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Is This Thing Still On?: Difference between revisions
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* Subverted in ''[[Escape From LA]]'': Snake Plissken has covertly swapped an [[EMP]] control device with a similar-looking but useless playback device. The fascist President, in the middle of a nationally broadcast speech, orders Snake's death so they can find the real one. When reminded that the camera is on, he actually tells the cameramen to '''film the execution'''.
* In ''Bringing Down the House'' Steve Martin "infiltrates" the bad guys' club in a very bad "wigger" disguise, complete with his own boombox. After sitting down with the bad guy, he is ordered to turn off the boombox -- and he carefully presses Record as well, getting the entire confession on tape in the end.
* In the [["Weird Al" Yankovic (Music)|Weird Al Yankovic]] movie ''[[UHF (Film)|UHF]]'', the villain goes into a tirade before one of the protagonists on [[Viewers are Morons|what he really thinks of his viewers]], unaware that he's being taped. Near the end when he's going to make a public announcement, they put the recording on instead, putting the final nails in his coffin.
* Occurs toward the end of the classic ''A Face in the Crowd'' from 1957. Antihero "Lonesome" Rhodes spends the bulk of the film riding his television-friendly image to fame and power, cynically hiding his true nature behind an aw-shucks facade. {{spoiler|At the conclusion of one broadcast, Rhodes is sitting on stage with his fellow performers, apparently engaging in casual chitchat. As the show's theme music dominates the soundtrack, the home viewers can't hear what Rhodes is really saying: he's expressing his venomous contempt for his audience. Marcia Jeffries, a disillusioned former lover and business partner, commandeers the studio's control room and switches the audio so Rhodes's words are broadcast to the world. Rhodes is thereby ruined.}}
* In ''[[Galaxy Quest (Film)|Galaxy Quest]]'', Nesmith explains a plan to defeat Sarris while Sarris is still listening and watching on the big screen, thanks to the crew's mistaking the "cut the comm link" across-the-throat gesture for a "we're dead" gesture. And not actually knowing where the hold button is, anyway.
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{{quote| '''Ted Stryker:''' I hope he's not still bitter about what happened between us during the war.<br />
'''[[William Shatner|Buck Murdock]]:''' If it weren't for the people up there, I'd say let Ted Stryker go down in a fiery twisted mass of molten metal. }}
* Twice in ''[[Apollo 13]]'': the first time, Jim Lovell uses some colorful language while attempting a tricky bit of piloting, not realizing (until [[Mission Control]] informs him) that his mike is live. Later, the astronauts are having a heated argument when Houston calls; Lovell snaps, "Are we on [
** Another, more serious live-mike mistake Lovell actually made on that mission: "Well, I'm afraid this is going to be the last lunar mission for a long time..."
* Jindrake in ''[[Max Keebles Big Move]]'' had a running joke relating to this trope (that, or [[Accidental Public Confession]]): The first time he is using the teleprompter to give the announcements, after apparently turning it off, he inadvertantly ended up exposing to the whole school that his appearance was all an act (he had a drape that was designed in such a way that implied that he was near the capitol building, and wore a costume that indicated a rank similar to that of a senator, congressman, or even the President of the United States.) with [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity ensuing]]. He later did it a second time, only this time, he put pencils up his nose and acted as though he was a walrus. Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on that last one, as it was implied that he may have been doing that intentionally, but in either case, [[Hilarity Ensues]]. He later had one happen when he witnesses Max's cutout board stating comic-style that Jindrake was wearing a thong, which after the official end of the announcements, people were still seeing it. Subverted the fourth time when busting Max, where he did make sure he turned it off. Of course [[Engineered Public Confession|that didn't stop Max from reactivating the camera and exposing that Jindrake embezzled the school budget.]]
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** Another episode involves Morgan accidentally playing over the air that she intends to quit the radio show because it's too much stress, and [[Hilarity Ensues]] as the others go to great lengths to get her to stay, since she's the only one who is actually organized.
* On ''[[Alias (TV)|Alias]]'', Sydney and Vaughn discuss a romantic night together. After they start getting dirtier, Sydney suddenly asks "Wait, are we still on comms?" Her father Jack answers "Yes, you're still on comms! ''Right now!''"
* In ''Salvage'', the pilot for the shortlived series ''[[Salvage 1]]'', Skip Carmichael suggests to Mel Slozar [[Zero
* An episode of ''[[Empty Nest]]'' has Dr. Harry Weston fielding calls from the public on a radio talk show. After an incredibly long day, Harry declared, "Thank God that's over, because I ''really'' have to go to the bathroom!", leading his embarrassed producer to tell him to turn off his microphone.
* ''[[Monk (TV)|Monk]]''
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== Real Life ==
* This happens often enough that one mantra of politics is "Every microphone is live." But to get down to specifics...
* [[George W. Bush]]
** Bush's much-mocked "get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit" aside to Tony Blair concerning the Middle East. The [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article688879.ece full transcript] is enlightening, and ends with a literal "Is this thing on?"
** Then there was the time when Bush had a press conference with some US troops in Iraq, a PR event advertised as the President's chance to have a "frank, spontaneous conversation" with the soldiers. Problem was, a news channel picked up a live feed of the conference room before the event showing a full-blown ''rehearsal'' with every question and cute one-liner laid out in advance.
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* In 2009, Chilean senator Fernando Flores is about to finish an interview for the CNN Chile channel. His host makes some questions that he dislikes, then finishes the interview. Just before the transmision was about to finish, a pissed-off Flores rants about how the guy's questions were [[Precision F-Strike|"fucking dumb"]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqqD3b4ap78 among other things.] That part was caught on-tape and then uploaded to youtube...
* During the Apollo 16 lunar mission, while the astronauts were resting after a moonwalk, John Young told his colleague Charlie Duke how the potassium-laced orange juice they were given to drink was giving him gas, and how he intended never to eat another [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] orange again after the flight was over. Eventually Mission Control warned him that he had a "hot mike". It seems that his mike key was stuck in the "on" position -- quite possibly by some dried orange drink that had been spilled earlier. The very same orange drink he'd been complaining about.
* Shortly after the astronauts aboard Apollo 13 moved to the lunar module, the mike setting was switched to [
* At a city council meeting in 2010, [[Stargate City|Vancouver]] mayor Gregor Robertson landed himself in hot water when he was recorded [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IDcmUQa0WM insulting his constituents as "hacks" of a rival local political party] because they opposed his rental housing development plan. Annoyingly, the media (and inevitable backlash against the reports) focused on a [[Windmill Political|supposed outrage over his use of profanity]] rather than the fact that he was [[Unfortunate Implications|belittling anyone who disagreed with him]] as a "hack" of a local political party. (The idea of a "hack" of any municipal political party sounds hilarious to this Vancouverite).
* [[Ronald Reagan]] once, as a part of a sound test, announced [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgSSRE27GQ0 "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."]. However, the joke was leaked (sometimes erroneously reported as having been broadcast immediately), and the Soviet Union was very unpleased.
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[[Category:Self Demonstrating Article]]
[[Category:Is This Thing Still On]]
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