History Main / ItsProbablyNothing

* Babies. Because they're still low on memory, for the first few months you can get their attention with a toy then cover it up so that they'll wonder where it went until forgetting about it. But that changes, eventually.

* ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'': In the first episode, the three soon-to-be-Rangers hear the Mooks of the year coming for them. Kira suggests (without much hope) that it's the wind, and [[BlackAndNerdy Ethan]] proves his GenreSavvy by disagreeing.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' averts this slightly. Guards will first investigate, then wonder where you are, before deciding you aren't around -- but it takes all of ten seconds. Often they can be heard to utter "He's miles away by now" when J.C. hides behind a box in a dead end.

*** In all fairness to the AI, a guardsman or legionary who happens upon a stealthily murdered corpse ''will'' examine the body and comment on the likelihood of the killer being in the vicinity... before continuing with their regularly scripted lives.
*** Then again, I once witnessed a bug where some guards suddenly fought each other. One of them died, and the other immediately bent down and examined who he'd just killed, saying "The body is still warm, the killer must be nearby." ''[[CaptainObvious No Shit!]]''
*** It's even possible for a stealthy enough character in Oblivion to sneak up on two [=NPCs=] chatting away with each other, cut the conversation short by stabbing one in the back, and the other NPC won't so much as react to their friend being KilledMidSentence.

*** Addendum: A properly-built thief/assassin, however, will still run circles around the hapless AI, who will still dismiss arrows to the chest as figments of their imagination. Killing someone standing right next to someone else without breaking stealth, backstabbing an entire line of people like dominoes, rolling past a tight group of half a dozen shades to backstab the necromancer in the middle of them. [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Spy]] wishes he had it so easy.

* Used at least twice in ''StarWars''. In ''Film/ANewHope'', Obi-Wan uses it against two stormtroopers on the Death Star to cover his escape. Though in that case it really was nothing. In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', two [[EliteMooks Super Battle Droids]] are investigating the crashed Jedi starfighters in the hangar bay. When one hears Artoo lurking in a corner, the other stops him, saying it's nothing.
** After the characters watch ''StarWars'' 4-6 in ''{{Spaced}}'', Tim declares that entire plot wouldn't have happened if the Imperial gunner in ''A New Hope'' hadn't dismissed the escape pod carrying [=R2D2=] and [=C3PO=] down to Tatooine as nothing to worry about.

* ''TheTwilightZone'', "The Purple Testament", three wounded soldiers conclude that the "explosion" sound must just be thunder.

* ''FamilyGuy'': In one gag, Lois and Peter mention in passing the giant squid in the kitchen which they [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom absolutely ''must'' ignore]]. It promptly swats all the dishware off the table, prompting them to quickly remark "earthquake!" and "uhh, truck passing by".

* ''StarWarsCloneWars'' plays this one for laughs, with Palpatine dismissing Grievous' clanking footsteps drawing nearer and then suddenly stopping, to the dismay of his Jedi protectors. Of course, the droid general's head appears in the window behind him even as he's delivering the line, hanging upside down on the outside of the building. One gets the impression that the [[TheChessmaster scheming dark lord]], who actually ''wants'' to be captured, plays the classic part with some glee.

* Played with in ''Fanfic/RedFireRedPlanet''. In the first two chapters the crew of Starfleet Listening Post 204RT pick up subspace anomalies, and Crewman Yasmin Sherazi is insistent that there's something going on despite the fact the others think there's just a problem with the warp drive on the USS ''[=DeWitt=]'', a ship which was not on the schedule.[[note]]The joke being that the ''[=DeWitt=]'' is really a KDF Bird-of-Prey generating an oversize warp field and broadcasting the ''[=DeWitt's=]'' entry codes.[[/note]] [=OS1=]. Bikog gets really hyper when he insists there's nothing there. But then [=OS2.]= Kybok spots a tachyon burst in the logs and Lt. sh'Kreem decides to take the listening post's shuttle out for a look-see.

[-[[caption-width-right:350:Unfortunately for him, [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9976-Still-Just-a-Rat this is a subversion.]]]]-]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' character Koishi Komeiji, as a [[{{youkai}} satori]] with the power to read the conscious mind and heart of others. She [[PokeInTheThirdEye disabled herself]] in order to escape the [[ForgotAboutTheMindReader contempt]] [[MindOverManners she and her sister]] [[TheMindIsATerribleThingToRead earned]] only to find that she suddenly gained powers over the subconscious mind that effectively made her impossible to recognize or notice. On the off chance that anyone does see her, they will immediately forget about her once she leaves. Her power doesn't work on children, though, and she'll sometimes play with them, making her a NotSoImaginaryFriend until they grow up and forget she existed in the first place.

A case of some TruthInTelevision as each area has a large assortment of ambient sounds that individuals become familiar with and often ignore possibly at their detriment.

* [[EdgarAllanPoe While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping/As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door./"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door/Only this, and nothing more."]]

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', when your character is bitten by a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Worgen]], you dismiss it as just a scratch and nothing to be worried about. The end result of this is being taken by the transformation during a last stand, killing the allies unfortunate enough to not also be infected, and causing your final defenses to fall.

** Kustified, as one Easter Egg involves triggering a rat as big as a truck to run down a street. Something like that would HAVE to make some noise.

* Agent Wyoming's introduction in RedVsBlue is full of this trope

* ''GilbertAndSullivan'' inflicted this on the entire crew of ''HMS Pinafore'' as they try to sneak the eloping lovers off the ship:

* ''ThePiratesOfPenzance'', by the same team, has the song "WithCatlikeTread". The titular pirates, while sneaking into Major-General Stanley's estate, sing ''at the top of their lungs'' about how they're being silent. The very next song starts with the Major-General mentioning that he "thought I heard a noise", and concluding that "it must have been the sighing of the breeze." (''Pirates'' was, at the time of its release, criticized for having the same plot as ''Pinafore''.)

* A famous operatic example is the scene in ''Hansel and Gretel'' where the children are busily taking pieces off the GingerbreadHouse and eating them. Twice, a voice from inside demands to know who's been nibbling at her house, the children think for a moment, and they declare it was the wind, the heavenly child.

->''People only say "I'm sure it was nothing" when they're sure it was something.''
-->-- '''[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=237360 Feeling of Dread]]''', ''MagicTheGathering'', in the Flavor Text

* Used at least twice in ''StarWars''. In ''Film/ANewHope'', Obi-Wan uses it against two stormtroopers on the Death Star to cover his escape. In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', two [[EliteMooks Super Battle Droids]] are investigating the crashed Jedi starfighters in the hangar bay. When one hears Artoo lurking in a corner, the other stops him, saying it's nothing.

*** It's even possible for a stealthy enough character in Oblivion to sneak up on two NPCs chatting away with each other, cut the conversation short by stabbing one in the back, and the other NPC won't so much as react to their friend being KilledMidSentence.

* ''{{Half-Life}}'' is probably the trope namer for this one.

->''It's not just the wind. It's not all in your head. And it's definitely something to worry about.''

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' character Koishi Komeiji, as a [[{{youkai}} satori]] with the power to read the conscious mind and heart of others. She [[PokeInTheThirdEye disabled herself]] in order to escape the [[OhGodDidSheJustHearThat contempt]] [[MindOverManners she and her sister]] [[TheMindIsATerribleThingToRead earned]] only to find that she suddenly gained powers over the subconscious mind that effectively made her impossible to recognize or notice. On the off chance that anyone does see her, they will immediately forget about her once she leaves. Her power doesn't work on children, though, and she'll sometimes play with them, making her a NotSoImaginaryFriend until they grow up and forget she existed in the first place.

* Subverted in FireEmblemRadiantDawn when the hero is hiding with her pet bird in a hole. The bird chirps and the guard notice. She lets the bird go as they are about to investigate and it flies out of the hole. The guards shrug, saying it was just a bird and our hero sighs a sigh of relief. Then the guards capture her and go "you didn't think we'd really fall for that, did you?" Of course, another hero shows up to save our first hero.

** This is even worse when you are on a ship, which is basically a very large building made primarily from metal, which expands and contracts much more than does the wood that houses are typically made from. As you try to go to sleep at night, the entire ship is groaning and creaking and making weird sounds as the many metal parts contract and pull against each other. [[NightmareFuel Sleep well.]]

** This is actually quite reasonable of them, mind you - not only do the alleged footfalls come from within a massive stone structure evidently sealed shut for hundreds or thousands of years, they have no sane reason to trust the man who tells them, nobody but him can hear the sound (they do try), and indeed there is no sane way for it to be heard through the solid stone walls. KarmicDeath? Oh yeah. GenreBlindness? Well, sure. IdiotBall? Not at all.

** Then again, after the guards investigate something, they'll eventually decide It's Probably Nothing and wander off... even if "nothing" was being ''shot''. Guards will always say It's Probably Nothing when they wake up from being knocked out, even if they were knocked out by being shot in the face with a tranquilizer dart while radioing for help. Sometimes a guard will decide It's Probably Nothing when he finds another guard ''dead in a puddle of blood'', since there's nobody around to have killed him. He'll radio for help, they'll do a half-hearted sweep, and leave.
*** Crazy as it sounds, this is actually a rather smart thing to do (short of dismissing getting shot, that's just weapons-grade retarded). A guard is knocked unconscious by an intruder. The guard is then found and revived, causing the other guards to call for back up. ''But'', the guards have no clue if the intruder is still in the area. After the sweep with the extra guards turns up nothing, they're told to keep alert, but go back to their normal patrols, ''under the assumption that the intruder is no longer in the area''. It may be the wrong assumption, but there's no faulting the logic.

** Of course, if the Stormtroopers had actually checked out the sound, it would have been even more useful for Kenobi. As it was, they didn't notice him moving even though he had only gone about three inches by the time they turned back to their original positions.