"Professor Pucefoot immediately begins drawing a pointless chalk outline around the body, as is standard protocol."
— Homestuck, describing the trope in a single sentence
Twilight Sparkle: Why is there tape all over the grass?
Phoenix Wright: If it's anything like my world, this is probably where they found Ace Swift's body.
Twilight Sparkle: Ugh... I think I'm going to be sick...
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: (about Bizu—dead) Don't you find it a bit of a coincidence that the body fell perfectly within the chalk outline on the floor?
Gilbert Ponton: I think they drew the chalk outline later.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Ah! We must be working with some kind of mastermind!
"I know! We'll draw chalk around where the body is... that way, we'll know where it was."
—John Mulaney, making fun of obsolete crime-solving methods.
Realising that his symptoms indicated a virtually undetectable, fast acting neurotoxin, CIA coroner Quinn Abner frantically wrote up the details, lay on the floor and, as a professional courtesy, did his best to draw a chalk outline of himself.
— Jeremy Das, Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2019
