Fauxdian Slip



""Well, your story is VERY compelling, Mr. Jackass, I mean, Simpson...""

- Police Chief Wiggum, from The Simpsons, in response to Homer's claim of seeing a space alien.

On the one hand there's the Freudian Slip, where a character means to say thing A but says thing B by accident, likely because B reflects on what is really on their mind.

But in this case, a character says thing B on purpose, and "pretends" (whether as a matter of deceptive intentions or just sarcastically) that it was an accident. Basically, this is for when a character wants to openly express the kind of thing that a character who makes a Freudian Slip is trying to keep to himself/herself.

Compare Cough Trope Cough, which is often used for similar purposes.

Live Action TV
"Rachel: Here you go, Officer Handsome. Officer: It's Hanson. Rachel: Whoops, my mistake. (Later) Ross: Here you go, Officer, uh, Pretty. Officer: It's Petty. Ross: Whoops. (nervous giggle)"
 * Rachel (and then later, Ross) trying to flirt their way out of a ticket, in one episode of Friends.

"Maggie Sheffield: But Chloe said... Fran Fine: I know what Chloe said, but we'll cross that bitch when we get to it."
 * Babylon 5 has Bester use this to reveal that Talia Winters . Whether this was true or not is never made known.
 * In The Nanny episode "Maggie the Model", Fran attempts to let Maggie down easy after Maggie bombs as a potential model:

Film

 * Bruce Almighty: "Evan Backstabber...Bastard...Baxter!"
 * Moulin Rouge; Nini outing Satine and Christian to the Duke ("Why would the courtesan go for the penniless writer? Whoops! I mean sitar player!").

Web Comics

 * Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal provides the page image.

Web Original
"General betray us - sorry, REALLY big frog in my throat there - General "Petraeus...""
 * From this video from The Amazing Atheist:

Western Animation

 * The Simpsons, of course, provides the page quotation.

Real Life

 * Cicero used this in his speech in defense of Caelius, who had been accused of several crimes by his ex-lover Clodia. Clodia was the sister of one of Cicero's bitterest political enemies, and it was rumoured there was a Brother-Sister Incest relationship among the siblings. In his speech, Cicero said at one moment: "And, indeed, I would do so still more vigorously, if I had not a quarrel with that woman's husband - brother, I meant to say; I am always making this mistake."