“Move along, folks! Nothing to see here!” is what police might say to onlookers of a traffic accident. The line became so familiar by the 1980s that it was parodied in the film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988). In the film, a series of spectacular explosions occurs at a fireworks factory, but Detective Lieutenant Frank Drebin tells the crowd: “Nothing to see here! Please disperse!”
 
“Nothing to see here!” achieved enormous popularity in the 1990s and 2000s. Its use in political blogs becomes frequently a parody of a political coverup. The politician covering up a scandal assures that there is “nothing to see—move along!”
   
   
Television Tropes & Idioms
Move Along Nothing To See Here
Come on, people, move along, nothin’ to see h- OH MY GOD, a flaming plane crash!! Come on, crowd around!
— Chief Wiggum, The Simpsons
 
The standard line used by police officers keeping people away from something interesting.
 
Film
. Used by the Men In Black to uphold their Masquerade.
. Parodied in The Naked Gun, where Frank Drebin tries to do this in front of an exploding fireworks factory.
. Uttered by Porky Pig at the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as the original form of his catch phrase, “Th-th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”
. Invoked in Finding Nemo by the stingray teacher to keep the fish away from a fight brewing between Nemo and his Overprotective Dad Marlin.
. And, of course, there’s Obi-Wan in Star Wars using the Jedi Mind Trick to convince a Stormtrooper to tell Obi-Wan and Luke to “move along.”
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Western Animation
. Used and subverted by Police Chief Clancy Wiggum in The Simpsons, see the page quote.
. This was Officer Barbrady’s Catch Phrase in the early seasons of South Park: “Move along, people. Nothing to see here. Go home, you looky-loos.” He was even saying it during the Apocalypse in The Movie.
   
The Naked Gun Script (1988)
All right, move on!
Nothing to see here!
Please disperse!           
Nothing to see here. Please!
 
20 June 1989, Syracuse (NY) Herald-Journal, “Spare us and save players the embarrassment” by Bill Schlotter, pg. C3, col. 1:
I’ll be the one outside the gate, giving would-be customers the same spiel police officers give gawkers at a terrible accident: “Move along now, folks. There’s nothing to see here.”
         
Google News Archive
27 August 1992, St. Petersburg (FL) Times, “Watson: chain’s last link” by John Romano, pg. C1, col. 2:
GAINESVILLE—Jim Watson is playing traffic cop, shooing away nosy onlookers. When a crowd gathers to gawk at what remains of Florida’s offensive line, the junior guard may as well pull out the bullhorn and offer reassurance.
 
“Nothing to see here, folks. Keep moving. Go about your own business.”
 
9 March 1995, Syracuse (NY) Herald-Journal, pg. B2, col. 6:
“The Mangler” is such a bad accident that there should have been a cop positioned out front saying something like, “All right, folks, move along. Nothing to see here, just move along.” Easily one of the worst movies of all time.
 
AlterNet
Posted by Brave New Foundation at 4:51 pm
April 22, 2010
Nothing to See Here, Folks: Covering Up a Massacre in Afghanistan
 
Blogger News network
Move Along Folks…Nothing To See Here
Posted on July 5th, 2010 by Ronald Williams in Op-ed, US Government News, US Politics
As we close in on our Independence Day, it is becoming increasingly clear that our independence and sovereignty are under direct attack.  Almost every day there is a new episode of violence on our nations borders.  As I write this article, the top story in the news is a shootout between rival cartels on the Mexico-Arizona border.
   
Big Journalism
JournoList, Shame of a Nation: Nothing to See Here, Folks
Posted by Christian Toto Jul 29th 2010 at 7:22 am in Featured Story, Journolist, Mainstream Media
You have to give mainstream journalists credit. No matter how high the evidence of liberal bias stacks up, they stick to the notion they don’t play favorites.
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The same old “nothing to see here, folks” reportage followed the drip-drip-drip reports by The Daily Caller.