History Main / IAmSpartacus

* NotAlwaysRight spinoff site ''Not Always Learning'' has [[http://notalwayslearning.com/methodist-and-the-madness/31873 this moment of solidarity]] against a bigoted Bible class teacher who hates Methodists. After one student reveals that they actually ''are'' Methodist and gets kicked out of the class, all the other students start claiming to be Methodists, too.
---> Soon, the entire class is in the hall, and only the teacher is left in the room.

* This trope is known in Spanish as "Fuente Ovejuna", after a famous play of that name and [[RippedFromTheHeadlines the real history behind it]] by Baroque Spanish play-writer Lope de Vega where, after the mob murder of a [[AristocratsAreEvil villainous aristocrat]] who oppressed them, ''all the inhabitants'' of the titular town /men, women, kids, old people, etc. stand up to King Ferdinand of Aragón and Queen Isabella of Castilla in that way ("Who killed the Commander?" "Fuente Ovejuna did it, Milord!").

** It doesn't help that the Legion has [[spoiler: identical twin Primarchs, both smaller than average]].

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[[quoteright:278:[[Film/{{Spartacus}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/702spartacus.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:278:This is a picture of you, you blessed brave fool.]]

* {{Series/TheFugitive}}: ''"Nightmare at Northoak"'' ends with a variation of this: InspectorJavert Gerard accuses a small-town sheriff of having helped Kimble (who'd rescued several of the town's children from a burning school bus) to escape from the local jail while awaiting extradition, and threatens to bring him before a grand jury for aiding and abetting a fugitive. The sheriff's wife then steps forward to confess to it, and Gerard tells her she'll have to be arrested...leading to a whole roomful of townspeople standing up one by one and "confessing" to him. Gerard, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm knowing when to fold them]], only leaves silently with all the dignity he has left.

* {{Series/TheFugitive}}: ''"Nightmare at Northoak"'' ends with a variation of this: InspectorJavert Gerard accuses a small-town sheriff of having helped Kimble (who'd rescued several of the town's children from a burning school bus) to escape from the local jail while awaiting extradition, and threatens to bring him before a grand jury for aiding and abetting a fugitive. The sheriff's wife then steps forward to confess to it, and Gerard tells her she'll have to be arrested...leading to a whole roomful of townspeople standing up one by one and "confessing" to him. Gerard only leaves silently and very annoyed.

* In the episode VOW OF SILENCE of ''The Sentinel'', one of the monks had before he joined the community been a labor organizer who had turned State's Evidence on the mob. A group of hit men had tracked him down and had the monks corralled. When they asked who was "Jackie Kozinski", all of the monks claimed to be him.
* {{Justified}}, at the end of the first season:

* Happens in ''House of Anubis'' where everyone decided to claim they were the ones who took the key to the attic in order to protect Nina (Who did actually confess after everyone else honestly said it wasn't them, leading for Fabian to jump up and claim he had lied and she was actually just covering for ''him.'') In the end Victor simply punished everyone, including someone who wasn't even involved in the scene to pretend they took the key in the first place.
* On the SoapOpera ''Port Charles'', a sleazy reporter has come to the hospital having somehow found out that one of the staff members is HIV-positive. As he begins harassing the employees, including, unbeknown to him, the very nurse in question, one staff member after another begins to identify themself as the one with HIV.
* Done in Season Eight of Waterloo Road. Barry Barry begins to sexually harass Miss Diamond, even breaking into her house ''and stealing her underwear.'' When he reveals this during a sexual health class, she slaps him without thinking. Barry, in an effort to get her fired, tries to make everyone in the class publicly admit they saw it happen. They respond by each coming forward and saying ''they'' were the one who slapped Barry.

* Robin goes looking for [[AwesomeMcCoolname Greg Killmaster]] at ILM in ''Shortpacked'', and a bunch of guys claim to be him when she yells that she wants to have "five million of his babies." The real one, of course, is nowhere to be found.

* Played with in Canadian show ''Radio Active'', when Ms. Atoll demands to know the identity of the mysterious "DJ X". The plan backfires when DJ X himself fails to claim that he is DJ X, thus singling him out as DJ X.

* In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Pinkie Pie decides to [[MesACrowd duplicate herself]] using the Mirror Pool; her duplicates, however, are not exact duplicates of her, and are obsessed with having fun and little else. The army of duplicates ends up causing a lot of destruction, leading Twilight Sparkle to try to identify the real Pinkie Pie. Naturally, all the duplicates claim to be Pinkie Pie as well, and Pinkie Pie herself has an identity crisis as she worries that SHE might be a clone as well (even though the duplicates don't share her memories).

* Zig-zagged early in an early chapter of ''{{Ooku}}''. Shogun Yoshimune stumbles over her new formal robes during her first formal inspection of her new harem and hears laughter from the lines of men kneeling with their faces on the floor. When she demands to know who found her clumsiness so funny a young man in a comparatively simple outfit (falsely) confesses, which so impresses Yoshimune that she selects him to be her first bedmate from the harem... [[spoiler: thus unknowingly sentencing him to be executed]].

---> '''Honda/Tristan:''' "Thanks guys, but no. The message was from me." [[hottip:* : [[DontExplainTheJoke Honda had Yugi write the message because he was too nervous to think of what to write, and Jonouchi was the one who slipped it into Ribbon's desk.]]

* Alex in ''ModernFamily'' proposes this as a way for she and her siblings to get out of being collectively punished for burning the couch[[hottip:* :which none of them actually did]], but it's actually a trick to get Luke, the dumbest of the three, to take the blame.
* Combined with LostInACrowd, this happens in ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' when NTAC agents try to arrest teenaged {{Cult}} leader Graham[[hottip:* :whose power is to unconsciously make everyone with whom he comes into contact worship him]] in "The Wrath of Graham". As his followers, who are all wearing identical [[InTheHood hoodies]], each step forward claiming to be him, the agents are so overwhelmed sorting through them that Graham manages to sneak up and use his power on them.

** Miss Diamond still ends up resigning though.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Opera]]
* ''{{Aida}}'' has one of the other Nubian slaves claim to be Aida to prevent the real Aida's capture.

* The EddieMurphy / Martain Lawrence prison film Film/{{Life}} uses this with a twist. The Warden's daughter gives birth to a ChocolateBaby, so he lines up all of his inmates and demands to know who the father is. When the inmates eventually all step forward and claim paternity, it has the added bonus of implying that the Warden's daughter has been [[ReallyGetsAround rather busy]]. Not only does no one get punished, but the Warden is never seen again in the movie, presumably resigning out of shame.

* ''SevenBridesForSevenBrothers'' twists the trope. When the townsfolk arrive to rescue the kidnapped girls and hear a baby crying, the six unwed girls claim in unison to be the baby's mother, leading to a sixfold ShotgunWedding (exactly what the girls and their kidnappers/suitors wanted).

*** [[FridgeLogic Doesn't it make it easier to root them out, since if you've seen even of them, you basically know every one of them in the face?]]
**** Identifying an eight foot tall giant in blue and green power armor usually isn't the difficult part. And when it is, they have ''very'' good surgeons available.

* From ''Series/BadGirls'': "I killed Fenner!" "No, I killed Fenner!" "Actually, I killed Fenner!"

* Used together with LostInACrowd in ''TheCityHunter'': the hero arranges for fans of the [[VigilanteMan City Hunter]] to gather outside the prosecutor's office at a certain time, all wearing black masks. The deception doesn't last long, but does provide him cover to sneak in and out (almost) unnoticed.
* A variation appears in ''Main/{{BadGirls}}''. Larkhall is in the midst of a police investigation after the murder of Fenner, the sadistic wing governer. His killer, Julie J, can't cope with the guilt any longer and confesses to the crime. Her friend, wanting to protect her, claims that Julie J is lying, and that she is the real killer. Seeing this, another prisoner stands up and claims to be the real killer, followed by another, then another, until almost the entire wing is claiming to be the killer, due to their shared hatred of the tyrannical governer.

* From ''BadGirls'': "I killed Fenner!" "No, I killed Fenner!" "Actually, I killed Fenner!"

* In the (possibly apocryphal, but usually treated as fact) story of Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the Major League, his Dodgers teammates responded to threats on Robinson's life during a game by all wearing his jersey -- number 42, which has since been retired out of respect.
** [[MemeticMutation 42]] is ''always'' the answer.

* OlderThanPrint: Literature/TheTalmud in tractate Sanhedrin brings a couple of IAmSpartacus stories. It's kicked off by a story in which Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel brought together seven judges to declare a leap year but eight showed up and he demanded to know which one wasn't invited. This one isn't an example because one person simply took the fall for the real culprit, but it's followed by two examples:

* In one CMOA subversion, Genghis Khan had just won a clan war in which a horse had been shot out from under him. Ghenghis lined up the captives asked,"Which one of you shot my horse." One man boldly said, "I did." Then Genghis ''rewarded'' him.
** For ''not'' aiming the shot higher, I suppose?
** That, or he simply respected the man's bravery.
*** Definitely the latter. Khan was raised in a world of unending cycles of revenge. His revolution in part consisted of uniting the Mongol people by having a genius for finding people of talent, putting them in high position, and making them loyal to Khan and the law rather than clan. Conquered clans were embraced into the fold, the men divided and dispersed into multi-clan bands, and the whole lot loyal to the Khan and the idea of a unified people. Soon afterwards, the world learned to be ''terrified'' of a people who, one generation earlier, had considered a coat of animal furs to be a sign of great wealth.

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' when a futuristic villain, Braniac, discovers the magic chalk and wants it for himself. He takes it from Rudy, but upon learning he can't use it, he demands which of the trio is "The Great Artist". When Rudy is incapacitated at the moment, Penny claims she is the Great Artist, only for Snap to claim afterwards that he is the Great Artist. Braniac just decides to take all three of them.

* In Herman Wouk's ''[[TheWindsOfWarAndWarAndRemembrance The Winds of War]]'', Leslie Slote, a diplomatic secretary from the American embassy in Warsaw during the [[WorldWarII German invasion]] who is timid and [[TheSoCalledCoward considers himself a coward]]. While traveling through German territory with other neutral diplomats an SS officer tries to separate the Jews. In a CrowningMomentOfAwesome Slote berates the officer with an imperious lecture on national sovereignity rights and announces that either all of the party or none are to be treated as Jews.

* In Herman Wouk's [[TheWindsOfWarAndWarAndRemembrance ''The Winds of War'']], Leslie Slote, a diplomatic secretary from the American embassy in Warsaw during the [[WorldWarII German invasion]] who is timid and [[TheSoCalledCoward considers himself a coward]]. While traveling through German territory with other neutral diplomats an SS officer tries to separate the Jews. In a CrowningMomentOfAwesome Slote berates the officer with an imperious lecture on national sovereignity rights and announces that either all of the party or none are to be treated as Jews.

* Combined with LostInACrowd, this happens in ''{{The 4400}}'' when NTAC agents try to arrest teenaged {{Cult}} leader Graham[[hottip:* :whose power is to unconsciously make everyone with whom he comes into contact worship him]] in "The Wrath of Graham". As his followers, who are all wearing identical [[InTheHood hoodies]], each step forward claiming to be him, the agents are so overwhelmed sorting through them that Graham manages to sneak up and use his power on them.

* At the end of ''VForVendetta'', everyone in London dons the Guy Fawkes mask and becomes "the terrorist".