You find yourself in a bit of a spot, and you realize, “hey, this is just like that one movie where Will Ferrell, Béla Lugosi, and Sigourney Weaver all had the same problem, and their solution seemed pretty reasonable!” How did it work out?
Back in college, I was with a group of people walking to our friend’s new apartment. We were going to surprise him. We’d never been in this building before, but we knew how to find the right unit once we were past the security door. But the security door required a resident to buzz you in.
So the problem: we needed to get past the security door, but we couldn’t let our friend know we were there.
I remembered a scene from a movie – I think it was Requiem for a Dream – where a couple of hip young people buzzed a stranger, and then muttered something unintelligible into the intercom. The stranger buzzed the door open, and the HYPs waltzed into the building. The idea is that most of those intercoms are so fuzzy that you can’t really tell friend from foe, and people assume that if you’re buzzing them and have the gumption to say anything, you must be legit.
It seemed like a decent idea. I chose a random buzzer and tried it. After a minute, a stranger’s voice came through: “Hello?”
Me (slurring heavily): “Gruh. Flubbledee wunka flugelhorn?”
There was a five-second pause, and then the stranger’s voice came back over the intercom, sounding slightly amused.
Stranger (with perfect clarity): “Um, pardon me?”
Me (realizing that this intercom was far too clear for this to work, and that this was a terrible idea): “Oh. Sorry to have bothered you.”
My friends thought I was a total idiot, and laughed their asses off at me.
So how about it? Ever try a cool technique you saw in a movie or on TV? Did it work?