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You Don't Want to Catch This
- 327 statements
- 62 feature instances
- 30 referencing feature instances
You Don't Want to Catch This | type |
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You Don't Want to Catch This | label |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This | page |
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You Don't Want to Catch This | comment |
This trope is for when a disease is used as a deterrent, preying on the fears of those being tricked in order to escape capture. The idea behind it is taking advantage of other people's survival instincts. You've finally infiltrated a city or stronghold. You're looking around wondering what to do next when suddenly you hear a voice telling you to stop. It appears a guard or other equivalent Mook has just happened to pass by and catch you. You're suspicious as it is, but if he looks more closely, he'll realize you're an enemy of the state or you have some incriminating evidence on you that you don't want him to find. What do you do? Fake a disease, of course. It doesn't even have to be a real disease, as long as it sounds appropriately scary. Gorapoxacephalitis will work just fine, then start shambling around, act disconnected from the world, and mention it's contagious, the guard will go running in the other direction leaving you alone. In fact, you get bonus points if you made up the disease on the spot and it came entirely from your imagination. Extra bonus points if the guard mentions that he's heard of the disease before. There's also a version where a character is in danger of being raped, and she deceives the rapist into thinking she has an STD, so that if the ruse is successful, the rapist loses interest. In a less dramatic version, a woman could turn down a man's pick-up lines by claiming to have a disease. It's possible that this trope is more common in parody, where the disease used is so obviously not a real disease, it's funny that the guard falls for it. Compare Playing Sick, Hypochondria, Fake Rabies, and Sick Captive Scam. |
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You Don't Want to Catch This | fetched |
2023-07-22T01:14:06Z | |
You Don't Want to Catch This | parsed |
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You Don't Want to Catch This | processingComment |
Dropped link to AbhorrentAdmirer: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to BodybagTrick: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to DragonKnight: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to MasterAndCommander: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to MiddleAges: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to OlderThanRadio: Not an Item - CAT | |
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Dropped link to TheLiesOfLockeLamora: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to TooDumbToLive: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
You Don't Want to Catch This | processingUnknown |
MasterAndCommander | |
You Don't Want to Catch This | processingUnknown |
TheLiesOfLockeLamora | |
You Don't Want to Catch This | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_1099a6ac | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_1099a6ac | comment |
In Fight Club, Tyler doesn't claim he has a disease, however in modern times you don't want to be sprayed with a stranger's blood: | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_1099a6ac | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_1099a6ac | featureConfidence |
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Fight Club | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_1099a6ac | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_17fa5f0a | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_17fa5f0a | comment |
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the group dresses the Weasley family ghoul as Ron and say he has a deadly disease to keep people from checking up on him. In an earlier variation, Ginny patrols the corridor outside Umbridge's office in Order of the Phoenix, warning passersby about "Garrotting Gas." Too bad it doesn't work. |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_17fa5f0a | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_17fa5f0a | featureConfidence |
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_17fa5f0a | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_200f0be8 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_200f0be8 | comment |
In Tommy Boy, the main characters escape ticketing and/or arrest by a similar ploy (claiming they are being swarmed by bees). | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_200f0be8 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_200f0be8 | featureConfidence |
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Tommy Boy | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_200f0be8 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_20a73848 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_20a73848 | comment |
In True Magic, the villagers spot themselves with jam and put up a sign saying, "Visitors Beware: Peasant Pox, Highly Contagious" to keep the nobles away after the heroes leave. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_20a73848 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_20a73848 | featureConfidence |
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True Magic (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_20a73848 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2250e67e | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2250e67e | comment |
Star Trek: Enterprise. In "Judgement" Dr Phlox is able to get some private conversation time with Captain Archer by telling his Klingon guard that Archer has got a contagious disease. As dying from disease would be spectacularly dishonourable for this Proud Warrior Race, the guard quickly makes himself scarce. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2250e67e | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2250e67e | featureConfidence |
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Star Trek: Enterprise | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2250e67e | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_22d74b2e | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_22d74b2e | comment |
In Martin the Warrior. Martin, Felldoh, and Brome pretend to have a fever when in the prison pit, to prevent the guards from climbing down and checking on them. Keyla the otter sings to attract the attention of Rose and Grumm, who are outside the fortress, and when questioned by a guard claims to have been singing a charm against fictitious diseases such as the dreaded "flurgy twinj". Brome even manages to mix rhymed directions for digging them out in his faked screams of pain. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_22d74b2e | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_22d74b2e | featureConfidence |
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Redwall | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_22d74b2e | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_248029f1 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_248029f1 | comment |
In an episode of Master Raindrop, someone pretends the elements are his bodyguards and claims they're sick and the villains might catch the germs to invent them looking into their faces and recognizing them. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_248029f1 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_248029f1 | featureConfidence |
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Master Raindrop | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_248029f1 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2847c135 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2847c135 | comment |
In one flashback episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson claims that there's a possibly uncontained and contagious bioweapon in a warehouse that some SHIELD agents are being held in so that the local authorities will stay back while May attempts a rescue. He's unintentionally correct - the person holding the agents hostage is an insane Inhuman girl who can take control of people with a touch. May is forced to kill her to rescue the agents, traumatizing her for years. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2847c135 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2847c135 | featureConfidence |
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2847c135 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2bbcacd9 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2bbcacd9 | comment |
In the classic Looney Tunes short "Hare Tonic", Bugs Bunny manages to convince Elmer Fudd that he has the highly contagious disease "rabbititis". Different from some of the other examples as Bugs has already escaped from Fudd, but pulls the rabbititis prank just to mess with Elmer's head. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2bbcacd9 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2bbcacd9 | featureConfidence |
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Looney Tunes | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2bbcacd9 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2cc4abd9 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2cc4abd9 | comment |
In Monsters, Inc., the monsters have gotten the idea that children are extremely hazardous, and panic ensues whenever an exposure is thought to have happened. Anything touched by a child is treated as a hazmat scene. This allows the government to easily intervene when a child is brought into the monster world. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2cc4abd9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2cc4abd9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Monsters, Inc. | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_2cc4abd9 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_33f62178 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_33f62178 | comment |
In Another Thin Man, Nora is surrounded by admirers and Nick wants to have a word in private with her. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_33f62178 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_33f62178 | featureConfidence |
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Another Thin Man | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_33f62178 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a79ba93 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a79ba93 | comment |
In one Conchy strip, the king turns back an invasion from the East Island by standing on the beach holding a sign that reads "TURN BACK. WE'VE ALL GOT LEPROSY". | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a79ba93 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a79ba93 | featureConfidence |
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Conchy (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a79ba93 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a7f5b49 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a7f5b49 | comment |
In Alice: Madness Returns, the protagonist is 'invited' by a man to spend some time together, to which she responds that the doctor says she has a "terrible disease". He leaves her alone. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a7f5b49 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a7f5b49 | featureConfidence |
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Alice: Madness Returns (Video Game) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3a7f5b49 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3e9c95a2 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3e9c95a2 | comment |
In Sharpe, it's used in the process of infiltrating an enemy fort. The youngest member of the Chosen Men is put on a stretcher and carried in groaning, with the resident French-speaker shouting about cholera... | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3e9c95a2 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3e9c95a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sharpe | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3e9c95a2 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3eacc2fd | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3eacc2fd | comment |
In the Corner Gas episode "Contagious Fortune", Hank refuses to hang out at the gas station because he's afraid of catching pinkeye from Wanda. When Wanda tells him her pinkeye has cleared up, he says, "I guess I can hang out here then." Wanda never really enjoys him hanging around the gas station, so she tries to get rid of him by claiming that she now has "a bad case of tubercu-leprosy." | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3eacc2fd | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3eacc2fd | featureConfidence |
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Corner Gas | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_3eacc2fd | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4504cc18 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4504cc18 | comment |
John Macnab: Archie wraps his face up because he has a toothache. Then some unwanted visitors call and ask what's wrong with his face. He sees a way to get rid of them and claims he's developing smallpox. They leave immediately. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4504cc18 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4504cc18 | featureConfidence |
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John Macnab | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4504cc18 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_452aa4f | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_452aa4f | comment |
In Tales from the Borderlands Fiona and her sister Sasha are trying to swindle August with a fake Vault Key, but the paint is still wet on the "key" when August wants to touch the thing. If Fiona stops him from touching it, she can claim she stopped him because it's dangerous. Sasha backs her up by claiming Fiona kept August from catching Eridium poisoning. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_452aa4f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_452aa4f | featureConfidence |
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Tales from the Borderlands (Video Game) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_452aa4f | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_459178e9 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_459178e9 | comment |
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon. Dee is thrown into prison by his superior, but convinces medical assistant Shatuo to give him a herb that he's allergic to, causing Dee to froth at the mouth and his face to come up in a rash. Shatuo recommends isolation against the 'deadly measles'. With no guards willing to watch them, our heroes sneak out and continue the case. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_459178e9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_459178e9 | featureConfidence |
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Detective Dee | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_459178e9 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4fd9904a | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4fd9904a | comment |
In an earlier variation, Ginny patrols the corridor outside Umbridge's office in Order of the Phoenix, warning passersby about "Garrotting Gas." Too bad it doesn't work. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4fd9904a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4fd9904a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_4fd9904a | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_513f5832 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_513f5832 | comment |
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home "Dammit, man, this woman has an immediate case of post-prandial, upper-abdominal distention!" In a two-for-one, this is also an Expospeak Gag. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_513f5832 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_513f5832 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_513f5832 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5307b01d | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5307b01d | comment |
Subverted in Penny Arcade: Gabe's ploy of telling his wife he has "Fisherman's Mouth" fails, since she's already had it once, and is now immune (or rather, Tycho tipped her off that it was a fake disease). | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5307b01d | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5307b01d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Penny Arcade (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5307b01d | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5755b96a | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5755b96a | comment |
The Order of the Stick uses the vaporizing flu in this comic. One of the guards asks if it's contagious, and Elan says, "Yes, but oddly enough only if you stand around in places where a previous victim has died and ask questions." | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5755b96a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5755b96a | featureConfidence |
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The Order of the Stick (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5755b96a | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_59da62aa | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_59da62aa | comment |
Fallout: New Vegas lets you buy the freedom of a family of slaves (mother, teen son and teen daughter). You can pass a speech check to get a bargain, invoking this trope. The speech check failure has you invoking "Vagina Dentata" which doesn't fool the slaver one bit. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_59da62aa | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_59da62aa | featureConfidence |
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Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_59da62aa | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5d2be66d | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5d2be66d | comment |
The Barrier: Though is doesn't work, some characters try leave the enclave for the elites incognito by posing as an ambulance transporting a noravirus patient. They are implied to have been hoping the guard at the checkpoint would be too scared to catch it to check the back, where a perfectly healthy member of the group was posing as the patient. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5d2be66d | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5d2be66d | featureConfidence |
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The Barrier | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5d2be66d | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5ec0f48 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5ec0f48 | comment |
In ∀ Gundam, after the quest for Lost Technology results in several nuclear warheads going off, Loran is given the remaining two for safekeeping. When one of Dianna Counter's lieutenants turns up hoping to seize them, Loran and his companions charge her in their mobile suits and broadcast cries of thirst, which scares her away. He explains afterwards that according to historical records, people who took fatal doses of radiation from nuclear explosions would beg for water as they died. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5ec0f48 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5ec0f48 | featureConfidence |
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∀ Gundam | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_5ec0f48 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_629cd094 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_629cd094 | comment |
Dragon Age: Origins has a variant. If the Grey Warden is captured rescuing Queen Anora and Lileana and Morrigan are selected to rescue them, they disguise themselves as Chantry Sisters (priests) and claim that they've come to pray for the souls of the prisoners. When the guards balk at letting them in, they fall to their knees and begin loudly praying about all the horrible diseases that they hope the Maker won't inflict upon the guards for obstructing their holy duty. They're quickly let through. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_629cd094 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_629cd094 | featureConfidence |
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Dragon Age: Origins (Video Game) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_629cd094 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6369b8a8 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6369b8a8 | comment |
In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Azeem pretends to be a leper to simultaneously keep guards away and hide his race. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6369b8a8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6369b8a8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6369b8a8 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_638624c8 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_638624c8 | comment |
In the third Slayers novel, Lina and Gourry are captured by bounty hunters. When the guards start getting lecherous, Gourry very sternly warns them not to lay a finger on Lina, or they'll catch what she's got. The guards immediately back off, but Lina is not happy. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_638624c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_638624c8 | featureConfidence |
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Slayers | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_638624c8 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6536962d | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6536962d | comment |
In one scene of A Way Out, the two protagonists are in a hospital elevator with a security guard who's suspicious of them as they're in wanted posters. Choosing to let Vincent handle the situation lets him feign illness to scare the guard away. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6536962d | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6536962d | featureConfidence |
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A Way Out (Video Game) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6536962d | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6c1d09b2 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6c1d09b2 | comment |
In Fallout 2, you can convince a Vault City administrator to release one of their indentured servants (slaves in all but name, because Vault City is civilized) by convincing them that the man has "[playername]'s Disease". Symptoms apparently include being disrespectful to authority and unwilling to work. If they buy it, they'll have the man released as quickly as possible, before he infects anyone else. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6c1d09b2 | featureApplicability |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6c1d09b2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Fallout 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6c1d09b2 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6e1d5f36 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6e1d5f36 | comment |
Taken a step further in Farscape. The team needed a base they'd infiltrated quarantined, so Rygel pretended to have Hynerian Dermaphollica, an actual disease of his species. Unfortunately, the guards decided to lift the quarantine early due to Rygel's lack of symptoms, so to buy the time they needed, they used a drug to reawaken a latent Dermaphollica infection he'd actually had since childhood. The rest of the crew was understandably freaked out, since active Dermaphollica was lethal to all but one of them. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6e1d5f36 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6e1d5f36 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Farscape | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_6e1d5f36 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_701f0ece | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_701f0ece | comment |
Berserk: In the Conviction story arc, a lost and wandering Casca is taken in by Luca, the compassionate madam of a band of prostitutes. Since Casca is a pretty young woman but has the mentality of a very young child, Luca keeps her out of the way, and protects her from being taken advantage of by clients by wrapping her face in bandages and claiming she has syphilis. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_701f0ece | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_701f0ece | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Berserk (Manga) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_701f0ece | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72262aee | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72262aee | comment |
Avatar: The Last Airbender has pentapox, which was actually sucker marks left by a small sewer-dwelling cephalopod called a purple pentapus. It not only scared away a single guard, but allowed for a mass evacuation of an enemy-occupied city later in the episode. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72262aee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72262aee | featureConfidence |
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Avatar: The Last Airbender | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72262aee | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72e0ac4b | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72e0ac4b | comment |
In the What's with Andy? episode "Emergency Spew Relish", Andy and Danny are trying to clear everyone off a train car and Andy tells one man that he has "rhino-googly-osis", which works. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72e0ac4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72e0ac4b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
What's with Andy? | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_72e0ac4b | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_75149ccd | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_75149ccd | comment |
X-Wing Series: Played with in Wraith Squadron. Our heroes have taken over an enemy ship and have been posing as its crew, but they are scheduled to get a face-to-face meeting with another ship that would be able to identify the fraud. When thinking up ways to avoid the meeting the disease ploy comes up, but the enemy is Genre Savy and would get suspicious. So, they decide to turn the trick on its ear: force the other ship to cancel the meeting due to actual illness, secretly exposing their crew to the unpleasant-but-nonlethal Bunkurd Sewer Disorder. Any investigation into the situation will focus on the other ship, and not involve the Wraiths' ship at all. In X-Wing: Iron Fist, Face and Phanan are masquerading as guard stormtroopers on an infiltration mission. They are stopped by the next shift of guards and are queried for a password that they don't have. Face recalls his training, which says to "provide a reason and grab as much sympathy as you can". So he immediately starts coughing and hacking away, while remaining in respectful salute to the commanding officer. It works for a moment, but the officer still wants the password, and they have to shoot their way out. |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_75149ccd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_75149ccd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
X-Wing Series | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_75149ccd | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7a7a1a46 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7a7a1a46 | comment |
In Alien³ Clements plays with the fear of an outbreak of cholera in the prison complex in order to convince his superior to allow him to perform an autopsy. Problem is, cholera has been extinct for centuries and said superior knows that. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7a7a1a46 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7a7a1a46 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Alien³ | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7a7a1a46 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7aaf9e41 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7aaf9e41 | comment |
Batman #163 has Robin fake smallpox to scare some Mooks away and escape. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7aaf9e41 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7aaf9e41 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Batman (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_7aaf9e41 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_854344f9 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_854344f9 | comment |
In Schindler's List, Stern adopted the habit of constantly scratching his head to give the guards the impression that he has lice. In several scenes, guards are seen taking steps off the path when he walks by to make sure they do not get close enough to catch it. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_854344f9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_854344f9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Schindler's List | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_854344f9 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8b7b9cd5 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8b7b9cd5 | comment |
A close variant in A New Hope. Following the shoot-out in the cell block where Princess Leia is being held, Han tries to buy time by stalling the Imperial operator calling in to find out what just happened. When the operator tells him they're sending a stormtrooper squad up to check it out, Han tells him to hold off because they have a reactor leak. The operator doesn't buy it: | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8b7b9cd5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8b7b9cd5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
A New Hope | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8b7b9cd5 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8d814070 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8d814070 | comment |
In the M*A*S*H episode, "Welcome To Korea", Hawkeye and Radar used this to avoid a checkpoint. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8d814070 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8d814070 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
M*A*S*H | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_8d814070 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_90c73dda | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_90c73dda | comment |
Animorphs: Marco is caught mid-osprey morph by several Muggles. Fortunately he still has thought-speak, so he manages to guide Jake into convincing them Marco has beakanoma, a disfiguring disease in the shape of a beak (Jake draws the line at saying it's particularly tragic because it only affects the very handsome and intelligent). | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_90c73dda | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_90c73dda | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Animorphs | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_90c73dda | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_92ef018a | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_92ef018a | comment |
In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris' sister uses the the house intercom to tell the "intruder" downstairs that she has her father's gun and "a scorching case of herpes." | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_92ef018a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_92ef018a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ferris Bueller's Day Off | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_92ef018a | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_952d2e68 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_952d2e68 | comment |
Neela: Victory Song (part of the Girls of Many Lands from the American Girls Collection): The train Neela, her father, and a resistance fighter friend of hers are riding comes to a stop because British law enforcement wants to search it. She remembers the makeup kit she was given earlier and uses it to cover her father's face and one of his hands with fake smallpox sores. The officers panic and dump all three of them in the middle of the countryside, allowing them to escape. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_952d2e68 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_952d2e68 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
American Girls Collection | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_952d2e68 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_982fa89f | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_982fa89f | comment |
In Robin Hood, Allan a'Dale pretended to have "Turk flu" to scare off mine guards. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_982fa89f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_982fa89f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Robin Hood | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_982fa89f | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9acdda28 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9acdda28 | comment |
Richard Adams' Watership Down has one story of El-ahrairah wherein he uses the disease "Lousepedoodle" to steal a king's lettuce, and another in which he lies about the actual disease myxomatosis as part of a scheme to steal from a farmer. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9acdda28 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9acdda28 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Watership Down | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9acdda28 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9b530c26 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9b530c26 | comment |
At least two Archie Comics have used a gag where Archie hears that Mr. Weatherby is going to visit his house to give his parents news (assumed to be about Archie's misbehavior at school) and tries to prevent it by disguising himself as an old woman and pretending that the Andrews family moved away and there's currently a very ill child on the premises. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9b530c26 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9b530c26 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Archie Comics (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_9b530c26 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a04b0ca3 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a04b0ca3 | comment |
Tintin: In Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin routs a guard by pretending that Snowy is rabid. A dangerous gamble, as a braver guard could have shot Snowy before Tintin had a chance to reach him and wrest the rifle from him. In The Crab with the Golden Claws, Tintin claims that Snowy had rabies in order to scare a man out of his taxicab. A rare villain example occurs in Prisoners of the Sun when the crew of the ship where Calculus is being held put up a quarantine flag and have a crooked doctor declare the ship out of bounds. However, Tintin isn't fooled. |
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You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a04b0ca3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a04b0ca3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tintin (Franchise) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a04b0ca3 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a183d57f | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a183d57f | comment |
Futurama had "talking hump syndrome" when a person disguised as a hump started talking. It worked anyway. ("Ah, THS.") | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Futurama | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a183d57f | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a672cc77 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a672cc77 | comment |
Swiss Family Robinson: while salvaging the shipwreck, the father chases off attacking pirates with a quarantine flag, explaining to his sons the flag means Black Death is aboard. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a672cc77 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a672cc77 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Swiss Family Robinson | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_a672cc77 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b1c94339 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b1c94339 | comment |
In Commodore Hornblower, a Brit working as a French privateer poses as the captain of the ship he's just taken and claims that they have smallpox aboard. It almost works, but Hornblower decides to call his bluff by sending over a surgeon, as the noise from below is too loud and insistent for weakened, feverish wretches. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b1c94339 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b1c94339 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Horatio Hornblower | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b1c94339 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b4bfc3d0 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b4bfc3d0 | comment |
In one episode of Gummi Bears, Cubbi and Gusto are captured by Toadwart and the Ogres. They get the idea to paint spots all over themselves and tell the Ogres they have "Gummioleosis, and it's highly contagious". After they convince the Ogres that they've caught it as well, they give the Ogres a "cure" which involves taking three baths a day (anathema to the Ogres in and of itself) and that they must scrub the spots with "one small Ogre"...of course, the diminutive Toadwart realizes he fits the bill just as he reads these last words, and the Ogres run off chasing him. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b4bfc3d0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b4bfc3d0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Gummi Bears | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_b4bfc3d0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_bb1b8e8c | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_bb1b8e8c | comment |
Critical Role: Caleb tries to deter a bandit ambush with a surreptitious Charm Person spell and a claim of "extreme syphilis", and the party maintains the gag well after the ruse falls apart. The bandits initially try to rob the party's cart instead of their persons, and... | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_bb1b8e8c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_bb1b8e8c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Critical Role (Web Video) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_bb1b8e8c | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_cd713f4 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_cd713f4 | comment |
The Stainless Steel Rat for President. Jim and Angelina steal a spaceship by pretending to be a doctor/nurse tracking down a rare disease that makes the victim act like a dog. Sure enough one of the crew starts growling and barking...because Angelina drugged him with the throat swab used to test him. This gives them an excuse to quarantine the rest. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_cd713f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_cd713f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Stainless Steel Rat | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_cd713f4 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d30b220e | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d30b220e | comment |
In Knights of Buena Vista, a lady asks Adriana, whose Player Character had just been crowned queen, to kiss her baby. Adriana says she think she's coming down with something, as she's trying to get through the crowd before her dangerous secret is found out. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d30b220e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d30b220e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Knights of Buena Vista (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d30b220e | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d858c276 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d858c276 | comment |
In Emmuska Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel, the title character claims "her" grandson has smallpox to keep the Revolutionaries at a distance. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d858c276 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d858c276 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Scarlet Pimpernel | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_d858c276 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3aaeedc | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3aaeedc | comment |
Played with in Garulfo: in order to get by unquestioned, the heroes (one of which is in the body of a frog) wrap themselves in a moldy shroud, shaking a clacker and moaning "Leper! Leper!". Then they meet a smart guard, who knows better than to back away, and knocks off the hood... to see a pair of bulbous yellow eyes on a wizened green body. He runs, fast. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3aaeedc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3aaeedc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Garulfo (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3aaeedc | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3b8885 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3b8885 | comment |
In Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, this device is used twice; once to get the female love interest away from her owner by claiming that she has a terrible, deadly disease to which the protagonist, fortunately enough, just happens to be immune, and once when said owner, trying to avoid the irascible customer who has paid in advance for the girl, pretends to be a leper to keep everyone away. Sight gags involving fake limbs being thrown at people abound. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3b8885 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3b8885 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Theatre) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_e3b8885 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_ee66462b | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_ee66462b | comment |
In Dr. STONE, Chrome is captured by Tsukasa's Empire of Might but manages to pull off a jailbreak. The jailer Yo chases him down, but Chrome psychs him out with fake Blood from the Mouth and lies about having pneumonia. While Yo is recoiling in fear, Chrome hits him between the legs with a bamboo pole and escapes. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_ee66462b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_ee66462b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dr. STONE (Manga) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_ee66462b | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_eef69f10 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_eef69f10 | comment |
In "The Adventure of the Dying Detective", Sherlock Holmes pulls this on Dr. Watson, in order to lure the person who tried (but failed) to infect him with a lethal virus into a trap. Watson, being a skilled doctor but not a particularly good liar, wouldn't have been convincing enough if he knew what was really going on, so Holmes has to keep him from getting close enough to discover that he's only feigning illness. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_eef69f10 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_eef69f10 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sherlock Holmes | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_eef69f10 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f36a428d | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f36a428d | comment |
The protagonists of Bridge of Birds use the "Plague of the Ten Thousand Pestilential Putrescences" to break out of jail. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f36a428d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f36a428d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Bridge of Birds | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f36a428d | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f688799b | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f688799b | comment |
In My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Capper warns his fellow Klugetown residents that the Mane Six are infected with the in-universe fictional disease "pastellis coloritis", taking advantage of the ponies' natural vivid colors. Later, one of the Residents wises up to the ruse, but confronts Tempest Shadow about it, who promptly hands his cupcakes to him. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f688799b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f688799b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f688799b | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f74b5f80 | type |
You Don't Want to Catch This | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
In one Babylon 5 episode, Lennier claims to have "Netter's Syndrome" (a Shout-Out to executive producer Doug Netter) to drive away an obnoxious pest. | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
You Don't Want to Catch This / int_f74b5f80 |
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