Paranoia Gambit / Live-Action TV

Paranoia Gambits in Live-Action TV series.

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• In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., SHIELD fooled one of the top leaders of HYDRA into killing the other three top leaders by making it look like these leaders planned to kill the rest off. HYDRA's paranoia made it vulnerable to this tactic, especially since several of the leaders were competing to replace the recently vacated top spot. Then SHIELD killed the remaining leader off.
• Babylon 5:
  • In "The Gathering", Sinclair pulls one on G'kar after the latter's actions result in a threat to the station's safety.
    Garibaldi: Think they'll ever find that transmitter you slipped G'kar?
    Sinclair: No... because there isn't one. I figured if there was a transmitter, sooner or later they'd find it and remove it. But if I just told him there was, they'd keep looking. Indefinitely.
    Garibaldi: Commander, do you have any idea of the tests they'll put him through, the things they'll do to him, tryin' to find a transmitter that's not there?
    Sinclair: Yes. Come on.
    Garibaldi: There are some days I love this job.
  • Played with later in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", between Ambassador Londo Molari and Lord Refa. It is never made clear whether Londo was telling the truth or not, though given Centauri politics, it is entirely likely he was not lying.
    Lord Refa: Why should I do as you say?
    Londo Mollari: Because I have asked you; because your sense of duty to our people should override any personal ambition; and because I have poisoned your drink.
    • To elaborate: the poison Londo claims to have used is one-half of a binary poison, which remains latent in the body. That means that he has Lord Refa on a leash indefinitely, for fear of being dosed with the second component of the poison if he ever defies Londo in the future.^note This works because the second component won't kill a taster — except in the extremely unlikely event that the taster has also been previously dosed with the first component — and probably won't be caught by any other device to detect poison. The final irony is that Londo eventually does have Refa murdered, but not by poisoning.
  • In "Rumors, Bargains, and Lies", Sheridan wants the Non-Aligned Worlds to allow him to use the White Star fleet to patrol their borders, so he has Ivanova publicly announce that nothing happened in a sector. This appears to be a coverup to the ambassadors, prompting them to request the White Stars to patrol their borders with the idea that because they were constructed from Minbari and Vorlon technology (respectively centuries and millennia ahead of most other races), they could detect enemies their less advanced ships could not.
• As mentioned in the page quote, this is used in Burn Notice. The context here is that Michael and company are going up against a hotel owner who stole his own distinctive diamond brooch. After Michael unsuccessfully attempted to get him to move the brooch by posing as a potential buyer, they resort to this trope.
  • Interestingly, one of the flaws of this strategy is pointed out here. When people are sufficiently paranoid they often become desperate, which makes them less predictable. It nearly gets Michael in serious trouble.
• In one Cheers episode, Diane tricks the bar folk, then becomes increasingly paranoid that they're plotting revenge. When she's asked to read her poetry for a TV show, she thinks it's a ruse, and humiliates herself by clucking like a chicken on television. Turns out all the gang intended to do was dump a bucket of water on her.
  • In another episode, the Cheers gang pulls a prank on rival bar Gary's, and the paranoia becomes so intense they shave their own heads on the idea that this will prevent retribution. Turns out Gary was out of town and didn't even know about the prank.
• Columbo: The Lieutenant's investigative method could be said to be a constant use of this trope: just keep pestering the suspects, day and night, wherever they may be, and wait for them to do something stupid that will break the case wide open in the hope they'll get rid of him.
• The Trope Codifier in TV may be the episode "The Impractical Joke" of The Dick Van Dyke Show. After Buddy gets a friend to play a practical joke on Rob, Rob decides that the best revenge is to make Buddy increasingly paranoid about what Rob's revenge will be. The aforementioned friend takes advantage of this to pull another prank on Buddy in the end.
• Megan does this in an episode of Drake & Josh. It works hilariously. At the end of the episode, she does something to Drake and Josh anyway. That's just her doing things to them for the hell of it again, just like she always does. It's that type of behavior that made the gambit work in the first place (she actually told them she wasn't going to do anything and let her past actions speak for themselves.) Drake and Josh even lampshade the fact and admire how clever it was.
  Drake: She got us... by not getting us
  Josh: ...Genius.
• Mr. Wick tries this once on The Drew Carey Show, but fails miserably. After Drew punches Mr. Wick in the face, they agree that Wick should be allowed to punch Drew as well. Wick tries playing up the paranoia angle, saying Drew will never know where or when the punch is coming, but Drew just ignores the taunts and goes on with his life. When Mr. Wick finally does punch him, Drew is barely even fazed, while Wick's fist is severely hurt.

• In a season 6 episode of House, M.D., Lucas and Cuddy get revenge on House and Wilson for sniping them to the apartment they were planning on buying by plaguing them with pranks they each think the other is responsible for. They both wind up staying up all night watching each other, with Wilson accusing House of employing this trope.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • Played for all it's worth in the episode "Slapsgiving". In a previous episode ("Slap Bet"), Marshall has been allotted five slaps that he can give to Barney. He has chosen to give the third slap at Thanksgiving, going so far as to post a countdown online. Barney claims that Marshall ruined the Paranoia Gambit by announcing the exact moment of the slap and thus removing the uncertainty, but eventually the anticipation (and Marshall's psych-out tactics) starts destroying Barney. Tired of the whole thing, Lily (as "slap bet commissioner") calls it off so that they could have a pleasant Thanksgiving dinner. But Barney's gloating as the countdown approaches get to her, and at the last moment she lets Marshall slap him just to shut him up.
  • Exaggerated in "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap". In honor of Thanksgiving, Marshall gives his fourth slap to Ted and Robin, who spend most of the episode arguing about who gets it. It ends with the rights to the slap being passed all around the room, (with each preparing to take the slap before passing it off to someone else, much to Barney's increased torture) until Marshall, saying that the togetherness it's caused is what he wanted, calls the slap off. Then he slaps Barney anyway.
    • The existence of this trope is why Barney was urged by Ted to choose "10 slaps right now" rather than "5 slaps at any random time in the future".
• Jessie: Unintentionally happens in the episode "A Close Shave". Bertram accidentally shaves the middle of Luke's head after being startled by Zuri. Both Bertram and Zuri fear that Luke will get revenge on them even after Luke forgave them. They even destroy the presents he gave them thinking it was a prank.
  Luke: Wow! I didn't have to do anything. Just sit back and let your paranoia destroy you.
• Ben uses this to wonderfully creepy effect in the Lost episode "The Whole Truth".
  Ben: Wow, you guys have some real trust issues, don't you? Guess it makes sense she didn't tell you, what with you two fighting all the time. Of course, if I was one of them - these people you seem to think are your enemies - what would I do? Well, there'd be no balloon, so I'd draw a map to a real secluded place like a cave or some underbrush - good place for a trap - an ambush. And when your friends got there, a bunch of my people would be waiting for them. Then they'd use them to trade for me. I guess it's a good thing I'm not one of them, huh? You guys got any milk?
• Played with and eventually subverted during a April Fools episode of Married... with Children. In the middle of a prank war with Jefferson, Al Bundy one day finds a beautiful woman in his house making him dinner. Assuming this is another one of Jefferson's practical jokes, Al goes along with it, not wanting to concede defeat. Unfortunately for Al, Jefferson had nothing to do with this woman: She was an old rival of Peg's (who was off searching the world for her missing father) who's trying to get revenge for her stealing one of her old boyfriends by stealing Al. In the ultimate bid to get her to leave, Al proposes to her. To his shock, she accepts. At the wedding, Al's paranoia is at an all-time high, because he's just waiting for Jefferson to pop in and say "Gotcha!" Jefferson does come in, but tells Al that he had nothing to do with the woman there. He then reveals his true prank: He made sure Peg came home just in time to see what was going on.
• M*A*S*H Season 11 episode "The Joker Is Wild". BJ Hunnicutt bets Hawkeye he can play a practical joke on each of the main characters. As the other characters fall victim to pranks one at a time, Hawkeye becomes increasingly worried about when he is going to get his, ending up camping outside in his bed, surrounded by barbed wire. At the end Hawkeye learns that BJ didn't actually play any practical jokes on the others, they were all faked. Making Hawkeye paranoid was the practical joke, the bet only being a tool and losing it part of the plan.
• Mission: Impossible: The Impossible Missions Force had this in their usual bag of tricks in order to screw with the minds of their targets, typically by using a False Flag Operation to convince the mark that someone else on their side was out to get them, and then exploiting the paranoia to get on with what they were really up to.
• NCIS
  • Discussed in a the first season episode, "Dead Man Talking". Tony and McGee are on a stakeout, with Tony wondering what kind of practical jokes he can play on Kate. McGee is reluctant, but mentions that they could invoke this trope on Kate without risk of pranking Gibbs in the process.
  • In Season Five's "Stakeout", an escalating prank war started by Ziva leads to her increasing paranoia over what Tony will do for revenge;
    Jardine: Ziva, I don't know if I should say anything, but I saw Tony putting something under your car...
    Ziva: What?! When?
    Jardine: What, I don't know; when, this morning.
    Ziva: Ha! I told you, I told you he could not be trusted! (rushes out)
    McGee: Was Tony really messing with her car?
    Jardine: No, Tony just told me to tell Ziva that when I saw her.
    • The payoff comes when Tony does get her just before the credits by rigging her desk chair to collapse.
  • A much darker example in Season Seven's "Masquerade", when a Latin American terrorist group threatens to detonate a dirty bomb in the D.C. area; lampshaded by Vance, who mentions that the potential loss of life from exposure to radioactivity is relatively low, and greatly overshadowed by the threat of mass panic;
    Vance: That's why they call dirty bombs "weapons of mass disruption."
• The New Avengers: In "Forward Base", Purdey and Gambit spook a Russian agent into revealing the location of the base by calling him to tell him his cover is blown, and then doing absolutely nothing. They reason that the fact that he cannot find them will absolutely convince him that they are on to him.
• Dawn delivers a nice gambit in the Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn episode, "Diary of an Angry Quad". After realizing her brothers read her diary, she decided to get them back by writing a false entry saying that two of the boys are conspiring to do something to the third. This leads the boys to distrust each other and be nice to Dawn to get information from her.
• In an episode of Night Court, Harry got into a competition with a younger judge who seemed to be just as much a prankster as he was, betting who could pull the best practical joke on the other. The younger judge warned that he'd pull his joke before Harry's session ended, and everyone was paranoid, and it seemed like this was the Trope. When Harry made his ruling on the last case of the night, and still nothing from the guy, he figured he was safe, and rapped his gavel to adjourn the court - causing his bench to fall apart. It seemed the other guy had won, and Harry conceded defeat... But unbeknownst to anyone, Harry was actually playing a real Batman Gambit which took everyone, especially his rival, by shock when he pulled one of the most spectacular pranks ever five minutes later.
  Harry: Cleaver, you may be younger. You may be faster. You may even be even smarter. But you will never be crazier...THAN ME.
• In The Office, Dwight ambushes Jim by hiding inside a snowman. Later that day, when Jim is walking to his car, he finds himself surrounded by snowmen. As Jim snaps and starts destroying every one of them, Dwight watches from the roof. "In the end, the greatest snowball isn't a snowball at all. It's fear. Merry Christmas."
• In The Prisoner (1967), Number Six does this to a cruel Number Two in the episode "Hammer Into Anvil". Specifically, Six acts as if he was planted by Two's superiors and is sending them cryptic messages questioning his loyalty; Two not only tears his hair out trying to follow the trail, but pushes away one colleague after another as untrustworthy. At the end, when Six points out that a loyal man would have left it alone:
  Two: Don't tell them. Don't report me.
  Six: I don't intend to. [Beat] You are going to report yourself.
  Two: [taking the phone] I have to report a breakdown in control. Number Two needs to be replaced. [beat] Yes, this is Number Two reporting.
• The Janitor has done this to JD once or twice in Scrubs.
  • He also comes up with a nasty inversion for "Sunny" Dey; while trapping the rest of the interns in the elevator, he tells her that she's "too weak" for him to take revenge on. She spends the entire day trying to get him to do something nasty to her, until she finally confronts him and says she isn't weak. He replies that she isn't; that's why he came up with a special torture for her.
• Done to Jerry on Seinfeld by a pissed-off girlfriend who, in response to his accidentally knocking her toothbrush in the toilet and not telling her for several days, proceeded to lock him out of his apartment, then let him back in a few seconds later, declaring that she put something of his in the toilet as revenge. Jerry, an extreme Neat Freak, proceeds to go insane trying to determine what it is, throwing out anything he suspects it might be. Eventually he accuses her of pulling a Paranoia Gambit and not actually putting anything in the toilet to begin with, but she maintains that she did put something in there. Jerry then has a breakdown and begs her to tell him what it is. It was the toilet brush.
  Jerry: [relieved] All right... I can replace that.
• Sadakatsiz: During the divorce, doctor Asya is already devastated by her husband Volkan's betrayal, but Volkan wanting full custody of their son Ali (as well as Ali's own agreement) pushes her to pull one of these. She exploits Volkan's aggressive tendencies and his love for their son. She picks up Ali from school early for a trip outside the city. When he doesn't find Ali in the school, Volkan thinks Asya has kidnapped him and confronts her. She shows Volkan a pair of scissors and a tuft of Ali's hair and says nothing. Volkan quickly jumps to the conclusion that Asya has killed Ali (Asya's mother killed her cheating husband) and physically assaults her. As planned, Ali witnesses it all and changes his mind about staying with his father. Asya also uses this to obtain a six-month restraining order against Volkan.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: This is basically what Garak did to a man he interrogated when he was in the Obsidian Order. He just sat and stared at the subject for four hours. The poor guy broke completely, no doubt imagining all the horrible things Garak was going to do to him.
  • A much darker example comes in the two-part episode "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost". Sisko returns home to an earth that has been placed under martial law because of the threat of changeling infiltrators, with people being subjected to random scans and blood tests. One of said changelings, (mockingly assuming the form of Chief O'Brien) saunters up to Sisko and asks him to guess how many changelings are actually on earth. The answer?
    Changeling: What if I were to tell you that there are only four on this entire planet? Not counting constable Odo, of course. Think of it. Just four of us...and look at the havoc we've wrought. Four is more than enough. We're smarter than solids. We're better than you. And most importantly, we do not fear you the way you fear us. In the end, it's your fear that will destroy you.
  • In "Sacrifice of Angels", Quark and Ziyal pull one of these on a Cardassian guard at one point by delivering a soufflé to some Federation prisoners. The guard, knowing Quark is friendly with the Federation, proceeds to carefully deconstruct the soufflé looking for whatever Quark hid in it to help the prisoners escape. Ziyal simply knocks the guard out with a hypospray while he's distracted.
• In season 2 of Taskmaster (NZ), David Correos has a minor breakdown during the 'eat the grape task', wherein they must find a way out of the locked caravan to eat the grape outside in the fastest time.
  David: I'm supposed to stay in here, aren't I? I'm supposed to stay in here. There is no grape. There's no reason for me to get out of the caravan. I'm supposed to be in here! The grape is somewhere in the caravan. That's a fake grape! That's a fake grape that I'm not supposed to get.
  (It took David approximately 5 times longer than the winning contestant.)
  Paul Williams: 16 minutes and six seconds was the time to beat. It took David 19 minutes to spot the grape.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In the episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", a quiet suburban street is plagued by mildly weird, unexplained sights, sounds, and technological malfunctions. This gradually leads to the residents becoming so paranoid that they begin attacking each other. It ends with a pair of space aliens marveling about how easy it was to defeat Earthlings by just making a few weird things happen to them and waiting for the social order to break down.

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