History Main / StripperCopConfusion

* ''TheBill''. A going-away party for an officer being transferred includes the requisite stripper dressed (undressed?) as a WPC. As she leaves the party the stripper sees two real policewomen turning up (in uniform) to see their colleague off, and threatens to complain to her union about the apparent double-booking.

* In one of G.K. Chesterton's "FatherBrown" mystery stories, the criminal gets rid of a policeman by convincing everyone at the house that the man is actually in costume for a pantomime show. He beats up the cop while the audience laughs at the slapstick comedy.

* In the remake of ''TheInLaws'', FBI agents show up in the middle of the (alcohol-fueled) bachelorette party and are temporarily mistaken for strippers.

* In one of G.K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" mystery stories, the criminal gets rid of a policeman by convincing everyone at the house that the man is actually in costume for a pantomime show. He beats up the cop while the audience laughs at the slapstick comedy.

* In ''Days of Thunder'', the racing crew plays this trick on Cole (Tom Cruise) to great hilarity. Later in the movie, Cole assumes the doctor (Nicole Kidman) who is examining him is a repeat of the trick by his crew, but she isn't.

* In an episode of "Series/GroundedForLife": Claudia is throwing a bachelorette party for one of her girlfriends while Sean incites a mob of angry Yankees fans for catching a fly ball still in play. A cop shows up who Sean thinks is here to control the mob outside the house, but he is a stripper.

* In ''Series/SpinCity'', Stuart sends a priest to the girls' bachelorette party whom they mistake for a stripper and rip his shirt open. The women get revenge by sending a real male stripper to the guys, whom they mistake for a cop.

* In ''DownPeriscope'', Commander Dodge initially mistakes a female officer assigned to his submarine for a stripper. The fact that she was the first woman allowed into the submarine service branch doesn't exactly justify it.

* Reversed in a strip by Sergio Aragones in ''[[Magazine/Mad Mad Magazine]]'' A female police officer storms into a room full of bad guys--and is woefully outnumbered. She then backpedals, pretends to be a stripper, gets a tip, waves goodbye, then runs to the police car and radios for more backup.

[[Series/ArrestedDevelopment http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hot_cops_5427.jpg]]
[[caption-width:453:"Oh, no, it's the cops! Oh, and a... construction worker!"]]

!!Examples:

[[AC: {{Comics}}]]
* Reversed in a strip by Sergio Aragones in ''MadMagazine.'' A female police officer storms into a room full of bad guys--and is woefully outnumbered. She then backpedals, pretends to be a stripper, gets a tip, waves goodbye, then runs to the police car and radios for more backup.

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

* In ''DaysOfThunder'', the racing crew plays this trick on Cole (Tom Cruise) to great hilarity. Later in the movie, Cole assumes the doctor (Nicole Kidman) who is examining him is a repeat of the trick by his crew, but she isn't.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* In ''SpinCity'', Stuart sends a priest to the girls' bachelorette party whom they mistake for a stripper and rip his shirt open. The women get revenge by sending a real male stripper to the guys, whom they mistake for a cop.
* ''{{Frasier}}'': The title character ends up handcuffed to the lovely Officer Nasty (hired for Donnie's bachelor party) while he is demonstrating to her how she can make her dancing sexier.
* An episode of ''{{Seinfeld}}'' featured the stripper and real cop getting their wires crossed -- the bachelorette party gets an actual officer showing up expecting a robbery, while the actual robbery has the "cop" show up and start taking his clothes off.
* ''Series/{{Wings}}'': Helen is handcuffed to the stripping cop hired for her bachelorette party.
* ''{{Friends}}'': Phoebe's stripper is Officer Goodbody, played by Danny [=DeVito=].
* ''{{Reno 911}}'': One episode in Season One has the female cops hire stripper cops for Clementine's bachelorette party. One of the stripper cops turns out to be Officer Jones.

* ''TheGoldenGirls'': A real cop shows up at Dorothy's bachelorette party. Blanche gropes him thinking he's the stripper, then slaps him one more time even after the real stripper (also dressed as a cop) arrives. Then we are told, "the stripper used to be a cop and the cop always wanted to be a dancer. Now they're both wearing each other's hats and it's starting to get weird."
* In the 1988 ''OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' Christmas special "Dates", a stripper dressed as a naval officer is hired for Uncle Albert's birthday party. Much to Del's horror, she turns out to be the woman he's dating, Raquel Turner, who told him she was an actress. Later in the episode, a policewoman tries to question Del about his dodgy van, and he assumes this is Albert getting back at him.
* In the ''{{Blackadder}} II'' episode "Beer", Blackadder's puritanical relatives are mistaken for strippers, as is Queen Elizabeth herself.
* In ''TheCommish'', one episode's [[TheTeaser teaser]] featured a gentleman who had ordered a prostitute dressed for a cop, waiting to meet her in a hotel lobby. He encounters a real (female) cop instead. We never get to see the payoff- roll opening credits and commercial; when the episode 'proper' starts, we get a glimpse of him handcuffed to a chair in the booking area as the camera pans by.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' had the titular detective mistake a stripper for an actual cop and force the poor man down to the crime scene.
* ''Series/{{Arrested Development}}'': Michael and Gob use policemen-themed strippers to fake-arrest George Michael and scare him straight. Also, Gob nearly gets his head blown off when the would-be customer takes him for a real policeman.

* Even ''Series/DoctorWho'' got in a (mild) version of this. The adult Amy Pond debuts in a police uniform, which she winds up revealing is a costume for her job as a "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissogram kissogram]]."
* On ''{{Castle}}'' one victim was, apparently, a police officer. Yeah, you know where it's going.

* In an episode of ''{{Coach}}'' Christine is at a bachelorette party where a real cop shows up and is mistaken for the male stripper.

* Discussed in ''BeingHuman'': when Mitchell wonders how Herrick knew about a criminal allegation against him, Herrick looks down at the police uniform he's wearing and sarcastically asks "all this time, have you been thinking I'm a stripogram?"

[[AC: Webcomics]]
* Rick of ''BlurTheLines'' invites a man over for some erotic cop roleplay; his partner Drew doesn't realize it until he has already been pulled in. [[http://www.blur-the-lines.com/?p=365]]

[[AC: WebOriginal]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* In ''HomeMovies'', Coach [[TheDanza John]] [[JerkAss McGuirk]] mistakes a male cop for a stripper, who arrests him for not writing an essay.
* Chief Wiggum of ''TheSimpsons'' once had this happen with a bachelorette party, but decided to just go with it since he wanted the money.

[[AC: RealLife]]

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* An episode of ''{{Monk}}'' had the titular detective mistake a stripper for an actual cop and force the poor man down to the crime scene.
* ''{{Arrested Development}}'': Michael and Gob use policemen-themed strippers to fake-arrest George Michael and scare him straight. Also, Gob nearly gets his head blown off when the would-be customer takes him for a real policeman.
* Invoked on ''WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' duging a game of ''Newsflash''. The footage behind Colin is obviously a stripper dressed (at first) as a cop, but after all the hints are dropped Colin's best guess is "naked... ops?"

[[ArrestedDevelopment http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hot_cops_5427.jpg]]

* Sometimes strippers get [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7833167.stm arrested]] for their costumes.

* Even ''DoctorWho'' got in a (mild) version of this. The adult Amy Pond debuts in a police uniform, which she winds up revealing is a costume for her job as a "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissogram kissogram]]."

* ''{{Wings}}'': Helen is handcuffed to the stripping cop hired for her bachelorette party.

* Even DoctorWho got in a (mild) version of this. The adult Amy Pond debuts in a police uniform, which she winds up revealing is a costume for her job as a "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissogram kissogram]]."
* On {{Castle}} one victim was, apparently, a police officer. Yeah, you know where it's going.

* Rick of BlurTheLines invites a man over for some erotic cop roleplay; his partner Drew doesn't realize it until he has already been pulled in. [[http://www.blur-the-lines.com/?p=365]]

** That her uniform was only buttoned up about halfway does a bit more to justify it. A bit.
*** She only dressed as MsFanservice ''after'' that scene, when all her uniforms were shrunk by a group of the crewmen.