...seven feet of grinning, snarly beast leaps from behind the two-foot-wide tree. Lions really are sneaky bastards like that.
The ability of animated characters to hide behind items clearly smaller than they are, be it a tree, a lamp post or a drawing pin. Perhaps they disappear into hammerspace?
Sometimes two characters will lurk behind the same narrow object, clearly unable to see each other back there. Frequently the front end of one will emerge from one side, while the rear end of the second waggles out the other side. Or both front ends will emerge, spot one another, and resume the Chase Scene.
Tree Cover is a related trope, done seriously, and generally at least plausibly (courtesy of a nice thick tree).
Not to be confused with Driving Stick.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Kanon: Makoto tries this. It doesn't work — she is quite obviously behind the lamp post.
- Sailor Moon: "The Arrival of a Small Pretty Guardian": While spying on Rei, all the girls manage to maneuver themselves via crouching to hide behind the waitress. Though Rei catches them, they get points for being able to evade her sight for so long.
Asian Animation
- Lamput:
- In "Thief", the thief manages to hide behind a bus stop sign post to steal Ms. Lipstick's purse despite being logically too large to fit behind it.
- In "Rival Doc", the docs hide behind a pole when they see Rival Doc carrying Lamput after walking by the dog, and they are both able to show up partially from behind it.
- In "A Case of Mistaken Identity", as Specs Doc, Skinny Doc, Lamput, and the thief sneak around to find the blue guy without being getting caught by Mr. Moustache, the thief keeps hiding behind signposts when he logically shouldn't be able to. The docs only manage it once.
Comic Strips
- Averted for humour in Beetle Bailey twice.
- Beetle has a hunch Sarge is watching him from hiding... mainly because Sarge is far too obese to fit behind the object he's standing behind, and the attempt just looks silly.
- Another time, inverse to the above, Beetle annoys Sarge by letting him know he's hiding behind a pole that can hide him because he's so much thinner. (Kind of played straight, sort of accidentally, in that the pole doesn't quite look thick enough to really cover him. But it's nothing like as extreme as the usual example, and the idea is that only someone so skinny could do it.)
- Calvin and Hobbes:
- One strip shows Hobbes hiding behind a standard lamp as he sneaks up on Calvin.
- Lampshaded when Calvin tries hiding behind a swing set but notices that the poles don't do a good job of hiding him.
- Both Garfield and Odie hide behind a lamp in one Sunday strip.
- In one Krazy Kat Sunday strip, Krazy hides (from the stork) behind an egg roughly the size of Krazy's head.
- Spoofed in two early Peanuts strips — Charlie Brown first tries this with a normal-sized tree but it doesn't work because his enormous round head protrudes on both sides of the trunk, so in the second example he finds a tree with a big square sign nailed to it at the right height...
Eastern Animation
- In Caliph-Stork, advisers hid behind very narrow pillars.
Fanfiction
- Thirty Hs: A ten-foot-tall character appears "from behind nothing much".
Film — Animated
- The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy hides behind a lamp while spying on the Little Red-Haired Girl.
- Yellow Submarine: A couple of times Ringo hides behind lampposts.
- Coraline: The cat can do this, teleporting by vanishing behind one object and then appearing from behind another.
Film — Live-Action
- Hans Richter's 1928 short film Ghosts Before Breakfast features a number of men disappearing behind a lamppost.
- Danger Has Two Faces, a police drama, has a final shootout in a forest with the protagonist, his Friend on the Force, and the hero's young son (kidnapped by the baddies and just rescued) taking cover from enemy fire by standing a straight row behind a tree. They eventually decide to stand on each other's shoulders because said tree isn't wide enough.
- The Direct Line: In the final shootout, the Action Girl protagonist (played by Yukari Oshima) takes cover from 3 mobsters shooting at her, behind a pillar barely as thick as her waist. Somehow, it works, with NONE of the bullets fired hitting her.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The hobbits are hiding from a Black Rider. The Rider actually emerges from behind a tree instead of riding in from the right side of the screen as you would expect, despite said tree being too small to hide the Rider and his horse.
- Seemingly spoofed in Power Connection, with three people (the two Cowboy Cop protagonists and an innocent nurse bystander in between them) hiding behind a narrow pillar during a shootout. The shooter is firing away with an Uzi, and all three of them try to align themselves to avoid being shot.
- The Villain: Cactus Jack, being primarily inspired by Looney Tunes, does this at one point, with the title character and his horse hiding behind a cactus.
- A non-stealthy variation occurs in True Lies, when Butt-Monkey Gib is forced to step behind a lamppost when a terrorist opens fire on him. Despite said terrorist scoring several hits on the lamppost — and Gib being noticeably wider than it — he emerges unscathed when the terrorist runs off (though he does a quick body check to make sure everything is intact).
- In the Silent Movie Big Moments from Little Pictures, a group of policemen (an imitation of The Keystone Cops) dash behind a stack of barrels, which is large enough to hide them all with the right camera angle. But the stack is nowhere NEAR big enough to hide the car that then drives out from behind it (around the 23 second mark)
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Jokes
- One physical humor joke involves placing two knuckles on either side of an upright finger and asking the viewer to identify what it's depicting. The answer, of course, is "Dolly Parton hiding behind a tree." (Substitute any other well-known busty woman, as appropriate.)
- "Have you ever seen an elephant hiding behind a lamppost?" "No." "They're so damn good at hiding..."
Literature
- The Killer Angels (and the film adaptation Gettysburg). General Pickett amuses his fellow officers with a tale of how he witnessed a long line of soldiers taking shelter from artilery fire behind a single tree, and how the line would sway from one side or the other every time a cannonball shot past.
- Worth the Candle features a monstrous variety of unicorn, with a variety of magical powers, including the ability to slip behind one tree and emerge by another — effectively teleporting while presenting as this trope.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: "Time-Flight": The Master's TARDIS takes the form of a black classical column that is only just wide enough for him to stand behind unseen, and too narrow to include any kind of normal door.
- Odd Squad: The tube entrances seem to be behind all sorts of impossible nooks and crannies. Many times are the agents crawling behind a tree or a pole that's way too small to actually conceal them.
- Sesame Street had a closing credit sequence in which Barkley the dog played hide-and-seek with a large group of children, who hid behind a tree too narrow to conceal them all.
- The ITV live-action children's series Woof! had a variation where walking past a pole hid the main character long enough to allow him to transform into his dog form. Though this was probably due to technical restrictions on this mid-90s low-budget series.
Myths and Folklore
- The Hide-Behind of American folklore is a forest creature able to contort its body to hide behind any of the myriad trees, bushes, rocks, and other objects of its environment while stalking its prey.
Pinball
- Foo Fighters (2023): One animation that plays during "Holding Poison" shows a band member hiding behind a road sign that should be far too thin to obscure him.
Tabletop Games
- Starting in 3rd Edition, some character classes in Dungeons & Dragons could get the Hide In Plain Sight ability, which allowed them to hide even if there was nothing for them to hide behind and even while hostile creatures were looking directly at them.
- Explicitly possible in the tabletop RPG Toon. If you succeed on a Hide/Spot Hidden skill check, then you are hidden. Somehow. It doesn't matter whether there's something you could have plausibly hidden behind. In fact, the skill is demonstrated in the rule book by an illustration of an elephant hiding from a hunter behind a parking meter.
- Warhammer 40,000: Lord General Ursarkar E. Creed had the "Tactical Genius" special rule, which allowed you to give any unit an outflanking maneuver to sneakily enter the battle from an unexpected quarter. This arguably included superheavy vehicles (there was some controversy over the validity of this, as most superheavies were simply too big to use Tactical Genius from a strict interpretation of the rule). Nonetheless, the fandom ran with it, interpreting the situation much like this trope. A related meme is to scream CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!! as you reveal your unit, since Creed is so notorious for this ability, both in and out of canon.
Video Games
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The player may take cover behind walls, unrealistically bulletproof cars...and random detritus like fire hydrants and miniature bookshelves.
- Improbable Island:
- Your first encounter with the sneaky bastard lion starts with you spotting its signature tail poking out from behind a two-foot-wide tree. Upon hearing your terrified mutterings, the seven-foot-long feline leaps at you. Lions are sneaky bastards, of course they can do that. Later encounters find the lion hiding in such diverse places as a sandwich and your underwear.
- Subverted in a later encounter with the same lion: You find a flowerpot with a suspicious pair of feline ears sticking out of it and call the lion out for thinking it's so clever — only to be pounced In the Back, as the lion had actually stuck an Animal-Eared Headband on the pot so it could ambush you while you were distracted thinking you'd figured it out. It actually mocks you for thinking it could possibly have fit in the pot.
- Invisible, Inc.: All cover objects are treated equally in terms of concealment. Things like bookshelves, lockers, refrigerators and sofas make good cover, but agents can also use floor lamps, coffee tables, folding chairs, and even transparent glass holding cells just as effectively.
- Justice League Heroes: The Flash: Occasionally, when you break a traffic light, a Mecha-Mook will be revealed as either having been hiding behind it or inside of it, despite the fact that the robot is several times wider than the post.
- Mass Effect 2: As Thane's loyalty mission starts, he manages to vanish completely behind two passers-by, each walking in opposite directions.
- ''The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu": One of the enemy types is a Centurlike Wendigo creature that can teleport by walking behind trees thinner than it is and emerging from behind others as long as you and your teammates can't see behind the tree it walks behind.
- Undertale: Sans tells the player character to go hide behind a "conveniently-shaped lamp" (i.e. shaped exactly like the player character) as Papyrus approaches. It fully conceals the player character, but only during the cutscene.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: A Leshen you fight during one of your witcher contracts does this in a cutscene before the boss fight. Geralt can see it in the distance standing next to a tree, it walks behind the tree and emerges from behind another tree right next to him.
Webcomics
- Parodied in Bar'd, where the entire staff of the Leafy Bar sans Shelia tries to hide behind a tiny plant from Dejero, the true boss of the joint.
- Played with in Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire.
- At one point, an alien ninja (and the narration points out that every culture in the universe has its own version of ninja) is sneaking down a passage, then decides to hide in a small, somewhat shady corner... which shouldn't by any rationale be able to hide him. When he gets close to it, however, the dozens of other ninja already hiding in there tell him to go away.
- He also pulls it off straight shortly after.
- In this strip for The Whiteboard, during a paintball match Bandit peeks out from behind a tree that in no way is thick enough to actually hide him, even with his normal slenderness. His peeking out almost makes it look like his head and neck are sprouting from the tree like a branch.
Web Original
- 1d4Chan, taking the Warhammer 40,000 rule that "tactical genius" Lord Ursarkar Creed can infiltrate anything (except cavalry), notes that he could hide a Baneblade behind a light post, a Titan in a swimming pool, or an army under your desk.
- Bern Grill - uomo contronatura: Bern Grill manages to hide from his captor by hiding behind a tree which is not only thinner than he is, but whose trunk is also oblique. He then attempts to attack his kidnapper, but he's spotted before he can do it.
- The self-billed "Honest Politician" Gil Fulbright has a series of satirical videos that include a tendency to walk out from behind a tree to promote his political campaigns (and it may be worth noting that he's on the hefty side). For his presidential campaign video, it escalates at the end to stepping out from behind a tiny tree that's clearly smaller than him.
- Done a few times on Homestar Runner. At least twice, characters have managed to hide behind The Stick, an aptly-named local "landmark" consisting of a stick stuck in the ground. In one Strong Bad Email, "hiding", as part of a game of hide-and-seek, Strong Mad hid behind himself hiding behind The Stick. However, the fake Strong Mad was visible.
Strong Bad: Uh, Strong Mad? Buddy? That's the same spot you hide in every time we play.
(Strong Mad emerges from behind "himself")
Strong Mad: DAWWW!
Strong Bad: Whoa! Did you make a hiding spot out of you hiding in your usual hiding spot? To hide behind?
Strong Mad: I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT!
Strong Bad: (sarcastically) And it was well worth your time. - The Mercury Men: Edward attempts this, hiding behind a two-inch-wide narrow pole.
- In The Winglet's "Micro-Mann", when the RED Spy confronts the BLU Spy, both the Soldier and Scout suddenly appear from behind the RED Spy's back. Not only were they clearly not there when the camera was panning up from the Spy's feet, the Spy was invisible mere seconds ago.
Western Animation
- Spoofed in an untitled animated short, in which a character hides behind a thin flagpole. His pursuers run by, and the camera moves in behind the pole, revealing at least four other people along with the character in a lavish room with several large chairs and a fireplace. One of the others inquires who he's hiding from.
- This is one of the oldest tropes in animation history, dating back to Charles-Émile Reynaud's pioneering 1894 cartoon Pauvre Pierrot. When Harlequin's romantic rival Pierrot shows up, Harlequin hides behind an impossibly thin marble column.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: "The Voice": When Gumball admits to asking Darwin to make a surrogate confession to Penny, he comes out from behind a football goalpost. The former two try to do this in "The Guy", but are still visible.
- Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes stable were fond of this.
- A common joke they would also have is where a character based on Frank Sinatra would be able to do this behind his microphone stand. Not as a trick, but because he's just that skinny.
- In Confusions of a Nutzy Spy, Missing Lynx manages to replicate himself for a moment by looking out from both sides of a tree at once.
- Downplayed in Basket Fever, episode 12, when Hooper hides behind a basketball goal pole. As he is a thin anthropomorphic grasshopper, he looks more or less of just the right size to hide behind it.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy:
- "Three Squares and An Ed": Parodied. It features a rare example of displaying the back of the pole. The Eds alter their anatomy to resemble that of spaghetti while using the banisters in Ed's house to sneak past Sarah and Jimmy (who are trying to make sure the grounded Ed stays in his room). This manages to look hilarious and oddly creepy at the same time.
- The Ed-Touchables: Eddy and Edd hide behind a pole while Ed keeps banging into it.
- Fanboy and Chum Chum: "Total Recall": The rotund Oz hide behind a thin lamppost.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: "Bloo Done It": Defied. Bloo tries to sneakily follow Uncle Pockets and we see an object the perfect shape and size for him to hide behind, but he instead hides behind a lamp that doesn't cover him at all (also he's on the wrong side). When Bloo mentally revisits this scene he was properly hidden behind the lamp because he was wearing an invisibility cloak.
- A Gravity Falls short features Dipper investigating the Hide-Behind, a tall, skinny creature that can fold its body up so as to hide behind just about anything.
- Used on Jimmy Two-Shoes, including Heloise popping out of the thin-as-a-pole Jimmy.
- Molly of Denali: "Tooth or Consequences": Tooey uses a branch to hide his face while sneaking into the bunkhouse.
- My Life as a Teenage Robot: "Victim of Fashion": The Crust Cousins realize that Jenny's one fashion weakness is that she can't cut down on her mass, so to beat her they have to make thin fashionable. The next day, they debut their new outfits with an emphasis on their slimming effect by stepping out of hiding from behind a metal fence and a young tree.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- "Green Isn't Your Color": Pinkie Pie repeatedly hides in places where she can't possibly fit, such as a small apple stand and a basket of sponges.
- "Feeling Pinkie Keen": Pinkie Pie is seen hiding under a rock, despite the rock still touching the ground with no gap underneath.
- "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows": Pinkie Pie hid herself and a large wagon loaded up with baked goods behind a thin tree.
- The Owl House: Edric and Emira have a habit of appearing directly from behind their little sister Amity, whom they are both almost a head taller than.
- Private Snafu: In "A Few Quick Facts about Fear", Snafu and his warhorse manage to behind a tree trunk that is far narrower than the horse is wide.
- ReBoot has Bob do this while inside a pirate ship's prison cell to make the pirates think he's escaped. It's implied that Mouse had hacked that cell when she was previously forced to occupy it and installed Hammerspace into it.
- Shaun the Sheep: "Cock-a-Doodle Shaun": Shaun and Bitzer hide behind a very narrow tree while trailing a fox who raided the henhouse.
- Sidney the Elephant: Sick, Sick Sidney: Sidney tries to hide from safari hunters by getting behind a very thin tree. However, Sidney is too fat and thus unsuccessful, saying "Oh they just don't make trees like they used to."
- The Simpsons: "Grift of the Magi": Fat Tony steps out from behind a tree sapling after hearing that the school would need construction for a wheelchair ramp.
- "The Fool Monty": Mr. Burns steps out from behind the microphone stand.
- "The Frying Game": An EPA agent pops out from behind a thin tree when the Simpsons find a screamapillar in their backyard.
- "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming": Sideshow Bob manages to hide behind a sculpture of jet planes in flight that conveniently resembles his silhouette.
- Tex Avery shorts:
- "Northwest Hounded Police": An escaped convict has been trying in vain to get away from Droopy, and eventually ends up on a tiny island with only two small rocks.
Convict: (to the audience) Yeah, I know. (points to the larger rock) He'll probably be right under that rock.
Droopy: (popping up from beneath the smaller rock) Nope, under this one. - In the short Caballero Droopy, the villain jumps out from behind a cactus to stick Droopy up. Later, he goes behind the cactus and comes back out riding his horse.
- One Ham's Family has the wolf hiding behind a thin tree, then coming out disguised as Santa Claus.
- "Northwest Hounded Police": An escaped convict has been trying in vain to get away from Droopy, and eventually ends up on a tiny island with only two small rocks.
- Done in at least one Tom and Jerry short (and probably many more), in which the front and rear ends of the titular characters emerged from round the side of the pole in various combinations before either of them realised what was happening.
- Total Drama: "Hide and Be Sneaky": Lindsay's first hiding spot is behind a thin tree. She has her arms stretched to look like branches, but all the same the tree should be too thin by a quarter for her head, chest, and hips. Yet it isn't, which is blatant when Lindsay leaves her hiding spot to join Heather in the main lodge.
- Wacky Races (1968): "Beat the Clock to Yellow Rock": At one point has a scene where Dick Dastardly and Muttley manage to hide behind a cactus that's much thinner than both of them.
- Willie Whopper: Spite Flight: A Simon Legree-type villainous landlord leans out of his improbable hiding spot behind a 2-inch-thick tree trunk.