History Main / SnipeHunt

* A variation in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', where the quest is not impossible, but still bogus: Rocket Raccoon tells Starlord that his plan to escape prison involves some inmate's prosthetic leg. When Starlord returns with said leg (having spent a significant amount of money on it), Rocket tells him he was just kidding.

* In a Creator/WilliamTenn's short story "Errand Boy", warehouse workers sent an overeager boy hanging around to fetch polka-dotted paint. He brought some -- wrong colour, but polka-dotted. The boy turned out to be a naive 10-year-old time traveler with romantic ideas about 20th-century businessmen, not unlike some modern depictions of [[{{Pirate}} pirates]].

* Newbie players on the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' forums are sometimes told about an elusive UFO base that [[WeSellEverything sells every item and ship in the game dirt-cheap]]. Supposedly, it's the home of the {{flying saucer}}s that appear in the game as an EasterEgg. [[spoiler:The UFO Base does actually exist--[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness but only]] in ''Videogame/XBeyondTheFrontier'']].

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' features a monster called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Snipe_Hunter Snipe Hunter.]]

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':
** Accelerator sends Index to fetch replacement batteries for the collar that lets him use his powers. Accelerator then muses that there are no replacement batteries and he did that to keep her out of harm's way while he goes to rescue Last Order.
** Motoharu ''somehow'' knocks Touma out and smuggles him into the girl's locker room. When Touma wakes up, Motoharu calls and tells him an evil wizard has sneaked into the women's dorms and will kill everyone if Touma doesn't stop him in time. Touma runs himself ragged trying to find the wizard ''and'' evade the enraged girls before he eventually realizes he's being tricked, then catches up to Motoharu in time to stop him from torturing and killing a guy.

* [[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.

* In the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' novel ''[[Literature/DarkHeresy Innocences Proves Nothing]]'', an elderly Inquisition librarian assumes a character has been sent on a snipe hunt when she asks for information on DemonicPossession of techpriests, something that was considered completely unprecedented when it occurred in the previous novel. [[spoiler: It wasn't a Daemon, but another type of Warp entity.]]

** 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

** 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). The proper response if you know the joke is to ask if they want it blown up or not

* 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 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 weirdly, making it a relatively subtle sight gag.

Oftentimes, the character returns [[MovingTheGoalposts only to be sent out again, to fulfill a more specific version of the demand]], e.g.: "I wanted a ''red'' flower" Or, "Get me DIET Soda". And sometimes, the person actually wasn't meant to go on a snipe hunt but takes a joke literally. Akin to: "Go jump off a cliff." "Okay"!

Oftentimes, the character returns [[MovingTheGoalposts only to be sent out again, to fulfill a more specific version of the demand]], e.g.: "I wanted a ''red'' flower" Or, "Get me DIET Soda".

And sometimes, the person actually wasn't meant to go on a snipe hunt but takes a joke literally. Akin to: "Go jump off a cliff." "Okay"!

The deadly version is TheUriahGambit when someone is sent on a dangerous mission by a "friendly" party who secretly wants them dead. See also PrivacyByDistraction, ShaggyDogStory and WildGooseChase.

JustForFun/NotToBeConfusedWith trying to find [[SniperDuel a sniper in a battlefield]] or action star Creator/WesleySnipes. See also WindmillCrusader, where the participant fails to complete the search. Can result in SeekingTheIntangible.

* ''Machinima/ChronicleOfTheAnnoyingQuest'' actually ''began'' as a Snipe Hunt. Ellers wanted to drink with his fellow paladins ([[CasanovaWannabe and pick up chicks]]), but they told him OnlyTheWorthyMayPass and sent him to kill a Black Dragon, knowing it would likely just kill him.
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', after fetching three of the Elemental Orbs for [[AWizardDidIt Sarda]], [[DesignatedHero Black]] [[OmnicidalManiac Mage]] starts to feel like the orbs are just a Snipe Hunt. When told to find the Orb of Air, he says "Oh, sure. The Orb of Air. And after that maybe we'll get the '[[Machinima/RedVsBlue Orb of Headlight Fluid' and then the 'Orb of Elbow Grease]]' too, right?"

* This is common in most fields of employment as a welcoming ritual (also commonly known as hazing) and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt#Common_items a list]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki catalogs the most common items involved, of which the "long stand" or "long weight" (not, as the hapless newbie eventually finds out, a supporting structure or weight of greater than average length) is perhaps the most celebrated. This can be used to their own advantage by savvy employees who know the joke but pretend to fall for it, so they can head out for a coffee or a nap for a couple of hours on the company's nickel.
* This is apparently ''very'' common in the military. Examples from Wiki/TheOtherWiki, at least for the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks US Navy]], include:

* In the "Operation: F.U.G.I.T.I.V.E." episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'', Numbah 1,2, and 4 are ordered by Numbuh 86 to guard a dandelion in the DCFDTL's garden from any adult's attacks to prevent them from following her and Numbah 3 and 5, since she thinks the boys will get in the way. When the boys decide to go after the fugitive to prove her wrong, Numbah 4 places the flower in a pot and takes it with him.

** Wouldn't that just be snow?

* In Israeli youth movements, the traditional "snipe" is "electricity powder".
** This one works in the [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles Israeli armed forces]] too. Another thing they ask you to get is a glow stick charger.
* A radiator hose or water pump for a '72 VW Beetle.
** For those readers not familiar with Beetles, the originals had air-cooled engines. No radiators.

* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "A Lock-In, a Weather Girl and a Disgusting Habit", to get rid of Sheldon, Missy has him play Sardines, a hide-and-seek game where only one hides and the others look for him. Except that Missy has no intention of finding Sheldon. Even as an adult, Sheldon hasn't caught on and just thinks he's really good at Sardines.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS1E02FighterFlight "Fighter Flight"]], Ezra and Zeb are sent on a supply run to fetch needed items and a meiloorun fruit — a real item, but impossible to find on Lothal. Things get somewhat out of control after they try to steal some from the Empire, and accidentally end up stealing a TIE fighter instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' features a [[LiteralMetaphor literal example]]. Carl sends Russell away on one to get him to stop annoying him. Eventually, he actually finds one, although it's a bit bigger than he expected. Alpha sent Dug away on a literal Snipe Hunt as well, due to the fact that Dug's foolishness was viewed a burden on the pack. True to this trope, he finds the bird. The bird becomes a principal character of the film! What makes it even funnier is that, Carl truly believed that it was impossible because he didn't know that [[AluminumChristmasTrees there is such a bird as a snipe]], and also that the villain has been searching for this same bird for the past century.

* ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'': 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.]]

* ''Videogame/SunlessSea'': The Gant Pole is a half-mythical place supposedly in the Unterzee, where old and wounded beasts supposedly go to die, and, according to the various snipe hunts captains set up for their newest recruits, home to a distressingly large amount of lost pocket watches. As the ''Zubmariner'' expansion reveals, the place exists, and everything said about it is true aside from the part about the pocket watches. Bringing in a port report about it is bound to get you laughed at, though at least they pay well for the laughs.

* In one ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' comic, Denis'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.