...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Incredibly Obvious Bug
- 797 statements
- 153 feature instances
- 89 referencing feature instances
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Listening devices and "hidden" cameras that are large and obvious, often with a big red or green light on them, that go unnoticed. Sometimes they get hidden in ventilation grates in such a way that the light they emit can be seen by anyone walking by. And sometimes they're right out in the open, apparently unnoticed by people who really ought to know better. Tracking devices are even worse for this, not only having a red light, but beeping audibly, which is several kinds of stupid. One would think that Batman of all people would realize that perhaps it's not a good idea to stick a beeping, light-equipped device onto somebody's car and expect them not to notice. Still played straight on occasion, just as often it's subverted or parodied. Such variants include: The target actually finding the bug, then either destroying it or using it to mislead the person listening in. An Incredibly Obvious Bug being used to distract attention from another far less obtrusive bug. It's intended to be found to unnerve/annoy an already suspicious or paranoid person. It's Played for Laughs. The bug is so absurdly large or obvious that it should be utterly impossible to miss, yet no one notices. (e.g., one the size of a bowling ball stuck to the back of someone's head, beeping with the volume of a truck horn). If someone points it out, they're dismissed as being paranoid. Sometimes the bug itself isn't obvious, but is discovered because it allows two-way communication for some reason. The reason this trope is used is for the audience's benefit. Bugs in television are big and obvious so the director can point the camera at the bug to tell the audience that a bug has been planted on that person without wasting dialog telling the audience. Not to be confused with the things you find in Obvious Betas. Or with actual insects (usually). See Also: Finding the Bug, Incredibly Obvious Bomb, Incredibly Obvious Tail, Insecurity Camera. Contrast Spy Cam. |
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Dropped link to AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Parodied in "A Fistful of Yen", the Enter the Dragon parody from The Kentucky Fried Movie. The hero engages in conversation with the woman he's there to rescue while she points out the bugs in his room, starting with a visible but not-so-obvious one in a bouquet of flowers and moving on to really obvious (but not totally ridiculous) one on the lamp, progressing to studio microphones on the side of pictures, a boom mike overhead, a technician in the corner waving a big listening device around, and finally an annex to his room holding an entire audio studio with technicians wearing headphones. | |
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Surprisingly, used by Jason in The Bourne Identity, when he places a large can-like object under the rear bumper of a van. To his credit, it doesn't beep or blink, but it's pretty large and obvious to anyone that walks up from behind the van.... | |
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In the Miami Vice episode "Heart of Darkness", the wire Tubbs is wearing is accidentally miswired so that it picks up FM radio. This makes the wire all but useless for its intended purpose and nearly gets Tubbs killed when it starts playing loud music in the middle of a meeting with armed criminals. Tubbs tries to beat up the technician responsible. | |
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In one strip of Get Fuzzy Fungo drops off a huge collar with an obvious lens in it so that Bucky and his roommates can be recorded for a Reality TV Series. Satchel acknowledged that it was heavy but that he found the beeping noises soothing. | |
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In Girls und Panzer, the device used to listen in on Oarai's radio communications is fairly conspicuous. This is probably a function of where it needs to be in order to operate properly, and all the normal aspects of combat are going on on the ground, so who's going to be looking up in the sky? Miho, apparently, and she used Alisa's surveillance against Saunders by giving false orders over the radio and having Saori text the real orders to the other teams. | |
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Girls und Panzer | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_225c51e0 | type |
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Parodied in The Naked Gun 2; Frank Drebin is captured by the bad guys and gets patted down. The mook patting him says "he's wired!", and shows us the device: it takes up all of Frank's chest, complete with flashing lights and whirring tape. | |
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The Naked Gun | hasFeature |
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Played for comedy on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Frank uses a baby monitor as a bug. He comments that people buy baby monitors because everybody is "suspicious of babies." Charlie thinks that he's in Serpico and tries to narc on the gang by wearing a full-sized microphone attached to an 1980s-era tape deck as a bug. The gang comment that it's clearly visible. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_261c8d3f | comment |
The Simpsons: In "Homer and Apu" an undercover Homer is sent in to record health violations at the Kwik-E-Mart, wearing "a camera so small, it fits into this oversize novelty hat." Said camera also emits an audible buzzing noise and is incredibly heavy, which causes the user to have trouble balancing it (in fact it's so heavy that using it for over 20 minutes causes permanent neck damage). Apu notices easily and tricks Homer into throwing it down and stomping it, but he makes the mistake assuming it destroyed and/or not live: He soon walks up to it after putting a hot dog that fell on the floor back on the rack and says, "Now, this is just between me and you, smashed hat." In "The Trouble with Trillions", the FBI places a listening device under Homer's shirt that makes a noticeable rectangular bulge. Homer goes into Moe's and, of course, immediately asks if anyone has any illegal activities they would like to discuss. When one barfly is arrested, and the others smell a rat (though nobody suspects Homer), Homer audibly mumbles "End Transmission" into his stomach and slinks off. The treehouse phone (consisting of two cans and a string) was tapped by another string running into a van. In season 13, "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge", when Homer starts a security company, he busts Fat Tony and his gang for selling ferrets disguised as toy poodles to pet shops. One of the ferrets, that they already disguised as a toy poodle, is wearing a large listening device that's strapped to its back that has a beeping red light, with an antennae, wires, an on/off switch, and a microphone sticking out. Somehow they never noticed the device while they were disguising it. In "Trilogy of Error", Wiggum makes a deal with Bart and Milhouse when he finds them with fireworks: they won't get into trouble if they can get evidence of Fat Tony illegally selling the fireworks. Cue Bart wearing an obvious walkie talkie under his shirt, Milhouse talking towards it and Wiggum blowing the whole covert operation. |
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The Simpsons | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_2930d0c4 | type |
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The Recon class in Battlefield 3 can deploy gadgets that automatically spot enemies. In the interest of Competitive Balance, any enemies in detection range can hear the devices beeping and see their location through walls. Merely aiming in the direction of a gadget may also highlight them for all to see. | |
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iCarly: In the episode "iSpy a Mean Teacher", Freddie gets a giant plastic piece of pie with a very obvious camera lens in the side. It even comes with a giant fork! Also, in the episode "iStakeout" Carly and Sam wear glasses and a hat which are obvious cameras. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_2f327ee3 | type |
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The tracers were easy to find, since they were red, shaped like the spider-insignia on his back, and they looked like the kind of trinkets one would find in a Cracker Jack box. His clone, the Scarlet Spider, was much smarter about this: he created Minidot Tracers, which were still red, but were also circular and MUCH smaller. | |
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In Spacetrawler, the bugs that King places on Dmitri actually are pretty well-hidden, but the Conspiracy has "the most advanced bug detecting equipment in existence" and quickly finds them. Well, most of them. | |
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In Supergirl storyline "Death & the Family", the bug-shaped tracking devices built to infiltrate the Insect Queen's hive are visibly shiny and metallic-looking, and have a very conspicuous spherical head from which sprout red-glowing lenses. | |
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Supergirl (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_322025ab | comment |
In the Fantomcat episode "The Swords of the Scorpion", the members of the Wildcat Detective Agency stuck one on Scorpio's shoulder. It's spotted effortlessly by Marmagora's second-in-command, Vile the Bluebottle, through a videophone. This also happens in the episode "Great Balls of Fire" when Vile sends a literal bug to spy on Fantomcat inside Castle Fantom. |
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Brannigan (1975). The police plant a magnetically-attached bug on the vehicle of the mob lawyer used to make the ransom exchange, but he finds it and plants it on another vehicle while stopped in traffic. Unfortunately John Wayne has planted a second bug inside one of the bundles of ransom money. | |
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True Romance. The battery pack for the Hidden Wire worn by Elliot drops down into his underpants, and he keeps trying to push it back up again. Fortunately no-one notices. | |
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True Romance | hasFeature |
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The subject of a Mr. Show sketch, in which an undercover police officer uses a variety of very poorly disguised cameras and microphones in an attempt to bust a criminal. | |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_36ee2abe | comment |
Occasionally played with in Paranoia. In Alpha Complex most places are bugged to some extent or another, often quite subtly, but that doesn't stop the Computer from occasionally having very obvious cameras, or other obvious tracking devices. Of course, the presence of an obvious camera probably means it's less likely for anyone to be watching. After all, how often do things actually work as intended in Alpha Complex? |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_3790ae45 | type |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_3790ae45 | comment |
The protagonist of Double Homework manages to find and destroy all of the hidden cameras on Dennis’s yacht. However, while searching, and in full knowledge that Dennis was spying on them in this way, he never thinks to check for hidden microphones as well. He pays dearly for his mistake when Dennis plays a recording of a damning conversation between MC and Tamara talking about their role in the avalanche that spring. | |
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Season 3 of Detentionaire features bugs that are large enough to fill your palm, flash red, and beep, and several that we see are in completely open and obvious places, and yet nobody seems to notice them. | |
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Yandere Simulator: You can place bugs to gather information that Info-chan might find useful. Such bugs are black, fist-sized, and often placed in the open. At least they don't flash or make noise, and are often placed in out-of-the-way spots. | |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_3fe6b4fb | comment |
Another Allston example, though this one's justified: In Rebel Dream, Iella Wessiri finds a relatively obvious microphone on a water pipe in the Skywalker's bathroom—a double sign of incompetence, as the microphone would only be useful if water were not running through the pipe. The corresponding "listener" is found in the quarters of Tycho Celchu (who everyone knows was definitely not involved). Figuring that the real spy likely has a second "listener" of their own, they choose to leave the microphone in place for a Feed the Mole ploy. It later turns out that the actual spy who planted it wasn't doing so willingly, and while he was trained in journalism, those skills did not translate well to spying in this case. He was later freed from his programming. When he finally figured out that the info he'd gathered had only hurt the Yuuzhan Vong cause, he was much relieved. | |
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New Jedi Order | hasFeature |
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Throughout The Truman Show, several black dome-type cameras are very clearly visible throughout the town. | |
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The Truman Show | hasFeature |
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The Fairly Oddparents. Mr Crocker's dead beeping flowers (fairy detector) | |
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The Fairly OddParents! | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_457b671e | type |
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Subverted in season 4 of 24; when CTU hands Behrooz Araz over to the terrorists with the intention of finding their base, they plant two bugs on him - an incredibly obvious one they intend for the terrorists to find, and a second subdermal implant which they expect that the terrorists won't think to look for after finding the first one. Unfortunately, they find both, and Behrooz is never heard from again. | |
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24 | hasFeature |
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In Space Runaway Ideon, the Buff Clan plant a tracker on the escaping Solo space ship. Said bug later gets picked up by the crew, inspected, tossed around, and ran over by the Ideon itself, and still continues working. Justified by the space ship being lost technology and the crew not knowing what belongs and what doesn't... but you would think someone would eventually catch on. Especially considering that one of the members of the Solo Ship crew (Karala) is a former Buff Clan soldier, and up until halfway into the series (when prototypes fresh off the drawing board were launched at the Solo Ship), knew every piece of Buff Clan military technology down to the last detail. Of course, if they threw away the tracker, the Buff Clan would probably never find them after a few DS Drives, and the series would end early. | |
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One of the original James Bond books used this. The audio bugs were meant to be discovered easily, leading to the heroes speaking through notes. They didn't see the hidden cameras, though.... | |
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James Bond | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_483a069c | type |
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Mortadelo y Filemón: The titular secret agents are given a micro-camera hidden in a lighter. The criminals suspect because the camera requires an external flash that must be visibly attached. | |
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Mortadelo y Filemón (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_49430eb3 | comment |
In American Vandal, Peter, unable to use his video camera on school grounds, tries to secretly record conversations with his smartphone planted in his breast pocket. Sam warns him that no one is going to be fooled by it, and indeed, no one is. | |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_4c949405 | type |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_4c949405 | comment |
An episode of The Hair Bear Bunch has the zookeeper Mr. Peevly order video cameras hidden throughout the zoo to keep tabs on the titular bunch. The Bears found the cameras easily. Justified in that the one who actually hid the cameras, Lionel J. Botch, isn't a very bright person. | |
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The Hair Bear Bunch | hasFeature |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_527a5949 | type |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_527a5949 | comment |
The ones used in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. About an inch across, blue, with little silver legs to cling to the target, a blinking red light, and at least one was left in an incredibly obvious place. Just below the window of the back door of a car. On the driver's side. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_527a5949 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_527a5949 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_527a5949 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_53a73ca0 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_53a73ca0 | comment |
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Lightsaber Lost", Jedi Master Tera Sinube sticks a large tracking device with a flashing light on Ione Marcy's back. It's a wonder her partner in crime Cassie didn't notice it sooner. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_53a73ca0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_53a73ca0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Wars: The Clone Wars | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_53a73ca0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5486b637 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5486b637 | comment |
The Action Hero's Handbook advises that if you find such a bug, don't stop looking, because a savvy spy may have planted a less obvious bug elsewhere and counted on you to assume this trope. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5486b637 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5486b637 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Action Hero's Handbook | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5486b637 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5874fe63 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5874fe63 | comment |
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act Zero has Sailor V and Artemis attaching (offscreen) a rather noticeable blinking tracking device to the suitcase the villains of this episode carried around. Of course, they only notice it after she finds them and points this fact out; then again, this entire episode was never meant to be taken seriously.... | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5874fe63 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5874fe63 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5874fe63 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c208620 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c208620 | comment |
Superman: The Animated Series: In World's Finest, Batman plants a dime-sized flashing bug on Superman. Superman can't even find the bug until after he's changed into Clark Kent and Batman's figured out his identity. The thing was hidden in the folds of his cape, and Bats made sure to piss Superman off before he planted it, thus ensuring the Man of Steel wasn't thinking clearly on his way home. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c208620 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c208620 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Superman: The Animated Series | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c208620 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c897f4a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c897f4a | comment |
Played with a couple times on Schlock Mercenary. For instance, one scene has an attractive female reporter start making small talk with the mercenaries while wearing invisible contact lens cameras. Invisible to the humans, that is; clearly visible to certain non-human crewmembers with better eyesight. Oops. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c897f4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c897f4a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5c897f4a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5cb7fc72 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5cb7fc72 | comment |
The cameras in System Shock 2 that inspired the BioShock cameras above also apply, but to a lesser extent. Gigantic green light that turns yellow, when they see you, then red when the alarm is tripped, and goes out when the camera is destroyed. Unlike their successors, these cameras move silently, have no spotlight and their colors blend into the background, making it very easy to get caught out unawares by them despite them being fairly large. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5cb7fc72 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5cb7fc72 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
System Shock 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5cb7fc72 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5db577ba | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5db577ba | comment |
In The Dark Knight, Lucius leaves a bugged cell phone behind. It beeps aloud and scrolls text in the display while bugging. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5db577ba | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5db577ba | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Dark Knight | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5db577ba | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5e91c7d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5e91c7d | comment |
Subverted in Resident Evil 4, Leon attaches a beeping, flashing tracker bug to Ashley's back when the Big Bad takes her away. Not surprisingly, Leon finds it discarded in a puddle two scenes later. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5e91c7d | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5e91c7d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Resident Evil 4 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_5e91c7d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_60f02ddb | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_60f02ddb | comment |
Exaggerated in the American Dad! episode "Choosy Wives Choose Smith", where Stan's attempts to secretly spy on Francine are thwarted by the fact that his idea of a "hidden camera" is a camcorder (tripod and all) shoved haphazardly into a potted plant. Stan even admits that he should've hid them better. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_60f02ddb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_60f02ddb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
American Dad! | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_60f02ddb | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_61572f0f | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_61572f0f | comment |
Parodied in sketch show Big Train where a group of spies leave a number of incredibly obvious recording devices in a hotel room, including replacing a wall lamp with a full-size microphone hanging from a cord. The room's occupants look around suspiciously, then find and remove the only not immediately obvious bug, and continue reassured. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_61572f0f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_61572f0f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Big Train | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_61572f0f | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_66989d0 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_66989d0 | comment |
Banacek: One is planted in Banacek's home in "Rocket to Oblivion". | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_66989d0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_66989d0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Banacek | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_66989d0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_69eeaf15 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_69eeaf15 | comment |
The Talisman: all the boys' rooms in the Sunlight Home are bugged. A subversion, as the bug is in plain sight because Sunlight Gardener wants the boys to know he's listening. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_69eeaf15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_69eeaf15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Talisman | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_69eeaf15 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a4bddd6 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a4bddd6 | comment |
Spider-Man has spider-tracers, red peanut-sized spider-shaped devices he used to track people down. Usually, they are fired from the top of his web-shooter at fleeing villains who are none the wiser. One of the reasons why Spider-Man doesn't use the spider-tracers anymore may be due to the fact the bad guys he attached them to frequently found them and used them against him. Especially bad since they're designed to set off his spider sense, meaning they can be used to trigger false positives in that sense, turning one of his greatest edges into a weakness as Iron Man has demonstrated. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a4bddd6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a4bddd6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Iron Man (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a4bddd6 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a57803d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a57803d | comment |
Seen in an episode of The Streets of San Francisco. The tracking device is large and obvious (although not blinking or beeping), but it is planted on the back bumper of the car after the hero has gotten in, thus justifying them not noticing it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a57803d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a57803d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Streets of San Francisco | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6a57803d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6ac55ec7 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6ac55ec7 | comment |
A magical variant with Dungeons & Dragons: powers like Clairaudience and Clairvoyance, and other scrying methods, are perfectly discreet ways of spying on people, since only those with supernatural senses or the proper spells can notice them. However, in the Ravenloft setting, any scrying will create a ghostly organ (ear or eye) which is visible. Newcomers to the demiplane not privy to this fact may get a surprise on their first spying attempts. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6ac55ec7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6ac55ec7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6ac55ec7 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6c3b0503 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6c3b0503 | comment |
Played with and lampshaded in Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Since Rajan's second hideout is in the jungle, your Mission Control points out that an electronic device would be too obvious and gives you an actual bug that can transmit sound back to you. Unfortunately, said bug makes a high-pitched noise when it's away from water for too long, so unless you frequently release it into nearby pools, you'll have half the guards on the map running towards you. Then, towards the end of Honor Among Thieves, Penelope releases a gigantic, flashing disc over Bloodbath Bay and it's almost immediately shot down by superstitious henchmen. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6c3b0503 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6c3b0503 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sly 2: Band Of Thieves (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6c3b0503 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6f77e053 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6f77e053 | comment |
In the GBA version of The Urbz, there's a mission in which you're tasked with bringing a briefcase to a detective so he can plant a recording device on it. When he gives the briefcase back to you, it has a stage microphone taped to its side. Obviously, it's played for humor here, as the device works perfectly. You can even joke about the briefcase being bugged for you to the thug you're supposed to drop it off, which doesn't affect the mission outcome. The fact that he isn't fazed by how obvious the bug is indicates that there's more to him than it seems... | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6f77e053 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6f77e053 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Urbz (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_6f77e053 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_70814599 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_70814599 | comment |
In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Fair Game", the Goa'uld accuse their hosts of this: | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_70814599 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_70814599 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Stargate SG-1 | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_70814599 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_74365738 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_74365738 | comment |
In Going Postal, Lord Vetinari uses these in the Palace so that people will hush up around the obvious bugs and he can observe their behavior, or get them to be talkative in places with less obvious bugs. Given the Disc's tech level, these are concealed (or almost concealed) speaking tubes, rather than anything electronic. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_74365738 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_74365738 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Going Postal | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_74365738 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75149ccd | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75149ccd | comment |
Allston also averts the trope when it suits the story. In Starfighters of Adumar, Wedge Antilles has Tycho Celchu do a sweep of the quarters for listening devices. He finds a couple, but is savvy enough to realize there might be more he hasn't found. They do determine to their own satisfaction that their fighters and clothes are bug-free, however, and documentarian Hallis Saper later reveals the balcony is also clear of listening devices, giving them a few options for private conversation that they use. It works; the New Republic Intelligence officer has no idea how much they've guessed about the situation, until Wedge has a rather heated discussion with him later. Speaking of Hallis Saper (an Intrepid Reporter type with a Paparazzi background), she has numerous ingenious ways to hide her recording equipment. One of her more obvious methods involves placing it in a 3PO droid head and mounting it on her shoulder, but this is an invocation of Iconic Outfit that allows her to be more covert when she wishes; after she's forced to abandon the 3PO droid head, she hides her recording devices inside an intricate hairstyle with gems; it works here because she's at a major diplomatic function with several others sporting similarly fancy looks. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75149ccd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75149ccd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
X-Wing Series | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75149ccd | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_755cbdcf | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_755cbdcf | comment |
In Precocious, the "florist" has one depicted on his job fair booth. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_755cbdcf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_755cbdcf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Precocious / Web Comic | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_755cbdcf | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75bb7c2a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75bb7c2a | comment |
An episode of Pittsburgh Dad has Dad accuse New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick of having a Spy Cam installed in Dad's basement to "get the episodes quicker". Said camera being a wall-mounted security camera set in the corner of the room directly behind where Dad usually sits to watch Steelers' games. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75bb7c2a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75bb7c2a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pittsburgh Dad (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_75bb7c2a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_791fca44 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_791fca44 | comment |
BioShock has lights on things that probably wouldn't have lights, such as steam powered turrets and flying attack bots, that arbitrarily change from red to green when you convert them by re-plumbing them, and "security cameras" the size of two toasters+at least the size can be explained that Rapture is stuck in a Steampunk-like version of The '50s that never heard of miniaturization. They throw spotlights as part of their search function, which makes sense given the lack of ambient light throughout most of the game. Most cameras can be spotted easily, either by their search lights or by the incredibly loud sounds their servos make while swiveling. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_791fca44 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_791fca44 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
BioShock (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_791fca44 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7988cb68 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7988cb68 | comment |
Mass Effect: Averted and played with: bugs are tiny things not visible to the naked eye, and are implied to require advanced scanners to detect. Even the best bugs are Incredibly Obvious to Dr. Mordin Solus, though: And Tali. |
|
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7988cb68 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7988cb68 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mass Effect (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7988cb68 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7b68eb70 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7b68eb70 | comment |
Mega Man (Ruby-Spears): The episode "The Big Shake" was one of the few times Dr. Wily used an actual bug instead of sending Battons as spy robots. He averted this trope by using a very small, soundless bag placed right on the back of Mega Man's neck where nobody thought to look until Dr. Light saw it while doing repair work. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7b68eb70 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7b68eb70 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7b68eb70 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7c038c18 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7c038c18 | comment |
In an episode of Phineas and Ferb, Candace sticks a camera into a cowboy hat, the lens fully exposed. The boys either don't notice, or, more likely, just don't care. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7c038c18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7c038c18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Phineas and Ferb | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7c038c18 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7d5e43b0 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7d5e43b0 | comment |
Parodied in The Goodies episode "Clown Virus". US Military Intelligence officer Major Cheeseburger denies that his conversation with the Goodies is being recorded, whereupon two ashtrays on his desk start to rotate like tape reels and he starts speaking into the desk lamp. This becomes an Overly Long Gag as Cheeseburger activates one bug after another as the Goodies find them. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7d5e43b0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7d5e43b0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Goodies | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_7d5e43b0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_802ca7b | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_802ca7b | comment |
In GoldenEye (1997), an objective in one level requires you to place a tracking device on a helicopter. The bug is actually the same color as the helicopter and specially designed to be undetectable — but the game isn't programmed to notice if you place the bug on the windshield. Then there's the "covert" modem in the Dam level, which is enormous, as is required to be planted right on the monitor of a computer. Averted in the remake, where Bond places his GPS-enabled smartphone on the helicopter's landing gear in a cutscene. Played straight with the security cameras, which have highly-visible lights showing their field of vision. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_802ca7b | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_802ca7b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
GoldenEye (1997) (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_802ca7b | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_818b33cb | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_818b33cb | comment |
Charlie thinks that he's in Serpico and tries to narc on the gang by wearing a full-sized microphone attached to an 1980s-era tape deck as a bug. The gang comment that it's clearly visible. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_818b33cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_818b33cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Serpico | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_818b33cb | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_81bc1811 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_81bc1811 | comment |
In Mega Man Legends 2: Teisel and the others listen in onto a conversation on the Sulphur-Bottom about the Cosmic Keystones and Barrell spots the bug on one of the security guards. Cue the loud screeching noise in Teisel's ear. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_81bc1811 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_81bc1811 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mega Man Legends (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_81bc1811 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_83d41855 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_83d41855 | comment |
A tracking bug stuck to Goliath in the first story arc of Gargoyles is fairly inconspicuous... but blatantly labeled with the logo of the people who placed it! Goliath gets bugged two more times in the course of the series: the second time by Xanatos again and the last one by Robyn Canmore. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_83d41855 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_83d41855 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Gargoyles | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_83d41855 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85a246b3 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85a246b3 | comment |
Titans. Donna Troy tags a car with a tracker, a golden shuriken with a flashing green light on it, that beeps audibly even as the truck it's on is a fair way away. It probably would have been less conspicuous to just follow the truck a bit closer, considering that she and Dick Grayson do that anyway. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85a246b3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85a246b3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Titans (2018) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85a246b3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85b855e2 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85b855e2 | comment |
Type 2 example used in Dark Force Rising (also by Zahn), where ship-thief Niles Ferrier plants an obvious bug on the hull of Lando's ship while his invisible associate sneaks into the ship itself to plant a second one. It works. Lando finds and leaves the first bug on the planet, but the second one remains undetected and helps Ferrier get a lead on the Katana Fleet | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85b855e2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85b855e2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Thrawn Trilogy | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_85b855e2 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_880cfa15 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_880cfa15 | comment |
Hogan's Heroes: A large bucket of water sat outside Hogan's barracks with a very visible periscope that popped up and looked around. (The eyepieces were in the two-tap faucet in the barrack's sink.) There is also the picture of Hitler in Col. Klink's office. It shows Hitler giving a speech with a microphone. Of all obvious places to stick a hidden microphone.... | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_880cfa15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_880cfa15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hogan's Heroes | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_880cfa15 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_892aa56a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_892aa56a | comment |
Murdoch Mysteries: In "Murdoch Air", James Pendricks finds a microphone hidden in his lab, that's about the size of an alarm clock. Of course this is justified by the time period (the early 20th century), since even for spy tools miniaturization had yet a long way to go. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_892aa56a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_892aa56a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Murdoch Mysteries | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_892aa56a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8b17c60d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8b17c60d | comment |
In one Judge Parker storyline the Parkers — visiting April's weapons dealer father in his jungle hideout — have an incredibly obvious bug placed on their jeep ... which turns out to be there to distract them from the actual bug in the gas tank. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8b17c60d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8b17c60d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Judge Parker (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8b17c60d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8d8100ab | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8d8100ab | comment |
Subverted on Lost: your typical flashing bug is planted in the terrorists' hangout, but it's put there to allow Sayid to find and disable it, thus winning favor with the terrorists and beginning his infiltration. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8d8100ab | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8d8100ab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lost | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8d8100ab | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8ddfa373 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8ddfa373 | comment |
Subverted in an episode of Ocean Girl. A bug the size of an ashtray with a blinking red light is placed under a table. The two children who find it don't hesitate at all to destroy it. The evil corporation hunting them down wonder how it got found. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8ddfa373 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8ddfa373 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ocean Girl | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8ddfa373 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8fafdbbe | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8fafdbbe | comment |
An episode of Project G.e.e.K.e.R. had a huge emitter dart that actually served as a decoy for the nano-emitter it injected. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8fafdbbe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8fafdbbe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Project G.e.e.K.e.R. | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_8fafdbbe | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_903d6567 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_903d6567 | comment |
In an episode of Goof Troop, there's a bug in an office - a man in a bug suit. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_903d6567 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_903d6567 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Goof Troop | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_903d6567 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_905cf99c | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_905cf99c | comment |
Parodied in The Fifth Element: one of Zorg's agents spies on a top secret government meeting by strapping a microphone to a cockroach. The cockroach is huge and the microphone is half as big as the cockroach. The obviousness of it is increased by the person driving the cockroach leaving it on the President's desk in plain view... where the President sees it and squashes it flat. Life Imitates Art: we can do this already. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_905cf99c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_905cf99c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Fifth Element | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_905cf99c | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90856e8d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90856e8d | comment |
In the Hand of Thrawn duology (also by Zahn), mercenary/bodyguard Shada Dukal wears incredibly obvious ornamental needles in her hair...except they're not actually ornamental at all; most are highly lethal throwing darts and at least one is a recording device/transmitter. But the first person she goes up against in the story is another mercenary who was trained by Shada and knows all of her tricks, forcing Shada at gunpoint to turn it off so that she can't call for backup. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90856e8d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90856e8d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hand of Thrawn | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90856e8d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90b916ba | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90b916ba | comment |
In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Robin's Reckoning", Batman plants a bug under an armrest on mob boss Arnold Stromwell's chair roughly the size and shape of a peanut butter cup. For extra points, it has glowing lights in a darkened room. But Stromwell is too distracted yelling at Batman's target, Tony Zucco, to notice; Batman's then spotted by one of the lookouts on patrol. Chances are the thing's battery died before Stromwell could've found it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90b916ba | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90b916ba | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Batman: The Animated Series | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_90b916ba | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_94a2558f | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_94a2558f | comment |
Spy Kids: Ms. Gradenko gives Carmen an "official OSS spy bracelet" just before she turns out to be working with Floop. Afterwards Juni points out that it could be a tracker and Carmen is annoyed that he turns out to be right when she finds a blinking light on the back. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_94a2558f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_94a2558f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spy Kids | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_94a2558f | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96cff0c5 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96cff0c5 | comment |
In The World Is Not Enough, you plant rather obvious bugs on the phones in Elektra's mansion. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96cff0c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96cff0c5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The World Is Not Enough (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96cff0c5 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96f1ceb4 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96f1ceb4 | comment |
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985). Mahoney is sent undercover to infiltrate Zed's gang, but the best wire his incompetent fellow recruits can come up with is a huge microphone taped to his chest. Which has a tendency to broadcast nearby radio stations. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96f1ceb4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96f1ceb4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Police Academy | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_96f1ceb4 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_976be7c3 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_976be7c3 | comment |
CHERUB has a malfunctioning bug begin repeatedly beeping, causing a mission to fail. Most of the time, however, CHERUB averts this trope. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_976be7c3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_976be7c3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
CHERUB Series | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_976be7c3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9776174 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9776174 | comment |
Ex Machina: Kremlin gives Mitchell a tie pin in the shape of a gear to reflect his roots as an engineer and a former machine-based superhero. The pin is engineered so that Mitchell can't "hear" it, so it goes unnoticed, but it is featured rather prominently in the first arc. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9776174 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9776174 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ex Machina (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9776174 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9c754612 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9c754612 | comment |
Spider-Man sometimes has these when the writers remembered to use them. They are small devices tuned to his spider-sense that Spidey would throw onto the bumpers of cars or onto the backs of thugs so he could follow them. They were also bright red and spider-shaped. Not very discreet. Other were white and oval in shape with a highly stylized spider-motif (like the symbol on his back). They are also very small compared to some of the examples here. Sometimes he actually uses more than one, with one being very obvious, so as to distract them from the more cleverly hidden one. Spidey uses one of the clingy-stylized-spider type as an engagement ring. It comes in handy when she's kidnapped. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9c754612 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9c754612 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spider-Man (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9c754612 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9ec0556a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9ec0556a | comment |
In The Randomverse: Marvel/DC Happy Hour, Batman attaches a tracer to the Joker, but Joker immediately notices and puts it on the Green Goblin. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9ec0556a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9ec0556a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_9ec0556a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a183d57f | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a183d57f | comment |
In the Futurama film Into the Wild Green Yonder, Bender plants a wiretap on Fry's cell phone with several blinking lights and spinning radar dishes that triples the size of the phone. He even lampshades this earlier when telling Nixon that he only needs one wiretap, but the latter decides to give him six, which Bender decides to use all of them at the same time. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Futurama | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a183d57f | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2174d23 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2174d23 | comment |
Played for laughs in 'Allo 'Allo!, where a listening device in the Colonel's office is disguised as a vase of daffodils. When it is activated, one of the daffodils rises a few inches and rotates to point at whoever's talking. In a later episode, this incident is referred to, and everyone agrees that they won't be fooled again... and we notice that the desk lamp is rotating to point at whoever's talking. Subverted: Whilst prominently large and anyone would know the device contained a microphone, it does not look out of place on Colonel von Strom’s desk: The ℡ephone Double Subversion: It’s the first thing the General checks when he commandeers von Strom’s office. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2174d23 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2174d23 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
'Allo 'Allo! | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2174d23 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2a386c9 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2a386c9 | comment |
Orion's Arm has (or had) the spy plant. This attractive potted plant is easy to take care of, you just need to water it regularly, and speak about your subversive activity loudly and clearly. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2a386c9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2a386c9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Orion's Arm (Website) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a2a386c9 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a60fe37e | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a60fe37e | comment |
An episode of James May's Man Lab involved trying to find the best way to remember people's names by going to a dinner with military men and women. James watched the whole thing using a hidden camera...which was a GoPro. Everyone at the party just pretended not to notice. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a60fe37e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a60fe37e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
James May's Man Lab | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a60fe37e | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a6543322 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a6543322 | comment |
Touhou Project's 11th game, Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism, has Reimu or Marisa travelling to the Underground Hell, while their weapons have been modified by Yukari, upgrading them to "walkie-talkie". The funny thing? Reimu and Marisa didn't even know about this, until they started hearing voices from nowhere. Nice co-op! | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a6543322 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a6543322 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Touhou Project (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a6543322 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a92c264a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a92c264a | comment |
Exterminatus Now: "Who... is that bitch with the video camera?" Said video camera also has a sticker reading "Property of the Mobian Inquisition" | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a92c264a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a92c264a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Exterminatus Now (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_a92c264a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ab42c63a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ab42c63a | comment |
An attempt at making a truly unobtrusive listening device was made on Get Smart, with CONTROL spending thousands of dollars to create a literal "bug" — a tiny, perfectly lifelike, robotic fly with listening devices and radar built in. At the rollout, Max is so fooled by the disguise that he swats the fly. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ab42c63a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ab42c63a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Get Smart | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ab42c63a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ad8ac89e | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ad8ac89e | comment |
Wyvern: In order to spring the trap set for Taylor at Winslow, Carol Dallon gives Taylor the Decoy, a bulky neon-yellow tape recorder with "YOU ARE BEING RECORDED" printed on the side in big obvious letters. As the name suggests, the Decoy is not actually an audio recorder. It's actually a very durable remote microphone for the real audio recorder (which is hidden safely in Taylor's pocket), and also contains a tracking beacon and is coated in a UV-reactive dye. Taylor takes the Decoy to Winslow, shows it to the Trio, and informs them that they are being recorded (which she legally has to do to be able to introduce those recordings as evidence in a court case). As expected, the Trio promptly steal the Decoy, only for Taylor to call the police, leaving the Trio caught with their hands covered in the UV-reactive dye from the Decoy, a complete record of their stealing it from Taylor, and with the tracking beacon tracing the Decoy to Sophia's locker. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ad8ac89e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ad8ac89e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Wyvern (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ad8ac89e | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_aedfc20a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_aedfc20a | comment |
In The LEGO Movie, Emmet is tagged on his leg with a tracking device by Bad Cop. It hits him hard enough for him to cry out in pain, but he doesn't notice the device. It's huge (bigger than their claw hands) and blinking, but Batman doesn't notice it when they meet up with him. Emmet then stands in the middle of a stadium, the focus of attention of 100 people, who completely surround him, and none of them notice it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_aedfc20a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_aedfc20a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The LEGO Movie | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_aedfc20a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_af10a8a7 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_af10a8a7 | comment |
Exiles by Aaron Allston has a spider-shaped, mobile bug planted on a spy-trained Jedi by folks who know he is trained to spot bugs. Somewhat quickly discovered and neutralized. The Jedi also detects the aerial surveillance by pure Force skill. Not quite sure what the bug was supposed to accomplish... Allston likes this trope. In Wraith Squadron one of Zsinj's plots involves putting smallish, flat box-shaped clinging droids on the hulls of New Republic starships, so they can report on where the ships go. Big ships might never notice - these are space ships, after all - and when one is spotted on a factory-new X-Wing it's assumed to be just another one of the stupid unauthorized things added on by the manufacturers. The Wraiths really only discovered it on accident, because of another Zsinj plot. These "bugs" don't blink, beep, or move (at least when anyone's present; they do sometimes switch from one ship to another, which is how it was eventually discovered), and they try to blend in with the color scheme of the ship they're attached to, but they're still a good twenty centimeters to a side. Another Allston example, though this one's justified: In Rebel Dream, Iella Wessiri finds a relatively obvious microphone on a water pipe in the Skywalker's bathroom—a double sign of incompetence, as the microphone would only be useful if water were not running through the pipe. The corresponding "listener" is found in the quarters of Tycho Celchu (who everyone knows was definitely not involved). Figuring that the real spy likely has a second "listener" of their own, they choose to leave the microphone in place for a Feed the Mole ploy. It later turns out that the actual spy who planted it wasn't doing so willingly, and while he was trained in journalism, those skills did not translate well to spying in this case. He was later freed from his programming. When he finally figured out that the info he'd gathered had only hurt the Yuuzhan Vong cause, he was much relieved. Allston also averts the trope when it suits the story. In Starfighters of Adumar, Wedge Antilles has Tycho Celchu do a sweep of the quarters for listening devices. He finds a couple, but is savvy enough to realize there might be more he hasn't found. They do determine to their own satisfaction that their fighters and clothes are bug-free, however, and documentarian Hallis Saper later reveals the balcony is also clear of listening devices, giving them a few options for private conversation that they use. It works; the New Republic Intelligence officer has no idea how much they've guessed about the situation, until Wedge has a rather heated discussion with him later. Speaking of Hallis Saper (an Intrepid Reporter type with a Paparazzi background), she has numerous ingenious ways to hide her recording equipment. One of her more obvious methods involves placing it in a 3PO droid head and mounting it on her shoulder, but this is an invocation of Iconic Outfit that allows her to be more covert when she wishes; after she's forced to abandon the 3PO droid head, she hides her recording devices inside an intricate hairstyle with gems; it works here because she's at a major diplomatic function with several others sporting similarly fancy looks. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_af10a8a7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_af10a8a7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Legacy of the Force | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_af10a8a7 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b3708359 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b3708359 | comment |
In Solo, Enfys Nest's second-in-command places a tracking beacon on the Millennium Falcon's hull with bright red lights on it. The lights kind of look like bars to indicate signal strength. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b3708359 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b3708359 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Solo | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b3708359 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4996199 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4996199 | comment |
Spider-Man: Spider-Man has spider-tracers, red peanut-sized spider-shaped devices he used to track people down. Usually, they are fired from the top of his web-shooter at fleeing villains who are none the wiser. One of the reasons why Spider-Man doesn't use the spider-tracers anymore may be due to the fact the bad guys he attached them to frequently found them and used them against him. Especially bad since they're designed to set off his spider sense, meaning they can be used to trigger false positives in that sense, turning one of his greatest edges into a weakness as Iron Man has demonstrated. The tracers were easy to find, since they were red, shaped like the spider-insignia on his back, and they looked like the kind of trinkets one would find in a Cracker Jack box. His clone, the Scarlet Spider, was much smarter about this: he created Minidot Tracers, which were still red, but were also circular and MUCH smaller. One story arc has a villain with a penchant for paying attention framing Spider-Man for a slew of murders, by leaving found spider-tracers on all of the victim's bodies. In a Brand New Day story, one of them was as big as a CD. The trackee of course noticed it. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4996199 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4996199 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spider-Man (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4996199 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4fe32c9 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4fe32c9 | comment |
Invader Zim Seems to love this gag: The pilot cuts from the eavesdropping Zim bragging about his hidden, 'ingenious listening device' to a giant metal tick, with antenna and twitching legs clutching the back of Dib's cartoonishly large head. In "Tak the Hideous New Girl", Zim is able to follow Dib to Tak's lair because he'd planted a tracking device on him... a device that turns out to simply be GIR clinging to the back of Dib's head. In another episode, Dib plants a listening device in Zim's base during a Flash Back by tricking Zim into turning his head and then throwing a trashcan-sized device through a wall. "Zim Eats Waffles" is set in motion by Dib smuggling a rather sizeable video recorder into Zim's kitchen (where it would presumably stick out like a sore thumb) by... [Asking GIR to install it. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4fe32c9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4fe32c9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Invader Zim | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b4fe32c9 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b683f90f | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b683f90f | comment |
Inverted in an issue of Perry Rhodan. The delegation of the planet Camelot (coordinates unknown to outsiders at this time) moves into their new embassy on Arkon and discovers... no detectable bugs at all. It's this very fact that arouses their suspicions enough to launch a ploy to confirm that their embassy is in fact bugged after all, and the discovery that their hosts have found a way to turn all the plants in the area, both indoors and out, into rather effective 'bugs' by means of nigh undetectable wires threaded through their very cells and leading out through the roots. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b683f90f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b683f90f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Perry Rhodan | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b683f90f | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b6b24d18 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b6b24d18 | comment |
In The IT Crowd, Jen worries about how visible Roy's hidden camera set up is, and he assures her modern technology is very discreet. Cut to a highly visible full-size camera lens sticking out of a hole in a box... which turns out to be the box the camera came in, complete with a lifesize photograph of it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b6b24d18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b6b24d18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The IT Crowd | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b6b24d18 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b712435c | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b712435c | comment |
Subverted in the pilot of Leverage. The protagonists plant a bug that's found by the mark. Realizing the plan, he intends to trap the protagonists by informing the FBI of the plan, not knowing that he's running headlong into the protagonists' Kansas City Shuffle. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b712435c | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b712435c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Leverage | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b712435c | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b80c3b | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b80c3b | comment |
Appears in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog where Dr Horrible throws a cola can sized tracking/remote control device onto a van; making a huge "CLUNK" as the magnet attaches, and proceeds to use his iPhone to control its movements. Unfortunately his archnemesis Captain Hammer notices it almost immediately and crushes it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b80c3b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b80c3b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b80c3b | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b9419bd1 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b9419bd1 | comment |
Justified in Human Revolution: the cameras are not generally intended to be invisible, and Adam's optic augmentations show the cameras' cone of vision on his HUD. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b9419bd1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b9419bd1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_b9419bd1 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ba666650 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ba666650 | comment |
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Happens once unobtrusively and once inserted into an open wound by Ocelot. Ocelot's transmitter would be pretty hard to find, if it weren't for the fact that you have to manually heal your wounds, and the transmitter shows up as... well, as a transmitter in a wound. Leaving it in means you have to sneak past several enemies in an area that would be unoccupied otherwise, but grants an extra cutscene when Snake meets up with EVA where she finds the transmitter and helps remove it in the most innuendo-laden manner the devs could think of. The Boss plants a less obvious one on Snake so the Cobra unit can track his movements and set up ambushes, which Volgin finds. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ba666650 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ba666650 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ba666650 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bab8af4a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bab8af4a | comment |
In The Monkees episode "The Spy Who Came In From the Cool", the bug is in a lamp at the center of the table which the guys blatantly move back and forth between them and the spies. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bab8af4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bab8af4a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Monkees | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bab8af4a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bcdcf629 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bcdcf629 | comment |
In the Transformers: Animated comic prequel/side-story The Arrival, Blackarachnia attaches a tracking device to Starscream, which he fails to notice. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bcdcf629 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bcdcf629 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transformers: Animated | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bcdcf629 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bff78dfe | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bff78dfe | comment |
In Batman v Superman, Batman tracks the truck LexCorp is using to transport Kryptonite with a bug that's not only the size of an adult man's thumb, but also equipped with a blinking red light. They completely fail to notice it even after the vehicle is checked for damage when they arrive on-site. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bff78dfe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bff78dfe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_bff78dfe | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c06c3e0d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c06c3e0d | comment |
In the LoadingReadyRun skit "The Wire", a mob boss checks the mole for a wire, but having confirmed there's nothing attached to his chest is then oblivious to the woman standing in plain view holding a boom mic in front of him, the guy with a mounted video camera pointed at him, and quickly accepts the need to have a studio light shone on him as it being a bit dark inside. After learning by phone that there's a mole, he refers to "undetectable listening devices". | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c06c3e0d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c06c3e0d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
LoadingReadyRun (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c06c3e0d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c0d295c4 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c0d295c4 | comment |
Pictured above: A RED Spy wearing the Camera Beard. This being Team Fortress 2, it's just for show and lulz. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c0d295c4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c0d295c4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Team Fortress 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c0d295c4 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c3e7ab30 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c3e7ab30 | comment |
Perfect Dark: In Mission 3-1 (Chicago), you must place a Tracking Device on a Datadyne limo. On an additional note, you'll fail the mission if the guards see you planting the device. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c3e7ab30 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c3e7ab30 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Perfect Dark (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c3e7ab30 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c4282b71 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c4282b71 | comment |
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Party of One", Pinkie Pie dangles a can-on-a-string right in front of Twilight Sparkle's face to listen in on her conversation with Mrs. Cake. Hilarity Ensues when Twilight finally notices it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c4282b71 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c4282b71 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c4282b71 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: Averted in "The Ribos Operation". A discrete listening device about the size of a thumbnail was hidden on the inside of an architectural folly, out of sight for anyone not thoroughly searching the room or who was phenomenally lucky. It still got found. The large, blinking tracking bug that is concealed inside the Master's recall device in "The Five Doctors". The High Council smash it once they find it, but by then it has done its job and led the Cybermen to the Master. |
|
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c43df4d8 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c59adc2e | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c59adc2e | comment |
Invoked in His Honor, The Mayor, Drew Lipsky?: Jim and Tim want to deal with Kim's Immoral Journalist classmate because he posts fake stories about her on the internet so they give him a recording device they know isn't hard for Kim to find to get him in trouble. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c59adc2e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c59adc2e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
His Honor, The Mayor, Drew Lipsky? (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c59adc2e | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c72021c5 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c72021c5 | comment |
Deus Ex: In the first title, security cameras glow green and emit a constant beeping sound if they spot someone, which is rather useful for alerting nearby guards. Justified in Human Revolution: the cameras are not generally intended to be invisible, and Adam's optic augmentations show the cameras' cone of vision on his HUD. |
|
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c72021c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c72021c5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Deus Ex (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c72021c5 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c8436b4a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c8436b4a | comment |
In an episode of Cheat Commandos, the eponymous characters are invited to the villain's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow, Gunhaver can see everything that's going on. It's eventually revealed to be Reinforcements standing on the other side of the room with a camera. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c8436b4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c8436b4a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Cheat Commandos (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c8436b4a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c98d3e0e | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c98d3e0e | comment |
You get one of these planted on you in the original Metal Gear. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c98d3e0e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c98d3e0e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Metal Gear (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_c98d3e0e | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ca07e22c | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ca07e22c | comment |
In King of Thieves, the police plant some obvious bugs, but plant them in non-obvious places (e.g. under the dashboard of a car and in a breadbasket on a pub table). | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ca07e22c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ca07e22c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
King of Thieves | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ca07e22c | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cd713f4 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cd713f4 | comment |
In The Stainless Steel Rat for President, the titular Guile Hero taps into a corrupt Banana Republic's media network with two bugs. One is a chunky (albeit functional) decoy; the other integrates seamlessly with the wires using technology beyond anything the State knows about. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cd713f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cd713f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Stainless Steel Rat | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cd713f4 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ce50887e | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ce50887e | comment |
Dr. Gero in Dragon Ball used Literal Surveillance Bugs to monitor several character for years without being detected. Once pointed out, one was clearly visible even at a distance and also made a beeping sound. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ce50887e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ce50887e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dragon Ball (Manga) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ce50887e | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cf69b21e | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cf69b21e | comment |
Beast Wars: Subverted in "Bad Spark". Megatron attaches a cartoonishly large bug to Blackarachnia's back... and, as she walks away, we see it fade to invisibility. Later in the episode, we see Megatron sitting and looking down in a manner that implies he's perfectly aware of the large, spider-shaped listener Tarantulas has placed under Megatron's own chair. Played straight, however, in the episode "Tangled Web," where Tarantulas chucks a large, red, beeping bug onto the equipment Quickstrike had collected... and it makes a loud clanging sound as it lands. Naturally, Quickstrike doesn't notice. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cf69b21e | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cf69b21e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Beast Wars | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_cf69b21e | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d1dd2388 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d1dd2388 | comment |
Subverted in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï. When the Paris police sneak into assassin Jef Costello's apartment to plant a listening device, the one they initially choose is a huge black box with a big antenna and a red light. The officer puts it in the hiding place, scrutinizes it briefly, and then decides to go with a smaller model. Even the small one is pretty big, though considering the film was made in 1967, it's hard to judge whether that really would have been the best they had available. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d1dd2388 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d1dd2388 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Le Samouraï | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d1dd2388 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d370a5a2 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d370a5a2 | comment |
Spoofed in Górsky & Butch. In a scene which was a parody of Matrix, one of the agents threatened Jerry with implanting a "miniature tracking device" into his body. It was about the size of a cellphone. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d370a5a2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d370a5a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Górsky & Butch (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d370a5a2 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d461f757 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d461f757 | comment |
In the pilot miniseries of the new Battlestar Galactica, a large and obvious Cylon device is located in a prominent place in the center of the bridge. To their credit, technicians did apparently notice it, but they thought it had been installed properly as part of the battlestar's transformation into a museum and didn't report it; Colonel Tigh had words to say to them on the topic. Baltar notices the device and figures it's Cylon in design but can't very well come out and say it, as they might suspect him of being a Cylon. Instead, he frames a recently-arrived crewmember, who is left behind on a space station. The kicker? That guy really was a Cylon. |
|
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d461f757 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d461f757 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Battlestar Galactica (2003) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d461f757 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d46cc708 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d46cc708 | comment |
Ed, Edd n Eddy takes it to new levels when Ed hides a camera on Kevin's lawn. And by "hides", we mean "puts in plain sight and tapes a twig to it". And by "plain sight" we mean "a tripod standing right in front of the front door". | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d46cc708 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d46cc708 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ed, Edd n Eddy | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d46cc708 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d8066cab | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d8066cab | comment |
Subverted in Agent Cody Banks when Cody temporarily goes rogue he throws away a pin his handler gave him, thinking it was a tracking device. But she finds him anyways because all the gadgets he stole from the CIA on his way out, including the rocket-propelled snowboard, had trackers built in. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d8066cab | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d8066cab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Agent Cody Banks | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_d8066cab | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_da861da1 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_da861da1 | comment |
Veronica Mars: Though the devices themselves are not incredibly conspicuous in design or form, merely the fact that Veronica Mars has given you a teddy bear, stapler, iPod, novelty pencil, gift basket, paperweight, school spirit button, etc. should be a red flag not to divulge your deepest secrets directly into it. Chances are that it not only captures perfect audio, but also captures video that can be blown up into high resolution stills when appropriate. There's a pretty straight instance in "Clash of the Tritons": Veronica plants a tracking device under Duncan Kane's car. With a big, convenient red LED to show you that it's active. It's still hard to see above the tire, granted, but in a dark garage... And when she's trying to bug someone with a little bit of savvyness, she'll sometimes plant two bugs: One incredibly obvious one for her target to find, and a less obvious one for them not to find. |
|
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_da861da1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_da861da1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Veronica Mars | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_da861da1 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_dce9a7a9 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_dce9a7a9 | comment |
In Variable Geo, a listening device the size of a yoyo with a huge green light on it is affixed to the seat of the woman in charge of the corporation behind the tournament that is the center of the series. This powerful, hypercompetent woman never notices. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_dce9a7a9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_dce9a7a9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Variable Geo | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_dce9a7a9 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_de6659ec | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_de6659ec | comment |
Once Upon a Time: Sydney brings a potted plant to Emma's office for no reason at all other than to plant a bug there. Downplayed in that the bug itself isn't visible, but they do focus on the plant for the benefit of the audience, who by this point already knows he's The Mole. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_de6659ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_de6659ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Once Upon a Time | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_de6659ec | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_df64a221 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_df64a221 | comment |
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction: South Korean listening posts are human-sized structures with transmitters on top- the in-game manual lampshades how un-subtle South Korea is being with them. Destroying them rewards you with a cash bounty and faction rep from China. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_df64a221 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_df64a221 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mercenaries (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_df64a221 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e03940f | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e03940f | comment |
In a Mickey Mouse Comic Universe Pete was hired by a security firm as a consultant, and his first change took advantage of this trope: knowing that if bandits ever assaulted their offices they'd immediately shoot the security cameras he had them replaced with cardboard copies, with the actual ones being smaller and hidden. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e03940f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e03940f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mickey Mouse Comic Universe (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e03940f | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e09c4470 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e09c4470 | comment |
In various seasons of Tobot, 1 and 14 in particular, the Buggys- small larvae robots- attach to the bottom of cars and cause them to go out of control. In doing so, they emit blue electric bolts, and thus can be seen easily from the side. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e09c4470 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e09c4470 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tobot (Animation) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e09c4470 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e1886e7a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e1886e7a | comment |
DragonFable has a quest that involves a flying eyeball with perhaps the most obvious bug of all time planted on it by the player. How obvious you say? I think this says everything you need to know... | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e1886e7a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e1886e7a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
DragonFable (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e1886e7a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e20a50da | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e20a50da | comment |
Unsurprisingly averted several times in The Conversation, which centres around the life of lonely bugging expert Harry Caul, played by Gene Hackman. As a prank, his rival Bernie Moran gives him an ordinary ballpoint pen with a microphone hidden inside, and it is so well concealed that Harry, the "expert", doesn't clue in at all. Later, when he learns that his own apartment is bugged, he frantically rips apart his room but isn't able to find anything. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e20a50da | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e20a50da | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Conversation | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e20a50da | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e25322af | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e25322af | comment |
Homestar Runner: In an episode of Cheat Commandos, the eponymous characters are invited to the villain's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow, Gunhaver can see everything that's going on. It's eventually revealed to be Reinforcements standing on the other side of the room with a camera. Played with in the Strong Bad Email "date" when Strong Bad gets a close up of Strong Mad punching Strong Sad in the face: |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e25322af | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e25322af | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Homestar Runner (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e25322af | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e278316b | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e278316b | comment |
The Prisoner (1967) has statues with cameras in the eyes. This in itself would be rather obvious, but The Village takes it one two steps further: The cameras in the eyes have blinking lights, and the statues themselves rotate to track people. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e278316b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e278316b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Prisoner (1967) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e278316b | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e3349241 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e3349241 | comment |
Averted in Diabolik, where tracers and listening devices are always small, easy to miss and well hidden. Even then, Diabolik and Ginko can often find them, sometimes by luck (one of Diabolik's bugs was found because it was hit by sunlight and shone, allowing a passing Ginko to notice and check), sometimes because they suspect there's one and check in every place they would hide it and some places it should be impossible (Diabolik makes a point to check everything he steals, and checks even more since that time Ginko still slipped one under his nose). And given he and Ginko can still slip bugs under each others' noses, Diabolik often undresses people he kidnaps and throws their clothes into acid just in case he missed a bug (in at least one occasion, the kidnapped guy was an undercover cop and his clothes had a bug that Diabolik had missed). | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e3349241 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e3349241 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Diabolik (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e3349241 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e7e37776 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e7e37776 | comment |
Averted in the Firefly comic Serenity: Better Days. A stolen assault robot releases hundreds of tracking devices that appear no bigger than a grain of sand. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e7e37776 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e7e37776 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Firefly | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e7e37776 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e995f4b2 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e995f4b2 | comment |
The premise of Night Trap is that a special police unit has snuck a wiretap onto the security system of a house, which controls internal cameras and a series of traps. The wiretap is a large, visible cable hanging inside from a window in the entrance hallway of the house. You are even told that you will lose control if the cable is pulled, but no one even bothered to try to hide it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e995f4b2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e995f4b2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Night Trap (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_e995f4b2 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_eb5d7301 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_eb5d7301 | comment |
Amphibia: At the end of "Mr. X", Anne asks her parents how they knew which bathroom stall she and the Planters were hiding from the agents in, and they reveal they secretly planted a tracking device on Hop Pop while he was sleeping earlier. This "tracking device" turns out to be a large beeping device that was duct-taped to Hop Pop's chest underneath his disguise, and he apparently knew it was there the whole time but just didn't know what it was or bothered trying to remove it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_eb5d7301 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_eb5d7301 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Amphibia | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_eb5d7301 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ed0803a7 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ed0803a7 | comment |
Averted in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Spock put a tracking device on Captain Kirk's shoulder before he beamed to Chancellor Gorkon's ship. It was a different color from the rest of the uniform and visible to anyone looking closely, but otherwise just looked like a bit of cloth. Evidently the Klingons don't bother searching prisoners or confiscating their clothing. Probably saves on the prison budget at Rura Penthe. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ed0803a7 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ed0803a7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ed0803a7 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ee6c1abc | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ee6c1abc | comment |
Played with in the Strong Bad Email "date" when Strong Bad gets a close up of Strong Mad punching Strong Sad in the face: | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ee6c1abc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ee6c1abc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Strong Bad Email (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ee6c1abc | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f0c816fb | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f0c816fb | comment |
Breaking Bad: A double-subversion in Season 5. Jesse arrives to retrieve a barrel of methylamine from Lydia's warehouse as per their deal, only for Lydia to spot a tracker stuck to the bottom of the barrel. When Jesse relays this to Mike, he thinks the situation smells extremely fishy due to how unhidden the tracker was and concludes that Lydia herself stuck the tracker to the barrel to try and weasel her way out of the deal. Jesse wants to make absolutely sure Lydia is guilty before they kill her, so Mike forces Lydia at gunpoint to make a scripted call to the DEA. It turns out they were in fact dumb enough to stick the trackers on the outside of the methylamine barrels instead of inside, and Lydia is innocent. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f0c816fb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f0c816fb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Breaking Bad | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f0c816fb | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f16adb7 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f16adb7 | comment |
Invoked in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: triple-agent Mac drops several devices with big, flashing red lights and loud beeps to lead Spalko to the City of Gold. In this case, Mac was counting on them being spotted, so it would make sense for them to be conspicuous. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f16adb7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f16adb7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f16adb7 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f31d7d98 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f31d7d98 | comment |
Drawn Together: Parodied when Spanky Ham, in order to record Captain Hero's illegal manipulation of gambling, attempts to have a conversation with Hero concerning the swindle while secretly recording the conversation on a hidden tape recorder. Said tape recorder is taped to the front of his shirt and is half the size of Spanky. Subverted in that Captain Hero does suspect that Spanky is acting suspicious so he ends the conversation quickly by "describing all the specifics and incriminating details of his illegal scam". | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f31d7d98 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f31d7d98 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Drawn Together | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f31d7d98 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3c3ca42 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3c3ca42 | comment |
Lampooned in The Tick season 2 episode, "Coach Fussel's Lament", in which The Tick orders a "Fiend Finder" which is an Incredibly Obvious Bug with matching tracker. On the other hand, what would you expect from surveillance equipment purchased from the back of a magazine? | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3c3ca42 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3c3ca42 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Tick | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3c3ca42 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3ef0f86 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3ef0f86 | comment |
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code uses the 'obvious bug to draw attention away from the other one' variant. The less obvious bug was pretty much undetectable, and the more obvious bug (obvious only by comparison, it is indistinguishable from a shirt button) was only there because the villain would've been suspicious if he hadn't found anything at all. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3ef0f86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3ef0f86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Artemis Fowl | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f3ef0f86 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f43685a2 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f43685a2 | comment |
In Battlefield Earth, not only are the cameras large enough to be seen easily, but they even make a noise when operating. Despite this, the assistant bad guy never notices them, even though he has viewed other people through them before. But then the movie is so awful anyway.... | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f43685a2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f43685a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Battlefield Earth | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f43685a2 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4d99ca7 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4d99ca7 | comment |
In a Brand New Day story, one of them was as big as a CD. The trackee of course noticed it. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4d99ca7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4d99ca7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Brand New Day (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4d99ca7 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4e799ee | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4e799ee | comment |
Usually averted on Burn Notice. The exceptions invariably come with a justification; for example, in one case, the person planting it was the buggee's friend being coerced into it, and "all but signed my name on the damn thing" specifically to tip him off. In one episode (don't have the name on me), they invoke a subversion of this trope to make a Con Man very paranoid about people being after him. Played straight in the pilot, though. Once again, justified by Michael being low on cash. Effectively, it includes a cheap cell phone (i.e. has a microphone without any noise filters) jury-rigged with two batteries from better cell phones. Sam did put it under the car seat, where most people don't look, though. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4e799ee | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4e799ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Burn Notice | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f4e799ee | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f53fe2fa | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f53fe2fa | comment |
Averted in Mission: Impossible. The standard bugs used by the team were metal disks no more than an inch across (tiny for the period) with no lights or beeping, and were generally hidden under tables or in other inconspicuous places. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f53fe2fa | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f53fe2fa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mission: Impossible | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f53fe2fa | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f724b70d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f724b70d | comment |
Used in an episode of Code Lyoko. Secret service agents think Jeremie is hacking into weapons databases, so Jim volunteers to be the one to plant a tracking device on him. His method? He slaps it onto him. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f724b70d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f724b70d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Code Lyoko | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f724b70d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f74b5f80 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
Subverted on Babylon 5. In "The Geometry of Shadows", Londo tries to plant a (small for this trope, but still visible to the audience) spy camera in order to capture a symbolic image for his own gain. The other party involved (in this case a Technomage, who are experts at planting sophisticated microscopic, i.e. nanoscale, bugs) notices the bug, (disposes of it spectacularly), and is very unhappy. Another case had someone putting a listening device on Londo's coat, which would have been obvious, but it turns invisible. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_f74b5f80 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_faf84cd | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_faf84cd | comment |
One sidequest in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has the protagonist sneak into an actress' home to plant cameras so her rival-turned-Nosferatu can get some dirt on her and ruin her reputation. The three cameras are roughly fist-sized (think USB-cable cameras for your computer) and placed in open view. You don't make a single attempt to hide them, just put 'em down on coffee tables and desks, then connect them to the internet through the resident's own computer. And just to complete the unbelievable, the rival gets her dirty laundry on her right away. It involves a llama. That's right, she ignored the incredibly obvious cameras and brought a llama to her apartment for some unspeakable acts. Refuge in Audacity much? And as a finishing touch to blow your mind, you have to place said cameras while sneaking, since said woman (and her boyfriend) are still in said apartment, walking from room to room. God only knows why neither of them goes "Hey, was this nice camera really here five seconds ago?". | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_faf84cd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_faf84cd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_faf84cd | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb201f3a | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb201f3a | comment |
In Familiar Faces episode 36, CR receives a fruit basket from The Nostalgia Critic. It's shown to contain a few fruits and one large buzzing camera. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb201f3a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb201f3a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Familiar Faces (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb201f3a | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb2ea8f2 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb2ea8f2 | comment |
The Nanny Diaries has a teddy bear with a rather obvious camera on it. Subverted since near the end, the nanny is ranting into it for the housewife to see. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb2ea8f2 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb2ea8f2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Nanny Diaries | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb2ea8f2 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb9c177d | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb9c177d | comment |
Transformers: Beast Wars: Subverted in "Bad Spark". Megatron attaches a cartoonishly large bug to Blackarachnia's back... and, as she walks away, we see it fade to invisibility. Later in the episode, we see Megatron sitting and looking down in a manner that implies he's perfectly aware of the large, spider-shaped listener Tarantulas has placed under Megatron's own chair. Played straight, however, in the episode "Tangled Web," where Tarantulas chucks a large, red, beeping bug onto the equipment Quickstrike had collected... and it makes a loud clanging sound as it lands. Naturally, Quickstrike doesn't notice. In the Transformers: Animated comic prequel/side-story The Arrival, Blackarachnia attaches a tracking device to Starscream, which he fails to notice. |
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Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb9c177d | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb9c177d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transformers (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_fb9c177d | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ff5cc447 | type |
Incredibly Obvious Bug | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ff5cc447 | comment |
In Short Circuit, when the protagonist #5 wanders off, its creator turns on its homing beacon so that his corporation can track it down. When #5 notices the beacon, it's about the size of an apple, with a prominent blinking light, easily detached and tossed into the back of some hapless bypasser's pickup truck. In this case, #5 was never intended to become self-aware enough to decide that the homing device should be gotten rid of, which may excuse its obviousness, but there is no reason a robotics company spending a fortune on a self-operating war machine wouldn't take care to integrate its homing beacon more effectively into the device. Even a prototype would have the homing beacon properly secured to prevent it from being knocked off during exercises — and a final production version would've been even more ruggedized. | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ff5cc447 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ff5cc447 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Short Circuit | hasFeature |
Incredibly Obvious Bug / int_ff5cc447 |
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