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"Shaggy Dog" Story
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A "Shaggy Dog" Story is a plot with a high level of build-up and complicating action, only to be resolved with an anti-climax or ironic reversal, usually one that makes the entire story meaningless. The term comes from a type of joke (called "gildersome" in The Meaning of Liff) that worked the same way—a basic premise, a long amount of buildup, and a deliberately underwhelming punchline. The best and most famous of these jokes is the Cheerio joke, which is a potentially hours-long story ending in the main character going to get some punch, and finding that "There is no punchline." A classic example of this is a man living in the US who finds a shaggy dog similar to one in a "Lost Dog" poster from a rich family in England, and flies over there, trying to return it to them for the reward money — when he finally makes it there, he's told by whoever answers the door that the dog "wasn't that shaggy" before the door's slammed in his face. The End. For television, these stories tend to be found in two varieties: serious and comedic. Serious shaggy dog stories generally put the protagonist on a quest or goal, only to undermine the purpose at the last minute. For instance, a cop spends all episode trying to convict a criminal, only to watch the perp be hit by a car and die before he's brought to justice; or a doctor searches all episode for the cure to a mysterious illness, which seems to miraculously cure itself. Or the characters spend all their time on a quest, only for it to come about that someone Accidentally Broke the MacGuffin, which means No MacGuffin, No Winner. This plot highlights the futility of characters' jobs, or the cruel ironies of life. When the ending is not just absurd, but actively tragic, the result is Shoot the Shaggy Dog. Comedic shaggy dog stories are often parodies, undercutting typical plot structures by offering a ridiculous coincidence or unforeseen twist, or even just making the entire episode irrelevant. Comedic shaggy dog stories can be frustrating in their randomness, but often succeed in execution. Super-trope of Apophenia Plot, where the characters interpret a sequence of random events as being connected, and the rest of the plot revolves around this. See also Gainax Ending. Can compare to All Just a Dream and Overly Long Gag, and overlap with Happy Ending Override, Cruel Twist Ending, Shock-and-Switch Ending, and "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot. A reveal that It Was with You All Along may feel like this to the protagonist. For short stories which build up to an unbelievably wretched pun, see Feghoot. Compare with Non-Protagonist Resolver which may or may not involve this trope note if it is important that, specifically, the hero has to resolve the conflict—and not merely that the conflict has to be resolved—a NPR leads to a "Shaggy Dog" Story. Contrast with "Shaggy Frog" Story, where a familiar story is mangled for comedic purposes. It can also lead to a "What Now?" Ending, should the protagonist himself realize that his adventure is all for nothing. This trope is slightly different from All for Nothing, which tends to revolve around specific events in a story rather than the whole story itself, and often averts the status quo in some way. That is not to say the two don't frequently overlap. When this is the result of a writing pitfall, it may be a Writer Cop Out and is likely to become an Audience-Alienating Ending. Super-Trope of Storm in a Teacup when the stakes are way smaller and the whole point is that the efforts weren't necessary. Not to be confused with Disney's The Shaggy Dog nor the web series Shaggy Dog Stories. Also unrelated to "Shaggy God Story", an alternate name for Earth All Along. As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware. |
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DBTropes | |
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Your Head A-Splode | |
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Alex Rasputin; killed two people in v4, and was on the path to redemption. Suddenly, Liz Polanski destroys a camera, and Danya blows his collar. | |
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Commercial Switcheroo | |
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Happens in the Alka Seltzer commercial with the commercial for Mama's Meat Sauce. The actor has one line ("Mama Mia, that's a spicy meatball!"), but repeatedly fails to deliver it to satisfaction. They go through so many takes with the actor eating spicy meatballs, he has to take Alka Seltzer to calm his stomach. As the commercial ends, he finally delivers the line to perfection...only for the oven door to fall open and ruin the shot. | |
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Failure Is the Only Option | |
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In another story, the gang has a baseball game, but Charlie Brown isn't available. He has to push around his sister, Sally (only a toddler at the time and officially making her debut in this storyline), in a stroller. Everyone is upset including Charlie Brown himself. Linus informs him they're at the bottom of the 9th and still have a chance to win. Charlie Brown ends up leaving Sally to finish up the game. Naturally, he strikes out and is chewed out by everyone, and on top of that, his mother is now angry with him for ditching his sister. He tries to complain to Lucy who gave him the hardest time about everything, and how he's in trouble at home, and she just ignores him. In the end, all he can do is apologize to Sally and promise to be there for her when she needs him. | |
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Heroic Sacrifice | |
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This is more or less Simon Wood's entire arc is one of these. Poor guy couldn't even pull a Heroic Sacrifice off right. | |
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Put on a Bus | |
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...and he moves back even later in 2013. They dated for a while, but broke up in 2016 and Quill departed the strip for good this time. | |
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Naked People Are Funny | |
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The Great White Sheet Game: Typically played at co-ed college parties with some amount of alcohol, often on road trips where the participants have multiple hotel rooms. One person who has never played before is chosen as the Player, while all those who have played before take on the roles of "Master" (for the leader of the game) and "Others". The Player sits on a bed, and has a sheet tented over him. The Master then explains that this is a test, and that the Player must follow the instructions that the Master or the Others give, to the letter. The game then proceeds, first with the Master describing a scene: "You are walking through the desert. It is hot, and you are thirsty. You realize you don't need to be wearing as much as you are. Take something off, and pass it to me." Usually, the Player removes something inconsequential—jewelry or shoes. The Others then continue in the same vein—embellishing and otherwise confounding the statement, but always with the admonition to remove something the Player is wearing needlessly. As time goes on, articles of clothing start coming off and getting passed out. The game ends when the Player figures out he's supposed to take off the damn sheet. If he's already naked underneath, well, then the Master and Others won the game. Boy Scouts of America has a version where a number of newer scouts stands before a crowd and all place blindfolds on themselves. They are ordered not to make a sound for the duration of the game and are told to take an article of clothing off. The ones who take the blindfold off are quietly told to remain silent and the game is ended when the boys all have their blindfolds off or there are any boys reduced to their undergarments. |
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Fleeting Demographic Rule | |
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In a bizarre invocation of the Fleeting Demographic Rule, WCW's Halloween Havoc 2000 pay-per-view featured a Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett match, with Jarrett dressed up in Sting face paint. Throughout the match, several fake versions of Sting interfered in the match (reminiscent of 1990's Halloween Havoc, when Sid Vicious fought Sting and was later attacked by a fake), and the real Sting easily handled all of them. One would expect there to be a big payoff from all the fake Sting madness, but the match ended with Jarrett whacking the real Sting with his guitar to win the match. | |
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Scout-Out | |
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Boy Scouts of America has a version where a number of newer scouts stands before a crowd and all place blindfolds on themselves. They are ordered not to make a sound for the duration of the game and are told to take an article of clothing off. The ones who take the blindfold off are quietly told to remain silent and the game is ended when the boys all have their blindfolds off or there are any boys reduced to their undergarments. | |
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Despair Event Horizon | |
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One example was when he was on Conan, and it tells the story of a moth who goes to a pediatrist's office, and laments about how his life. His job is soul-sucking, his life has no purpose, his marriage is joyless and lacking love, his youngest child died, he can't love his other child, and he has contemplated suicide. The Pediatrist asks the moth why he would tell him instead of a psychologist. The moth replies: "Cause the light was on". | |
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Tag Team | |
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In 2014 former Vendetta Pro Wrestling Tag Team champions the Ballard Brothers told an inspiring story about a man named Sunami who spent all year clawing his way towards a title shot against them, persevered through their under handed attacks and mind games, ultimately winning the belts only to have to vacate them because his partner no showed during a defense, making his entire year a big waste of time. They told this story to Sunami himself, who indeed was waiting in vain for his partner, leading him to give up on tag team wrestling and take on an It's All About Me attitude. | |
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"Shaggy Dog" Story |
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