History Main / MockGuffin

'''Cairo:''' You. It's you who bungled it. You and your stupid attempt to buy it! Kemidov found out how valuable it was! No wonder we had such an easy time stealing it! You... you imbecile!
-->-- ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}''

* ''ComicBook/XMen Noir: Mark of Cain'', reimagines the titular mutant superheroes as a gang of hired mercs looking for the fabled [[MythologyGag gem of Cytorrak]] in the jungles of Madripoor. It eventually turns out to be a worthless fake made of glass. However, [[spoiler: the BigBad actually knew this all along. He was planning to use the fake gem to wrest control of Madripoor from the natives so that he could use it as a prison for creating brainwashed agents to beat the Soviets. ItMakesSenseInContext]].

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXEntangled Entangled]]", the crew attempt to get out of giving Rimmer and Starbug to the [=BEGG=]s by attempting to pass off an ordinary spoon as "The Spoon of Destiny", capable of controlling the universe. Unfortunately for them, the [=BEGG=]s see right through it.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' has [[spoiler: the sarcophagus that the entire game revolves around. Everybody thinks it contains something that will trigger the apocalypse. Instead, [[ShaggyDogStory it contains dynamite.]]]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheKamics'', Gertrude and Brunhilda [[http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_KAMics/5062574/ thought they had found something valuable]], [[http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_KAMics/5087906/ then were told otherwise.]]

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXEntangled Entangled]]", the crew attempt to get out of giving Rimmer and Starbug to the BEGGs by attempting to pass off an ordinary spoon as "The Spoon of Destiny", capable of controlling the universe. Unfortunately for them, the BEGGs see right through it.

* ''Series/ModernFamily'': The episode "Message Received" has Mitchell and Cameron going to sell their most valuable belongings to pay for their wedding, with Cameron's being a belt buckle given to him by his grandfather who supposedly got it from Wyatt Earp. The appraiser secretly tells Mitchell that the belt buckle is actually worthless, with tons of them being sold at a gas station chain in the sixties, meaning that Cameron's grandfather lied to him about meeting Wyatt Earp. Subverted in that Cameron admits that he had suspected that it was all a lie anyway as [[SpottingTheThread he noticed that the dates in his grandfather's story didn't add up]]. Then he talks about how the compass he has that came from Amelia Earhart is likely a fake too.

* Doble subverted in the ComicBook/Mort&Phil comic La caja de los diez cerrojos. After going to great lenghs to open a misterios safebox, it happens to have jack in a box toy, so angry they throw it to the ocean...and it turns out that inside the jack in a box there was a giant diamond.

* The infamous tale of "The Mystery Of Al Capone's Vaults", one of the biggest screw-ups of Geraldo Rivera's career. In the late 1980's, the Lexington Hotel in Chicago was slated for demolition, until it turned out to be a former hideout of notorious gangster Al Capone. In the hotel's basement, a large vault that presumably belonged to Capone was found. Rivera, itching to get his journalistic career back on track after a recent firing from ABC, jumped all over the story and hosted a massively hyped live broadcast about the excavation into the vault. Viewers were treated to almost two hours of backstory, expert opinions, technical details, and general boasting about what dazzling treasures might lay within. Finally, the vault was cracked open and an eager Rivera led his team in to find... jackshit. [[AntiClimax The vault had been cleaned out decades ago (if it had ever been used to begin with), and all that was inside was dust, rocks, and a couple empty bottles]]. Rivera was humiliated on live, national television in front of over 30 million people. His crew reported that the very first thing he did when the cameras went off was [[INeedAFreakingDrink down a ton of tequila]].

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends:

* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse:

** In the Expanded Universe ''Enemy Lines'' duology, the New Republic forces make use of a Mock Guffin to lure the Yuuzhan Vong into a trap, by creating a quartet of flyable, but otherwise nonfunctional ships, and faking a test firing so that they appear to be a new superweapon.

* In part of ''Film/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.

** One episode 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 UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, which had ended twenty years prior and nobody was after.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mockguffin.PNG]]

* There are fake [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Master Swords]] littered all over the Lost Woods[[note]]these woods do not fit the proper trope description, they simply have the ominous-sounding name because it's considered "lost" InUniverse despite being right next door to Kakariko village[[/note]] in ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast''. 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.

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

* The infamous tale of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Al_Capone's_Vaults The Mystery Of Al Capone’s Vaults]]", one of the biggest screw-ups of Geraldo Rivera’s career. In the late 1980’s, the Lexington Hotel in Chicago was slated for demolition, until it turned out to be a former hideout of notorious gangster Al Capone. In the hotel’s basement, a large vault that presumably belonged to Capone was found. Rivera, itching to get his journalistic career back on track after a recent firing from ABC, jumped all over the story and hosted a massively hyped live broadcast about the excavation into the vault. Viewers were treated to almost two hours of backstory, expert opinions, technical details, and general boasting about what dazzling treasures might lay within. Finally, the vault was cracked open and an eager Rivera led his team in to find... jackshit. [[AntiClimax The vault had been cleaned out decades ago (if it had ever been used to begin with), and all that was inside was dust, rocks, and a couple empty bottles]]. Rivera was humiliated on live, national television in front of over 30 million people. His crew reported that the very first thing he did when the cameras went off was [[INeedAFreakingDrink down a ton of tequila]].

* The infamous tale of ”[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Al_Capone's_Vaults The Mystery Of Al Capone’s Vaults]]”, one of the biggest screw-ups of Geraldo Rivera’s career. In the late 1980’s, the Lexington Hotel in Chicago was slated for demolition, until it turned out to be a former hideout of notorious gangster Al Capone. In the hotel’s basement, a large vault that presumably belonged to Capone was found. Rivera, itching to get his journalistic career back on track after a recent firing from ABC, jumped all over the story and hosted a massively hyped live broadcast about the excavation into the vault. Viewers were treated to almost two hours of backstory, expert opinions, technical details, and general boasting about what dazzling treasures might lay within. Finally, the vault was cracked open and an eager Rivera led his team in to find... jackshit. [[AntiClimax The vault had been cleaned out decades ago (if it had ever been used to begin with), and all that was inside was dust, rocks, and a couple empty bottles]]. Rivera was humiliated on live, national television in front of over 30 million people. His crew reported that the very first thing he did when the cameras went off was [[INeedAFreakingDrink down a ton of tequila]].

* The infamous tale of ”[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Al_Capones_Vaults The Mystery Of Al Capone’s Vaults]]”, one of the biggest screw-ups of Geraldo Rivera’s career. In the late 1980’s, the Lexington Hotel in Chicago was slated for demolition, until it turned out to be a former hideout of notorious gangster Al Capone. In the hotel’s basement, a large vault that presumably belonged to Capone was found. Rivera, itching to get his journalistic career back on track after a recent firing from ABC, jumped all over the story and hosted a massively hyped live broadcast about the excavation into the vault. Viewers were treated to almost two hours of backstory, expert opinions, technical details, and general boasting about what dazzling treasures might lay within. Finally, the vault was cracked open and an eager Rivera led his team in to find... jackshit. [[AntiClimax The vault had been cleaned out decades ago (if it had ever been used to begin with), and all that was inside was dust, rocks, and a couple empty bottles]]. Rivera was humiliated on live, national television in front of over 30 million people. His crew reported that the very first thing he did when the cameras went off was [[INeedAFreakingDrink down a ton of tequila]].

An object of absolutely no significance that the protagonist mistakes, either through misunderstanding or excited imagining, as something of great importance, be it a magic sword or mysterious briefcase. Its importance to the overall plot is usually negligible, though an entire side plot can crop up because of it. [[WorthlessTreasureTwist All it turns out to be is completely worthless]], and not plot-relevant like a real MacGuffin would be.

-->-- ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon''

* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' is something of a subversion, as the fake one in the movie was substituted by the legitimate owner to prevent theft of the real one. At least, 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.]]