Someone arranges a hoax to frighten someone. Usually the hoax is something supernatural. After scary things happen, the confederate who was supposed to play the part of the ghost (or whatever) apologises to the prime conspirator for being delayed/unable to carry out his part. So the supernatural stuff was real! :eek: DAH-DAH-duhhhhhhhn!
In how many films/shows was this used?
They did it in one episode of PBS’s Arthur, where the boys and girls are each trying to scare each other.
Was it ever done on Scooby Doo?
I can think of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes where something explainable has happened, and yet there is evidence of the supernatural. For example, in ‘King Nine Will Not Return’ there is evidence at the end that Robert Cummings was not just hallucinating, and in ‘The Grave’ the logical explanation is countered by evidence of the weather. But neither of these are exactly what I’m thinking of in the OP, where the confederate shows up late or makes a phone call and his ‘role’ was actually performed by the real ghost.
I know they did it on Hey Arnold.
I loved that show.
Yeah, my first example definitely fits your OP. Arthur, Buster, the Brain, and Binky are trying to scare Francine and Muffy. The kids (save Binky) go into the other room and a ghost appears and then disappears and the girls flip out, while Arthur, Brain, and Buster laugh. Then Binky runs up saying he can’t be a ghost because he lost his costume or something and then they all realize that it wasn’t really Binky who did it and they freak out. Then we cut to a little ghost kid being reprimanded by its ghost parents.
I’m trying to think of other examples. I feel like it’s the kind of thing kids’ shows do a lot…
There’s an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS that’s exactly that plot (the idea is to frighten the dead aunt’s nephew into confessing that he killed her.)
Mod note: I’ve edited the title of the thread slightly to make it clearer what the topic is.
Thanks for the title edit, Dex. I was thinking I should ask for one.
I think that particular plot device is used more often for Christmas episodes. Arrangements are made for friend/neighborhood/relative to come in dressed as Santa, dude arrives as scheduled looking pretty damn good passing out presents to everybody and leaves, somebody says, “Bobby sure did a wonderful job, didn’t he?” at which time Bobby comes in dressed in a ratty costume apologizing for being late.
A variation on that plot device is often used, like Leap of Faith, with Steve Martin playing the part of the crooked charlatan faith healer (is there another kind?). Although the gimmicks are obvious and revealed, the possibility is left open at the end that “there might be something to the paranormal, we just don’t know.”
There’s a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode that only almost does this, but gets bonus points for a particularly well-crafted line ahead of time.
As usual, the team leader calls in handpicked specialists for a custom-tailored plan: in this case, rigging up a “haunting” by having Barney the electronics whiz do eerie stuff with hidden movie projectors sure as Rollin the master of disguise can impersonate the dead man’s voice. The third member is a consultant who famously conducts seances, who gets talked up quite a bit for Barney and Rollin.
She later takes the boss aside to say, hey, you know the truth about me; why so much selling, so much loud confidence – and maybe that means We Both Know I’m A Psychic With Occult Powers, and maybe it means We Both Know I’m Just A Huckster With A Great Line Of Patter, but we don’t get to find out which; they both know what she’s referring to and so have no reason to make it explicit, see? And so the mission proceeds as you’d expect: all three gather plenty of information while the wiring gets set up for the big hoax near the end – and right before the consultant starts her seance, the lights flicker and go out as thunder and lightning crash outside during this dark and stormy night. Undaunted, she goes into her performance anyway, at which point the whole thing plays out perfectly, special effects and all (or ARE they?).
Their work done, our heroes then leave; Rollin, who had been sure that she was a fake, says he doesn’t know what to make of it.
I asked on TVTropes. I was reminded why I don’t hang out there as much as I used to: the admin likes to abuse his power rather than delegate, thus violating the spirit of Wiki.
But I still should be able to suffer through to get an answer.
One variation on the theme is High Spirits, in which the owner & staff of an Ancient Irish Castle try to pass it off as Haunted, in a vain attempt to raise funds & save the crumbling pile from an American Real Estate Sharpie. The fake hauntings fail miserably & the last group of tourists angrily tries to depart–when the castle’s Real Ghosts wake up!
Not a great movie–the ensuing wackiness is not quite as hilarious as it’s supposed to be. But Peter O’Toole plays Peter Plunkett, manic aristocrat. Young Liam Neeson plays a rather fleshly ghost. Young Peter Gallagher is a seminarian on one last vacation before he enters the priesthood, with Jennifer Tilly trying to convince him that he is really not cut out for celibacy.
The good character bits are very good & some of the real Irish setting shines through.
I remember an episode of Night Gallery had something like this.
I dunno about suffering; ain’t this under REAL AFTER ALL thereabouts?
“Zubrovnik’s Ghost,” one of the best episodes of the run. The writing on the show – particularly the way the plot was structured to make the twist at the end work – is some of the best on TV.
Oh my god. I saw this movie. I totally forgot about it. /end hijack
Helpful!
I’m surprised that, given that the trope is something familiar to me, I haven’t seen most of the shows listed there.
There was the episode of Twightlight Zone in the Old West where the con man claims to raise the dead and gets paid to put them back. He actually does raise the dead at the end.
‘Mr. Garrity and the Graves’. I thought of that one, but it’s sort of opposite of what I was thinking of in the OP. There, it is revealed that ghosts caused things to happen. In ‘Mr. Garrity and the Graves’ the living man caused paranormal things to happen.
I’m reading an R.L. Stine Return to Horrorland book (like an updated Goosebumps…nostalgia takes you down some weird roads), and it came up in the Scream of the Haunted Mask. Three characters plan to play a joke on the protagonist. She hears weird noises and her friend who’s in on it tells her what’s going on. Then they can’t find the two guys who were supposed to be making the noises and they tell them they couldn’t make it. DUM DUM DUM! Ominous.