History SchmuckBait / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Bosch}}'': Midway through season 3, Jerry Edgar returns to his desk and picks up a dollar bill on the floor next to his desk. Bosch snarks to him, "Careful. Might be an IA sting." This gets a callback a few episodes later, when Jerry is leaving his house and notices a dollar bill tucked under the windshield wiper on his car. He refuses to touch it, muttering "Fucking IA, Harry..." which turns out to save his life, as Xavi Moreno planted the bill there as bait so he could blow Jerry's head off with a sniper rifle. Moreno only gets Jerry's left shoulder because Jerry didn't take the bait. Bosch describes the tactic as an old-school Special Forces trick he's seen in combat in the Gulf War and Afghanistan when talking to Irving afterwards.

* A ''[[Creator/DaveAllen Dave Allen at Large]]'' sketch shows a man walking by a "Beware of God" sign prominently posted on a front lawn. The man disregards the sign and walks on the lawn - and promptly gets zapped by a bolt of lightning.

* Creator/DerrenBrown: ''Derren Brown Trick of the Mind'' had an episode all about this trope. He argued that signs telling us not to do something will only encourage us to do it. In the program, he came to a class and told some young children, two at a time in the room, to not press the button on the box. They do, and some stuff flies out from it. He also paints a sign on a wall telling people not to look through the hole. They do, and Derren's there to look right back at them. The programme's climax is him telling a woman to not press a button otherwise it will kill the cat inside of the tank. She presses it, however the cat wasn't killed, the button just turned the lights off if anything (so there's no need to call the RSPCA, OK).

* ''Derren Brown Trick of the Mind'' had an episode all about this trope. He argued that signs telling us not to do something will only encourage us to do it. In the program, he came to a class and told some young children, two at a time in the room, to not press the button on the box. They do, and some stuff flies out from it. He also paints a sign on a wall telling people not to look through the hole. They do, and Derren's there to look right back at them. The programme's climax is him telling a woman to not press a button otherwise it will kill the cat inside of the tank. She presses it, however the cat wasn't killed, the button just turned the lights off if anything (so there's no need to call the RSPCA, OK).

* "Schmuck bait" is a term that appears quite regularly in ''{{Series/Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}}'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' scripts.
** In the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "Why We Fight", Spike mentions to Angel that he, Nostroyev, and the Prince of Lies were apparently captured by the Nazis when they attended a "free virgin blood party".
** In "Smile Time" Angel enters a door marked only with the word DON'T. [[PuppetPermutation He gets turned into a puppet.]]

** This was attempted again in ''Brain Games''. This time, however, the jar of crumpled bills with a "FREE MONEY" sign on it was emptied in a matter of minutes--but only when nobody is around. If there was anyone behind the table encouraging people passing by to take the money, hardly anyone took it, assuming there had to be a catch.

* The premise behind ''Series/BaitCar'', which illustrates amusing examples of would-be car thieves. (See Real Life entry for more details.)

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* ''Series/TheTwilightZone''
** 1980's version, episode "Button, Button". A couple is given a box with a button on it. They're warned that if they push the button they'll receive $200,000, and a person they don't know will die. They finally push the button and receive the money. Then they're told that the box will be re-programmed and given to ''someone they don't know''.
** In [[AdaptationDisplacement the original]] version of the story, the wife pushes the button and the husband dies, causing the insurance money to pay the promised sum. When she complains to the button-giver, he responds, "[[MetaphoricallyTrue Did you really think you knew your husband?]]"
** The same premise is the plot behind the movie ''Film/TheBox''; the reward has been increased to $1,000,000. Inflation.

* Some of the American episodes of ''Series/TheChase'' had a Super Offer for the titular Chase round. It was normally double the top offer and always six-figures, but choosing this forced the contestant to play a perfect run of seven tough questions against the Chaser without a single wrong answer. Get a question wrong, and they're out of the game unless the Chaser gets a question wrong himself. Even if it was accomplished, they still have to win the Final Chase to take any of it home, or it goes away anyway.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015''. Wilson Fisk arranges for Daredevil to be tipped off about an impending meeting he's having with other crime bosses--the meeting is real, but Fisk's FBI escort are now all working for Fisk, so Daredevil is walking into an ambush. Fisk notes to TheDragon that Daredevil will probably suspect a trap but won't be able to resist a chance to nail him. [[GoodIsNotDumb Fortunately however]] Daredevil takes the opportunity to break into Fisk's headquarters instead and go snooping around.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015''. Wilson Fisk forces an FBI agent working with Daredevil to tip him off about an impending meeting Fisk is having with other crime bosses--the meeting is real, but Fisk's FBI escort is now working for Fisk. Fisk notes to TheDragon that Daredevil will probably suspect a trap but won't be able to resist a chance to nail him. [[GoodIsNotDumb Fortunately however]] Daredevil takes the opportunity to break into Fisk's headquarters and go snooping around instead.

** In "The Inquisitor", Lister pretends to think he's outsmarted the titular time-erasing simulant, and gives him his time gauntlet back. The Inquisitor falls for it, and ends up deleting himself from the entire space-time continuum.
** The M.O. of the Psirens, who appear as whatever their target finds beautiful, usually a lusty, beautiful, scantily clad woman in dire need of sex... and when the target's distracted, they stick a straw in their ears. Even people who know full well the Psirens are hideous bug-monsters can't help but fall for it. The distractions don't even need to be very fool-proof: The one used on the Cat would've worked if it hadn't been for everyone else.

* ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'': In "Sharpe's Rifles", Sharpe gets Harris to make a sign reading "Keep Out" in French, and puts it at the entrance of a booby-trapped building. Sure enough, the next French cavalrymen to pass fall for it.

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', episode "Wink of an Eye", the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Alien of the Week]] tells Kirk not to touch a certain device. He touches it, and gets shocked. So what does he do? ''Puts both hands on it and keeps getting shocked.'' The reason is that the device in question is putting his crew into deep freeze to be preserved as potential breeding stock for the Alien. Kirk is willing to endure pain if he can only switch it off.
* The ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "The End" has Future!Dean trying to shoot Lucifer with the Colt. In the DVD commentary, the writers and producers describe this as a meta example of "schmuck bait", taking great pleasure at the outraged fans complaining about how stupid it would be to shoot the devil in the face.

* In ''Zeke & Luther'', Zeke takes a bath in a hotel.Near the tub is a sign saying [[RuleOfFunny Don't stick fingers in the faucet]]. He does it and it remains stuck,forcing him to do a stunt with a faucet stuck to his toe.Better than the other idea,though (which was to saw his toe off.)

'''Kryten:''' If I may, sir, that was the level of sophistication required to ensnare [[TheDitz the Cat]]. And it ''worked''. Had we not been here, he would now be stumbling around on one of those asteroids trying to write "oh, boy, was I suckered!" with his own intestinal tract.

** People actually did it. Even the [[EarWorm correct link]] is Schmuck Bait.

* The pilot episode of the Adam West ''Series/{{Batman}}'' has the Riddler try to steal the Batmobile and hit the clearly-labeled "start" button, which launches a flurry of fireworks.

* A stunt on the 90s Nick show ''{{Series/What Would You Do|Nickelodeon}}?'' had kids alone in a room with a box that has a sign saying "Adults Only". It's actually a black-eye telescope.

*** The [[ac:protest]] button in the voting booth.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]]: It turns out that Rassilon, ancient founder of the Time Lords, knew a thing or two about Schmuck Bait. [[spoiler: He'd spread stories about a potential path to immortality as a trap for the overly-ambitious. The fact that acquiring it required a visit to Gallifrey's Death Zone should've been a hint it was this trope, yet even ''the Master'' almost stepped right into it.]]

*** [[spoiler:Subverted in that the Sycorax claimed that pressing the button would kill everyone they had under mind control, when in fact it ''released'' them. The Doctor was calling their bluff.]]
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]: An ominous voice tells Toby Zed, "Don't turn around." What do you ''think'' he does? Of course he probably was doomed anyway.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]: The little girls' fiddling with her remote control leads to a wall panel sliding up in the Library while everyone is having a discussion. [[TheDitz Miss Evangelista]], unsurprisingly, is the one that falls for it. [[spoiler:And she dies.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]]. The Doctor seeks out a device that is an advanced prison designed to contain the universe's most powerful and intelligent being, a being feared by the Daleks, Cyberman, Judoon, Silurians, and countless other hostile alien races he's fought against. [[spoiler:It's a prison for the Doctor.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]: Ryan Sinclair is attempting to retrieve his bicycle in the woods when a golden glowing thing appears in midair and reveals a button in the middle. Of ''course'' he presses it, summoning a mysterious alien pod with a murderous warrior inside. When he explains what happened later on, his friends chew him out for it - but the Doctor admits she'd have done the same thing.

* ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'': ''[[Recap/ShapeS1E1SharpesRifles 's Rifles]]'', Sharpe gets Harris to make a sign reading "Keep Out" in French, and puts it at the entrance of a booby-trapped building. Sure enough, the next French cavalrymen to pass fall for it.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels "The Time of Angels"]]: "Come and see this!"[[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Time_of_Angels_8637.jpg '''[[NeckSnap SNAP!]]'''[[/note]]