History Main / IncrediblyObviousBug

* Played with and lampshaded in ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves''. Since Rajan's second hideout is in [[JungleJapes the jungle]], your MissionControl points out that an electronic device would be too obvious and gives you an ''actual'' bug that can transmit sound back to you. Unfortunately, said bug makes a high-pitched noise when it's away from water for too long, so unless you frequently release it into nearby pools, you'll have half the guards on the map running towards you. Then, towards the end of [[VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves the third game]], [[GadgeteerGenius Penelope]] releases a gigantic, flashing disc over [[WretchedHive Bloodbath Bay]] and it's almost immediately shot down by superstitious henchmen.

* Parodied in ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode "Clown Virus". The general in charge of US Military Intelligence denies that his conversation with the Goodies is being recorded, whereupon two ashtrays on his desk start to rotate like tape reels and he starts speaking into the desk lamp. This becomes an OverlyLongGag as the general activates one hidden bug after another as the Goodies find them.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Titans|2018}}'', Donna Troy tags a car with a tracker. Said tracker is a golden shuriken with a flashing green light on it, that beeps audibly even as the truck it's on is a fair way away. It probably would have been less conspicuous to just follow the truck a bit closer, considering that she and Dick Grayson do that anyway.

* Exaggerated in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Choosy Wives Choose Smith", where Stan's attempts to secretly spy on Francine are thwarted by the fact that his idea of a "hidden camera" is a camcorder (tripod and all) shoved haphazardly into a potted plant.

* An episode of ''Series/JamesMaysManLab'' involved trying to find the best way to remember people's names by going to a dinner with military men and women. James watched the whole thing using a hidden camera...which was a GoPro. Everyone at the party just pretended not to notice.

'''A:''' ''"There's a new cabinet in it"''.

** Unless they thought that they might not want anything integral that the enemy could use to track these guys.

'''Heinrich Müller:''' It's a latest Soviet audio-recording bug, possibly put here by Stierlitz.\\

* Averted in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' comic ''ComicBook/{{Serenity}}: Better Days''. A stolen assault robot releases hundreds of tracking devices that appear no bigger than a grain of sand.

* In ''[[https://youtu.be/ISfNviwVs_A?t=194 Testificate Man: The Movie]]'' by ''WebVideo/ElementAnimation'', Testificate Man plants a tracking device on Dr. Inconsiderate, stating that he'll never find it. It's a huge blinking device on his nose that makes a very loud beeping noise, which he never discovers.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spider-Man has spider-tracers, red peanut-sized spider-shaped devices he used to track people down. Usually, they are fired from the top of his web-shooter at fleeing villains who are none the wiser. One of the reasons why Spider-Man doesn't use the spider-tracers anymore may be due to the fact the bad guys he attached them to frequently found them and used them against him. Especially bad since they're designed to set off his spider sense, meaning they can be used to trigger false positives in that sense, turning one of his greatest edges into a weakness as ComicBook/IronMan has demonstrated.

-->''Found a large number of surveillance bugs and cameras. Destroyed most of them. Returned expensive one to Miranda.''
** And evidently Tali.
-->'''Shepard:''' The Illusive Man isn't running this show, I am.\\

* You can place bugs in ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' to gather information that Info-chan might find useful. Such bugs are black, fist-sized, and often placed in the open. At least they don't flash or make noise, and are often placed in out-of-the-way spots.

%%* Seen on [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p71/ this page]] of ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''.

** Then in the Batman/Superman crossover movie, ''[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E16To18WorldsFinest World's Finest]]'', he plants a dime-sized ''flashing'' bug on Superman. Superman can't even find the bug until after he's changed into Clark Kent and Batman's figured out his identity. The thing ''was'' hidden in the folds of his cape, and Bats made sure to piss Superman off before he planted it, thus ensuring the Man of Steel wasn't thinking clearly on his way home.
** Batman uses a lot of tiny but bat-shaped and often flashing bugs. The freakout of the targets when they find them brings up the question of gathering info versus messing with the targets' minds.

* Parodied (like most things) on ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' when Spanky Ham, in order to record Captain Hero's illegal manipulation of gambling, attempts to have a conversation with Hero concerning the swindle while secretly recording the conversation on a hidden tape recorder. Said tape recorder is taped to the front of his shirt and is half the size of Spanky. Subverted in that Captain Hero does suspect that Spanky is acting suspicious so he ends the conversation quickly by [[TheDitz "describing all the specifics and incriminating details of his illegal scam"]].

* In the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' film ''[[Recap/FuturamaM4IntoTheWildGreenYonder Into the Wild Green Yonder]]'', Bender plants a wiretap on Fry's cell phone [[RuleOfFunny with several blinking lights and spinning radar dishes that triples the size of the phone.]] He even lampshades this earlier when telling Nixon that he only needs one wiretap, but the latter decides to give him six, which Bender decides to use all of them at the same time.

** And the treehouse phone (consisting of [[TinCanTelephone two cans and a string]]) was tapped by another string running into a van.

** Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' episode "Bad Spark". Megatron attaches a cartoonishly large bug to Blackarachnia's back... and, as she walks away, we see it fade to invisibility. Later in the episode, we see Megatron sitting and looking down in a manner that implies he's perfectly aware of the large, spider-shaped listener Tarantulas has placed under Megatron's own chair. Played straight, however, in the episode "Tangled Web," where Tarantulas ''chucks'' a large, red, beeping bug onto the equipment Quickstrike had collected... ''and it makes a loud clanging sound as it lands.'' Naturally, Quickstrike doesn't notice.

-->'''Q:''' How do you know that the [[SecretPolice Stasi]] has bugged your apartment?\\
'''A:''' There's a new cabinet in it.
* An in-person variant of the "distraction from a smaller bug" subversion was part of Anonymous's tactics when protesting [[ChurchOfHappyology Scientology]]. The Scientologists would harass anyone they saw with a camera, but would then be oblivious to all the people with cellular phones nearby.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Spider-Man has spider-tracers, red peanut-sized spider-shaped devices he used to track people down. Usually, they are fired from the top of his web-shooter at fleeing villains who are none the wiser. One of the reasons why Spider-Man doesn't use the spider-tracers anymore may be due to the fact the bad guys he attached them to frequently found them and used them against him. Especially bad since they're designed to set off his spider sense, meaning they can be used to trigger false positives in that sense, turning one of his greatest edges into a weakness as ComicBook/IronMan has demonstrated.

See Also: IncrediblyObviousBomb, IncrediblyObviousTail, InsecurityCamera. Contrast SpyCam.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has (or had) the spy plant. This attractive potted plant is easy to take care of, you just need to water it regularly, and speak about your subversive activity loudly and clearly.

[[caption-width-right:275:You wouldn't mind if I read these highly sensitive documents with my beard, would you?]]

[[caption-width-right:275:Is it alright if I hold these highly sensitive documents up to my beard?]]

[[caption-width-right:275:Is it a beard? Or is it a camera? No one will guess that it is both!]]

--->'''Strong Sad:''' (''to Strong Mad'') When did you start wearing a class ring?\\

* In ''VideoGame/{{GoldenEye|1997}} 007'', an objective in one level requires you to place a tracking device on a helicopter. The bug is actually the same color as the helicopter and specially designed to be undetectable -- but the game isn't programmed to notice if you place the bug on the ''windshield''.
** Not to mentioned the "covert" modem in the Dam level, which is enormous, as is required to be planted right on the monitor of a computer.
** Averted in [[VideoGame/GoldenEye2010 the remake]], where Bond places his GPS-enabled smartphone on the helicopter's landing gear in a cutscene. Played straight with the security cameras, which have highly-visible lights showing their field of vision.
** In ''VideoGame/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', you plant rather obvious bugs on the phones in Elektra's mansion.

* And again in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', once unobtrusively and once inserted into an open wound by Ocelot. Ocelot's transmitter ''would'' be pretty hard to find, if it weren't for the fact that you have to manually heal your wounds, and the transmitter shows up as... well, as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a transmitter in a wound]]. Leaving it in means you have to sneak past several enemies in an area that would be unoccupied otherwise, but grants an extra cutscene when Snake meets up with EVA where she finds the transmitter and helps remove it in [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the most innuendo-laden manner the devs could think of]].

'''Loo:''' We can raise the money, that's no problem. ''(pulls down the boom mike and speaks directly into it)'' [[AndThatWouldBeWrong BUT THAT WOULD BE WRONG]]!

* Lampooned in ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' season 2 episode, "Coach Fussel's Lament", in which The Tick orders a "Fiend Finder" which is an Incredibly Obvious Bug with matching tracker. On the other hand, what would you expect from surveillance equipment purchased with ''breakfast cereal box tops?''

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E13HomerAndApu Homer and Apu]]" an undercover Homer is sent in to record health violations at the Kwik-E-Mart, wearing "a camera so small, it fits into this oversize novelty hat." Said camera also emits an audible buzzing noise and is incredibly heavy, which causes the user to have trouble balancing it (in fact it's ''so'' heavy that using it for over 20 minutes causes ''permanent neck damage''). Apu notices easily and tricks Homer into throwing it down and stomping it. Yet he makes the mistake of walking up to it after putting a hot dog that fell on the floor back on the rack and saying, "Now, this is just between me and you, smashed hat."

[[caption-width-right:275:[-"You wouldn't mind if I read this top secret document with my beard, would you?"-] ]]

* ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'':
** {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' and ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', where the bug is fired from a gun as one of a number of standard bullets and is unobtrusive after attaching.
** Subverted (or possibly played straight) with Tachikomas, which are twice the size of a normal person, and are used to spy frequently. However, they have stealth technology, making them invisible to the naked eye, and can WallCrawl.

* Parodied and taken UpToEleven in "A Fistful of Yen", the ''Film/EnterTheDragon'' parody from ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie''. The hero engages in conversation with the woman he's there to rescue while she points out the bugs in his room, starting with a visible but not-so-obvious one in a bouquet of flowers and moving on to really obvious (but not totally ridiculous) one on the lamp, progressing to studio microphones on the side of pictures, a boom mike overhead, a technician in the corner waving a big listening device around, and finally an annex to his room holding an entire audio studio with technicians wearing headphones.