Red herring
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- For other uses of "Red herring", see Red herring (disambiguation).
The phrase red herring has a number of metaphorical senses that share the general sense of something being a diversion or distraction from the original objective:
- a type of logical fallacy in which one purports to prove one's point by means of irrelevant arguments. See Ignoratio elenchi.
- in literature, a plot device intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending. See also MacGuffin.
- in detective work, mystery fiction, and puzzle-solving, a false clue which leads investigators, readers, or solvers towards an incorrect solution.
- in adventure games, an item or object of no practical use; its purpose may be to frustrate the gamer who tries to find the intended use for it.
The phrase may have originated from the practice of saving a hunted fox by dragging a red herring across its trail to cause the pursuing hounds to lose the true scent and follow the false trail of herring odour instead. In this context the Oxford English Dictionary records its first written use occurring in 1686 "To draw a red herring across the track". There are however reasons to question this attribution of the metaphor.<ref>Quinion, Michael (2002). The Lure of the Red Herring. WorldWideWords. Retrieved on February 20, 2006.</ref> There also is a nursery rhyme, 'The Man in the Wilderness', in which a man answers the question of how many strawberries grew in the sea with 'As many as red herrings grew in the wood'.
[edit] Cultural references
- In the animated series A Pup Named Scooby Doo, there was a bully character named Red Herring that Fred Jones insisted was behind every crime. Herring would show up after his accusation to prove that he wasn't involved, although he actually was the criminal in at least one case.
- In the murder mystery movie Clue (1985), the phrase "Communism is just a red herring." appears several times as it is learned that frequent allusions to communist ties throughout the movie were disconnected from the actual motives for the murders.
- In The Secret Of Monkey Island a red herring is ironically a key item for progression in the game.
- In Simon the Sorcerer 2, Simon makes a comment about a carriage that he always thought herrings would be fishes.
- In the detective mystery Tex Murphy gets clues about an individual. When he finally meets him, he is seen eating a red herring and says nothing essential about Tex's investigation.
- Infocom's Deadline features a character who spends much of the morning eating red herrings while important events transpire elsewhere.
- Beyond Zork's supplementary work "The Lore and Legends of Quendor" features clue-laden descriptions of several creatures, all of which appear in-game except for the red herring.
[edit] References
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