History Main / ScoobyDooHoax

A subtrope of ShamSupernatural. One of the major exceptions to SkepticismFailure. See also MonsterProtectionRacket, where the monsters are real but they're being set up, and MonsterFacade, where the monster is real, but it fakes the malevolence. The Inversion of a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax is MistakenForAnImposter. For the good counterpart, see its sister trope ScarecrowSolution.

* ''Anime/MobilePolicePatlaborTheEarlyDays'': After yet another PR incident caused by Ohta being trigger-happy, Commander Gotoh sends [=SV2=] to a training camp where they hear a GhostStory about a civilian being [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace killed in a negligent discharge of a Patlabor's cannon]]; the shooter then walked the Labor into the lake and drowned himself. There are then several haunting incidents around the camp, including sightings of both the ghost of the dead civilian and an apparently pilotless Labor covered in mud and weeds. Kanuka exposes the hoax: the "dead" civilian is actually Gotoh's very-much-alive niece and the whole thing was orchestrated by Gotoh in an attempt to ScareEmStraight.

* ''Anime/MobilePolicePatlaborTheEarlyDays'': After yet another PR incident caused by Ohta being trigger-happy, Commander Gotoh sends [=SV2=] to a training camp where they hear a GhostStory about a civilian being [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace killed in a negligent discharge of a Patlabor's cannon]]; the shooter then walked the Labor into the lake and drowned himself. There are then several haunting incidents around the camp, including sightings of an apparently pilotless Labor covered in mud and weeds. Kanuka exposes the hoax: the "dead" civilian was actually Gotoh's niece and the whole thing was orchestrated by Gotoh in an attempt to ScareEmStraight.

** In the ''Batman: Urban Legends'' story "Hooked", Alfred finds himself caught between an AncientConspiracy of whalers searching for the Temple of Dagon to loot it, and what appear to be actual FishPeople straight out of ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''. In the final confrontation, they turn out to be human Dagon cultists in masks, although they would probably object to the idea this was a Scooby Doo Hoax, rather than a significant aspect of their religion.

[[caption-width-right:325:[[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Mystery Incorporated]] and [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]] dealing with the trope in [[PlayingWithATrope different]] [[RussianReversal ways]]. Art by [[http://samdraws.tumblr.com/post/20006903130 samdraws]].]]

* ''Fanfic/TheNewAdventuresOfInvaderZim'': In Season 2 Episode 5, Dib and his friends investigate an allegedly haunted house, which is actually an animatronic fake made by Dib's UnknownRival Arnold Quis, who plans to make it seem that ''Dib'' set the whole thing up, in order to get him kicked out of the Swollen Eyeball Network for fraud. [[spoiler: Thanks to [[SpannerInTheWorks inadvertent help]] from Zim, Dib and the others discover the fakery, and Quis is the one kicked out of the SEN when his involvement is uncovered.]]

%%* Used by [[spoiler: Dr. Otto Lindsay]] in ''Film/TheBeachGirlsAndTheMonster'' to get away with his killings.

** "The Phantom Outlaw of Wolf Creek" has someone appearing dressed up as Delilah Abercombie (a bank robber presumed dead for decades) believed to be searching for her treasure. [[spoiler: It's actually Delilah herself, using a wig to look young again]].

** ''Brimstone'' starts with a man found burnt to death in a way that makes it look like the devil himself did it. After some investigation, it turns out the man was involved in an occult ritual many years ago. When another participant of the ritual dies, one of the survivors figures that he can buy off the devil by "sacrificing" a precious violin. [[spoiler: The ritual was originally a prank performed by the completely human killer. When he learned that one of the people he pranked had a rare violin, he killed the others in order to scare the last guy into giving the violin up.]]
** ''Cemetery Dance'' begins with a journalist killed by someone found dead ten days previously, with the body having vanished from the morgue. A bit of investigation finds that the journalist was researching a secretive Voodoo cult. When the journalist himself reappears and kills someone, everyone begins thinking that the Voodoo cult is making people into zombies. Eventually, an angry mob storms the cult's temple [[spoiler: giving the real villain the distraction he needed to steal some very valuable documents from the cult's mausoleum. The mastermind, a movie director, used makeup and an actor accomplice to create convincing fake zombies that he framed the cult with. In a twist, the cult actually does have a zombie, but it's just a still-living lobotomized cultist.]]

** In the "Bear Scouts" book ''Ghost Versus Ghost'', there's ''three'' of them. First, Ralph Ripoff makes a bet with the Scouts and plans to win it by cheating, dressing up as a ghost to scare them out of the supposedly haunted woods where they're camping. Second, Professor Actual Factual figures out what Ralph is up to and decides to scare ''him'' with a ghost costume of his own. And third, the villains of the book ([[spoiler: the Bogg Brothers]]) dress as a ghost to try and scare them all away from their illegal logging operation.

* The ''[[Literature/DirkPittAdventures Dirk Pitt]]'' novel ''Night Probe!'' has a couple set up a fake ghost train to attract tourists. It's one of the few examples here without malicious intentions and the couple readily admit to it when Pitt figures it out. On top of that, this discovery leads Pitt to figure out [[spoiler: what actually happened to the train.]]

* The ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' story "The Case of the Lady Ghost" features a criminal who eludes the police by posing as a legendary Idaville ghost named Jennifer [=MacIntosh=], who supposedly wanders the town's beach in her wedding dress, looking for her true love who was lost at sea. Encyclopedia is (naturally) skeptical of the people who claim that the beach is haunted--until he actually ''sees'' someone walking along the beach in a wedding dress, and notices that the mysterious figure never leaves footprints. It turns out that [[spoiler: the perp actually hid a wooden board in the hem of his dress to sweep away his footprints]]; Encyclopedia sees through the illusion after noticing that [[spoiler: [[SpotTheThread the ghost's veil moves in the wind, but its dress doesn't]]]].

** The Shrieking Shack is revealed to be [[spoiler: not haunted, as legend would have it, but was used as a safe place to hide Remus Lupin in werewolf form, when he was a student at Hogwarts. His wolf-like howls were believed to be the shrieks of ghosts, and the Whomping Willow was planted over the entrance to the passage leading to the Shack, to deter anybody from entering.]]

* In Creator/LarryNiven's "Night on Mispec Moor", a mercenary assumes the zombie-like creatures chasing him ''must'' be this trope. [[spoiler: They're TheVirus instead.]]
* In ''Literature/ThePaleHorse'' by Creator/AgathaChristie, [[TheWeirdSisters three self-proclaimed witches]] perform arcane rituals that appear to cause their targets to sicken and die. [[spoiler: They are part of a murder for hire ring, but their victims die from thallium poisoning.]]

* ''VideoGame/DoubleSwitch'': Roughly around the middle of the game, an Egyptian mummy runs around trying to trap and/or kill people. [[spoiler: It's Eddie in disguise, and he dressed up like one so that he could get an Egyptian statue without anyone figuring out it was him]].

** The 24th game, ''The Captive Curse'' zigzags this. The monster sightings are variously suggested to be a ScoobyDooHoax, a reverse ScoobyDooHoax intended to draw in tourists, a kid's prank, or a genuine supernatural event. Eventually, it turns out to be [[spoiler: a hoax OF a reverse ScoobyDooHoax, intended to discredit the castle's owner by making him look like he got Nancy killed with an insane publicity stunt]].
** ''Shadow at the Water's Edge'' concerns a supposedly-haunted Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Sightings are so intense that soon after Nancy arrives, she's the only guest remaining who can tolerate the encounters. She discovers that [[spoiler: Rentaro, a friend of the owning family, has been engineering the sightings using puppetry and mirror tricks in an effort to get the Ryokan closed down so his girlfriend will stop trying to inherit it and move to Kyoto with him instead.]]
** ''Midnight in Salem'' uses the trope as a RedHerring: the deed of the historical Hawthorne house has gone missing since the building was damaged in a fire, with Nancy brought in to investigate. Rumors that the house is haunted are initially dismissed out of hand, until Nancy starts having ghost sightings that ''can't'' be explained by normal trickery. They turn out to be [[spoiler: hallucinations caused by ergot poisoning, which was targetted at the would-be inheritor of the house to make her seem insane and discredit her.]] No one was specifically trying to fake a haunting.

* The HiddenObjectGame, ''Off The Record: Linden Shades'' has you exploring the mysteries of a closed down orphanage about why it shut down, with rumors of a red ghost scaring the residents off. [[spoiler: It turns out to be a farmer and his brother who are trying to dig out gold from an old gold mine that was on the orphanage's property.]]

** PlayedWith in the second case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' where it appears that the killer is a ghost that possessed the defendant -- said defendant IS a legitimate spirit medium and both the player and Phoenix know that the supernatural explanation is totally plausible (and perhaps even likely), even if the court is a little skeptical. [[spoiler: However, the ghost is, in fact, a fake; the events were orchestrated by another spirit medium to ruin the defendant's reputation.]]
** In case 2 of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', it seems like the real killer is using the legend of a demon named Tenma Taro to obfuscate a murder. [[spoiler: Then it turns out the "Tenma Taro" spotted at the crime scene was actually petty crook Phineas Filch in disguise. ''Then'' it turns out the original Tenma Taro legend was invented to cover up a treasure, a massive gold nugget that inspired the locals to [[AppleOfDiscord greedily fight for its possession]]... which, unfortunately for the real killer, [[MeaninglessVillainVictory was long gone by the time he'd committed murder and fraud to get his hands on it]].]]

* The Scooby-Doo parody short in ''WebAnimation/ReverseJurassicPark'' has an unusual twist: at the end the Phreaky Phanto is revealed to be a hoax... meant to keep people from investigating the house and discovering [[spoiler: the real ghost haunting it]]. Apparently they affect property value.

* The ''Podcast/MetamorCity'' special "Rafak Aliri and the Ghostly Bride" has a nobleman who believes his deceased fiance is haunting him so he hires a PI. In the end it is proven she didn't become a ghost [[spoiler: instead, she's a vampire.]]

*** It eventually reveals a strange inversion to the trope: [[spoiler: Scooby, despite seeming normal (and nobody questioning why he can talk), is a supernatural creature of sorts. There is an other-dimensional race known as the Anunnaki who can possess animals and leave those animals and their descendants, including Scooby, with the ability to talk.]]

** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooCampScare'' plays it straight and then subverts it: [[spoiler: While the first two monsters were the same criminal in disguise, the third turns out to have really existed, and it's heavily implied that it was the real deal that attacked Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, and the campers they were looking after earlier.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsWelcomeToCareALot'' episode ''Sleuth of Bears'' pulled off this trope wholesale, complete with unmasking scene. [[spoiler: Scare Bear is Beastly with his minions.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Played with in "The Phantom of Retroland." Jimmy doesn't believe in Nick's history project about the titular TheGrimReaper-esque phantom, thinking it's all a myth, and he recruits Carl and Sheen to accompany him to Retroland after dark to prove Nick false. Sure enough, the phantom shows up [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve when midnight arrives]], and Jimmy and his friends manage to [[TheReveal unmask him to reveal Nick]], who was obviously there to scare the others away. After this, Sheen says they should "beat it before the real phantom shows up," but [[TemptingFate just as Jimmy tells Sheen there is no real phantom]], another Phantom of Retroland shows up rasping "I beg to differ!" But Goddard ends up pulling off the phantom's cloak, revealing Cindy and Libby in a TotemPoleTrench disguise, to get back at Jimmy for ruining Nick's report. But then as they are all leaving, a ''[[RuleOfThree third]]'' phantom shows up, seeming to be the real one with a glowing skull face, and Jimmy [[GenreSavvy confronts said "phantom" saying the joke's over]], and pulls off his cloak to reveal [[SubvertedTrope a glowing bony body]]! This is when all the kids run and scream out of the park, and once they are out of sight [[DoubleSubversion this third phantom unmasks]] to reveal Judy Neutron, teaching Jimmy a lesson for sneaking out after bedtime. But [[spoiler: just as she and Hugh leave, the ''[[RealAllAlong real]]'' [[RealAllAlong phantom shows up]], sending the two parents running and screaming (and ending with [[EatTheCamera zooming into Hugh's screaming mouth]].)]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In "Through the Looking Glass Ruins", "The Guardian" that protects the titular Looking Glass Ruins, which as first looks like as a terryfing monster, is in fact an elderly illusionist witch using his power to protect the ruins from people trying to steal the Galdorstones.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' has a [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3666 strip]] in which a "bank-ghost" hoax is perpetrated by the chair of the Federal Reserve, in an attempt to lower interest rates.

** The last quarter of "The Mystery Tribe of Camp Blackeagle" has someone fake Indian spirits haunting the camp site. [[spoiler: the culprits are local Native American boys who feel that the campers don't respect the land.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan2(NES)'', the 3rd and final phase of the Wily Battle is against an "Alien" in a starry dark room, who is vulnerable only to the Bubble Lead weapon. [[spoiler:After defeating the "Alien", the lights turn on, and Dr. Wily is revealed to be behind a control booth, controlling a drone which was previously said "Alien". In the Archie Comics interpretation of the events of Mega Man 2, when this deception was exposed, Dr. Wily even said, "P-Pay no attention to that man behind the hologram...!"]]

* Played with in ''VideoGame/HiddenCity''. The game is set in a world where monsters, magic and the supernatural are an acceptable part of the norm, but monsters have been banished from the Upper City region by the Defenders. The re-appearance of various monsters in the Upper City causes a huge uproar, especially since the Defenders have been disbanded at that point and most of them have disappeared in the fog. Then it is revealed that the monsters are merely projections made by a couple of filmmakers for publicity.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CornandPeg'' episode "Galloping Ghost" Ferdy is trying to get cookies in the night and trying to scare his brother Ferris away in the night by disgusting himself as the Galloping Ghost. Corn, Peg, and Ferris finally revealed his plan.

* A variation appeared in a ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode, where a crook managed to obtain a Na'ka'leen Feeder (a semi-sentient monster that feeds on memories) and, to scare into submission other crooks and the security, dressed it like Kosh to appear under Vorlon protection. Sadly for his scheme, the Security identified the Feeder even before seeing it and a run-in with a witness made them realize the 'Vorlon' was a hoax.

* Early on in ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'', it's established that the school has an abandoned storehouse, which Avril claims is haunted by the ghost of a former student. It later turns out "Avril" is actually a PhantomThief named Kuiaran the Second, who has been posing as a student as part of a heist. The "ghost" that was making strange thumping and moaning noises? That was the ''real'' Avril, who had been left BoundAndGagged inside the storehouse after Kuiaran stole her identity.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan2(NES)'', the 3rd and final phase of the Wily Battle is against an "Alien" in a starry dark room, who is vulnerable only to the Bubble Lead weapon. After defeating the "Alien", the lights turn on, and Dr. Wily is revealed to be behind a control booth, controlling a drone which was previously said "Alien". In the Archie Comics interpretation of the events of Mega Man 2, when this deception was exposed, Dr. Wily even said, "P-Pay no attention to that man behind the hologram...!"

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManII(NES)'', the 3rd and final phase of the Wily Battle is against an "Alien" in a starry dark room, who is vulnerable only to the Bubble Lead weapon. After defeating the "Alien", the lights turn on, and Dr. Wily is revealed to be behind a control booth, controlling a drone which was previously said "Alien". In the Archie Comics interpretation of the events of Mega Man II, when this deception was exposed, Dr. Wily even said, "P-Pay no attention to that man behind the hologram...!"

* ''Literature/BenSnow'': In "The Phantom Stallion", the murderer attempts to make the murder look like [[ThisBearWasFramed an attack by a ghost horse]].

** PlayedWith in the second case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' where it appears that the killer is a ghost that possessed the defendant -- said defendant IS a legitimate spirit medium and both the player and Phoenix know that the supernatural explanation is totally plausible (and perhaps even likely), even if the court is a little skeptical. [[spoiler: However, the ghost is, in fact, a fake; the events or orchestrated by another spirit medium to ruin the defendant's reputation.]]

* Paranormal investigators and parapsychics are, after long experience, open to the possibility that in some cases they might be manipulated for financial ends. One British ghost-hunter, called to investigate an alleged haunting at a country hotel, spent a month looking and mounting vigil, on and off over the course of a year. When he finally said to the owner that he was almost absolutely certain nothing was there, the hotel owner begged him to make something up and fabricate a ghost, as it would be so good for business to be able to advertise his business as a haunted hotel. The same ghost hunter noted, some time later, the hotel was advertising itself as "having repeatedly been investigated by psychic detectives and ghost-hunters"... ''Magazine/ForteanTimes'' finds the Scooby-Doo Hoax to be a whole interesting Fortean area of its own.

* ''Series/WonderWoman'': The [[{{Villains}} villain]] of "The Starships Are Here" is a rich, powerful RightWingMilitiaFanatic who wants to [[WellIntentionedExtremist ensure American supremacy]] by tricking the US into nuking China. He attempts this by using {{Phony Newscast}}s to create the illusion of an AlienInvasion.

* Usually reversed in ''Series/TheXFiles'', where it's almost always really a supernatural occurrence, but it also had criminals playing dress-up to distract people from their actual crimes. And sometimes they did both.
** For example, Mulder is on the trail of murderers whose killings look like vampire attacks. The "vampire" angle is so obvious and unhidden that Mulder assumes that it's actually an example of this and that there are no vampires involved. Then he finds the killers, who seem pretty much human. Then he finds out that they actually are vampires, but that they play up the movie vampire act when they kill, so that anyone who arrests them will be laughed out of court.
** Also in "Quagmire", [[spoiler:Big Blue, a loch-ness-monster-like monster, turns out to be an alligator. But when Scully and Mulder are gone the audience does see Big Blue.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': 2e's ''Book of the Dead'' includes this in its list of archetypal ghost stories, noting the fairly common [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] to have it be so the place really ''is'' haunted by a ghost that exists separetly to the fake haunting, with the spirit objecting to the people squatting in their domain just as much as the player characters do.