History Main / BluffingTheAdvanceScout

* Attempted in ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' by the invading Tasen, who are themselves fleeing a species of genocidal aliens known as the Komato - when they bring down a Komato scout team, they realize that when said scouts don't report in, their commanders will know that the Tasen are hiding on Earth, and [[CurbStompBattle curb stomping]] [[HilarityEnsues will ensue]]. So, they fake a report from the scout team claiming that before they went down, their planetary scans failed to reveal any sign of Tasen habitation. [[spoiler: Assuming Iji doesn't [[SummonBiggerFish contact the Komato]] herself, they realize the report is BS [[SpottingTheThread because the "planetary scan" technology never left the drawing board]], but the Tasen don't know that part. [[YouCantThwartStageOne Either way]], Curb Stomping Ensues.]]

* An inversion of sorts occurs in "Victory Unintentional" by IsaacAsimov: Humans send a team of highly advanced robots to negotiate with hostile aliens living on Jupiter. In order to be able to survive in the extremely high gravity, the robots have been built to be extremely strong and durable (the aliens themselves function more like deep sea fish and maintain their internal pressure the same as the outside in order to avoid being crushed). By the end of the story, the aliens surrender to humans, and after some confusion it's realised the humans never told them they were sending robots, leading them to assume that humans are a race of super-powered indestructible metallic beings.

* A story from an old issue of ''Boys' Life'' has a young boy doing this to a team of Martian scouts completely by accident. He's just moved into the neighborhood and thinks the scouts are neighbor kids playing spaceman, and decides to play along. Through a series of {{contrived coincidence}}s he ends accidentally convincing the Martians that that all of humanity is fearless and morally incorruptible, and that humans far outmatch the Martians technologically. In the end the Martians decide to invade another planet.

* Attempted in ''{{Iji}}'' by the invading Tasen, who are themselves fleeing a species of genocidal aliens known as the Komato - when they bring down a Komato scout team, they realize that when said scouts don't report in, their commanders will know that the Tasen are hiding on Earth, and [[CurbStompBattle curb stomping]] [[HilarityEnsues will ensue]]. So, they fake a report from the scout team claiming that before they went down, their planetary scans failed to reveal any sign of Tasen habitation. [[spoiler: Assuming Iji doesn't [[SummonBiggerFish contact the Komato]] herself, they realize the report is BS [[SpottingTheThread because the "planetary scan" technology never left the drawing board]], but the Tasen don't know that part. [[YouCantThwartStageOne Either way]], Curb Stomping Ensues.]]

* "The Best Policy" by RandallGarrett: Alien advance scouts kidnap a human, stick him in a {{lie detector}}, and order him to describe Earth. He manages to give them a description in which every sentence is [[ExactWords technically true]], but the overall effect is a misleading picture of humans who possess [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens immense, even supernatural powers]], and the aliens are frightened off.

* A story from an old issue of ''Boys' Life'' has a young boy doing this to a team of Martian scouts completely by accident. He's just moved into the neighborhood and thinks the scouts are neighbor kids playing spaceman, and decides to play along. Through a series of ContrivedCoincidences he ends accidentally convincing the Martians that that all of humanity is fearless and morally incorruptible, and that humans far outmatch the Martians technologically. In the end the Martians decide to invade another planet.

* ''The Demon Breed'' by [=~James H. Schmitz~=]: Aliens planning an invasion capture a remote scientific outpost to study what humanity is made of. The scientist at the outpost tries to sell them a story about humanity having secret mutant warlord protectors. This being a more dramatic take on the trope, the aliens don't immediately buy it, even though it was ''their'' theory in the first place, and it's up to the heroine to cause enough of the right kind of trouble to persuade them it's true.

* SpiderRobinson's ''[=~Callahan's Crosstime Saloon~=]'' story "The Guy With The Eyes": An alien is the advance scout for a race of extremely powerful aliens who plan to destroy the Earth. He comes up with the idea to render himself unconscious so the other aliens won't receive a transmission from him. Since he is exceptionally powerful himself, they'll conclude that humanity is too dangerous to attack and leave us alone.

[[folder:RealLife]]
* Tricking or bribing scouts or other intelligence gatherers is as old as warfare itself. Possibly the biggest example happened during {{WW2}} when the Allies spent over a year convincing the German's they were going to attack across the narrowest part of the English Channel, instead of landing across Germany. It was an amazing feat of use of double spies, fake reports, and entire [[BeyondtheImpossible army made up of nothing but inflated balloons]].
[[/folder]]

* ''ThePhantom'', the 1970s story "The Blue Giant": Alien advance scouts land to check out whether humans are a good prospect for invasion. After encountering the Phantom, they decide that if all humans are like him, the planet's best left alone.

* A version of this is attempted by Joshua in ''Series/FirstWave'' in order to prevent the invasion of Earth by the Gua or, at least, forestall the Second Wave. He continually brings up the experiment that resulted in Cade Foster ([=AKA=] Subject 117) becoming their greatest enemy. Joshua argues that, if every 117th human is TheDeterminator like Foster, then the invasion is doomed from the start or, at least, will be a PyrrhycVictory. Joshua does not succeed in cancelling the invasion, but it is put off indefinitely.

* A version of this is attempted by Joshua in ''FirstWave'' in order to prevent the invasion of Earth by the Gua or, at least, forestall the Second Wave. He continually brings up the experiment that resulted in Cade Foster ([=AKA=] Subject 117) becoming their greatest enemy. Joshua argues that, if every 117th human is TheDeterminator like Foster, then the invasion is doomed from the start or, at least, will be a PyrrhycVictory. Joshua does not succeed in cancelling the invasion, but it is put off indefinitely.

* An episode of ''Arthur'', "The Contest", has a short story by Buster called "The Day the Earth Was Saved" ([[ParentalBonus which contains several references to]] ''SouthPark'', including the animation style) where aliens capture Arthur [[ToServeMan with the intent of eating him]] but first subject him to brief medical testing. They then toss him out of their spaceship and leave Earth, assuming all humans are as high in cholesterol as Arthur is. [[{{Understatement}} The real Arthur is not amused.]]

* In one issue of ''{{Exiles}}'', the omniscient whatever-it-is that commands the Exiles sets up a chain of events that ends with some minor supervillain, feeling unappreciated, setting off a weapon that fills the Earth's atmosphere with foul-smelling gases for 72 hours. All because the omniscient whatever-it-is has foreseen that during those 72 hours an alien invasion fleet will arrive, scan the planet, and decide to move on to somewhere with a nicer atmosphere.

* In ''LiloAndStitch'', [[spoiler: an enterprising CIA agent (better known as the social worker, Cobra Bubbles) convinced visiting aliens that instead of destroying the planet they should declare it a nature reserve on account of mosquitoes being a rare and endangered species]]. It's a big BrickJoke, the trope part of this comes right at the end of the ([[Sequelitis first]]) movie.

* In ''LiloAndStitch'', [[spoiler: an enterprising CIA agent (better known as the social worker, Cobra Bubbles) convinced visiting aliens that instead of destroying the planet they should declare it a nature reserve on account of mosquitoes being a rare and endangered species]].

* In the backstory of ''LiloAndStitch'', an enterprising CIA agent [[spoiler:(better known as the social worker, Cobra Bubbles)]] convinced visiting aliens that instead of destroying the planet they should declare it a nature reserve on account of mosquitoes being a rare and endangered species.

* "The Best Policy" by RandallGarrett: Alien advance scouts kidnap a human, stick him in a {{lie detector}}, and order him to describe Earth. He manages to give them a description in which every sentence is technically true, but the overall effect is a misleading picture of humans who possess immense, even supernatural powers, and the aliens are frightened off.

* "The Best Policy" by RandallGarrett: Alien advance scouts kidnap a human, stick him in a lie detector, and order him to describe Earth. He manages to give them a description in which every sentence is technically true, but the overall effect is a misleading picture of humans who possess immense, even supernatural powers, and the aliens are frightened off.

* ''The Demon Breed'' by [=~James H. Schmitz~=]: Aliens planning an invasion capture a remote scientific outpost to study what humanity is made of. The scientist at the outpost tries to sell them a story about humanity having indestructible supernatural protectors. This being a more dramatic take on the trope, the aliens don't immediately buy it, and it's up to the heroine to cause enough of the right kind of trouble to persuade them it's true.

!!Examples

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' #2, the first appearance of the [[SecretInvasion Skrulls]], the FF bluff them into thinking that Earth is crawling with giant monsters by showing them pages from a comic book, pretending they're real photographs.

[[folder:Literature]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]

[[folder:Video Games]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]

* ''The Demon Breed'' by [=~James H. Schmitz~=]: Aliens planning an invasion capture a remote scientific outpost to study what humanity is made of. The scientist at the outpost tries to sell them a story about humanity having indistructible supernatural protectors. This being a more dramatic take on the trope, the aliens don't immediately buy it, and it's up to the heroine to cause enough of the right kind of trouble to persuade them it's true.

* In one issue of ''{{Exiles}}'', the omniscient whatever-it-is that commands the Exiles sets up a chain of events that ends with some minor supervillain, feeling unappreciated, setting off a weapon that fills the Earth's atmosphere with foul-smelling gases for twenty-four hours. All because the omniscient whatever-it-is has foreseen that during those twenty-four hours an alien invasion fleet will arrive, scan the planet, and decide to move on to somewhere with a nicer atmosphere.