History Main / Scandalgate

For Real Life Examples, see Wiki/TheOtherWiki for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_%22-gate%22_scandals an in-depth list]].

For Real Life Examples, see Wiki/TheOtherWiki for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix an in-depth list]]

The event, dubbed "Watergate" after the hotel[[note]]Incidentally, the "gate" in Watergate refers to a literal [[https://ggwash.org/images/posts/201607-130932-1.jpg wooden toll gate]] marking the place where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal empties into the Potomac River. The Hotel overlooks said gate.[[/note]], was the biggest political scandal to hit the United States in recent memory. As a result virtually every political scandal that has happened since has had the suffix "-gate" applied to its name. Even scandals that aren't political in nature have followed this naming convention.

The event, dubbed "Watergate" after the hotel[[note]]Incidentally, the "gate" in Watergate refers to the wooden toll gate marking the place where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal empties into the Potomac River. The Hotel overlooks said gate.[[/note]], was the biggest political scandal to hit the United States in recent memory. As a result virtually every political scandal that has happened since has had the suffix "-gate" applied to its name. Even scandals that aren't political in nature have followed this naming convention.

* In an early ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' strip, a MediaScrum of barking (yes, barking) reporters questions Senator Bedfellow at his house: "What about Candygate? Did your aides really trade long hugs for Snickers bars?" He impolitely dismisses the reporters, but then one of them starts rifling through the Senator's malbox:

* A crossover between ''Series/SesameStreet'' and ''The [=MacNeil=]-Lehrer News Hour'' occurred during a PBS pledge drive in the '80s in which news anchor Robert [=MacNeil=] covered a presumed cookie theft by Cookie Monster known as "Cookiegate."

* In the mid-1990s, ''Series/EastEnders'' ran a storyline nicknamed "Sharongate," whereby Sharon confessed to cheating on one of the infamous Mitchell brothers with the other brother.

* In ''VideoGame/TheDarksideDetective'', ditzy police officer Dooley decides there's something suspicious about a gate, and declares he's going to investigate until he discovers what secrets it's hiding. It's going to be Gategate.

* In ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', the villainous Governor Hokem suffers from this when he is ([[UnsettlingGenderReveal unwittingly]]) seduced by a [[AttractiveBentGender gorgeous crossdressing boy]], then blackmailed, and eventually exposed to the public.

[[folder:Film]]
* In the Goldie Hawn vehicle ''Protocol'', Goldie Hawn's blond ditz character, Sunny Davis, is unaware that she's being asked to be a prostitute for a high-ranking Arab shiek. When the scandal finally broke, the TV news called it "Sunnygate".

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''[[Series/SixteenHundredPenn 1600 Penn]]'', President Gilchrist makes a joke about marriage being pointless. The press dubs the incident "Wedding-gate" and spends the next month harping on his supposed opposition to family values.

* An episode of ''Series/TheNakedBrothersBand'' had Alex mentioning that their band is ‘[[BiggerThanJesus bigger than Santa]]’, [[SeriousBusiness prompting widespread protests against the band all over the country]]. He refers to the incident as ‘Santagate’. [[spoiler:It turns out at the end of the episode that he was referring to the band’s picture in a calendar that recently came out--[[PoorCommunicationKills their picture was bigger than Santa’s]].]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, where Calvin pretends that his dad is an elected official, Calvin mentions major scandals during Dad's administration, such as "Bedtimegate" and "Homeworkgate." Dad brushes it off: "Instances of true leadership. [[VindicatedByHistory History will vindicate me.]]"
* In [[http://gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2010/12/05/ this]] ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' strip, problems with using a Windows computer to upload a video of a horse trotting through a gate lead to the incident being dubbed "[[spoiler:Gates Gait Gate Gate]]".
* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': In one cartoon, a caveman impresses the rest of his tribe with his invention of fire--except the fire in question is just a wooden cutout, painted to look like flames. The caption notes that he was exiled from the tribe over "the Firegate incident".

[[folder:ProfessionalWrestling]]
* Wrestling/DanielBryan's firing in June 2010 was called "Tiegate". This was because the day before was the infamous [[Wrestling/TheNexus NXT Riot]], where Bryan choked out ring announcer Justin Roberts with his tie. Sponsors called for his release because, apparently, the action was reminiscent of the Wrestling/ChrisBenoit tragedy. The actions of the company was much maligned by virtually everyone, especially the wrestling community. Bryan was then rehired (after the heat from the sponsors died off) and became the final man on Team Cena later that year for ''Wrestling/SummerSlam''. As an epilogue, Bryan would later on become the most over wrestler since Stone Cold and the Rock, his popularity jump started by the above situation -- it was probably the greatest thing to ever happen to his career.
[[/folder]]

** The Riddler tried to invoke an internet scandal against Batman by using the hashtag of [=#CrusaderGate=]. It doesn't go well for him. Apparently, even Gotham's nastiest Internet {{troll}}s won't go after Batman.
-->"Y do u attack B@tman? He is BASED ! U r a [[CurseCutShort fa]]-"

* A Brazilian ''Comicbook/BeetleBailey'' magazine had "Buxleygate", a scandal involving the SexySecretary of General Halftrack.

* The titular muse from ''Blog/WorstMuse'' comically mistakes the practice of adding the "-gate" suffix as just [[https://twitter.com/WorstMuse/status/515533773597732864 "basically what Woodward and Bernstein did."]]

* ''Blog/WorstMuse'' comically mistakes the practice of adding the "-gate" suffix as just [[https://twitter.com/WorstMuse/status/515533773597732864 "basically what Woodward and Bernstein did."]]

* ''Blog/WorstMuse'' comically mistakes the practice of adding the "-gate" suffix as [[https://twitter.com/WorstMuse/status/515533773597732864 "basically what Woodward and Bernstein did."]]

* ''Worst Muse'' comically mistakes the practice of adding the "-gate" suffix as [[https://twitter.com/WorstMuse/status/515533773597732864 "basically what Woodward and Bernstein did."]]

* ''Worst Muse'' comically mistakes the practice of adding the "-gate" suffix as "[[https://twitter.com/WorstMuse/status/515533773597732864 basically what Woodward and Bernstein did.]]"

* ''Blog/WorstMuse'' supports this trope, claiming it's "[[https://twitter.com/WorstMuse/status/515533773597732864 basically what Woodward and Bernstein did.]]"

The event, dubbed "Watergate" after the hotel[[note]]Incidentally, the "gate" in Watergate refers to the wooden toll gate marking the place where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal empties into the Potomac River. The Hotel overlooks said gate.[[/note]], was the biggest political scandal to hit the United States in recent memory. As a result virtually every political scandal (and even a ''sports'' scandal) that has happened since has had the suffix "-gate" applied to its name. Even scandals that aren't political in nature have followed this naming convention.

The event, dubbed "Watergate" after the hotel[[note]]Incidentally, the "gate" in Watergate refers to the wooden toll gate marking the place where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal empties into the Potomac River. The Hotel overlooks said gate.[[/note]], was the biggest political scandal to hit the United States in recent memory. As a result virtually every political scandal (and even a few ''sports'' scandals) that has happened since has had the suffix "-gate" applied to its name. Even scandals that aren't political in nature have followed this naming convention.

The event, dubbed "Watergate" after the hotel[[note]]Incidentally, the "gate" in Watergate refers to the wooden toll gate marking the place where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal empties into the Potomac River. The Hotel overlooks said gate.[[/note]], was the biggest political scandal to hit the United States in recent memory. As a result virtually every political scandal that has happened since has had the suffix "-gate" applied to its name. Even scandals that aren't political in nature have followed this naming convention.

For Real Life Examples, see the TheOtherWiki for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix an in-depth list]]

* A ''HomeAndAway'' storyline from 2005 centered on the paternity of Hayley Lawson's baby became unpopular with the fans, who were aware that Scott was the father from the beginning (the test results had been switched by the vengeful ex-girlfriend of the other prospective father, Kim) but were forced to sit through months of near misses with at least three other characters finding out but being prevented from revealing it for various reasons. The story is now dubbed "Paternitygate" on the Backtothebay message board.

!!Adminstrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly:

* Wrestling/DanielBryan's firing in June 2010 was called "Tiegate". This was because the day before was the infamous [[Wrestling/TheNexus NXT Riot]], where Bryan choked out ring announcer Justin Roberts with his tie. Sponsors called for his release because, apparently, the action was reminiscent of the Wrestling/ChrisBenoit tragedy. The actions of the company was much maligned by virtually everyone, especially the wrestling community. Bryan was then rehired and became the final man on Team Cena later that year for ''Wrestling/SummerSlam'' -- it's speculated that he was never really fired, but accepted a release to make nice for the sponsors, and then was "rehired" after all the heat died off so the situation could be salvaged. As an epilogue, Bryan would later on become the most over wrestler since Stone Cold and the Rock, his popularity jump started by the above situation -- it was probably the greatest thing to ever happen to his career.

On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. The fallout was immediate, widespread, and immense, leading directly to the resignation of UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, then-President of the United States, on August 9, 1974.