Paranoia Gambits in Western Animation.
- An episode of The Angry Beavers does this: Norbert spends the majority of the episode telling Daggett "gonna get ya" while Daggett undergoes ever more extreme self-inflicted punishment, either trying to avoid pranks or getting so carried away that he ends up playing them out and inflicting them on himself (mixing and drinking an entire batch of lemonade combined with vinegar as a demonstration of what he thinks Norb is up to, for example). And then Norb subverts it at the end by punishing him anyway.
- On American Dad!, Klaus swears revenge on Steve and Roger after they pull a prank on him, and they spend most of the episode going insane from anticipation. Subverted when Klaus forgets all about it, but now that they reminded him, he gets set to exact his revenge. Steve and Roger stop him by blocking his fishbowl with a stack of books, and they ask themselves why they didn't do this from the beginning.
- Slappy Squirrel in the Animaniacs episode "I Got Yer Can" pulls one off on Candie Chipmunk, after having subjected her to some well-deserved revenge. And then it stopped. Cue the Paranoia Gambit.
- Batman: The Animated Series:
- Despite this being 2/3 of Batman's M.O., the Riddler's origin episode "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" features the Riddler pulling an epic one... sort of. He seeks revenge on his former employer Mockridge, who had contemptuously fired him when he asked for a share in the profits of a game he'd created. Batman and Robin manage to save Mockridge, but the Riddler gets away and implies he will eventually return to finish the job. The episode ends with a terrified Mockridge in his mansion, locking every door and window in the place, checking every shadow, and getting into bed with a loaded shotgun at his side while Bruce muses on the situation:Bruce: Mockridge may have his money, but he won't be sleeping well. "How much is a good night's sleep worth?" Now THERE'S a riddle for you.
- In the episode "Joker's Millions", Joker inherits a fortune and uses it to buy his freedom, then spends a montage living it up as a rich man. When asked by Penguin what his scheme is, Joker remarks that he has none — the knowledge that the Bat-family can't touch him and that it's upsetting Batman is good enough.
- In the episode "Read My Lips", Batman, stuck in a Death Trap, says that he found Scarface because the Ventriloquist tipped him off. Enraged, Scarface orders his mooks to kill the Ventriloquist. Since Scarface is actually a dummy operated by the Ventriloquist, they hesitate to carry out the order. Scarface then loses it and accuses the whole gang of disloyalty, giving Batman an opening to escape and defeat the villains.
- Despite this being 2/3 of Batman's M.O., the Riddler's origin episode "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" features the Riddler pulling an epic one... sort of. He seeks revenge on his former employer Mockridge, who had contemptuously fired him when he asked for a share in the profits of a game he'd created. Batman and Robin manage to save Mockridge, but the Riddler gets away and implies he will eventually return to finish the job. The episode ends with a terrified Mockridge in his mansion, locking every door and window in the place, checking every shadow, and getting into bed with a loaded shotgun at his side while Bruce muses on the situation:
- In Batman Beyond, Terry has to resort to this in two stories to Paxton Powers and Deanna Clay respectively when they screwed over their parents, profited from it and Batman can't bring them to justice. Namely, he visits them and suggests most heavily to each that their supervillain parents would possibly come after them for revenge and may strike at any time. While Paxton isn't fazed, considering he could afford increasing his security detail, Deanna is unsettled.
- In Family Guy, this happens between Stewie and Brian following the "Where's my money?" gag. Stewie lets Brian have a free shot at him, but he won't know when, and Stewie goes mad with anticipation. Subverted in the last second of the episode, where Brian kicks Stewie in front of a bus.
- In the "Rooster Revenge" episode of Garfield and Friends, Roy has played practical jokes on nearly everyone else at the farm, and most of them have tried to get back at him - except Orson, who tells Roy flatly that he isn't going to play a trick on him. Roy doesn't believe him, and believes everything he says from that point forwards is a lie - which leads to him trying to cross a bridge with loose boards and falling into the river, throwing a "Rooster Ranger" (who was actually a disguised Lanolin exploiting Roy's paranoia), into a mud waller, which leads to said Ranger threatening to have him literally Reassigned to Antarctica, and ruining a perfectly good ice cream cone. In a zig-zag, Orson apparently wasn't planning to do anything to him, and genuinely tried to be nice to him - but at the same time, he wasn't complaining about getting to see Roy making a fool of himself.
- In Justice League Unlimited, Superman's suspicions about Lex Luthor and his growing public approval rating left him open for Luthor to trap him with this. Luthor had a self-sustaining city built for the homeless, and Superman detected a device with a timer underground. Ignoring Captain Marvel's pleas to resolve the issue peacefully, he charged straight down to destroy it. As it turned out, the device was a generator, which, though powered by kryptonite, was legit. Superman had levelled the city by this point, however, and had publicly fought Captain Marvel over the incident. This left his own reputation in tatters, and resulted in Captain Marvel resigning from the Justice League in disillusionment. Had Supes left well enough alone, all Luthor would have gained was the extra PR from his charity. In fact, Luthor only expected Superman to destroy the generator; he never expected Supes and Captain Marvel to get into a televised slap-fight that destroyed the city. Luthor was then able to publicly "be the bigger man" by paying for the damages himself and refusing reimbursement by the League.
- Another more minor example occurs between Hawkgirl and Vixen, both rivals for Green Lantern John Stewart's affections (though Vixen was his girlfriend at the time, while Hawkgirl was his ex). Hawkgirl laments the fact that she cannot resolve this rivalry as she could have done back home on planet Thanagar, like by, for instance, poisoning Vixen's water. A little later on, Hawkgirl throws Vixen a bottle of water as the latter leaves the room, who, recalling what the former had said, warily bins the bottle.
- Twilight Sparkle accidentally does this to herself in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "It's About Time": At the start of the episode, she's visited by her future self, who appears to be wounded and tries to warn her of an impending disaster, but the time travel spell ends before she can say what the disaster is. Twilight Sparkle spends most of the episode trying to prevent the disaster from happening, but she gets the same injuries as future Twilight, proving she didn't change the future. At the end, it is revealed that there was nothing to worry about, so Twilight sneaks into Canterlot castle to steal a time travel spell and tell her past self to not worry, but she is interrupted before she can, creating a Stable Time Loop.
- Candace of Phineas and Ferb pulls this on herself in "The Best Lazy Day Ever", when her brothers decide to spend the day relaxing in the sunshine. Without one of their insanely ambitious schemes to expose to their mother she doesn't know what to do, working herself up to encouraging them to take on a project and finally doing it herself. Phineas and Ferb remain idle under their tree the whole time.
- A variant in The Spectacular Spider-Man: Eddie Brock returns to town without telling anyone, and messes with Peter's head by following him around and letting Peter get occasional glimpses of him, eventually even making a suit that makes him look like Venom at a distance. The purpose is to get Peter to check on where he left the Venom symbiote, leading Eddie to it in the process.
