the fabric since Coco was the one who could actually sew and Rarity was the one who knew how to make the fabric.
** Zigzagged in "Magic Duel", Trixie returns to Ponyville and challenges Twilight to a magic duel, where the loser is exiled. Nobody knows that Trixie is cheating by using [[ArtifactOfDoom The Alicorn Amulet]] to increase her magic and do spells only for "the highest level unicorns." Trixie wins the duel when Twilight can't copy her trick and exiles her. Twilight's friends learn about the amulet and are able to tell Twilight, and when Twilight confronts Trixie on her cheating she denies it. Twilight then challenges Trixie to a rematch with an amulet of her own and [[CurbStompBattle completely wins]] by outsmarting Trixie by [[{{Irony}} using the magic she's supposed to be an expert in]] against her, sleight of hand and stage magic.
* An Al Brodax ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoon had Popeye and Brutus in a race. Brutus cheats in a snowy mountainous area backfires, with Popeye shouting "cheaters never win" to him. It echoes and causes an avalanche on top of the two, with Brutus calling out "You and your corny sayings!" which causes another echo and avalanche.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' plays with the trope in "Night Game." [[ItMakesSenseInContext A war between the forces of Good and Evil manifests as a game of baseball]]...and Winston finds himself caught up in it! His friends go in to rescue him but have to remain neutral since the game is already in progress. At one point, they point out that Evil just cheated. The umpire replies: "But ''evil cheats''...[[CardCarryingVillain That's why we call them "evil."]] Only good is not allowed to cheat. If good adopts the ways of evil, then it becomes evil."
* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'':
** The [[AnAesop Aesop]] of "Capture the Flag".
** Also shows up in "Race Across New Zealand" where Theodore [=McGill=] is encouraged to cheat by his father, [[BigBad Chester]]. The [=McGills=] had sabotaged the Rockets in each race both past and present, as Chester did the same thing to Raymundo when they competed in the first-ever Prince Waikikamukau competition. When Theodore wins the race, his conscience eventually catches up with him and reveals he cheated by taking an out-of-bounds shortcut, which was how ''Chester'' cheated against Raymundo years ago. Both Theodore's win and Chester's previous win are, respectively, revoked and rightfully awarded to Otto and Reggie in a tie and a vindicated Raymundo as he should've been years ago.
* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' where in the episode "Artful Dodgers," The Titans cheat during a dodgeball rematch against the Hive (who were playing fairly in every dodgeball game against them). The Titans win by calling the police after being eliminated. Cyborg claims the victory was by default. Jinx also points out that they were cheating before the Titans all got eliminated.
** Within the same episode, Robin says it [[ExactWords word for word]] to the Hive when they rob from a bank after creating a [[SadisticChoice diversion between getting away and threatening to blow up citizens with a timer bomb.]] Technically, it wasn't cheating since it wasn't a game.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Subverted ''in spades'' by Mr. Burns in "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield". He boasted an undefeated record in golf for ''decades'' (except one time when he lost on purpose to UsefulNotes/RichardNixon) but only because Mr. Smithers was cheating by planting balls for him on the green - without telling Burns. When they're finally caught when he plays Homer, Homer is anxious to tell everyone, but Smithers convinces him to keep quiet about it, promising that Burns will recommend Marge for the Springfield Country Club if he does; Burn thus gets away scot-free. [[spoiler: And ironically, even though Burns apparently kept that promise, as the club voted to accept Marge, she decided against joining.]]
** Lisa spends most of the episode "Saddlesore Galactica" trying to enforce this trope. Her school lost a Battle of the Bands to a school band from Ogdenville despite the fact that the Odgenville school used glowsticks during the act, as visual aids in the competition are strictly forbidden, and she is frustrated when even the judges of the competition didn't care about the rule violation, especially since without them, Ogdenville would've still won. In the end, she's successful when then-President Bill Clinton got involved - Ogdenville had their win vacated.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Cartman [[ObfuscatingDisability pretends to be mentally handicapped]] in order to enter the Special Olympics; unfortunately for him, he's not actually athletic and comes in dead last.
** In the same episode, Jimmy uses steroids to win, and then because of what Cartman does, he gives up his medal (given to him by a group of steroid-abusing athletes). He then gives a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "Reason You Suck" Speech]] about why people who use steroids are terrible people, while Barry Bonds grins in the background.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageEuthanasia'', while at a funeral convention, Trophy uses her undeath powers to sabotage her [[TheRival rival]] Sophie Bennett at an embalming fluid competition. When their funeral homes are both tasked with embalming a dead rat, the spiked fluid seems to leave Sophie's rat even worse off, but suddenly backfires and brings it BackFromTheDead. Baba then splashes the fluid on Trophy, [[ForcedTransformation temporarily turning her into a rat woman]].
* Sam in the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama All-Stars'' episode "Food Fright"; he wins the challenge for his team, but then in the elimination ceremony, it's revealed that he was caught smuggling pancakes out of fear of going to Boney Island a second time and that he was starving, thereby not only losing the challenge for his team but also getting himself flushed.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' features the Ice Dancers, Jacques and Josee, as the season's main antagonists, who constantly cheat on challenges and unfairly sabotage other players, making several enemies during the competition. Given their rage upon a Bronze medal win, it makes [[spoiler: [[IronicHell their elimination at third place]]]] all the more satisfying.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'', Jerry [[TranquilFury crossly]] says this straight out to a villain who used robotic implants on the latter's [[UnwittingPawn Olympic team]] to make them stronger and faster: "When will you learn that cheaters only cheat themselves?"
* Every single episode of ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''. Dick Dastardly has the best car in the show, and if he'd [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat just race honestly]], he'd win every time. (Granted, almost everybody in that show cheats to some extent, but it's mostly just to make their own journeys easier. Dastardly is one of the only characters that tries to deliberately impede the others).
** Ironically the one time he did win a race through straight out racing (despite trying to cheat earlier), he was disqualified because he stretched out the cone of his race car to reach the finish line. Despite, you know, ''every other racer having similar devices on their cars''. Apparently, it's all right to use them during the race except the last leg of it. Then again, it was pretty [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early in the series]].
** Even more ironically, Dick Dastardly almost won a race through legitimate means (shouting as he did so, "I'm going to win this race fair and square even if I have to cheat to do it!") but stopped short of the finish line because Muttley wanted his autograph. The debut episode had him stop to pose when the narrator exclaimed the race would end in a photo finish.
* Outright {{exaggerated|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' episode "Two Brains' Quartet." Dr. Two Brains doesn't even ''try'' to win legitimately despite multiple protests from his henchmen that they could probably win and cheating is likely to backfire. They end up disqualified, but the henchmen plead to perform anyway, and their song is amazing -- the mayor outright states that they probably would have won if they hadn't already been disqualified for cheating.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/WowWowWubbzy'' episode "The Wubbzy Shuffle", Wubbzy becomes sneaky and cheats at Jumpity Jump, Nutty Nut Toss, and Chewy Cheese Checkers. Then, no one but Widget's newly built robot Kicky wanted to play kickety-kick ball with Wubbzy and [[spoiler: Kicky wins the game. This was planned for Walden to teach Wubbzy a lesson after cheating at games.]]
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* ''Series/CobraKai'': Towards the end of season 4, Tory discovers that Terry Silver paid off the referee to favor Cobra Kai. When confronting him in the next season, Silver makes no hesitation of denying it, calling it an "insurance policy". However, when he does bribe the referee during the Sekai Taikai tryouts, the only instance that this backfire is that Sam manages to beat Devon ''clean''. In the finale, Tory, along with the rest of Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang expose Silver's cheating, ultimately leading to the mass exodus of Cobra Kai students discarding their shirts once Silver is defeated by Daniel.