- In an episode of Arthur, Buster wants to be friends with a couple of skateboarding older kids. The skateboarders promise to let him hang out with them if he performs a humiliating dare. He does, but then they tell him he must perform another dare if he wants to be "initiated." After a series of ever-more humiliating dares, Arthur manages to convince Buster that they're just stringing him along for entertainment value.
- Beetlejuice: When Beetlejuice wins the lottery, he's told that he'll lose his prize if he pulls any of his antics again and that the rule was added because Beetlejuice won.
- In "Fright of Passage" on Dragons: Riders of Berk, Tuffnut and Ruffnut do this to Snotlout, repeatedly adding to a list of ridiculous demands that he has to meet in order to get into their shelter. Each time he brings back what they want, they just add something else, until finally the Frightmare threat is driven away and then Snotlout is able to get in, only to find that everyone is gone and the party he was hoping to attend is over.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy:
- In "Your Ed Here", Kevin finds out Eddy's Embarrassing Middle Name, and uses it as blackmail material to make Eddy do all sorts of publicly humiliating stunts before telling everyone Eddy's middle name anyway.
- In "Stiff Upper Ed," Eddy (with the other 2 Eds) make several failed attempts of joining Sarah and Jimmy's rich club. When the other kids are admitted into the rich club, the Eds make one last attempt, only for Jimmy to ask for their invitations. To add further insult, Kevin is allowed in the club despite him not being dressed rich. Sarah makes no attempt to hide the fact she thinks the trio are freeloaders and should get lost.
- An episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends revolves around this. In the episode, Wilt was about to watch his favourite basketball game until Bloo tricks him into leaving the room and getting him chips. Every time Wilt tries to go back upstairs to watch the game, he is bombarded by other imaginary friends asking for favors and eating the chips, due to Wilt's inability to say no. It gets even worse when Wilt ends up traveling all over the world doing favors for strangers (such as walking an old lady across the street, substituing an astronaut he accidentally injured, working as a pizza delivery guy, etc.) When he finally comes back, he realizes that he missed the entire game and finally lets out a Big "NO!" only to once again be sent by Bloo to get him chips.
- In the Futurama episode"A Clockwork Origin", Dr. Banjo insists that Prof. Farnsworth provide a "missing link" between humans and prehistoric apes. With each link the professor provides, Dr. Banjo demands a link between that link and the prehistoric ape. This continues for a long time until the professor can no longer provide a link. Farnsworth then declares that he's going to go find "Missing Missing Link"... and does! However, when The Prof. triumphantly dumps it in front of the scientific committee, Banjo uses it to support his own theory, leading to this rather meme-tastic quote from Farnsworth:Farnsworth: I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
- Played for Laughs in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. In the first episode featuring Birdgirl, Harvey tells her that she cannot be his assistant in the following dialogue.Harvey: And don't come back until you're all grown uuu-
(Birdgirl climbs out the window, showing a lot of leg and a panty shot.)
Harvey: -until you've been to Law School! - In Hazbin Hotel, during the court case to determine whether Sinners can be redeemed in the "Welcome to Heaven" episode, Charlie asks Adam what it takes for a soul to get into Heaven, and he hastily comes up with three qualifications on the spot. Sera seems to agree that the qualifications he came up with are sufficient proof, since Adam was the first man to get into Heaven. When Angel Dust fulfills all three of Adam's criteria without even knowing he's being watched, Sera is unwilling to reevaluate cases after Divine Judgement has already been passed, and still says it's insufficient evidence to prove Sinners can be redeemed. This is part of the reveal that Heaven doesn't know what gets people into Heaven either. The upper brass of Heaven seems to think that eliminating evil by purging sinners from Hell once a year will ensure Heaven's safety. But they're just assuming that everyone who goes to Heaven or Hell must deserve it and they're justified in carrying out the Exterminations, even though this could be entirely wrong. Either way, those in the upper brass of Heaven have no interest in finding out, and are content to just let things remain the way they are while pretending that they're fixing the problem (along with Adam freely admitting that he and the Exterminators keep perpetuating the purges because it's fun). "The Show Must Go On" has Sir Pentious become an Ascended Demon by rising from Hell to Heaven, which shows that redemption for Sinners is possible, as a way of reaffirming that Heaven has no idea if what it's doing is even working.
- Another literal example occurs in the It's The Wolf! episode "Any Sport In A Storm." Lambsy is running with a football heading for the goalposts when Mildew Wolf, hiding in a bush, secretly moves the goalposts as far away from Bristle Hound as possible. It doesn't work.
- Looney Tunes
- In the short "Fool Coverage", Daffy Duck is an insurance salesman, and he sells Porky Pig an accident policy which pays him $1,000,000 for a black eye. The catch is that Porky must get a black eye in a ridiculously specific accident, occurring as a result of a stampede of wild elephants in his own living room on the Fourth of July — of any year — between the hours of 3:55 and 4 P.M. during a hailstorm. Sure enough, as soon as Porky agrees to the policy, he gets into an accident that meets these requirements and gets a black eye from it. As Porky tells Daffy to pay up, Daffy quickly adds that the policy actually specifies a stampede of wild elephants and one baby zebra, making the Aside Comment, "I just added that one." Then a baby zebra runs in.
- In "Boobs in the Woods", after Porky catches a large fish, Daffy asks, "Do you have fishing license?" prompting Porky to show his license. "A dog license?" Porky produces a dog-tag. "A license to sell hair tonic to bald eagles in Omaha Nebraska?" Porky pulls a card out of his hat that Daffy reads, "Hair tonic...bald eagles...Omaha Nebraska."
- In Miraculous Ladybug, every time Marinette tries to call out Lila's Blatant Lies, she manages to re-rail them with even more blatant lies (she says she "got tinnitus" from saving Jagged Stone's pet cat, Marinette points out that Jagged's pet is a crocodile, Lila says that Jagged used to have a cat but gave it away after realizing he was allergic) or Exact Words (she says that she will meet "her esteemed close friend" Prince Ali soon, Marinette points out that Ali is in New York at the moment, Lila just says that she got the invitation to meet Ali, they will meet when he travels to France soon).
- A fairly literal example happens at the beginning of the Muppet Babies episode "Kermit Goes to Washington". The babies are racing toy boats across the bathtub. When Gonzo wins, Piggy announces that she's changing the rules, and states that it now takes two laps to win, instead of just one. Piggy then creates a distraction and finishes the race. Naturally, the other babies complain that Piggy shouldn't be able to change the rules mid-game, and Nanny ultimately tells Piggy that she had been unfair.
- Pink Panther and Pals: In "Pinxellated," Big Nose runs an arcade where the prizes are all the same horse plushie. There is a sign saying, in pictures, "1 ticket = 1 plushie." A boy comes up to the prize booth with a ticket, but Big Nose (who runs the arcade) doesn't want to give away even one of the plushies, so he changes the sign to make it say "2 tickets = 1 plushie." The boy walks away, disheartened. Pink Panther pities the boy and starts winning arcade games to give the boy his tickets, and Big Nose keeps driving up the price of the plushies so that Pink Panther will have to get more tickets. By the end, the sign reads "1,000 tickets = one plushie," but by that point, Pink Panther has a dump truck full of tickets, and Big Nose is trapped inside one of the arcade games, so he can't change the sign again, and Pink Panther and the boy each get a plushie.
- Robot Chicken had a sketch
playing with the famous moment from The Empire Strikes Back. In the sketch, Vader keeps adding ridiculous elements to the deal ("Furthermore I wish you to wear this dress and bonnet!" "Here is a unicycle, you are to ride it wherever you go" "Also you are to wear these clown shoes and refer to yourself as 'Mary'") whenever Lando says "This deal's getting worse all the time!". It only stops when Lando figures out what's happening and says, "This deal... is very fair and I'm happy to be a part of it." - In Rocky and Bullwinkle, a literal example occurs. In a football game, the opposing team actually moves the goal posts.
- In one Rugrats episode, Angelica and Suzie are competing to see who is the best between the two. Everytime Suzie wins, Angelica keeps declaring higher victory requirements until Angelica nearly gets hurt during a race.
- In Samurai Jack, Scaramouche is reduced to a bouncing head and is told by a ship guard "No shirt, no shoes, no body, NO SERVICE". So he comes back pretending to have a dog's body, only for the sign to suddenly say "No shirt, no shoes, no body, no dogs, NO SERVICE".
- Played for laughs in The Simpsons episode "The Front", in its segment "The Adventures of Ned Flanders".Singers: Hens love roosters, geese love ganders, everyone else loves Ned Flanders!Homer: Not me!Singers: Everyone who counts loves Ned Flanders!
- South Park:
- In a spoof of Great Expectations, Pip insists that his love interest does have a heart, handing her a baby bunny and saying that no one with a heart could break a baby bunny's neck. Cue obvious Neck Snap, and Pip keeps insisting that "No one with a heart could break the neck of 2/3/4/5 (etc.) baby bunnies!". He brings out 26 baby bunnies before she simply gets bored, and claims that as proof that she has a heart.
- The parental version of this trope is seen two episodes later in "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", with Kyle's parents saying he can attend a Raging Pussies concert only if Kyle cleans out the garage, shovels the driveway, and brings democracy to Cuba. He does all three, accomplishing the final task by writing a letter so moving that it touches the heart of Fidel Castro. However, Kyle's parents still refuse to let him go to the concert on the grounds that they don't want him to go. This ultimately kicks off the main Teenage Wasteland plot.
- In "More Crap", Randy takes the world's biggest crap. There's actually a committee in Europe dedicated to measuring as well as an award for doing so, and the previous winner, Bono, becomes jealous. He interrupts the award ceremony and announces that he'd taken an even bigger crap that morning, and measured it himself with no proof, and is given back the award. When he finds out Randy has set out to take back the record he insists he goes to Europe and takes it right in front of the committee because it's the only way to make sure he won't cheat.
- In "Got a Nut?", after Mr. Mackey is fired, he learns from his banker that he owes eight-thousand dollars in taxes to the government that he can't pay due to being unemployed. Thanks to the lack of jobs, Mackey reluctantly takes a higher-paying job at ICE - only to learn from the banker that despite his lifestyle not having changed a bit, his debt has increased to ten-thousand dollars simply because his salary is higher.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- "Neptune's Spatula" had SpongeBob trying to be declared the greatest chef ever. Neptune at one point added more and more conditions a person must meet to be the greatest chef (such as "must be left-handed"), often contradicting previous conditions ("Must wear red underwear, no, BLUE!"). SpongeBob kept meeting ALL of them.
- In the episode "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" SpongeBob is trying to get into the Jellyspotters, but their leader Kevin keeps stringing him along with increasingly difficult tasks, at which SpongeBob succeeds with ease. When they finally come up with something sufficiently impossible, it winds up in Kevin being Hoist by His Own Petard as the fake "queen jellyfish" he creates attracts a real king jellyfish, and SpongeBob saves the day, revealing Kevin as a complete loser. When Kevin still tries to deny SpongeBob entry, the other Jellyspotters get fed up and take Kevin's crown (which was actually part of his head) and give it to SpongeBob.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Bombad Jedi" Senator Farr discovers to his horror that Gunray's promises of food shipments are primarily contingent on having Padmé in his custody, and afterwards, the request will be placed under consideration.
- In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "The Great Gladiator Gig", Mario and Luigi get trapped in the arena of a coliseum that Emperor Koopa has taken over. Koopa forces the Bros. to fight Tryclydius, and states that if they can defeat him, they'll be allowed to leave. When Mario and Luigi do manage to defeat Tryclydius, Princess Toadstool makes a point of telling Koopa that he needs to let them go. Instead, Koopa orders his guard to release two lions into the arena. When Toadstool calls Koopa out, his response is "One of the nice things about being evil is, you get to lie a lot!"
- This One and That One is an animated series featuring two anthropomorphic cats as the main characters. In "A Tale of No Tail," they meet another cat-person, but refuse to believe that he's actually a cat because he doesn't have a tail. So they make him do cat-like things to prove that he's a cat, but each time he does them, they insist that he could still be something else because they've seen other animals doing that. "What do I have to do to prove I'm a cat?!" What finally convinces them is when he coughs up a hairball.
- In the Transformers: Prime episode "Crisscross", Airachnid kidnaps Jack's mother and says she'll let her go if Jack finds her within a time limit. Jack does so, but at the last second Airachnid changes the challenge from "find her" to "rescue her"; since Jack didn't save her from where he found her, Airachnid takes that as her excuse to kill them both.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MovingTheGoalposts/WesternAnimation
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