Comedy of Errors: Difference between revisions

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* [[Suggestive Collision]]

== Anime & Manga ==

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== Live Action TV ==

* Just one of many from ''[[~~Threes~~ Company (TV)|Threes Company]]'' (which made so much use of this that it was the [[Trope Namer]] at one point): Mr. Furley, the landlord, overhears Jack and Chrissy trying to hang a shower curtain in the bathroom, which begins with Chrissy saying something like "You'd better get into the tub with me so we can get it on" and "come on, I'll show you what to do". As Jack is permitted by the landlord to live with two women only because he is supposedly gay, [[Hilarity Ensues]]. Chrissy then falls, hits her head and is rushed to the hospital, and her roommates misunderstand the doctor and she is [[Mistaken for Dying]].

* Just one of many from ''[[Three's Company (TV)|Threes Company]]'' (which made so much use of this that it was the [[Trope Namer]] at one point): Mr. Furley, the landlord, overhears Jack and Chrissy trying to hang a shower curtain in the bathroom, which begins with Chrissy saying something like "You'd better get into the tub with me so we can get it on" and "come on, I'll show you what to do". As Jack is permitted by the landlord to live with two women only because he is supposedly gay, [[Hilarity Ensues]]. Chrissy then falls, hits her head and is rushed to the hospital, and her roommates misunderstand the doctor and she is [[Mistaken for Dying]].

** This troper's absolute favorite example involved the episode when the main characters met the British [[Ventriloquism|Ventriloquist]] Leslie and his puppet Pamela. Because he kept Pamela a secret for certain reasons (she was kept in a large suitcase that he would not let anyone touch), several misunderstandings came out. First Pamela was mistaken by Jack as Leslie's [[Outlaw Couple|crime partner]] after reading a news article on the "Duke and Duchess" (Leslie was mistaken for being the "Duke"), then she's mistaken for being Leslie's girlfriend when Jack lets Janet and Terri hear Pamela's (actually Leslie's) voice through his bedroom wall. The [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] of the episode was a case of [[Mistaken for Murderer]] when the trio break into Leslie's apartment, and Jack opens the suitcase thinking that's where Leslie kept the stolen money in, only to pull out Pamela's hand. Cue the trio screaming in terror and fleeing the scene in the most [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarious fashion]].

*** This was lampshaded in an early episode of ''[[Friends]]'' (who would later still use this trope plenty anyway):

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* In the "Death of a Bailiff" episode of ''[[Night Court]]'', Bull gives away all his possessions after a near-death experience in which he thinks God said to him "Give to the poor, and thou shalt have riches in heaven." It was actually a person Bull was feeding cable to, who said over a walkie-talkie "Give me some more; I'll shout when it reaches eleven."

* ''[[Coupling]]'' does this a bit, too: Sally approaches Patrick's bisexual girlfriend, trying to get a confession that she "fooled around" with Jeff (when no such thing had occurred), and the girlfriend thinks Sally is hitting on her; Jeff talks about how Jane's clinginess to Steve means "he's got an unflushable", and Susan, who just met Steve in the bathroom, thinks it means something else entirely.

** In another episode, Steve and Susan are watching a TV show which mentions the number of men who continue to masturbate when in a committed relationship. In the awkward silence that follows, Steve starts [[Not So Innocent Whistle|whistling]], in an attempt to seem relaxed. He justifies it by saying that he felt like some music but wasn't in the mood for a whole CD. "Sometimes you want a full orchestra, and sometimes you just want a... quick whistle?" Susan tells him that she doesn't mind his whistling, as long as he doesn't get "whistled out." Later in the episode, Susan's parents come round for a visit, and Susan tells them about how Steve has started whistling to himself. Her father brings it up with Steve, referring to it as "going solo," and Steve interprets it how you'd imagine. This leads to the classic line, "If music be the food of love, then masturbation is just a quick snack between meals." who suddenly start talking about whistling. Steve eventually throws them out after her dad said that he shouldn't whistle to much or else he'll be too tired to ''pucker''. Which he misheard for... well, [[You Know What I Mean|you know]].

** In another episode, Steve and Susan are watching a TV show which mentions the number of men who continue to masturbate when in a committed relationship. In the awkward silence that follows, Steve starts [[Not-So-Innocent Whistle|whistling]], in an attempt to seem relaxed. He justifies it by saying that he felt like some music but wasn't in the mood for a whole CD. "Sometimes you want a full orchestra, and sometimes you just want a... quick whistle?" Susan tells him that she doesn't mind his whistling, as long as he doesn't get "whistled out." Later in the episode, Susan's parents come round for a visit, and Susan tells them about how Steve has started whistling to himself. Her father brings it up with Steve, referring to it as "going solo," and Steve interprets it how you'd imagine. This leads to the classic line, "If music be the food of love, then masturbation is just a quick snack between meals." who suddenly start talking about whistling. Steve eventually throws them out after her dad said that he shouldn't whistle to much or else he'll be too tired to ''pucker''. Which he misheard for... well, [[You Know What I Mean|you know]].

* Justified in an ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' episode. Cordelia is magically shown several conversations her teammates have about her by the demon Skip, all of them seemingly very insulting towards her. However, Skip is actually deliberately showing her very specific parts of the conversations taken out of context for his own agenda.

* Averted in ''[[Little Mosque On the Prairie (TV)|Little Mosque On the Prairie]]'': Fatima overhears a conversation between Rayyan and JJ -- "why not do it now, we're gonna do it after the wedding anyway..." "after the wedding, I want to do it right in front of my parents!" -- and correctly guesses that they're talking about when they should open their wedding presents.