My friend wrote a story called "Walmart". I haven't read it, but he was looking for it on his computer when I came up to him (he wrote it last year). He found it and opened it up. From what I caught of it, it was a pretty basic description of a trip to Walmart. But it was only half a page. He started flipping out- "It was like four pages! Uggh, godammit!" I replied, "What's the big deal? You remember it, right? You can just re-write it,", but he said, "Noooo, the twist at the end is he's a dog!" It was pretty funny.

This troper remembers an assignment in high school that brought the concept of the Tomato Surprise (though not called such, of course) into sharp clarity. Assigned a story called ''The Dark Ones'' about someone being chased by the titular antagonists, the segment we were shown ended with a spear hitting the protagonist. The assignment was to write an ending, after which we would be given the remainder of the story. This troper used it for your average sci-fi aliens/mutants/monsters thing. It turns out? protagonist was a whale, the father of a small familial pod being chased by whalers. He's killed; the mother and young escape, but mourn his loss through whale song. It was actually pretty good.

Given a similar assignment (though one with no "true" ending), the majority of this troper's class made the DistressedDamsel from the first half of the story into the BigBad for the second half. I suppose we were just a particularly tomato-happy bunch.

At a short story writing class this troper attended one summer, one of the short stories, about a group of high school students, opened with a male character talking to the female lead about past events in a scene set after the main events. girl dies near the end of the story, before the scene at the beginning, and it's revealed that there was no one else with him, when one of his friends walks up to him when the story returns to the scene at the end.

This Troper just learned that woman he was flirting with for 2 1/2 years Internet dating was a persona used by a different person. Not that that doesn't happen eveyday, but still...ouch!

This troper once made a TomatoSurprise out of a story in elementary school. *switches to first person* My class should write a half story, then exchange them with our desk neighbors and then finish their stories. My story reminded of a teenie slasher, while my desk neighbor's was Sherlock Holmes InNameOnly. Being a slow writer, my neighbor finished earlier, showing her work to me. She wasn't really good at that stuff. So I decided to "ruin" hers as well, making Watson the murderer and maybe letting him kill Sherlock Holmes.

This troper wrote a short story where a sentient dolphin is being chased by a sentient shark. Naturally, the main characters decide to help the dolphin. However, at the end it turns out that the shark is a detective and the dolphin is a serial killer

Link please? That sounds awesome!

This troper had a perfect variety of this pulled on him and his entire group once by his Exalted Storyteller (GM). We were playing through the First Age incarnations of our own Solar characters, and I was pleased to learn that Justice-Bringer was a fair and just ruler of a mighty city, dispensing justice, giving out boons and generally acting like a heroic nice person. Naturally, everyone assumes that such a person must obviously be male, like most of our characters and also our entire gaming group. The twist comes at the end of the story, when Justice-Bringer is forced to flee a ball attacked by the Dragon-Blooded during the Usurpation, and then to enter a duel to the death on top of a tower wearing only a ball gown. "...Wait, you mean ball _robes_?" To which the reply was "No, I mean ball ''gown''... because Justice-Bringer is a woman. Didn't I tell you?" (And no, he didn't tell us, which also makes it a perfect example of MostGamersAreMale, ViewerGenderConfusion and possibly even SamusIsAGirl. At which this troper reflexively went "OMG, what a clever Tomato Surprise!", to confused and worried stares from the other group members.

This troper had a Real Life Tomato surprise. A school day, second grade. Music class getting boring. kids start getting called down to the office, dont come back we all think "Yay! were going home early!" "I hope i go next!" im thinking. My dad gets me to bring me home. i go out side and theres sirens EVERYWHERE. i try to talk to him but he says nothing the whole ride home. The date? 9/11/01.