History Main / BigBrotherIsWatching

* [[TheSimpsons Springfield]] became like this in one episode when they hired a man from Great Britain to install cameras all through the town. Ned Flanders was employed as one of the moniters and soon has the Big Brother complex. In fact, in his MyGodWhatHaveIDone speech, he lampshades it by saying that he just wanted to be a [[MoralityPet Little Sister]] instead of a Big Brother. And he, along with Homer, go [[RedemptionQuest about the city]] [[StatusQuoIsGod shooting the cameras with shotguns.]]

* UNICOMP in ''ThisPerfectDay'' didn't bother watching people with cameras, but it did require that they touch their nameber bracelets to scanners whenever going through a door, so that UNICOMP always knows where everyone is at all times. Thought Control was accomplished through a system of mandatory drug treatments, genetic engineering, and weekly visits to an "advisor", a sort of combination psychotherapist, parole officer, and father-confessor.

->''"Trust The Computer. The Computer is Your Friend."''

Now, Tropers, don't worry. We won't abuse this power. We'll just watch a few of the trouble makers. But nobody will know ''when'' we're watching, so we'll all have less to worry about. I know there are [[{{Understatement}} a few]] [[{{Dystopia}} problems]] [[CrapsackWorld in the world]], but they can all be sorted out. [[strike: [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial We have never been at war with The Other Wiki.]]]]

** Not to mention [[{{LOLcats}} Ceiling Cat]].

[[AC:Other]]
* {{LOLcats}}: [[{{God}} Ceiling Cat]] is [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown watching you masturbate]].

[[ParanoiaFuel http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/secure.jpg]]
[[caption-width:280:[[TruthInTelevision This is a real poster for a real public transportation system]].]]

-->''"Trust The Computer. The Computer is Your Friend."''

* In ''GunnerkriggCourt'', Jack thinks the Court puts tracking devices in food. So he's now starving himself to slip under the radar.

* ''[[Game/IRobot I, Robot]]'' has an eye of the Big Brother watching the Unhappy Interface Robot #1984 above of the incomplete pyramid. If it catch the robot jumping, it'll zap you.

* {{LOLcats}}: [[{{God}} Ceiling Cat]] is watching you masturbate.

*** Among them are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless effeciency, an almost fanatical devotion the Pope, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nice red uniforms.]]

Your likelihood of relating this trope to {{Adbot}}, who is also watching you, has been noted.

Now, Tropers, don't worry. We won't abuse this power. We'll just watch a few of the trouble makers. But nobody will know ''when'' we're watching, so we'll all have less to worry about. I know there are [[Understatement a few]] [[{{Dystopia}} problems]] [[CrapsackWorld in the world]], but they can all be sorted out. [[strike: [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial We have never been at war with The Other Wiki.]]]]

All dissidents will be taken to read [[{{Room 101}} Trope 101]] and made into [[{{Unperson}} untropers]]. Don't worry, Tropers, everything is fine. Everyone is happy. Everyone is safe.

* The leader in ''{{Equilibrium}}'' was called Father. And he suppressed human emotion to maintain control.

* UNICOMP in ''ThisPerfectDay'' didn't bother watching people with cameras, but it did require that they touch their nameber bracelets to scanners whenever going through a door, so that UNICOMP always knows where everyone is at all times. Thought Control was accomplished through a system of mandatory drug treatments, genetic engineering, and weekly visits to an "advisor", a sort of combination psychotherapist, parole officer, and father-confessor.

* ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

* In {{Shadowrun}}, everyone is near-constantly being monitored - but it isn't the big scary government that's watching. It's the big scary [[MegaCorp Megacorps]]. Every transaction you make, every ad you show interest in, your habits, your demographics, everything about you is observed and filed away so that they know how to get you to buy more stuff from them. Only if you make them lose money will they give a damn about you otherwise.

* ''Nobody Scores'': [[http://nobodyscores.loosenutstudio.com/index.php?id=405 in one series,]] the NSA produces a tentacled, many-eyed machine that is installed in your home and tracks everything about you for marketing purposes. It also detects terrorists "before they happen". People buy them quite willingly.

* Saw ads for a program to teach kids to clean their teeth in EastGermany: involved a cartoony stickman with a camera who would always know if you hadn't been doing what you were told.

* [[http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/24/london-cops-reach-ne.html "A bomb won't go off here because weeks before a shopper reported someone studying the CCTV cameras."]] [[FlatWhat What]].
** [[http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/26/remixes-of-the-paran.html Remixed!]]

* Chavez is trying to do that in Venezuela. But, funny, that doesn't work when there is no water two days a week, no light another two days in the rural places, everything is falling apart, low state workers are not getting paid, some robbers kill you for your Blackberry and some others ask kindly if they can steal your food in the supermarket. And the government is... giving money to Nicaragua.
* "It sees all. It knows all. The Reaper (automated surveillance plane) is watching." This is a commercial by...the Air Force? They show it at the movies.

[[caption-width:280:[[ParanoiaFuel This is a real poster for a real public transportation system]].]]

Now, Tropers, don't worry. We won't abuse this power. We'll just watch a few of the trouble makers. But nobody will know ''when'' we're watching, so we'll all have less to worry about. I know there are a few [[{{Dystopia}} problems in the world]], but they can all be sorted out. [[strike: [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial We have never been at war with The Other Wiki.]]]]

*** Sorry, no, you're thinking of {{God}}. He's the one with a book (actually, two books) that decides if you live or die, aptly titled the ''Book of Life'' and the ''Book of Those Who Have Lived''.

* The concept of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon Panopticon prison]] subverts this.