Tin Foil Hat: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:ManWearingTinFoilHat.jpg|frame|It's protective ''and'' stylish!]]
{{Quote|Don't mind that.▼
{{Quote|''And still the government won't admit they faked the whole moon landing.
I'm protected because I made this hat.▼
''Thought control rays, psychotronic scanning.
From aluminum foil.|[[Weird Al]]}}▼
When a writer wants to establish a character as a [[Conspiracy Theorist]], a [[Crazy Survivalist]], or another kind of paranoid weirdo, they usually give them hats made out of tinfoil to wear, ostensibly to protect themselves from [[The Government]]'s [[Mind Control]] rays.▼
▲''I'm protected because I made this hat.
|[["Weird Al" Yankovic]], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}w-0TEJMJOhk "Foil"]}}
▲When a writer wants to establish a character as a [[Conspiracy Theorist]], a [[Crazy Survivalist]], or another kind of paranoid weirdo, they usually give them hats made out of tinfoil to wear, ostensibly to protect themselves from [[The Government]]'s [[Mind Control]] rays; presumably, they believe that technology of the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] scale [[Idiot Ball| can be hindered by materials that can be bought at any corner drug store.]]
As [[The Other Wiki]] can tell you, however, aluminum actually has very little shielding effect and covering just the top of the head with it leaves the rest of the body (including the bottom of the head) "unprotected", anyway. So whoever is wearing it must be... funny in the head to begin with.▼
▲Of course, it could not. As [[The Other Wiki]] can
For when a Tinfoil Hat actually ''does'' protect the [[Properly Paranoid]] wearer, see also [[Artistic License Nuclear Physics]]. This trope includes both properly paranoid and simply paranoid examples.
{{examples}}
* Most of the main characters in ''[[Signs]]'' wind up wearing one at some point before the end of the movie.
* The ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Into the Wild Green Yonder'' featured a cult-like group of hobos called the Legion of Madfellows who all wore such hats to prevent the Dark One from reading their thoughts, and indoctrinated Fry into their practices.<ref>Fry's hat in particular would be in different shapes for different scenes (it's foil, after all), depending on the occasion. E.g. it became a stereotypical police officer hat when he was posing as a security guard.</ref> They were, of course, [[Properly Paranoid]].
** The hat also serves to block Fry's own mind reading powers as [[Power Incontinence|he can't turn them off of his own accord]].
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* In the early ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' books, the paranoid centaur Foaly always wears a tin-foil hat.
* The novel ''Idiots In The Machine'' by Edward Savio portrays a character who believes that tin foil keeps harmful gamma rays away and becomes a media sensation, marketing a successful line of foil hats to Chicago.
* In ''[[The Dark Tower]]'', Randall Flagg has one of these. Allegedly, it actually works against most forms of mind control magic, but it doesn't work on the villain he's facing, Mordred.
* Inverted in ''[[The Salvation War]]'', where demonic mind control and illusion powers can be blocked by foil and the story gets much mileage out of this, including the line "There will always be eccentrics who deny that the tin foil hat is absolutely essential to prevent baldricks taking over your mind."▼
== [[Live
* ''[[Eastenders]]'' character Joe Wicks was briefly portrayed constructing and wearing his own tin-foil hat as part of a storyline which saw him suffering from schizophrenia.
* In an episode of ''[[Stroker
* In ''[[The X-Files]]'', [[The Lone Gunmen]] wear them occasionally. Also, a policeman suggests they all get one in their [[Origins Episode]] when he realizes what kind of kooks he is dealing with.
* On an episode of ''[[Fringe]]'' Walter wears a tinfoil hat at Massive Dynamic headquarters to defend against mindreading/MindControl projects, and convinces Astrid to do the same. In context, it's actually a credible concern.
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* In an episode of ''[[The Finder]]'' the Finder wears an aluminum foil hat. The client (Hodgins from ''Bones'') mocks him, but it really does help block the government from interfering with your brain waves so you can move.
==[[ Music]] ==
▲== Music ==
* In [[Doctor Steel]]'s web video, "Reality Engineering", Steel is shown wearing a tinfoil hat when he's labeled a conspiracy nut.
* Half of [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s song "Foil" (a parody of Lorde's "Royals", from his 2014 CD ''Mandatory Fun'') is a buildup to a musical [[Conspiracy Theories|conspiracy rant]] with the punchline being his tin foil hat, as seen in the page quote.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The tin-foil hat was an April Fool's Day item created by Blizzard to parody player paranoia about their character information being searchable on the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' armory.
* ''[[
* Dogen Boole in ''[[Psychonauts]]'' wears a tinfoil hat he claims prevents him from accidentally [[Your Head Asplode|making people's heads explode]] with his [[Psychic Powers]].
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! DUEL LINKS]]''; Defeat Espa Roba (a duelist who claims to have [[Psychic Powers]]) on lvl 40 and he asks if you're wearing one.
== Web Original ==
*
* A guy wearing a tinfoil hat is (or was, at least) the symbol of the [[Wild Mass Guessing]] section of [[TV Tropes]].<ref>[[This Very Wiki|We]] use a [[Doctor Who|TARDIS]], instead, for all the Time Lords allegedly identified.</ref>
▲* Inverted in ''[[The Salvation War]]'', where demonic mind control and illusion powers can be blocked by foil and the story gets much mileage out of this, including the line "There will always be eccentrics who deny that the tin foil hat is absolutely essential to prevent baldricks taking over your mind."
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
*
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* Exagurated in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', "Brother's Little Helper", Bart becomes paranoid after taking an ADD drug called Focusin, leading him to believe that Major League Baseball is spying on him and begins donning a tin foil bodysuit. At the end of the episode, Bart turns out to be right when he shoots an MLB satellite out of the sky.
* On ''[[Regular Show]]'', Mordecai and Rigby make foil hats when using Pops' '80s era cell phones, after he warned them that they cause tumors.
* Inverted in the fourth ''[[Futurama]]'' movie, where Fry is able to use one to suppress his newly acquired [[Psychic Powers]]; he could not control them otherwise, and hearing everyone's thoughts was driving him nuts.
== Other ==
* Notorious [[Conspiracy Theorist]] [[Alex Jones]] used one as a visual aid on his broadcast once.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Tin Foil Hat]]▼
[[Category:Pages needing more categories]]
[[Category:The Index Is Watching You]]
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