History Main / PhoneyCall

** TheDragon uses the handkerchief over the phone trick to imitate Jeff King and place a call telling them to meet him at the office, to get them out of the apartment they are in.

* Laurie does this in ''[[Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: A Giant Problem]]''. Nick's [[AdultsAreUseless dad]] doesn't want Laurie and [[UnfazedEveryman Nick]] going to the beach without supervision, so Laurie fakes a call to [[AloofBigBrother Jules]] to ask him to babysit them. She tells their parents that Jules agreed, and they are none the wiser as she and Nick go off to hunt giants with [[Literature/JackTheGiantKiller Noseeum Jack]]. Nick is actually shocked (and impressed) by Laurie's [[ConsummateLiar ability to lie so well]].
* In Lawrence Block's ''[[Literature/BernieRhodenbarr The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian]]'' Bernie pretends to be a flower deliveryman to get into a high-security apartment building. When the tenant he hands them to protests that they can't be for her, he asks to use her phone so he can straighten things out. He then calls his friend Carolyn and pretends he's talking to his "boss."
* In ''Cobra'' by Creator/AndrewVachss, unlicensed private eye Burke has recorded messages from his non-existent secretary, to make clients thinks his business is larger than it is.

* In the Creator/AgathaChristie short story collection ''Literature/PartnersInCrime'', Tommy has a hidden button on his desk at the International Detective Agency. If he wants to impress a client or end an interview early, he presses it, and Alfred the office boy phones him. He then answers the phone and pretends to be speaking to an important government minister or something.

* In a ''[[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley Twins]]'' book, 12-year old Jessica is secretly dating a 16-year old boy by lying about her age and pretending to be 14. Her upcoming alibi is that she's spending the weekend at a friend's house and she has the friend call her mother, posing as the friend's mother in order to make the arrangements.

* In one of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Christmas episodes, Bart and Lisa have to sneak past security guard Gary Coleman who is having an animated phone conversation. Lisa notices that the phone isn't even plugged in.

* In a case featured on an episode of ''Series/ForensicFiles''("Dinner And A Movie"), a pregnant woman is found dead in her bedroom. Her husband Ed Sherman's alibi is that he was on a fishing trip, and had called home from his friend's house and gotten no answer. However, it's revealed that the friend's young daughter had picked up an extension and realized that Sherman was talking to a ringing phone. He had killed his wife before leaving, and turned up the air conditioner to slow decomposition of her body.
* Many true crime shows feature variations on this, where murderers are found to have texted their victims repeatedly after killing them in an attempt to throw the cops off and give the impression that either the the victim was still alive or that they believed them to be. For example, a man murdered his wife, then left the house to get takeout so as to create an alibi. He sent her several text messages asking her what she wanted, telling her what time he'd be home, etc., only for his efforts to fail when her injuries weren't consistent with a fall (he'd strangled her) and he himself bore several injuries that she'd inflicted trying to defend herself.

* A ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story, "Bug Brained" (Gold Key, issue #7) had Dick Dastardly and Muttley planting a phone on a tower that explodes when "Hello" is said into it. Dastardly presses a button to make it ring, but when Yankee Doodle Pigeon doesn't bite, Dastardly suspect Muttley of being a mole for the other side. He forces Muttley to answer but he defers it saying the call is for Dastardly. Naturally he says "Hello," and--well, FailureIsTheOnlyOption continues to work on him.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''

* ''Series/TheAvengers'': In the episode "Murdersville", Emma is trapped in town by the townspeople and forced to make a call. She calls Steed, pretending he's a loved one, and he figures out something's wrong so he knows to come rescue her.

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* In ''Film/AVeryBradySequel'', Jan attempts to fake a call from her imaginary boyfriend, George Glass, by dialing up a sex hotline before Marcia enters the room. Since Marcia doesn't hear the phone ring before walking in on Jan, she doesn't fall for it.

* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': In "Dark Road", Vera phones Bethany to warn her about a suspect she is with. Standing close to to the suspect, Bethany starts giving innocuous sounding replies about the weather and other trivialities.

* In ''Film/AVeryBradySequel'', Jan attempts to fake a call to her imaginary boyfriend, George Glass, by dialing up a sex hotline before Marcia enters the room. Marcia doesn't fall for it.

* In ''Film/AVeryBradySequel'', Jan attempts to fake a call to her ImaginaryBoyfriend, George Glass, by
dialing up a sex hotline before Marcia enters the room. Marcia doesn't fall for it.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/{{Andhadhun}}'', Simi pretends to call Mr. Sinha when Akash shows up at their apartment to hide that he's already dead. Akash spots the dead body anyway, since he's only [[ObfuscatingDisability faking his blindness]].

* In Lawrence Block's ''The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian'' Bernie pretends to be a flower deliveryman to get into a high-security apartment building. When the tenant he hands them to protests that they can't be for her, he asks to use her phone so he can straighten things out. He then calls his friend Carolyn and pretends he's talking to his "boss."

* In a ''[[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley Twins]] book, 12-year old Jessica is secretly dating a 16-year old boy by lying about her age and pretending to be 14. Her upcoming alibi is that she's spending the weekend at a friend's house and she has the friend call her mother, posing as the friend's mother in order to make the arrangements.

* In the first of the Literature/{{Burke}} novels, the wannabe PrivateDetective has rigged a recorder to make it look like he has a secretary in the next room, placing a call on the intercom for 'her' to hold his calls while he speaks to a client.

* In ''Cobra'' by Creator/AndrewVachss, unlicensed private eye Burke has recorded messages from his non-existent secretary, to make clients thinks his business is larger than it is.* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': When Greg was younger, his mother Susan found out that he wasn't brushing his teeth, so she faked a call to the dentist asking if they had dentures for little boys to scare him into brushing. Greg claims that it worked so well that he started brushing his teeth at least four times a day (and he still does).

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Used in "Connie and Frankie". Mr. Conklin pretends to call his wife Martha over his disconnected office phone, to ''order'' her to let the (female) Frankie stay as their house guest. The scheme fails as Martha shows up to visit Mr. Conklin at school.

%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pE76zTsRno This scene]] from ''Series/ThirtyRock''.
* In a similar segment on ''I Survived'', after a woman's violent ex broke into her home, she asked to be allowed to call a friend and cancel their plans to go shopping. Amazingly, he allowed her to call. When her friend answered, she told her not to bother coming over. Initially confused because they did [[OutOfCharacterAlert NOT]] have plans to get together, the other woman quickly deduces there was something wrong and quietly asked if her ex-husband was there. Upon being told "Yes", she quickly called 911 and ultimately saved her friends life.

* ''Series/TheWestWing'': C.J. Cregg spots a man she has an awkward history with approaching her while she's on the phone to Toby. She asks Toby to keep talking so she can avoid an unpleasant conversation but he hangs up on her instead. CJ pretends to talk to the dead line for another minute but the man she's trying to avoid just waits until she finally "hangs up".

* A ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story, "Bug Brained" (Gold Key, issue #7) had Dick Dastardly and Muttley planting a phone on a tower that explodes when "Hello" is said into it. Dastardly presses a button to make it ring, but when Yankee Doodle Pigeon doesn't bite, Dastardly suspect Muttley of being a mole for the other side. He forces Muttley to answer but he defers it saying the call is for Dastardly. Naturally he says "Hello," and--well, FailureIsTheOnlyOption continues to work on him.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheLongHalloween''. Two Face goes to a meeting with mob boss Carmine Falcone, but he's not there. Carmine then rings Two Face on the phone while his goons produce guns to kill Two Face. After Two Face gives TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Carmine, he then hands his phone to the goons saying that Carmine wants to talk to them, providing a momentary distraction so he can get the jump on them.

* In ''Film/TheGuilty'', Iben calls emergency services pretending to speak to her daughter Mathilde to avoid tipping off her abductor.

* In ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', Tim has to pretend to be on his phone while conversing with Detective Pikachu in a café, mainly because nobody but him ([[spoiler:because Pikachu is really his father Harry]]) can understand a word Pikachu says, and Tim doesn't want to look crazy.
* In ''Film/{{Midnight 1939}}'', in order to keep up the ruse that she's a Baroness with a child, Claudette Colbert's character has to pretend to talk to her on the phone. Of course, no one is on the other line. One of the funniest scenes from the film.
* In ''Film/TheMuppetsWizardOfOz'', Toto has declared himself to be Dorothy's agent, and is apparently calling someone about a gig. Dorothy's reaction: "That isn't even a real phone!"
* ''Film/TheNewCenturions'' (1972). When a ScaryBlackMan causes trouble, one of the policeman calls for an ambulance for the injuries he's about to receive. He decides to surrender without trouble, and finds it ActuallyPrettyFunny when he's told the call was a fake.
* Done dramatically in ''Film/{{Obsessed}}.'' Lisa tricks the Charles' babysitter into letting her into the house by pretending to hold a phone conversation with Sharon. Justified a bit when Lisa pretends that Sharon is upset with the babysitter, causing her to decide against taking the phone herself.

* In ''Film/EducatingRita'', Frank's girlfriend, Julia, is cheating on him with Frank's fellow writer, Brian; whenever Frank is about to walk in on them in a passionate embrace, Brian picks up the phone and pretends to be in the middle of a conversation with Morgan, his agent. It works (or, at least, Frank doesn't care enough to expose the lie) until Frank walks in on Brian supposedly talking to Morgan and reveals the line has been disconnected.

* In ''Cobra'' by Creator/AndrewVachss, unlicensed private eye Burke has recorded messages from his non-existent secretary, to make clients thinks his business is larger than it is.
* Laurie does this in ''[[Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: A Giant Problem]]''. Nick's [[AdultsAreUseless dad]] doesn't want Laurie and [[UnfazedEveryman Nick]] going to the beach without supervision, so Laurie fakes a call to [[AloofBigBrother Jules]] to ask him to babysit them. She tells their parents that Jules agreed, and they are none the wiser as she and Nick go off to hunt giants with [[Literature/JackTheGiantKiller Noseeum Jack]].
** Nick is actually shocked (and impressed) by Laurie's [[ConsummateLiar ability to lie so well]].
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': When Greg was younger, his mother Susan found out that he wasn't brushing his teeth, so she faked a call to the dentist asking if they had dentures for little boys to scare him into brushing. Greg claims that it worked so well that he started brushing his teeth at least four times a day (and he still does).
* In a number of Creator/AgathaChristie novels, the murderer uses this trick to help set up an alibi by making it appear that the victim's death occurred while the murderer was far away in the presence of witnesses. Examples of this include [[spoiler:''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'']], [[spoiler:''Literature/HickoryDickoryDock'']], and [[spoiler:''Literature/LordEdgwareDies'']].
** In her short story collection ''Literature/PartnersInCrime'', Tommy has a hidden button on his desk at the International Detective Agency. If he wants to impress a client or end an interview early, he presses it, and Alfred the office boy phones him. He then answers the phone and pretends to be speaking to an important government minister or something.

* In the [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/01/23 January 23, 1989]] ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, Calvin momentarily pretends to be calling Susie about homework as his mom passes through when he's actually trying to purchase power tools.
* In another ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, Calvin lies to his babysitter, Rosalyn, about feeling sick. Rosalyn sees through this and calls the automatic time service, pretending that she's speaking with Calvin's doctor. She then tells Calvin that Doc wants Calvin to take a teaspoon of castor oil and lie down all evening.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', Wally once gets a hands-free and goes around PHB, shouting insults in his face, pretending that he actually talks to his mother. Personal calls have been forbidden in the Path-E-Tech Management ever since.

* ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail:'' In the episode [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE37Dullard "dullard"]], Strong Bad suggests getting rid of [[TheBore boring coworkers]] by pretending to be in the middle of an important call.
-->'''Strong Bad:''' Oh! Oh, oh! Yes, yes, yes... Uh, so no, I'm still here, yes. Working hard. I've been synergizing all morning...

* In one ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' strip, Susan teased Nanase by [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=374 pretending she was ordering a pizza loaded with anchovies.]] Nanase angrily grabbed the phone to object, only to discover that Susan had been "talking" to a time service.

* ''Series/InTheHeatOfTheNight''. Having just realized that his visiting friend is responsible for the slew of murders that have recently taken place, Virgil calls his wife Althea and warns her to talk with him normally so as to find a way to get her out of the house safely. Unfortunately, the guy realizes that Virgil knows anyway.
* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': In "Dark Road", Vera phones Bethany to warn her about a suspect she is with. Standing close to to the suspect, Bethany starts giving innocuous sounding replies about the weather and other trivialities.

* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': In "[[Recap/ColumboS03E08 A Friend in Deed]]", the murderer publicly phones his home from his club and pretends to be talking to his wife. He is actually talking to his accomplice who is cleaning up the crime scene.
* "[[Recap/ColumboS00E02 Ransom for a Dead Man]]", the second pilot episode of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', has Leslie do this. Leslie cobbles together a fake voice recording of her husband from clips she's spliced together. Having already killed him, she uses a 1970s automated phone gizmo to place a call to herself. This leads the FBI, which is listening in, to conclude that her husband is still alive.
* In an episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', Sam suspects that the killer he's tracking has done this when he realizes that he couldn't get a word in edgewise when talking to him.

* In the second ''Series/FawltyTowers'' episode, "The Builders", Basil apparently receives a telephone call from the professional builders. Sybil is not fooled; she goes into another room to discover Polly providing the other end of the call.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "The Assassin", Dean Sutherland gets a phone call and pretends to be talking to university staff member about routine business until Bishop John Atwood has left the room. A cut to the other end of the phone call reveals the other party is Anton Christopher, the assassin. Sutherland then supplies Christopher with details regarding Atwood's travel arrangements.

* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'': In "Death on the Vine", Phryne makes a call to Inspector Jack Robinson and pretends to be talking to her mechanic so the people eavesdropping on her call won't know who she is really talking to.

* In ''Series/ThreesCompany'', Jack lies to his grandfather about being a doctor and tries to guilt Terry into letting him use a doctor's office at the hospital to maintain the sham. He succeeds by pretending to call his grandfather and tell him the truth, although Janet grabs the phone and discovers he called Larry.
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Used in "Connie and Frankie". Mr. Conklin pretends to call his wife Martha over his disconnected office phone, to ''order'' her to let the (female) Frankie stay as their house guest. The scheme fails as Martha shows up to visit Mr. Conklin at school.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pE76zTsRno This scene]] from ''Series/ThirtyRock''.
* On the SoapOpera ''Series/TheCity1995'' (a reworking of ''Series/{{Loving}}''), Molly is on the phone with her mother. She puts it down to turn off the kettle, and at this point, the audience hears the operator's message "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again. If you need help, hang up, and then dial your operator. . ." Molly returns and proceeds to ''pick up the phone and continue talking the way she was before'', thus revealing herself to be completely delusional--and the SerialKiller who has been offing various characters for the past several months. In a later scene, her boyfriend Danny realizes this when he picks up the extension while she's talking to her "mother", only to hear the same operators message.
* Rick Martinez from ''Series/Chaos2011'' does this at one point, too.
* Ari Gold from ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' frequently does this when trying to get parts for Vince.
* ''Series/FawltyTowers'': In "Communication Problems", the phone rings just as Basil has a horrified realisation that Sybil might find out from Polly about the money he won on a horse. Basil answers the phone, stealthily hangs up, and continues to talk, saying that he will fetch Polly, as if the call is for her. Afterwards, Sybil checks the phone, hears that nobody is there, and warns Basil about what she will do if she finds out the money on the horse is his.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "Image in a Cracked Mirror", Jim is interrogating the young son of a fugitive and not getting far. He has a local cop phone him and then hang up as soon as he picks up. He then talks into the dead line and acts like they have picked up a lead in Texas. By gauging the son's reaction, he is able to work out how close to the truth he is getting.
* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Lily does this after Barney hangs up on her in Season 3 Ep 20.
* Mike from ''Series/GrowingPains'' once had a phone conversation with a friend where he mentions that he wants to quit school and become an actor. Carol overhears this and Mike presses the hang-up switch with his thumb and tells the friend he was kidding. Carol isn't convinced, though.

''Series/DeathInParadise'': Vital to the solution of a seemingly impossible murder in "The Blood Red Sea". [[spoiler:The wife of the VictimOfTheWeek answered a call from her husband's phone. However, the call was made by her accomplice on her husband's phone, and she was talking to empty air.]]
* Happens frequently on ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' -- in one episode, Frasier attempts to get out of a date by pretending he's getting an emergency call from his brother, in another, he and his ex-wife simultaneously make non-calls to "cancel" other dates that they don't actually have.
* ''Series/GhostWhisperer'': Melinda is on a road trip with Jim, who for plot reasons doesn't know at the moment that she's a psychic. When a ghost shows up in the car, Melinda pretends to take a phone call so she can talk to him.
* In ''Series/InsideNo9'' episode "Once Removed", Hugo tries to push a sale in front of a client by faking a call about a rival offer on the house, only for the phone to actually ring when his mother calls to ask what he wants for dinner.
* In ''Series/{{Community}}'', the first episode of the final season has the dean fake a phone call to avoid a conversation twice. The first time, he goes through all his pockets trying to find his phone despite apparently having left it in his office. He later snatches someone else's phone for a fake phone call to avoid answering a variation of the same question.
* In ''Series/TheITCrowd'', Jen is pretending to be busy, so she makes Moss wait till she finishes her phone call. When she asks him what he wants, he replies that he came to connect her telephone. She didn't really learn her lesson, since later in the same episode she pretends to use a computer and then Moss plugs it in for her.
* On ''Series/JustShootMe'', Maya is at Nina's birthday party when she sees Nina have a conversation on a pay phone that is out of order. Turns out Nina was upset about her boyfriend breaking up with her and was faking a phone call with him to save face.
* On ''Series/MadMen'', the firm is thrown to hear a longtime client is dropping them. They get Roger to call the guy to find out the truth. As it happens, Roger has known for weeks the guy was dropping them and has kept it quiet. With everyone watching, he phones the client, secretly pushing on the receiver. He then expertly fakes an entire "outraged" argument with the guy (even making the others think "he might be drunk") and then making it sound like he hung up. The others have no clue Roger could have warned them about this a while ago.
* In an episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Dewey pretends to be talking on the phone to their mother in order to get Reese and Malcolm to do what he wants, which they think are orders from their mother. Fails when the phone rings as he is talking.
* In episode 48 of ''Series/MimpiMetropolitan'', Juna is jealous seeing Bambang and Melani jogging together so he pretends he is being called by a fangirl so he can brag to them. Too bad Bambang and Melani don't care at all. Then Juna kicks a bottle that accidentally hits a woman, so Juna immediately fakes another call to avoid being accused.
* A couple of times in ''Series/QuantumLeap'', Sam picks up a phone without calling anybody, so that he can have a conversation with the InvisibleToNormals Al in front of other people.
* ''Series/RomperRoom'': Several local versions have had the teacher receive "a phone call" from a safety officer (usually, "the police chief" or "the fire chief") as part of a safety lesson. Often, these lessons tended to be graphic, even for 4- and 5-year-old kids ... such as [[RunsWithScissors what happens when children run with scissors]] or kids looking right at the sun. Usually, a large phone prop was sitting on the desk, and was first seen after a commercial break ... letting viewers know that they can expect the phone to ring (obvious sound effects) at any moment.
* On ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', the impoverished Woodrow tries to impress a woman by taking a business call, but he promptly confesses it was fake. She doesn't have the heart to tell him how obviously his "phone" was a block of wood.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' Eliot overhears Dr Kelso talking about his enforced retirement on his cellphone. She later learns that the bathroom doesn't have cellphone reception - this was his way of asking her for help.
* In ''Series/ThreesCompany'', The phone rings while Jack is pretending to talk to his girlfriend, Irene.
* Used in ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'' by Esther as an excuse for following Maloney. He instantly knows she's lying [[spoiler: since Esther claims to be talking to Vera on the phone, but Maloney had just killed her]] and Esther quickly figures out he's up to no good.
* ''Series/{{Utopia 2014}}'': Tony does this in "Smart Cities"; pretending to take an important call in order to ditch Brian the security guard who is insisting on reading him a lot of unhelpful Tweets.
* The ''Series/VeronicaMars'' episode "The Green-Eyed Monster" has Veronica take a case while her father's not there. When he returns, he says that he's too busy to take the case and tells Veronica to call the client and tell her this. Veronica only pretends to call the client and takes the case in secret.

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* In ''Film/{{Andhadhun}}'', Simi pretends to call Mr. Sinha when Akash shows up at their apartment to hide that he's already dead. Akash spots the dead body anyway, since he's only [[ObfuscatingDisability faking his blindness]].
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* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': Vital to the solution of a seemingly impossible murder in "The Blood Red Sea". [[spoiler:The wife of the VictimOfTheWeek answered a call from her husband's phone. However, the call was made by her accomplice on her husband's phone, and she was talking to empty air.]]

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[[folder: Talking to someone else]]

[[AC:{{Anime and Manga}}]]
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': When Mustang receives a phone call from Barry the Chopper, he quickly plays it off as getting a call from a female friend, in order to disguise the nature of the conversation from anyone who may be listening in. Barry is initially confused before getting the hint and adapting a falsetto voice to play along.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''Film/TheBody2012'', when Álex has to answer the phone in front of inspector Jaime, he pretends to be speaking to his sister while it's actually his mistress Carla on the other end.
* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'': When Rick pulls a gun on Captain Renault to get him to call the airport to get a plane ready (for Victor and Ilsa, though no one except Rick knows that yet), Captain Renault instead calls Major Strasser with the message. Major Strasser doesn't know what's up, but he knows enough to figure something's wrong, so when Renault hangs up on him, Strasser immediately orders an officer to get his car ready.
* In ''Film/TheGuilty'', Iben calls emergency services pretending to speak to her daughter Mathilde to avoid tipping off her abductor.
* A favourite trick of Ochucki in ''[[Film/TeddyBear Miś]]'', since his schemes frequently involve {{Invented Individual}}s (or real celebrities) who "phone" him at prearranged moments. The actual phoning is done by a harrassed employee.
* ''Film/MoneyMovers'': After the video feed is cut, Eric calls up the crime boss Henderson to tell him, but pretends to be calling the surveillance company to get them to repair it.
* In ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', when Dr. Obruchev is about to be kidnapped by Spectre along with his deadly bio-technological virus, he's contacted by Safin, and tries to make his call seem less suspicious to his collleagues by ending it with this [[BadLiar very convincing line]]:
-->'''Obruchev:''' ...Yes, I like animals! Bye bye!
* ''Film/{{Ransom}}''. Tom Mullen has been kidnapped by the BigBad, who agrees to spare his life if he's paid the ransom money and given a flight out of the country on Mullen's private plane. While pretending to call his pilot, Mullen actually places the call to the FBI agent running the case. The BigBad is suspicious and turns on the speakerphone, but fortunately Mullen hangs up at that point.
* In ''Film/{{Shaft}}'', when Shaft is impersonating a waiter at a bar that several mafia goons are drinking at, he calls his FriendOnTheForce Lt. Androzzi to let him know how many are there and where to send the cops, pretending to be talking to one of his girlfriends.
* This is deconstructed early on in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead''. Shaun, at work, pretends a call is coming from his boss in order to get one of the other employees to work better. This leads to him disregarding the actual content of the call, which was from his girlfriend, which is one of the factors that leads to her dumping him.
* ''Film/ShockTreatment'': Judge Oliver Wright and Betty Hapschatt at adjacent pay phones to cover up the fact that they're actually talking to each other while listening in on a conversation between some nearby bad guys.
* One scene of ''[[Film/TheCannonballRun Speed Zone]]'' has Jack pretend that he cleared his team's entry into the race by pretending to phone his boss. The little old lady he actually calls hangs up in confusion.
* The hero of ''Film/SweetSmellOfSuccess'' is a [[SmugSnake slimy]] press agent who shows off to one of his clients by making a fake call to his secretary pretending to be speaking to J.J. Hunsecker, a powerful columnist.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In a number of Creator/AgathaChristie novels, the murderer uses this trick to help set up an alibi by making it appear that the victim's death occurred while the murderer was far away in the presence of witnesses. Examples of this include [[spoiler:''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'']], [[spoiler:''Literature/HickoryDickoryDock'']], and [[spoiler:''Literature/LordEdgwareDies'']].
** In her short story collection ''Literature/PartnersInCrime'', Tommy has a hidden button on his desk at the International Detective Agency. If he wants to impress a client or end an interview early, he presses it, and Alfred the office boy phones him. He then answers the phone and pretends to be speaking to an important government minister or something.
* In Lawrence Block's ''The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian'' Bernie pretends to be a flower deliveryman to get into a high-security apartment building. When the tenant he hands them to protests that they can't be for her, he asks to use her phone so he can straighten things out. He then calls his friend Carolyn and pretends he's talking to his "boss."
* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': In "The Theft of the Overdue Library Book", Nick breaks into the library and accesses the computer system to discover the location of the eponymous book. He is confronted by a security guard and tries to bluff his way out by claiming to be a technician testing the system. He takes advantage of a prearranged phone call from Gloria to claim it is from Miss Fritz, the secretary of the library supervisor. He answers the phone, uses his opening words to clue Gloria in to what is happening, and then hands the phone to the guard and Gloria is able to finish selling the bluff.
* In a ''[[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley Twins]] book, 12-year old Jessica is secretly dating a 16-year old boy by lying about her age and pretending to be 14. Her upcoming alibi is that she's spending the weekend at a friend's house and she has the friend call her mother, posing as the friend's mother in order to make the arrangements.


[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''
** In "Lone Gunmen", a member of TheMafiya calls Oliver Queen with information. Oliver answers in Russian, then asks his friend Tommy Merlyn for some privacy claiming it's a Russian model he's dating. Tommy muses that he now knows why Oliver is taking the news that [[TheBroCode Tommy had slept his ex-girlfriend Laurel]] so calmly.
** In "Birds of Prey", Detective Lance calls the Arrow on the BatPhone, only to be surprised [[ShortDistancePhoneCall when Oliver Queen's mobile phone goes off in response]]. Fortunately Oliver had programmed his mobile to make it look like his mother is calling, and quickly leaves the room to roast [[MissionControl Felicity Smoak]] for transferring the call.
* ''Series/TheAvengers'': In the episode "Murdersville", Emma is trapped in town by the townspeople and forced to make a call. She calls Steed, pretending he's a loved one, and he figures out something's wrong so he knows to come rescue her.
* ''Series/BreakingBad'' makes particular use of this whenever Walt talks to Jessie in the first two seasons.
* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': In "[[Recap/ColumboS03E08 A Friend in Deed]]", the murderer publicly phones his home from his club and pretends to be talking to his wife. He is actually talking to his accomplice who is cleaning up the crime scene.
* On ''Series/{{Continuum}}'', Keira constantly pretends to be calling her (nonexistent) colleagues in Section 6 when she's actually talking to [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Alec]]. In a twist, she doesn't even talk to him on her phone -- they talk using an implant in her head, and she just holds the phone up to her ear so it doesn't look like she's talking to herself.
* ''Series/TheCoroner'': In "The Fisherman's Tale", Jane pretends that a call from her assistant Kent is actually from her mother, and uses it as an excuse to duck out of a very uncomfortable date.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'', Grissom is taken off a case and Nick covertly calls him to discuss the investigation; when caught, he pretends he's talking to his girlfriend, leaving Grissom somewhat puzzled on the other end.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In one episode, Det. Flack's girlfriend, fellow Det. Angell, calls him talking all sexy while he's dealing with a confidential informant. At first he pretends to be talking to his grandmother so she'll get the hint that he can't return the favor.
* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'': In "Blood Will Out", Mark calls Steve to tell him where he and the missing patient are. Being in a room with a rogue NSA agent, Steve pretends to be having a conversation with his wife about a dinner. In a twist, the NSA had been tapping Steve's phone and got a recording of the full conversation. Steve, however, expected the them to be tapping his phone and arranged to have a squad of police waiting for them when they followed him.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand The Lie of the Land]]", the Doctor makes a phone call and pretends to be informing the Monks that Bill has arrived. He has actually phoned the kitchen. He sends one of the rebels down to apologise to them because they are going to be very confused.
* In the second ''Series/FawltyTowers'' episode, "The Builders", Basil apparently receives a telephone call from the professional builders. Sybil is not fooled; she goes into another room to discover Polly providing the other end of the call.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "The Assassin", Dean Sutherland gets a phone call and pretends to be talking to university staff member about routine business until Bishop John Atwood has left the room. A cut to the other end of the phone call reveals the other party is Anton Christopher, the assassin. Sutherland then supplies Christopher with details regarding Atwood's travel arrangements.
* ''Series/{{Hustle}}''. In "Father of the Jewels", Sean is with the mark when he calls Mickey and starts acting like he is talking to nursing home. Mickey is initially confused but quickly figures out that Sean is letting him know that they urgently need to set up a nursing home for the next stage of the con.
* On ''Series/TheInsideMan'', whenever Mark Shepherd takes a call from the Handler in the Kromocom office where others are listening, he answers with "Hi, Mum" and is very vague in what he says.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'':
** Hardison does this in "The Iceman Job," telling a mark he has to call his girlfriend, then calling Sophie and managing to signal to her that he's in trouble.
** In "The Boys Night Out Job", Nate and Hurley hide from {{Mooks}} in an addiction support group meeting. (A CallBack to Hurley's original appearance in "The 12-Step Job.") After trying unsuccessfully to get a cellphone from various attendees so he can contact the team, Nate volunteers to talk next, laments about how he hurt his ex-wife, Maggie, and says "If I had a cellphone right now I would call her..." Naturally everyone in the crowd offers him their phones. Of course, HilarityEnsues as he attempts to maintain his cover.
-->'''Hardison''': "Why did Nate call me 'sweetheart?'"\\
''(Cuts back to Nate)\\
'''Nate''': "I'm sorry about the ''bag of drugs''..."\\
'''Crowd''': "Ooh...
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "The Oblong Murders", Jones gets trapped in a bedroom while conducting an undercover investigation. He calls Barnaby to rescue him but - because he cannot let the person he is with know that he is a cop - he pretends to be calling a friend. Calling Barnaby 'matey' initially confuses the Inspector, but he soon figures out what is going on.
* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'': In "Death on the Vine", Phryne makes a call to Inspector Jack Robinson and pretends to be talking to her mechanic so the people eavesdropping on her call won't know who she is really talking to.
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "A Quaking in Aspen", a woman who is having an affair pretends to be talking to her hairdresser when she is actually talking to her lover because her husband is in the room.
* In a ''Series/Rescue911'' segment, after a rapist breaks into a woman's home, she manages to convince him to let her call her job and tell them she won't be in today. She manages to call a friend and alert him to the fact that she's in trouble and also calls 911 and alert them, a while her assailant thinks she's talking to a co-worker.
* In a similar segment on ''I Survived'', after a woman's violent ex broke into her home, she asked to be allowed to call a friend and cancel their plans to go shopping. Amazingly, he allowed her to call. When her friend answered, she told her not to bother coming over. Initially confused because they did [[OutOfCharacterAlert NOT]] have plans to get together, the other woman quickly deduces there was something wrong and quietly asked if her ex-husband was there. Upon being told "Yes", she quickly called 911 and ultimately saved her friends life.
* In ''Series/ThreesCompany'', Jack lies to his grandfather about being a doctor and tries to guilt Terry into letting him use a doctor's office at the hospital to maintain the sham. He succeeds by pretending to call his grandfather and tell him the truth, although Janet grabs the phone and discovers he called Larry.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* In the [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/01/23 January 23, 1989]] ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, Calvin momentarily pretends to be calling Susie about homework as his mom passes through when he's actually trying to purchase power tools.

[[AC:WebAnimation]]
* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'':
** Trisha does this in Episode 59 by pretending that she's actually talking with her mother as soon as Brittnay asks her if she's speaking to Mackenzie on the phone.
** The Trishas do this in Episode 62 by pretending that they have managed to put a late Shay on their lines. Mackenzie doesn't fall for it.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', Jeremie is calling his teammates back from vacation due to a XANA attack and happens to phone Odd just as the latter has gotten caught trying to smuggle Kiwi onto the plane in his carry-on. Odd promptly pretends Jeremie is his grandmother, to Jeremie's clear confusion.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': Bugs does this in "Semper Lie", calling up Speedy and pretending to be speaking to his (non-existent) sister Viola. Speedy works out what is going on and plays along.

[[AC:Real Life]]
* [[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/257agn/911_operators_what_is_that_1_call_that_you_could/chej079 An abused woman used this to call 911 on her boyfriend by pretending she was ordering a pizza.]] Luckily for her, the operator picked up on her ploy quick, and played along, allowing the police to arrive and arrest the boyfriend.
* A common procedure in retail when dealing with problematic customers, particularly those who need to be kicked out, is to use the staff phone to place a call to the local security team and say an innocuous-sounding code phrase such as "We need a cleanup in aisle 7" or "We got a package ready for pickup."

[[/folder]]


[[folder: Talking after hanging up]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheLongHalloween''. Two Face goes to a meeting with mob boss Carmine Falcone, but he's not there. Carmine then rings Two Face on the phone while his goons produce guns to kill Two Face. After Two Face gives TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Carmine, he then hands his phone to the goons saying that Carmine wants to talk to them, providing a momentary distraction so he can get the jump on them.
* Early on in ''Film/ItHappenedOneNight'', the hero makes a drunk call to his editor who decides to fire him while on the phone and then hangs up in disgust. The hero, surrounded by other drunkards, pretends the conversation is going on and that his editor is begging him to stay on the job which then earns him the applause of his friends.

[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* Rick Martinez from ''Series/Chaos2011'' does this at one point, too.
* Ari Gold from ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' frequently does this when trying to get parts for Vince.
* ''Series/FawltyTowers'': In "Communication Problems", the phone rings just as Basil has a horrified realisation that Sybil might find out from Polly about the money he won on a horse. Basil answers the phone, stealthily hangs up, and continues to talk, saying that he will fetch Polly, as if the call is for her. Afterwards, Sybil checks the phone, hears that nobody is there, and warns Basil about what she will do if she finds out the money on the horse is his.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "Image in a Cracked Mirror", Jim is interrogating the young son of a fugitive and not getting far. He has a local cop phone him and then hang up as soon as he picks up. He then talks into the dead line and acts like they have picked up a lead in Texas. By gauging the son's reaction, he is able to work out how close to the truth he is getting.
* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Lily does this after Barney hangs up on her in Season 3 Ep 20.
* Mike from ''Series/GrowingPains'' once had a phone conversation with a friend where he mentions that he wants to quit school and become an actor. Carol overhears this and Mike presses the hang-up switch with his thumb and tells the friend he was kidding. Carol isn't convinced, though.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'': C.J. Cregg spots a man she has an awkward history with approaching her while she's on the phone to Toby. She asks Toby to keep talking so she can avoid an unpleasant conversation but he hangs up on her instead. CJ pretends to talk to the dead line for another minute but the man she's trying to avoid just waits until she finally "hangs up".
[[/folder]]


[[folder: Talking to an automated system]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* In ''Cobra'' by Creator/AndrewVachss, unlicensed private eye Burke has recorded messages from his non-existent secretary, to make clients thinks his business is larger than it is.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* "[[Recap/ColumboS00E02 Ransom for a Dead Man]]", the second pilot episode of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', has Leslie do this. Leslie cobbles together a fake voice recording of her husband from clips she's spliced together. Having already killed him, she uses a 1970s automated phone gizmo to place a call to herself. This leads the FBI, which is listening in, to conclude that her husband is still alive.
* In an episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', Sam suspects that the killer he's tracking has done this when he realizes that he couldn't get a word in edgewise when talking to him.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* In another ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, Calvin lies to his babysitter, Rosalyn, about feeling sick. Rosalyn sees through this and calls the automatic time service, pretending that she's speaking with Calvin's doctor. She then tells Calvin that Doc wants Calvin to take a teaspoon of castor oil and lie down all evening.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': Jon once talks about a date with the automated time service.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* In one ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' strip, Susan teased Nanase by [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=374 pretending she was ordering a pizza loaded with anchovies.]] Nanase angrily grabbed the phone to object, only to discover that Susan had been "talking" to a time service.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* On ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', [[TheDitz Homestar]] does this in one edition of ''Marzipan's Answering Machine''. He calls Marzipan's machine while feigning an important-sounding conversation in order to impress a "hot blonde" who is, in fact, Marzipan herself.
-->'''Homestar:''' Oh hello, yes, middle of our conversation? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I just met with him. Oh yeah, he's ''real'' famous. Rich. Rich with money. How many? Five? Five's good.
[[/folder]]


[[folder: Others]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* Played for drama in ''Film/{{Nashville}}'', where Lily Tomlin's character receives a booty call from some admirer while having dinner with her husband and kids. She first presents to be talking to someone else and after the caller has hung up she speaks a few more lines into the speaker to make the conversation sound less suspicious to her family.

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* A ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story, "Bug Brained" (Gold Key, issue #7) had Dick Dastardly and Muttley planting a phone on a tower that explodes when "Hello" is said into it. Dastardly presses a button to make it ring, but when Yankee Doodle Pigeon doesn't bite, Dastardly suspect Muttley of being a mole for the other side. He forces Muttley to answer but he defers it saying the call is for Dastardly. Naturally he says "Hello," and--well, FailureIsTheOnlyOption continues to work on him.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': Famously, in "The Not-So-Ugly Duckling," wherein Jan -- to ease the rejection by her crush, Clark Tyson -- has the phone operator make several phone calls to her house, then -- making sure her parents and siblings are in earshot each time -- effecting a fake phone conversation with her imaginary boyfriend, George Glass.
* ''Series/InTheHeatOfTheNight''. Having just realized that his visiting friend is responsible for the slew of murders that have recently taken place, Virgil calls his wife Althea and warns her to talk with him normally so as to find a way to get her out of the house safely. Unfortunately, the guy realizes that Virgil knows anyway.
* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': In "Dark Road", Vera phones Bethany to warn her about a suspect she is with. Standing close to to the suspect, Bethany starts giving innocuous sounding replies about the weather and other trivialities.

[[AC:Real Life]]
* In a case featured on an episode of ''Series/ForensicFiles''("Dinner And A Movie"), a pregnant woman is found dead in her bedroom. Her husband Ed Sherman's alibi is that he was on a fishing trip, and had called home from his friend's house and gotten no answer. However, it's revealed that the friend's young daughter had picked up an extension and realized that Sherman was talking to a ringing phone. He had killed his wife before leaving, and turned up the air conditioner to slow decomposition of her body.
* Many true crime shows feature variations on this, where murderers are found to have texted their victims repeatedly after killing them in an attempt to throw the cops off and give the impression that either the the victim was still alive or that they believed them to be. For example, a man murdered his wife, then left the house to get takeout so as to create an alibi. He sent her several text messages asking her what she wanted, telling her what time he'd be home, etc., only for his efforts to fail when her injuries weren't consistent with a fall (he'd strangled her) and he himself bore several injuries that she'd inflicted trying to defend herself.
[[/folder]]

* Rick Martinez from ''{{Series/CHAOS}}'' does this at one point, too.

* Played for drama in ''Film/{{Nashville}}'', where Lily Tomlin's character receives a booty call from some admirer while having dinner with her husband and kids. She first presents to be talking to someone else and after the caller has hung up she speaks a few more lines into the speaker to make the conversation sound less suspicious to her family.