"Success Through Cheating" Accusation - TV Tropes (2024)

Applejack: You've been cheating this entire time with those Chaos Thingamaf[beep]kers!
Knuckles: Oh, of course the person losing accuses the person winning of cheating.

• Naruto: During the Land of Tea arc, the Wagarashi Clan attempts to accuse Idate and Naruto of breaking one of the rules of the race after they reach the finish line. The Feudal Lord of the titular land shoots the accusation down by revealing that said rule was forged due to the Wagarashi Clan bribing his minister which results in the former being disbanded and the latter being booted out of office and sentenced to become a monk.
• Pokémon: The Series: In The Flame Pokemon-athon, Dario accuses Ash and Rapidash of cheating after he and his Dodrio narrowly lose to them, even though he conspired with Team Rocket to cheat in order to eliminate all the other racers.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: After Bandit Keith is beaten by Joey, he tries to argue that Joey should be disqualified on the grounds that the entry card he used wasn't his; unfortunately for Keith, his outburst exposes his own cheating, as Joey never said that he was given a different card, and the only way Keith could know that information is if he stole it.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: After Shinji loses to Yuya in the quarter-finals of the Friendship Cup, and sees Roget approach Yuya to congratulate him on his victory, he begins to act like a Sore Loser, accusing Yuya of being in league with the Tops and the duel of being rigged so that Yuya would win, only for Roget to then immediately debunk Shinji's accusations as nothing more than Insane Troll Logic, pointing out that if the duel was rigged like Shinji claims, then that would have to mean that Shinji lost the duel on purpose.

• In Avengers: The Initiative, Michael "MVP" Van Patton's athletic career fell apart when a rival school discovered that he was the grandson of Dr. Erskine, the man who created the super-soldier serum that gave Captain America his powers. The rival school argued that Michael's superior athletic performance must have been the result of his grandfather's research (which is only technically true; his parents used Erskine's earlier research to develop a fitness and dietary regime that would improve Michael's abilities, but he still had to actually put in the work to take advantage of them.)
• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #185-189: This is revealed to have happened to the Riddler in his childhood. His father, jealous of his son's academic success, accused him of cheating and beat him for it. The terrible treatment also serves as Riddler's Freudian Excuse: he has to leave clues to his crimes because he's unable to lie, and he conceals those clues in puzzles to prevent himself from giving too much away.

• Alicorn: In the backstory, several so-called experts accused Rainbow Dash of having cheated by having a unicorn help her perform the Sonic Rainboom despite her insistence that she did it on her own. Princess Celestia, Rainbow's estranged mother, put a stop to the accusation but the damage had already been done to Rainbow's self-image. Admittedly, the experts do turn out to have a point that there was some non-pegasus magic going on, since Rainbow Dash, unbeknownst even to herself, is an alicorn.
• In The Hero's Brother, Naruto's incompetent, but more popular brother Jin claims that the reason why Naruto always beats him in Taijutsu spars despite being the dead-last in class is because he cheats; ironically, Jin's better grades are a result of their father Minato switching his grades with Naruto's.
• King Explosion Murder The Shield Hero: Malty is twice guilty of this:
  • First in Chapter 5, she accuses Katsuki Bakugo of cheating when he used his explosion powers in the middle of his duel with Motoyasu. However, it was countered that she had used her fire magic to cheat herself in the middle of the duel to ensure Bakugo lost and she enslaved Neia whom she lied about being a thief. Even worse, her cheating was recorded via multiple crystal balls and, despite Aultcray's efforts, this scandal made it across the kingdom and everyone who watched the duel made ugly faces at her actions.
  • Then early in Chapter 6, Malty tries to accuse Neia of cheating against her overlordship of the town of Lute through Bakugo's aid, but her mother's Shadows catch on to her and explain that it was Malty who was buffed from outside the ring. The elder of the town later returns in Chapter 11 as one of the people angry at Malty for lying, himself bringing up how she cheated in her duel with Neia.
• Peeking Through the Fourth Wall: In Episode 31, Lisa mentions that an unstated sister (implied, however, to be Lily since the other sisters were complaining about their roommates) at chess and mentions, "She cheats! I swear she cheats!".
• : A downplayed example in which the accusation is not technically cheating, just unsportsmanslike. When Luz wins her first game of Grudgby by catching the Rusty Smidge, the opposing team tells her it means nothing since the smidge is a poor way to win. Luz and her teammates aren't bothered, since they were winning anyway and Luz only went after the smidge because the opponents did it first.

• Follow That Camel opens with a cricket match where Captain Humphrey Bagshaw trips himself to make it look as though his rival, Bo West, cheated to win. Humphrey's plan succeeds, and Bo is disgraced, meaning that he won't get in the way of Humphrey's attempts to court the lovely Lady Jane Ponsonby.
• Patch Adams: Patch's roommate Mitch accuses him of cheating when the former does better than him in exams despite his silly and irreverent approach to schoolwork.
• In Stand and Deliver, the ETS investigators don't believe that Escalante's students could have passed the AP calculus test without cheating since they all got the wrong answer on a certain practice question. They prove the ETS investigators wrong by retaking and re-passing the test.
• Star Wars:
  • A deleted scene in The Phantom Menace depicts a young Greedo accusing Anakin of cheating after he wins the Boonta Eve Podrace, angering the boy enough to start a fight.
  • Played for Laughs in The Rise of Skywalker when Poe and Finn wonder aloud if Chewie cheats at dejarik, pissing the Wookiee off enough that they back down. Once Chewie is out of earshot, however, they agree that he cheats.

• Adrian Mole: In Secret Diary, Adrian wins when he and Nigel play table football at the youth club. Nigel complains that he only lost because his goalkeeper's legs were stuck on with sellotape, but Adrian insists he won because of his superior skill.
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: When Harry's name unexpectedly comes out of the Goblet of Fire, putting him forward to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, many people believe that Harry cheated and put his own name in, in spite of the age restriction which would have prevented this. To Harry's dismay, his best friend Ron is one of those who believes he did this. Ron later comes around after the first task, while Harry's entry is later revealed to be thanks to an undercover Death Eater managing to hoodwink the Goblet into thinking there were four schools competing and entered Harry under that fourth school's name.
• Matilda: Mr. Wormwood loves to insist to his daughter that she's stupid, and accuses her of this when he tests her and finds that he underestimated her.

  Harry Wormwood: You little cheat. You saw the paper!
  Matilda: (deadpan) From all the way over here?

• Star Wars Legends:
  • The Han Solo Trilogy: One of Han's sabacc partners becomes upset by his string of wins, and accuses him of using fake cards. He then has the misfortune to run into her again at a serious sabacc tournament, where she immediately attacks him while shouting out for security to arrest him; fortunately, when the guards do arrive, they find him to be clean and restrain her instead.
  • X-Wing Series: In Wraith Squadron, Falynn Sandskimmer challenges Wedge Antilles to a race in antigravity ore haulers to settle a dispute during training. Wedge wins by ramp-jumping his hauler onto hers and bouncing off, taking the lead. Falynn calls this cheating, and Wedge laughs and tells her, in essence, that for combat pilots, There Are No Rules.

    Wedge: Falynn, consider this. When an Imperial laser cuts through your canopy and hits you, the energy will superheat the water in your tissues. They will literally explode. If there's enough of your X-Wing left to retrieve, they'll have to hose down the inside. When that happens, will you complain that the TIE fighter pilot cheated?
    Falynn: No, sir.
    Wedge: What will you say?
    Falynn: I won't say anything. I'll be dead.
    Wedge: So to keep one of these bad boys from cheating until you're dead, what are you going to do?
    Falynn: I guess I'll have to learn to cheat, sir.

• The Rising of the Shield Hero: After Naofumi and Filo win the race against Motoyasu for Lute Village, Myne tries to accuse him of cheating for hiding Filo's bigger form. This is despite Naofumi evidently not being aware that Filo could transform and she only did so after the race, at which point, the accusation falls flat. Soon after, the Shadows confirm Myne's own cheating by having knights use pitfalls and debuffs to make Naofumi lose while helping Motoyasu win. Myne tries to pin the use of illegal magic on Naofumi as well, but the Shadows refute that Naofumi and Raphtalia use different from what the knights used during the race, making it clear that the Spear Hero's party cheated.
• Villainess Level 99: On their first day of school, students of the Royal Academy are required to have their Character Level evaluated by a crystal ball. A large proportion of the student body then accuses Yumiella of cheating when she's revealed to be Level 99, which is the first time anyone ever achieved in recorded history. Her first few days at school are thus spent demonstrating she wasn't cheating by, up to, and including being summoned to the King and being trialed by the Leader of the Royal Guards, who up to that point is the highest-level person alive, at Level 60. It's the King's obvious attempt to appease her that the rest of Valschein shuts up.

• House of Anubis: Mick and Mara do a sports quiz in front of their whole class, with the stakes being that if Mara wins, she gets to become his coach. Mick arrogantly assumes that the nerd will fail. Instead, she blows him out of the water. He furiously accuses her of cheating before storming off. Patricia then confronts him, calling him out for his attitude and informing him that Mara's parents are both professional athletes, meaning she's a legit sports expert.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In one episode, a man plays a game of strategy against Riker and Data and wins to both of them. The others wonder if he is cheating since Data is an android and thus very hard to beat at games of strategy, but he was not.

• In the Batman: Arkham Series, the Riddler will often accuse Batman of cheating when solving his various riddles, since he can't fathom the idea of Batman being smart enough to work out his challenges. In a moment of Leaning on the Fourth Wall, Riddler will even accuse Batman of looking up the answers on the Internet—which, of course, is something frustrated players might do if they can't figure out the puzzles. An interview tape with Dr. Young reveals that Riddler himself fell victim to this trope at the hands of his own abusive father when he was younger, though in the same tape Riddler admits his father was right.
• Zigzagged in Golden Sun: In the first game, you participate in an Inevitable Tournament that includes an obstacle course. You can choose to have your teammates use their Psychic Powers to neutralize obstacles (create a shortcut through a maze, stop a conveyor belt, create a vine ladder, etc.), and there's nothing stopping you from using those same powers to heal yourself or attack the enemy. In a linked game, the defeated gladiators attempt to jump the party and accuse them of cheating, which isn't exactly unreasonable, despite the tournament's organizer saying it wasn't cheating (although he also used his position to allow the player character entry without passing the public trials as he really wanted to see those powers for himself).
• King of the Bridge: Even when you are allowed to cheat, doing so causes the troll to say that you won only because you cheated. This causes the player to become the new troll, and remain on the bridge. If the player didn't cheat, the troll will instead complain about how you never cheated despite receiving all chances to do so.
• Return to Zork: Morphius does this at the end of the game as part of a Sore Loser Villainous Breakdown if you beat him at the board game Survivor:

  Morphius: "You cheated! BLAST! I... never lose! I NEVER lose! I... DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Luigi's Mansion: Even if Luigi finds Henry and Orville using neither his Poltergust 3000 nor the Game Boy Horror (i.e., the proper way), the duo will still claim that Luigi's victory was achieved via cheating. Cue Boss Battle.
  • In the spin-offs, Waluigi does this so often it's practically his catchphrase.

    Waluigi: Everybody cheating but Waluigi!

• Warframe:
  • In the quest "The Glast Gambit", the Tenno sneakily disable the mechanism that lets Nef Anyo cheat at his own game of The Index by killing the opponents the moment they attempt to score. When the Tenno return for a now fair rematch, Nef has the gall to accuse them of cheating.
  • During Operation: Rathuum, the Tenno fight in Kela De Thaym's Rathuum arena as champions for a group of Grineer defectors. Once the Tenno win, Kela accuses them of cheating, declares a "mistrial" and announces that she'll execute the defectors anyway. This prompts the Tenno to assassinate Kela. She keeps calling the Tenno cheaters during the assassination mission.

    Kela De Thaym: Wake up you gutsacks! The Tenno cheaters have decided to disrespect the rules of Rathuum, and come after me directly.

• Sparktales: Rejected at Reunion: High School Grad's Last Laugh The Unlikely Comeback! Back in high school, Beryl accused Noah, the top student in the class, of having cheated because Noah was poor and had to work a part-time job. Lisa defends Noah and claims that Beryl should study more instead of putting down others.
• Turnabout Jackpot: It’s revealed that Rex House became leader of The Deck and owner of the Royal Flush Casino by framing the owner for gambling fraud using a device to hack the electronic poker table in their favor, and then bribing their attorney in the resulting trial to botch the defense to ensure their conviction.

• Arthur: In "Arthur and the True Francine", Mr. Marco accuses Francine of copying off of Muffy's math test, when it was really Muffy who copied off of Francine's. Muffy lies to Mr. Marco that she would never cheat off of anybody, which results in Mr. Marco giving Francine a week's worth of detention and rendering her unable to participate in a softball game against Mighty Mountain.
• Bob's Burgers: At the beginning of the episode "Cheaty Cheaty Bang Bang", after completing a test, Tina glances at Susmita's desk to see if she also got the same answer on one of the questions but looks away after realizing what she's doing is bad. Chelsea, who sits behind Susmita, assumes Tina is cheating, and with Mr. Frond deploying one of his therapy dolls "Accountability Billy" to encourage tattling, the idea of Chelsea reporting this supposed cheat weighed heavily on Tina's mind to the point she couldn't enjoy the snow day the next day. Tina admits that if Susmita had a different answer, she might have changed her own. At the end of the episode, Tina's worries are alleviated when Chelsea says she's not a tattletale.
• Doug: In "Doug's Bum Rap" Doug is accused of cheating on a test because he had the same answers as Chalky Studebaker, his class's Ace. However, unless one of them confesses, they both have to retake the test. Doug confronts Chalky, who confesses to him because he's trying so hard to be like his brother in having trophies he didn't have time to study. Ultimately, Chalky realizes that what he did was wrong and agrees to confess and retake the test, all the while his football team's coach is begging his teacher to let him play.
• Strawberry Shortcake: During the 1980s cartoon's third episode, Strawberry Shortcake is accused of cheating when the Peculiar Purple Pieman steals her phonograph to give the illusion that his and Sour Grapes' pets would appear to sing.
• X-Men: Evolution:
  • In "Mainstream," Jean Grey, who plays for the school's soccer team, is accused of having used her powers to win. In addition, Bayville High has its sports trophies taken away because people accused the mutant players of having used their powers to cheat.
  • In a later episode, Spike faces a similar accusation in a skateboard tournament despite his powers having nothing to do with his athletic abilities.