History Main / MockGuffin

* One of the recurring gags in ''KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' is the players mistaking some piece of random dungeon dressing for a powerful magical artifact. The longest running of these jokes was Dave's 'magical' cow Chelsie.

* In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse, the novel ''Millennium Falcon'' is an extended homage to ''The Maltese Falcon.'' Guess what the "Lost Treasure of the Old Republic" turns out to be. For that matter, a similar story was written thirty years ago, ''Han Solo and the Lost Legacy.''

* ''TheMalteseFalcon'', anyone?
** Something of a subversion, as the fake one in the movie was substituted by the legitimate owner to prevent theft of the real one.
**** That's what Gutman thinks, but really there's no evidence either way. Maybe the legitimate owner always had a fake. Maybe there never ''was'' a real one. (Apparently, no-one has ever tried to scratch off the black enamel to see if it's really gold underneath before.)
***** In what's perhaps a subversion of the subversion a sequel "The Black Bird" has Sam Spade Jr. (George Segal) getting involved with a new group of motley villains looking for the statue that his father kept all these years. [[spoiler: Turns out the "lead" was a coating over the real golden bird.]]

* The 'HolyGrail' in the RobinWilliams film ''TheFisherKing'' is [[MagicalRealism most likely]] nothing, but his insanity has convinced him it's the true grail.

-->-- Steve, ''AmericanDad''

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* One ''CalvinAndHobbes'' arc had Calvin trying to find dinosaur bones in his yard. He ended up digging up a bunch of random trash, but until his mother pointed it out, he had ''no idea'' that there was something fishy about the "Calvinosaur" having a bottle for a skull, tin cans for a spine, and forks for arms.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Comic ]]

* ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'' had the armoire of invincibility, which is just regular old heavy furniture.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The 'HolyGrail' in the RobinWilliams film ''TheFisherKing'' is [[MagicalRealism most likely]] nothing, but his insanity has convinced him it's the true grail.
* ''BurnAfterReading'' is a rare case of of a plot that ''does'' center around this: Brad Pitt's character mistakes a CD of a low-level CIA analyst's mundane and unclassified memoirs for something top-secret. The analyst is ''also'' convinced that it's a vitally important, but only because he's delusional enough to think it has the makings of a "Washington tell-all bestseller."

* In ''DartagnansDaughter'', much of the plot is driving by characters misinterpreting a laundry list and a really bad love poem as secret coded messages, and acting upon what they think these 'messages' are telling them to do.
* In ''FlushedAway'', both Rita and Toad fight for possession of what they think is a priceless gem. Roddy recognizes it as a cheap glass bead and proves it by smashing it to bits, which doesn't sit well with Rita.
* In part of ''NationalTreasure'', Ben Gates buys two copies of the Declaration of Independence at the gift shop(one of them is the real thing that the clerk believes to be a replica, the other a replica). They both become useful; when Ian and his cronies are trying to steal the real one from Gates, he throws them the fake to buy some time.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In the ''VorkosiganSaga'' story ''The Vor Game'', Miles finds a body wedged in a drain pipe, who had drowned when the pipe filled up during a storm. Investigating why the man was in the pipe in the first place, he figures out that the dead man had intended to retrieve a package he had stored in a different pipe, only he had entered the wrong pipe, got stuck, and drowned. Miles finds the package and opens it, revealing... some home-baked cookies that the dead soldier had been hiding from his barracks-mates.

* There are fake [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Master Swords]] ''all over the place'' in ''[[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past]]''. The game even starts to remark on how amazing it is that you retrieved it for a moment before revealing the fake. You're not likely to be fooled, though, especially after seeing what the ''real'' Master Sword looks like.

* In ''{{The KAMics}}'' Gertrude & Brunhilda [[http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/5062574/ thought they had found something valuable]], [[http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/5087906/ then were told otherwise.]]

* A few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Simpsons}}'' have involved a Golden Helmet at one point or another.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' that parodies the film Titanic, Bender's love interest gets sucked into a black hole, leaving him with only her bracelet (a parody of "The Heart of the Sea") to console the saddened robot (with its monetary value). Upon request, Hermes promptly inspects it and informs Bender that "[i]t's fake, mon," sending him into even greater despair(about its monetary value).
* ''StrokerAndHoop'' plays it straight, and then subverts it in an episode. A two-piece, ancient, mystical Chinese sword, wanted by ninjas, when put together, turns out to just light up like a flashlight, which Stroker notes was probably mind-blowing in ancient China. [[spoiler: Then, it ends up resurrecting someone from the dead while nobody else is paying attention.]]

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* A few episodes of ''WesernAnimation/{{The Simpsons}}'' have involved a Golden Helmet at one point or another.
* In an episode of ''WesernAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' that parodies the film Titanic, Bender's love interest gets sucked into a black hole, leaving him with only her bracelet (a parody of "The Heart of the Sea") to console the saddened robot (with its monetary value). Upon request, Hermes promptly inspects it and informs Bender that "[i]t's fake, mon," sending him into even greater despair(about its monetary value).

* ''WesernAnimation/AmericanDad'' had an episode where Steve and Roger are tasked with finding an old man's inheritance to his son. It's just a burlap bag that light's up when opened.

* GilligansIsland once had a plot where the castaways find a suitcase which, at a glance, appears to contain top-secret spy documents, leaving them in danger of being chased by enemy spies. One DreamSequence later, the documents fall out and they turn out to be spy documents from the second World War, which had ended twenty years prior and nobody was after.

* An episode of ''{{Bones}}'' has the eponymous scientist thinking she's stumbled across this. A prop sword is treated as much more valuable than its component parts simply because the movie it appeared in is so popular. As with much of anything, Bones does not understand why it is so. Probably because people seem willing to kill for the damned thing.

* There are fake [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Master Swords]] ''all over the place'' in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past]]''. The game even starts to remark on how amazing it is that you retrieved it for a moment before revealing the fake. You're not likely to be fooled, though, especially after seeing what the ''real'' Master Sword looks like.

* A few episodes of ''{{The Simpsons}}'' have involved a Golden Helmet at one point or another.
* In an episode of ''{{Futurama}}'' that parodies the film Titanic, Bender's love interest gets sucked into a black hole, leaving him with only her bracelet (a parody of "The Heart of the Sea") to console the saddened robot (with its monetary value). Upon request, Hermes promptly inspects it and informs Bender that "[i]t's fake, mon," sending him into even greater despair(about its monetary value).

* AmericanDad had an episode where Steve and Roger are tasked with finding an old man's inheritance to his son. It's just a burlap bag that light's up when opened.

* While ''AntiquesRoadshow'' mostly shows the inverse, occasionally a guest has something he believes to be a priceless artifact that turns out to be a cheap knockoff or common as dirt.

* The (former) TropeNamer is the Golden Helmet of Mambrino from ''Literature/DonQuixote''. (It even gets a song dedicated to it in ''ManOfLaMancha''.)

* ''{{Raiders of the Lost Ark}}'' first plays with this trope and then subverts it in the last scene. [[spoiler:After performing the invocation ritual, Belloq opens the Ark and finds it to be just a box full of sand. Toht walks away laughing... and ''then'' God's fury comes out of it unleashed.]]

* In the 5th season episode of ''{{Angel}}'' entitled "Destiny," Angel and Spike beat the living crud out of each other in their race to drink from the Cup of Eternal Torment. If my memory serves, the cup turned out to have a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom and was filled with Mountain Dew.
* On ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Spike and Harmony are searching for the Gem of Amara, a relic that makes vampires invulnerable. They find it in a tomb full of jewelry and other artifacts. Spike thinks it's a huge gaudy necklace and puts it on. Moments later he tries to kill Harmony in a fit of rage only to discover when he fails that the real Gem was a relatively nondescript ring that Harmony had put on.

* The (former) TropeNamer is the Golden Helmet of Mambrino from ''DonQuixote''. (It even gets a song dedicated to it in ManOfLaMancha.)

* ''EightBitTheater'' had the armoire of invincibility, which is just regular old heavy furniture.

* The UrExample and TropeNamer is the Golden Helmet from ''DonQuixote''. (It even gets a song dedicated to it in ManOfLaMancha, making this a trope with, quite literally, its own theme song.)

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''TheMouseThatRoared'' is the story of a tiny nation that accidentally acquires the prototype "Q-Bomb," a weapon with planet destroying capabilities. They use it to hold the world hostage. At the end, the weapon's designer realizes that it was a dud.

* In part of ''NationalTreasure'', Ben Gates buys two copies of the Declaration of Independence. They both become useful; when Ian and his cronies are trying to steal the real one from Gates, he throws them the fake to buy some time.

* A large part of the fun of ''AntiquesRoadshow'' is seeing gullible idiots come in with their treasures and find out that they are utterly worthless. The looks on their faces, however, are priceless.
** "A large part of the fun" for MOST people is seeing someone come in with something they think might be valuable, or a family heirloom that they just want to know what, if any, value it may have, and finding out it's worth a fortune, large or small. Sheesh, I bet you're a joy to be around.

* In the 5th season episode of ''{{Angel}}'' entitled "Destiny," Angel and Spike beat the living crud out of each other in their race to drink from the Cup of Eternal Torment. If my memory serves, the cup turned out to have a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom and be filled with Mountain Dew.

* In ''{{Mother3}}'', Wess sends Duster into a castle to retrieve a magical artifact critical for the safety of the world. Unfortunately for him, he's not told specifically what it is. He finds an interesting urn of some kind and brings it back to Master Wess. It turns out to be something else completely useless (the Noble Spittoon) and Wess is furious.

* In NetHack there are fake Amulets of Yendor that if you try to use at the end game will cause you not only to lose the game, but have the gods mock you.

Named for the Golden Helmet of Mambrino in DonQuixote, a shaving basin Don Quixote mistakes for a magical relic due to his own insanity. Compare with ItsAllJunk, WorthlessYellowRocks. Not to be confused with AllThatGlitters or ItsTheJourneyThatCounts, which are often materially worthless but at least impart [[AnAesop a valuable lesson]]. See AMacGuffinFullOfMoney for a plot device that can end in this.

* The whole plot of ''BurnAfterReading'' is one of those rare cases of a plot that ''does'' center around this (and quite successfully, given that it's a [[TheCoenBrothers Coen Brothers]] movie): Brad Pitt's character mistakes a CD of completely mundane data from a low-level CIA operative for something top-secret. To be fair the operative is ''also'' convinced that it's a vitally important for a "tell-all" Washington bestseller, due to delusions of self-importance.