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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''The King of Town''': All right, gentlemen, this is how this is going to go down. I'm gonna write a number on this piece of paper.
'''Strong Bad''': Uh, King, you wrote a ''piece of lasagna'' on this piece of paper.
'''The King of Town''': And I ain't budging!
|''[[Homestar Runner]]'', Strong Bad Email [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail182.html #182]}}
For some reason, perhaps to avoid the show becoming dated by inflation, perhaps because people's definition of "a lot of money" varies, large sums of money tend not to be specified on TV. They are written down on pieces of paper, whispered in people's ears, etc. Commonly involves characters blatantly stating "That's a lot of money!" or making a statement about a large number of zeros though other variations exist.
[[Silent Offer
Compare [[Zillion
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* An episode of ''[[Naruto]]'' where, upon finding Jiraiya's checkbook, the titular character opens it and exclaims "Woah! That's a lot of zeros!" Apparently, writing erotic novels can pay pretty well...
** [[Word of God]] says that Tsunade's gambling debts are around that high.
** Averted after the timeskip, when it is stated that Chiriku has a bounty of 30 million ryo on his head, and it is stated that one ryo is ten yen, and ten ryo is approximately one dollar, and databooks specify the rewards for missions.
* At one point in ''[[D
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
== Film ==
* In the 1954 film ''[[White Christmas]]'', Bob Wallace ([[Bing Crosby]]), gets the estimate on how much the Christmas show is going to cost over the phone. His reaction: "Wow!", which leads to an exchange with Phil Davis ([[Danny Kaye]]):
{{quote|
'''Bob''': Right up there between, uh, "ouch" and "boing".
'''Phil''': Wow! }}
* The stake at the beginning of the 1997 film ''[[The Spanish Prisoner]]'' is not shown to the audience, but is presumably an impressive sum.
* In ''[[The Game (
* Subverted in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies: 1960s [[Big Bad]] Dr. Evil is initially laughed down when he asks the leaders of the governments of the (modern) world for a paltry one ''meeellion'' dollars as ransom for the world. He later asks the government leaders [[Time Travel|in the past]] for one hundred billion dollars; they respond that such an amount doesn't even ''exist''.
* Used at the end of the movie ''[[Small Soldiers]]''. The father of the family nearly killed by dangerous action figures yells at a representative of the company that made them, saying something like "Not even you have enough money to make up for this." She then, silently, prints out a check. He reads it, and then says something like "OK... I guess you do..." The audience never sees just how much the check was for.
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[The
* At the end of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', Scrooge whispers to the two gentlemen from the story's beginning (the ones asking for charitable donations) how much he will give, causing them to react in amazement. Even though we're working with Victorian economics here, this example makes this trope [[Older Than Radio]].
** Those film and theater adaptations that do name a figure give a value that in those days was roughly equal to the salary of a semi-skilled laborer... for three or four years.
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* [[Harry Potter]] comes into quite a bit of gold as the heir to the Potter and {{spoiler|Black}} family fortunes, but just how rich he is isn't specified.
** Also, the wizarding world uses different currency anyway, so being able to attach a number to it wouldn't really mean that much.
* In the Egyptian novel ''[[The Yacoubian Building]]'', the corrupt car importer goes to a Party official to get elected to parliament. The official draws a
* When the eponymous character of [[
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* In ''[[News Radio]]'', Mr James shows Dave the amount he was offered for the radio station, written on a piece of paper, and we don't see it. Dave thinks it's not excessively generous until Mr James points out he has to unfold the paper.
** Played with in another episode, when Mr James is trying to convince Dave and Lisa to get together and he writes down something on a piece of paper in order to sweeten the deal.
{{quote|
'''Mr James''' - I'm willing to say that out loud if that's what it takes. }}
* In ''[[Friends]]'', Chandler cuts short of telling Monica how much money he has in his bank account, writing it down and showing her instead; in context, this is because he doesn't want to say it in front of Rachel and Phoebe, but Monica shows them the figure anyway. It's described as "the budget of Wedding Scenario A", to give the audience a general idea of how much it must be.
* In ''[[Seinfeld]]'', Jerry buys a suede jacket with an unnamed but astronomical price which he refuses to tell to George. It's at least implied that the jacket costs something north of a thousand dollars.
** Another example would be in ''The Cadillac'' episode, where Jerry earns enough money to buy a Cadillac, from a single gig.
* On ''[[Nip
* In ''[[Mad About You]]'', Jamie makes a huge bet on a horse race; we only see Paul's reaction when she shows him the betting slips. The horse wins at very long odds, which presumably means the Buchmans won a small fortune, but this fact [[Snap Back|isn't even brought up]].
* Subversion: On ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', Millionaire Mrs. Lauder offers Drew 00 for his house in a land-grab. He is reeled, then responds that his house is clearly worth more. Mrs. Lauder says that she knew, but her accountants had scientifically calculated that exact amount as the minimum sum that poor people think is "a lot".
* The whole inflation deal is parodied in a ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'' sketch, in which a character inherits a "fortune" of "eighty-five dollars." (Miss Piggy: "What!? I've got more than that on me!")
* A similar device is used in one episode of ''[[The Sarah Silverman Program]]'', in which the titular character is asked by a nurse how many times she has had unprotected sex. Rather than say it out loud, Sarah writes it down on a piece of paper. The nurse seems more confused by the fact that there are two numbers on the piece of paper ("One's for the front") and that they are both identical ("I'm kind of OCD about that") than surprised at the size of the figure, but given the content of the rest of the scene, it can be assumed that the number is very high.
* In ''[[Friday Night Lights (TV series)|Friday Night Lights]]''' first season, the Street family's lawsuit's settlement is for a number written down on a piece of paper, after a whole scene of debating between two opposing, ''also'' never-spoken-aloud amounts.
* A sketch on ''[[The Sketch Show]]'' played with this, which a woman discusses with a repairman his prices using onomatopoeia (whistles for high prices, "eh" for low prices, etc.) At the end of the sketch, the woman asks how much it would be if she helps install it, and he replies, "£50".
* On ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', after a long series of episodes where Buffy is shown needing money, the problem is abruptly solved with some money from Giles. The money is implied to be a large amount, but its value (true to this trope) is never shown.
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* Subverted in [[The Honeymooners]]: a rich old widow who Ralph had befriended dies, and leaves Ralph "my fortune" in her will. Ralph gets excited about the riches coming his way, but it turns out she meant Fortune, her pet parrot.
* [[Gilmore Girls]] sets up its fundamental conflict (independent-minded Lorelai is forced to accept the help of her parents in order to provide for her daughter's elite education):
{{quote|
* A ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'' episode has Joe and Helen meeting with the insurance adjuster after the loss of their house and all its contents in a fire. The meeting goes poorly, to say the least, and ends with the adjuster saying "I'm sorry, but we can't do any better than this", at which point he writes down a figure on a piece of paper and leaves. Joe and Helen look at the paper with trepidation, shrug for a moment, then begin dancing with joy. "We're rich! We're rich!"
* On ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', when Sheldon mentions that Raj's parents are rich, the most detail he goes into is that they're "[[Richie Rich (comics)|Richie Rich]]"-rich, which is apparently "halfway between [[Batman|Bruce Wayne]] and [[
* On ''[[Life]]'', the amount of money included in Charlie Crews's settlement for his wrongful imprisonment is undisclosed by court order.
* In ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Lily asks for the price of a wedding dress [[On a Scale From One To Ten|on a scale of "never" to "never ever"]]. She receives a response of "[[Broke the Rating Scale|never ever ever ever ever times infinity]]".
** This is then subverted later in the episode when she tells her fiance she accidentally destroyed it. It was worth $8000.
* On [[Night Court]], after being informed of a citizenship applicant's net worth, Dan Fielding's stunned comment is: "My Social Security Number isn't that big!"
== Theater ==
* In ''[[
== Video Games ==
* Played with in ''[[
** Fortunately, you do have the option to play the men at poker for the [[Plot Coupon]], and the buy-in is "not a lot of money", which, given that he very distinctly has "a lot of money," Guybrush can amply afford.
* Played straight in ''Mother 2'', but averted in ''[[
* When Tony and Bam are shown the total bill for the actual storyline events in ''[[Tony
* In ''[[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People]]'', Strong Bad has to pay for his Fun Machine repairs with "one big sack of cash". After kicking off his moneymaking scheme, a battle of the bands (wherein he asks each band playing to enter a "few handfuls of cash"), he's dismayed to learn that his profits only amount to "''half'' a big sack of cash".
* In the [[World of Warcraft]] novel, [[The Shattering Prelude to Cataclysm]], it's never specified how much Gazlowe charges to rebuild Orgrimmar aftre the fire, or how much Baine and Stormsong pay him for the supplies to retake Thunder Bluff, but it's suggested that it's a considerable amount of money. This may be to avoid having to scale it with how expensive things are in the game.
==
* Both played straight and averted, on separate occasions, in the webcomic ''[[Scandal Sheet]]!''. Played straight when Max shows Foster his first paycheque for working at The Comet - Foster's eyes grow large and he says "That's a lot of zeros." However, it's averted later when Foster receives a large amount of money {{spoiler|from his former co-worker at the porn studio, who found his script for ''Thigh-tanic'' and produced it, with enormous success}}. The amount is specified to be ten thousand dollars.
* "[[
* ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'' never discuss funds in direct amounts, partially because of the fantasy setting. It's hinted that the protagonists are about as rich as you would expect a team of world-class doctors to be.
** Plus they have the backing from an as-yet-unrevealed donor, who funds them directly for all their interesting cases.
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== Western Animation ==
* Cartoon shorts in [[World War II]] and [[The Fifties]] often threw around figures in the low millions when the subject of obscene wealth was mentioned. (Often in a [[On One Condition]] story.) This led to the very datedness effect that many of these other examples strive to avoid.
* In the Disney cartoon series ''[[Hercules (
** And this is Hades he's buying off, the guy who was known in Roman Mythology as Pluto, which means "The Rich One".
* In ''[[
* In an early episode of [[The Simpsons]], Homer sues Burns for hitting Bart while in a car. After Burns destroys Homer's credibility in the eyes of the jury, he offers to settle with Homer. He writes down a number on a piece of paper, and slides it across the table, grinning and saying "I think you'll find this number much more feasible." [[Subverted Trope|There's a big zero on the paper.]]
{{quote|
* In one of the 1970s or 1980s ''[[Spider
== Real Life ==
* Real Life example: In soccer, clubs sometimes list the transfer fee paid for a player as 'undisclosed'; this usually means '[[
* Several deals, settlements and contracts do not disclose terms.
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Undisclosed Funds]]
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