History Main / CuttingCorners

* In ''Series/HoneyIShrunkTheKids'', Wayne's boss H. Gordon Jennings does it constantly. It comes to a head, when an EPA inspector threatens to expose his dumping of toxic waste, he feeds the waste to Wayne's garbage-eating bacteria, causing it to mutate and turn people into garbage-eating zombies. When they're cornered by zombies in an underground lab, Wayne claims they can escape through the AirVentPassageway, which leads to the surface, only for Jennings to point out that there is no vent, it's just a grille on a bare wall to fool the safety inspectors.

* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', Legasov explains this as a key reason why the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. He compares RBMK reactors to those made by the West and lists a number of safety features that aren't implemented in the Soviet-made reactors because they're expensive. And when it became known that having graphite tips on boron control rods can temporarily ''increase'' nuclear reaction before boron shuts the reaction down (in case of Chernobyl, the core was so hot that the control rod channels fused with the graphite, keeping it in contract with uranium instead of allowing boron to stop the reaction), the Soviet government buried the information as it would be too costly to fix the problem. Of course, the terrible irony is that the Soviet government ended up spending billions on containing the aftermath of the meltdown and losing an entire city to radiation. The disaster has been cited as one of the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union 5 years later.

* On ''Series/InPlainSight'' an engineer is put into Witness Protection after he reveals that a major construction company used subpar building materials when constructing a bridge that later collapsed. This is subverted in the end when [[spoiler: the engineer discovers that he made a crucial mistake when designing the bridge and the it would have collapsed no matter what materials were used.]]

* In ''Film/{{Backdraft}}'' a CorruptCorporateExecutive and a CorruptPolitician conspired to implement unnecessary cutbacks in the fire department. This resulted in the closing of multiple fire stations and the two men then made lots of money redeveloping the buildings. However, this left the fire department critically undermanned and a number of fire fighters died as a result because they had to fight dangerous fires without adequate backup, [[spoiler: and this triggers "Axe" Adcox's KillItWithFire-laden RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].

** The episode "Jacob Two-Two and the Simian Switcheroo" introduces us to [[CorruptPolitician Prime Minister Perry Pleaser]], who takes this trope to criminal levels in regards to Canada’s "[[BlatantLies state-of-the-art space travel technology]]". The research station is a run-down aircraft base, with a launched orbital satellite being made from junk poorly cobbled together. Taken to more dangerous levels with the rocket issued for launch, which is ''literally made out of nothing but birch bark'' and will be fired into space using a giant rubber band, with the astronaut's "space suit" being a crude barely-held-together patchwork and a fish bowl for a helmet. Yet despite all of this, the only thing that can be considered state-of-the-art is the issued missile defense system, which says a few things about the prime minister's interests and priorities. At the end of the episode, Pleaser ends up getting replaced and his spending scandals are eliminated, [[SnapBack although he’s back in office by his next appearance due to the show's lack of continuity]].

* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}} 6Teen]]'': The episode "Cheapskates" gives us Jen’s latest boyfriend Griffin, who lives up to his nickname "El Cheapo" given to him by the rest of the gang after witnessing his ''many'' ridiculous ways of getting by without spending money. However, Jen refuses to acknowledge it despite the rest of the gang pointing out how much he’s been mooching off of her as well as other things they’ve seen him do (to name a few, eating mustard packets for breakfast, stealing toilet paper from the washrooms, and pouring leftover coffee into a mug and getting the barista to nuke it [[{{Squick}} which ends up being the coffee he gives to Jen]]). That is until Griffin pushes things too far with his idea of their latest "date", which consists of people watching while eating birdseed stolen from the pet store after going to a children's storybook reading, at which point Jen admits everybody was right about him and dumps him. Then it turns out at the end of the episode that Griffin is actually completely loaded, with an outraged Jen chasing him down to get back all the money she loaned him.

* ''Film/{{Red}}'' exploits the fact that government bureaucracies contract out important work to lowest bidders who tend to cut corners. This leads to absurdities like a top secret file room being protected by a state-of-the-art security door while the surrounding walls are made of cheap drywall that can be broken through with a single kick.

* This is a RunningGag in ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'': budget cutting is the Announcer's default excuse for any scenario, to the point where he ended up ''selling Dream Island''.

Somebody, such as a complete cheapskate or someone in financial trouble, needs to save money desperately. He does so by conserving his money by purchasing extremely cheap items or just plain refusing to spend any money whatsoever.

If the company ''used'' to be generous, but has since downgraded to cheaper versions, or "BYO", that's a sure sign that they're in some kind of financial trouble. Bonus points if the things they're being stingy with are essential (and already cheap--or in some cases ''just paid for'') items such as pens or pads of sticky notes.

A subtrope of TheScrooge. May be caused by a MoneyFetish. Often results in NoOSHACompliance. Compare ThriftyScot and AllJewsAreCheapskates. Related to PoorMansSubstitute. See DoomItYourself and YouGetWhatYouPayFor for examples of the possible consequences. Compare NoBudget: when the creators have to cut corners, this can be seen throughout a work.

A subtrope of TheScrooge. Often result of a MoneyFetish or NoOSHACompliance. Compare ThriftyScot and AllJewsAreCheapskates. Related to PoorMansSubstitute, though here, the substitute is actually rich. See DoomItYourself and YouGetWhatYouPayFor for examples of the possible consequences. Supertrope of the KitschyLocalCommercial, though that one is usually justified in that the commercial is most often for a small business which doesn't have the budget for high-quality ads that larger corporations do.

Somebody, such as a cheapskate or someone in financial trouble, needs to save money desperately. He does so by conserving his money ridiculously by refusing to spend any money or buying extremely cheap items.

* In ''Literature/TrickyBusiness'', a LowerClasLout figures out that no one really wants conch in their deep-fried conch, so his fast-food joint just sells fried dough under the pretense that it's conch. Other ideas include stuffing recycled airbags with random junk and dirt (leading to one woman finding her lap full of Florida insects when the airbag triggered), and a breast-enhancement clinic whose surgeon learned from a video and used to be a veterinarian before he was caught stealing animal drugs.

* In the Dave Barry novel BigTrouble, a company known for this put in the lowest bid for constructing a prison. The automated cell doors have been known to open by themselves during a thunderstorm.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' has [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] buying the club and performing all kinds of cost-cutting ways to save and make money, including having the lights become coin-operated, greatly decreasing the food supply and seating all the guests at one table. Later, Mickey tries to give him a taste of his own medicine by having the cartoons shown on a tiny television and cutting off the electricity, but it backfires when [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame Scrooge commends him for it.]] At the end though, Scrooge ends up being defeated anyway when he drives all of the patrons away and he irritably takes the money he used to buy the club from Pete.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' has [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] buying the club and performing all kinds of cost-cutting ways to save and make money, including having the lights become coin-operated, greatly decreasing the food supply and seating all the guests at one table. Later, Mickey tries to give him a taste of his own medicine by having the cartoons shown on a tiny television and cutting off the electricity, but it backfires when [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame Scrooge commends him for it.]]

* The ''UNN Von Braun'' in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' emerged this way, with [[MegaCorp [=Tri-Optimum=] ]] trying to beat everyone to building the first faster-than-light ship. Because of this, among other things, the ship's computer was badly unprotected from being hacked into singing Elvis Presley songs for 3 hours, and its engines constantly leaking radiation. The audiologs you find lampshade much of this, and you spend a majority of the game getting around these obstacles.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. Mr. Krabs is notorious for this, especially after SeasonalRot kicked in. Referred to by name in "The Sewers of Bikini Bottom", where the sewer pipes underneath the Krusty Krab Stadium are made of cardboard (which Mr. Krabs says was also used for his grandmother's dentures) and ended up almost flooding the stadium.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Rossweisse is one cheap Valkyrie. She only shops at 100 Yen stores ($2 Shops) and considers them a good first stop on a date, is seen fighting with old ladies for sale items, and only ever buys clothes on clearance. When Issei hits her with [[ClothingDamage Dress Break]], she's so upset she can't replace her outfit at the same price she [[SkewedPriorities forgets to cover herself]]. This is eventually revealed to be because Odin pays his Valkyries (or the underperforming Rossweisse, at least) a criminally miserly wage; Rossweisse is easily enticed to ''formally defect'' when Rias simply offers her a better benefits package.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' bit above, as insane CEO Cave Johnson's funding ran out from buying $70 million worth of moon rocks, he was forced to turn from astronauts and Olympic athletes to homeless people as test subjects in his endless quest ForScience.
** The Perpetual Testing Initiative is one of the few things of Aperture Science that really does work and it was made for the sole reason to have "backwater universe yokel" to build test chambers on the cheap and [[spoiler: ends with the company finding a universe made of U.S. dollars and solving their money issue]].