10 TV Shows That Blatantly Trolled Viewers

[@djmattblack]

Inside No 9 also did an episode which was a hommage to that Ghostwatch episode in which they tried to make it look like a special live action episode but then turned it on its head with a supposed real life ghost story

[@HighHeelKnight]

It wasn't a TV show, but The War Of The Worlds original radio broadcast is among the most (in)famous entertainment troll jobs in history.

[@jmp_fr]

it's still legitimately quite scary as well, even nearly 100 years later

[@pegasusactua2985]

Theres no actual evidence though that it caused any riots or mass panic like the urban legend says though. For starters barely anyone heard it (roughly just 2 percent of the population in fact) and there was no reports of any deaths or injuries related to it, reports found most cities were completely calm and at most some local police stations got calls where people merely asked the local authorities if anything was going on.

[@readhistory2023]

It's clear if you're listening to a radio play and not the news if you heard the entire broadcast. You'd only think it was real if you came in the middle and didn't listen until the end.

[@jmp_fr]

@@readhistory2023 yeah act 2 of the play is way more like a standard drama but the first part is excellent.

[@privatelyprivate3285]

5:03 _“Everyone lost their shit over Brian being killed off, but you didn’t notice he’s not even IN this week’s episode, DID YOU?!”_ suddenly scrolling across the screen after they brought him back was even BETTER audience trolling 🤣

[@eak125]

The Venture Bros dropped an episode called "Escape to the House of Mummies Pt 2" into the middle of season 2. It even starts with a clip show of what happened in the previous episode. Only problem, there never was a part 1. If you were new to the show, you'd think you missed an episode or that the DVD player skipped... It truly a stroke of genius.

[@fitzofpassion]

Not being trolled in the show, instead, in real life: X Files made me think I was crazy for years and years by pretending that “Home” never happened. Because I was a child when the episode aired (and traumatized me) I truely did think that maybe I made it up in my mind for a long while.

[@DoubleDguitar]

Newhart’s final episode. 80s version. Best troll ever.

[@johndoe-yw7eb]

You're British and not old, so I'll forgive you for not knowing the most infamous TV troll job of all time: Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone's vault.

[@Dopecheetah]

I remember this shit yo. My mom and I watched it. She kept saying “ain’t nothing in that vault, Geraldo”. And she was right yo😂😂😂 he was very disappointed

[@renfieldgod]

The 90s Spiderman cartoon "we're going to find Mary Jane Watson " then nothing shows over

[@drakkar33]

At least it brought the Stan Lee cameos

[@mikeburkhart8336]

Because they were planning to return to the series later and finish the story arc. But the follow up show got scrapped.

[@user-lb9xw4xf2q]

That never bothered me because I just thought another season was upcoming. But enough time passed, eventually I forgot, so wasn’t bothered.

[@GNCD2099]

They somehow forgot to include Animal Planet's mermaid documentary.

[@paultapner2769]

Frasier: 'ask me no questions'. Penultimate episode of season four. Frasier calls Maris's house and arranges to meet someone. In the next scene he is in cafe nervosa. Then a woman comes in wearing a headscarf and dark glasses. He gets up. You assume it's actually Maris and we've finally seen her. But no. He walks right past the woman and greets Marta, who walks in. The moment of thinking we'd seen Maris though. Amazing first time round. Married with Children 'Go for the old.' Al is in a race with a few old people. It's down to him and one old guy as to who will win it. For a second you think Al will let the old guy win. But no. Al cheats and wins as a result. Then you see them on the podium. Al delighted at the top. The old man distraught on the second spot. A caption and narration then says 'bet you thought Al was going to let the old guy win, huh? Well you obviously haven't been watching the show for the last seven years.' Al then looks smugly right at the camera and says 'it's only cheating if you get caught.'.

[@nickrykert2572]

LOST: the Writers their not in Purgatory. Series Finale Their in Purgatory!😂

[@alexp601]

They were in purgatory for the final season, not for the entire series. The ending was them all meeting up again in the afterlife before all going to heaven together. It didn't negate anything that happened before.

[@Erlisch1337]

tell us you didnt watch the show without telling us you didnt watch the show

[@alexp601]

@@Erlisch1337 Exactly. But then, even people who watched every ep still think of the ending wrong, or remember it wrong. Everyone is just quick to say/think ‘oh they really were dead the whole time? What a load of rubbish!’ even though that clearly isn’t what the final episode said.

[@nickrykert2572]

@@Erlisch1337 it was all in the Dogs mind was another theory.

[@jasonvaughn4886]

What about Dallas "it was all a dream" season 9 season premier, or Dynasty's "Moldavian massacre", where everyone (almost) survived with a few scratches? They didn't make the cut ?

[@Dopecheetah]

Yo Dynasty ey🤔. I remember the Moldavian massacre. Wow. I haven’t thought about Dynasty in forever. This is delightful.

[@jasonvaughn4886]

@@Dopecheetah Hard to believe it's been almost 40 years when it aired.

[@craigh5236]

No one thought Jon Snow was going to stay dead. We already had a book that showed his resurrection

[@Sunprism]

I know i'm on the wrong side, lol, but I loved the Ralph Bohner twist in Wandavision. Masterfully playing with expectations there. Heh, Bohner

[@yoshifrazzled7628]

It was a great twist cause like it was so stupid and everyone had theories for how they would explain it in universe so it was great in my eyes

[@user-lb9xw4xf2q]

Not a TV show, but Rogue One trailer was full of trolling. Entire sequences weren’t in the movie, and the back shot of some figure in a black cloak, which - only one character of note wears that - so we were expecting Palpatine, but it is just some random old guy, who is never seen again.

[@ClockFink]

I was ok with He-Man dying in episode 1; I was less ok with his death being laughably preventable… everyone just stood there talking rather than trying anything to stop Skeletor for like nearly a minute.

[@SomewhatSlightlyBored]

considering how rupert friend's performance of the grand inquisitor went, i think we were better off with reva. they should've just kept jason isaacs

[@nickolas18769]

Apparently Jason Isaacs didn't want to perform as GI in live-action. So the show would've probably just been better off letting Rupert Friend play a new Inquisitor.

[@Sunprism]

X-Files was so full of moments where Fox and Dana hung a lampshade on the fact that everyone wanted them to be connected romantically. They'd always end up kissing in dream sequences or during body swaps and what not.

[@THE_CDN]

Bait and switch advertising isn't "trolling"; it's just lying. Not only that, it burns a lot of bridges with the fans.

[@NattGray-l8b]

Brian from Family Guy was even more stupid than Jon Snow’s death

[@DrNothing23]

"3x3"... That's #9. You missed that?

[@dkSilo]

I mean, War of the Worlds is at least possible, as aliens likely exists, but how do sooo many believe in ghosts that it's a problem? ... uff.

[@Giambijuice]

I thought St. Elswhere was going to be number one. Crazy that it isn't on the list at all

[@mikeburkhart8336]

Like the final episode of Newhart? It faked out both viewers and TV Guide.

[@seaberry11]

The He-Man thing is ridiculous. It’s a freaking story, and the story has gotten better with each season. People really were just mad because women had a story in their big muscle man fantasy. I always find it weird how men get so mad about not being able to see muscular men, over seeing women on screen.

[@pegasusactua2985]

I couldn't care less about who is the frontrunner of the show but the least the marketing can do is not blatantly lie to your audience. They tuned in expecting He-man and Skeletor and instead got a middle finger. Thats just insulting your audience however you slice it. If its a spinoff with different characters and He-man only occasionally being on screen then just say that up front.

[@seaberry11]

@@pegasusactua2985 that’s not what happened though lol. They can’t give away the plot in trailers. I swear the internet has made people a bit slow. He-Man was and still is the star of the show…there’s other stars also. They took the first season to build the world and characters of Eternia. Teela’s story took her on a journey through most of Eternia, it built up a lot of main characters besides He-Man. Then by the end the focus was back on He-Man. It’s called a story arc. That’s why the seasons have different titles. If you didn’t care as you say, you would understand that. You probably didn’t even watch, or you hate watched so you can’t or won’t understand story building. The show is He-Man AND The Masters of The Universe. He’s not the only star.

[@GeraintHughes-pp1cy]

ghostwatch was great, it worked so well it haunted a lot of people 1 even killed himself

[@camaronshoultz6137]

I don’t remember Obi Wan kenobi doing any of that with the trailer

[@reaverman]

Think Whatculture are gaslighting fans into thinking some of those episodes were writers trolling fans. A lot of those episodes were not down to trolling, they were down to bad writing and plot contrivance. Marvel and the Stars Episodes being prime examples of inept writers, clues about canon, lore, or even the genre!

[@sophiathekitty]

I loved the masters of thee universe show. The fact that it mainly followed tila and evil Lynn was kinda what made it the most awesome. Def the best he man show I've ever seen.

[@Erlisch1337]

said no one ever

[@robs7798]

ugh no

[@user-lb9xw4xf2q]

It had much better animation than the janky old show, which counts for something.

[@RidireOiche]

The Last of Us on HBO, what trolls, there were a large number of people, I saw them we all saw them. didn't see many infected though.. But castlevania nocturne. It was teased and marketed as a retelling of the rich well of lore found in and around Symphony and Rondo, but it turned into a bizarre hybrid of Bloodlines, Portrait, and Netflix's infamous IP hijacking.

[@jamalvargas6146]

This List Screams Power Rangers Megaforce and for what a Legendary Battle that left alot to be desired maybe the series should've been rebooted with a animated series Instead of the tripe Haim Saban forced on us just look at TMNT 2012

[@marvelsProtege]

Ghost watch I knew it was fake by lol watching the news and asking if this was real wouldn't the news people say something about it?

[@agnia85]

She Hulk trolls the audience by being so bad it hurts

[@Sol-Invictus]

In reality Roseanne was fairly well off. Married with children was closer to reality. Though these days... I can pull off the lifestyle but owning a home... That's decades of planning and no turmoil.

[@bronzergoth7598]

wait why did the 3x3 name cards briefly change to charlie d'amelio

[@Erlisch1337]

I guess that were the contestants guesses

[@bronzergoth7598]

@@Erlisch1337 OH lolll i didnt realize that ep aired in 2023. i thought whatculture was doing their own troll 🤣

[@ProfArmitage218]

The title of the 1980s show was "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". The fact that his name wasn't in the title of Kevin Smith's show could have been a clue.

[@1972LittleC]

And hoe about The Great Donor Show by BNN in the Netherlands?

[@NattGray-l8b]

Jon Snows death was absolutely expected. Everyone knew he was coming back… stop lamenting on this.

[@devinfaucette]

Over a decade? That math ain't mathin, though, it's technically true ... I think after 2009 which would have been a decade and how it is still going. You need to use a different measurement of time.....🤷🏾‍♂️

[@Boone_Faustus]

You lost me at "far less compelling villain"

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content guys 😊😊❤

[@StanHalen1936]

Love your content guys 😊😊❤

[@privatelyprivate3285]

1:50 _”SheHulk draws the audience from beginning to end”_ - um…through a tv-troping, progress-reversing, crap-filled hellscape of utter writing SH!TE shoved down our gagging throats as molten lava ganache???? The only trolling from that show was making us expect a modicum of enjoyability by riding the marketing coat-tails of WandaVision’s unexpected success, bare-a$$ed into gigantic piles of money!

[@Donathon-qx8kq]

Disney trolls all it's fans just by claiming to actually be Disney

[@greghowes1937]

Lost season 3 introduced Paulo and Nikki all the time us viewers were saying who are these people? They weren’t in the previous 2 seasons, the writers even included Sawyer asking what was on our minds who are you? He kept saying, then they killed them off. Let’s not talk about the ending of lost though!

[@kingslim2870]

Making it seem like Obi Wan was worse than She Hulk is crazy

[@robertlie325]

She-Hulk is a good Show, literally the last 10mins of the last episode not working.

[@SAVANTI711]

7:36 Fresh huh.. Bull.

[@Derek-qu8qi]

2:54 she hulk is the worst thing that has ever been on tv. Unofficial killed off marvel.

[@ClockFink]

The greatest trolling of BBC Sherlock was tricking people into thinking it was ever smart or well written.

[@PeachM0de]

She-Hulk went down hill after they introduced Madison.

[@Derek-qu8qi]

1:27 see your saying this was clever trolling from luscas film in hiding the identity of the main characters, when in actual fact it was just the latest in Mary Sue girl boss stories.

[@Lukecash2]

As oppose to Luke Skywalker and Han Solos being Gary Sues. Not only is this argument pathetically out of date, but any hero falls under the definition. The Mary Sue argument is wrong because Mary is supposed to be a fan fiction writer inserting herself in the story.