Line #24 Main/ScarecrowSolution


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5	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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11	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scrooge_whiskervilles.png]]]]
12	[[caption-width-right:350:In this case, it's the meddling kid that's getting away with it.]]
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14	When the heroes cannot directly challenge the villain or his mooks, they disguise themselves as monsters or build something that's basically a tank with a threatening exterior. Usually relies on intimidation more than any actual weapons. When villains resort to this tactic, it's a ScoobyDooHoax.
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16	A subtrope of ShamSupernatural. Compare and contrast MonsterFacade, which is a similarly terrifying act put on by a GentleGiant or a ReluctantMonster, who would have the strength to actually harm their opponent but prefers not to. See also WeaponForIntimidation. Compare ElCidPloy, where the nonexistent threat is the heroes' dead or absent leader.
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18	----
19	!!Examples:
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21	[[foldercontrol]]
22
23	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
24	* ''Manga/DrStone'': The kingdom of science must rescue a friend from a jail guarded by the kingdom of might, but can't injure any of the guards or else ruin a possible alliance. Senku builds a functioning tank but replaces the gun with an air cannon that makes a huge sound, causing the guards to run in terror instead of trying to fight.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'':
29	** A repeatedly used plot element in lesser ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' comics -- a variant involves making some idol worshiped by primitive people appear to speak and tell them to stop roasting the heroes or whatever.
30	** ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' from Creator/DonRosa -- the first chapter when Scrooge scares the Whiskerville away by making a fake ghost. They were so scared that, years later, ''all'' the Whiskervilles have white hair (their first appearance showed them black- and brown-haired, so it wasn't a family trait before that).
31	* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' uses a psychological AntiHero version when a reporter discovers the Fables' (fairytale characters who are actually real) society, though with the belief that they're vampires. Ultimately they kidnap him and trick him into believing they are indeed vampires who have tasted his blood and will control him into committing suicide along with publishing pictures painting him as a child molester (staged with the help of a 300-year-old Pinocchio) should he ever release his discovery. The reporter gets scared out of his mind and complies, but is ultimately killed a few days later by one of the more evil fables acting on his own.
32	* One of the few books ''ComicBook/RedSonja'' ever experienced in-universe was ''The Tales of Gravaha the Clever'', where the heroine dresses a field of cornstalks as an army to intimidate a foe with terrible eyesight.
33	* One ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' story ("Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple") has Max about to be used as a sacrifice for a volcano cult. Sam tries this trope, covering himself in mud to ape the volcano god the cult worships. Not only are the cultists not fooled, they beat the stuffing out of Sam.
34	* ''ComicBook/ScoobyDooTeamUp'': The ''WesternAnimation/TopCat'' crossover features two realtors whose project [[CommunityThreateningConstruction threatens the local suburbs]]. Since what they're doing isn't illegal, no matter how despicable they are, [[spoiler:Officer Dibble]] pulls the BedsheetGhost trick to get rid of them. It takes some time to convince them it's a real ghost since Top Cat had previously tried the trick to keep his illegal gambling operation a secret and [[ScoobyDooHoax dressing up as a ghost]] is the first thing they teach at realtor school and, when they're finally convinced, they flee not in fear of the ghost itself but of how unprofitable the land they want becomes because of it.
35	* In ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} spots a pack of smugglers escaping from the coastguard, but she cannot let herself be seen. So she rips a sunken ship's figurehead off and waves the dragon-like head and neck out of the water. Frightened, the smugglers turn tail and flee back into the arms of the sea patrol.
36	-->'''Coast Guard:''' You almost got away! What made you come back?\
37	'''Smuggler 1:''' T-the demon from the ocean's depths...\
38	'''Smuggler 2:''' Awp! IT's only a figurehead off an ancient ship! We panicked like dummies!\
39	'''Coast Guard:''' Superman probably tossed it up from the ocean's floor, so you'd turn back and be captured!
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
43	%% * ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' fakes an alien visitation in "The Moonman" arc.
44	%% For what? How does it fit this trope?
45	* This is the [[CharacteristicTrope modus operandi]] of ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom''. The natives of his home country think he's an immortal personification of justice and protection, when he's actually [[LegacyImmortality the great-great-great (and so on) grandson of the original Phantom]], with a CharlesAtlasSuperpower. Stories generally climax with him using a Scarecrow Solution to convince criminals that he's immortal.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Film — Animation]]
49	* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'': The Giant Mouse of Minsk sees the mice use a giant (well, to them, anyway) mechanical mouse to terrify the cats into leaving them alone. [[spoiler:It's double suvberted at the end of the movie when try actually try to use it. The subversion comes from them having to stop the release of the Giant Mouse before it's ready, and soon as they stop it, the mice now have to release it. When they do, it starts falling apart and making horrific mechanical noises. The double subversion comes in the fact that this terrifies the cats even further than the Giant Mouse if it had worked properly, and the cats book it as fast as they can.]]
50	* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'': The ants build a mechanical bird in an effort to scare away Hopper and his gang of grasshoppers. [[spoiler:While the fake bird itself fails to work due to it getting set on fire by accident]], the act of its construction allows the ants to realize the grasshoppers aren't as invincible as they seem and finally find the courage to rebel against them. [[spoiler:Hopper finding out about the mechanical bird directly contributes to his downfall, as he lets his guard down around a real bird because he thinks it's another fake.]]
51	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', the original, four of the dinosaur children cover themselves in tar and pile on top of each other to save Cera from a group of aggressive ''Pachycephalosaurus''.
52	* During ComicBook/LuckyLuke's quest to save nine potential victims in ''WesternAnimation/LuckyLukeBalladOfTheDaltons'' from the titular desperados he has one of them, Tom O' Connor, who is conveniently a miner, stage a convincingly spooky show as his ghost to make his would-be-killers scared out of their limited wits and flee.
53	* In ''Anime/PomPoko'', the {{tanuki}} attempt to save their home from urban development by shapeshifting into ghosts and monsters and parading down the streets to scare the humans away. [[spoiler: It backfires when the humans mistake it for a publicity stunt for an amusement park.]]
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
57	* Implied in ''Film/BugsyMalone'', as late into the film, after Fat Sam has lost most of his henchmen, we see him set up cardboard cutouts in his office, casting silhouettes on the outside wall.
58	* When Lewis starts his vengeance quest in ''Film/GodsGun'', he dons his twin brother's cassock and hat so that the Claytons think it's his ghost.
59	* In ''Film/LadyNinjaKaede'', Yumeama uses a ninja technique to pose as Koharu's ghost and scare a confession out of Kichiemon.
60	* ''Franchise/LandOfOz'':
61	** Ironically, in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', the great and powerful Oz uses a big, scary flaming head to persuade Dorothy and her friends to get the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick... until Toto pulls the curtain aside, and the Wizard is shown to be much shorter than his façade made him out to be, and when confronted, he confesses that he was just as afraid of the Wicked Witch and it was such demonstrations of power that kept her at bay.
62	** Oz does exactly the same thing in the climax of ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'' to scare off the Wicked Witches.
63	* "The Dread Pirate Roberts" rig that Fezzik wears in ''Film/ThePrincessBride''-- a holocaust cloak that is set on fire without burning him. It scares off all sixty guards, leaving just Yellin, at which point they switch to more direct intimidation:
64	-->'''Westley:''' Give us the gate key.
65	-->'''Yellin:''' I have no gate key.
66	-->'''Inigo:''' Fezzik? Tear his arms off.
67	-->'''Yellin:''' Oh, you mean ''this'' gate key.
68	* ''Film/RolliAmazingTales'': When Rölli and the Forest Fairy discover Seesteinen and Lerkkanen littering and making noise in their forest, they disguise themselves as a giant in a TotemPoleTrench style and attempt to scare the humans away. It fails nearly immediately because the "giant" and its threats provided by Rölli confuse the humans more than scare them, and the quilt worn by the two heroes falls off. However, while Seesteinen and Lerkkanen chase the duo, they run into the Big Rölli who ''really'' scares them.
69	* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', Obi-Wan first appears by scaring away some Sand People who were about to kill Luke. He does this by dressing up in his old Jedi robes and making some weird-sounding monster noises, causing them to flee in terror. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual associated materials]], the sound he's making is that of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Krayt Dragon]].
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Literature]]
73	* In one of the ''Literature/{{Babar}}'' books, Babar defeats the rhinoceros army by disguising the elephants as monsters, painting giant eyes on their backsides and putting bushy wigs on their backs.
74	* ''Literature/DoctorSynTheScarecrow'' is a vicar with a SecretIdentity. Dressing as a scarecrow definitely has the secondary benefit of being a bit scary.
75	* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' has a book where a Jedi ghost repeatedly terrifies Tash to try and spook her away from a threat, because until near the book's end, she is only vaguely aware of him and can't understand what he says. He can't actually do anything to her, but it seems like it for a while.
76	* The Creator/CordwainerSmith story "Golden the Ship Was-- Oh! Oh! Oh!".
77	* ''Literature/TheGreatBrain'': A story in ''More Adventures of the Great Brain'' has Tom determined to find out the truth of a ghost haunting a mine where two children had died. He gets his brother and sheriff uncle to find out it's a local farmer who's putting on the act to scare kids away to avoid some further tragedies. Tom wants to tell the truth but his uncle agrees with the farmer and makes Tom and his brother claim they saw the ghost to ensure kids don't come to the mines.
78	* The Little Golden Book ''The Lively Little Rabbit'' has the rabbits and an owl build a long dragon costume out of tree bark and leaves, with all of the rabbits underneath it and the owl's wings protruding. It's a surprisingly awesome-looking dragon. It succeeds in scaring away the mean old fox.
79	* Another early example features in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket'', when the protagonist dresses up as a dead sailor's ghost to scare mutineers into abandoning ship.
80	* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' sees Zhuge Liang combine this with ThanatosGambit. After his death, he has the Shu army set up a wooden statue of him, and then luring Wei's army into the main camp. Upon arrival at Shu's base, Sima Yi then saw the statue, and panicked, thinking Zhuge Liang to still be alive, causing him to retreat.
81	-->'''Chinese proverb:''' A dead Zhuge scares away a living Sima.
82	* In "Imprint of Chaos", the first story in ''Literature/TheTravellerInBlack'' by Creator/JohnBrunner, the protagonists build a giant scarecrow-puppet-thing to scare off a ''god''. (It wasn't a very smart god.)
83	* Kehaar in ''Literature/WatershipDown'', albeit only halfway intentionally — great coincidental timing on his, Bigwig's, and the weather's part make it appear to the Efrafans that the bird was summoned out of lightning by Bigwig.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
87	* In the ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'' episode "Great Caesar's Ghost!", Perry White starts seeing Caesar's ghost. This turns out to be [[ScoobyDooHoax a trick by a gang of crooks]] to [[{{Gaslighting}} ruin his credibility as a witness]] in an upcoming trial. Superman turns the trick around on the gangsters, disguising himself as another criminal who had been killed by the gang, causing them to give up in terror when their bullets [[ShootingSuperman apparently just go right through the "ghost"]].
88	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied The Girl Who Died]]", part one of the plan to defeat the Mire involves altering what they see through their video interface so that a ship's figurehead becomes a terrifying sea serpent and so on. Part two involves taking a video of the {{proud warrior race}} cowering in fear from obvious puppets, and threatening to effectively upload it to [[RecycledInSpace Space]] [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube YouTube]] to ruin their reputation.
89	* When Bo and Luke were mistakenly declared to have drowned on ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'', they faked a haunting by coating the General Lee with glow-in-the-dark paint and having Cooter rig it to run by remote control, using it to intimidate Boss Hogg to prevent him from blaming them for a theft. Subverted in that Boss Hogg isn't fooled for more than a few moments, and immediately suspects Cooter's involvement.
90	* ''Serenity'' herself was used in such a fashion in a ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' teaser.
91	-->'''Wash:''' Every man go back inside, or we will blow a new crater in this little moon.\
92	'''Jayne:''' ''[later]'' Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it.
93	* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' episode "The Lake Kezia Monster": Harriet Oleson hatches a scheme to take over Kezia Horn's lakeside home and make it her vacation home with Kezia as the live-in servant and maid. Laura Ingalls, her brother Albert, and their friend Andy Garvey create a fake "lake monster" to scare the Olesons away and get Kezia her home back.
94	* On ''Series/McHalesNavy'', the crew of the PT-73 [[FakingTheDead fake their deaths]] and come back dressed as ghosts to scare Binghamton into tearing up the orders that were going to get them all transferred.
95	* Used occasionally by the IMF in ''Series/MissionImpossible''. "Banshee" features perhaps the fullest embodiment of the trope as the plan hinges entirely on convincing the villain that he is being stalked by the souls of those he has killed.
96	* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "Night of the Tarantula", Jessica fakes a murder victim rising as a zombie in order to spook to killer into revealing that he knew the location of a secret passage: something only the killer could have known.
97	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E3TheArchitectsOfFear The Architects of Fear]]" uses a ScienceFiction variation of the trope. A group of scientists is convinced that WorldWarIII is imminent, so they try to prevent it through a GenghisGambit that includes faking an AlienInvasion, complete with transforming one of their own into a terrifying fake alien. [[DownerEnding It doesn't go well]].
98	* In an episode of ''Series/RockyJonesSpaceRanger'', a pair of kids use a BedsheetGhost to scare away a claim jumper.
99	* ''Series/{{Zorro\|1957}}'': Trying to catch an unjustly accused man who's taken sanctuary in the church of a monastery, Commander Monastario invades the place with his soldiers under the fake threat of an Indian attack. The monastery is so well-guarded that Zorro almost gets caught trying to reach the prisoner. So, Don Diego spreads the rumor of the ghost of a mad monk roaming the grounds by talking to the impressionable Sergeant García. Later that night, Zorro disguises as the ghost and scares all the soldiers into fleeing, leaving Monastario alone.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Theatre]]
103	* In the Norwegian children's plays about ''Theatre/CaptainSabretooth'', the good guys pretend to be the ghost of the infamous pirate Gory Gabriel to scare Sabretooth away on several occasions. He falls for it every time, probably because [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes ghosts are the only thing he really fears]].
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Video Games]]
107	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'': When their mother is unwillingly selected for a HumanSacrifice, Atsuo and Atsuko disguise themselves using an [[BearsAreBadNews Ursa minor]] hide and antlers to keep anyone from finding the hiding spot they and their mother have on Mount Huji.
108	* ''VideoGame/Fallout2'': One settlement you can find has a bunch of "corpses" staked out in front of it. If your Medicine skill is high enough, you can realize that the corpses are fakes upon examining them, then search for the people who set them up. They turn out to be peaceful folk who were terrified of being attacked by raiders or slavers and made the display in order to frighten anyone from coming there.
109	* ''VideoGame/Limbo2010'': Not long into the forest level, you see some more of those dreaded GiantSpider legs poking out from a nearby tree -— but they're a fake. The hostile humans in the area set them up to scare you away.
110	* ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'': When Mario reaches the east-most end of Shiver Snowfield, he runs into a shadowy creature called Monstar who warns him to turn back or be eaten. But Monstar is [[PaperTiger really weak during the battle]], having only 20 HP (the boss at the end of the previous chapter had 60) and only hitting 1 HP per attack. It turns out to be a bunch of Star Kids who disguised themselves to keep Starborn Valley safe.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Western Animation]]
114	* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Painted Lady". After the Gaang accidentally makes things worse, they decide to use this solution to correct their mistake and scare a corrupt Fire Nation army out of the small village they were persecuting: Toph, Sokka, and Appa create fog and an overall ominous and creepy atmosphere, while Katara dresses up as the Painted Lady herself, with help from Aang regarding her powers.
115	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}'': In "Phantom Fan", [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Stavros Garkos]] sends Wyn and Genghis to a stadium he wants to buy so they'll prevent a fund-raising game from taking place. The heroes scare them away by pretending to be the titular Phantom.
116	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': In a "Glo Friends" segment, they put to action a plan, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal orchestrated by the long-suffering henchcrow Rook]], to get back at their enemies the Moligans, by making them think that there was a giant Glo monster who would get them, if they kept threatening them forcing them to serve them for a while.
117	* In ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'', though it's often [[ScoobyDooHoax the villain who does this]] to scare away the DamselInDistress from a Real Estate claim, etc., the heroes often use this technique as well.
118	** Gabe/Toxic Terror from ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'' is a good one. In fact, the next to final scene has Gabe, Shaggy, Scooby-Doo, and the camp kid disguise them as Toxic Terrors and sending Clyde packing.
119	** Velma Dinkley, the brains of Mystery Inc. itself, does this in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooInWheresMyMummy''.
120	** Amy Cavenaugh/Amy The Siren from ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' is another good one -- especially since she got Velma hooked.
121	** Later in ''Mystery Incorporated'', the Mystery Inc. gang create the Krampus to distract the real villains from their plan to steal their segments of the season's MacGuffin.
122	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' episode "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II". Dr. Venture, sitting on Brock's shoulders and dressed in a green blanket, waves a flashlight at cultists to save Hank and Dean. It doesn't work:
123	-->'''Cultist:''' That's just a flashlight. Kill them!
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Real Life]]
127	* In 1926 in North Stonington, Connecticut, there were sightings of an "ape-man" near the rural farm of the Miner family that young daughters Mildred and Muriel had recently inherited from their deceased father. Initially it was believed that someone was trying to [[ScoobyDooHoax scare the Miners into selling the farm]], and their neighbors rallied in support of them, camping out on the property with rifles to try and catch the prankster. But a police investigation eventually led to the revelation that Mildred and Muriel themselves were behind the sightings, having created a homemade apesuit to scare away unwanted solicitors looking to buy the property.
128	* During World War I, a number of old British cargo ships were fitted with wooden turrets and superstructures, and painted to resemble battleships. The goal was to deceive Germany about the true numbers and disposition of Royal Navy forces. The charade was literally blown up when one such ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat and exploded: the U-boat captain, who thought that he sunk the British battleship, was quite dismayed when he found "gun turrets" floating in the surrounding water.
129	* During World War II, the British repeated this trick, this time by refitting some old tankers to look like aircraft carriers.
130	* The British also refitted ''Centurion'', an old disarmed battleship used as a radio-controlled gunnery target, to look like modern battleship ''Howe'', and sent it to Egypt. The trick worked; the Italian Navy was deceived into thinking that the Royal Navy had reinforced the Mediterranean Fleet with a new, powerful unit, and did not act-- while actually the Mediterranean Fleet was critically weakened at that moment, with both its actual battleships disabled by the successful efforts of Italian frogmen.
131	* Later, ''Centurion'' was scuttled as a part of artificial harbor during the Normandy landing (D-Day) in 1944. When the empty hulk of the ship was towed into position and prepared to be scuttled, German coastal guns noticed her and put it under fire. ''Centurion'' promptly "sunk", with only one lifeboat leaving the ship (carrying away all its small skeleton crew). The Germans, who did not know that, boasted that they had sunk the British battleship with a great loss of life.
132	* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar included the "Quaker Guns", dummy cannons that were really just painted logs, employed by both sides occasionally and used successfully by the Confederacy a few times.
133	* During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Army created a special force of artists, painters, and carpenters whose purpose was to quickly create wooden mock-ups of tanks, guns, train stations, and airfields with planes, to decoy the Germans about the real amount and disposition of Red Army forces. Analysis of captured German archives after the war revealed that the Germans never suspected that they had been duped.
134	* World War II:
135	** ''Operation Fortitude'', used by the Allies to conceal their true intentions of where they were invading France in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, included the use of dummy inflatable "tanks" that deceived German intelligence into thinking the Allies had a couple of extra armored divisions in reserve.
136	** According to one US Major, Edward Lansdale, he and his men took advantage of a local myth of the vampiric [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswang Awsang]] by borrowing a tactic the Filipinos did and puncturing twice captured enemies' and bleeding them out to make it seem like an aswang got him.
137	* The Russian army remained very fond of such decoys in modern days, producing a large number of inflatable dummies of military equipment, like tanks, planes, army tents, missile systems, etc. Those dummies are designed to imitate not only optical appearance but also radar signature (due to use of miniature corner reflectors and metallic surfaces) and infrared signature (by installing portable heaters).
138	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ScarecrowSolution