History Main / SnipeHunt

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': The VictimOfTheWeek in "16 Years" is found by two kids brought onto a snipe hunt by their fathers. Had they not found the body, it seems this prank would've later crossed over with the old "burning bag of poop" gag.

* In ''Film/TheInternship'', because the protagonists were annoying them, the younger Google candidates send them to find [[Franchise/XMen Professor Charles Xavier]], at Stanford. Unfortunately, since the candidates based their description of him off the actual fictional character, when they find a professor who looks a little like Charles Xavier, he assumes they're making fun of him, and [[HandicappedBadass promptly hits them]] [[GroinAttack in the nards]].

* The Creator/CartoonNetwork short series ''The Talented Mr. Bixby'' has the title character substituting for auto shop class. He gives the students an impossible essay, or they can go to the auto parts store and get a jug of blinker fluid. Most of the class dashes out, leaving Mr. Bixby alone with whom he thinks are the smart ones. They aren't. [[spoiler:Everyone but the guy who strapped rockets to Mr. Bixby's van, anyway.]]
** As the students leave the room, they actually pass a sign that says "NOTICE: Blinker Fluid Does Not Exist". They come across an ''identical'' sign at the auto parts store and stare blankly at it.

* The entire plot of ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsSuperSponge'' is Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy trying to keep [=SpongeBob=] away from them with several Snipe Hunts. Naturally, he keeps succeeding.

** In the app ''Krusty Cook-Off'', in Chapter 1, Squidward tries to get [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick to leave him alone by participating in a seemingly nonexistent jellyfishing contest; however, only Patrick can do it because [=SpongeBob=] has to work the pancake stand. As it turns out, there really was a jellyfishing contest, and Patrick shows the trophy he won to prove it.

** Unsurprisingly, since Harry Dresden is something of a Phillip Marlowe expy in the earlier books, the same trick gets pulled on him several times with villains setting up an intentional RedHerring or two to get him out of the way while they work. The [[Literature/StormFront first occurrence]] is Victor Sells pointing Harry at his daughter's case, but it happens two or three times in any given novel, being a staple of the genre.

* The novelization of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' has an inversion. Excitable young cadet Peter Preston (Scotty's nephew) is chastized by Admiral Kirk stating that ''Enterprise'' is a flying death trap, ribbing the young cadet over his enthusiasm. Preston runs off, seemingly too embarrassed to face the Admiral any longer. He goes to an equipment locker, pulls out an item, and intercepts Kirk and Scotty before they leave Engineering, handing the device to Kirk and saying "I believe the Admiral asked for this." When Kirk asks what it is and why he'd want it, Preston replies that it's a left-handed spanner. Scotty is furious with his nephew for pranking the Admiral, Kirk [[ActuallyPrettyFunny can barely keep from falling over laughing]].

** In "Operation F.A.S.T.F.O.O.D.", Numbah 3 wants to lead a mission for her birthday. Because 3 is TheDitz and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, Numbah 1 tasks her with the duty of...getting a kids meal from a fast food place. Things get out of hand when they learn that the restaurant's proprietor is an old enemy of the KND and its most frequent customers are sharks.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Zuko's task of finding the Avatar, who had been thought dead for a century, was essentially just this. All this is courtesy of his EvilOverlord father Ozai, who personally [[AbusiveParents scarred and banished his own son]]. To drive the point home, Zhao, acting with the full authority of the Fire Nation, moves to keep Zuko from continuing his hunt when it becomes clear that the Avatar actually ''has'' returned.

* ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'': When Sendo arrives to spar with [[TheRival Miyata]], Ippo isn't allowed to go watch because the gym had officially cut all ties to the Miyata family. In order to give Ippo an excuse to go watch the fight anyway, his gymmates send him to [[ImpossibleTask buy them some nonexistent products]], including Pokarimin C drink, Tsuchinoko drink, Arowana Cola, Doctor Pappy, and next month's issue of a magazine. Surprisingly, he does find a Tsuchinoko drink.

->''"The following items do not exist: Keys to the Drop Zone, a box of grid squares, blinker fluid, winter air for tires, canopy lights, or Chem-Light ® batteries."'' [[note]]Note that in a bit of TechnologyMarchesOn, the last of these ''does'' exist now.[[/note]]

** Mentioned in one of the sample dragon entries from the ''Draconomicom''--one particular green dragon gets his kicks by capturing adventuring parties and holding their equipment hostage until they bring him back some rare or hard-to-acquire item. Whenever they come back, they find that the chimera pelt or whatever is the wrong size or wrong color and get sent out again. The game ends when the adventurers wise up and don't return, or when the dragon grows bored and just eats them.

* In ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', Shiba sends Takeda on several of these before he'll take him on as a student. Takeda somehow manages to pull it off. Shiba takes this as a sign that fate wants him to train Takeda, and takes him on as a disciple.
* ''Manga/GTOTheEarlyYears'': Eikichi ditches his annoying "elite guard" of first-year delinquents by ordering them to make it so he won't have to take extra classes to graduate. [[spoiler:They decide the best course of action is to burn all the report cards, which nearly burns down the school.]]

-->"On my first day on the building site, I was ready to be sent off on some stupid errand or other--for a bucket of "striped paint" or something--and sure enough, someone told me to go and get an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_medical_services "air ambulance."]] ''[tuts and rolls eyes]'' I showed him, though. Wandered around for a bit and then came back and said I couldn't find one anywhere. You should've seen his face!...It was blue.''

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague: Year One'' has FishOutOfWater ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} asked to find a "bulb wrench" to help with work on the new headquarters after he accidentally crushes a light bulb [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength because he is unused to the pressure of the atmosphere as opposed to the ocean]]. He does not see the funny side once he realizes what happened since he sees it as an example of being excluded and mocked for being different.

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': The search for the titular traitor in the story "Hay un traidor en la T.I.A." ("There's a traitor in the T.I.A.") eventually turns into this. [[spoiler:The enemies knew all the secret plans because the Super transmitted them to Fulgencio, the service coordinator who is located in the building in front of the T.I.A. headquarters, by yelling them at him from the window, so the enemies only had to place a spy waiting on the sidewalk below and record everything.]]

* In ''Thimble Theatre'', during the storyline ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} makes his debut, Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy are about to leave on another adventure, and in order to ditch Olive, who insists on coming along to keep an eye on her boyfriend (Ham), they tell her to fetch a 'dimes worth of longitude'. Olive naturally gets laughed at. When Popeye tells her what longitude is, she gives Castor a good thrashing.
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'', one of the pranks Cooper plays on new employees is asking for them to go and search around for a "wall stretcher".
** Once, he's stunned to find one of the newbies doesn't move an inch. She just says she 'wasn't born yesterday'. He notes that this employee has potential to go far.
** Cooper himself ends up on the receiving end of this during his stint in the shoe department: when Alan asks Cooper to get the Brannock device, Cooper calls him out on sending him on a snipe hunt, only to find out it's a real thing (specifically, it's what stores use to measure a person's feet). Cooper is so embarrassed that he doesn't question it when Alan then tells him to go get the 'shoelace repair kit'.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}''

* In one ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' comic, Dennis's dad tells him how to catch a snipe as a joke. Somehow his instruction actually work, except the snipe Dennis brings back turns out to be a skunk, which sprays the unlucky dad.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': Used in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/854032/1/The_Hunting_of_the_Snipe this]] fanfic, when Wallace's friends send Daisuke off on a snipe hunt. Then he tells them he found one. [[spoiler:He caught onto the joke. It's Chibimon inside his bag.]]
* In a later chapter of ''Fanfic/InvaderZimTheSeries'', [[RelationshipSue Sue]] sends Zoburg out to hunt snipe so that she can get some time [[UnholyMatrimony alone with Spork]].

* In fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5464274/1/So-You-Think-You-Had-A-Bad-Hair-Day So You Think You Had a Bad Hair Day,]]'' Creator/AAPessimal tops this with Euryate, the one gorgon officer in the Watch, convincing a gullible Fred Colon that the un-named meat on the revolving spit in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Greece}} Ephebian]] kebab shop is the flesh of the one-legged ''monopedos'' rabbit. So called as it only has one leg and hunting it calls for skill and fast reflexes as nobody can predict the way it will bounce on its one massively muscled leg. Stavros the kebab-shop-owner joins in with the joke, and Fred is utterly convinced.
* In ''Fanfic/TheStalkingZukoSeries'', Toph, fed up with Haru pestering her to teach him metalbending, sends him to find metal around the temple, confident that he'll be hard-pressed to find it and will be occupied for a long time. Haru comes back with the spoons from the kitchen.
* ''Fanfic/ShakedownShenanigans'' borrows a couple of US military classics. Somebody got Crewman Apprentice Miq’doh Drohhl to do an "echo check"[[note]]The schmuck is told that if he yells at the engine just right, it'll resonate.[[/note]] on the impulse engine when Bynam was test-firing it, and Eleya refers to a NoodleIncident from when she was in the Militia where a corporal tried to get her to "blow the DCA".[[note]]The schmuck is told that the DCA is a kind of air horn that you're supposed to blow before the ship leaves port. The DCA, or Damage Control Assistant, is a junior officer.[[/note]]
-->"They had some trouble finding his front teeth after the next sparring session."
* ''Fanfic/TaylorHebertMedhallIntern'': The senior janitorial staff mess with Greg by sending him for things like left-hand grease, elbow grease, striped spray paint, and a short weight. On Taylor's advice, when they try to do it the next day, Greg asks if he should get a DVD rewinder too, something that earns a laugh and stops the hazing.

* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheepRWBY'': Hazel Rainart takes up a drunken bet to find a Grimm Unicorn for his nieces, thus explaining why he isn't present for much of the story. This becomes a BrickJoke when, in the final chapter, he somehow managed to find one.

* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13250586/2/Ranma-Restart-Bid-for-Freedom "Ranma Restart: Bid for Freedom"]]: [[MentalTimeTravel After returning to his six-year-old body]], Ranma left a note addressed to Genma from Hideki Yamamura saying that he found Ranma and had taken him as per their marriage agreement. Meanwhile, he sent a letter to Hideki saying that he had freed Ranma from his father Genma and detailing some of his father's misdeeds, addressed from Seto Tachibana, Seto got a similar letter addressed from Naoto Tozawa...meanwhile, Ranma went in a different order from what the people following the letters would follow in order to annul all of the marriages his father had conned the other MartialArtsAndCrafts masters of Japan into.
* ''Fanfic/ThingsIAmNotAllowedToDoAtThePPC'':
** Rule 22 forbids hazing new recruits via giving them good fanfiction and instructing them to find the Mary Sue.
** Rule 1869 is about not asking new agents to retrieve electricity powder from the Building Maintenance department. Its addendum suggests electricity powder is something that actually exists, but people still aren't allowed to get it from Building Maintenance.

* In ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' short "Tassels in the Air", the boys are painting a table. The owner offers his help, so Moe, to avoid dealing with a third idiot, sends him off to mix a batch of "spotted paint." He reappears a few times throughout the short, trying to mix the paint -- at one point, he tries to create the spots by pouring the paint through a strainer!
* ''Film/TheLastAirbender'': Zuko's search for the Avatar is shown to be this, even more so in Manga/ZukosStory than in canon. When Zuko was banished from the palace, he was left to live on the street, Ozai not even bothering to give him anything to help him, as opposed to canon, where he at least gave him a small ship and crew. Here, Zuko has to resort to trying to recruit a crew in bars, which fails, with one bar patron outright telling Zuko his quest to get the Avatar was just a way for his father to get rid of him. Zuko had to ask Azula to ask Ozai to give him a ship, but even then Ozai only gives Zuko the ship to get rid of Iroh. Upon arriving at the docks of a nondescript town celebrating the Fire Days festival, Commander Kanku refuses to produce any maps or intel on the surrounding region for the banished prince in fear of losing the Fire Lord's good favor. Basically, everyone can see that Zuko's quest for the Avatar for what it is except Zuko, because of his misplaced love and loyalty to his father and hope that capturing the Avatar can end his banishment.
* The novelization of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' has an inversion. Excitable young cadet Peter Preston (Scotty's nephew) is chastized by Admiral Kirk stating that ''Enterprise'' is a flying death trap, ribbing the young cadet over his enthusiasm. Preston runs off, seemingly too embarassed to face the Admiral any longer. He goes to an equipment locker, pulls out an item, and intercepts Kirk and Scotty before they leave Engineering, handing the device to Kirk and saying "I believe the Admiral asked for this." When Kirk asks what it is and why he'd want it, Preston replies that it's a left-handed spanner. Scotty is furious with his nephew for pranking the Admiral, Kirk [[ActuallyPrettyFunny can barely keep from falling over laughing.]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

--> '''Data:''' I was not successful, although I did hold the bag and call for the snipe exactly as Commander Riker had instructed me. Snipe appear to be exceptionally well evolved for remaining unseen. Even the ship's computer has no record of-- ''(Riker bursts out laughing.)'' Captain?\\

* The entire plot of ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsSuperSponge'' is Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy trying to keep Sponge[==]Bob away from them with several Snipe Hunts. Naturally, he keeps succeeding.

* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movie contains an example where Donkey is sent off to find a blue flower with red thorns to keep him from distracting Fiona and Shrek while they dealt with the arrow in Shrek's behind. Not only does he find the flower, he wanders through a ''whole copse of them'', complaining that [[ColorblindConfusion his task would be infinitely easier if he wasn't colorblind]], and he only brings back the right flower because he grabs one - ''any'' one - in a panic when he hears Shrek yell. The other characters don't even react, making it a relatively subtle sight gag.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', Drakken tells a {{brainwashed}} Shego to go out and accomplish various meaningless tasks to keep her occupied, including finding a dodo bird.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' pilot, Mr. Krabs and Squidward send [=SpongeBob=] on a fool's errand for "a hydrodynamic spatula with port and starboard attachments and turbo drive" to keep him from getting a job as fry cook at the Krusty Krab. Astoundingly enough, he shows up with one near the end of the episode. ("Can you believe they only had one in stock?") Lucky for Mr. Krabs and Squidward too, since [=SpongeBob=] uses it to save them from a pack of unruly anchovy customers.

** Since the actual code for most batteries starts with "BA", a newer one is to send someone for a form to purchase a "Bravo-Alpha-Eleven Hundred-November" battery. ([=BA1100N=], Balloon), sometimes with a Sierra-Tango ring (a "S-T-ring", a balloon with a ''string''). The proper response if you know the joke is to ask if they want it blown up or not

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': During the Liyue archon quests, one happens completely by accident when Qiqi requests that the Traveler's party find a "legendary adeptibeast" called a "cocogoat". When they ultimately return to her empty-handed after having no luck finding the thing, they discover that it never existed, as Qiqi mistakenly believed it to be the source of her favorite drink... cocount milk.

* In the ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' novelization, a junior engineer calls Admiral Kirk out on his condescending behavior by offering him a 'left-handed spanner'.

* Working in stores or grocers, ''powdered water'' (Just add water!) is a favorite item.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': during the Liyue archon quests, Qiqi requests that they find a cocogoat, as she believes that such a beast is what makes her favorite drink: coconut milk. However, no such creature as a cocogoat exists...unless you mean Ganyu, of course.

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': [[Recap/CheersS3E14 One episode]] revolved around Frasier being sent on a Snipe Hunt, though he later gets back at the others by agreeing to go on another and abandoning them in the cold.