Comedy of Errors: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
(split page into category (Mistaken for Index) and supertrope (this page)) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 22:
== Literature ==
* Literary example where a mis-heard conversation made a major difference in the story: in David Weber's short story "Nightfall" in ''[[Honor Harrington|Changer of Worlds]]'', two characters are preparing evidence so that, if it becomes necessary to remove another character (Esther McQueen), they'll have backup. They spend some considerable time talking about the necessity of hiding this action, since they need McQueen and will for some time yet. The final comment of the conversation (approximately, "We'll need this when we pull the trigger on McQueen") is overheard and passed to
** It should be noted the series was to this point [[Horatio Hornblower]] [[In Space]] with Esther McQueen being the expy of Napoleon. This is the story that goes off the plot rails.
Line 40:
** 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]]'' 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]]'': 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!"
* Every episode of the German series ''[[Hausmeister Krause]]''. Yes, all of them.
* The out-of-theater plot to the [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] episode ''[[Mitchell]]'' revolves around this. The Mads have hired Mike Nelson to help with an inventory of the Deep-13 lab beneath the Gizmonic Institute, but they find him insufferable and decide to kill him. Gypsy overhears them plotting and comes to the conclusion that they're plotting the death of Joel and spends the rest of the episode plotting to help Joel escape the Satellite of Love. Thus did Joel leave the series and was replaced by Mike
| |||