Fake Static

"*kshhhhh* You're breaking up, Sheldon. *kshhhhh* I'm going through a tunnel in an elevator. *kshhhh*"

— Marie, Splatoon 2

The predictable but surprisingly effective method of ending a cellphone conversation in TV land — pretend there is interference on the line or that you are going through a tunnel, make some static noises and start saying "I can't hear you!" then hang up. Person avoided.

When trying this on a fixed-line phone, tradition requires you to press and release the switch in the phone cradle rapidly and repeatedly.

Sometimes subverted when the other person can blatantly tell what they are doing, or calls them back immediately.

Alternate variant is to have a character claim that they "lost the connection" or that "the battery is dying" while communicating via satellite, radio, or Subspace Ansible.

In older works dating from when long-distance phone lines were notoriously bad, fake static (created by crumpling a paper or blowing into the receiver) may be used to fake a long-distance phone call that's really being made from a nearby phone booth.

Contrast Cell Phones Are Useless, I Can't Hear You. See Impeded Communication for when the line really does go dead. If a person is making the static sound, it also counts as Saying Sound Effects Out Loud.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Used in a 2010 commercial for Discover Card. Bobby Bowden calls up "USA Prime Credit" to dispute chargers and gets Peggy, who eventually rustles some paper and tells him that he's breaking up. Bowden tells him "I'm not too old to find you, son."

Anime & Manga

• In Dragon Ball Super, Mr. Satan pretends to lose his phone connection with a news reporter after falsely claiming to have some involvement with the massive shockwaves that are in fact being created by the divine battle between Goku and Beerus. After the reporter presses him for details, he realizes he has none and pretends to fade out while saying he has bad reception, then hangs up.

Asian Animation

• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Mighty Little Defenders episode 37, Rolly and Raoul receive a call from General Wolf through their earpiece about if they've caught Wolffy yet. Worried that the general will get mad at them if they answer "no", the wolf duo pretend the reception on their earpiece is starting to get fuzzy, complete with one of them making fake static sounds.

Comic Books

• Played with in one Gaston Lagaffe comic: while talking on the phone, Gaston is frying fish in his office. The resulting noise is mistaken for static by the guy on the other end of the line (in French, static is called "friture" as it sounds like, well, something frying). Not a straight example of this trope since it's entirely unintentional on Gaston's part.
• Frequently done to Oracle by both Black Canary and Stephanie Brown when they've decided to ignore her advice. She's never fooled, and they don't really expect her to be, they're just making it clear they're not listening.
• Whenever RoboCop in RoboCop: The Future of Law Enforcement gets orders from his precinct that conflict with his prime directives of upholding the law and protecting the innocent, he crushes the microphone in his hand and later claims that it broke just before the orders were given to him.
  Operator: He's done it again, Sarge! This is costing us a fortune in microphones!
• Sabretooth does a very blatant version of this to avoid helping Karima Shapandar in X-Men (Vol. 2) #198. He even says the sound effects out loud.
  Sabretooth: Crackle crackle sputter fizz. Signal's breaking up, sweetheart.

Comic Strip

• Doonesbury for April 12th, 2013. The Chairman of the Republican National Committee calls up Hollywood agent Sid Kibbitz and asks him to find A-list celebrities for a GOP Celebrity Task Force to present the Republican message to the public. When he says that he expects the celebrities to work for free, Sid says "Hello? Sorry, just lost you! I'm driving in a dead zone!"
• In one comic of Zits, Pierce (Jeremy's tattooed/body-pierced friend) doesn't just do this, but a perfect imitation of one with just his voice, as a way to hide the fact from his mom that he's playing music with his bandmates instead of studying for school. (As a bonus, it's signified by the words in his speech balloons being drawn/written scrambled or distorted.)

Fan Works

• In Dragon Ball Z Abridged, Goku does this to King Kai by imitating a click noise and dial tone... while they're communicating telepathically. Amazingly, King Kai actually falls for it (though he does briefly wonder how it's even possible).
  King Kai: What the-? He hung up on me! How did he even do that!?
• In Sailor Moon Abridged, Serena attempts this... on a videophone.
  Serena: What's that? I can't hear you! kkkkkkkkkkch You're breaking up!
  Amy: Serena, I can see you!
  Serena: ...No you can't.
• In one JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind fancomic, Doppio attempts this on his own split personality to avoid having to explain that he's having lunch with Bruno rather than killing him.

Films — Animation

• Batman and Nightwing try the rumpling paper/food wrappers in Batman and Harley Quinn and get immediately called on it. "That sounds like paper!" Their target was Booster Gold, who isn't the most appreciated, or sensible, of heroes.
• Hotel Transylvania 2: Dracula does this when the facecam conversations with Mavis get awkward.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night — "Mirror Magic": When her boss calls her to get back to work, Juniper Montage pretends that there is static on her walkie-talkie by making sounds with her mouth.
• In the Batman: The Animated Series movie Mystery of the Batwoman, Bruce is riding in his limousine with Tim, and talking on the phone with Barbara, who is away at college. When she begins grilling him about Batwoman and hinting that she wants to go out while she's in town for Spring Break, Bruce panics and resorts to pulling this on her.
  Bruce: (while crumpling a piece of newspaper) Uh, Barb, we're... going through the East... tunnel now. 'fraid... signal's breaking up. Talk later.
  Tim: Squeaked through again, didn't you?

  Becomes a Brick Joke when they really do drive through a tunnel shortly after.

• Toy Story 2: Al claims to be going through a tunnel while talking to Mr. Konishi.

Films — Live-Action

• In the 1998 The Parent Trap, Hallie does this to Annie when she is unwilling to believe that her father is going to marry Gold Digger Meredith.
• In Star Wars: A New Hope, Han Solo claims his radio is malfunctioning when trying (and failing) to pass as a Stormtrooper, then shoots it. Though in this case, he knows it didn't fool them.
  Han Solo: Boring conversation anyway — Luke, we're gonna have company!
• In Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Pee-wee Herman did this to avoid having to ask Dottie out to the drive-in.
• Patton:
  Aide: Sir, General Alexander has heard we're moving west. He says here, "Stop immediately. Go no farther than Agrigento. Repeat. Stop, immediately."
  Patton: That's what you think it says. I think it was garbled in transmission. Ask them to re-transmit the message. That'll take half a day at least.
• Total Recall (1990):
  Cohaagen: Listen to me, Richter. I want Quaid delivered alive for reimplantation. Have you got that? I want him back in place with Lori. Did you hear me?
  Richter: What was that, sir? I couldn't hear you... Switching to another channel. I've got sunspots.
  Cohaagen: Call him back!
  Richter: I'm losing you.
• Chekov and Sulu use a variation in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, pretending to be caught in a blizzard. Uhura just laughs it off.
• In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Enterprise does this to avoid being forced to return to Earth, so as to buy time to effect the rescue of Kirk and McCoy.
• Denzel Washington gets a particularly hilarious example in Out of Time, where he yells "YOU'RE BREAKING UP!" at the top of his voice as he's stamping on the phone.
• Denzel does it again in Unstoppable when his character, Frank Barnes, uses this tactic to end his conversation with Galvin before Galvin can order him not to try his plan to stop the train.
• Blue Thunder. Officer Murphy has been ordered to fly the title helicopter back to the police airbase. He decides to do something else, so he repeatedly tells the tower that their transmission is garbled and he can't read them. His captain later calls him on it.
  "Who are you fooling with that phony radio bullshit? Jesus Christ, Frank, that went out three days after Marconi invented the fucking thing!"
• In John Woo's Broken Arrow, Deacons' inside man on the warhead recovery team radioes his base while screaming in (fake) pain, while Deacons is shaving nearby. Deacons then actually holds the buzzing razor up to the microphone for a few seconds and the two share a chuckle.
• Men in Black II: Zed does this to Michael Jackson, when Michael brings up how he'd been promised a position in MIB.
• A variant is done in the movie Heartbreakers. The person doing it isn't doing it to avoid someone, it's to get the person on the other end of the line to unknowingly volunteer information.
• Used as psychological coercion in Spaceballs, when King Roland is trying to convince Lone Starr and Barf to rescue Princess Vespa:
  Lone Starr: We'll do it for... a million.
  King Roland: (outraged) A million!
  Barf: (starts fiddling with dials) Oh, you're starting to fade here, we're losing picture your Highness...
  King Roland: All right all right I'll pay it, only find her, save her!
• Wayne's World: Wayne and his friends screwed with a fast food worker by only saying a couple syllables of each word in his order aloud. "I'd like 'rullers, 'ugar, 'ucks and a Mikita 'cup..." Subverted in that the Cashier was able to understand the order exactly.
• In Real Steel, Charlie does this when he's on the phone with a man he owes money to.
• The Brady Bunch Movie has Mr. Dittmeyer attempting to use this on his boss in the opening scene.
• In i am sam, when Rita is on the phone with her husband, she pretends for the connection to break up so she could end the conversation early.
• In Carefree, Connors uses the "fake long distance" variant to convince Stephen Arden that he's telephoning from Honolulu. First he makes noises with his mouth, and then he puts the earpiece up to the mouthpiece of the phone to create feedback.
• The French movie La Vérité si je Mens! 2 has Serge Benamou (José Garcia) doing it, moving the phone back and forth away from his mouth and pretending he's in a tunnel, before hanging up.
• Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls somehow does this with Astral Projection-based communication, when Ace contacts the elder monk from the Ashram monastery at the beginning of the film to seek answers regarding the villain's goal. When Ace is prompted about a medal he was given earlier that he lost midway into the movie, then claims it's back with his body, the monk calls his bluff and claims "Your aura is weakening". This prompts Ace into a rant on wherever could it be and leads into a "Eureka!" Moment that gives Ace the answer he sought.
• In What's the Worst That Could Happen?, Gloria pretends to be going through a tunnel and losing Max's signal so she doesn't have to tell him what her reading revealed.
• In Wonder Woman, Steve pulls one on Sir Patrick Morgan when he is given an order he disagrees with, by covering the receiver and holding it away from his face. The spotty 1910s landline probably worked out in his favor.
  Sir Patrick: Captain Trevor, you are, under no circumstances, to go anywhere near that gala tomorrow night, do you hear me?
  Steve: (loudly) Sir? I'm losing you! Sir? Sir... (hangs up)
• In Cold Pursuit, Kim fakes an avalanche so she can get off the phone with her ex-boyfriend Kurt. Her partner Gib watches on in disbelief.
• Always. At the beginning of the movie, Pete is flying a fire-fighting tanker plane but is almost out of fuel. He wants to keep flying to help some fire fighters in trouble, but is ordered to return to the airbase to land. He starts making static noises into his radio to pretend that he doesn't hear the orders.
• In Judas Kiss, Junior pretends that his phone battery is dying as he and Ruben are driving back from the ransom pickup. He uses this as an excuse to stop the car, claiming that he has spare battery in the back. Once out of the car, he shoots Ruben in the head.
• Disney's RocketMan: Randall breathes on the mic to simulate static when Bud tells him to take off. The connection is already spotty, but it's a video call, so he's not fooling anybody.
• In Stag, Pete uses Stoker's phone to call the agency to tell them that the strippers are leaving Victor's place and that they won't be able to make the next job. He does this so that—if anyone does report them missing—it will be assumed that it happened after they left Victor's. He pretends that the connection is bad to keep the call short and cover that he doesn't sound much like Stoker, and quickly hangs up.
• A variation happens in Battle of Britain. A flight of Polish Pilots and their RAF instructor/flight lead are given an order to return to base by RAF Command. The RAF Flight Lead passes the order to his trainees, but as he was getting the order, one of the Polish pilots spots a couple of Luftwaffe Bombers without any escorts. The five Polish pilots gleefully take up the chance to kill some Nazis, all while telling their Flight Lead "Repeat Please" as he's telling them their instructions to RTB. He eventually gives up, and rolls in to fight along with his trainees. The trainees are later told that they have been made fully operational.
  • To elaborate, they were hearing him loud and clear, but as English was a second language, they were feigning that they couldn't understand the instructions, which were in English. So the static in this case was a fake language barrier.
• Terminator Salvation has a variation: when John Connor gets in an argument with General Ashdown over the radio, the general orders John relieved of his position, then signs off. Two of John's men who overheard the argument immediately say that they didn't catch the general's last order, indicating that they'll help with John's plan. They're invoking fake static to somebody on the same end of the conversation, but the intent is the same.
• In Spies Like Us, Fitz-Hume gets out of a conference (in order to go and take his exam), by feigning a problem with the microphone:
  Fitz-Hume: The State D- -eber… er, the State… (taps the mike) Microphone’s… cutting out on us, I’m sorry. However… the quo- -se- -unch break, so I must go.
• Top Gun: Maverick: When Maverick is testing the Darkstar hypersonic aircraft prototype against the orders of Rear Admiral Cain, Cain shows up to the base during the test to personally tell him to land the plane. Maverick randomly clips out parts of his verbal response to make it seem like the comms are choppy (albeit without added "static sounds" as is usual for this trope), which Hondo helpfully explains as a result of Maverick's plane being in a layer of the atmosphere that makes communications difficult.

Literature

• Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga novels:
  • In The Warrior's Apprentice, Miles tells the communications officer to pipe a base which he (correctly) suspects to have been taken by the enemy some gooey music and a 'Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By' message while he works out what to do about it.
  • When playing for time in The Vor Game, Miles tells his communications officer, "I want you to think of yourself as a non-communications officer.... I want maximum inefficiency, incompetence, and error.... You've worked with trainees, surely. Be creative."
• Stephanie Plum does this on several occasions. Once, Morelli tells her she needs to work on her static, because he can hear phlegm in the noise she's making.
• Wraith Squadron has a pair of pilots rubbing their gloves on their mics to simulate the sound while disobeying orders. Their commander is frustrated, recognizing the trick because he's done that himself, but he can't stop them. Both contribute hugely to the success of the mission, but both also die.
• Near the end of Porno, Sick Boy scrapes the grill of his phone's mouthpiece to fake static for this, so he doesn't have to argue with Begbie about returning to Leith for a card game. From Cannes.
• In Islands of Rage and Hope, when the civilian head of a Dutch-controlled Caribbean island is mentioned by Captain Smith to be screaming about Dutch Marines taken on a mission to save Prince Harry from London by US Marine Corps Colonel Hamilton, Hamilton starts faking transmission problems to not have to deal with it. Smith knows the static is fake, but it serves as sufficient excuse to not further bother Hamilton with the issue.
• Alluded to in The Traitor's Hand, when the Valhallan Sentinel squadrons take off to deal with a heretic shuttle without actually waiting for their orders to come in first.
  Calling them off would be difficult and time-consuming and probably involve an inordinate number of freak vox failures...
• Immortals After Dark: Nix does this on one occasion with one of her sisters. When said sister says she's obviously blowing into the receiver, Nix stops and says it seemed less rude than the alternative. When asked what that is, she hangs up.
• Harrow the Ninth: The God-Emperor of the Nine Houses tells a bemused officer to keep a very cross Lyctor — one of his divine Saints — busy with fake static, explains how to make the noises, and admits that he's fooled the Lyctor with it before.
• In The Final Reflection, an ensign under Krenn's command tries a version of this on Krenn, who is amused by it but isn't fooled for a moment.
• The Murderbot Diaries: In Rogue Protocol, Murderbot lures in an Attack Drone by putting out a fake distress call assembled from clips of recorded audio, with the editing obscured by recordings of actual static. The drone in turn is putting out recorded bursts of static to make it sound like someone is trying to contact the caller, to encourage them to keep transmitting.

Live-Action TV

• In Blackadder Goes Forth, the title character avoids battle orders from his sadistic superiors by pretending there is radio interference in the line leading to his unit's phone. (His "static charade" even goes so far as to include snippets of weather reports, a rendition of "A Wandering Minstrel I" sung in a tinny Radio Voice and saying "Quickly! Quickly, potato-head!" in German)
  • This causes an interesting little anachronism, as commercial radio and the radio weather forecast (both of whom Blackadder imitates) had not been invented yet at that point. Apparently, the static was so bad it was picking up interference from the future (Then again, it was hardly the most egregious anachronism ever to appear in the show).
  • The message was something about he had a lion up his end, so there's an advantage to an enema at once.
• Subverted in one episode of The Smoking Room, when Sally uses the excuse of going into a tunnel to hang up on her mother, only to realize that her mother knows she's at work, so won't be fooled.
• Friends does this one a few times, both with the tunnel excuse and various others (skip to 1:30).
• In the pilot episode of In Plain Sight, Mary simulates a bad signal by holding her phone out the window of her moving car and shouting, "What? I'm losing you!"
• Ezri Dax also tries this once in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but her "static" sounds are so ridiculous that Ben isn't fooled for a second. (Of course, any engineer could probably tell the difference even with a really good static impression.) The looks on the faces of the people in Ops are something to behold.
  • Played with a few other times. Once, Sisko's superior has just sent him a message telling him to turn around rather than go rescue two crew members deep in enemy space. Kira relays the message to him, but he insists she couldn't possibly have understood what the Admiral was saying "through all that static". She pauses for a moment before agreeing the message was impossible to understand.
  • Played with again in an incident with some actual static interrupting a communication from Kira ordering the Defiant to move on to its rendezvous with a defenseless troop convoy rather than continue looking for Sisko's escape pod. Several of the bridge crew try to pretend they didn't understand what she was saying, but Worf is the commanding officer and after a moment of consideration he decides that he cannot justify pretending he didn't understand his orders even to rescue the captain.
• Star Trek: Voyager. In "Persistance of Vision" while communicating with a hostile alien, Tuvok turns the bridge viewscreen to a Snowy Screen of Death so he can delay answering in order to discuss the matter with Captain Janeway.
• In Star Trek: Enterprise Ensign Hoshi Sato does this to another ship before shutting down the visual and audio comunique from her console on the bridge.
• In Jonas, the brothers attempt to do this to distract their father from a Wild Teen Party. Yet their father can see them because they are on a video chat.
• Employed several times in Babylon 5, but most prominently in the episode "The Fall of Night" when Captain Sheridan cuts off his BabCom conversation with an angry Ambassador Londo Mollari by saying that "the line was breaking up" even though it wasn't (and Mollari being aware of the lie with an exasperated "Captain!" before the channel is cut). Sheridan proceeds to order the computer to run a diagnostic in order for Mollari's subsequent call not to come through.
• House: "Sorry, I'm about to lose you because I'm driving through a tunnel, in a canyon, on an airplane, while hanging up the phone."
• In Scrubs, when Dr. Cox is trying to avoid his wife, she calls him while in the hospital. He picks it up, opens it, says, "I'm in a tunnel." and hangs up in the space of about a second. Then when he finally answers her call, "Oh, for the love of... WHAT!!!?!?!"
• Sonny with a Chance: Sonny calls Chad about a little girl wanting to meet him. Chad refuses and pretends that he's going through a tunnel, yet Sonny catches him sunbathing outside.
• Better Off Ted: Veronica uses this to get out of a conversation. She's not on the phone, the person she's talking to is right in front of her, but no one dares call her on it.
• A Running Gag in Brazilian Sitcom A Grande Família. Whenever resident Mr. Vice Guy Agostinho is being chewed out via the phone (mostly while driving his taxi), he alternatively takes the phone far and closer to his face while complaining about tunnel interference before actually hanging up.
• In the December 31, 2002 episode of Royal Canadian Air Farce, an Al-Qaeda receptionist uses fake static to avoid speaking with the CEO of Nortel on the phone (even the Al-Qaeda Credit Union has standards!).
• Angel:
  • Spike pulls this on Angel after stealing his car.
  • Calling his old contacts in order to locate Angel ("In the Dark") has the added consequence of stirring up Doyle's creditors. Eventually, Doyle starts resorting to the 'wrong number' trick.
    Doyle [nasally accent] House of Pies...
• Pierce attempts this when he is unable to turn his phone off in Community episode "Introduction to Statistics".
• Often in Burn Notice. An excellent example would be when Fiona's about to ask where a fake banker was dropped off, Michael tells her over the phone to be gentle on the human smuggler, over the phone, when she responds with "You're breaking up" and hangs up on him.
• In Hannah Montana, Robby Ray is arguing with Selena Gomez's character's manager over the phone and starts crunching chips and saying that there is a lot of static, although the manager sees through the trick.
  • He does it again in the crossover with The Suite Life on Deck when, after Jackson Rico and Oliver are pinned to the window by a giant inflatable castle that Robby Ray ordered, Robby Ray calls them and pretends to help only to start making bad connection sounds to scare them as a joke.
• In an episode of M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter is trying to call home and everyone else is trying to stop him without letting him know why (his wife paid off their mortgage early and the gang are planning a surprise party for him in his tent at her request, but Potter thinks she bought a houseboat). At one point Margaret is imitating the operator saying a line is not yet available, complete with scrunching up carbon paper to imitate static.
• In an episode of Up All Night, Reagan attempts this in the middle of a video chat with her parents, which requires her to freeze in place for several seconds at a time to give the impression that the video feed is buffering.
• In the Modern Family episode "Connection Lost", Hailey confronts Clare on FaceTime about Clare assuming that Hailey was pregnant by Andy and going to Las Vegas to elope only for those to be misunderstandings, Clare avoids the conversation by pretending that the video feed was buffering by freezing every few seconds. Unsurprisingly, Hailey doesn't buy it.
• Elementary: Sherlock attempts to make it sound like Joan's call is breaking up, but Joan is actually walking up right behind him and catches him in the act.
• In the first episode of MythQuest, Matt is on a video call with his university collegue, who is angry at him for borrowing an archaeological artifact without permission. He claims he can't see or hear her, then hangs up. She tells him not to do this again, so evidently it didn't fool her.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • In the episode "F.Z.Z.T.", Agent Coulson simulates static while talking to his superior officer in order to avoid hearing an order to kill Simmons because she has become infected. He isn't fooled.
  • In the episode "The Singularity", Fitz and Simmons do this to Mack during a mission so they can have a long-overdue conversation about their relationship. Mack isn't fooled either; Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter used to do the same thing to him on assignments. Luckily, he (like everyone else on Coulson's team) ships FitzSimmons and isn't too upset.
• In the third (televised) episode of Almost Human, Detective John Kennex is ordered by Captain Maldonado to safely evacuate a building under siege with the civilians rather than keep after the perpetrators who are holding hostages on one of the upper floors. He responds with "There's....I can't....wha...de..wh...do you...bu...an....Christmas..."
• Murder, She Wrote: At the start of "The Error of Her Ways", a cop gets out of a conversation with the dispatcher by repeatedly thumbing the send button on his radio to make it seem like the signal is breaking up.
• In an episode of The Suite Life on Deck, Arwin's cousin Milos tries to do this by crunching paper. Yet Arwin can see him doing this through the video chat similar to the Jonas example mentioned above.
• In the airplane sketch of How to Irritate People, the copilot starts issuing a "safety warning" on the PA system, which his superior interrupts with fake static, much to his hilarity.
• In an episode of Austin & Ally, Ally does this when her mother tries to show her a gorilla birthing video.
• In Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure, Cam tries to cut a phone conversation short with fake static. Problem is, unbeknownst to him, Evie (the person he was talking to) was actually Right Behind Him.
• Kolchak: The Night Stalker. In the episode "The Vampire", Intrepid Reporter Kolchak is sent to Los Angeles to get a story. While talking on the phone to his editor in Chicago, he puts a towel over the phone and uses an electric razor near the phone. He wants to make it seem like the line is full of static to he doesn't have to answer the editor's questions. When he gets tired of this he hangs up, assuming that the editor will think they were cut off.
• In The Good Place, Michael and Janet (afterlife beings who have just escaped to Earth) are having a video call with Gen (aka the Judge of the afterlife), and Michael pretends their line is breaking up when Gen mentions she'll be waiting for them to give them their punishment. Gen isn't fooled, since the video call is being done over a magic key which should rule out any potential for static or other mishaps.
  Michael: Sorry, Judge, I think you're breaking up. [He and Janet put their hands near their ears as if they can't hear Gen]
  Gen: That's impossible. It's a magical key, you dick. [Michael not-so-subtly starts stepping on key to try end the call] What are you doing? I can see you.
• Whodunnit? (UK): In "A Bad Sign", the murderer uses tape recorded traffic noise to fake calling from their car phone to establish an alibi when they are really calling from another room in the same building.
• Variant in Gilmore Girls. Lorelai calls her mother and pretends she can't hear her mother's side of the conversation. Emily assumes there's a problem with her phone and shouts trying to get Lorelai to hear her. Lorelai continues speaking as if she's leaving a message. After she hangs up, she turns to Christopher and smugly announces "I told you it would work."
• In Kim's Convenience, Jung tries to fake a bad connection over video chat with Kimchee, making it look like his screen is freezing up, but Kimchee can see his fan moving in the background at normal speed.
• Janda Kembang:
  • When Salmah's first intermediary Jefri is calling her out via phone for leaving their client, Rais takes the phone and imitates static sound until Jefri thinks the signal is weak and hangs up.
  • When a debt collector demands Rais to pay his debt via phone call, Rais fakes static sound so he can hangs up.
• Better Call Saul: In "JMM", Mike calls Saul on his cellphone to forward a demand. Saul, who is at home, turns on his blender and says he's in a tunnel, finishing off by making static sounds into the phone as he goes to answer a knock at the door. Then it gets awkward when he opens the door, expecting it to be his wife Kim, and it's Mike standing there.

Print Media

• A 1992 Miss Manners column describes a variant: ending an unwanted phone call by hanging up mid-sentence on oneself in order to give the impression that the call was accidentally cut off.

Pro Wrestling

• John Morrison and The Miz attempt this on an episode of The Dirt Sheet in order to deal with WWE Diva Layla calling in and complaining about what they said about her dress. Unsurprisingly, considering that they tried this on someone who was apparently watching their show, it doesn't work.

Puppet Shows

• The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: In "Horton Has a Hit", Horton becomes famous when Yertle turns his lullaby, "You're My Baby" into a hit rock song. Wanting to keep his success going, Yertle does everything he can to keep Horton away from Morton, his elephant bird son. At one point, when Horton calls Morton, Yertle interferes in a phone call between the two by making static noises into the phone.

Video Games

• At the end of Batman: Arkham Knight, an arrest warrant is sent out for Bruce Wayne because of a Dramatic Unmask that revealed Batman's identity. The police respond that their fax machine is broken.
• In StarCraft, Samir Duran claims interference when ordered to intercept an attacking Zerg force; his failure to act allowed Raynor and Mengsk to escape. This is one of the first hints that Duran's loyalties are not with the UED; he in fact works for Kerrigan. Maybe.
• In Halo 3: ODST, Sadie tries to do this to end the conversation with her father. Probably wouldn't have worked even if it wasn't video feed.
• Mass Effect:
  • Used sarcastically when Shepard cuts off the Council, and Joker will remark "Oops, lost the connection."
  • (S)he doesn't bother to make any fake static, but Renegade Shepard still shoots down The Illusive Man's attempt at a tirade after blowing up the Collector Base with the line "I'm sorry, I can't quite hear you — I'm getting a lot of bullshit on this line". And, yes, (s)he can have Joker hang up on him.
  • In the third game, you can find Joker and Liara talking over intercom on the Normandy. After Joker slips up and tells Liara how Shepard used to hang up on the council, he immediately claims they're "going through some dark matter".
  • Also in the third game, after talking with the Council and going through the usual process, Joker makes another Call-Back and says "Well lemme know if you wanna hang up on them again for old time's sake".
• Modern Warfare
  • "I'm not asking you, this is an order! You're to--" *click* "Hm. Looks like we lost our connection."
  • A similar example in the new Medal of Honor reboot, made all the more awesome because the guy who decides to disconnect the call with the General Failure is an unnamed technician.
• Parodied in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Ratchet tries to pull this trick during a video call, forgettting the other guy could see him. He promptly shuts him up by killing the conversation.
  Director: You know I can see you, weasel boy!
  Ratchet: Yeah? How about now?
  - immediately disconnects -
• Spoofed in Saints Row: The Third, with Pierce and the Boss faking static after Kinzie tells them not to follow the truck carrying a supercomputer with a tank. Which they do anyway.
• In Fallout 2, if you accidentally contact The Enclave in the Poseidon power plant you can use this trope to buy yourself some time.
• An oddly frequent tactic used by the heisters while answering dead/dominated guards' pagers in PAYDAY 2. The fact that it actually works says a lot about the pager operator.
• At the beginning of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, you get to listen to Jack drop a call from Mr. Tassiter through this tactic, or so he thought.
• In Nights of Azure, Arnice gets a call from Simon through a phone next to a mysterious door. When asked where it leads, Simon tries to do this to hide the fact that it leads back to the hotel.
• Marie tries this on her walkie-talkie in Splatoon 2 in order to avoid another one of Sheldon's ravings. The joke comes from Marie blatantly not being anywhere near a tunnel. Also the fact that the lecture in question is about radio static.
• Wario does this in the opening of WarioWare Gold after Mona asks him about how much she'll be paid to make games for him.
• In Manor Cafe food critic Edgar Roux calls the cafe to remind Meg of his impending arrival.
  Edgar Roux: So what's on the menu for today?
  Meg: You know, I think my reception is bad in here... I can't hear you. I'll call you back, Mr. Roux.
• In Atlantis Odyssey Tar'per tries this on an Atlantean communications system.
  Nicole: Tar'per, this isn't interference, we can hear you hissing... Stop it.
• In Andy Volcano Stanley, thinking that Andy is his grandfather, calls him on a video link and Andy states that he has a lot of questions to be answered.
  Stanley: You know, the line is really bad!
  Andy: I can hear you perfectly!
  '''Stanley: I can't hear you!

Web Comics

• Darths & Droids: Used by R2-D2 during the adaptation of Attack of the Clones, when he gets annoyed that Obi-Wan wants to use the droid's "superior capabilities" merely to relay a message.
• Communications Officer Skip Taylor of Legostar Galactica uses a variant when he "accidentally" hangs up on an antagonistic Remulen General
  General Loratrek: Next time we meet I will n—
  Skip: Whoops,hunguponhim,sorry.
  Captain Bob Smith: No apology necessary, Lieutenant, I would have done it myself in a second.
• During a "Life With Rippy" strip in Something*Positive, Rippy (the artist's muse, who takes the form of an anthropomorphic razorblade) tries to call another muse, who doesn't want to talk to him. The other tells him to hold, and hangs up.
  *dial tone*
  "Hey, Randy! He has the same hold tone your parents use! What do you call this song?"
  "'The Gullibility Waltz'."
• The tunnel excuse is parodied in an early strip (NSFW) of Go Get a Roomie!

Web Animation

• In the Strong Bad Email "too cool", Strong Bad makes fake Walkie-Talkie Static sounds while talking to Bubs. Bubs, meanwhile, says the word "Static".

Web Original

• During an SF Debris review of a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, he wonders exactly how an Admiral would react to Benjamin Sisko's actions. It ends with...
  Admiral: Can you think of any reason why I shouldn't court martial you right now?
  Sisko: (static noises) What's that sir? (static) You're breaking up! (static)
  Admiral: Holo-communicator, Ben, I can see you making the noises right now.
• In Ultra Fast Pony, Rainbow Dash tries to pull this as she flies away from a face-to-face conversation.
  Twilight: Hey, you get back here, I'm speaking to you!
  Rainbow: I'm sorry Twilight, I can't hear you, I'm going through a tunnel or something.
  Twilight: You're in the sky!
  Rainbow: I can't hear you, Twilight!
• Parodied in Sailor Moon Abridged, with Serena attempting to do this on a video phone. It doesn’t work too well.
• Dingo Doodles has Erina try to pull this with Sips when he makes psychic contact with her, on account of her being angry with him. Given that it's a psychic connection and he can see her making noises with her mouth, he doesn't buy it (though she is able to somehow hang up on him, much to his rage).
• In "Harry Potter: Hogwarts in 2020" from The Warp Zone, Voldemort attempts this, badly, when Harry traces his IP and discovers that he is at Malfoy Manor. "He didn't even log off. He just turned off his camera," notes Harry. "He is really bad at this."

Western Animation

• Code Lyoko: Jérémie calls Jim, using the Supercomputer to disguise his voice as the principal's, to get him to release Ulrich and Odd. Jim falls for it, but then tries to discuss "a personal matter. It's about Suzanne Hertz..." Jérémie quickly blurts out, "Oh, it's a tunnel. We're about to get cut off!"
• In the Dan Vs. episode "The Animal Shelter," Dan does this to get out of a phone call with Elise. She gets annoyed that he isn't even bothering to make the noises, but is simply saying "crackle" and "buzz".
• In an episode of The Fairly OddParents!, Cosmo does this to distract Wanda from the fact that he's screwed up, resulting in an attack by intelligent roaches. Then the roaches swarm over him and he cries out, "Aah! This tunnel's itchy!"
• Futurama: "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch":
  (Zap Brannigan commandeers the videophone from Kif)
  Zap: Well, well, well. Do my eyes believe me, or is that my bosomy swan, Leela?
  Leela: Say again? You're breaking up. (throws the book she's reading at the videophone)
• Jade of Jackie Chan Adventures has done this to Jackie more than once.
• Justice League:
  • In "Eclipsed", Flash's absurdly sleazy agent does this to him.
  • In "Panic in the Sky", Galatea is busy beating the crap out of Supergirl when her boss realizes Lex Luthor's treachery. Her boss tries to call off Galatea's attack, but she claims the signal is breaking up. Then she breaks the communicator and tells Supergirl it was a wrong number.
• Superman, of all people, does this in Justice League Action. He calls Batman to tell him that he's being sent backup, and when Batman does his usual "I don't need help" thing, Superman promptly claims his signal's breaking up.
• Ron tried doing this in an early episode of Kim Possible; he might have pulled it off if he didn't drop the fake static in between every word of his otherwise complete sentence.
• In the opening special of My Little Pony: Make Your Mark, Queen Haven calls Zipp, asking her to come back to Zephyr Heights for her royal training. Zipp makes an excuse to hang up by making fake static noises before ending the call.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Comes up twice in the episode "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!" First, Candace calls her mom to bust her brothers, but ends up talking to her crush, Jeremy, instead and freaks out, crinkling a ball of paper to fake static, claiming the call is breaking up. Second, Candace calms herself down and calls Jeremy, only for his little sister to pick up the phone and pull the same trick on her, which Candace calls her out on.
  • Linda does it to Candace in "Bullseye!", prompting Candace to remark "I hate when she does 'cshhhhhh'!"
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Princess' limo driver tries to do this in the Christmas special when she asks him if she's naughty.
  Driver: (faking static) You're... you're breaking up ... going through a ... unnel ... call...lat...
  Princess: (leaning forward and knocking on his window) No, we're not! I'm in the car, you twit!
• Subverted on The Simpsons, when Homer gets a loaner car while his regular car gets repaired. When Homer and Marge are lustfully driving in the new car, Homer gets a call from the dealer saying his car is fixed, causing Homer to say they can keep it so he can keep the loaner. He then tells the man to listen to him and his wife making "sweet love", which is followed by static sounds.
  Homer: That wasn't me, that was the transmission.
• In the South Park episode, "A Ladder To Heaven", to cut off an interview with a pedophile, the news broadcasters hold up a cardboard test pattern with an image of TV static on it, shake it in front of the camera, and make static noises with their mouths.
• Moltar does this to Space Ghost in Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Space Ghost calls him on it: "You're just making noises with your mouth!"
• A scene in SpongeBob SquarePants between Sponge Bob and Patrick pretending to be astronauts and always ending with static hiss.
• In Star Wars: Clone Wars, Anakin claims the radio connection is breaking up when Obi Wan orders him not to pursue a Sith fighter alone.
• In "Fighter Flight" from Star Wars Rebels, Zeb attempts some when speaking to Imperials on the ground from the stolen TIE fighter after they ask him for his operating number. They don't buy it and start ignoring his orders.
• Bumblebee in Transformers: Animated tried this once. When Prowl did it later, Ratchet replies that Bumblebee's fake static was more believable.
• In T.U.F.F. Puppy in the episode "Guard Dog" Kitty said to Dudley they were passing through a tunnel when she really just wanted to play with the cat toys in the cat car.
• Wing Commander Academy: In "The Lords of the Sky", Maniac uses faked radio interference to ignore an order from Blair for the flight wing to stay together on a reconnaisance mission.
• Young Justice (2010): Lagoon Boy tries doing this while communicating telepathically with the rest of the team. Nightwing immediately calls foul.
  Nightwing: There's no static on the psychic link!

Real Life

• Horatio Nelson did this in the 19th Century at the (naval) Battle of Copenhagen. When his superior ordered him to retreat, he "looked" for the signal by holding his telescope to his blind eye (Which is where the term "turning a blind eye" comes from) and said: "I really do not see the signal." He went on to win the battle.
  
  The superior (Sir Hyde Parker) was expecting this, if Nelson was in condition to continue the battle. The order to retreat was given only to allow Nelson to keep his honor (and his life) if Nelson and his force were in no condition to continue the battle.^note Keep in mind that this was about a generation after the execution of Admiral John Byng for failing to "do his utmost" to prevent his post from falling into the hands of the enemy, and the relevant laws were still on the books.
• David Hackworth mentions in his memoir About Face, that he would do the "radio interference" bit fairly frequently. Usually by using an electric shaver.
• Rumor has it that a certain large brokerage had "static buttons" built into all its dealers' phones to facilitate the sudden end of inconvenient calls.
• Because of online school, some kids wanting to skip class flicker their camera or mic and/or play glitchy sounds and log off of the call to make their teacher think they've lost connection.

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