Surveillance Station Slacker: Difference between revisions
→Western Animation
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{{trope}}
In a variety of jobs, a person has to be watching out for something important, poised and waiting for a certain emergency situation. For example, a big satellite dish could be constantly listening for any signal, any sign of life from the stars. Or it could be some sort of asteroid early-warning system, or it could even be an inbound-missile warning system on a space station. And in movies and tv, at the other end of all that surveillance equipment is a tiny shack/room absolutely stacked with computer equipment, one integral computer screen, and the
If the computer screen
The Slacker sometimes comes with a workmate/companion, someone to tell him to stop lazing about so much, who is often portrayed as a grumpy elderly man.
Often overlaps with [[The Guards Must Be Crazy]].
{{examples|Examples: }}▼
== [[Advertising]] ==
* The long-suffering Maytag Repairman, sitting by the phone waiting for someone to call (the joke, of course, is that Maytag appliances never need repair).
== [[
* In the Image Comics series ''[[Chew]]'', the Gardner-Kvashennaya International Telescope in Siberia has a $34 million-a-year budget to basically monitor a single mysterious planet light-years away. But since the telescope only needs $3 million-a-year to actually run, the scientists use the rest of the money to spend on whatever they want, and these things get extensively bigger, weirder, and more hedonistic as the scientists get bored with regular pleasures. Up until the protagonists arrive following an investigation, of course. Then all hell breaks loose.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The priest of the temple of Layiru in chapter 6 of ''[[Relatively Absent]]'' who misses a mysterious alert (in the form of a flaring gemstone in an intricate mosaic). Exactly what it was an alert ''about'', though, we'll never know, thanks to the story's enforced [[Dead Fic]] status.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Independence Day]]''. The man on duty at the S.E.T.I. Institute is playing [[Office Golf]]. A red light starts blinking and he goes over and flips a switch, which causes a series of tones to come out a speaker. He excitedly calls his boss on the phone and asks him to listen to the tones, and when the boss hears them he sits up in bed, bumping his head, then hurries to the lab. The signals turn out to be from an alien ship approaching the Earth.
* ''[[Contact]]'', Jodie Foster doesn't really count, she's more like a protagonist version of this, but her 2 fellow scientists at SETI fit this trope perfectly.
* ''[[
* ''[[Sneakers]]''. A security guard who appears to be in his teens is sitting around in a bank late at night watching TV. All of a sudden the fire alarm goes off and he panics, scrambling around trying to find the instruction book and find out who to call.
* ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' begins with two technicians at an isolated base in
* ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'' has that shack full of British guys who watch a soccer game rather than pay attention to their equipment.
* Subverted in ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'': the toy watching the cameras never sleeps. [[Uncanny Valley|Ever.]]
== [[Literature]] ==
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* In the ''[[A to Z Mysteries]]'' book ''The Jaguar's Jewel'', Dink's uncle forgets that his office has a security system even when a thief steals the titular jewel from his office. Leaving it up to our three heroes to find the video and decipher the clues.
== [[Live
* "Homer," a one-shot character on ''[[The X-Files]]
* This was essentially Martin's job, as a graveyard-shift security guard in an office building in ''[[Frasier]]''.
* ''[[The Day Today]]'' spoof about the swimming pool features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1rYlCpOnM a night watchman who spends his time doing puzzles and trying on abandoned swimming costumes], leading him to miss 40 people breaking into the pool and eventually one of them drowning. He defends himself saying, "I have been working here for 18 years. In 1975, no one died. In 1976, no one died. In 1977, no one died. In 1978, no one died. In 1979, no one died. In 1980, ''someone'' died."
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' episode "Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space!" has Jimmy and Jerry Gourd as two technicians whose entire job is to monitor the sky, and to turn on the [[Bat Signal|Larry-Signal]] if they see anything from space approaching the city. In their one scene, Jerry sees the eponymous Fib on his monitor and freezes in
* ''[[Scooby Doo]] and the Alien Invaders'' has a trio of scientists who man a satellite station watching for evidence of extraterrestrial life. While not slobs, they're cynical about any hope of success and joke about the massive collection of static they've collected. Fortunately, [[Scooby-Doo Hoax|they've found other ways to occupy the time]].
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", a beholder is guarding the entrance to the Master In-Pile, but the crew is able to sneak past him, because he fell asleep on the job. He wakes up after they pass through, and asks them not to tell his supervisor.
* From the old ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Porky's Hired Hand"; Porky hires a dimwitted assistant named Gregory Grunt to guard a hen house, and tells Gregory to watch for the fox, and above all else, "DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" Gregory swears he'll stay awake, but naturally, [[Gilligan Cut| falls asleep in the very next scene.]]
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', when Celes is first seen, she is being arrested for treason (meaning she found out about Kefka's plan to poison the residents of Doma Castle and tried to expose him) and sentenced to death. Locke goes to rescue her, which is easier than it looks, as the mook guarding her has fallen asleep. Even lifting the Clock Key from him (which Celes says they need, and they do) is pretty easy.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' shows us the security camera guy at Shinra Building only for a few seconds, but we get the message he's bored out of his mind and does absolutely nothing. AVALANCHE sneaks effortlessly past his cameras.
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Insecurity System]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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