Out of Character Alert: Difference between revisions
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Actual military personnel sometimes use hand signals when being taped to communicate in another way with their 'home base'. There are a few documented cases of soldiers giving hand signals (and one case of them just flipping the bird to the camera) to alert the people receiving it that no, they weren't being treated very politely at all. And some have done it just for fun, giving the [http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/crossed.asp sign for coercion when forced to shake a politician's hand, for instance...]
[
Compare with [[Not Himself]], contrast with [[Something Only They Would Say]] (in which a character is identified by a characteristic) and [[Bluff the Impostor]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Advertising]] ==
* In an early '70s TV commercial for the short-lived Cap'n Crunch variant ''Vanilly Crunch'', the good captain's ship is approached by Wilma the Whale, the mascot for that cereal. After the captain does a description of the cereal, he shoots a cannon at the whale! Turns out that pirate Jean [[La Foote]] (the "bad guy" in these ads) had disguised his now-sinking vessel as Wilma. Cap'n Crunch knew it because he described Vanilly Crunch and the whale didn't smile.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Used to Hawkeye's advantage in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' to trick Envy, who was disguised as Roy, as part of her [[Batman Gambit]]. She aims a gun at him, saying that Roy never calls her "Lieutenant" in private. Cue Envy immediately breaking the form, cursing his luck and shouting "[[Everyone Can See It|I
* This trope is a key plot point in the ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' OAV ''Verbrechen ~ Strafe''. During a mission briefing, when asked if she's well, Weiss's [[The Handler|handler]] Manx replies that she's having trouble with her allergy to black lilies. Much later, when Weiss finish springing their trap on the villain who was holding Manx hostage, they reveal that "[[Flower Motifs|black lily]]" is a codeword indicating "lies," and that Manx's comment had alerted them to the fact that the orders given in that mission briefing were fraudulent.
* In the Chuunin exams arc of ''[[Naruto]]'', Sasuke proposes using a password in case of enemy ninjas using doppelgangers to imitate one of them (again), and makes up a long poem as the passphrase. A few scenes later, Naruto excuses himself to pee, and when he returns he is quizzed for the passphrase, and successfully gives it. Of course, Sasuke knows that the real Naruto would not have remembered such a long passphrase, and that he was being spied on when he made it.
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* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', at the start of the second half of the Devil Bats' game with the Shinryuji Nagas, Hiruma says their chances of winning are almost 0%, and that the team shouldn't do anything drastic as to harm their future careers. {{spoiler|Turns out it was all an act; everybody knows Hiruma would never tell them to give up unless the odds were exactly zero, so everyone (and we do mean ''everyone'') silently went for an onside kick as to not let the enemy know they were changing plans.}}
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Vivi begins to suspect that there's something wrong with Usopp when he tells her to abandon the injured Carue, referring to him as "that bird." The real Usopp not only knows Carue's name, but is fairly close to Carue. In fact, it was Mr. 2 (Bon Clay) impersonating him in order to trick her.
* In the ''[[
* At one point in ''[[
* In ''[[Sailor Moon]] R'', one of the [[Monsters of the Week]]
* In one of ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' manga, Vice attempts to seduce Kyo while disguised as his girlfriend Yuki. He blows her cover when she's about to kiss him and says that, due to the context they're in, [[Tsundere|Yuki]] would actually be ''upset'' at him, not hitting on him.
* ''[[K-On!]]'':, When {{spoiler|Ui disguises herself as her sister}}, the only way the band knows there's something going on is when one of them is ''not'' addressed by her nickname.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In a ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comic, Eddie "Venom" Brock's ex-wife (who is surrounded by police) addresses him as Edward over the phone. Displaying his typical lack of subtlety, Eddie immediately shouts "WHO'S WITH YOU?!"
* In one episode of ''[[Flash Gordon (
* ''[[Modesty Blaise (
** Modesty & Willie also repeatedly use a pre-arranged distress code throughout the series. If either of them drops the name "Jacqueline" into a communication, that's the cue to hit the panic button.
** They also use "Bertha" as code for "I need a distraction".
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* Horribly averted in ''[[Maus]]''. Art Spiegelman's father and mother were hidden in Nazi-occupied Poland but wanted to go to a safer country. Smugglers promised to help them but Vladek Spiegelman wasn't sure if they would betray him or not. A friend went first and wrote a letter back saying everything was fine. Unfortunately they didn't set up any kind of warning system and the friend wrote the letter with a gun to his head. They all ended up in Auschwitz including, eventually, the smugglers (ironically the friends who moved into their vacated hiding place survived the war).
* In [[Frank Miller]]'s first issue of ''[[Daredevil]]'', [[Elektra]] forces a [[Mook]] to phone his boss and set up a meeting (so she could capture him and collect his bounty). The mook suggests a time an hour later than previously planned, which was their codeword for trouble. His boss knew he was going to be walking into a trap.
* In one issue of ''[[
* [[Batgirl
* In a MLP [[Dresden Files]] crossover fic ''[[The Dresden Fillies (Fanfic)|The Dresden Fillies]]'', Harry discovers this trope in his own [[Inner Monologue]]. This clues him to the fact that {{spoiler|he has been possessed by Nightmare.}}▼
▲* In
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Sneakers]]'', [[Sidney Poitier]]'s character draws [[Robert Redford]]'s away from a meeting with the villains in a public meeting space after seeing a newspaper blurb mentioning that the mathematician they had stolen the [[MacGuffin]] from has been killed and realizing what their employers really are. He gets Redford to leave with him by holding up the carphone and shouting that it's his mother calling, in what's clearly a pre-arranged disaster code (Redford's character has been living under an assumed name for the last twenty years...).
** Also, because one of their group has the nickname "Mother"...
* ''[[Terminator (
{{quote|
** At which point the Terminator takes over:
{{quote|
'''John:''' Max.
'''The Terminator:''' ''[in John's voice]'' [[Bluff the
'''"Janelle":''' Wolfie's fine, honey, Wolfie's just fine. Where are you?
'''The Terminator:''' ''[hangs up the phone]'' Your foster parents are dead. }}
** It happens again when the T-1000 takes Sarah Connor's form and asks for help, something the real Sarah had previously berated her son for doing. The other Sarah instead tells John to get out of the way, something the T-1000 would not be inclined to tell his target.
*** In the [[Directors Cut]], however, John is tipped off when he sees his "mother's" foot melting into the floor.
* The ''[[
{{quote|
'''Zoe''': So. Trap?
'''Mal''': [[Obvious Trap|Trap.]]
'''Kaylee''': How do you know Inara don't just wanna see you? People do have feelings. I'm referrin' here to ''people''.
'''Mal''': Y'all were watchin' I take it?
'''Zoe''': Yes.
'''Mal''': [[Belligerent Sexual Tension|You see us fight?]]
'''Kaylee''': No...
'''Mal''', ''matter-of-factly'': Trap. }}
** The DVD release includes an amusing alternate take where Mal instead screams that last ''"TRAP!"'' at the top of his lungs.
** Also, the first hint Simon had that River was being mistreated was that her letters to him were full of spelling errors and referenced family outings that never happened.
* Subverted in ''[[The Bourne Series (
** And it becomes a [[Double Subversion]] {{spoiler|because her superiors figure out Bourne is there anyway and send troops in to get him.}}
* In ''[[National Treasure]]: Book of Secrets'', the trap is somewhat different. Mitch Wilkinson forces Emily Appleton to give her ex-husband a rather unconvincing fake translation of some Olmec hieroglyphs. He doesn't seem to pick up on her gestures, so she promptly texts her son Ben Gates the real translation.
* In the second ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
* Happened in the second ''[[Miss Congeniality]]'' movie.
** Miss United States drops a big hint to her location by saying "My booty is on the line here." Sandra's character catches on and explains that "She would never refer to her butt as her booty... she would never refer to her butt as her butt! She calls it a po-po!" The kidnappers tie her and the celebrity pageant host into the sinking ship at Treasure Island in Las Vegas to passively kill them.
* ''[[Bullshot]]'' (1983). The dastardly villain, Count Otto von Bruno, who speaks in a [[Prussia|stereotypical Prussian accent]], fakes the voice of Professor Fenton with [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. Despite a [[Failsafe Failure|chronic malfunction]] which forces von Bruno to speak at a vastly sped-up rate, the Professor's [[Damsel in Distress|dim-witted daughter]] doesn't suspect a thing when he says: "I want you the formula to London bring." Only our hero Bullshot Crummond realises instantly that you'd never hear a split infinitive from an Oxford man, and so it must be a trap!
* In ''[[
* Since we don't have a "Something They Would Never Do"-Trope: One of the ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' films had Harry walk into a café that was being robbed. Everyone inside was forced to act naturally while "The Cop" made his order, but the waitress managed to warn Harry by pouring about five tea-spoons of sugar in his coffee after ten years of "His Usual" being No Sugar, No Milk.
** A similar scene in the film ''[[It Could Happen To You]]''. When a cop walks into a local deli to get coffee, he asks where the owner's wife is. The owner tells him that she's out sick, but as he turns to get supplies we see that his wife is being held at gunpoint by a robber. Although the cop doesn't see this, when he goes outside to join his partner, he tells him that the man is being
* Inverted in ''[[Single White Female]]'': Allie has just realized the extent of her roommate Hedy's depravity and psychosis when she realizes that she's murdered her boyfriend. Desperate to get out of the apartment without arousing Hedy's suspicion, Allie hurriedly claims that her upstairs neighbor Graham had called her and invited her to hang out with him. Unfortunately, unknown to Allie, Hedy bludgeoned Graham to death the previous night (but as it turns out he was merely unconscious) and knows Allie's lying.
* In [[Inglourious Basterds]] one of the team's plans gets upset by this when, trying to pass for German soldiers and ordering drinks, they use the American gesture for the number three instead of the German version. The real German soldiers notice this and promptly try to eliminate the imposters.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[
** And then he flubbed it ''again'' by laughing when he realized that Ax's plan to take his place for three days while the rest of the group starved the Yeerk out of his head would most likely crash and burn. Obviously, a bad Jake impersonation and a suspicious Tom wouldn't be a good thing for the real Jake, no matter how annoyed he was with his friends.
** That particular Yeerk seems to be a bad actor; he was also Tom's original Yeerk, who quit the basketball team and thus clued Marco in that Tom was [[Not Himself]].
* Georgina "George" Kirrin in the first ''[[The Famous Five]]'' novel is ordered to send a note to two of the gang (another is with her) by some smugglers. She signs it "Georgina", which she would never call herself and gets highly offended when called that.
* In ''[[Green Rider]]'', a man hides a crucial message in a love letter. He's killed before he can deliver it, but the protagonist, Karigan, passes on the love letter to the messenger's girlfriend. When she gets the letter, she spots some inconsistent details (he misstates the color of her hair; he mentions a brother when he doesn't have one) and mentions it to Karigan, who realizes that the letter contains a coded message.
* [[
** In ''The Secret Adversary'', Tommy realises that a message sent to him from Tuppence is not actually from her, as it is signed "Twopence".
** Also used in the novel ''The Man in the Brown Suit''. After Anne is lured into a trap by a note allegedly sent by Harry, she and Harry decide that in all future written communication, they will only refer to each other by pseudonyms. Later, Anne is kidnapped and forced to write Harry a note which will lead him into a trap. When she signs it with her real name instead of the agreed-upon pseudonym, Harry recognizes that the note is a fake and that Anne is in trouble.
* In the science fiction novel ''[[Sewer, Gas
* One of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] books from the eighties - ''Han Solo's Revenge'' - inverted the trope. When Han and Chewie were to make a smuggling drop, if during the meeting Han did ''not'' try and signal Chewie (who was overseeing the proceedings back in the cockpit of the Falcon) then something had gone wrong with the drop.
* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' presents a written variant in the third book. The trio's Grammar Nazi auntie leaves them what looked like a suicide note, but was filled with mistakes, leading them to deduce that it was written under duress and contained some hidden message. Which it did: the letters involved in the misspelled and malformed words spelled out where she was actually hiding.
* In the ''[[Jack Reacher]]'' novel "Tripwire", his girl-friend has been captured and been ordered to lure him into a trap. She calls him up and opens the conversation with "Hi, Jack". The point is that the main character is *always* called Reacher, by everyone including his mother when he was very young, and no one ever uses his first name. The coincidence of "Hi, Jack" and "hijack" only makes it more convincing that this is indeed a trap.
* In a short mystery story involving a group of women at some sort of get-together, one of the members sends a note saying she won't be able to make the meeting. The women reading the letter note discrepancies in the letter, each discrepancy referencing a number (including the absent member's middle initial in her signature being erroneously given as "O," which is taken to mean "0.") There are a total of seven errors in the letter, and when the errors are written out in their numerical form, one of the group theorizes it may be a telephone number. It
* In ''Fearless'', there's one arc where Gaia is being forced to humiliate Ed Fargo. He asks her "You're enjoying this aren't you?" and Gaia answers, "Yes, I like torturing you. Almost as much as I like Lox." This is actually more of a coded message, as Gaia hates Lox and is trying to tell Ed she is being forced to do this. However, she would never say she likes Lox, so it works.
* In the second ''Lady Grace'' mystery, Lady Sarah is abducted by a sea captain, and alerts Grace/ anyone who can help with a message passed by a commoner that she sends her love to " Lady Jane, my dearest friend". the two young women hate each other with passion, and so Grace and Masu are off to the rescue in a trice.
* In ''[[Jennifer
* In ''[[Wayside School]] Gets A Little Stranger'', the students' voices are stolen by [[Evil Teacher|evil substitute teacher]] [[Voice Changeling|Mr. Gorf]]; when the lunch lady asks how the class is doing from outside the door, Mr. Gorf tries to trick her by using the voices of the students to say that everything is okay. The lunch lady figures out something is wrong, though, when the voice of the meanest student in the class says "Have a nice day!"
* One old spy story had a member of the French Resistance of [[World War II]] giving out the duress code while they were under duress and having their [[What an Idiot!|British contact in England tell them they made a mistake]], "That's the duress code, you need to remember not to use that." Needless to say, [[It Got Worse|things went downhill from there]].
* In ''The Bet's On, Lizzie Bingman'', the titular character is kidnapped because she witnessed a murder. While she's leaving with the murderer she manages to alert her friend because she mentions her sisters: Lizzie only had brothers.
* In ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Mirror Dance]]'', Bel Thorne suspects that the "Admiral Naismith" who just boarded the ship is really Mark and not Miles, and confirms it by referring to Mark as Miles' clone in conversation. The real Miles always refers to Mark as his brother and corrects anyone who says otherwise, but Mark doesn't know this and lets it slide.
* In the [[Tom Clancy]]/Larry Bond novel ''Red Storm Rising'', Air Force weatherman Mike Edwards, stranded on occupied Iceland and radioing NATO everything he sees, is given a Duress Code. Played with in that he nearly says it by mistake. (If captured and made to phone in phony reports, he is supposed to preface the message with "Beagle Calling Doghouse, things are going great.)
* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]: Blood Rites'', after the two of them are captured by the [[Big Bad]], Lord Raith, Murphy calls Harry "Mister Dresden." Raith dismisses it without a second thought, but Harry immediately picks up on it as her playing up being helpless, as it went against both the [[Vitriolic Best Buds|nature]] of their friendship and her feminist personality.
* In a ''[[Nancy Drew]]'' book, a young woman on the phone with Nancy asks her to "tell Ned I'll see him at the big rally on Monday". There is no rally on
* In ''[[World War Z]]'' the Chinese doctor who encountered one of the first victims of the zombie plague had a friend working in the government. This friend was an eternal pessimist; no matter the situation, he'd always assume it was going to get worse. When the doctor tells his friend about the victim over the phone the friend says, "Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right." That's when the doctor knew that things were really bad.
* John Birmingham's ''Axis Of Time'': A [[Time Travel|temporally-displaced]] multinational fleet from 2021 and the US Pacific Fleet of 1941 have just engaged in battle by accident, and are trying to sort out the situation. One of the 1941 sailors volunteers to go over to the future fleet, and arranges a duress signal with his superiors by suggesting "My sainted mother taught me never to swear, so if anything is wrong, I could slip in a fucking profanity, sir."
* In ''[[Ender's Game]]'', Ender gets a message that really ''was'' written by his sister Val, but he figures out that something is off about it. He correctly guesses that the military told her to write it and told her that Ender wouldn't receive it unless she wrote what they wanted her to.
** More to the point, Valentine adds so many personal in-jokes and idiosyncracies that Ender can't help but assume that she was told to write the letter in such a way that it was stupidly obvious that it was her.
* ''[[
* In the LionBoy series, the main character knows his parents are in trouble because their letter to him is written the way an adult talks to a child, while his parents always talk to him like he was older. He and his parents use this in all their communications throughout the series.
* In one ''[[Maximum Ride]]'' book, a clone of Max tries to take her place. The kids realize something is up when she offers to cook (as Max is a [[Lethal Chef]] and leaves the cooking to Iggy), and when she expresses surprise that Iggy would know his way around considering that he's blind. Of course, Angel can read minds, too, which the clone has no clue of, so ''she'' knew right away.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Played twice in the first six hours of ''[[
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
** In season 5 of the series, Jack is held hostage by a group of terrorists, and (rather unsubtly) relays a code he knew when he was employed by CTU ("I'm in a FLANK! TWO! POSITION!") to indicate he is transmitting under duress. This enables the strike teams to overtake the terrorists and save Jack... But only after McGill [[Rescued
▲* Played twice in the first six hours of ''[[Twenty Four]]'': Kim said "I love you" over the phone to her mother Teri after being kidnapped, and Teri said the same to Jack under similar circumstances. (Amusingly, Teri catches on immediately, while her counter-terrorism-trained husband [[Genre Blindness|doesn't notice]].)
▲** In season 5 of the series, Jack is held hostage by a group of terrorists, and (rather unsubtly) relays a code he knew when he was employed by CTU ("I'm in a FLANK! TWO! POSITION!") to indicate he is transmitting under duress. This enables the strike teams to overtake the terrorists and save Jack... But only after McGill [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|figures out the outdated code]].
* Used quite a bit on ''[[Knight Rider]]'', usually to indicate something very wrong with KITT. In the episode "Killer KITT", KITT snapping at Michael was an indication that his programming was being messed with.
** One episode of the new series had a hilarious variation when Mike is impersonating a member of a group [[The Caper|out to steal from a Vegas casino]]. The leader figures out something is wrong because Mike is too ''competent''.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'':
** In "Heart of Stone", Odo spends a lot of time with Changeling!Major Kira. He only realizes it is a double when "she" says "I love you".
** In "Armageddon Game", an alien government has faked the deaths of O'Brien and Bashir (while trying to hunt down and actually kill them) in an attempt to destroy all knowledge of a dangerous bio-weapon. They send a recording of a faked lab accident to Deep Space Nine, using security footage from earlier on. But O'Brien's wife notices him drinking coffee, which he would NEVER do in the afternoon, and her suspicions along with the shady explanation of the accident itself is enough to get Sisko and the others to investigate further. At the end of the episode, O'Brien is recovering at home and asks for a cup of coffee after lunch, explaining to his shocked wife that he ALWAYS drinks coffee in the afternoons...
* The ''[[Star Trek:
** There's another one in "Whom the Gods Destroy," when the villain tries to bluff his way out of failing a Trust Password test by telling Scotty that he was just testing to make sure that he wouldn't let anyone beam up without the password. Given how long Kirk and Scotty have known one another, and how much they trust one another, Scotty immediately figures out that the "just testing you" story is bogus.
* In ''[[Star Trek:
* On ''[[
** Hilariously played off when they got the call originally.
{{quote|
** Also played with in the episode "Double or Nothing" when an old debt of Gunn's is called in (his soul) and he tries to push Fred away with some very mean words in order to spare her the pain of his leaving/death (not clear). Although visibly upset at first, she sees right through this ploy and tell the others he must be in some VERY BAD trouble because Gunn would never really say those things unless he was TRYING to push her away to protect her.
* On ''[[
* When Jack's smart house takes him hostage (along with several other characters) in ''[[Eureka]]'', he responds to his deputy's concern with, "Sorry, false alarm. But thanks for coming down, ''Josephina.''" Since this is the only time he or anyone else has called her anything but "Jo," she realizes pretty quickly that something's out of the ordinary.
** And in the season 2 finale, Taggart can tell that {{spoiler|the Eureka computer is faking Fargo's voice because it calls him "Teg", something Jo called him.}}
* ''[[NCIS]]'', "Bete Noir": Kate attempts this when she brings a box of evidence down to the autopsy room on Abby's request only to find that Ducky has locked down the room and won't let anyone in. She pretends to be Abby, providing Ducky with the opportunity to confirm that something is amiss by playing along. Unfortunately the terrorist holding Ducky hostage realizes what they're doing, and Kate ends up a hostage as well.
** In the episode "Bait", Gibbs is being held hostage by a teenager wearing a suicide bomber vest and demanding to see his mother. When the team finds out that the boy's mother is considered dead, Tony tells Gibbs that "Special Agent Caitlin Todd" is looking for her. When one of the local LEO's asks why Tony didn't reveal what the mother's death, he says he already has. {{spoiler|Special Agent Caitlin Todd is dead.}}
* In ''[[
** In "[[Doctor Who
*** Actually he figures it out the moment he sees her, because, as he put it, "The real Sarah wasn't wearing a scarf." Him giving her ginger pop is just his way of checking to make sure he's right.
** In "[[Doctor Who
** Martha Jones figures out that her parents are speaking under duress when her mother tells her that her father is in the same room without so much as a raised voice.
*** Subverted in the same scene when Martha asks her father to just answer "yes" or "no" if there's someone else there. Unfortunately, the someone else can hear both sides of the conversation.
*** Inverted when the 10th Doctor spouts phrases against timey slimey clone Martha in "[[Doctor Who
** Also done earlier in "New Earth", when Cassandra pulls a [[Grand Theft Me]] on Rose. He doesn't initially suspect anything, even when Rose suddenly kisses him and starts speaking a little strange. However, when they find out that {{spoiler|the hospital is making clones and infecting them with diseases}} and Rose doesn't react with horror, the Doctor knows something's wrong.
*** In this instance the Doctor starts to get suspicious just after she kisses him, when she leads them both into the secret intensive care unit by using technical knowledge he knows she doesn't have. Suspicions are confirmed when Rose doesn't care about {{spoiler|the dying patients.}}
* A variant is used in an episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', where Daniel, trapped behind enemy lines, is relaying a battle plan to the SGC via radio through what sounds like small talk, mixing in Goa'uld words to let them know what his plan is. If the message was translated, it would sound something like, "Oh, and could you have Teal'c water my ''coordinated pincer attack''?"
** A straighter example would be when O'Neill and Teal'c are stuck in a time loop, but everyone else's memories are reset. O'Neill tries to prove it by explaining why the planet they're visiting is important before Carter has a chance to. Later, Carter and Hammond have the following conversation:
{{quote|
'''Hammond''': "You have a point there."
'''Carter''': "And he was using them ''correctly''. More or less" }}
*** Except he didn't say "geomagnetic". He just said it has something to do with magnets. Teal'c was the one who said the correct term. Then again, O'Neill' isn't as dumb as he likes people to believe (besides other things, he's also an amateur astronomer).
*** Also from that episode:
{{quote|
'''Maj. Carter:''' Maybe you read my report?
'''Dr. Jackson:''' [skeptically] Maybe he ''read'' your ''report''? [raises eyebrows] }}
* In an episode of ''[[
* ''[[Eleventh Hour]]'', "Miracle": [[Patrick Stewart]]'s character realizes that the apparent suicide of a doctor he'd been working with isn't what it seems when, in her suicide note, she bequeaths to him her "geiger counter". At an earlier meeting, she had made a point of her aversion to that term (on account of Hans Geiger's naziism), insisting instead upon calling it a "radiation detector".
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' used this in ''Hunted''. When Gordon uses Dean as bait and forces him to call Sam, Sam instantly knows that something's wrong because Dean used the codeword "Funkytown". {{spoiler|Subverted: Gordon knew that Dean would find a way to alert Sam and was leading him into a trap}}.
** Actually done several times. Once by a shape-shifter. Another time the body of another supernatural hunter was possessed by the [[Seven Deadly Sins]].
* ''[[Dark Angel]]'' uses this in the episode "Rising". When the villains tries to use Original Cindy as bait, she warns Max by referring to her new boyfriend. Original Cindy is a lesbian.
** However, since [[Viewers
* In the first season finale of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Sam provides a variant: in his proof-of-life photo, he makes a strange hand gesture. Michael looks through Sam's old photos and finds a matching pose, realizing that Sam is telling Michael to give up on him. Michael promptly ignores this and rescues Sam anyway.
** In the third season finale, Madeline Westen apparently had a code phrase meaning "stay away" already established with her sons. It was originally meant to indicate that their [[Abusive Parents|father was in a drunken rage]], but it also works pretty well when {{spoiler|the FBI is after Mike}}.
** In the fourth season episode "Out of the Fire", Michael calls Fiona 'honey' while talking to her over the phone. She then explains that this a code phrase they had during their Belfast days meaning 'something is wrong'.
* Subverted in the episode "Psirens" of ''[[
** Played straight earlier when Dave realizes that the "Kryten" that saved him was not really Kryten, since Kryten never calls Lister "Dave".
* On ''[[Psych]]'', Lassiter gets a text message from "Shawn" and follows it right into the trap the killer set. When Lassiter gets there, a captive Shawn says, "I can't believe you thought that text was actually from me. It lacked all nuance, was lacking my signature mocking tone, and was totally devoid of emoticons."
* ''[[Andromeda]]'' had Dylan Hunt blinking a code with his eyes when he was kidnapped, his ship computer was programmed to detect it.
* In a recent{{when}} episode of ''[[CSI]]'', Riley calls Greg Sanders by her own name to alert him to the fact that she and Langston were being held hostage (a technique [[Chekhov's Skill|established at the beginning of the episode]] in a training roleplay). He replies "Okay, Sanders" to let her know he understands the message.
* An episode of ''[[Tales
* In a first-season episode of ''[[Jericho]]'', Johnston uses this technique to flush out a group of desperate con-artists posing as Marines, by mixing Marine and Army mottos to see if they'd recognize the wrong ones.
* On ''[[
{{quote|
'''Crichton''': Uh-huh. What about, ah... Chiana and Sikozu?
'''Pilot''': Enjoying each other's company. Preparing a meal for... everyone but Rygel. He's... not hungry. }}
** After hanging up Crichton says "something's wrong".
* On ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', Reid does this in the episode "Revelations" when he's being held hostage. The killer forces Reid, on a video feed, to pick a member of the team to die. Reid picks Hotch, and mentions a few character flaws and a relevant Bible verse. Hotch realizes that the personality Reid is describing isn't
** In an earlier episode, Hotch was uncharacteristically frustrated with Reid's earlier difficulty in the shooting range after they had both been captured. He eventually convinced the UNSUB to let him kick Reid before they both died, which gave Reid a chance to grab the gun in his ankle holster. Later Reid said he'd figured out the plan at the very beginning, making the drawn-out scene unnecessary.
** In the DVD commentary for "Revelations," the writers mused on this swap and eventually agreed that Reid and Hotch have "a very effective spite-based communication."
* During the second season arc of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Sydney and Jack's [[Deep
* In an episode of ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'', Donna is being held prisoner in her room by a would-be rapist. When David shows up at the apartment to apologize to her (they had an argument earlier in the day), the rapist orders her to get rid of him. So from behind a closed door, Donna repeatedly yells at David to leave, but she keeps calling him "Dave", something she's never done before. David realizes something's wrong and manages to save her.
* In ''[[Dallas]]'', Pam signals to Bobby that something is wrong by telling him on the phone that she plans to spend the evening playing backgammon with J.R. Bobby knows Pam and J.R. hate each other and would never willingly spend the evening together, so he hurries home to find the whole family is being held hostage.
* ''[[Castle]]'': Castle is being tied up and held at gunpoint by a killer when his mother calls. The killer forces him to answer the phone and act normal. When Castle ends the call with "I love you", his mother calls Beckett and tells her something must be terribly wrong.
** in a previous episode, a 12 year old boy was being held hostage, and used the proof of life video his captors took to try to alert everyone to his location. " Don't forget to feed Ace," he says, only his family doesn't have any pets. Ace turns out to be a place, a subway station where lines A, C and E all run. Thanks to Castles quick thinking and the victim of the week's invention, the kid is rescued.
* In a chilling episode of ''[[Rescue 911]]'', a woman is told by a rapist to call in sick to her workplace. She promptly dials a male friend and tells him, "I can't come in to work today," thus alerting the friend that she's in trouble and he needs to stop by PRONTO. A few seconds later, she does the same thing again with 911, and the dispatcher immediately works out that there's something wrong and sends the police.
** There was a similar episode of ''[[I Survived]]''. When a woman's crazed ex-husband broke into her house and threatened her, she managed to stall him by telling him that her friend was coming to take her shopping and that she needed to cancel her plans. Amazingly, he let her call. When the friend answered, the woman proceeded to cheerfully tell her that she couldn't make it and not to bother coming. Initially
* On an episode of ''[[Baywatch]]'', as Stephanie gets into her truck, she's confronted by an escaped convict, who orders her to drive off the beach. During the drive, Mitch radios Stephanie to tell her to return to headquarters. The criminal orders Stephanie to tell Mitch that she has found a lost child and is driving him around to find his parents. Stephanie complies, knowing that the criminal has just [[Hoist
* Rather terrifyingly [[Inverted]] in an episode of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. The setup is that [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|Morgana]] has convinced [[Well
** Played straight in a later episode: [[Parental Substitute|Gaius]] is being controlled by a goblin. Arthur suspects as much and tricks the goblin into revealing itself by discussing [[
* In the episode "Chris-Crossed" from ''[[
** Another ''Charmed'' example has Piper being possessed by a demon. Piper warns the demon that her sisters will eventually figure it out, "Or if they don't, my boyfriend Tom will." Piper's fiance (the aforementioned Leo) comes in just then and immediately becomes suspicious when the demon in Piper's body calls him Tom.
* In the ''[[JAG]]'' episode "Secrets", Admiral Chegwidden is being held at gunpoint, and tells Bud over the phone to get him a specific file. Harm and Mac realize the file the Admiral asked for is about a sailor who held his CO hostage, tipping them off.
* In ''[[Chuck]] versus The Santa Suit'', {{spoiler|Shaw}} has taken over Castle and is holding Sarah hostage. In getting an important file, Chuck apparently gets a call from Sarah, but as he's able to deduce, it's just {{spoiler|Shaw}} using a voice modifier. How? Chuck concludes that Sarah would never call him "dear".
* In the ''[[MacGyver]]'' episode "Countdown", Mac cues Pete in on the fact that he needs to speak to him on a private channel by 'reminding' him that they are due to play golf when he gets back. Mac has never played a round of golf in his life.
* In an episode of ''[[
* In ''[[Sherlock]]'', John blinks SOS while he's strapped to the semtex vest and faces Sherlock after being taken hostage by Moriarty. There's no indication that Sherlock got it
* On ''[[The X-Files]]'', this happens with a twist. In the episode "Small Potatos," Mulder is kidnapped by a shape-shifter who decides to steal Mulder's identity...literally. In "Dreamland," Mulder and an MIB switch bodies. Both non-Mulders try their hand at seducing Scully. The MIB was so sleazy about it that some of the things he said were a big sign to Scully that Mulder was [[Not Himself]]. Plus, they both called her "Dana," which Mulder ''never'' does unless things are really bad.
* Done twice in the last episode of ''[[Adam Adamant]]'' when he is telephoning his valet while at the enemy's company. The first time is when someone walks into a room and he talks about a nonexistent dark blue herringbone as a signal that he is being watched. The second time is when he is captured and gives a perfectly sensible statement about dinner that he still would never say because it it is nonresponsive; he follows this by a hint for rescuing Georgina.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]: Original Generation'' subverts this. When a main character's girlfriend disappears and later reappears, the character remarks that it's not her, because "even she wouldn't be silly at a time like this". When they break the mind control, she acts just like she did when she was mind-controlled. Another character mutters "Would never act like this in this situation, huh?".
* In ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', [[Doctor Doom]]'s henchmen get "Dum Dum" Dugan to come to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Omega Base by relaying a [[Distress Call]]. However, [[Nick Fury]] figures out it is a trap when Dugan (purposefully) lists Bruce Banner as being a scientist researching the Super Soldier Serum when he is in fact assigned to the Gamma Bomb project.
* A subtle one left for the player to notice occurs in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic II]]'' on Korriban. When the player encounters [[Trickster Mentor|Kreia]] in a tomb on the planet she supposedly won't set foot on, one way to deduce this is an illusion that's not of Kreia's making is hidden in "Kreia"'s dialog. By this point in the game, the player will have noticed [[The Nicknamer|Kreia refers to the other party members by anything ''but'' their name]]<ref>Except for one very specific instance where, outside of the player character's presence, she's taunting a character on how she knows that name is actually alias.</ref>, so perceptive players should notice when the "Kreia" they meet does this not just once, but twice in rapid succession.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* A ''[[Nodwick]]'' strip details a dungeon crawl where the group finds a high-up switch. The group is tipped off that something is amiss (viz. he's been replaced by a doppelganger) when Yeagar, looking for something to throw at it, [http://comic.nodwick
* In ''[[Questionable Content]]'', Faye and her [[Crazy Prepared]] mother have worked out a code phrase for when Faye was being held against her will.
{{quote|
* Belkar of ''[[
{{quote|
'''Side Character''': See? Even your other party member agrees which means-
'''Celia and Haley''': (together) [[Oh Crap|RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!]] }}
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0723.html Later], Tarquin figures out that Elan is not [[Evil Twin|Nale]] partly because Elan [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0722.html surrendered] to save a teammate, which Nale would never do.
{{quote|
'''Malack''': Now that you mention it, I did find that odd. }}
* Played with in ''[[Terror Island]]''. In [http://terrorisland.net/strips/184.html this strip], the protagonists recognize that their friend Jame is possessed by a demon, when he says "SOUNDS LIKE SOMEBODY HAS BEEN EATING SOUR GRAPES." But when the demon is banished from Jame, [http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/185.html he says exactly the same thing], and Sid proclaims "That's our Jame!" Unless it's because demons simply [[Painting the Fourth Wall|talk with different]] [[Speech Bubbles]]...
* In [[Girl Genius|Othar Trygvassen]]'s ('''''[[Gentleman Adventurer]]''''') [[Character Blog|twitter]]:
{{quote|
* In ''[[Something
* In ''[[Exiern]]'' Neils tries to drop hints [http://www.exiern.com/?p=1340 here] that he has been be-spelled and is no longer fully in control of his own actions by calling Crown Princess Peonie the "Second In Line To The Throne" instead of the first. It seems like no one notices at the time though. Peonie had to have it spelled out to her after the inevitable kidnapping, but her father was just going along with it 'til he could get his other assets in play.
* ''[[Blue Yonder]]'' discovers his family [https://web.archive.org/web/20201228002516/https://www.smackjeeves.com/discover/detail?titleNo=80060&articleNo=41 on an impromptu vacation] "to Omega Centuri".
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In the [[Whateley Universe]] story "Test Tube Babies", team superboy Lancer is fighting a power mimic/shapeshifter who now looks like Lancer. One of them yells at a teammate with an anti-brick weapon to 'shoot both of us'. The teammate blasts that one senseless. Not only is the teammate [[Genre Savvy]], but they have communicators they would really use instead.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (
{{quote|
'''Homer''': ''(reading from a cue card held by the kidnapper, bad acting)'' Do not worry, I am working.
'''Lisa''': Working? Where?
'''Homer''': Ask no questions and do not call the police or I will kill me.
'''Lisa''': You sound weird.
'''Homer''': Everything is fine, goodbye forever. ''(Hangs up)'' }}
* A variation of this occurs in the ''[[
** Another Western Sonic series, ''[[
* All-around skewered in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Spookyfish", where "Evil Cartman" (actually a sweet and lovable [[Mirror Universe]] Cartman... from a MU where everyone has a goatee and is the opposite personality) and "Real Cartman" fight to avoid being sent back to the MU. When the goatee gets ripped off, one Cartman says they'll just have to send both back. Wanting "Evil Cartman" to stay, and knowing this is something "Real Cartman" would never say, the boys send the other Cartman back... except that Real Cartman is quite [[Genre Savvy]]...
* In an episode of ''[[Batman:
** In an episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', Bruce realizes that his "inner voice" isn't really his, that he's under suggestion by the villain Shriek:
{{quote|
'''Bruce''': The voice in my head kept calling me Bruce... I don't call myself 'Bruce'.
'''Terry''': ''(in Batman voice)'' Don't forget, that's my name now...
'''Bruce''': Tell that to my subconscious. }}
** In a crossover episode, Robin calls [[Superman:
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' {{spoiler|Norman Osborn does not apologize.}} The Chameleon would though.
* On an episode of ''[[Men in Black (
* On ''[[Teen Titans (
** Which is sort of ironic, because usually, [[The Speechless|Jericho doesn't either]].
* This was how Cosgrove discredited an evil clone in ''[[Freakazoid!]]'': he asked if the clone wanted to [[Running Gag|go to a Yakov Smirnov festival]]. The clone said "no". (Compare that to Freakazoid's usual "DO I!")
* In the opening movie of the ''[[Star Wars:
* Averted on ''[[Family Guy]]''. Lois is being held at gunpoint by Diane Simmons, and she tries to signal to Peter that something by calling him "Pete" (something she never does), while Peter does question it, he quickly ignores it and leaves so he can listen to music in the car.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
* Subverted in ''[[
== [[Real Life]] ==
=== [[World War II]] ===
* The crew of the USS Pueblo, captured by North Koreans, and their ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20071204163149/http://www.usspueblo.org/v2f/captivity/goodluck.html Hawaiian Good Luck Sign]''.▼
* Resistance radio operators for the British Special Operations Executive were given special code words to indicate if they were being forced to transmit under duress. Unfortunately some of these agents were later "reminded" by headquarters to include their security check when they omitted it after being captured.▼
** A captured Korean War commander, forced into a confession, gave this: "We paean the great state of North Korea and its leader." For those of you who didn't get it {{spoiler|paean is pronounced like pee on}}▼
** Security checks, such as using codewords and including/not including certain punctuation characters in certain points of a message, to indicate that the operator now works in captivity, were the standard practice of radio operators who transmitted intelligence information from behind the enemy lines during
* Arrested by the Nazis during WWII for suspicion of hiding Jews in her house, [
** They had that code already. "We have a woman's watch here that needs repairing. But I can't find a mainspring. Do you know who might have one?" was one way of saying that there was a woman in need of a hiding place, but none available. Any references to issues with a watch's face meant a Jew whose features were especially Semitic -- "Do you know someone willing to take on the extra risk?" And "This watch cannot be repaired -- do you have a receipt?" meant "Someone has died. We need a burial permit."▼
* From a letter by a Jewish family which passed through Nazi censorship:▼
{{quote|
* At the National P.O.W. Museum (496 Cemetary Rd, Andersonville, GA), by the Andersonville civil war prison, there are a number of video screens to watch, including one screen showing black and white footage from WWII Japan. In this video there is a prisoner leaning on a railing, facing generally toward the camera. The man is unobtrusively giving the Hawaiian good luck symbol, so this gesture in film pre-dates the Korean war. Museum staff were unaware of this.▼
=== Other examples ===
▲* The crew of the USS ''Pueblo'', captured by North Koreans, and their ''[
▲** A captured Korean War commander, forced into a confession, gave this: "We paean the great state of North Korea and its leader." For those of you who didn't get it {{spoiler|paean is pronounced like pee on}}.
* Some biometric fingerprint scanners have a "panic" feature: One of the user's fingers is designated as the "panic finger": In normal conditions the user does ''not'' press it against the scanner to be verified; if they do, it still grants access but also trips a silent alarm.
* As mentioned in ''[[Bravo Two Zero]]'', people in the military, particularly special forces who may be likely to be captured, will often agree on a sign that they are being forced to do something under duress. In this book, one of the captured soldiers is forced to make a video message stating that all's well. He is given a cigarette to add to the illusion. His signal that all's not well is to hold the cigarette differently than he usually would.
▲* Resistance radio operators for the British Special Operations Executive were given special code words to indicate if they were being forced to transmit under duress. Unfortunately some of these agents were later "reminded" by headquarters to include their security check when they omitted it after being captured.
▲** Security checks, such as using codewords and including/not including certain punctuation characters in certain points of a message, to indicate that the operator now works in captivity, were the standard practice of radio operators who transmitted intelligence information from behind the enemy lines during WW II.
* When captured during [[The Vietnam War]], then-aviator Jeremiah Denton communicated to the American audience during a televised interview by blinking in Morse code, spelling out the word "torture".
* One urban legend describes a prisoner of war forced to write a letter to his family saying that he is being treated well. In the letter is a cryptic sentence: "Please give little Jimmie the stamp for his collection." The family doesn't know anyone named Jimmie, so they realize that it must be a clue. They steam the stamp off the envelope, and on the other side is written the truth of the prisoner's condition: "They've cut off my [hands/legs/tongue]."
** Then [[Fridge Logic|how did he]]
** Not to mention that letters sent by POW don't have stamps, at least not before they've entered Red Cross' hands.
** I heard of the inverse, a prisoner of war wrote to his parents who lived in a village small enough not to have street names. The fake address he made up (Kings' Road or Road of the Kings, plus a ridiculously high number) was a quote from [[The Bible]] (Book kings, the number indicating the verse) describing prisoners being treated
* Some businesses have, as a standard response to someone making threats, a protocol for calling 911. The employee tells the person they will have a supervisor paged, pick up the phone, dial 911, and then hang up. When 911 calls back, they respond as if talking to a supervisor with simple "yes" and "no" answers.
▲* Arrested by the Nazis during WWII for suspicion of hiding Jews in her house, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrie_ten_Boom Corrie ten Boom] received a letter from her sister with bad news (their father's death). She then noticed the address was written in a hand that sloped uncharacteristically forwards, pointing to the stamp. The stamp had the message "All the watches in your closet are safe", letting her know the hidden Jews had not been found by the Nazis.
▲** They had that code already. "We have a woman's watch here that needs repairing. But I can't find a mainspring. Do you know who might have one?" was one way of saying that there was a woman in need of a hiding place, but none available. Any references to issues with a watch's face meant a Jew whose features were especially Semitic -- "Do you know someone willing to take on the extra risk?" And "This watch cannot be repaired -- do you have a receipt?" meant "Someone has died. We need a burial permit."
▲* From a letter by a Jewish family which passed through Nazi censorship:
▲{{quote| "Dear XXX, let me assure you, all the stories about Jews having to suffer in Germany are nothing but propaganda. We are fine in every way, we are not harassed by the government, and we wouldn't wish to be anywhere else, except maybe with our dear aunt Sara - Sichrona la olam!" (The latter being a Hebrew phrase roughly equivalent to "May she rest in peace".)}}
* If the pilot of an aircraft sets their transponder code to 7500 or says 'squawk 7500' over the radio and then does not respond, air traffic control will assume the aircraft is being or has been hijacked. There are also other, confidential, measures taken. In fact, great emphasis is placed on the part of radio training where pilots are instructed how to avoid ''accidentally'' flipping their transponder to 7500 while switching codes.
▲* At the National P.O.W. Museum (496 Cemetary Rd, Andersonville, GA), by the Andersonville civil war prison, there are a number of video screens to watch, including one screen showing black and white footage from WWII Japan. In this video there is a prisoner leaning on a railing, facing generally toward the camera. The man is unobtrusively giving the Hawaiian good luck symbol, so this gesture in film pre-dates the Korean war. Museum staff were unaware of this.
* It's very obvious when someone else is doing something on another person's Facebook, or MSN.
** There was a meme for a while of hacking, say, Bobby's facebook and making his status "hi my name is Bobby" as a signature.
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