Gossip Evolution: Difference between revisions

* An early chapter in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' had an overheard conversation regarding [[Battle Couple|Negi finding a Partner]] quickly evolve into a rumor about Negi being a visiting prince! {{spoiler|More than 200 chapters later, this turned out to be [[Foreshadowing]]}}.

* A ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam]]'' audio play features a scene where the [[Five-Man Band]] and [[The Dragon]] engage in the standard shouting match...except that the latter is standing on Tokyo Tower's observation deck while the former is at the tower's base. Because of this, the banter quickly degrades into confusion.

'''Movie!Master:''' What?! Did you say "crazy balding shitty old man"?! }}

* When Mitsuhide of ''[[Sengoku Otome]]'' wants to help [[Hot Amazon|Nobunaga's]] reputation she sends her subordinates to spread rumors about how benevolent and kind she is, especially to children, and that these are her words. Now people are telling each other about how they must bring her the children to [[Eats Babies|eat]]. The only thing that goes unchanged is that Mitsuhide is the one who started it.

* By the time of the Battle of Stirling in ''[[Braveheart]]'', William Wallace could shoot fireballs from his eyes and lightning from his arse.

* [[Lampshaded]] in the Michael Keaton gangster movie spoof ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]''.

'''[[Johnny Dangerously]]''': No, but I know this grapevine. }}

* This happens several times in ''[[Easy A]]'', even before Olive starts to encourage it.

* This is central to the plot of ''[[Gossip]]''... [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|unsurprisingly]]. In fact it deconstructs the potential damage it can cause.

** Weirdly, at the end of every school year he gets into something very dangerous and fantastic and generally impressive to most people. He's frustrated that they think he's so special because he is usually just desperate to survive.

* In [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'', why Lady Muriel's engagement was broken:

"Oh, certainly! And communicated in the strictest confidence! Whatever defects Elveston society suffers from, want of information isn't one of them!"'' }}

* ''[[Wheel of Time]]'': Several books in the series end like this, with an omniscent narrator describing gossip versions of the main event of the book. The narrator mentions several contradictory versions of the big epic battle but one important, portentuous detail that all the different rumors agree on. Something similar happens in-story several times as well, where characters hear twisted versions of events of the narration as rumors, sometimes even things the characters were present for. The rumors are usually wrong on important details, and the viewpoint characters are usually happy to know that their role in the real events remains obscure.

== Theatre ==

* In "The Rumor" from ''[[Fiddler On the Roof]]'', Yente brings the news that Perchik, who danced with Tevye's daughter Hodel, has been arrested in Kiev. The rumor spreads, and each time a different person is said to have been arrested. By the time the rumor comes full circle, this is what it has become: "Golde's been arrested, and Hodel's gone to Kiev. Motel studies dancing, and Tevye's acting strange. Shpritze has the measles, and Bielke has the mumps."

* In the musical ''Thirteen'', the song "It Can't Be True" revolves around Lucy the [[Alpha Bitch]] spreading a rumor that [[The Brainless Beauty]], Kendra, is cheating on her boyfriend with new kid Evan. Every time the rumor passes to a new person, Kendra and Evan are rumored to have gone a little farther around the bases

* ''Woe from Wit'': A major plot point in the classic Russian play, where the protagonist's eccentricity and nonconformism is quickly exaggerated by gossip to ridiculous extremes. Chatsky is reputed to have joined a Freemason club, drunk champagne by the bucketful, and generally gone irreparably insane, with more and more incredible details being "discovered" every minute.

* ''[[Garfield and Friends|US Acres]]'' has Sheldon telling Booker about a scary story he heard from Orson, and this eventually turns into a rumor about a monster loose on the farm, which leads to Orson changing to his "Power Pig" alter-ego and attacking a scarecrow.

* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode ''Grade School Confidential'' Principal Skinner and Mrs Krabappel are caught kissing in a closet. The event undergoes a [[Gossip Evolution]] as each child tells their parents:

'''Ralph Wiggum''': Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies and then the baby looked at me. }}

** Another ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|particularly hilarious]]) example is in "The PTA Disbands", where Bart tries to prolong the teachers' strike by spreading the rumor that Skinner has been saying that the teachers will crack any day now. By the time it reaches Ms. Krabappel, it is entirely unchanged... except it incongruously includes the words "purple monkey dishwasher" at the end. Krabappel vows that they'll show Skinner, "especially for that purple monkey dishwasher remark!" The words "Purple Monkey Dishwasher" have even become somewhat of a [[Memetic Mutation|meme]].

** Yet another example is in "The War of the Simpsons": After Homer {{spoiler|catches and releases the legendary catfish General Sherman}}, we hear the resulting rumor.

* In a story on ''[[PB and J Otter]]'', Flick panics when his Mama Duck tells him that his cousin Billy is coming for a visit, because he remembers Flick as a bully who once sat on him for "like, four minutes" when he was really little. As the tale spreads, it ends up becoming "four months" and everyone panics about Billy being such a bully. As it turns out, Flick's memory is faulty, so even his account was exaggerated. Back when Flick was really young, he insisted that Billy ride him piggyback, even though Billy didn't think it was such a good idea. Billy accidentally squashed him for maybe two seconds at most.

* One episode of ''[[Handy Manny]]'' revolved entirely around this, replacing the "broken telephone" with a broken drive-thru speakerbox, which lead to spoken food orders winding up as completely managed gibberish by the time they reached their destination.