History Main / TerribleIntervieweesMontage

** In season one, when Cameron quits for the first time. It's not that the interviewees are so very awful, though, it's just that House is determined to find fault with everyone he interviews (since he doesn't really want to hire anyone new, but would rather have Cameron back). And of course, he wouldn't be [[{{Jerkass}} House]] if he couldn't find ''something'' to hate in everyone he met...

* ''Series/StargateSG1'', in the first episode of the season 9 ReTool. Due to the old members of SG-1 moving on to other duties and unwilling to come back, Mitchell has to recruit an entirely new replacement team. His options are an overly-enthusiastic language specialist who translates everything Mitchell says into Ancient, an overly-formal officer who can only give his first name when Mitchell asks for personal information, and even two random scientists that only came to him in order to get an endorsement for some kind of android they are planning. One of the interviewees didn't even speak to him, instead only performing pushups.

* In the first episode of ''Series/PieInTheSky'', detective-turned-restaurateur Henry Crabbe asks potential chefs how they would prepare a steak and kidney pie. Typically interviewees are shown to view something that simple as a task to produce it as quickly and cheaply as possible, while Henry wants quality, or claim that it's beneath the dignity of a chef to make such a common dish at all. The last interviewee impresses Henry with a technique which will take a day to produce, answers his questions quickly and decisively, then Henry sits back and says "I know you don't I? Breaking and entering..." -- it turns out the boy learnt to cook in prison. [[spoiler: He got the job.]]

* The seventh season finale of ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'', "Search Committee", has the titular committee interview people for the position of regional manager. Notably, one of the interviewees was [[spoiler: none other than David Brent, from the original British version of the show]].

* Inverted in season two of ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'', Anthony decides to find a wife and goes on a series of rapid-fire dates with every available society girl in town. They are all pleasant, if vapid, but Anthony is shown to have impossibly high standards and is brusque to the point of rudeness.

* ''WebVideo/TheGuild'', in season three, sees Codex seeking someone to replace Tinkerballa. None of the applicants measure up to the exacting standard of not being completely creepy or frightening. With the threat of Riley possibly joining the guild, Codex hastily recruits Clara's husband, a stupendously poor choice from the group's perspective.

* Mario and Luigi suffer this while trying to start a band in season 1 of ''WebVideo/StupidMarioBrothers''.

** Also seen in season 4 when the Revenge Society tries to recruit new supervillain members, most of whom have powers ranging from [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway stupid]] to [[UselessSuperpowers utterly useless]], or no powers at all beyond a lame gimmick. And the inexplicably creepy [[BearsAreBadNews Scare Bear]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In Episode 121, Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat are informed that they have been fired from the show and have to take a job interview with Olaf to get their jobs back. In the montage, [[IdiotHero Kaeloo]] doesn't know how to answer the questions and randomly uses words in the hopes of making what sounds like an answer, [[ButtMonkey Stumpy]] repeatedly says that he's the show's funniest character and has random objects drop onto his head from the sky to prove it, [[DitzyGenius Quack Quack]] uses complex math equations and Mr. Cat resorts to telling BlatantLies, bribery and using random words. [[spoiler: They all get re-hired anyway, because they were never actually fired, it was just a "joke" that Olaf was playing on them.]]

* ''Webcomic/FlakyPastry'' starts out this way, with Marelle and Nitrine looking for another roommate to help them pay the rent. All but one of the rejected housemates become recurring side-characters later on, too.

** In ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'', Luke Cage and Jessica Jones interview a number of their super-hero peers to find a decent baby-sitter for their young daughter. [[http://sketchcardsaloon.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/squirrel-girl-new-avengers-7.jpg The prospects aren't too great until the end]].

* Played with in ''LightNovel/AmagiBrilliantPark'' episode 6. When interviewing candidates for new park employees, many of them gave poor interviews (such as a failed baseball player who spent the whole interview ''sobbing uncontrollably''), but Kanie hires them all anyway.

%%* Played completely straight in ''Film/BabyBoom'', as JC Wiatt interviews potential nannies.

* In the 1986 action movie ''Let's Get Harry'', some American construction workers want go down to Columbia to rescue a colleague kidnapped by terrorists. They decide to hire a mercenary to advise them -- cue a series of [[Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty Walter Mitty]] types in army greens with outrageous claims on their previous military experience, before they get to a suit-wearing Creator/RobertDuvall, who can speak fluent Spanish and has a written plan setting out how he would go about the job.

* One of the funnier parts in ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', with the twist being that all the guys being shown had already been hired on and the higher-ups were regretting this decision as they saw their psych evaluations.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' Prequel episode "Fifty Shades of Red", Captain Butch Flowers goes through one of these while looking for a soldier to join the Blue Team's Blood Gulch outpost. In an twist, he's actually looking for the ''worst'' soldier in an army consisting of nothing ''but'' the worst soldiers. Tucker gets the job.

* ''Film/NoReservations'', when Catherine Zeta-Jones's chef character is trying to replace Aaron Eckhart's sous-chef character.

** The applicants for the role of [[Theater/AStreetcarNamedDesire Stanley]] in the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E2AStreetcarNamedMarge A Streetcar Named Marge]]". Most notable is Otto.

* A variant is used in ''Film/{{Zodiac}}'', where the cops interview a number of half-baked witnesses who think they know something about the killer. They finish off with someone who provides them with genuinely useful information that gives them their best lead.

* Inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'' Season 3 episode "When Home is a House of Cards". In response to Blossom's promotion, Ruff put out an ad for someone to be his new assistant. A bunch of wild animals are lined up outside his dog house to be interviewed. A mouse named Chet was the first interviewee, but he abruptly moves into the Fetch 3000 before Ruff can interview him. He later becomes Ruff's new assistant.
* ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin'' includes a speed dating sequence that fits this trope completely, with the added humor of his individual friends' reactions to the same girls. The main character, failing to find a match at speed dating, even meets his ''real'' love interest in the following scene.

* Inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'' episode "When Home is a House of Cards". In response to Blossom's promotion, Ruff put out an ad for someone to be his new assistant. A bunch of wild animals are lined up outside his dog house to be interviewed. A mouse named Chet was the first interviewee, but he abruptly moves into the Fetch 3000 before Ruff can interview him. He later becomes Ruff's new assistant.

* Book 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has a rare ''inversion'' of this trope. Korra and her friends travel through the Earth Kingdom in order to recruit the new airbenders, with Tenzin trying to convince them to join him in rebuilding the Air Nation, but he completely sucks at selling it. For example, he tells the mother of a young airbender that his son will get tattoos all over his body like Tenzin, tells a fat man eating a turkey leg about the airbenders' vegetarian diet, a woman wearing very elegant and expensive-looking clothes about having to wear monk robes, and other unseen airbenders about other "perks" of the Air Nomads such as shaving your head, giving up all your worldly possessions or having a bison as your best friend.

* Inverted in the * ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'' episode "When Home is a House of Cards". In response to Blossom's promotion, Ruff put out an ad for someone to be his new assistant. A bunch of wild animals are lined up outside his dog house to be interviewed. A mouse named Chet was the first interviewee, but he abruptly moves into the Fetch 3000 before Ruff can interview him. He later becomes Ruff's new assistant.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "You're Fired!" has such a montage after Beast Boy gets thrown out of the team. {{Cameo}}s includes ComicBook/{{Vixen}} (whose power Cyborg finds lame, but it's her table manners that owe her a VaudevilleHook), B'wana Beast (whose mere ''name'' has Cyborg in stitches, and whose power disgusts everyone), Detective Chimp (next!) and Beast Boy [[DisguisedInDrag in drag]] trying to sneak back in. The Titans finally settle on Jayna of the ComicBook/WonderTwins, but aren't impressed by Zan's power of turning into water. But since the WonderTwinPowers don't allow them to be separated, they still keep Zan... as a receptionist.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the 2002 TV movie ''Film/{{Shackleton}}'', the title character is interviewing people for his expedition, including a youth who prepared by taking a bath full of ice, and an army officer whose commanding officer was [[ReassignedToAntarctica quite enthusiastic when he proposed taking off for the South Pole]]. But not to worry, if war is declared "[[WhatAnIdiot I'll make my own way back.]]" The third interviewee also seems dubious as he was inspired by a dream to join the expedition, but as he's an experienced sea captain they can make better use of him.

* Also inverted in an add for Amour, a porn movie channel. Several ditzy buxom blondes in {{Stripperiffic}} clothing get the part despite their BadBadActing, while a fully dressed BrainyBrunette who delivers the line perfectly gets rejected.

* An add for online dating showed the man on a date at a restaurant, with several annoying women whom he instantly changed (with an audible mouse-click sound) until getting the one he wanted. Then ''he'' says something annoying and gets clicked off by the woman for a man who's a bit more suave.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'': a RunningGag is when Marla interviews for positions (typically Christmas help, though sometimes its for more permanent positions), the candidate pool leaves something to be desired. That said, Amber, Donnie, Crystal, and Arthur were introduced via this trope, so they weren't ''all'' terrible.