History Main / HackedByAPirate

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And so, a Skull and Crossbones image shall take the entire screen of the hacked computer, possibly followed by the voice of the hacker laughing in the background. Alternatively, an 8Bit image of the character doing the hacking, or his logo, or perhaps a mix of the above, shall appear on the screen, such as a Skull and Crossbones, only the skull is wearing the very same hat the hacker wears.

* Early viruses were usually just made by savvy kids pulling pranks. They'd often have the virus interact with the user for fun. Nowadays, viruses are a way to steal money, and their creators don't want them to be noticed. See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2g9lgYrYJM "here"]]

* In YoungJustice season 1, Robin's hacking skills are always followed by the screen displaying a chibi sprite of him grinning.

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* The lead character of ''BloodyMonday'' Fujimaru, known as 'Falcon', always leaves his personal symbol of a diving falcon at the screen of every computer he visits as a calling card.
* Radical Edward from ''CowboyBebop'' tends to do this. Although Ed's more into smiley faces and other sillyness.

* In ''VForVendetta'', [[spoiler: V has actually been manipulating the Fate computer for years. The "pirate flag" is just the final stroke to drive the Leader completely over the edge.]]
* Jensen from TheLosers often has to break into systems on a timetable, but if he's on his own schedule, he likes to work wearing a pirate hat. And only a pirate hat.

* Happens like that in ''{{Tanguy}}'' when the title character's father sends a virus to his PC. The words "I Love You" (name of a notorious virus back then) flash on the computer screen along with a skull.

* All over the place in {{Hackers}}. The viruses launched by the hackers all have some malicious and/or cute animation that's displayed while they're mucking about in the system

* [[BloomCounty Oliver Wendell Jones]] once caused global chaos -- cities in flames -- by posting on a stock market computer the message "Avast, ye scurvy corporate swabs! Bank of America is about to go belly up!"

* The Jawbone virus in the PurpleMoon computer games. ExpandedUniverse material goes out of its way to say that this is the ''only'' thing it does, as while invading the computer of [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed the local equivalent]] of Bill Gates is not beyond Bo, [[EvenEvilHasStandards doing actual harm]] is.

* Unwinder of ''TallComics'' discusses his idea for hacker identity with Amy, who actually is a hacker:

* An episode of ''{{Archer}}'' had the [=ISIS=] computer system infected by a virus that displayed a dancing pirate sprite pirate complete with parrot which sang [[EarWorm "Hunch, hunch! What, what!"]].

* In {{Geist}}, ghost Raimi can possess a computer and cause it to flash the skull-and-crossbones, pretending to be a virus to scare a technician.

* Mocked in ''Website/SomethingAwful'''s [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/virtual-intrigue-an.php "Virtual Intrugue - An Internet Adventure"]]

* An episode of {{Archer}} had the [=ISIS=] computer system infected by a virus that displayed an actual pirate complete with parrot which sang [[EarWorm "Hunch, hunch! What, what!"]].

* The brief glimmer of hope that was the hacking scene in BattleRoyale featured a chibi-style basketball player dominating the monitors at BR headquarters.

* Invoked in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue: Reconstruction''. As Simmons tries to hack Command's computer system, Grif unhelpfully offers advice such as, "You should try uploading a virus to the mainframe. I find viruses that feature a laughing skull work the best."

* In ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'', Pegasus does this by showing his favorite cartoon rabbit character when he counter-hacks Kaiba trying to hack into his system.

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* Invoked in ''RedVsBlue: Reconstruction''. As Simmons tries to hack Command's computer system, Grif unhelpfully offers advice such as, "You should try uploading a virus to the mainframe. I find viruses that feature a laughing skull work the best."

* Mocked in ''SomethingAwful'''s [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/virtual-intrigue-an.php "Virtual Intrugue - An Internet Adventure"]]

* YouTube has a few videos with virus pranks. One of them involves a skull animation.

* The famous "Ah, ah, ah. You didn't say the magic word." in ''JurassicPark'' was a justified example, as it was a hacker's ''defense'' against someone else trying to hack ''his'' computer... and a really crappy hacking attempt.

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* ''IndependenceDay'', of course. One must wonder how the alien civilization viewed the chuckling skull-and-crossbones - would it be too culturally specific to understand, or would it be something universal in ominous meaning?

* Such practices of depicting hackers using fancy graphics/logos to identify themselves most likely originated with software pirate groups way back in the 80's - who typically did have some form of ASCII based logo that they would insert into the game they cracked and released. Even today, it's common to find such logos/art in the .nfo file that often accompanies such pirated software. With Hollywood being Hollywood, it's no surprise that they have no concept of the difference between a hacker and a pirate.

Named after the fact that Skull and Crossbones happen to be the Pirate's symbol of choise. Note that the trope is rarely, if ever, performed by an [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil actual pirate]], since they usually try ''not'' to be noticed.

-->'''Unwinder:''' I'd call myself "Maestro". My thing would be that when I hacked a website, it would play classical music. I'd refer t to the songs as "[[{{leitmotif}} 1337motifs]]".\\

-->'''Unwinder:''' I'd call myself "Maestro". My thing would be that when I hacked a website, it would play classical music. I'd refer t to the songs as "[[{{leitmotif}} 1137motifs]]".\\

* In ''V for Vendetta'', [[spoiler: V has actually been manipulating the Fate computer for years. The "pirate flag" is just the final stroke to drive the Leader completely over the edge.]]

* All over the place in Hackers. The viruses launched by the hackers all have some malicious and/or cute animation that's displayed while they're mucking about in the system

* [[JurassicPark Ah, ah, ah. You didn't say the magic word!]]
** That one made a bit more sense, since it was someone trying to break into the ''hacker's'' computer. Any programmer with a couple brain cells to rub together could whip up something like that.