Operation: Blank: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Begin Operation: Something-Thingy!"''|'''Evil Blah''', from the Flash movie ''[[The Demented Cartoon Movie]]''}}

'''Steven Heck''': Oh, yeah. I name all the operations that go down in Taipei, even the ones that aren't mine. Operation Latex Turtle, Operation Angry Bees, Operation ''AAAAAHHHH-'''YOOOOOOOW!''''' Heh. That was a good one.|'''[[Alpha Protocol]]'''}}

* Episode 6 of ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' is "Operation: Yashima", where NERV plans to defeat an angel with a [[Wave Motion Gun|disintegration beam]] by having an Eva snipe it with a positron rifle (also appears with minimal differences in ''Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0''). The [[wikipedia:Battle of Yashima|Battle of Yashima]] was a naval battle [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|between two clans fighting for control of Japan]], known for [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|one of the most legendary feats of archery]] in Japanese history.

* Yuri of ''[[Angel Beats]]'' always gives her missions these names. Very frequently, as with Operation Tornado (using fans to steal meal tickets) and Operation Monster Stream (fishing), the names are [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]].

* In ''[[Mai-Otome Zwei]]'', the name of the operation to free the hostages from the bus is named "Operation Silent Sea," based on the assumption that [[Leeroy Jenkins|Haruka]] would be excluded from it. Unfortunately, she gives [[Cranial Eruption|Cranial Eruptions]] to the people who tried to knock her out with a large rock, and heads to the scene on her own.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory]]'' is partly named after Operation Stardust, which starts with [[Gundamjack|Gundamjacking]] a [[Super Prototype]] Gundam armed with a nuclear bazooka.

* In ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'', Sally and Harry determine that Mary's brother Roy, who seems to be an alien abductee, knows too much and must be done away with. Their plan to get rid of him is fittingly named "Operation: Kilroy".

* The title character from ''[[Parker Lewis Can't Lose]]'' would occasionally do this in the middle of an episode.

* ''[[Dark Angel]]'' had the pretty obvious Manticore Project, which created [[Super Soldier]] [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]] by combining human and animal DNA.

* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'':

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' hid the SGC's funding under the innocuous label of 'Project Blue Book', but they were apparently unable to resist calling the effort to repurpose technology stolen from alien 'Gods' the Prometheus Project.

** Note that in real life, "Project Blue Book" was the Air Force's [[wikipedia:Project Blue Book|investigation into UFO sightings]], ending in 1970.

* From an episode of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'':

'''Narrator''': They never did and five minutes later, Operation: Hot Mother was under way. }}

* The last episode of season one of ''[[Star Trek TOS]]'' is called "Operation - Annihilate!".

* One of Blue Laser's plots in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' cartoon "Cheat Commandos" is "Operation: Don't Crush Ourselves". It fails.

* A complicated hostage swap in ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' is initially titled Operation Circle of Confusion, but...

'''Church:''' Okay, fine. ''Triangle'' of Confusion. Rhombus of Terror. Parabola of Mystery! ''Who cares?! Get the goddamn show on the road!'' }}

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' plays this straight most of the time, but lampshades this at one point.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Project Arctarus.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'':

* An old ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short had Wile E. Coyote attempt to capture Bugs Bunny with a number of complex scientific contraptions, the name of the cartoon (and each device, with an ascending number as the previous attempts fail) is "Operation: Rabbit".

* This also occurs frequently on ''[[Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines]]'', whenever Dick Dastardly devises a new plan to [[Catch That Pigeon]]. In fact, two of the shorts were titled "Operation Anvil" and "Operation Birdbrain".

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Dwight proposes that he and Cubert leverage their paper route jobs to take over Planet Express using a ruthless business strategy titled "Strategy: Dwight Lightning". Cubert replies, "OK, but I get to name the next strategy."

* In ''[[Transformers]]'', Soundwave would seem to use this trope, except his speech patterns meant he was simply issuing orders.

"Laserbeak: prepare for flight. Operation: assimilation." }}

* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', "Adoptcalypse Now": To prevent his friends from being adopted, Bloo implements Operation Abe Lincoln Drop Purple Scaredy Cat Run and Scramble. It consists of scaring Eduardo with a toy spider so that he freaks out and scares everyone away.

** Whenever Nickelodeon promotes new episodes, promotions for it usually give it an [[Operation Blank]] title, when the actual title is something entirely different. So far the only episode titles actually done this way are "Operation: Plush and Cover", "Operation: Cooties", "Operation: Good Deed", "Operation: Antarctica" and "Operation: Big Blue Marble".

* [[Sheep in The Big City]]:

** You could always use the ''acronym'': Operation KtStWNftRGaDLHGAAS.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'''s Irken plan for galactic conquest is called "Operation Impending [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Doom]]". Well, "Operation Impending Doom Two". "Operation Impending Doom One" turned out a little differently than expected, thanks to the title character.