Scooby-Doo Hoax: Difference between revisions

''The ghost is here,''

''Oh, give him the boot-''

 

The characters investigate a site with reported paranormal activity. By the end of the episode, they discover that the supposed supernatural activity is nothing but an elaborate hoax taking advantage of [[Haunted House Historian|local lore]] to frighten off the curious from discovering and interfering with their [[Evil Plan|main criminal activity.]]

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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

** When this trope is played out, the real surprise was that in the end, in addition to the kids playing pranks, there was an actual ghost. It was a mostly harmless one, though.

** Another episode features a different variation. An irreverent chef comes to judge Chef Kawasaki's cooking skills, but it turns out he was in a costume and working for N.M.E. What's under the costume was worse.

* Parodied in [[Multiple Endings|one of the endings]] of ''[[Wayne's World]]''

* ''[[Captain Clegg]]'' is about a circle of rumrunners, led by [[Peter Cushing]], who use this to try to scare away or distract the law.

* The 2009 ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' movie uses this, with apparent [[Big Bad]] Lord Blackwood deliberately cultivating a reputation as a fearsome [[Evil Sorcerer]], culminating in rising from his grave following a hanging, all as part of his [[Evil Plan]] to seize control of England. He's really "just" a [[Magnificent Bastard]] with good connections and an eye for the theatrical, and Holmes figures this out and explains it at the climax before exposing Blackwood for a fraud. Holmes does mention, though, that Blackwood performed all his spells and rituals perfectly and therefore he'd better ''hope'' it was all fake, or else [[Satan]]'s due a soul...

* Famously subverted in the ''[[Sleepy Hollow (Film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'' movie. In the original story by Washington Irving, the [[Headless Horseman]] was an elaborate prank to scare an aloof schoolteacher. In the film, it really exists.

* Washington Irving's 1819 short story ''[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]'' strongly implies that Brom Bones eliminates Ichabod Crane as a rival for his lover's hand by dressing up as the [[Headless Horseman]] and scaring him out of town.

* Literary example: Most of the Leaphorn/Chee mysteries by Tony Hillerman, with the supernatural elements in this case coming from the myths of the Navajo or other Native American tribes of the American Southwest.

** Who also was a member of the opera house.

** Although those scented rose stems actually ''do'' bloom into ghostly roses when in darkness. At the end, Agnes laments that she'll probably never know how the "Ghost" managed that. But Discworld runs on [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]], so it might have been enough that people ''thought'' the Ghost was supernatural.

* The ''Hound of the Baskervilles'', a [[Sherlock Holmes]] story by Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], includes a similar plot twist. The story came out in 1902, making this [[Older Than Radio]].

* The [[Simon Ark]] short stories by Edward D. Hoch.

* In the [[James Bond]] novel ''[[Live and Let Die (novel)|Live and Let Die]]'', Mr. Big cultivates an air of voodoo around himself to deter investigation into his operations. Take a look at the entry in Films.

* In ''Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars'' by [[Daniel Pinkwater]], the Wozzle is an invisible monster employed by the Nafsulian bandits Manny, Moe and Jack to terrorize the citizens of Waka-Waka. It turns out to be no more than the three villains themselves.

* In ''[[Garrett P.I.|Bitter Gold Hearts]]'', Garrett recalls investigating one of these cases, in which a murder was rigged to look like a werewolf attack.

* These plots happen to [[Nancy Drew]] and the [[Hardy Boys]] all the time in their books, and have spilled over into the former's video game franchise.

* ''[[Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder]]'' has at least one case like this, with smugglers faking a haunting so they can use an abandoned building.

* In [[The Saint]] short story "The Convenient Monster", a murderer tries to make his killing look like the work of the Loch Ness Monster.

* The first Calendar Mysteries book revolves around an alien hoax that the big kids pull on their younger siblings out of revenge.

 

* Many episodes of ''[[Banacek]]'' featured apparently supernatural events, debunked by the title character in the climax.

* Ditto, in the short-lived series, ''[[Blackest Magic]]''.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20110820174248/http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Chapter007/ib044.html Dara checks, but the circus's Ancients are fakes.]

* ''[[Bloody Urban]]'' [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Zig-Zags]] this trope rather confusingly by having one type of monster dressing up as another type of monster. Specifically, Shaun (a [[Vegetarian Vampire]] who feeds on livestock) dresses up as a [[Chupacabra]] in order to get free food and not get caught.

 

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[[Category:Plots]]