Clipboard of Authority: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|"[A] clipboard is as good as a skeleton key." |'''Michael Westen, ''[[Burn Notice]]'''''}}

 

 

See also [[Refuge in Audacity]]. This is of course [[Truth in Television]], as shows like ''[[The Real Hustle]]'' can attest.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Sneakers]]'', Robert Redford claims (and demonstrates!) that all you need to get into any building in the world is a clipboard and a confident wave.

** Michael Keaton says (and does) the same thing in ''The Paper''.

* In ''The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer'', the titular character managed to successfully become part of an advertising agency by going in with a clipboard, looking like he knew what he was doing and saying he was with "efficiency", and everyone perfectly buys it!

* ''[[Dream Team]]'': This eases Christopher Lloyd's character in doctor-impersonating.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Dr. Scarpetta, Patricia Cromwell's character, does it on one occasion.

{{quote| "If you have your towel, everyone automatically assumes that you are an extremely on-top of it person, and thus will be happy to lend you anything you may have misplaced (food, money, etc)."}}

* Robert B. Parker's Spenser does this at least once, while commenting on the phenomenon.

* Disturbing variant in one of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' novels. When [[The Empire|The Imperial Order]] conquers a city she's in, Jebra hides out for several days in a cellar, managing to avoid the invading army. When she finally comes out, she finds them doing their [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|usual thing]]...but they leave her alone, apparently on the assumption that if a woman ''isn't'' being brutally raped already, then she's a woman they're not supposed to brutally rape.

* In the [[Dexter]] novel ''Dearly Devoted Dexter'' Kyle Chutsky points out that "No one ever stops a man with a clipboard."

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Michael and his colleagues put this to use more than once in ''[[Burn Notice]]'', usually accompanied by being so loudly bureaucratic that everyone listens to them without question.

** They can also use it to be seen as a harmless, self-important nobody when they need a distraction. A pushy representative of the Homeowner's Lawn Association gets told to [[Incredibly Lame Pun|sod]] off, not shot at.

* In ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Marshal has a fantasy in which his wife dies of a deadly hiccup disease (long story). In this fantasy, she is in a hospital when a doctor comes in and claims she will die. Marshal asks the doctor if he is sure and he says, "It says it right here on the clipboard that doctors always have."

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Real Life]] ==