Cut and Paste Note: Difference between revisions

The [[Real Life]] justification is, of course, that handwriting is identifiable. A largely [[Discredited Trope]] in modern fiction given the prevalence of computers, telephones and other more convenient forms of covert communication, and even in period pieces its seen as silly. A modern criminal is more likely to simply type up a message and print it or send it via obfuscated ([[Stupid Crooks|or not so obfuscated]]) electronic communications. The modern crook has little use for taking the time to create a note that can accumulate fingerprints, not to mention result in a suspicious pile of hacked up magazines.

* ''[[Inspector Gadget (film)|Inspector Gadget 2]]'': Dr. Claw sends Gadget such a letter to lead him into a trap, signed A Concerned Citizen. Gadget concludes that [[Too Dumb to Live|the citizen must have terrible handwriting.]]

* The Riddler writes some of his riddles this way in ''[[Batman Forever]]''.

* In an episode of ''[[House MD(TV series)|House]]'', Wilson is seen "clipping coupons." When House's beloved guitar is "kidnapped" and the Cut And Paste Note shows up demanding ransom, it's not exactly a mystery who dun it.

** House later comes across Wilson nonchalantly reading a newspaper with big, cut holes cut in it.

* Sarcastically suggested by [[Deadpan Snarker|Xander]] of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' when the Scoobies have captured one of the [[Big Bad]]'s Mooks in a Season 7 episode: "Dear Mr. First, if you ever want to see your Bringer again. . ."

* A different ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' arc involves Hobbes sending Calvin anonymous coded insults using this; Calvin's mom eventually scolds Calvin for cutting up her magazines, and he figures it out. Similarly, he uses it to insult Susie, and in one storyline sends the page quote in a ransom note after kidnapping her doll.

* The visual style of ''[[Persona 5]]''{{'}}s interface and promotional material is inspired by this.

* The ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "Blackjack" had the character the episode is named after send Spongebob notes in this style, in the form of making it sound like Blackjack was out to get Spongebob. {{spoiler|Of course, this was all misconstrued for figurative when it was all literal, and the episode's ending just makes it all the more laughable.}}

** Even worse, most if not all printers manufactured since the early 2000s [[w:Printer steganography|actively stamp their serial number in a hard-to-see coded form ''multiple times'' all over every page printed]]. This is ostensibly to prevent computer-aided counterfeiting, but the bonus aid it gives to repressive regimes cannot be understated. By late 2017, at least [[w:Reality Winner|one whistleblower]] (That we know of.) from the [[NSA]] had been identified and prosecuted based on the serial numbers on documents she sent to a news outlet. Software (Thatthat wedefeats knowthis ofby adding extra garbage data exists, but its effectiveness is unproven.)

** Even seemingly identical [[Useful Notes/Fonts|typefaces]] -Times New Roman and Nimbus Roman, for example- can be distinguished under a powerful enough magnifying glass. Back in the early days of home computing when there were multiple competing word-processor packages for several competing system architectures, this could go a long way to narrowing down the list of people who could have printed a particular document. It can also apply to documents pretending to be from this period (or earlier).

* Jussie Smollett supposedly received such a letter containing death threats in 2019. We say "supposedlySupposedly" because Smollett haswas beeneventually<ref>The putoriginal onprosecutor drooped the charges despite clear evidence, including accomplice testimony. She was later found to have abused her discretion, causing the appointment of a special prosecutor.</ref> trialconvicted for faking (Veryvery badly.; Hehe claimed people followed him home on foot [[Spanner in the Works|on what unexpectedly wound up the coldest day in Chicago history when there waswere no pedestrians]]) a subsequent hate crime attack against him and wasting CPD resources with a wild goose chase. Ifand the FBI has anythingsentenced to say150 aboutdays the letter remains to bein seenjail.