Incredibly Obvious Bug: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Listening devices and "hidden" cameras that are large and obvious, often with a big red or green light on them. Sometimes they get hidden in ventilation grates in such a way that the light they emit can be seen by anyone walking by. And sometimes they're right out in the open, apparently unnoticed by people who really ought to know better.

While still played straight on occasion, just as often it's subverted or parodied. Such variants include:

* The target actually finding the bug, then either destroying it or using it to mislead the person listening in.

* A bug which is so ''absurdly'' large or obvious that it should be utterly impossible to miss (e.g., one the size of a bowling ball stuck to the back of someone's head, beeping with the volume of a truck horn). If someone points it out, they're dismissed as being paranoid.

 

The reason this trope is used is [[Rule of Perception|for the audience's benefit]]. Bugs in television are big and obvious so the director can point the camera at the bug to tell the audience that a bug has been planted on that person without wasting dialog telling the audience.

 

 

See Also: [[Incredibly Obvious Bomb]], [[Insecurity Camera]].

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Variable Geo]]'', a listening device the size of a yoyo with a huge green light on it is affixed to the seat of the woman in charge of the corporation behind the tournament that is the center of the series. This powerful, hypercompetent woman never notices.

** Subverted (or possibly played straight) with Tachikoma, which are twice the size of a normal person, and are used to spy frequently. However, they have stealth technology, making them invisible to the naked eye, and can [[Wall Crawl]].

* In ''[[Space Runaway Ideon]]'', the Buff Clan plant a tracker on the escaping Solo space ship. Said bug later gets picked up by the crew, inspected, tossed around, and ran over by the Ideon itself, and still continues working. Justified by the space ship being lost technology and the crew not knowing what belongs and what doesn't... but you would think someone would eventually catch on.

** Especially considering that one of the members of the Solo Ship crew (Karala) is a former Buff Clan soldier, and up until halfway into the series (when prototypes fresh off the drawing board were launched at the Solo Ship), knew every piece of Buff Clan military technology down to the last detail. Of course, if they threw away the tracker, the Buff Clan would probably never find them after a few DS Drives, and the series would end early.

 

* Averted in the ''[[Firefly]]'' comic ''Serenity: Better Days''. A stolen assault robot releases hundreds of tracking devices that appear no bigger than a grain of sand.

* Spoofed in ''48 pages''. In a scene which was a parody of ''Matrix'', one of the agents threatened Jerry with implanting a "miniature tracking device" into his body. It was about the size of a cellphone.

** The tracers were easy to find, since they were red, shaped like the spider-insignia on his back, and they looked like the kind of trinkets one would find in a Cracker Jack box. His clone, the Scarlet Spider, was much smarter about this: he created Minidot Tracers, which were still red, but were also circular and MUCH smaller.

** A recent story arc had a villain with a penchant for paying attention framing Spider-Man for a slew of murders, by leaving found spider-tracers on all of the victim's bodies.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

** Unless they thought that they might not want anything integral that the enemy could use to track these guys.

* Spoofed in "A Fistful of Yen", the ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'' parody from ''[[The Kentucky Fried Movie]]''. The hero engages in conversation with a woman while she points out the bugs in his room, starting with a really obvious (but not totally ridiculous) one on the lamp, progressing to studio microphones on the side of pictures, a boom mike overhead, a technician waving audio equipment around, and finally a section of his room holding an entire audio studio with technicians.

* In ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'', not only are the cameras large enough to be seen easily, but they even make a noise when operating. Despite this, the assistant bad guy never notices them, even though he has viewed other people through them before. But then the movie is so awful anyway....

* In the second ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie, Felicity Shagwell is charged with planting a homing beacon on Fat Bastard. The beacon is roughly the size of a small egg and a good third of it is a flashing red light with a beeping sound attached. She successfully plants it on him by seducing him, sleeping with him and then when he rolls over to look over the side of the bed (for food) she [[Ass Shove|shoves it up his backside]]. He just thinks she's "frisky" and jumps back on top of her. This turns out to be a stupid idea as he just craps it out.

* Averted in the first ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'' movie during Hellboy's initial confrontation with the hellhound Samael. Yes, the tracking device is fairly big, and is colorful (in this case, bright green), but nonetheless difficult to discover, because it's a special bullet for Hellboy's ''[[BFG]]'', and therefore ends up inside Samael's body.

** Actually, that was some sort of luminescent capsule designed to make tracking his target similar to following a blood trail by leaving a trail of bright green glowstick juice.

* Averted in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]''. Spock put a tracking device on Captain Kirk's shoulder before he beamed to Chancellor Gorkon's ship. It was a different color from the rest of the uniform and visible to anyone looking closely, but otherwise just looked like a bit of cloth. Evidently the Klingons don't bother searching prisoners or confiscating their clothing. Probably saves on the prison budget at Rura Penthe.

* Averted in ''[[Red Dawn]]'', when [[The Mole]] is forced to swallow the homing device used to lead the [[Dirty Communists]] to their lair.

* Unsurprisingly averted several times in ''[[The Conversation]]'', which centres around the life of lonely bugging expert Harry Caul, played by Gene Hackman. As a prank, his rival Bernie Moran gives him an ordinary ballpoint pen with a microphone hidden inside, and it is so well concealed that Harry, the "expert", doesn't clue in at all. Later, {{spoiler|when he learns that his own apartment is bugged, he frantically rips apart his room but [[Paranoia Fuel|isn't able to find anything.]]}}

* Subverted in Jean-Pierre Melville's ''[[Le Samourai]]''. When the Paris police sneak into assassin Jef Costello's apartment to plant a listening device, the one they initially choose is a huge black box with a big antenna and a red light. The officer puts it in the hiding place, scrutinizes it briefly, and then decides to go with a smaller model. Even the small one is pretty big, though considering the film was made in 1967, it's hard to judge whether that really would have been the best they had available.

* Parodied in ''[[The Naked Gun]] 2''; Frank Drebin is captured by the bad guys and gets patted down. The mook patting him says "he's wired!", and shows us the device: it takes up all of Frank's chest, complete with flashing lights and whirring tape.

 

== Literature ==

** ''[[Legacy of the Force|Exiles]]'' by [[Aaron Allston]] has a spider-shaped, mobile bug planted on a spy-trained Jedi by folks who know he is trained to spot bugs. Somewhat quickly discovered and neutralized. The Jedi also detects the aerial surveillance by pure Force skill. Not quite sure what the bug was supposed to accomplish...

*** Allston likes this trope. In ''[[X Wing Series|Wraith Squadron]]'' one of Zsinj's plots involves putting smallish, flat box-shaped clinging droids on the hulls of New Republic starships, so they can report on where the ships go. Big ships might never notice - these are space ships, after all - and when one is spotted on a factory-new X-Wing it's assumed to be just another one of the stupid unauthorized things added on by the manufacturers. The Wraiths really only discovered it on accident, because of another Zsinj plot. These "bugs" don't blink, beep, or move, but they're still a good twenty centimeters to a side.

** Most of the time, however, CHERUB averts this trope.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* This is used to some degree in ''[[Veronica Mars]]''. Though the devices themselves are not incredibly conspicuous in design or form, merely the fact that Veronica Mars has given you a teddy bear, stapler, iPod, novelty pencil, gift basket, paperweight, school spirit button, etc. should be a red flag not to divulge your deepest secrets directly into it. Chances are that it not only captures perfect audio, but also captures video that can be [[Enhance Button|blown up into high resolution stills]] when appropriate.

** There's a pretty straight instance in "Clash of the Tritons": Veronica plants a tracking device under Duncan Kane's car. With a big, convenient red LED to show you that it's active. It's still hard to see above the tire, granted, but in a dark garage...

* Subverted on ''[[Lost]]'': your typical flashing bug is planted in the terrorists' hangout, but it's put there to allow Sayid to find and disable it, thus winning favor with the terrorists and beginning his infiltration.

* Subverted in the pilot of ''[[Leverage]]'', the protagonists plant a bug that's found by the mark. Realizing the plan, he intends to trap the protagonists by informing the FBI of the plan, not knowing that he's running headlong into the protagonists' [[Kansas City Shuffle]].

'''Nate:''' No, you found the transmitter with the blinking light. }}

* Seen in an episode of ''[[The Streets Of San Francisco]]''. The tracking device is large and obvious (although not blinking or beeping), but it is planted on the back bumper of the car after the hero has gotten in, thus [[Justified Trope|justifying]] them not noticing it.

* Parodied in sketch show ''[[Big Train]]'' where a group of spies leave a number of incredibly obvious recording devices in a hotel room, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Vh1AjAaJc including replacing a wall lamp with a full-size microphone hanging from a cord.] When the room's occupants they look around suspiciously, then find and remove the only not immediately obvious bug, and continue reassured.

* In ''[[The IT Crowd]]'', Jen worries about how visible Roy's hidden camera set up is, and he assures her modern technology is very discreet. [[Gilligan Cut|Cut]] to a highly visible full-size camera lens sticking out of a hole in a box... which turns out to be ''the box the camera came in'', complete with a lifesize photograph of it.

* ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' Act Zero has Sailor V and Artemis attaching (offscreen) a rather noticeable blinking tracking device to the suitcase the villains of this episode carried around. Of course, they only notice it after she finds them and points this fact out; then again, this entire episode was never meant to be taken seriously....

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Ocean Girl]]''. A bug the size of an ashtray with a blinking red light is placed under a table. The two children who find it don't hesitate at all to destroy it. The evil corporation hunting them down wonder how it got found.

* Usually averted on ''[[Burn Notice]]''. The exceptions invariably come with a [[Justified Trope|justification]]; for example, in one case, the person planting it was the buggee's [[True Companions|friend]] being coerced into it, and "all but signed my name on the damn thing" specifically to tip him off.

** In one episode (don't have the name on me), They [[Invoked Trope|invoke a subversion of this trope]] to make a [[Con Man]] very paranoid about people being after him.

* In ''[[The Monkees (band)|The Monkees]]'' episode "The Spy Who Came In From the Cool", the bug is in a lamp at the center of the table which the guys blatantly move back and forth between them and the spies.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* In one strip of ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' Fungo drops off a huge collar with an obvious lens in it so that Bucky and his roommates can be recorded for a Reality TV Series. Satchel acknowledged that it was heavy but that he found the beeping noises soothing.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Occasionally played with in ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]''. In Alpha Complex most places are bugged to some extent or another, often quite subtly, but that doesn't stop the Computer from occasionally having very obvious cameras, or other obvious tracking devices.

** Of course, the presence of an obvious camera probably means its less likely for anyone to be watching. After all, how often do things actually work as intended in Alpha Complex?

 

== Video Games ==

** Not to mentioned the "covert" modem in the Dam level, which is enormous, as is required to be planted right on the monitor of a computer.

** Averted in ''[[GoldenEye 007 (2010 video game)|Golden Eye Wii]]'', where Bond places his GPS-enabled smartphone on the underside of the helicopter in a cutscene. Played straight with the security cameras, which have highly-visible lights showing their field of vision.

* Subverted in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', Leon attaches a beeping, flashing tracker bug to Ashley's back when the [[Big Bad]] takes her away. Not surprisingly, Leon finds it discarded in a puddle two scenes later.

* You get one of these planted on you in the original ''[[Metal Gear]]''.

** Also the cameras in ''[[System Shock]] 2'' that inspired them. Gigantic green light that turns yellow, then red, when they see you, and goes out when the camera is destroyed. These cameras are also massive, which makes even less sense considering the different setting.

* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' has a floating audio/visual bug the size of an orange...yeah. It also explodes. ''Perfect Dark Zero'' somewhat fixes this - the one time you're actually supposed to use the bug as, well, a bug, and not as an improvised EMP, it gets discovered and destroyed right after you do what you need to do with it.

* ''[[Dragon Fable]]'' recently had a new quest that came out involving a flying eyeball with perhaps the most obvious bug of all time planted on it by the player. How obvious you say? [http://general-tommy.deviantart.com/art/Incredibly-Obvious-Bug-120898094 I think this says everything you need to know...]

* One sidequest in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' has the protagonist sneak into an actress' home to plant cameras so her rival-turned-Nosferatu can get some dirt on her and ruin her reputation. The three cameras are roughly fist-sized (think USB-cable cameras for your computer) and ''placed in open view''. You don't make a single attempt to hide them, just put 'em down on coffee tables and desks, then connect them to the internet ''through the resident's own computer''. And just to complete the unbelievable, the rival gets her dirty laundry on her right away. It involves a llama. That's right, she ignored the incredibly obvious cameras and brought a ''llama'' to her apartment for some unspeakable acts. [[Refuge in Audacity]] much? {{spoiler|As a finishing touch to blow your mind - you have to place said cameras while sneaking around. Since said woman (and her boyfriend) are still in said apartment, walking from room to room. Should she be like -- hey was this nice camera here 5 seconds ago?}}

* In ''[[Deus Ex]]'' security cameras glow green and emit a constant beeping sound.

** Well the beeping only sounds if they spot someone, which is rather useful for alerting nearby guards.

* The Recon class in ''[[Battlefield 3]]'' can deploy gadgets that automatically spot enemies. In the interest of [[Competitive Balance]], any enemies in detection range can hear the devices beeping and see their location through walls. Merely aiming in the direction of a gadget may also highlight them for all to see.

* Averted hard and played with in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', where bugs are tiny things not visible to the naked eye, and are implied to require advanced scanners to detect. Even the best bugs are Incredibly Obvious to Dr. Mordin Solus, though:

 

== Web Animation ==

* In an episode of ''[[Homestar Runner|Cheat Commandos]]'', the eponymous characters are invited to the villain's house for [[Go-Karting with Bowser|Thanksgiving dinner]]. Somehow, their leader can see everything that's going on. It is eventually revealed to be [[Meaningful Name|Reinforcements]] standing on the other side of the room with a camera.

 

== Web Comics ==

** "[[Lampshade Hanging|Well, it seems the inquisition hasn't increased its R&D budget since I left.]]"

** "...I told them it should say '[[Suspiciously Specific Denial|not property of Mobian Inquisition]]'." "Yes, [[Sarcasm Mode|because that would have fooled me completely]]."

* Played with a couple times on ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]''. For instance, one scene has an attractive female {{spoiler|reporter}} start making small talk with the mercenaries while wearing invisible contact lens cameras. Invisible to the humans, that is; ''clearly'' visible to certain non-human crewmembers with better eyesight. Oops.

 

== Web Original ==

* Appears in ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]'' where Dr Horrible throws a cola can sized tracking/remote control device onto a van; making a huge "CLUNK" as the magnet attaches, and proceeds to use his iPhone to control its movements. Unfortunately his archnemesis Captain Hammer notices it almost immediately and crushes it.

* In ''[[Familiar Faces]]'' episode 36, CR receives a fruit basket from ''[[The Nostalgia Critic]]''. It's shown to contain a few fruits and one large buzzing camera.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In an episode of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', Candace sticks a camera into a cowboy hat, the lens fully exposed. The boys either don't notice, or, more likely, just don't care.

'''Mr. Turner''': Actually that's my fairy detector- I mean yes! Dead beeping flowers. That are dead. }}

* An episode of ''[[The Hair Bear Bunch]]'' has the zookeeper Mr. Peevly order video cameras hidden throughout the zoo to keep tabs on the titular bunch. The Bears found the cameras easily. Justified in that the one who actually hid the cameras, Lionel J. Botch, isn't a very bright person.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'': the pilot cuts from the eavesdropping Zim bragging about his hidden, 'ingenious listening device' to a giant metal tick, with antenna and twitching legs clutching the back of Dib's head. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "Tak the Hideous New Girl": Zim is able to follow Dib to Tak's lair because he'd planted a tracking device on him... a device that turns out to simply be GIR clinging to the back of Dib's cartoonishly large head. In another episode, Dib plants a listening device in Zim's base during a [[Flash Back]] by tricking Zim into turning his head and then throwing a trashcan-sized device through a wall.

'''Zim:''' Why yes, it is quite impressive, that can... }}

** Coincidence? Maybe.

** In another episode, the FBI places a listening device under Homer's shirt that makes a noticeable rectangular bulge. Homer goes into Moe's and, of course, immediately asks if anyone has any illegal activities they would like to discuss. When one barfly is arrested, and the others smell a rat (though nobody suspects Homer), Homer audibly mumbles "End Transmission" into his stomach and slinks off.

** And the treehouse phone (consisting of [[Tin Can You Hear Me Now|two cans and a string]]) was tapped by another string running into a van.

* A tracking bug stuck to Goliath in the first story arc of ''[[Gargoyles]]'' is fairly inconspicuous... but blatantly labeled with the logo of the people who placed it!

** Goliath gets bugged two more times in the course of the series: the second time by Xanatos again and the last one by [[Dark Action Girl|Robyn Canmore]].

* Parodied (like most things) on ''[[Drawn Together]]'' when Spanky Ham, in order to record Captain Hero's illegal manipulation of gambling, attempts to have a conversation with Hero concerning the swindle while secretly recording the conversation on a hidden tape recorder. Said tape recorder is taped to the front of his shirt and is half the size of Spanky. Subverted in that Captain Hero does suspect that Spanky is acting suspicious so he ends the conversation quickly by [[The Ditz|"describing all the specifics and incriminating details of his illegal scam"]].

** Actually some of them were white and oval in shape with a highly stylized spider-motif (like the symbol on his back). They were also very small compared to some of the examples here. Sometimes he actually used more than one, with one being very obvious, so as to distract them from the more cleverly hidden one.

** In a ''[[Brand New Day]]'' story, one of them ''was as big as a CD''. The trackee of course noticed it.

** On the other hand, what would you expect from surveillance equipment purchased with ''breakfast cereal box tops?''

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' film ''Into the Wild Green Yonder,'' Bender plants a bug on Fry's cellphone telephone [[Rule of Funny|with several blinking lights and spinning radar dishes that triples the size of the phone.]]

* An episode of ''[[Project G.e.e.K.e.R.]]'' had a huge emitter dart that actually injected a nano-emitter.

* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' takes it to new levels when Ed hides a camera on Kevin's lawn. And by "hides", we mean "puts in plain sight and tapes a twig to it".

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[American Dad]]'', where Francine knows Stan was spying on her as part of a plot due to the multitude of obvious cameras lying around the house.

* Used in an episode of ''[[Code Lyoko]]''. Secret service agents think Jeremie is hacking into weapons databases, so Jim volunteers to be the one to plant a tracking device on him. His method? He slaps it onto him.

 

== Real Life ==

* While rarely resembling the incredibly obvious bugs of fiction, this trope actually represented reality for some places and time periods. In particular, a famous [[German Humour|joke]] in [[East Germany]] went:

'''A:''' There's a new cabinet in it. }}

* An in-person variant of the "distraction from a smaller bug" subversion was part of Anonymous's tactics when protesting [[Church of Happyology|Scientology]]. The Scientologists would harass anyone they saw with a camera, but would then be oblivious to all the people with cellular phones nearby.

** Relatedly, one can find instructions for installing a blinking LED in your car's dashboard to make it appear to have a car alarm. A few cars have even been marketed with the blinking LED already installed.

* The Finnish military bought equipment from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Finns knew that their hotel rooms would be obviously bugged so while discussing in "private" they would mention X as absolutely definitely maximum agreeable price for a given item and like clockwork the next day Soviet negotiators would ask X+Y which would then be haggled to X.

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/9941926 A street was cordoned off and the bomb squad called after a businessman found a flashing device under his car - which turned out to be a tracking bug fitted by his suspicious wife.]

* There's a well-known [[Russian Humor|Russian joke]] involving the fictional Soviet spy Stierlitz in Nazi Germany:

'''Heinrich Müller''': We tried. Nobody can lift the damn thing. }}

 

[[Category:Espionage Tropes]]

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]