History RefugeInAudacity / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Seven Days}}'': When someone threatens to reveal the existence of Project Backstep, the folks at Backstep decide to counter by revealing all of the details themselves... on a talk show. ALL of the details. Starting with the most ridiculous ones.... including the fact that the pilot (who is also the one revealing this information on the show) was recruited out of a '''mental hospital'''. The network quickly interrupts the show to apologize for falling for such an obviously bullshit story.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** [[TheCaptain Captain Kirk]]
*** The [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries "Corbomite Maneuver"]]--getting an enemy to stand down by claiming that ''Enterprise'' is carrying a substance that would reflect any attack on the ship back at the attacker--from the eponymous episode was so effective that he even used it again in ''The Deadly Years''. Actually done twice in the original episode; the fearsome alien captain that looks like a cheap special effect turns out to be a literal hand puppet the real HumanAlien pilot turned to to hide the fact he looks like a young child.
*** In ''The Enterprise Incident'', Kirk is assigned to recover a Romulan cloaking device so that Starfleet can study it. How does Kirk go about it? By convincing everyone that he's [[PlausibleDeniability lost his mind]], taking the ''Enterprise'' into the Neutral Zone so that he can get captured by a Romulan ship, steal theirs, and get it and himself back onboard ''Enterprise''.
** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': There is an upcoming social with a boring senior officer who is infamous for his small talk, but everyone in the senior bridge crew feel obliged to bite their tongues and prepare to endure him. Suddenly, Worf outright asks to be excused, and Captain Picard gives him permission. [=La Forge=], seeing that TheCaptain apparently doesn't mind people asking, immediately starts to request permission himself, but Picard cuts him off, saying "Mr. [=La Forge=], I cannot excuse my entire senior staff." Then, with an amused expression, he adds, "Mr. Worf beat you to it." At that, Worf adopts a slight, smug smile.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has several of these. The straightest example would be the genetically enhanced "Jack Pack" escaping from their space age looney bin and traveling halfway across the galaxy to one of the most secure outposts in the quadrant in the middle of a war, simply by donning Starfleet uniforms, making one of their own an admiral, and [[BavarianFireDrill having him answer any and all questions with "That's a stupid question."]]
** Played straight in "Emissary" when Kira claimed the station was heavily armed to scare away a Cardassian attack force. It worked, and the station turned out to be armed with sensor-deceiving illusions. Later inverted in "The Way of the Warrior" when a Klingon attack force is given [[CallBack the exact same]] warning, and the commanders assume that it's an attempt to intimidate them into leaving backed by more illusions. Unfortunately, they forgot that Sisko knows enough about Klingons to know you can't bluff one with a mere threat of violence. He's not bluffing. [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown It goes POORLY for the Klingons.]]
*** They elaborated on this in the novelisation with the revelation that the Klingons' earlier attack on Garak had been based on them trying to hack his computer and get information about the station's defences; Garak fed them outdated information so that the Klingons would believe that the station was less well-defended than it was.
*** In the same episode, Worf has been charged with investigating the Klingon Empire's recent aggressive behavior. At one point, he decides that he needs to speak with General Martok, who probably wouldn't have been inclined to meet with him. How does he decide to get Martok's attention? By [[CurbStompBattle beating the crap]] out of his son in the middle of a crowded bar [[note]]And to be fair to Worf, Drex's behavior ''did'' warrant an asskicking[[/note]]. Worf scares Drex's buddies away with a DeathGlare and a literal growl, takes the unconscious Klingon's dagger, and calmly leaves. A livid Martok later storms into Worf's quarters and demands Worf return his son's dagger, giving Worf his opportunity to speak to the general. Keep in mind, this is Worf's idea of ''diplomacy.'' Amusingly, Worf would later be adopted into the House of Martok[[note]][[spoiler:the "Martok" he confronts in this episode turns out to be a changeling duplicate, so this is not how Worf and the real Martok first meet]][[/note]], which must have made for some awkward family meals.
** In ''Apocalypse Rising'', Sisko, Worf, Odo and O'Brien have to infiltrate Klingon High Command in order to expose a changeling infiltrator. Disguised as Klingons, they attend a celebration for warriors, and everything's going great... until Martok shows up, who knows them! Now would be a good time to panic, but instead, when Martok walks up to their group, Sisko greets him with a hearty ''Q'apla!'' It works. [[spoiler: ...at first.]]
** Nog's plan to get the Klingons to abide by Starfleet regulations on [=DS9=]: walk right up to Martok and ''demand'' that he follow the rules. Note that Martok is a hulking general of a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy proud warrior race]], while Nog is a very green Starfleet officer from a race of very short merchants[[note]]who are admittedly strong for their size, but still[[/note]]. Not only does it work, it earns Martok's respect, and he makes sure to greet Nog first when he goes to Ops for the rest of the series!

** In "Monster Movie" which is an AffectionateParody of old monster movies, the Shapeshifter does this by turning into various old BMovie monsters, such as {{Dracula}}, Film/TheWolfMan1941, and a cheesy mummy. The murders are such a ClicheStorm that no one, not even Sam and Dean, can believe that they happened. Going even further, the shapeshifter wants to take on {{Dracula}}'s identity by picking out a pretty blonde to be his Mina Murray (and calls her that); when Dean comes to the girl's aid, the shapeshifter dubs him "Harker" (Jonathan Harker, Mina's fiance); he calls Sam "Van Helsing" (like the Professor, not the Hugh Jackman character). He also built a giant dungeon out of wood and cardboard ''in his basement''.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''" used this in the following way. So, you've seen a UFO, and that's semi-believable and then TheMenInBlack showed up and tried to warn you from telling anyone, and that's stretching believability. Now, the Men In Black knock this over the believability threshold into the area where nobody will believe this by... looking exactly like Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek.

** In "Monster Movie" which is an AffectionateParody of old monster movies, the ShapeShifter does this by turning into various old BMovie monsters, such as {{Dracula}}, Film/TheWolfMan1941, and a cheesy mummy. The murders are such a ClicheStorm that no one, not even Sam and Dean, can believe that they happened. Going even further, the shapeshifter wants to take on {{Dracula}}'s identity by picking out a pretty blonde to be his Mina Murray (and calls her that); when Dean comes to the girl's aid, the shapeshifter dubs him "Harker" (Jonathan Harker, Mina's fiance); he calls Sam "Van Helsing" (like the Professor, not the Hugh Jackman character). He also built a giant dungeon out of wood and cardboard ''in his basement''.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* A lot of auditioners for ''Britain's Got Talent'', ''America's Got Talent'', and so on try for this... some succeed. Memorably:
-->[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jgXi8bR-6k "They don't call me Poppycock for nothing, dear."]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin "The Deadly Assassin"]]: The Fourth Doctor used his own trial to declare his candidacy as ''President of Gallifrey''.

* ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'': Once the lawsuit with Bob Murray was officially over with, John capped off his segment on SLAPP suits with an elaborate song and dance number featuring multiple singers and dancers telling Bob to eat shit. All while accusing Bob of various outrageous things, such as assassinating Archduke Ferdinand, masturbating to ''Film/SchindlersList'', and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking blaming his farts on Malala Yousafzai]]. All while proudly noting that, since all of the allegations are clearly jokes, they can't be sued. At one point, they're even interrupted by an actor playing HBO's lawyer, who tells everyone to stop so that ''he'' can have a verse. A verse that has him detail an NSFW account of Murray at the M&M store with people in judicial robes doing the can-can in the background. Mr. Nutterbutter (the squirrel mascot from the segment that started the whole thing, who's inspired by Bob claiming that a squirrel told him to start his company) also gets a verse. Him... and his barbershop quartet, who proceed to claim that Murray [[BestialityIsDepraved has sex with squirrels]]. And the whole thing ends with John and a small army of dancers dancing and singing in Times Square.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'' - Patrick Jane's twisted methods include interrupting a funeral to check a casket for a 'second' dead body; convincing about two hundred people, including Lisbon, that they are all going to die in a few hours, and to say their goodbyes and their prayers; getting a suspect thrown in jail by inciting him over the phone to bash up a police officer, so that he can question him because Jane himself is also in jail for illegal eavesdropping; and then breaking out of said jail using only a mouse, a pen, a Bible and a cranberry muffin.

* ''Series/AlloAllo'': When the UsefulNotes/{{Gestapo}} raid Rene's cafe, Rene's elderly, bedridden mother-in-law (truthfully) informs Gestapo agent Herr Flick that there is a secret radio for communicating with British Intelligence hidden under her bed, and 2 British airmen concealed in her wardrobe. Herr Flick assumes that she is senile and deluded and so leaves her bedroom without conducting a proper search.

*** In a villainous example, in "Daydream Believer", serial killer Greg Yates is transporting a still-living (for the moment) victim from Chicago to New York and a truck driver at a rest stop notices that something is moving around in the car. Yates proceeds to tell the guy ''exactly what he's doing'' before claiming he's kidding and it's his dog. The first story (that he has a kidnapped woman in his backseat) is so outrageous that the trucker instantly believes that the dog story is true and the actually-true answer was an AskAStupidQuestion response.

*** In a villainous example, in "Daydream Believer", serial killer Greg Yates is transporting a still-living (for the moment) victim from Chicago to New York and a truck driver at a rest stop notices that something is moving around in the car. Yates proceeds to tell the guy ''exactly what he's doing'' before claiming he's kidding and it's his dog. The first story (that he has a kidnapped woman in his backseat) is so outrageous that the trucker instantly believes the much more plausible story that it's his dog and the actually-true answer was an AskAStupidQuestion style response.

*** In a villainous example, in "Daydream Believer", serial killer Greg Yates is transporting a (still alive at this point) victim in a car and a truck driver at a rest stop notices that something is moving around in the back. Yates proceeds to tell the guy ''exactly what he's doing'' before claiming he's kidding and it's his dog. The first story is so outrageous that the trucker instantly believes the much more plausible story that it's his dog and the actually-true answer was an AskAStupidQuestion style response.

*** In a villainous example, in "Daydream Believer", serial killer Greg Yates is transporting a (still alive at this point) victim in a car and a truck driver at a rest stop notices that something is moving around in the back. Yates proceeds to tell the guy ''exactly what he's doing'' before claiming he's kidding and it's his dog. The first story is so outrageous that the trucker instantly believes the much more plausible story that it's his dog and the original response was an AskAStupidQuestion situation.

* ''Series/ThePractice'': One of the attorneys has a client who was arrested after allegedly walking up to a random cop and admitting he's carrying a lot of drugs. The client denies this and the lawyer thinks it's a ridiculous story the cop is making up. The judge ends up throwing the case out because of how unlikely it really is. Afterward, the client ends up telling his attorney that the cop is telling the truth. He knew he was likely to get caught and figured that no one would actually believe he would just walk up to a cop and ask to be arrested. The attorney is outraged, but the cop is actually kind of amused by the criminal's cleverness.

** If that wasn't enough, he pleas not guilty at the trial but offers up no evidence at all (causing the judge to strongly recommend the jury delivers a guilty verdict) but is found not guilty because he blackmailed the jury.

* The guys of ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'' get away with most of their antics in this way. One such example is when the guys are challenged to cut the Broadway ticket line, attempts being made with pretending to know someone up front doesn't work, trying to insinuate into a group doesn't work, but walking past and saying "I don't do lines" miraculously ''does''. Another is when they're made to "sell" an increasingly bizarre book to a pair of producers, which consists of nonsense like "top three hottest ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' princesses" and listing "the girl lion from ''Disney/TheLionKing''" as number 3: the book is so outlandishly surreal and over-the-top that both publishers are indeed interested in it.

* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' gives us the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41QTbnAlP60 "Squat Cobbler"]] defense--specifically, "my client was not actually using that hidden compartment to hide drug money, he was using it to hide fetish videos of himself sitting in a pie and crying." It's such an elaborate and humiliating story that the cops buy it; after all, why would you use being the star of amateur pie porn as your ''cover story''?