Zany Scheme Chicken

6 Following

• Love Roma: Yoko's specialty is taking minor things that Hoshino or Negi mention in passing and spinning them out into massively convoluted schemes that span the whole chapter.
• Mao-chan: The new Prime Minister starts a Monster Protection Racket to promote his "Three Aces" team... whereupon the Defense Force leaders launch their own fake alien at the same time to try to get the Defense Corps girls back in the public's good graces. At the same time, Yuriko launches a real alien for the girls to fight... and all of the aliens look like pandas.

• Spy vs. Spy: This trope is the premise.

• A Fish Called Wanda is a film-length comparison of American-style romantic comedy (as represented by Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis) and British-style farce (in the persons of John Cleese and Michael Palin), framed around an armed-robbery plot.
• Oscar (1967): Christian Martin sets up an elaborate plan to force Bertrand Barnier to give him a pay raise, along with Jacqueline's hand in marriage. Barnier responds with a plan to make Martin give him his jewelry, along with marrying Colette. Martin counters with one designed to force Barnier to give back the jewelry.

• The Dick Van Dyke Show: In "A Surprise Surprise Is a Surprise", Laura schemes a surprise party for Rob. He snoops on her and finds out about it, but counter-schemes by pretending not to. That evening, guest after guest calls and says they won't make it. Late that evening, after the last phone call, Laura breaks down crying and apologizes for ruining his birthday. Rob consoles her by saying he knew about the party all along. Laura then jokes that "next year" he'll be surprised for real because she'll have the party—right now! Yelling "Surprise!", all the guests come into the living room wearing pajamas.
• Friends:
  • "The One With The Boobies": Chandler accidentally sees Rachel topless when she gets out of the shower without realising he's in the apartment. The gang agree that to make things fair Chandler should let Rachel see his "pee-pee". He refuses, so Rachel attempts to sneak up on him in the shower but finds Joey instead. Joey, following the established rules, attempts to peek on Rachel in the shower but sees Monica by accident. The situation comes to a screeching halt during the end credits when Monica attempts to catch Joey, but ends up seeing Joey's father (who's staying with the boys) naked.
  • "The One Where Everyone Finds Out": Phoebe finds out Monica and Chandler are seeing each other, but they don't know she knows. Then they find out, but she doesn't know they know she knows. Then she finds out, but they don't know she knows they know she knows...
• Get Smart: Max and 99 (who are by then married) are protecting a prince who looks exactly like Max. To test her loyalty, Max pretends to be the prince and flirts with her. 99 is first appalled, but then realizes the ruse and starts to flirt back. Max then realizes that 99 knows, so he leaves and comes back as himself, to make her think that she really was flirting with the prince after all. Of course, while they're busy playing tricks on each other, the real prince is kidnapped.
• Hey Dude!: Ted's fellow staffers pull a prank on him, making him think he has a rare disease causing him to shrink—they swap his clothes out with larger clothes, put lifts on their shoes so they look taller, alter the furniture, etc. Ted then hires a doctor to examine him and gives him his entire life savings to pay the doctor to develop a cure. Realizing the prank has gone too far, the other staffers tell him the truth. Psyche! Ted knew all along it was a prank, and the 'doctor' Ted just talked to was Mr. Ernst in disguise. (Mr. Ernst also loaned Ted the money to 'pay' him.) ... Ted and the rest then visit Mr. Ernst, who is wearing a different doctor's outfit and says he was just about to visit Ted. Everyone panics and runs out, trying to find the 'real' doctor who just stole Mr. Ernst's money... only for Mr. Ernst then to talk with his son Buddy about how gullible they all are and hopefully this will teach them a lesson about pranks. Mr. Ernst then asks Buddy for his money back, and Buddy says: "Wait, I'm confused, I thought I was supposed to give the money to the real doctor." Mr. Ernst then leaves to follow everyone else in chasing down who took his money, only for Buddy to put the money back in the safe and remark: "They certainly are gullible."
• Murphy Brown:
  • Murphy makes Frank think he's found Deep Throat. Frank catches on and makes Murphy think he's given up an important interview to do the Deep Throat story. Miles makes Murphy and Frank think their plots have gotten him fired. And so on...
  • Murphy's Meaty Boy statue is swiped. It goes back & forth until it's revealed to now be in the Oval Office.
• New Girl: In "The Landlord", Nick and Jess almost end up doing it...with their landlord because neither of them want to back down. Jess folds.
• Night Court: Harry and a rival judge have a battle of pranks and practical jokes, culminating in Harry trapping his rival in a giant inflatable beach ball (which was somehow hidden in a booby-trapped set of Harry's robes).
• Pataclaun: Queca tried to seduce Tony to prove Wendy that men were easy to make fall in love, Gonzalete got wind of it and helped Tony get even, with it turning into a race to see which team called it quits first.

By Creator:

• William Shakespeare: Dates back to at least The Bard:
  • Much Ado About Nothing: This goes back and forth at least three times.
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor: The title housewives, incensed at Falstaff's propositioning them, pretend to play along with his schemes and proceed to dupe and humiliate him again and again until they get half the community into the fun, whereupon he is publicly shamed.