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The Shill
- 124 statements
- 23 feature instances
- 4 referencing feature instances
| The Shill | type |
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The Shill | |
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| The Shill | comment |
A role in The Con. This is an accomplice who falsely "approves" the proposition in such a way that his "support" encourages The Mark to go for the deal. A good shill gives the impression that they're going to grab all the goodies, so the mark had better move fast with an increased bid. In online contexts, a shill can be a specific form of Sock Puppet. If someone's praising a product (or a person, place, thing, political position, etc.) on a forum a little too loudly, they may be actually be the one who makes it. This sort of shill is sometimes called a plant (originally an espionage term) or an Astroturfer (more recent and deriving from politics, referring to fake grassroots support). This variant often engages in derailing to spread their point of view or attack or discredit people who oppose it. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })There's also a Real Life casino employee called a "shill" — in this case, a professional poker player who uses the casino's money to keep a game going, and to fool gullible tourists into thinking the game is easier to win than it actually is. Casinos being what they are with their money, shills who keep their job for a measurable amount of time are really good at poker. There are also non-poker shills who play other games to encourage people to do so. If no one is at, for example, the roulette wheel, it doesn't look as good as if people are there "winning". In all cases, casino shills use the casino money to bet with and any winnings they get go back to the casino. Another example is shill bidding, the illegal practice of secretly employing a third party to bid up the price of an item you are selling at an auction. This is a scourge on eBay, where you don't need someone else to help and the nature of the internet makes it almost impossible to get caught. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })The word "shill", used more loosely, has applied not-quite-accurately to any public figure who uses their fame and profile to endorse a shady position in the eyes of the speaker. Such as legislators who do what lobbyists tell them to do, lobbyists themselves, or celebrities who endorse products. A lot of accusations of a person being a shill are a result of Opinion Myopia, where the accuser believes no one could possibly honestly hold an opinion that disagrees with that of the speaker, unless they were being paid to. Sometimes, shilling may be done to a Creator's Pet, rather than The Con. Contrast Your Approval Fills Me with Shame and Underling with an F in PR where the shill's efforts actively makes the person they're supporting look bad. |
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Dropped link to AstroTurf: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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| The Shill / int_2275c659 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_2275c659 | comment |
The Patient of the Week on one episode of House is a shill for a three card monte hustler. She's there to "win" and thus show the game isn't rigged, but amnesia related to her illness causes her to forget which card to pick. | |
| The Shill / int_2275c659 | featureApplicability |
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| House | hasFeature |
The Shill / int_2275c659 | |
| The Shill / int_261c8d3f | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_261c8d3f | comment |
The Simpsons: Homer shills for Grampa when selling "Simpson & Son's Revitalising Tonic". It doesn't work, largely because his face is on the bottle. Another episode has one of Snake's con tricks facilitated by a guy who looks and sounds remarkably like Snake himself, who is almost 100% certainly related to Snake in some fashion ("Way to go, bro!"). |
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| The Simpsons | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_2c96ae0e | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_2c96ae0e | comment |
Part of Albert's role as the Roper in Hustle. | |
| The Shill / int_2c96ae0e | featureApplicability |
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| Hustle | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_3683873b | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_3683873b | comment |
One issue of The Muppet Show Comic Book reinvents Veterinarian's Hospital as Veterinarian's Medicine Show. Snake Oil Salesman Dr. Bob gives a spoonful of Medicinal Compound to shill Julius Strangepork ("My old friend ... who I've never seen before in my life!"). Strangepork disappears offstage, and is replaced by Link Hogthrob in the same suit. | |
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| The Shill / int_41600726 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_41600726 | comment |
In the epilogue of Torture Garden, the fifth patron goes berserk and uses the shears of Atropos to "kill" Dr. Diabolo in front of the others, causing them to panic and flee. It is then shown that he is working for Diabolo, and the whole thing was faked. | |
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| Torture Garden | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_41b0198a | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_41b0198a | comment |
Mentioned in the ninth book of The Dresden Files (White Night) concerning a vampire pretending to be a (comparatively) helpless practitioner to murder the others. | |
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| The Dresden Files | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_468bebb0 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_468bebb0 | comment |
The Dictionary of Cant in the Discworld Thieves Guild Diary defines a "Shillaber" as the person who says things like "My word, this is not a con trick at all, in my opinion!" This is actually an earlier form of the word "shill" in Real Life. | |
| The Shill / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
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| Discworld | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_5db85d4 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_5db85d4 | comment |
The director of notoriously bad Limbo of the Lost has been doing this. Then things get kinda confusing. | |
| The Shill / int_5db85d4 | featureApplicability |
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| Limbo of the Lost (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_6fe277bc | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_6fe277bc | comment |
Divinity: Original Sin has one sidequest in Cyseal where a street performer can't seem to get an audience from his rival across the way. It turns out that the rival has paid a Shill to be a Large Ham Announcer singing fake praises of his show to garner an audience. | |
| The Shill / int_6fe277bc | featureApplicability |
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| Divinity: Original Sin (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_7d1c83da | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_7d1c83da | comment |
Better Call Saul reveals that this was one of many cons Jimmy McGill (Saul Goodman) could pull off with Marco before trying to go on the straight and narrow with his legal career. They pull this off with an allegedly rare coin, the seller appears to be pulling a con by raving about how rare and valuable the coin is because he needs the money fast. Marco expresses skepticism, "discovers" on the phone that the coin is real, doesn't quite have enough money on him, and pretends to be angry when the mark purchases the coin. | |
| The Shill / int_7d1c83da | featureApplicability |
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| Better Call Saul | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_8b5820ed | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_8b5820ed | comment |
John plays one of these (however unwillingly) early on in Red Dead Redemption at one point for Dickens, in a bid to sell his "medicinal" tonic. He gives incredibly-neutral responses to any questions that Dickens asks him, and even openly spits out the foul-tasting tonic when made to drink it in front of the crowd. Fortunately for Dickens, John is badass enough to display above-average ability in marksmanship and combat, which was enough to convince the crowd to buy the stories. It does, however, come back to bite them later when Dickens attempts to repeat this in another community, and gets called out for his fraudulence. | |
| The Shill / int_8b5820ed | featureApplicability |
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| Red Dead Redemption (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Shill / int_8b5820ed | |
| The Shill / int_8d817ccb | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_8d817ccb | comment |
In the Lost episode "The Long Con", Cassidy shills for Sawyer. In "Left Behind", Kate plays the shill to help Cassidy avoid arrest. | |
| The Shill / int_8d817ccb | featureApplicability |
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| Lost | hasFeature |
The Shill / int_8d817ccb | |
| The Shill / int_b0fc9724 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_b0fc9724 | comment |
Saturday Night Live did a series of sketches (later repackaged as a Super Bowl ad) starring "MacGruber", a crappy MacGyver knockoff who was too busy singing the praises of his corporate sponsor Pepsi to defuse the assorted time bombs he was presented with. | |
| The Shill / int_b0fc9724 | featureApplicability |
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| Saturday Night Live | hasFeature |
The Shill / int_b0fc9724 | |
| The Shill / int_b712435c | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_b712435c | comment |
On Leverage, Nate often plays The Shill while Sophie plays The Roper. | |
| The Shill / int_b712435c | featureApplicability |
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| Leverage | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_bb797bc0 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_bb797bc0 | comment |
Early in The Journey of Natty Gann, Natty acts as an impromptu shill for a street vendor played by Scatman Crothers; finding him haggling with a woman over the price of a pot he is trying to sell her, Natty pipes up that she'll pay him his asking price for it, putting an end to the woman's efforts to talk him down to a lower amount. | |
| The Shill / int_bb797bc0 | featureApplicability |
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| The Journey of Natty Gann | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_c4282b71 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_c4282b71 | comment |
The Flim Flam Brothers in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic use a shill to sell their "Miracle Curative Tonic" in "Leap of Faith". He's even named "Silver Shill". | |
| The Shill / int_c4282b71 | featureApplicability |
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| The Shill / int_d71882ce | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_d71882ce | comment |
In Pete's Dragon (1977), Snake Oil Salesman Doctor Terminus uses his Master of Disguise assistant to shill his so-called cures twice in a row and turn a hostile audience in his favor. Amazingly, this works like a charm - even though when Terminus entered the town the townsfolk were ready to rip him to shreds over his fraudulent products, by the end of his demonstration they're throwing money at him again. | |
| The Shill / int_d71882ce | featureApplicability |
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| Pete's Dragon (1977) | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_d78241e7 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_d78241e7 | comment |
In the opening to Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, the antiheroes are selling stolen goods in the street. One of them, playing the shill, triggers the audience's enthusiasm by saying "Did you say ten pounds? That's a bargain; I'll take one." | |
| The Shill / int_d78241e7 | featureApplicability |
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| Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_d803ecde | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_d803ecde | comment |
In the Ben 10: Omniverse episode "Have I Got a Deal For You", Professor Blarney T. Hokestar sells his "miracle elixir" by picking his assistant, Solid Plugg, out of the unknowing crowd for a demonstration. | |
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| Ben 10: Omniverse | hasFeature |
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| The Shill / int_da141042 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_da141042 | comment |
In Insecticomics, Pepsi Prime (an actual toy and not a fan customization) is unsurprisingly this, much to the annoyance of the Autobots. They get rid of him by spraying him with Diet Coke. | |
| The Shill / int_da141042 | featureApplicability |
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| The Shill / int_dde91ea5 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_dde91ea5 | comment |
David Manning, a film critic for the Ridgefield Press (a weekly Connecticut newspaper established in 1875) who gave good recommendations for Columbia Pictures films A Knight's Tale, Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, The Animal, and The Patriot beginning around July 2000. When Newsweek reporter John Horn tried to track down Manning, he discovered that the paper had never heard of him — in reality, Manning had been created by Matthew Cramer of Sony's marketing division, a fact which came out around the same time it was revealed that Sony had employees pose as moviegoers in ads for The Patriot. ...And then Sony got taken to court, where they settled for offering $5 refunds to anyone who was unsatisfied with the films Manning "recommended". |
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| The Shill / int_ef076a36 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_ef076a36 | comment |
In an episode of Star Trek: Voyager in which Neelix and Tom are trying to prove they're still "street", they decide to pull the cup-and-pea trick on the Doctor. To get him interested, they let him see Tom successfully finding the pea. | |
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| The Shill / int_f7c1b2d3 | type |
The Shill | |
| The Shill / int_f7c1b2d3 | comment |
Del Boy's market-stall patter in Only Fools and Horses often requires Grandad, Rodney, or Uncle Albert to act as a shill. None of them are any good at it. When Albert took the role, demonstrating an anti-back pain medicine, his cover was catastrophically blown when his "sudden recovery" became a full tap-dance routine. A later case involving Albert, however — with the Peckham Spring — was successful enough to allow the scam to eventually fool literally the entire country. | |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Flog | seeAlso |
The Shill | |
| Ptitle2tyh4gpfa5lj | seeAlso |
The Shill | |
| TheDPad | seeAlso |
The Shill | |
| The Real Hustle / int_1c4a7828 | type |
The Shill |
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