History Main / SnipeHunt

* CreatorDCComics ''House of Secrets'': A one-page strip shows Abel, whose brother Cain has convinced him to catch a snipe in a graveyard at night. Cain peers cackling around a gravestone.

* A one-page strip shows DC's Abel of ''House of Secrets'', whose brother Cain has convinced him to catch a snipe in a graveyard at night. Cain peers cackling around a gravestone.

** ''Literature/SmallFavor'': Harry pulls an interesting variation on this in the infamous [[FanNickname Donut Incident]], in which the "hunter" knows exactly what's going on and is fine with it. (ItMakesSenseInContext.)

* ''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.
* An ComicBook/ArchieComics story has Archie sending a Central City youth on a Snipe Hunt for a film supposedly showing the Riverside star player, Moose Mason, meeting with an underworld figure. The idea being to discredit Moose and have him thrown off the football (USA Gridiron) team so Central City has a better chance of winning against Riverside. When the youth finally shows the film to the Riverside coach (having not viewed it himself previously), it shows Moose delivering a lunch box to his father... who is a sewer engineer.
* A [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' has Robin going undercover as a gofer with a construction crew stringing power cables. He is subjected to the traditional hazing by being to sent to fetch a 'brass magnet' and 'light bulb oil'.

* "Literature/TheElfMaiden": When they are about to leave an island, the main character's rival asks him to go back to the hut and pick a knife which he dropped carelessly. When the main character gets to the hut, he looks back and sees his "friend's" boat has sailed.

* ''Manga/{{Working}}'': In episode 8 of season 2, Souma sends Aoi on an errand to find "shanbalileh" to hide her while her brother is looking for her.

*** ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'' featured a left-handed hammer, needed to solve a problem involving Mirror Twins.

* For bridge types, asking someone to polish the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_bearing relative bearing]]".

** There's also the old "Where's the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_hammer Water Hammer]]" routine.

*** ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'' featured a left-handed hammer, needed to solve a problem involving MirrorTwins.

** Another common joke in the camera department is to send someone for a "box of T-stops". The T-stop is the rating of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number aperture opening on the lenses]].

** [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/04/19/episode-542-what-do-you-do-with-a-drunken-sailor/ Once]], to get Fighter inside a room rather than outside, Black Mage uses an old trick: a paper with "There is a map to Swordtown on the other side of this note" on both sides. Somehow, [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/04/21/episode-543-no-loose-ends/ he found it]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'' has a rather nice summary of the concept [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2200/fc02185.htm here]].

** At one point, an airship crewman gets told that he's now working for the heir to his boss; his reaction is to ask one of the others if he was just '[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080613 sent out for a crate of balloon juice]]'.

* In ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'' the whole [[MedievalMorons kingdom of Hilla]] goes on a snipe hunt [[http://latchkeykingdom.thecomicseries.com/comics/468 once a year]]. The fact that nobody has actually caught one (despite all the booze consumed) has yet to discourage them.

* In ''Webcomic/NipAndTuck'', Tagger Beaver [[http://www.rhjunior.com/NT/00086.html gets rid of the protesters by sending them off to interfere with the snipe hunt]].

* 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.

* [[Anime/RanmaOneHalf Ranma Saotome]] manages to combine this with YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle in [[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 fathers 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.

* After Creator/ToeiCompany screened ''Film/BattleRoyale'' for their lawyers after the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre, they were [[https://www.screendaily.com/toei-continues-strong-sales-on-battle-royale-3d-/5020957.article told]] that, if they tried to release it in the US, the resulting lawsuits from MoralGuardians would outweigh any potential box-office earnings. As a result, Toei created a series of wildly unreasonable demands for any potential American distributor, stating that ''Battle Royale'', an extremely violent, subtitled Japanese film whose subject matter would make it a lightning rod, would have to receive a national cinema release and an advertising campaign to match instead of the "select arthouse theaters" route that foreign cinema in the US normally takes. Needless to say, no distributor was willing to do that, so the film never saw an American release until 2012, when a combination of [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents the passage of time]] and the success of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' led Toei to drop its demands and sell the American rights to Anchor Bay.

* ''Film/TheLastAirbender'': Zuko's search for the Avatar is shown to be this, even more so in Manga/ZukosStory then 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.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/be-glad-you-didnt-send-him-out-for-a-flux-capacitor/156980/ And another]] instance of this kind of prank backfiring. In this case, the "victim" realized almost immediately he was being set up and, instead of going out looking for the snipe, just went home to slack off until his prankster boss actually needed him back.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/be-glad-you-didnt-send-him-out-for-a-flux-capacitor/156980/ And another]] instance of this kind of prank backfiring. In this case, instead of going out looking for the snipe, the "victim" immediately realized he was being set up and just went home to slack off until his prankster boss actually needed him back.

* In the "Operation: F.U.G.I.T.I.V.E." episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'', Numbah 4 is ordered by Numbuh 86 to guard a dandelion in the DCFDTL's garden from any adult's attacks to prevent him from following her. Numbah 4 places the flower in a pot and takes it with him.

* ''Still More Tales for the Midnight Hour'': A scouting troop does this to a disliked member. However, not only does the scout find 'the snipe', in the form of an unknown and extremely aggressive bird, said bird has lots of friends.
** That was actually another story, ''The Gooney Birds''. ''The Snipe Hunt'' had the same scouting troop discovering a nest of snipes, some form of rat-like creatures, that surround the campsite.

** First-time Boy Scouts will often be sent off for left-handed smoke-shifters, bacon stretchers, or some other mythical item on their first campout with their new troop.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine''; "Timothy and the Rainbow Truck": Bill and Ben convince Timothy that he needs to find a rainbow-colored truck. He travels a long way before realizing he's been had, but Salty helps him get back at the twins - by giving them a smelly, old, garbage-filled truck splattered with multiple colors of paint.

* 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 [[DumbDodoBird dodo bird]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' the [[JerkAss Arch]][[PointyHairedBoss mage]] will give you a task of solving the mystery of the disappearance of the Dwemer if you ask him for work after you've been accepted into the Mage Guild. This is a mystery roughly 4000 years in the making and no one, not even the local ''deities'', have any idea what happened to them. [[spoiler:By finding the right items and talking to the right people, including the last living Dwemer, you come up with a very plausible theory.]]