Incredibly Obvious Bug: Difference between revisions

** 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.

'''Loo:''' We can raise the money, that's no problem. ''(pulls down the boom mike and speaks directly into it)'' [[BUTTHATWOULDBEWRONG]]! }}

* 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....

* Played for comedy on ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', where Frank used a baby monitor as a bug. He comments that people buy baby monitors because everybody is "suspicious of babies."

* 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.

* 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.

* In Swedish comedy series ''Hipp Hipp'', TV reporter Morgan Pålsson is talking to an illegal weapons dealer, while holding a potted plant.

 

 

* 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:

 

 

* 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.

* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]''. Mr Crocker's dead beeping flowers (fairy detector)

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

* Lampooned in ''[[The Tick]]'' season 2 episode, "Coach Fussel's Lament", in which The Tick orders a "Fiend Finder" which is an Incredibly Obvious Bug with matching tracker.

** 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.]]

== 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.

* [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. }}