Go Look At the Distraction: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Oh look, is that a reason to leave?"''
|'''Jeff Winger''', ''[[Community]]''}}
A type of [[Room Shuffle]] where one character actively wants another character out of a room so they can discuss something in private. They'll usually either come up with some absurd reason for the character to go to the kitchen or across the hall or
They may send the character on a search for some item, which may or [[Snipe Hunt|may not actually exist]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' has this little gem in episode seven, at least in the Japanese
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' has this little gem in episode seven, at least in the Japanese version -- Ichigo yells "It's a flying huge radish!" and actually throws a radish from one of her shopping bags into the air, in order to distract Bu-Ling. It doesn't work very well.
* [[Beyblade Metal Fusion]]: Done by Tetsuya while he was in an [[Austin Powers]]-esque disguise to learn more about a new device Madoka created. "Hey look, are those rainbow colored crabs in the sky?" [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]], as he ended up pointing to multi-colored crab balloon-banners actually floating in the air behind them.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In one ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' strip, Dave is sent on an elaborate and extremely convoluted snack run to get him out of the house while the others eat a pizza in his absence.
* A [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Nodwick]]'', employed whenever Arthax and Yeagar needs to get Piffany out of the way so they can do something horrid to Nodwick behind her back.
* ''[[The Man
* Used hilariously in ''[[Naruto the Abridged Series]]''.▼
'''Kakashi:''' What are you- Oh hey, a tree. }}▼
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged]]'' uses and possibly subverts this at the same time:▼
'''Yusuke:''' Really, I could've sworn it was right there, wait a minute I was supposed to do something, run that was it, aw f$%k, I don't suppose you'll fall for that again would you? }}▼
==
▲* ''[[The Man qith No Name (fanfic)|The Man With No Name]]'', a ''[[Firefly]]'' / ''[[Doctor Who]]'' crossover, has the Doctor throw a [[Hypno Trinket]] up in the air in the hopes that some brainwashed thugs will stare at it long enough for River to beat the snot out of them.
* ''[[Shrek]]''
** After Shrek is... uh, wounded by an arrow, Fiona tells Donkey to get blue flowers with red thorns so he would leave them alone. Donkey then stumbles upon a ''field'' chock full of blue flowers with red thorns... and subsequently complains that his task would be easier were he not colorblind.
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* ''[[The Producers]]'': Used at the beginning of the most recent version. Max tells Leo to use the bathroom while he deals with the octogenarian nymphomaniac at his door. Leo uses the bathroom but gets done before Max can get rid of the old bat. Leo then comments on how sorry he was to interrupt him 'feeling up the old lady'.
* In the film ''[[Old Yeller]]'', when the mother is treating Old Yeller for an injury from a wild boar, she claims that she needs a horned toad and asks the younger brother to go get one.
* Used in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' (the movie), when the love interest distracts a vampire with, "Look, air!"
* ''[[A Few Good Men]]'' has this exchange:
{{quote|
'''Galloway:''' Thank you sir, I'm fine.
'''Capt. West:''' Commander, I'd like you to leave the room so we can talk about you behind your back.
'''Galloway:''' Certainly, sir. }}
* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)|Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]'', Dumbledore points out various pieces of landscaping to Fudge in order to keep him from noticing Harry and Hermione sneaking behind him to rescue Buckbeak.
* In ''Gray Matters'', when it's in the middle of the night and Sam tries to get Gray to go to bed so that he can be alone with Charlie:
{{quote|
'''Gray:''' What big meeting?
'''Sam:''' The big meeting in the morning that you have to get to? That big meeting?
'''Gray:''' ''Oh'', that big meeting! }}
* In the 2009 [[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]] movie, Sherlock sends the policemen inside the recently deceased Sir Thomas's home to look for bath salts while he continues searching by his lonesome for a secret compartment where Thomas kept his occult paraphernalia.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[Heidi]]'' there is a scene where Mr. Sesemann wants to speak about Heidi with his daughter Klara, so he (somewhat clumsily) makes up an excuse by asking Heidi to bring him a glass of water. This errand turns then into a real adventure for Heidi.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]''
** Several adults commit variations of this throughout, with several less than comic results in the 5th and 7th books respectively.
** Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter and
** And in ''[[Harry Potter and
* In "The Tower of the Elephant" (a ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' story) Taurus sends Conan to check whether there are guards in the garden. Conan suspects this, but obeys. Taurus shuts the door and gets killed.
* At least one ''[[Discworld]]'' novel has someone throwing an object into the air, then gutting the other person whilst they look at it.
** This happened in ''Interesting Times''. Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde is being threatened by several samurai. One of them throws a handkerchief in the air and cuts it in two with his sword, which is sharp and looks like new. Cohen's sword, in contrast, is rusted and chipped, despite being very sharp, and the samurai aren't exactly impressed with it. Cohen asks for another handkerchief, throws it up in the air...then slits the throats of three samurai while they're looking up at it.
* ''[[The Supernaturalist]]'' had a character toss an 'ID card' <ref>a blank piece of laminated cardboard</ref> into the air, then shooting (nonlethally) the bad guys when they watched it go. Crosses with [[Hey, Catch!]].
* Once in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', Harry needs to pick a lock. Since [[Fair Cop]] Murphy is there, he tells her to "look at that zeppelin." Subverted in that Murphy knows ''exactly'' what he's doing, but complies anyway so that she doesn't actually see him doing anything illegal.
* ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'': "Look! The Winged Victory of Samothrace!"
== [[Live
* ''[[Friends]]''
** In one episode, Phoebe uses the word "Crummies" to make Chandler flee the room.
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* Used a couple of times in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', though it usually amounts to "Look, a huge distracting thing!"
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' has the most common variant of this trope be asking someone to "go get some water".
* On ''[[El Chavo
{{quote|
'''Don Ramon''': Why don't you see the hour at the [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|Big Ben]] Clock.
'''Chavo''': It is 2:30
'''Don Ramon''': [[Sarcasm Mode|Reaallly?]]
'''Chavo''': If you don't believe me, go yourself. }}
* In ''[[Lois and Clark]]'', a temporarily blinded Superman is staying with Lois, who doesn't know his secret yet. When Jonathan and Martha Kent show up at Lois's apartment (greeting their son with an awkward "Hello, Superman"), Superman suddenly requests oolong tea. Jonathan takes the hint and ushers Lois out to the store for tea so that Superman can be alone with his mom.
* ''[[Community]]'': Oh, look, is that a reason to leave? And [[Ax Crazy|Chang]] [[Butt Monkey|falls]] [[Too Dumb to Live|for]] [[Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket|it.]]
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]''
{{quote|
== Tabletop Games ==▼
▲== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' tabletop roleplaying game, characters who are lawful and/or good tend to be especially susceptible to this... especially Paladins or Monks, who MUST keep to the straight and narrow or lose their powers. Often, the player will realize it is in their best interests to be easily distracted when their friends want to do something immoral that will benefit them in some way, leading to a sort of selective ADD.
* Played with in ''Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising''
:When he comes back to find that a demon they'd been interrogating had "inexplicably" had the holy water they'd had him bless dumped over its head, he says, "I feel ''dirty''."
* One 1980s-vintage published module for ''[[Villains and Vigilantes]]'' demanded the entire team pick up the [[Idiot Ball]] simultaneously [[Railroading|in order not to disrupt its plot]]: during a bodyguarding assignment, the villains stage an incredibly obvious distraction—and the module itself insisted that any hero who does not ''immediately'' abandon the NPC they are guarding to respond to the obvious distraction is a ''bad hero'' and should be penalized by the GM.
▲== Video Games ==
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2: Episode Two]]'', Eli Vance sends his daughter Alyx to make some tea for him, so that he can privately talk to [[Player Character|Gordon Freeman]] about their "mutual friend," the G-Man. Unfortunately, just when it looks like we're coming up on [[The Reveal]], Alyx comes back with the tea, and Eli promises Gordon that they'll talk more later. {{spoiler|"Later" never comes, as the next time we see Eli, he's rather unpleasantly killed by a Combine Advisor.}}
* ''[[Monkey Island]]''
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* In a ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' game for the Nintendo DS, Oliver is blocking the way somewhere, and you have to choose the right things in a conversation so he'll move. One of the choices is, "Oh, look, a distraction!" {{spoiler|It doesn't work.}}
* In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', there is a point where your party meets Dalton on an icy plain. Your party blocks his fireball, but engages in extreme [[Cutscene Incompetence]] when they look behind them, at his request. Cue the party being captured.
* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', when the group is looking for more information on Largo possibly being Natalia's father, they plan on keeping her out of the loop at the moment, and claim that they're going to Chesedonia to investigate the fake Scorer. When the fake Scorer ({{spoiler|Sync}}) greatly upsets Anise by {{spoiler|reminding her of her responsibility for Ion's death, using Ion's voice}}, the party has Natalia accompany Anise around the marketplace. They notice that Anise is somewhat upset at being used as the bait.
* In "[[Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3]]", Qui's UB attack involves him looking past his opponent and proclaiming, "Ah, Lord Frieza!". When his opponent turns, he unleashes a torrent of energy blasts.
** [[Fridge Logic|Including his Lord Frieza]].
* In the first season of [[Tell Tale]]'s ''[[Sam and Max]]'', Max is asked by Sam to distract a body guard so Sam can assault the president. One of Max's distractions involve shouting [[Comically Missing the Point|"hey, look at Sam!"]]
==
* Seen in the webcomic ''[[Narbonic]]'' during the "Lovelace Affair" storyline.
{{quote|
* ''[[Emergency Exit]]'': Played hilariously straight in [http://eecomics.net/?strip_id=891 this] strip.
{{quote|
'''Eddie:''' Ooh! Where?! I collect those! }}
* ''[[Freefall]]'' strip [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff300/fv00228.htm #228] provides the current trope image:
{{quote|
'''Helix:''' Where?! I don't see any obvious distraction. }}
* ''[[Mac Hall]]''. "Quick, run home! Your mother is on fire!"
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* Whenever ''[[Captain SNES]]'' needs to distract someone, the go-to fake-out is, apparently, a three-headed monkey.
== [[Web Originals]] ==▼
▲== Web Originals ==
▲* Used hilariously in ''[[Naruto the Abridged Series]]''.
▲{{quote| '''Haku:''' Um, look over there!<br />
▲'''Kakashi:''' What are you- Oh hey, a tree. }}
▲* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged]]'' uses and possibly subverts this at the same time:
▲{{quote| '''Yusuke:''' Alright, plan B, look a distraction<br />
▲'''Rando:''' What, where, man, what the hell you talking about, there ain't nothing there.<br />
▲'''Yusuke:''' Really, I could've sworn it was right there, wait a minute I was supposed to do something, run that was it, aw f$%k, I don't suppose you'll fall for that again would you? }}
* ''[[The Legend of Neil]]'' has a drunken Neil distract some moblins by pointing behind them and shouting, "I'm disctracting you!". It works.
* Webtoon ''Krentz and The Hand of Shame 3'' has one character simply shout, "Diversion!" to get out of an awkward conversation. It works because as she says that [[Flat What|an airplane walks by]]. Yes, 'walks'.
* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] has his method of going "Look at the pretty bunny! Look at the pretty bunny!" while waving an adorable rabbit sculpture in front of the camera whenever the logic in the terrible comic he's reviewing falls apart.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''▼
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* ''[[The Simpsons]]''
** Reverend Lovejoy once got Ned Flanders to leave by telling him there was an oil stain in the parking lot that looked just like St. Barnabus.
** Bart gets the Red Hot Chili Peppers out of Moe's by telling Moe to look at a wall. Moe does so and isn't sure what it is he is supposed to be seeing, but continues looking regardless. He even charges Homer to do the same.
**
{{quote|
'''Bart:''' Hey, look at me! [dances around]
'''Skinner''' Bart! Stop creating a diversion and get out of here! }}
** After receiving a hospital bear, Homer shouted about a bear and tried to run away. He didn't go far, given the reason he needed medical help in the first place. [[Subverted Trope|There really was a bear]].
* ''[[Family Guy]]''
** Lois gets Brian to leave the room by throwing a ball through the doorway. [[Don't Explain the Joke|Brian's a dog.]]
** In "Wasted Talent", in order to win a piano competition Lois takes Peter drinking at a teenager's house, when the cops catch the two of them.
{{quote|
'''Peter:''' Uh... uh... Lois! Look over there! (to cops) Run!
[Cops run away] }}
*** Doubly funny in that they weren't doing anything illegal.
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** Dib's method of distracting the Pig-thing in "Gaz: Taster of Pork": "Hey! Look! It's something a Pig-thing would like!"
* From ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': "Hey Ferb! It's a Red Herring! I say we follow it and see where it leads us..."
* From ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'': "Hi, I'm Arthur, and this is my diversion."
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'':
{{quote|
'''Zuko:''' Can't you see we're busy?
'''Azula:''' Oh, Mai... Ty Lee needs your help untangling her braid.
'''Mai:''' (completely deadpan) Sounds pretty serious. }}
::To clarify, even as she lampshades it, Mai leaves, because Azula was basically reminding her that she is her commander.
** Also lampshaded and parodied in "The Ember Island Players."
{{quote|
'''Not!Zuko''': "WHERE!?" }}
* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', Jimmy is about to discover one of [[Stalker with a Crush|Heloise's]] Jimmy dolls. In order to distract him, she quickly shouts "Look, a meteor!" It works.
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