Social fun-gineering

So, last night I watched Fletch, an amazingly funny movie from the 80's that is one of my all-time favorites. It stars Chevy Chase and is an over the top comedy. But one thing I was thinking about during the movie was about how he acts with people and how they respond. The plot is that Fletch is a investigative reporter that is on the case of a drug dealing scheme. So he uses some ridiculous disguises to go undercover and get answers from people. This is what I think makes the movie hilarious and so classic. Chevy Chase has the ridiculous factor nailed.
What he does is use confusion to get answers and information from people. At one point he gets asked who he is and here is what he says (taken from imdb.com):

Madeline: I'm sorry, who are you again?
Fletch: I'm Frieda's boss.
Madeline: Who's Frieda?
Fletch: My secretary.

Then he abruptly leaves while she is taken back at this circular answer that contains no real information. He does this throughout the movie and uses confusion in what is called social engineering. Social engineering is using people to get information. Usually this means posing as someone your not. A lot of old hackers used this almost more than actually hacking systems. Kevin Mitnick is famous for using social engineering to get user passwords and computer information.
Remembering this, Fletch started to make me think about if this would actually work in real life. I always wished I was better at being absolutely ridiculous, but I guess with a script it would be a lot easier.
But anyways, I just thought it was an interesting concept. Humor and social engineering. It actually makes me want to read a book on it, the Art of Deception. But we'll see. Here's another example of fletch talking his way around a subject:

Dr. Joseph Dolan: You know, it's a shame about Ed.
Fletch: Oh, it was. Yeah, it was really a shame. To go so suddenly like that.
Dr. Joseph Dolan: He was dying for years.
Fletch: Sure, but... the end was very... very sudden.
Dr. Joseph Dolan: He was in intensive care for eight weeks.
Fletch: Yeah, but I mean the very end, when he actually died. That was extremely sudden.