History Main / OddlySmallOrganization

* Surprisingly, the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire British Empire]]. The number of officials governing all that territory was amazingly small. For example, as late as 1940, there were just 200 civil servants for [[https://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/malaycivilservice.html all of Malaysia]] which then included Singapore too. It was widely seen as over-staffed. At independence, there were [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Civil_Service just 980 members of the ICS]] for the entire Indian subcontinent (now India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh)

* In the third ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' film, NERV seems to consist entirely of [[spoiler:[[BigBad Gendo]], [[TheConsigliere Fuyutsuki]], [[CloningBlues Rei]], and [[TokenGoodTeammate Kaworu]], with the majority of the operation being automated]]. To be fair, the only people in the world at this point either work ''for'' NERV or work on the AAA Wunder and try to ''destroy'' NERV.

* ''VideoGame/OnlyTheBraveCanRescueTheKidnappedPrincess'': Longsword is the King's only knight, though the reason for that is the King fired the rest as he felt they were unnecessary for 'today's civilized society'. However, Jonathan and Muggins are the only other castle staff seen in the game and the Queen is said to be the one who cooks for the King.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': The pilot movie "Rescue Rangers to the Rescue" featured the Pound Underground, an organisation devoted to freeing captive dogs. Its leader Frenchie explains that it includes himself, his colleague Que Sera, and, uhm... did he mention himself? They do have a handy network of tunnels beneath the pound, though, and what else do you need to be a Pound Underground?

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonandtheOlympians'': One of the major worldbuilding lore is that how every single important conflict and person in western history is demigod or demigod-related despite the fact that Camp Half-Blood is heavily isolated community (which isn't help by the fact that demigods cannot use eldigital divices due to attracting monsters) who only has ~100 demigods at the best of times and only a small percentage of those achieve adulthood.
** In the Egyptian spinoff series that takes plaace in the same universe ''Literature/TheKanChronicles'': An interesting tidbit is that the House of Life, a magic organization that existed since the heyday of Ancient Egypt, is actually horrifically small for a global organization. At the start of the canon the entire new generation of mages - as in all the potential initiates in the world - amount to just 24 and apparently the First Nome - the biggest of all 360 Nomes, is so short-staffed they had to resort to using these new initiates to monitor the other Nomes. jarring since unlike the Greek, they aren't being hunted by monsters 24/7 nor are they busy fighting apocalypses

** When [=SpringShield=] took over policing duties, it consisted of just Homer, Lenny and Carl:
---> '''Homer''': You can kill me, but someone will take my place. And if you kill him, someone will take his place. And if you kill him, then that's basically it, the town will be yours.

---> Homer: You can kill me, but someone will take my place. And if you kill him, someone will take his place. And if you kill him, then that's basically it, the town will be yours.

** When Spring Shield took over policing duties, it consisted of just Homer, Lenny and Carl. "You can kill me, but someone will take my place. And if you kill him, someone will take his place. And if you kill him, then that's basically it, the town will be yours".

* In you watched Wrestling/{{WWE}} programming, you would get the impression that the upper management of the largest wrestling promotion on earth comprises entirely of Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon (when he's around), Wrestling/TripleH and Vince's [[BeleagueredAssistant comedic lackey]] ''du jour''. Occasionally, a "Commissioner" or "President" would be appointed to handle day-to-day operations, but they did not appear to have any support staff or middle managers reporting to them. Usually, each of the major brands has a General Manager, who would run the program single-handedly, occasionally alongside an assistant or hired goon.

* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' International Rescue appears to operate on severely stripped-back skeleton staffs. It takes thousands of people to make NASA's space-launches a reality, for instance. Yet Tracy Island seems to manage more atmospheric and space flights with just ''one'' guy doing all the support work and maintaining the craft and the launch pads -- Brains. Also, the poor guy on the Thunderbirds space station seems to be a prisoner for life -- he never gets relieved or gets a shore leave.

* Trevor Philips Enterprises[[note]]AKA Trevor Philips Industries, TP Conglomerate, and numerous other names that never stay consistent[[/note]] in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is described by its membership to be a multinational corporation that specializes in producing drugs and exporting weapons across North America. It consists of Trevor the AxCrazy leader, Nervous Ron the assistant and planner, Chef the meth cook, and Wade. [[spoiler:By the end of the game, it has successfully killed off all of its competitors and remains the only criminal organization in Blaine County, despite being the smallest.]]

--> ''How the Illusive Man recruited and trained such a large number of top-line battlefield commanders is a worrying mystery. Cerberus, once comprised of small, covert cells of agents, is now a burgeoning and unconcealed threat to the galaxy. In the face of the immediate Reaper threat, Alliance Intelligence has scuttled their attempts to infiltrate Cerberus to find out how the Illusive Man managed to quickly swell his organization’s ranks.''

* [[spoiler:The Patriots]] of the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' 'verse were originally Six {{Fallen Hero}}es plus a few hundred to several thousands of clueless mooks, who have not the slightest idea who they are really working for. Then they have [[spoiler:a collection of artificial intelligences]] set up by those fallen heroes and left to run the country. The 4th game reveals the identities of those ex-heroes, and knowing who they are you see, even by the start of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' (and bear in mind we don't even learn about them until ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''), [[spoiler:two of the members were already dead (including the first hostage you fail to rescue), the leader was basically retired all along (and is a vegetable by the time Solid Snake meets him) and the other three had gone their own way and turned against the group. Of the two that were dead, one of the latter actually murdered him]]. The "new" [[spoiler:Patriots]] avert this trope since, thanks to their enormous influence, [[IAmTheNoun they equate themselves with the entire country and are even compared to the prevailing global system]].
** Or Philanthropy, an anti-Metal Gear organization, which, as Otacon puts it, "is officially recognized by the UN", to which Snake replies, "Recognized, but still fringe." At no point does Philanthropy ever consist of more than six members (Otacon, Sunny, Natasha Romanenko, two pilots who are never seen up close, and Snake), and they're classified as a terrorist organization later.

* Played with and justified in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' with Team Skull. They are a constant threat to the populace and Pokémon of Alola, but are much smaller compared to the "Team" organizations from the previous generations, to the point of having exactly one admin [[note]](there is also [[TheRival Gladion]], but even then he is a hired hand and the other members don't consider him one of them)[[/note]] and the first few battles with them being the same two grunts. This makes sense, since Alola is composed of a few islands and Team Skull is a street gang, so they are enough to pose a threat. Also, evil groups in the series are usually referred to as "Gangs" in the Japanese releases. [[spoiler:Finally, they're secretly backed by the much bigger Aether Foundation.]]

* Havoc Squad from ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. The Elite of The Elite, the best Republic Special Forces has to offer, known and respected by both the Republic and the Empire, and consists of just two guys (Player included) by the time everything on Ord Mantell is wrapped up. Justified as [[spoiler:all the rest of squad pulled a Face-HeelTurn to the Empire]] and getting Havoc back to being a proper squad is a recurring secondary objective throughout the Republic Trooper storyline.

* ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' gave this impression, as despite being a global organisation funded by every country in the world, they only had enough resources to send four to six soldiers to a mission at any one time. If two or more events happened simultaneously, they could only respond to one, and the other regions affected were left with no defence at all, making them very angry and liable to cut off funding.

Occasionally, the hero(es) might meet a group of characters who make up a secret organization that either menace or help them. They are shadowy, and mysterious, known for their [[QuirkyMinibossSquad unique]] and quirky members, and the organization has a [[InformedAbility reputation for being far-reaching and prevalent]]... except we never see any of that — it's just talk. Whenever these guys show up, it's just the same group of misfits we know and love.

* The ''Literature/GoodOmens'' witchfinders. They've dwindled down to Witchfinder-Sergeant Shadwell and Witchfinder-Private Newton Pulsifer, but apparently in their heyday, there was a whole Witchfinder Army. It is implied (If not outright stated) that Shadwell is paid by Crowley and Aziraphale, both of whom think that Witchfinders are on their side — Azriphale because he's a witchfinder, and witches are evil, Crowley because of what witchfinders do to witches once they're found. Of course, this later proves to be true of most of the organizations they consider to be on their side.

* From ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'', by Norton Juster: "just as Milo got to his feet the entire police force of Dictionopolis appeared — loudly blowing his whistle."

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E25TheAnswer "The Answer"]], a WholeEpisodeFlashback to the Gem Rebellion (and Garnet's role in it), shows an attack by the dreaded Crystal Gems... Rose Quartz and Pearl. Nobody else. Later episodes would introduce more Crystal Gems, such as Bismuth, so it's usually thought to be Garnet condensing it down to [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything just the main characters]] for Steven's convenience (the episode being framed as a story she's telling Steven). [[spoiler:The actual reason, as revealed in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E19NowWereOnlyFallingApart "Now We're Only Falling Apart"]], is that the Crystal Gems as we know them hadn't formed yet — the ones Garnet saw were Pink Diamond and her Pearl faking a threat to get the Gems to leave Earth alone. The Crystal Gems as a real organization came about afterward, when Pink was inspired by Garnet's circumstances to take in misfit and outcast Gems and make Earth a haven for them.]]

* At one point in the ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' light novels Koizumi says that there are only ten espers in the world, including himself [[ImprobableAge (a teenage boy)]] but not including [[spoiler:the opposing espers empowered by Sasaki instead of Haruhi]]. However, he is an UnreliableExpositor, and later novels give the espers more influence and resources than one would expect if that were the case.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' has the mystery-solving group known as Mystery Inc., which is made of four teenagers and a talking dog. In most cases they don't use any extra people, and those are honorary members at best.

* The protagonists of ''Anime/WeissKreuz'' appear to ''work'' for one. There are only a handful of Kritiker agents the team don't already know about, and most of them have distressingly short life expectancies. Their opposite numbers are rather better staffed, but most of their evil plans ''still'' appear to rely on a QuirkyMinibossSquad with a nasty case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.

* In ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'', the bane of Dentech City bent on causing the collapse of society, World Three, has precisely ''four'' members. However, this is TruthInTelevision for terrorist organizations (see below) albeit not to that extent.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': ISIS initially appeared to have a full support staff and a large number of field agents, but by about season 4 they seem to have dropped down to about six people. There does seem to have been a bit of transition in terms of fatalities and budget cuts; some of the later episodes even make a plot point about how they're forced to start using people like accountants and HR reps as extra agents. Following this, the fifth season premiere results in ISIS dissolving, the main cast together going off for other ventures, and the other surviving employees (if there were any) presumably going elsewhere.

** The Preachers from Pete's World were the only group actively investigating the efforts of Lumic and his [[UnwillingRoboticization Cyber-Men]], Pete Tyler having served as TheMole initially thought that The Preachers were a branch of the Secret Service when he broadcasted to them as Gemini: only after meeting them to realize that The Preachers consisted of three people: Jake Simmonds, Ex-Cybus Industries employee [[HeKnowsTooMuch Angela Price]], and their leader Ricky Smith: Londons' most wanted... [[PokeThePoodle for Parking Tickets.]]

** The Preachers from Pete's World were the only group actively investigating the efforts of Lumic and his [[UnwillingRoboticization Cyber-Men]], Pete Tyler having served as TheMole initially thought that The Preachers were a branch of the Secret Service when he broadcasted to them as Gemini: only after meeting them to realize that The Preachers consisted of three people: Jake Simmonds, Ex-Cybus Industries employee [[HeKnowsTooMuch Angela Price]], and their leader Ricky Smith: Londons' most wanted... for Parking Tickets.
-->''I thought I was contacting the Secret Service, and what do I get? WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo and his Gang? They even got the van.''

* In the first ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' novel, when PC Peter Grant discovers magic is real and is therefore transferred to the section of the London Metropolitan Police that deals with such things (the Folly), this doubles its numbers. Justified in that the Met likes to pretend the Folly doesn't exist as much as possible, and DI Nightingale had spend the last few decades not pushing this, partly because he thought TheMagicWentAway, and partly because this would involve making an effort to understand modern policing infrastructure, which he refuses to do. With evidence the magic ''hasn't'' gone away, and Peter enthusuastically integrating the Folly into the Met's systems properly, it expands in later books.

* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'':