Misused: Revealing Coverup

This page seems to have caught a bad case of "two tropes in one." The page quote and description refer to a situation where someone covers up their plan by making a huge mess elsewhere and drawing everyone's attention. The problem is that most of the examples describe situations where the coverup to a crime is what draws the attention of the authorities.

It seems to me that both of these ideas are tropeworthy, so some sort of split is needed. The name, "Revealing Cover-Up" seems to describe the second trope better.

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I recall having seen the second trope under a different name somewhere.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

There actually seem to be three tropes here. 1) Doing something deliberately flashy as a distraction to divert attention away from your actual goal, 2) using a highly-visible crime to cover up a subtle crime (eg, using arson to destroy evidence of insider trading), and 3) convincing someone that they're on to something big by trying to dissuade them from looking into something they weren't interested by in the first place (eg, thugs roughing up a reporter doing a fluff piece on the charming qualities of Smalltown, USA, thus informing said reporter that it's actually a Town with a Dark Secret).

The latter two seem similar, but it's the difference between "the coverup itself is what started the investigation" and "someone was already investigating but didn't know they were close to anything important until someone tried to stop them".

edited 10th Oct '13 3:46:59 AM by NativeJovian

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As for the actual trope, I think it's just a bad case of Example As Thesis, and it's the last bit that's actually the trope, as the title indicates. The others are still tropes, though.

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The latter two seem similar, but it's the difference between "the coverup itself is what started the investigation" and "someone was already investigating but didn't know they were close to anything important until someone tried to stop them".

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Close enough to lump until a wick check can show significant separation between the two.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

So I looked through a bunch of tropes looking for ones that were related to the concepts covered in this trope.

For The Coverup Reveals the Crime, there is Streisand Effect, where an attempt to suppress a piece of information only makes it more popular.

For Commit a loud crime to draw attention away from your real one, there is Cacophony Cover-Up, where you hide a loud noise with an even louder one (loud music to drown out a victim's screams), and also Infraction Distraction where you commit a small infraction to explain your suspicious behavior and hide your bigger one (get a porn stash to explain your security measures and draw attention away from your Death Note).

My suggestion is that we re-write Revealing Cover-Up to mean the coverup reveals the crime, noting that it is a supertrope of the Streisand Effect, while launching a second trope under a name like Decoy Crime to cover situations where someone makes a big mess to draw attention away from their real crime.

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I don't see how committing a different crime somewhere else to draw attention from your main crime could be described as a "Revealing Coverup"; nothing is being revealed.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Exactly. But that is what the page quote, and a fair bit of the description seems to be about

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Streisand Effect is Trivia, not a storytelling trope. It has nothing to do with fictional crimes and coverups.

Cacophony Cover-Up is about noises, not attention getting crimes being used to "coverup" crimes that no one has noticed.

edited 10th Oct '13 9:19:00 PM by Catbert

If I were to vote, I would say split the trope.

The Revealing Cover-Up page should describe trope suggested by the title of the page: someone takes action to preserve a secret, and that action causes the secret to be exposed. You say it already has loads of wicks and examples supporting this, and honestly, that's how the title reads to me.

The trope of the description on the page — concealing one crime (e.g. the stealing of a codebook) by committing a much more dramatic crime (e.g. burning down the embassy) — might go under a name like Coverup Crime.

(Decoy Crime is a good name, but it's a good name for the supertrope — one which would include, for example, the episode of The Good Guys where a group of feckless incompetents were hired to rob one bank to distract the cops from a heist being committed on the other side of town.)

Original YKTTW.

I will add that "attempted coverup causes crime to be revealed" is what I've always seen this linked as.

EDIT: Fixed typo (was posting from my phone).

edited 18th Oct '13 2:45:14 PM by StarSword

Okay, it sounds like there's consensus that the trope as described should be transferred to a new page and the Revealing Cover-Up trope should be when an attempt to preserve a secret causes it to become publicized.

Any other thoughts on a good trope name for "a flashy crime used to disguise a quiet one"? So far I've seen Decoy Crime and Coverup Crime suggested.

Those are both good names. Is anyone interested in sponsoring the YKTTW draft?

I do think it's safe to say that Trope Transplant is the way to go here.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Not so sure it's a transplant as much as a split, but it amounts to the same anyway.

edited 18th Oct '13 1:14:42 PM by AnotherDuck

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I'd be more than willing to sponsor the YKTTW as long as we have consensus supporting that course of action.

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Go for Coverup Crime. Clearer, and it has Added Alliterative Appeal.

Good one.

On the alliteration front, how about Concealing Coverup Crime?

I know that the wiki is okay with just 2 words to make it AAA, but IIRC it's 3 to qualify for alliteration elsewhere, and the difference has always bugged me.

[edit] I admit that "concealing coverup" does seem a bit redundant, though...

edited 18th Oct '13 4:54:23 PM by Nohbody

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I don't think the extra alliteration is worth the redundancy.

Criminally Concealing Coverup Complexly Covering Contigency Carrot?

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Duck, that is one of the stupidest names I have ever heard, and you should be ashamed for suggesting it. It should obviously be Criminally Concealing Coverup Complexly Covering Contingency Carrotcake.

But seriously, Coverup Crime seems simple enough.

These two can go onto JustForFun.Lousy Alternate Titles.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Alright. I have a YKTTW up now. It's here. I'll have a new description for Revealing Cover-Up in a bit.

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Paradisesnake just pointed out in the YKTTW that this definition is already covered by Crime After Crime.