| abstract | - A dirty job needs to get done. The boss is asking volunteers to step forward. No way are you going to get mixed up in a sticky situation like that. Your mama didn't raise no fool. Suddenly you are shoved forward by some of your "friends". The boss smiles. Wait- No! You just got volunteered!
* As above, but your friends don't even bother pushing, they just say you volunteer.
* The guy in charge picks people and simply calls you "volunteers."
* The person who suggested the job in the first place is volunteered.
* (Usually military) Everyone is lined up, and the leader/commander asks for volunteers to step forward -- and promptly everybody except our protagonist steps backwards, making it look like the protagonist stepped forward.
* The heroes are faced with the challenge. In unison, everyone turns to look at one person.
* When one person is out of the room for some reason, the rest have a vote and elect the unlucky absentee to the post.
* In a duo, one person asks the other to pick a number, and upon hearing their answer immediately declares them the loser. However it happens, the Unwilling Volunteer agrees to do it anyways. Maybe because he's just too nice a guy to say no. Maybe he doesn't want to leave people in the lurch. Maybe he really doesn't want to cross the boss. Or maybe he just doesn't want to be labeled a coward. Usually played as comedy, although occasionally it's played for drama. Commonly volunteered in this way: Boxed Crooks, Condemned Contestant, The Bait, and Cincinnatus The opposite of Martyr Without a Cause. If it's the Call to Adventure, then the protagonist never got a chance at Refusal of the Call because other people accepted it for him. Examples of Got Volunteered include:
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