History Main / WithCatlikeTread

* Heavily parodied in 1977 French movie ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076897/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine]]''. The Hero, the White Knight, introduces himself with a hammy song number, and he seems to be compelled to sing it every time someone asks who he is (or "Who do you think you are?"). Including when infiltrating the King's castle and hiding from a guard patrol in the bedroom of a damsel; just after he begs her to keep silent, she asks "Who the Hell are you?" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQkGey_-W8c Cue the LOUD song with accompanying music]] alerting the guards.

* Countless times in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', when someone wastes a perfectly good spell by shouting something to the effect of "You forgot about me!"

->''"I will have to use stealth instead" said L and jumped in the broken window screaming.''

When a potentially deadly and effective strategy is ruined (or logically should be but comically [[FailedASpotCheck isn't]]) by the conspicuous way it is acted upon. Usually by a [[ScreamingWarrior Battle Cry]], an [[CallingYourAttacks Attack Call]], a PreAsskickingOneLiner or something similar. Needless to say, characters who carry out this trope frequently cross into TooDumbToLive territory, or at the very least aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' has a sneak attack from behind by a suit that can turn invisible. And then the pilot not only yells, but more importantly turns off its stealth and (accidentally) jumps onto its target's sword.[[note]]This last part only applies to the HD remaster, which [[AdaptationalSelfDefense changed his death from an outright kill to apparently accidental]].[[/note]] Poor [[spoiler:Nicol]] not only dies, but crosses into TooDumbToLive territory with this stunt.

* In ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' album ''Flight 714'', Spalding has all the passengers of the hijacked flight at gunpoint except Tintin, who is sneaking up behind him. Carreidas takes notice of this, and calls on Tintin to surprise Spalding and take his gun, causing Spalding to turn around just in time to prevent this from happening.

* ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse'': At one point in ''Nightmares Yet to Come'', a chapter begins with Sunset Shimmer singing part of the trope-naming song, only for Lightning Dust to inform her she's doing it ''again''. Sunset shoots back that she's doing it to focus, since they're trying to break into a museum, and she's disabling the outside security. Once inside, she's far more stealthy.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Kronk sneaks out the palace with the unconscious Kuzco in a sack, humming his own dramatic theme music as he goes. At one point he hides against a wall, holding the current note while a couple of peasants wander past. Of course, the fact that the wall is covered with [[{{Mayincatec}} enormous stone figures]] all pointing at him doesn't help his cause.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', Shrek and Donkey are listening in on Prince Charming, the Fairy Godmother and King Harold through a window. At one point, Charming says "Oh, thank you mother." This prompts Donkey to blurt out "Mother?!" which promptly gives them away.
* ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'': Almost happens when Jim and Ben are sneaking by the pirates to steal their dinghy. Surprisingly, no-one wakes up.

* In the '94 remake of ''Film/AngelsInTheOutfield'', Roger and JP are trying to stealthily watch a baseball game from a tree in the gounds near the stadium. Roger has binoculars to get a good view, while JP listens on a radio. They would've been able to enjoy the game from there just fine, but JP ends up alerting the nearby security guard by loudly exclaiming his frustration with the progress of the game.
* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', the Libyans decide they need to turn their lights on just as they are approaching the mall parking lot, allowing Doc to see them coming, but subverted in that even with this it doesn't give Doc enough time to escape. Even stranger, they had their lights on when they passed Marty and Red so they chose to turn their lights off some time in between, but then turned them on at pretty much the exact time when they would have wanted to have them off. Given the unreliability of the van they were driving (failing to restart for several attempts after a stall), it may have had faulty wiring.

* One of the few funny gags in ''Film/TheChristmasSeasonMassacre'' has the killer attempt to sneak up on someone with a running chainsaw. He somehow manages it... until he steps on a twig.

* In ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'', they decide that the only way to get the Silver Surfer's board back from Dr. Doom is to use The Human Torch's new "powers" to combine all their abilities to allow him to fly, but also be as strong as The Thing, and be invisible so he can sneak up on Doom. It works perfectly and he gets to within 2 feet of Doom. But rather than just knock him out, he has to say "To quote a friend, It's clobbering time." thus blowing the cover and starting a drawn out battle... all while the Earth is about to be destroyed. Great priorities there.
* In ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux'', there is a scene where Topper Harley is trying to stealthily recover a set of keys from a sleeping guard, and reaches through the window of the shack with a broom handle. He ends up knocking over a pepper shaker, smacking several other objects, jamming the broom in the guard's ear, nose, and ''eye'', then activates a radio loudly playing the Star Spangled banner (and hastily switches it off) and then shoves the handle into a table fan that proceeds to chew up the handle like a circular saw. The guard sleeps through the whole thing, until a mouse comes along and sneezes quietly (because it sniffes [[ChekhovsGun the pepper from the aforementioned pepper shaker]]).

* In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Obi-Wan Kenobi has to kill General Grievous. He manages to sneak up behind him unnoticed, and of course he cuts his head off, right? Wrong, he says "Hello there," drawing the attention of an army of droids and Grievous himself. In fairness he was [[WeNeedADistraction serving as a distraction]] so that his reinforcements could arrive and he wouldn't have to fight the army by himself.

* In ''Literature/AssassinsCreedForsaken'', [[VillainProtagonist Haytham]] [[MagnificentBastard Kenway]], the protagonist of the novel, finds himself on the receiving end of one. When infiltrating a Corsican farmyard converted into a rebel base in order to kidnap Lucio (a 21 year old farmhand who is guarded by an Assassin) he encounters a group of Genoese [[StealthExpert scouts]] performing reconnaisance of the nearby area in a surprisingly stealthy manner. After avoiding them, he hears a small Genoese army moving thought the forest aiming to kill the rebels at the aforementioned base he decides to [[MagnificentBastard assist the soldiers by killing two of the five sentries patrolling the perimeter]] due to the fact that the soldiers' (unlike their far more sensible and covert scouts) attempt to stealthily approach the base involves [[TooDumbToLive marching loudly and clumsily through the forest while]] [[ClusterFBomb swearing]] [[NoIndoorVoice loudly]] in Italian. Due to this and the fact that the soldiers had split into two groups as to take the rebels by surprise, the soldiers are spotted and the rebels quickly mobilise, including Lucio's bodyguard, who decides to help the rebels and risk leaving Lucio unguarded. Haytham then decides to take advantage of the ensuing chaos via a [[BavarianFireDrill Bavarian Fire Drill]].

--->Maurice and Keith just walked along behind her. No-one even looked at them.

* ''Literature/AHoleInTheFence'': Grisón and his friends are constantly trying to sneak into the Forbidden Zone near the town, but they are always caught by the guards because they absolutely suck at sneaking around. They are noisy and impatient, shake bushes and grass as crawling around clumsily, and as the brigadier Beauras annoyedly notes, they do not even notice their butts are showing above the grass when they try to sneak past him.

* A minor example in ''Literature/AnUnwelcomeQuest'': Gary demonstrates, in detail, his technique for moving around without making noise. The rest of the group gets it, but asks if they have to repeatedly whisper "Silently" while doing so like Gary did.

* One episode of ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' involves Tobias attempting to sneak into the house of the lawyer prosecuting George Bluth and get a look at her files. The task falls to him because he ''alleges'' that he's a master of stealth. It theoretically should be an easy job, since the lawyer is totally blind, but Tobias' version of "stealth" mostly involves useless, unnecessary, and largely unsuccessful acrobatics performed a few inches away from the homeowner, failed attempts to not make noise, and trying out her perfume under the logic of disguising his scent. So she's very obviously aware of his presence the entire time he's there. In fact the only reason he doesn't get caught immediately is that [[spoiler:[[ObfuscatingDisability she's not actually blind]], and has to pretend to not realize he's there in order to keep faking it.]]

** Going back further: In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]", Jamie sees a Redcoat and charges at him with his knife -- only as he does so he roars his [[BattleCry battle cry]] "Creag an tuire!", alerting the Redcoat to his presence, who then turns and shoots him dead on. Fortunately they are in the Land of Fiction, so instead of dying Jamie is turned into a cardboard cutout.

* In ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' Galavant and Richard go to kill Kingsley, while getting increasingly drunk and singing loudly about their secret mission. It's been established that musical numbers in the show are really happening and are quite noticeable to those around them, so it's no surprise they get caught. Although, to their credit, the first time they encounter guards, they do manage to sneak past them quite effectively.

* Subverted in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' in one sketch where a married couple is in bed and the wife is being courted by a succession of paramours who sneak into the bedroom (including a Mexican rhythm combo, who actually ask the husband where his wife is). Several times the husband wakes up, asking if his wife just heard something, and the wife assures him it was just the plumbing or a tree branch outside, excuses he always happily accepts. He eventually gets up to use the bathroom, somehow missing the roomful of people as he does so. (The "punchline", in typical Python fashion, is deliberately anticlimactic: in a cut to the bathroom, we see the husband is having an illicit tryst of his own, but is worried his wife is starting to suspect something.)

** In the safe cracking myth, it was mentioned that the safe is stated to take professional safe crackers five minutes to crack. Of course, it is also shown that the professionals don't need to worry about stealth, so it is less "putting your ear to hear the tumblers move" (or even "pry off the lock and push the tumblers into place with wire", which, unlike the stethoscope method, actually ''worked'') and more "smash it with sledge hammers."

* ''Series/{{Pixelface}}'': After Alexia destroys Clairparker's favourite shirt, Kiki loans Clairparker one of her outfits. After Claireparker wears it in her game, she discovers it very hard to hide from zombies when your outfit literally lights up and glows in the dark.

* ''Radio/BleakExpectations:'' At one point, series BigBad Mr. Benevolent employs a gang of Cockney thief boys to rob unsuspecting Londoners of their valuables. This is accomplished by sending a drugged-out opium addict to distract a mark with small talk, as the boys surround them, before yelling out "Nick it, nick it, nick it!" and running away with their loot. The one time anyone notices, they shrug it off on the justification that the kids' needs were greater. ''After'' the kids not only took their stuff, but also all their clothes as well.

* Discussed in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' in the write-up of a type of [[PoweredArmor Battle Armor]] that's designed for reconnaissance. The suit has a higher ground speed than most BA suits of similar size but lacks jump jets because noisily rocketing up to the height of a five story building on a column of fire tends to give your presence away to the enemy no matter how much stealth gear you use.

** In games that play with a 1 on the [=D20=] roll being an [[CriticalFailure automatic failure,]] some groups, to defuse the tension and frustration of the fumble, will play up their failure [[HilarityEnsues to comedic levels.]] A perfectly-executed daylight assassination which leaves no evidence can, with one roll, turn into the character running at the target while screaming "I AM AMBUSHING YOU!!!" and then tripping over their own feet.

** The [[http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030906b Marshal]] base class from the Miniatures Handbook motivates others with his force of personality. Mechanically, this is done by auras which allow him to apply his Charisma modifier to various checks. You can choose an aura which adds to Dexterity-based checks and skill checks, which means that you can make a party sneak better by telling them to be quiet. When combined with a Bard ACF that allows them to play a song granting bonuses to Move Silently, the results are [[http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?327699-Shiver-Me-Timbers-It-s-Black-Jack-Wellesley! hilarious]].

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', Friend Computer is happy to [[UnwantedAssistance assist]] before you even ask! This [[BlatantLies extremely helpful and welcome]] assistance can take the form of playing jaunty tunes perfect for sneaking to during a stealth mission.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' gives us an Orc army that was briefly famous for their stealthy night raids until the boyz started bellowing the new battlecry: "Youz can't see us!".

** It's mentioned that Ork camps can easily be sneaked up on by bands of Chaos Marines, since seeing intruders makes all Orks "WAAGGH ATTAK!" rather than "raise alarm." Gunfire doesn't attract much attention either, since random shots are the norm rather than the exception.

*** In some productions for the chorus, they'll pull out ''hats with brightly glittering sequins'' and start a chorus line. There's a particularly good example [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdJg6Duzzf4 here]]. The fun really starts around the two minute mark.

* ''WebAnimation/OverSimplified''; in the "Russian Revolution" video, Lenin asks his chief "financier" Josef Stalin to have a "Quiet" heist that won't attract attention from the authorities and criticism from the moderate Socialists. Stalin's idea of "quiet" is an attack in broad daylight with [[GunsAkimbo dual wielding assault rifles]] and high explosives.

** When Caboose goes to sneak by the Red Base, he makes a fairly good job of it except for the fact that he loudly whispers "I am sneaking, I am sneaking..." as he moves a matter of metres away from the Red team-members. And then he moves his piece of cover with him, right along Grif's line of sight. Amazingly, Grif is the only one who seems to notice anything.

* The Steiner Scout Squad shorts from the ''Tex Talks TabletopGame/BattleTech'' series is composed of a lance of [[HumongousMecha Atlases]] stomping through places, performing 'reconaissance' by vaporizing everything in their path. [[InsaneTrollLogic After all, if there's nobody alive to detect you, then you weren't caught.]]

* Lampshaded in ''WebVideo/DemyxTime'', with Demyx proposing that the entire Organization sneaks up on Sora and ambushes him, screaming "ATTACK!". He's laughed at, until Marluxia proposes that they all take it in turns to monologue in front of him before attacking. Xemnas commends this approach. Demyx tries to get some credibility back by suggesting that they all sidle up, before suddenly screaming "We are NOT going to attack you!" Needless to say, not a lot of progress is made.

** Case in point, one of the alternatives in the covert operation to kill Osama Bin Laden carried out by the U.S. Government was to use their state-of-the-art B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to sneak over the Pakistan border and quietly deliver a few (read:'''32''') guided penetrator bombs, a.k.a. "Bunker Busters", to Bin Laden's compound, in order to both destroy the compound and any hidden escape tunnels or shelters the terrorist leader may have had. Apparently, the effects of the bombs would have been akin to a significant ''earthquake'' going on in the middle of the city. Thankfully, such a plan was wisely disregarded, likely because it would be much easier for the Pakistani government (the country whom Bin Laden sought asylum in) to forgive a small, temporary incursion of special operations soldiers going after one man as opposed to cratering a chunk of one of their cities and the civilian casualties that would incur.

Some people are [[StealthExpert amazing at stealth.]] [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope These characters aren't.]]

** Orks:

** It's mentioned that Ork camps can easily be sneaked up on by bands of Chaos Marines, since seeing intruders makes all Orks "WAAGGH ATTAK!" rather than "raise alarm." Gunfire doesn't attract much attention either, since random shots are the norm rather than the exception.
** It's mentioned that Ork camps can easily be sneaked up on by bands of Chaos Marines, since seeing intruders makes all Orks "WAAGGH ATTAK!" rather than "raise alarm." Gunfire doesn't attract much attention either, since random shots are the norm rather than the exception.
*** It's well known that Blood Axe Clan Orks know that camouflage is good. Therefore they like to slap it on everything and use strong, contrasting colours so you can see it better.
*** A popular fan theory is that Orks will paint themselves purple to make themselves sneaky, because, really, [[InsaneTrollLogic who ever saw a purple ork]]?

* Toward the end of the Snow Goons arc, ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' sneak out of bed and go downstairs, shushing each other to keep quiet. Once they're out in the open, Calvin starts laughing loudly and yelling for the Snow Goons to die, waking his parents.

* In ''FanFic/PleaseStopEatingTheHellButterflies'', Ichigo and company's mission to [[spoiler: imprison Mayuri]] involves carting him off kicking and screaming while dressed as Robin Hood and the Merry Men. Yamamoto even calls them "particularly unstealthy".

* ''Literature/AHoleInTheFence'': Grisón and his friends are constantly trying to sneak into the Forbidden Zone near the town, but they are always caughts by the guards because they absolutely suck at sneaking around. They are noisy and impatient, shake bushes and grass as crawling around clumsily, and as the brigadier Beauras annoyedly notes, they do not even notice their butts are showing above the grass when they try to sneak past him.

* Almost happens in ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'' when Jim and Ben are sneaking by the pirates to steal their dinghy. Surprisingly, no-one wakes up.

** Extremely played straight in ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents''. WrongGenreSavvy Malicia lives her life trying to apply storybook logic to real life. So in one scene when she's trying to be stealthy, the book describes her thought process of how if you are going to ''be'' stealthy, you ought to make it very obvious how stealthy you're being so anyone who sees you knows you're being stealthy and shouldn't notice you. So she "sneaks" around in cartoonishly exaggerated and highly obvious fashion, completely oblivious to the bemused stares she's attracting.

* A large number of characters in James Fenimore Cooper's novels announce their presence by stepping on dry twigs. Creator/MarkTwain roundly mocked this, and other features of Cooper's work, in his critical essay ''Literature/FenimoreCoopersLiteraryOffences''.

** In the 3.5 corebook, there's a nearly-sarcastic note that you can't use Bardic Inspiration (Which involves singing or playing a song) to give another character a bonus to their skills) to improve a Move Silently check.

** In a more general sense, [[HilarityEnsues hilarity can ensue]] if an attempted stealthy action CriticalFailure gets a 1 on the diceroll [[CriticalFailure in games with critical or at least automatic failure rules]]. It can turn a perfectly-executed daylight assassination which leaves no evidence into the character running at the target while screaming "I AM AMBUSHING YOU!!!" and then tripping over their own feet.
** In the 3.5 corebook, there's a nearly-sarcastic note that you can't use bardsong to improve a Move Silently check.

** Orks:

*** Orks will also sometimes give themselves a layer of purple bodypaint to make themselves sneaky, because, really, [[InsaneTrollLogic who ever saw a purple ork]]?
*** One band of Orks adopted the practice of going on night raids, utilizing ambush and stealth. It actually worked extremely well since Orks are well known for their practice of charging straight at the enemy, screaming. However, they had to abandon the tactic when it lost effectiveness, when the orks adopted the practice of yelling "YOU'Z CAN'T SEE US!"

** In a more general sense, [[HilarityEnsues hilarity can ensue]] if an attempted stealthy action [[CriticalFailure gets a 1 on the diceroll]]. It can turn a perfectly-executed daylight assassination which leaves no evidence into the character running at the target while screaming "I AM AMBUSHING YOU!!!" and then tripping over their own feet.

* During ''Machinima/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'', Yuffie screams "SURPRISE ATTACK!!" when trying to ambush Rude and Tifa. Rude's forehead blinded Yuffie long enough for the Turks to flee or knock her out, and Tifa just charges Yuffie and punches her face while she's gloating.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

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The calling card of HighlyVisibleNinja. Compare SoMuchForStealth, when some small indication blows one's cover, and LeeroyJenkins, when one idiot ruins the careful plans of the rest of the party, and OvertOperative, who is terrible at espionage. Particularly spectacular versions of this trope may involve [[ThereWasADoor bursting through a nearby window or wall]].

The calling card of HighlyVisibleNinja. Compare SoMuchForStealth, when some small indication blows one's cover, and LeeroyJenkins, when one idiot ruins the careful plans of the rest of the party. Particularly spectacular versions of this trope may involve [[ThereWasADoor bursting through a nearby window or wall]].

* One of the many criticism leveled at [[LetsPlay/TheKingOfHate DarksydePhil]] is his complete failure at stealth games. He never accounts for the enemy's situational awareness, instead simply trying to dash right past them and always acting shocked when he gets spotted.

--> ''Kuzko'': (''[[LemonyNarrator narrating]]'') I am ''so'' glad I was unconscious for all of this.

!!Trope examples! I'LL ''STEAL'' THEM! NO ONE WILL ''EVER'' KNOW:

!!Some trope examples! I'LL ''STEAL'' THEM! NO ONE WILL ''EVER'' KNOW!: