History Main / GasLeakCoverUp

* In the KimNewman ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' story "Moon Moon Moon", the area around a magical working is cordened off by police because of an "anthrax spill". Jeperson comments to his American counterpart that if every anthrax spill in Britain was genuine, the whole country would be awash with the stuff. She replies that her superiors prefer "experimental nerve gas" ... unless it ''is'' experimental nerve gas, in which case they blame it on foot-and-mouth disease.

* Hollow attacks in the first few episodes of {{Bleach}} were designated as such.

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}} II'' contains three, and ''neither'' of them work. It's the scene where Egon and Peter hold down the fort over a hole they dug while Ray abseils down it into the river of pink slime. First, Peter tries to convince the police that they're with ConEd; he then tries to convince them that they're with the phone company; finally, he pulls out the gas leak line. And then all of NYC goes into a blackout!

* The trope is exaggerated and played for laughs in the first ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie; the typical cover story for UFO sightings given by MIB agents (quoted at the top of the page) mentions multiple elements from every standard, individual variant of the trope (swamp gas, weather balloons, Venus) and combines them into a single cover story. Though the MIB do put more effort into making it seem legitimate (such as having a crew of cleanup agents use flamethrowers to both burn away evidence of aliens and scorch some of the nearby terrain) and they have the added benefit of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia a memory-erasing device]]. The neuralizer goes a long way for [[JustifiedTrope justifying]] the whole ordeal: the brain will invent new memories to fill the gap, during which time it becomes very impressionable.

* ''CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' has the government claiming a rail accident occurred with a train carrying nerve gas as a way to evacuate everyone from the area around Devil's Tower, Wyoming, where the Aliens are soon due to show up.

* ''{{Ghostbusters}} II'' contains three, and ''neither'' of them work. It's the scene where Egon and Peter hold down the fort over a hole they dug while Ray abseils down it into the river of pink slime. First, Peter tries to convince the police that they're with ConEd; he then tries to convince them that they're with the phone company; finally, he pulls out the gas leak line. And then all of NYC goes into a blackout!

* In ''{{Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban}}'', the attack Sirius Black is accused of is described by Muggle authorities as a gas explosion.

* Played completely straight in ''Series/{{Oz}}''. The fourth season ended with an explosion, caused by a home-made bomb created by one of the prisoners, destroying Emerald City. The opening of the fifth season showed the warden reopening the rebuilt prison, explaining the destruction as a gas leak. And everyone buys it. This in a prison that by then has had a major riot, a sexual harassment suit against one the head wardens, and quite a massive number of in-prison maiming and murders - all heavily covered by the media.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}: Eternal Punishment'', the fire at the sanitarium is explained as a "gas explosion."

* ''{{World of Warcraft}}'' subverts this trope as a joke; upon entering 'Area 52', the player sees a flash of light and is given a tooltip that persists for 30 seconds and says 'The flash of light you did not see has erased the memories you did not have'.

* ''Ghostbusters II'' contains three, and ''neither'' of them work. It's the scene where Egon and Peter hold down the fort over a hole they dug while Ray abseils down it into the river of pink slime. First, Peter tries to convince the police that they're with ConEd; he then tries to convince them that they're with the phone company; finally, he pulls out the gas leak line. And then all of NYC goes into a blackout!

* On Nickelodeon's ''The Troop'', the gym is destroyed by enormous worm monsters during a big dance. But The Troop destroys the monsters and uses their miniature memory zapper monster (the snark) on everyone. As everyone surveys the wreckage, the Troop's adult advisor cherily tells them that there had been a simple plumbing leak.

* ''World of Warcraft'' subverts this trope as a joke; upon entering 'Area 52', the player sees a flash of light and is given a tooltip that persists for 30 seconds and says 'The flash of light you did not see has erased the memories you did not have'.

->''"You know, just once, in ANYTHING, I'd like to see a gas leak actually just be a gas leak. It'd be so refreshing."''
-->--'''professor_prof''', [[http://professor-prof.livejournal.com/43415.html Fate/Stay Night Let's Play]]

* This trope is used both literally and in the more general sense repeatedly in the ''Dresden Files'' novels as a theme illustrating the hapless nature of non-magical humans.

* In the KimNewman ''Diogenes Club'' story "Moon Moon Moon", the area around a magical working is cordened off by police because of an "anthrax spill". Jeperson comments to his American counterpart that if every anthrax spill in Britain was genuine, the whole country would be awash with the stuff. She replies that her superiors prefer "experimental nerve gas" ... unless it ''is'' experimental nerve gas, in which case they blame it on foot-and-mouth disease.

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School," a science professor kills his school's groundkeeper by puncturing a gas line, filling the house with fumes, and rigs the door to the living room with a matchbook, glued with the match heads pointing down, towards a scratch pad glued to the floor. When the groundskeeper comes home, he opens the door, the match heads strike the scratch pad, igniting the gas fumes and causing the house to explode.

* ''ShinMegamiTensei'' games seem to love this trope a lot:

* In ''TheLivingDaylights'', assassin Necros uses this to cover up his attack on the Blayden safehouse, before throwing tear gas grenades hidden in milk bottles.

* Played completely straight in ''Series/{{OZ}}''. The fourth season ended with an explosion, caused by a home-made bomb created by one of the prisoners, destroying Emerald City. The opening of the fifth season showed the warden reopening the rebuilt prison, explaining the destruction as a gas leak. And everyone buys it. This in a prison that by then has had a major riot, a sexual harassment suit against one the head wardens, and quite a massive number of in-prison maiming and murders - all heavily covered by the media.

* Mundane variation: In an episode of ''{{Criminal Minds}}'', the heroes tell a civilian that her neighbor's house, which contains samples of arsenic he was planning on releasing as a gas, has asbestos.
* ''TheXFiles'' episode "Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''" features Jesse Ventura playing a [[TheMenInBlack Man in Black]] who tries to persuade someone who saw a UFO into questioning his vision and perception and believing he only saw "the planet Venus".

* The trope is exaggerated and played for laughs in the first ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie; the typical cover story for UFO sightings given by MIB agents (quoted at the top of the page) mentions multiple elements from every standard, individual variant of the trope (swamp gas, weather balloons, Venus) and combines them into a single cover story. Though the MIB do put more effort into it (using flamethrowers to both burn away evidence of aliens and scorch some of the nearby terrain) and they have the added benefit of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia a memory-erasing device]]. The memory-eraser goes a long way for [[JustifiedTrope justifying]] the whole ordeal: the brain will invent new memories to fill the gap, during which time it becomes very impressionable.

* ''ElGoonishShive'' uses this trope a lot. [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-10-02 Take this one, for example:]]

* One story arc of ''TheWotch'' involved a conspiracy of militant mind-controlling feminists with an ElaborateUndergroundBase below the school. After everything has been resolved, most of the mind-control victims have no memory of what transpired, and them waking up groggy in the school basement is explained with... a gas leak, of course.

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[[folder:Real Life]]
* The British Government explanation for V-2 impacts was the explosions were accidental ones caused by leaking Gas Mains. Gas explosions and the like were used in a misinformation campaign to lead the Germans to believe the V-2 rockets were landing short of their intended targets.

* Three hours after her birth, the hospital [[WebOriginal/SCPFoundation SCP-239]] (AKA "The Witch Child") was born in was destroyed by an explosion. The press was informed that the explosion was due to a gas leak.

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* ''TheXFiles'' episode "Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''" features Jesse Ventura playing a [[{{MIB}} Man in Black]] who tries to persuade someone who saw a UFO into questioning his vision and perception and believing he only saw "the planet Venus".

* In ''OwMySanity'', David [[GenreSavvy knew]] the dorm incident would be covered up with either arson or a gas leak. It was the latter.

* In ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', the official records give a combination of earthquakes and poisonous fumes as the reason behind the complete destruction of ''Force'' main protaginist Tohma's DoomedHometown in the world of Vaizen. Considering how he actually saw the possible culprits, Tohma understandably questions the truth behind that statement.

** In ''{{Persona 2}}: Eternal Punishment'', the fire at the sanitarium is explained as a "gas explosion."
** In ''DevilSurvivor'', this is the excuse given for the Yamanote lockdown.