Being Watched: Difference between revisions

[[File:CatchingANinja_1759CatchingANinja 1759.jpg|link=The Venture Brothers|frame|Well, ''someone'' flunked out of "Hidden [[Ceiling Cling]] [[Subject 101|101]]" in [[Ninja School]].]]

{{quote|''"Hey... did ya ever get da feelin' you waswuz [[Trope Codifier|bein' watched]]?"''|'''[[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]]''', '''''Hair-Raising Hare'''''}}

Don't look around, [[Talking Through Technique|pretend we're talking]] about [[Cool Car|Cool Cars]]s or something.

Guy behind us. Behind us, right? Right behind y-- ''don't'' look!

* GEICO's newest{{when}} campaign involves a wad of money with big old bulging eyes. Its [[Leitmotif]]? A remix of ''Somebody's Watching Me''.

== Anime &and Manga ==

* In ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', Johann Liebert himself is very good at knowing when he's being watched. Case in point is when he made it clear to Tenma that he knew he was sniping him by making eye contact -- fromcontact—from hundreds of yards away, mind you -- andyou—and giving one of his trademark [[Dissonant Serenity|panic-inducing smiles]].

* A vengeful doll spirit [[Showing Off the New Body]] in ''[[Ranma One Half½]]'' picks up a stick to bash Ranma with. He grabs the stick, but not because he's on to her intentions: he thinks she's giving him a stick to hit his dad who's hiding in the bushes watching.

{{quote| '''Rena:''' Someone is quietly spying on you from afar. Someone is constantly shadowing you. Someone is always right behind you, looking at you. Eventually the footsteps will be a little offbeat from yours, and you'll hear one extra. And then, when you turn off the light and climb into your futon, it will stare down at you from the base of your pillow. Silently, patiently, waiting until you've accepted your sins.}}

* In the OVA of ''[[ToA AruCertain Kagaku noScientific Railgun]]'', Misaka experiences the phenomenon known as "Someone's watching." At random points throughout the episode she get'sgets the feeling that someone is indeed watching her and this understandably leads to [[Paranoia Fuel|paranoia]].

* It's revealed in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]] TSR'' that this was actually a reason for a good number of Sōsuke's more paranoid moments while undercover at school. Apparently his "backup" from the Intelligence Division would aim at him with a sniper rifle's laser pointer for kicks, setting off his battlefield-honed instincts.

* ''[[Detective Conan|Conan]]'': Conan ''always'' knows when [[Kaitou|Kaitou KID]] is watching him. ''Always''. Haibara always knows when she is being watched by a member of the Black Organization.

{{quote| '''Luke:''' I feel like... I don't know...<br />

'''Yoda:''' Feel like what?<br />

{{quote| '''Bill:''' You ever get that feeling when you know you're being watched?}}

{{quote| '''Ellie:''' There's the shed. We can make it if we run.<br />

'''Muldoon:''' Well, we can't.<br />

'''Ellie:''' Why not?<br />

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Muldoon:''' Clever girl....}}}}

* ''[[Horton Hears a Who!]]''

{{quote| '''Mayor of Who-Ville:''' Hey, hon, did you ever get the feeling that you were being watched, and that maybe that thing watching you is... ehhh, a giant elephant?}}

* Roland does this when he's in Eddie's head in ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Drawing of the Three|The Drawing of the Three]]'', pointing out all the airport feds who are watching the suspected drug mule while Eddie's out shopping.

** In the forth [[Dark Tower]] novel, [[The Dark Tower (Literature)/Wizard and Glass|Wizard and Glass]], Roland's love Susan can sense when the witch Rhea is watching them through the eponymous glass.

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]: [[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''Sabbat Martyr'', Baen says this to Varl. {{spoiler|He's right, because Pater Sin and his psyker-[[Creepy Child|Creepy Children]]ren are walking between them while psyk-cloaked}}. In ''Traitor General'', the scouts on Gereon know they're being tracked just before the Nihtgane show themselves. In ''The Armour of Contempt'' Mkoll and Eszrah recognise that there's someone out there watching them {{spoiler|1=who the latter gets to see and is strongly implied to be MkVenner}}, while Vadim and Caffran have a similar sentiment at their part of Gereon.

* In one of the ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' ''Eisenhorn'' short stories by Dan Abnett, a veteran soldier twice has this feeling, which is good enough to make the titular Inquisitor ready weapons and get into cover. Good job really, as they get fired on almost immediately.

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'', it is mentioned that vampires have a highly developed sense of this. As [[The Igor]] says, "In timeth of thtrethth a vampireth perthonal thpace can extend theveral mileth". "Threth-th?"

* In ''[[Shibumi]]'', the protagonist Nikolai Hel is capable of sensing when someone is watching him. It is not really telepathy and he isn't wholly sure how he gained that ability but he speculates it is a result of his senses being sharpened to cope with the lack of external stimulus after spending several years in solitary confinement. Considering he has several other [[Charles Atlas Superpower|Charles Atlas Superpowers]]s, it's probably not as strange for him.

* [[Heralds of Valdemar|Herald Mage Vanyel Ashkeveron]] convinced the ''vrondi'', a type of elusiveminor and generally harmless minorelemental spirit of air to [[Staring Contest|watch]] any non-Herald that used "true" magic in Valdemar until a he or another Herald Mage told them to stop. Given that Ashkeveron was the ''Last'' Herald Mage for several centuries and the spirits were nearly impossible to ignore, block out, drive off, or even properly locate... most mages either fled or cracked within a week or two of crossing the border.

== Live -Action TV ==

{{quote| '''Karen Hall:''' That's why I had that horrible feeling I was being watched.}}

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'', [[Troperiffic|surprisingly]], omitted it... until [[Dark Sun]] [[Sourcebook]] ''The Will and the Way'' introduced "Sensitivity to Observation" [[Psychic Powers|power]].

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls|The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'', one of the standard voice files for the Dark Elves, if they nearly detected the player, was: "Someone's watching me. I can tell."

{{quote| "Hey! You there! Peeping at my thoughts, huh? I know you are! Well, if you think you can mind-control me or something, you're sorely mistaken!"}}

* Based on [[Real Life]] events, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101123233412/http://humoncomics.com/i-spy-with-my-little-eye This] ''[[Scandinavia and The World]]'' comic.

{{quote| '''Bugs Bunny:''' Listen, Dracula... Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched? Like the eyes of strange things are upon you? Look, [[Born in the Theatre|out there in the audience]]...}}

{{quote| '''SpongeBob:''' ''(while being followed)'' It feels like... someone... ''wants to sell me something!''}}

{{quote| '''Edd''': Ed, please! [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|Someone may be watching...]]}}

* The inexplicable sensation that someone is staring at you is a real phenomenon that people experience in everyday life. There are even scientific studies corroborating it. Evidence tends to support that the ability to sense directed attention from other people is a real sense and it's surpisinglysurprisingly accurate, being correct more often than not.