History Main / WoundedGazelleGambit

* One [[ComicBook/ArchieComics Archie story]] has Archie pretend to suffer dizzy spells, that will get girls to bring out their protective instinct and flock over him to care for him. It works so well the Riverdale girls leave their boyfriends for him, so they pull a plan to turn the scheme on him: they dress up as girls and when he does a spell in their midst they ambush him and send him to the hospital.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': In a 40's issue, a low-level crook fires a bullet through his own hat (which he's holding in his hand), while yelling "Drop it, Wayne!" He proceeds to put the hat back on and tosses the gun to Bruce Wayne, who catches it. The police barge in and see Bruce Wayne with a smoking gun in his hand, and a hole in a bystander's hat.
* ComicBook/BlackWidow excels at this.

* ''ComicBook/DoctorZero'' answers a fake distress signal from an American nuclear submarine only to find that the whole thing's a trap staged by the Merchants, EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw, who want to attack him in a confined location where he can't use some of his powers.
* After massacring a presidential candidate, his family, and ''an entire room'' of armed security, staffers, aides, and journalists during her "field test" for the Facility, ComicBook/{{X 23}}'s exit strategy was to masquerade as the badly wounded, sole-surviving victim of an attack she herself carried out. She successfully duped ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica''.
** For that matter, her ''entry'' was a variation of this: She masqueraded as a physically disabled child wearing leg braces and needing crutches to walk, made a scene in the lobby when a security guard tried to deny her request to meet Candidate Johnson, and played on her "disability" in order to gain access to him and carry out the attack.
* Used in the second arc of ''ComicBook/{{Copperhead}}'' by Zolo's gang. One flags down his police car to request aid for an injured man, but as soon as Boo approaches several guns are pulled on him.
* In ''ComicBook/HexWives'', Bradley pretends to be badly burned as part of a scheme by the Architects to dissuade the women from wanting to leave the cul-de-sac.

* Employed by proxy in "Jabba the Hutt and the Dynasty Trap", a ''Franchise/StarWars''-inspired story by Creator/DarkHorseComics. Having just acquired a valuable Nuffin freighter on one of his adventures, everyone's favorite gangster slug decides to travel to the planet Smarteel where his counterpart Sha Cabrool Nu'um has his palace, intending to sell the freighter to the wealthy warlord. While staying at the Nu'um estate, Jabba finds himself caught in the middle of a power struggle between the aging and demented dictator and his two [[BrattyTeenageDaughter Bratty Teenage Children]], Norba and Rusk. After Cabrool has Jabba locked in his bedroom for refusing to perform a task for him, Rusk talks his way past the guards and offers Jabba the opportunity to kill his father in his sleep, which Jabba accepts. But once the Sha Cabrool is dead, [[MeetTheNewBoss Rusk proves to be every bit as tyrannical as his father had been]], and when Jabba refuses to submit to his authority he has the Hutt imprisoned in a pit full of spiders. Norba then approaches Jabba and denounces her brother, explaining that [[CloserToEarth the Nu'um family needs to be headed by a woman (Norba, of course) in order to function properly]]. Jabba agrees, so Norba brings him into Rusk's office under the pretense of informing her brother that Jabba has had a change of heart and is willing to do what Rusk had commanded. Rusk catches a sinister glaze in his sister's eye, but too late: Jabba grabs him violently by the throat and pulverizes him into a pulp with one mighty punch. Rusk's bodyguards almost immediately arrive on the scene and see their master's dead body (or what remains of it) - and the treacherous Norba reveals her true colors by claiming that she had nothing to do with Rusk's murder, and that Jabba did it on his own and against her wishes! She has the Hutt dragged off to a dungeon, with Jabba roaring in rage and reaching (feebly) for the little bitch's throat. Fortunately for Jabba, he ultimately manages to avenge himself by escaping from the dungeon, [[SwallowedWhole eating Norba in one gulp]], and rejoining his own henchmen.

* In ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Mastermen #1]]'', [[spoiler:with help from Overman, the Human Bomb threw off Leatherwing and the rest of the New Reichsmen by pretending to be gravely injured by Leatherwing's interrogation, giving him the chance to wait to break free and then destroy the Eagle's Nest]].

** Jimmy Marks aka Hybrid tricked the Franchise/XMen into attacking Rom by blowing up his house and shapeshifting back into his human child form and blaming the death and destruction on Rom. Since Rom looked like a seven foot tall murder machine and Jimmy looked like a helpless child, the X-Men were easily duped. Fortunately, Hybrid got overconfident and revealed himself when he tried to kidnap Kitty Pryde during the battle.

* Early in the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}' history, they took in a teenage boy named Topher, who claimed that his evil parents were forcing him to help them commit crimes. [[spoiler:Topher was actually a vampire, and once they brought him back to their headquarters, he tried to feed on them, only to die after Karolina's blood turned out to be loaded with sunlight.]] Subverted in that [[spoiler:Alex Wilder quickly realized that Topher was lying, but said nothing to anyone else, because he wanted to use the bastard's deception to make his team more distrustful of outsiders]].

* A variation in ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad''. When she's hit in the face with a pie, Amanda Waller naturally assumes it's resident troublemaker Captain Boomerang. Just as Boomerang is showing up, he's hit by a pie and berates Waller for setting him up for this. Over the next twenty issues, every member of the Squad (and others) are hit by pies as well. Murph finally arranges video to show the culprit is...Boomerang. Knowing he'd be the first suspect, Boomerang had cunningly set up a "boomerang pie" to hit him right off to deflect suspicion.
* Early in his villainy, ComicBook/{{Venom}} disguised himself as a guard passed out in his cell. The poor schmoe who found him could have just passed through the barrier separating him and Venom, but he was new and unwittingly let it down. Venom pounced and suffocated him to death before escaping.

* Humorously subverted in a ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip: Dilbert accidentally bumps the car in front of him and gets out to apologize. When he looks in the front window of the other car, he sees a man with a grotesquely twisted-up body who screams "LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!" The alleged victim takes Dilbert to court, intending to sue him for all he's worth. "Now I'll never be able to work again!" he whines to the defense attorney. But the plaintiff's scheme fails when the defense attorney asks him what his job had been, and he's forced to admit: "Circus contortionist."

Using self-inflicted injuries, real or fake, to deceive others and manipulate them into doing what you want. Often used to frame a third party, this strategy is particularly effective for, and often used by, women, [[DoubleStandard due to societal prohibitions against]] [[WouldntHitAGirl hurting women]]. Named for the trick sometimes used by a mother gazelle (as well as certain birds and deer) of pretending to be injured, and thus an easy meal, in order to lure a predator away from her young. Once a safe distance is reached, the pretense can be dropped, and the mother can bound away, leaving the hapless predator in the dust.

* In [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Genesis chapter 39]] from Literature/TheBible, Potiphar's wife flirted with Joseph, who went about doing his chores as usual, until one day, she managed to get ahold of Joseph by his linen garment, and when he hastily flees, she claimed he tried to rape her (most translations soften this accusation to "mocking", but given the circumstances it's fairly easy to read between the lines), and Potiphar has Joseph sent away to an Egyptian prison.
* In a midrash on the story of CainAndAbel, when Cain attacks Abel, the two struggle and Abel gains the upper hand. Cain then begs for mercy for their parents' sake, so Abel relaxes his grip. Cain immediately seizes the opportunity and kills him.

Compare DecoyDamsel, ArrestedForHeroism, WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou, PlayingTheVictimCard, DefensiveFeintTrap, InsidiousRumorMill, LuringInPrey, and ISurrenderSuckers. Often related to GuiltByAssociationGag and EtTuBrute. Contrast WoundedGazelleWarcry where it's not a trick. Not to be mistaken with DeliberateInjuryGambit as well; that one is about someone getting themself hurt for real to achieve a goal. Compare SickCaptiveScam for instances where a prisoner pretends to be sick or injured to get the drop on his captor. FeigningHealthiness is an {{inverted|Trope}} variant.

* This is a staple trick of any TabletopRPG, used by both the GameMaster and Players alike regardless of the setting. The common setup is something like this: a character is in trouble, whether held captive or simply seeking out help righting a wrong he or she cannot right. He or she uses his or her apparent vulnerability to manipulate the other parties into doing what he or she wants. Depending on the genre, mystical or technological augmentations can help with the con. Then, when the character gets what they want, they may either dramatically betray the others then or just leave their stooges in the dark entirely. Alternatively, play the victim when the paladins/Jedi/police/player characters show up.

* Minor ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' villain the Black Fox pulled this on a regular basis. Whenever Spidey was about to catch him, the Fox would give some sort of sob story about how he wouldn't survive jail time in his age or how he would swear to never steal again on the grave of his mother (who wasn't even dead!) and so on. And Spidey kept falling for it repeatedly. After about five or six encounters of this happening though, he finally got wise and sent the Fox to prison.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'': When ComicBook/ElongatedMan's wife Sue is murdered, it looks like an isolated incident; until Jean Loring, ex-wife of ComicBook/TheAtom, is nearly killed as well. It seems someone is murdering the spouses of superheroes, and the hero community comes together to try to figure out which super villain might be behind it. Except, of course, that it's not a super villain; it's Jean, who staged her own attempted murder to both throw suspicion off herself, and to send the heroes on a wild goose chase by making Sue's murder look like part of a larger series of killings. And it turns out she did it all to get a man's attention.

* Parodied at [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s HardCORE Justice Pay-Per-View, where [[Wrestling/SpikeDudley Brother Runt]] performed this stunt with Wrestling/AlSnow while the Ref was out, and while the ref was recovering, Snow similarly banged the chair against the mat, and then fell down, holding his head. The ref was quite befuddled. This also ties in to the Rick Steiner example in that both Brother Runt and Al Snow were using their mentally disabled gimmicks - Runt tripping on LSD, Al Snow mentally ill and talking to a mannequin's head.

* Cleverly employed by Wrestling/RandyOrton in early 2009, when he was still a heel and the leader of the Legacy stable. Having just won the Wrestling/RoyalRumble the night before, Orton announced that he was going to bring a lawsuit against Wrestling/{{WWE}} for threatening to fire him despite his having been guaranteed a title shot at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' (when in fact the [=McMahons=] had [[LogicalFallacies threatened to fire him]] ''[[LogicalFallacies before]]'' [[LogicalFallacies he won the Rumble match]])....and also threatened a ''second'' lawsuit, this time applying the WGG in a subtle way. He claimed that he had slapped, kicked, and punted the head of Wrestling/VinceMcMahon because he was suffering from a made-up disease called Intermittent Explosive Disorder that causes its victim to resort to violence when provoked (in Orton's case, he had been slapped by Vince's daughter Stephanie, heard his father "Cowboy" Bob Orton insulted, and seen Wrestling/ChrisJericho fired in a KickTheSonOfABitch moment and feared that he might be next). Randy accused WWE of knowing that he had IED but refusing to treat it, even though there was no way he could prove this. He announced that the two lawsuits combined would drive WWE to bankruptcy and cause ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' to be cancelled. Orton's machinations backfired: not only did ''everyone'' in WWE outside of the Legacy turn bitterly against him, but he angered Stephanie's husband Wrestling/TripleH into launching multiple attacks on him and terrorizing his family.

Compare DecoyDamsel, ArrestedForHeroism, WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou, PlayingTheVictimCard, DefensiveFeintTrap, InsidiousRumorMill, and ISurrenderSuckers. Often related to GuiltByAssociationGag and EtTuBrute. Contrast WoundedGazelleWarcry where it's not a trick. Not to be mistaken with DeliberateInjuryGambit as well; that one is about someone getting themself hurt for real to achieve a goal. Compare SickCaptiveScam for instances where a prisoner pretends to be sick or injured to get the drop on his captor. FeigningHealthiness is an {{inverted|Trope}} variant.

* [[WoundedGazelleGambit/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' film, ''WesternAnimation/AMatterOfLoafAndDeath'', the murderer deceives Wallace into thinking Gromit has attacked them, even going so far as to bite their own arm to provide an injury. This one only worked through Wallace's CloudCuckoolander tendencies, as it would be hard for Gromit to bite anyone, as he has no mouth.

* At the end of the fourth ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' film, Weslie manages to discover that Wolffy is only pretending to be badly injured from the events of the film so that [[spoiler:he could have his wife Wolnie and his son Wilie help him to break into Goat Village and capture the goats]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Rain}}'': When [[spoiler:Maria]] gets expelled from St. Hallvard's, Emily (who is about four-and-a-half months pregnant) goes to the office with her to provide emotional support. After the two of them come up with a plan to get [[spoiler:Maria]] to somewhere she can safely lay low, Emily fakes going into labor, and [[spoiler:Maria]] sends office assistant Pete to get supplies, giving [[spoiler:Maria]] the opportunity to escape.

* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'': In Season 2 episode 9, Adu Du pretends to be badly hurt by [=BoBoiBoy=] and on the verge of dying to gain the audience's sympathy in his talk show and cause them to side with him. While [=BoBoiBoy=] ''did'' hurt him, it was to stop Adu Du, the ''bad'' guy, and wasn't anywhere near as bad as he makes it out to be.

* Played with in a 2008 ''Raw'' sequence in which Chris Jericho stripped off his shirt before the crowd to reveal a collection of ugly red welts he had received when Wrestling/ShawnMichaels had thrashed him with a belt in their "Unsanctioned Match" at ''Unforgiven''. He called Michaels a hypocrite for claiming to be a good Christian and yet acting violently ("What kind of a man would do something like this?"). In fact, Jericho ''fully deserved'' those welts, since he had looked forward to the match because he was sure he would win and [[ColdBloodedTorture wanted Michaels's kids to see him cripple their father on pay-per-view television]].

* In Genesis chapter 39 from Literature/TheBible, Potiphar's wife flirted with Joseph, who went about doing his chores as usual, until one day, she managed to get ahold of Joseph by his linen garment, and when he hastily flees, she claimed he tried to rape her (most translations soften this accusation to "mocking", but given the circumstances it's fairly easy to read between the lines), and Potiphar has Joseph sent away to an Egyptian prison.

Compare DecoyDamsel, ArrestedForHeroism, WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou, PlayingTheVictimCard, DefensiveFeintTrap, and InsidiousRumorMill. Often related to GuiltByAssociationGag and EtTuBrute. Contrast WoundedGazelleWarcry where it's not a trick. Not to be mistaken with DeliberateInjuryGambit as well; that one is about someone getting themself hurt for real to achieve a goal. Compare SickCaptiveScam for instances where a prisoner pretends to be sick or injured to get the drop on his captor. FeigningHealthiness is an {{inverted|Trope}} variant.

** It's less common, but still has been done in hockey, in which the official term for the penalty is 'embellishment', often because the embellishment comes from a legitimate penalty (typically tripping or high sticking), but the 'victim' exaggerates how severe it was in order to draw a worse punishment for the offender and give their team a longer power play. (Often, though, all it gets them is matching minors, negating the power play in the first place.)