History Main / WeNeedaDistraction

* As shown in the documentary ''Series/FullColorFootball'': In 1959, the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball National Football League]] was catching heat from Congress about why they were refusing to expand to new cities, with rumblings about anti-trust suits. Then-Commissioner Bert Bell used the announcement of the founding of the American Football League as a shield. ("See? We don't have to expand! There's eight new teams right there!"). They expanded to Minneapolis and Dallas the next year anyway, in an attempt to undermine the AFL.

* In ''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'' Red mages casts '''EVERY KNOWN SPELL IN EXISTENCE''' to distract [[spoiler: Sarda the sage]] long enough to give Black mage a shot at casting a Hadouken at him.

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''TheLordOfTheRings'', [[SupportingLeader Aragorn's]] actions through the end of ''The Two Towers'' and the beginning of ''The Return of the King'' are an extended version of this, played deadly serious.
** [[Film/LordOfTheRings Which is]] to say... [[CaptainObvious "A diversion!"]]

* In GrahamMcNeill's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel, Pasanius manages to free himself because the Chaos torturers cut off his arm. Vaanes, realizing this, argues with, questions, shouts at the torturers to keep them from noticing.

* From ''Manga/SailorMoon'', the is the strategy the Senshi used to defeat Jadeite; Moon and Mercury run around in the open while Mars, concealed in the fog, slips a PaperTalisman on his back that screws up his telekinetic control of an airplane, causing it to almost run over ''him'' instead.

* On ''DragonBallZ'', as things look grim in the fight against Nappa, Piccolo devises a CombinationAttack that involves Krillin charging at Nappa, creating a distraction so that Piccolo can grab his [[AchillesHeel tail]], and then Gohan attacking. Unfortunately, elite Saiyans train themselves so that their tails aren't such an easily exploited weak point, and the whole plan falls apart.

* ''DragonballZAbridged'' Episode 2:

-->'''Piccolo:'' [interupting] For five Minutes.

* ''SaGa Frontier'': One of the shadow spells: Hidebehind; creates an illusion of the caster behind the enemy and provides the distraction.

-->--'''Kryten''', ''Series/RedDwarf''

* ''Escape to Athena'' (1979) has any number of examples being used when the Greek Resistance seize the POW camp, ranging from the 'pull-up-at-the-gate-with-an-accident-victim' trick, to laxatives in the guards' food, to a [[ShowSomeLeg full-on strip-tease]] by a female internee.

-->"OH MY GAWD WE'RE GOING TO BE [[spoiler: GROUND INTO RAINBOWS]]! [{{Beat}}] EVERYBODY PANIC! [Foals start to panic]

->"OH MY GAWD WE'RE GOING TO BE [[spoiler: GROUND INTO RAINBOWS]]! [{{Beat}}] EVERYBODY PANIC! [Foals start to panic]

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', there are multiple where a character in need of a distraction will point offscreen and say "[[http://egscomics.com/?date=2002-04-22 Hey, is that a demonic duck of some sort?]]", and shortly afterwards we see the demonic duck (although, as was explained later in the comic, he is not actually a demon).

Specific variants include:

* In the WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing episode The Clock King]], the villain's "Distractions" include tampering with the city traffic system and causing a subway crash, acts that could quite reasonably be considered a main plot in of themselves.

* ''TheGrandIllusion'': [[spoiler:Boeldieu]]'s CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* Subverted in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "When She Was Bad":

* In ''Videogame/MassEffect3'''s ''Citadel'' DLC, the team has to infiltrate a casino, and in order to disable some security devices, Shepard's teammate will distract guards to allow Shepard time to work. Distractions range from teammates pretending to be drunk customers, recruiting the guards as possible Spectre candidates, standing in as food inspectors, berating the guards for being terrible at guarding, asking about a volus brothel upstairs, or in Javik's case, [[RefugeInAudacity insulting their entire species, declaring that everyone in the building would be killed in his cycle because games of chance were illegal, or telling them that he is a Prothean, and demanding to know what they think of that.]]

* A RunningGag in the BobHope / BingCrosby ''Franchise/RoadTo'' pictures of the 1940s was the "patty-cake" routine: When faced with a foe, Bob and Bing start playing patty-cake, and while the bad guy watches in bemusement, they each punch him out simultaneously. Occasionally, the villain [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy is onto them]] and hits them first, causing Hope to [[LampshadeHanging point out]] that "he must have seen the picture."

* From ''Manga/SailorMoon'', the is the strategy the Senshi used to defeat Jadeite; Moon and Mercury run around in the open while Mars, concealed in the fog, slips a PaperTalisman on his back.