History Main / GasLeakCoverup

* ''JustForFun/IfIAmEverHeadOfAnAlienMonitoringAgency'' on ''Wiki/ThisVeryWiki'' recommends avoiding covering alien or paranormal activity this way, as it's a bright neon "something unusual happened here" sign to anyone even remotely GenreSavvy. Blame the damage on [[TerrorismTropes terrorism]] instead.

* Taken almost literally in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "Monkey Business." Mojo Jojo starts his own restaurant, which the girls find suspicious but they are proven wrong time and again. Townsville is enjoying Mojo's chili, but it causes everyone to fart which Blossom mistakes as a gas leak.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has a series of such "accidents" to cover up a Servant stealing life energy from assorted {{Muggles}}.

** Season three ends with the deaths of [[spoiler:thirty or so victims of the Mind Flayer]] being given a cover story that could only work in TheEighties. According to the [[IfItBleedsItLeads sensationalist news broadcast]], we see during the epilogue, they were all victims of a [[HollywoodSatanism Satanic cult]] that was probably caused by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and was also probably behind Barb and Bob's deaths in prior seasons.

** In the second season, Gemna gives an early hint of his craziness when, once he and his partner start attracting attention with an urban battle, he deliberately creates a gas explosion to give some PlausibleDeniability. In a later episode, his boss makes an irritated reference to a supposed gas explosion in Russia rumored to be a massacre by Contractors.

** In season one, to cover up the fake corpse of Will Byers, the Hawkins Lab makes a deal with Hopper to pass the body off as that of some other boy who disappeared years prior, in exchange for him and Joyce going into the Upside Down to rescue Will.
** In season two, Nancy, Jonathan, and Murray make up a story about a chemical leak from the Hawkins Lab being the culprit of Barb's death as to make the situation more believable, and thus expose the crimes of the lab without revealing the supernatural side of Hawkins.

Please note that this trope applies to using gas leaks to cover up for ''other things'', not covering up for gas leaks (unless an actual gas leak is being covered up by a story about ''another'' gas leak). If ''that's'' what you were looking for, we recommend blaming the dog. For cover-up excuses that don't involve gas leaks but are just as flimsy, see ExtraStrengthMasquerade. Compare with FieryCoverup.

* One episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has a mundane variation: the heroes tell a civilian that her neighbor's house, which contains samples of anthrax he was planning on releasing as a gas, has asbestos.

** In ''VideoGame/Persona2EternalPunishment'', the fire at the sanitarium is explained as a "gas explosion".

The general populace [[WeirdnessCensor will always swallow this one hook, line, and sinker]], no matter how many times you use it or how implausible it is, Maybe people are more comfortable believing in gas leaks than in the supernatural. Watch out for [[ThoseMeddlingKids nosy teenage detectives]], though. Those are a bit harder to fool.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'' states that Alan Rikkin's death in ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'' was purported to be a gas leak -- a highly specific gas leak which killed one man in a packed room. Meanwhile, other Templar Isabel Ardant's death is blamed on some bad wiring at Buckingham Palace.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'': The ''Herald'''s editors Vince and Dave Teague use this excuse whenever the Troubles strike. They do it so often that Haven, Maine has got to be the leakiest town in America. It's a wonder anyone still lives there. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in one episode in which Haven becomes the target of two wannabe ghost hunters for a web episode.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'': The ''Herald'''s editors Vince and Dave Teague use this excuse whenever the Troubles strike. They do it so often that Haven, Maine has got to be the leakiest town in America. It's a wonder anyone still lives there.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has a series of such "accidents" to cover up a Servant stealing life energy from assorted {{Muggles}}.
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'''s "Hinamizawa Disaster" is said to be the result of a gas cloud erupting from the swamp, which has a ''grain'' of truth to it: [[spoiler:gas was responsible, but it wasn't a natural occurrence or an accident. Gas-masked soldiers showed up in the town telling people to stay inside their houses due to poison gas, then murdered them by turning the houses into improvised {{Gas Chamber}}s, killing nearly the entire town.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}: Eternal Punishment'', the fire at the sanitarium is explained as a "gas explosion".

** The first game uses this to cover up the removal of a dirty bomb.
** Used in ''Conviction'' by [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Black Arrow]] to evacuate the Washington Monument fairgrounds so that their men can move in to get Sam.
** Used in ''Blacklist'' to cover up the vehicles Grim destroyed with a UAV in Tehran. [[BlatantLies Of course, a gas leak could destroy a dozen SUVs while leaving everything else around them okay]], but [[JustifiedTrope the Iranian government goes along with it]] since they are no more eager than Fourth Echelon to engage in a shooting war with the U.S.
* ''VideoGame/ThirteenSentinelsAegisRim'' uses this when Juro accidentally summons his Sentinel in the prologue. Similar cover-ups are used throughout the game for other Sentinel-related incidents, such as [[spoiler:the fight between "Tomi" and "Erika" in the girl's bathroom]] being covered up as a fire inadvertently started by a smoking student.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In the first episode of the first season of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', after Scott Summers accidentally provokes a fire at a football game, Professor Xavier rewrites the memory of a nearby cop into thinking it was a leak in a propane tank.

* ''VideoGame/ThirteenSentinelsAegisRim'' uses this when Juro accidentally summons his Sentinel in the prologue. Similar cover-ups are used throughout the game for other Sentinel-related incidents, such as [[spoiler:the fight between "Tomi" and "Erika" in the girl's bathroom]] being covered up as a fire inadvertently started by a smokign student.