History Main / TheInspectorIsComing

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In George [=McDonald=] Fraser's semi-autobiographical tales of Army life, ''The General Danced At Dawn'', the General of the title story is conducting a full inspection of the Gordon Highlanders, who lurch from one catastrophe to another. The only things that save the Scottish soldiers are Highland dancing and bagpipe music - at the General's instigation, the Regiment dance progressively longer and more complex Highland dances until they break the world record with a 256-some. This pulls in Arabs and German prisoners-of-war to make up the numbers.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': The beginning of "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back".

** Played with in "Nasty Patty". Mr. Krabs becomes convinced that a health inspector visiting the Krusty Krab is actually a fraud, who's been scamming them to obtain free food, and he and [=SpongeBob=] take revenge by serving him the most disgusting Krabby Patty they can think of. It turns out he's the real deal - but by the time they realise this, the patty has already (seemingly) killed him. HilarityEnsues as they try to dispose of the NotQuiteDead body.
** In "The Krusty Sponge", the Krusty Krab gets a visit from a prominent food critic. Despite everyone's best efforts, the critic dislikes everything there except for [=SpongeBob=], which leads to Mr. Krabs going overboard with making everything [=SpongeBob=]-themed, down to serving rotten patties that look yellow and spongy.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', one of the ThievesGuild quests involves you putting rat poison into a meadery's still so they ''fail'' inspection, and a competitor (your client) can buy up the defunct business.

* ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'': a "rich" socialite from back home comes to visit the Clampetts, with the Hidden Agenda of trying to [[GoldDigger marry Jed for his money]]. She gives the place the once over.
-->'''Adeline''': I just wanted to see where some of these things is from. I see most of 'em is from France and England.\\
'''Granny''': That's good, isn't it?\\
'''Adeline''': Not to me. All my stuff comes from much further away than that. It's [[MadeInCountryX made in Japan]].

** [[Recap/FawltyTowersS1E4TheHotelInspectors "The Hotel Inspectors"]]: Basil mistakes an officious idiot for a hotel inspector. He does not react well when he discovers he has been buttering up an ordinary guest - and exacts retribution against him in front of three real hotel inspectors.

* Used twice in ''Series/FawltyTowers'':
** "The Hotel Inspectors" has Basil mistaking an officious idiot for a hotel inspector. He does not react well when he discovers he has been buttering up an ordinary guest - and exacts retribution against him in front of three real hotel inspectors.
** "Basil the Rat" features a surprise visit from the health inspector; Basil initially does not recognise him and thinks he is sniffing the raw meat in the fridge because he is a scavenger.

[[folder:Fan Works]]

* ''Fanfic/TheMLPLoops'': In the first "Daughters" loop, Twilight Sparkle is Queen of Equestria, while the Cutie Mark Crusaders are her daughters. She leaves them alone for a thousand years while she goes off doing science, and they create a {{utopia}} based largely around the WildTeenParty. They only remember she's coming ''back'' at the last minute, and have to clean up a thousand years of parties in a day.
-->'''Princess Diamond Tiara:''' In just a few hours, Queen Twilight Sparkle will return to Equestria. She is a threat to our way of life.\\
'''Rarity:''' Define threat?\\
'''Princess Nyx:''' She doesn't approve of noisy, fun, all night parties.\\
'''Pinkie:''' ''[gasps]''

[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDaltons'': in the episode "Inspecteur Dalton", the Daltons' grandma pretends to be an inspector who has to visit the penitentiary... and Peabody believes her. When the actual inspector comes, he gets treated like an impostor and imprisoned.

** In the first one, "Inspection Detection", they pass at the last moment when Timmy quickly makes a lot of wishes for them to grant, though not before Timmy [[ClearMyName had to prove]] to his [[AdultsAreUseless parents]] and [[PoliceAreUseless the police]] he [[MistakenForThief didn't shoplift his wished items from a local department store]] and [[TheBully]], Francis, was the real perpetrator.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has two episodes in which Cosmo and Wanda receive an inspection from Jorgen Von Strangle. In the first one, "Inspection Detection", they pass at the last moment when Timmy quickly makes a lot of wishes for them to grant. In the second one, "Where's Wanda", Cosmo passes, but Wanda is given a level 14 probation and sent back to fairy school.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In one ''Donald Duck]]'' story, the restaurant where Donald works expects a visit from a restaurant inspector. When a man dressed in a fancy suit arrives, Donald suspects him to be the inspector and goes to great lengths to please the man, all while inconveniencing and ignoring another guest. Eventually, that other guest is revealed to be the real inspector, who by now is so fed up by Donald's antics and the poor services that he takes away ''all'' of the restaurants stars, and the man in the suit turns out to be just a traveling salesman.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has two episodes in which Cosmo and Wanda receives an inspection from Jorgen Von Strangle. In the first one, "Inspection Detection", they pass at the last moment when Timmy quickly makes a lot of wishes for them to grant. In the second one, "Where's Wanda", Cosmo passes, but Wanda is given a level 14 probation and send back to fairy school.

* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'': one episode the Shore Shack is visited by an inspector, who lowers the shack's rating because Raymundo uses a surf board as an improvised lid for the trash cans outside.

** In one episode, a health inspector visits the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs and Spongebob "kill" him with a bad Krabby Patty (thinking he was the fake inspector mentioned on TV) and try to bury him, but he's still alive.
** In another episode, the Krusty Krab gets a visit from a prominent food critic. Despite everyone's best efforts, the critic dislikes everything there, except for [=SpongeBob=], which leads to Mr. Krabs going overboard with making everything [=SpongeBob=]-themed, down to serving rotten patties that look yellow and spongy.

* RecycledInSpace with ''Allamagoosa'' by Eric Frank Russell. The crew of a spaceship are informed that the Head Inspector will be turning up, and are thrown into a panic because their ship's manifest lists an "offog" among the ship components, and no-one knows what it is. They avert the crisis by building a box with blinking lights and throwing a load of TechnoBabble at the inspector when he asks what the offog does. Then they're told the ship is returning to Earth for a complete overhaul. Knowing the same trick won't work on the engineers carrying out this task, they send a message claiming the offog exploded under gravitational stress. Unfortunately the offog turns out to be a typo for "off. dog" (e.g. the ship's mascot), and all ships are grounded until the problem of how dogs can explode in space is rectified.

* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' has an episode where Bob (the manager of the hotel where Taz is working) expects a hotel critic. Unfortunately, he mistakes WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn for said critic (their names are similar). The mistake isn't discovered until the end of the episode, at which point Taz is ''very'' eager to follow Bob's order to stop Leghorn's hiccups by scaring him.

[[folder: Comics ]]
* In one ''[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Donald Duck]]'' story, the restaurant where Donald works expects a visit from a restaurant inspector. When a man dressed in a fancy suit arrives, Donald suspects him to be the inspector and goes to great lengths to please the man, all while inconveniencing and ignoring another guest. Eventually, that other guest is revealed to be the real inspector, who by now is so fed up by Donald's antics and the poor services that he takes away ''all'' of the restaurants stars, and the man in the suit turns out to be just a traveling salesman.

-->'''Adeline''': I just wanted to see where some of these things is from. I see most of 'em is from France and England.
-->'''Granny''': That's good, isn't it?
-->'''Adeline''': Not to me. All my stuff comes from much further away than that. It's [[MadeInCountryX made in Japan]].

As many - particularly those in retail/customer service environments - can tell you, this is very much TruthInTelevision. Nothing can strike fear into the heart of a retail employee quite like the words "corporate visit."

HilarityEnsues if someone unrelated gets [[MistakenForSpecialGuest mistaken for the inspector]]. For the domestic variation, see HouseInspection. In military settings, see the subtrope TheInquisitorGeneral, while police settings will have InternalAffairs. See also StateVisit.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/Portal2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alert_your_supervisor.png]]]]

** It is, by the way. "Formidablé" is French for "great."

* ''Manga/KomiCantCommunicate'': Nita Shinji and Nita Musubi, who run the Nita Diner gourmet, are aware of a food critic that may potentiallu visit their restaurant and assume Komi Shouko is that person. The actual critic is her friend Agari Himiko, who gives a good review anyways despite the owners giving her bad service because their food was still good.

* ''Manga/KomiCantCommunicate'': Nita Shinji and Nita Musubi, who are Nita Diner gourmet, are aware of a food critic may potential visit their restaurant and assume Komi Shouko is that person. The actual critic is her friend Agari Himiko, who gives a good review anyways despite the owners giving her bad service because their food was still good.

* ''Manga/KomiCantCommunicateOtherCharacters'': Nita Shinji and Nita Musubi, who are Nita Diner gourmet, are aware of a food critic may potential visit their restaurant and assume Komi Shouko is that person. The actual critic is her friend Agari Himiko, who gives a good review anyways despite the owners giving her bad service because their food was still good.

* The plot of ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' episode "An Inspector Calls" revolves around a visit by the Southern Area Inspector. Brittas is concerned due to the abysmally low attendence figures and his case is not helped by him greeting the inspector [[ItMakesSenseInContext covered in eagle blood]]. Luckily for Brittas, the Southern Area Inspector turns out to be [[MirrorCharacter just like him]] (believes in ''the dream'',more interested in cleanliness and noticeboards than attendence figures etc) so he doesn't get fired.