History Main / ScarecrowSolution

-->'''Coast Guard:''' "You almost got away! What made you come back?"\\
'''Smuggler 1:''' "T-the demon from the ocean's depths..."\\
'''Smuggler 2:''' "Awp! IT's only a figurehead off an ancient ship! We panicked like dummies!"\\
'''Coast Guard:''' "Superman probably tossed it up from the ocean's floor, so you'd turn back and be captured!"

* One ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' story ("Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple") has Max about to be used as a sacrifice for a volcano cult. Sam tries this trope, covering himself in mud to ape the volcano god the cult worships. Not only are the cultists not fooled, they beat the stuffing out of Sam.

* One of the few books ComicBook/RedSonja ever experienced in-universe was ''The Tales of Gravaha the Clever'', where the heroine dresses a field of cornstalks as an army to intimidate a foe with terrible eyesight.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* Implied in ''Film/BugsyMalone'', as late into the film, after Fat Sam has lost most of his henchmen, we see him set up cardboard cutouts in his office, casting silhouettes on the outside wall.
* In ''Film/LadyNinjaKaede'', Yumeama uses a ninja technique to pose as Koharu's ghost and scare a confession out of Kichiemon.

* Kehaar in ''Literature/WatershipDown'', albeit only halfway intentionally — great coincidental timing on his, Bigwig's, and the weather's part make it appear to the Efrafans that the bird was summoned out of lightning by Bigwig.
* Another early example features in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket'', when the protagonist dresses up as a dead sailor's ghost to scare mutineers into abandoning ship.

* The Little Golden Book ''The Lively Little Rabbit'' has the rabbits and an owl build a long dragon costume out of tree bark and leaves, with all of the rabbits underneath it and the owl's wings protruding. It's a surprisingly awesome-looking dragon. It succeeds in scaring away the mean old fox.

* In one of the ''Literature/{{Babar}}'' books, Babar defeats the rhinoceros army by disguising the elephants as monsters, painting giant eyes on their backsides and putting bushy wigs on their backs.
* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' sees Zhuge Liang combine this with ThanatosGambit. After his death, he has the Shu army set up a wooden statue of him, and then luring Wei's army into the main camp. Upon arrival at Shu's base, Sima Yi then saw the statue, and panicked, thinking Zhuge Liang to still be alive, causing him to retreat.
-->'''Chinese proverb:''' A dead Zhuge scares away a living Sima.
* A story in ''More Adventures of the Great Brain'' has Tom determined to find out the truth of a ghost haunting a mine where two children had died. He gets his brother and sheriff uncle to find out it's a local farmer who's putting on the act to scare kids away to avoid some further tragedies. Tom wants to tell the truth but his uncle agrees with the farmer and makes Tom and his brother claim they saw the ghost to ensure kids don't come to the mines.

* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Painted Lady". After the Gaang accidentally makes things worse, they decide to use this solution to correct their mistake and scare a corrupt Fire Nation army out of the small village they were persecuting: Toph, Sokka, and Appa create fog and an overall ominous and creepy atmosphere, while Katara dresses up as the Painted Lady herself, with help from Aang regarding her powers.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': In a "Glo Friends" segment, they put to action a plan, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal orchestrated by the long-suffering henchcrow Rook]], to get back at their enemies the Moligans, by making them think that there was a giant Glo monster who would get them, if they kept threatening them forcing them to serve them for a while.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}'': In "Phantom Fan", [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Stavros Garkos]] sends Wyn and Genghis to a stadium he wants to buy so they'll prevent a fund-raising game from taking place. The heroes scare them away by pretending to be the titular Phantom.

* ''Anime/{{Pompoko}}'': To chase the humans away, the tanuki launch "Operation Specter", during which they shapeshift into ghosts, monsters, and youkai and march on the streets to make the humans believe the place is haunted.

** Amy Cavenaugh/Amy The Siren from ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' is another good one -- especially since she got Velma [[JustForPun hooked]].

* In 1926 in North Stonington, Connecticut, there were sightings of an "ape-man" near a rural farm that two young orphaned girls had recently inherited from their deceased father. Initially it was believed that someone was trying to [[ScoobyDooHoax scare the girls into selling the farm]], and the girl's neighbors rallied in support of them, camping out on the property with rifles to try and catch the prankster. But a police investigation eventually led to the revelation that the girls themselves were behind the sightings, having created a homemade apesuit to scare away unwanted solicitors looking to buy the property.

A suptrope of ShamSupernatural. Compare and contrast MonsterFacade, which is a similarly terrifying act put on by a GentleGiant or a ReluctantMonster, who would have the strength to actually harm their opponent but prefers not to. See also WeaponForIntimidation. Compare ElCidPloy, where the nonexistent threat is the heroes' dead or absent leader.

* ''Anime/{{Pompoko}}'': To chase the humans away, the tanuki launch "Operation Specter", during which they shapeshift into ghosts, monsters and youkai and march on the streets to make the humans believe the place is haunted.
* ''Manga/DrStone'': The kingdom of science must rescue a friend from a jail guarded by the kingdom of might, but can't injure any of the guards or else ruin a possible alliance. Senku builds a functioning tank but replaces the gun with an air cannon that makes a huge sound, causing the guards to run in terror instead of try to fight.

** ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' from Creator/DonRosa -- the first chapter when Scrooge scares the Whiskerville away by making a fake ghost. They were so scared that, years later, ''all'' the Whiskervilles have white hair (their first appearance showed them black and brown haired, so it wasn't a family trait before that).

--> '''Westley:''' Give us the gate key.
--> '''Yellin:''' I have no gate key.
--> '''Inigo:''' Fezzik? Tear his arms off.
--> '''Yellin:''' Oh, you mean ''this'' gate key.

* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' has a book where a Jedi ghost repeatedly terrifies Tash to try and spook her away from a threat, because until near the book's end she is only vaguely aware of him and can't understand what he says. He can't actually do anything to her, but it seems like it for a while.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied The Girl Who Died]]", part one of the plan to defeat the Mire involves altering what they see through their video interface, so that a ship's figurehead becomes a terrifying sea serpent and so on. Part two involves taking a video of the {{proud warrior race}} cowering in fear from obvious puppets, and threatening to effectively upload it to [[RecycledInSpace Space]] [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube YouTube]] to ruin their reputation.

* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Painted Lady". After the Gaang accidentally makes things worse, they decide to use this solution to correct their mistake and scare a corrupt Fire Nation army out of the small village they were persecuting: Toph, Sokka and Appa create fog and an overall ominous and creepy atmosphere, while Katara dresses up as the Painted Lady herself, with help from Aang regarding her powers.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}'': In "Phantom Fan", [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Stavros Garkos]] sends Wyn and Genghis to a stadium he wants to buy so they'll prevent a fund-raising game to take place. The heroes scare them away by pretending to be the titular Phantom.

* The British also refitted ''Centurion'', an old disarmed battleship used as a radio-controlled gunnery target, to looks like modern battleship ''Howe'', and sent it to Egypt. The trick worked; the Italian Navy was deceived into thinking that the Royal Navy had reinforced the Mediterranean Fleet with a new, powerful unit, and did not act-- while actually the Mediterranean Fleet was critically weakened at that moment, with both its actual battleships disabled by the successful efforts of Italian frogmen.
* Later, ''Centurion'' was scuttled as a part of artificial harbor during the Normandy landing (D-Day) in 1944. When the empty hulk of the ship was towed into position and prepared to be scuttled, German coastal guns noticed her and put it under fire. ''Centurion'' promptly "sunk", with only one lifeboat leaving the ship (carrying away all its small skeleton crew). The Germans, who did not knew that, boasted that they sunk the British battleship with a great loss of life.

** According to one US Major, Edward Lansdale, he and his men took advantage of a local myth of the vampiric [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswang Awsang]] by borrowing a tactic the Filipinos did and pucturing twice captured enemies' and bleeding them out to make it seem like an aswang got him.
* The Russian army remained very fond of such decoys in modern days, producing a large number of inflatable dummies of military equipment, like tanks, planes, army tents, missile systems, etc. Those dummies are designed to imitate not only optical appearance, but also radar signature (due to use of miniature corner reflectors and metallic surfaces) and infrared signature (by installing portable heaters).

* During Lucky Luke's quest to save nine potential victims in ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'' from the titular desperadoes he has one of them, Tom O' Connor who is conveniently a miner, stage a convincingly spooky show as his ghost to make his would-be-killers scared out of their limited wits and flee.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', the original, four of the dinosaur children cover themselves in tar and pile on top of each other to save Cera from a group of aggressive ''Pachycephalosaurus''.

* In 1926 in North Stonington, Connecticut, there were sightings of an "ape-man" near a rural farm that two young orphaned girls had recently inherited from their deceased father. Initially it was believed that someone was trying to scare the girls into selling the farm, and the girl's neighbors rallied in support of them, camping out on the property with rifles to try and catch the prankster. But a police investigation eventually led to the revelation that the girls themselves were behind the sightings, having created a homemade apesuit to scare away unwanted solicitors looking to buy the property.

%% * ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', the Giant Mouse of Minsk.

* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', the fake bird. The solution [[spoiler: part is subverted because the villains see the trick ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to P.T. Flea setting it on fire]]), but it is for the better, because the ants finally find the courage to rebel against the grasshoppers and send them packing for good as a more permanent solution. Also, the scarecrow was still vital to this turn of events, because it helped them consider the possibility that the grasshoppers are not unbeatable in the first place. And then it's subverted again when Hopper comes face-to-face with what looks like another fake bird, only to discover that it's ''quite'' real, and has hungry chicks to feed]].

* During his quest to save nine potential victims in ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'' has one of them, Tom O' Connor who is conveniently a miner stage a convincingly spooky show as his ghost to make his would-be-killers scared out of their limited wits and flee.

* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', the fake bird. The solution [[spoiler: part is subverted because the villains see the trick ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to P.T. Flea setting it on fire]]), but it is for the better, because the ants finally find the courage to rebel against the grasshoppers and send them packing for good as a more permanent solution. Also, the scarecrow was still vital to this turn of events, because it helped them consider the possibility in the first place, that the grasshoppers are not unbeatable. And then it's subverted again when Hopper comes face-to-face with what looks like another fake bird, only to discover that it's ''quite'' real, and has hungry chicks to feed]].

* ''Series/{{Zorro|1957}}'': Trying to catch an unjustly accused man, who's taken sanctuary in the church of a monastery, Commander Monastario invades the place with his soldiers under the fake threat of an Indian attack. The monastery is so well-guarded that Zorro almost gets caught trying to reach the prisoner. So, Don Diego spreads the rumor of the ghost of a mad monk roaming the grounds by talking to the impressionable Sergeant García. Later that night, Zorro disguises as the ghost and scares all the soldiers into fleeing, leaving Monastario alone.

* ''Manga/DoctorStone'': The kingdom of science must rescue a friend from a jail guarded by the kingdom of might, but can't injure any of the guards or else ruin a possible alliance. Senku builds a functioning tank but replaces the gun with an air cannon that makes a huge sound, causing the guards to run in terror instead of try to fight.

* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' fakes an alien visitation in "The Moonman" arc.

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', the Giant Mouse of Minsk.

* The 1971 film, ''The Johnstown Monster'' sees some kids in a rural town fake a local myth of the titular monster to attract tourists to their DyingTown.

%%* The 1971 film, ''The Johnstown Monster''.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': In a "Glo Friends" segment, a plan of the heroes, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal orchestrated by the long-suffering henchcrow Rook]], to get back at their enemies the Moligans, by making them think that there was a giant Glo monster who would get them, if they kept threatening them and they had to serve them a whike.

* During his quest to save nine potential victims in [[WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton]] has one of them, Tom O' Connor who is conveniently a miner stage a convincingly spooky show as his ghost to make his would-be-killers scared out of their limited wits and flee.

** Ironically, in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', the great and powerful Oz uses a big, scary flaming head to persuade Dorothy and her friends to get the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick... until Toto pulls the curtain aside, and the Wizard is shown to be much shorter than his façade made him out to be, and when confronted, he confesses that he was just as afraid of the Wicked Witch.

Compare and contrast MonsterFacade, which is a similarly terrifying act put on by a GentleGiant or a ReluctantMonster, who would have the strength to actually harm their opponent but prefers not to. See also WeaponForIntimidation. Compare ElCidPloy, where the nonexistent threat is the heroes' dead or absent leader.

* ''Operation Fortitude'', used by the Allies to conceal their true intentions of where they were invading France in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, included the use of dummy inflatable "tanks" that deceived German intelligence into thinking the Allies had a couple of extra armored divisions in reserve.

* During World War I, a number of British old cargo ships were fitted with wooden turrets and superstructures, and painted to resemble battleships. The goal was to deceive Germany about the true numbers and disposition of Royal Navy forces. The charade was literally blown up, when one such ship was torpedoed by German U-boat and exploded: U-boat captain, who thought that he sunk the British battleship, was quite dismayed, when he found out "gun turrets" floating in water around.
* During World War II, British again repeated this trick, now by refitting some old tankers to look like aircraft carriers.
* British also refitted old disarmed battleship "Centurion" (used as radio-controlled gunnery target) to looks like modern battleship "Howe", and send it to Egypt. The trick worked; Italian Navy was deceived into thinking that Royal Navy reinforced the Mediterranean Fleet with new, powerful unit, and did not act - while actually Mediterranean Fleet at this moment was critically weakened, with both its actual battleships disabled by successful efforts of Italian frogmen.
* Later, "Centurion" was scuttled as a part of artificial harbor during Normandy landing (D-Day) in 1944. When the empty hulk of the ship was towed into position and prepared to be scuttled, German coastal guns noticed her, and put it under fire. "Centurion" promptly "sunk" with only one lifeboat leaving the ship (carrying away all its small skeleton crew). Germans, who did not knew that, boasted, that they sunk the British battleship with a great loss of life.
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar included the ''Quaker Guns", dummy cannons that were really just painted logs, employed by both sides occasionally and used successfully by the Confederacy a few times.
* During Great Patriotic War, Soviet Army created a special force of artists, painters and carpenters, whose purpose was to quickly create wooden mock-ups of tanks, guns, train stations, airfields with planes, to decoy Germans about real amount and disposition of Red Army forces. Analysis of captured German achieves after war revealed, that Germans never ever suspected, that they have been duped.

* Russian army remained very fond of such decoys to modern days, producing a large number of inflatable dummies of military equipment, like tanks, planes, army tents, missile systems, ect. Those dummies are designed to imitate not only optical appearance, but also radar signature (due to use of miniature corner reflectors and metallic surfaces), and infrared signature (by installing portable heaters).

* When Bo and Luke were mistakenly declared to have drowned on ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' they faked a haunting by coating the General Lee with glow-in-the-dark paint and having Cooter rig it to run by remote control, using it to intimidate Boss Hogg to prevent him from blaming them for a theft. Subverted in that Boss Hogg isn't fooled for more than a few moments, and immediately suspects Cooter's involvement.