How Did That Get in There?

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A stock phrase and one of those Blatant Lies...

Someone is flipping through a slideshow, PowerPoint presentation or book of photos and has a slide of something they shouldn't, or that makes them look odd. Someone might points it out and they'll say "How did that get there?". Sometimes it works but usually not. Of course, sometimes it's just being spoken in Sarcasm Mode.

Frequently accompanies Porn Stash.

Examples of How Did That Get in There? include:

Anime and Manga

• Kodachi Kuno of Ranma 1/2 has been known to do this. The time she hid tacks in her hand before shaking Akane's hand comes to mind.
  • Another example would include the time when Akane tried to get Ranma to eat some magical sakura mochi that could tell whether or not they were destined to marry. Because he doesn't want her to find out that he's going to actually try it, he takes one when she's not looking then goes to eat it in peace. Unfortunately, he forgets himself when he sees Ryoga happily skip away after giving Akane flowers...

Ranma: I'm disappointed in you though. Ya switched to Ryoga just because of cherry blossom marks? Akane: It's your fault for not eating a cake! Ranma: Who can believe somethin' so silly? Akane: What's that in your hand? Ranma: ...How'd that get here?

Film

• Austin Powers and the "Swedish-Made Penis Enlarger Pump". It's not his, despite the credit card receipt. And the warranty card. And the book about his life with it. Which he himself wrote. The pump becomes a Running Gag, making a appearance as a Chekhov's Gun in the final scene with Random Task. Sure enough, Austin's still trying to claim it isn't his.
• The Mask: While being frisked by the police, the Mask says he's never before seen the pair of funny-eyeball glasses that come out of his pocket. The bazooka, on the other hand: "I have a permit for that."
• Russell Thompson, Sr., uses this line word-for-word near the end of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids after his wife finds a pack of cigarettes in his baseball cap.
• Death at a Funeral: "Oh My God! What are you doing in my dad's coffin?!"
• Subverted in the movie Gung Ho as auto manufacturing plant manager Michael Keaton feigns surprise that a not-really risque photo of a woman appears in his slide show about the plant's personnel. The woman in the photo is actually part of the management team.
• In The Hairy Bird, Mrs. Dewey finds the Porn Stash planted in Mr. Dewey's briefcase.
• In Jackie Brown, the title character reacts to ATF agents finding cocaine in a bag she was carrying with "What's that shit?" (although it's implied that she really hadn't been aware that she was carrying it).

Live Action TV

• In The Worst Week of My Life, when Howard tries to steal the concrete-encased corpse of his fiancee's family dog (long story). It doesn't work at all.
• Another dog related example; there is an episode of Scrubs where JD and Turk keep trying to do this as a joke with their stuffed dog.
• The Office: Michael gives Toby a rock as a present when Toby is leaving Dunder Mifflin, but tries to backpedal so he can look good in front of Toby's replacement, Holly.
• In Monty Python's Flying Circus, mixed in with photographs of Uncle Ted standing next to the house is one of the Spanish Inquisition hiding behind the coal shed. Don't say you didn't expect it.
• Wolf of The Tenth Kingdom says this to Virginia, post-impersonation-of-Grandma (yes, they went there) regarding the meat cleaver he 'happens' to have in his hand.
• In the BBC one-off drama Dis/Connected, one character accidentally takes a pair of knickers out of his pocket along with his phone... right after leaving his girlfriend's funeral.'I don't know how these got there...'
• Odyssey 5. Angela Perry asks hedonist lover Kurt Mendel how her expensive lingerie panties ended up in his fridge after their night of passion. He has no idea.
• Parodied in The Sketch Show. A college professor is presenting a slideshow about bikinis, with pictures of women wearing them. He then advances to a picture of a building and, well, you know.

Music

• Used in Jonathan Coulton's "Someone is Crazy:"

You set the trap, You lie in wait 'til someone trips the wire Then you jump out to get your feelings hurt And you act surprised, "How did that get there? Why does everybody hate me?"

Professional Wrestling

• When D-Generation X (Triple H & Shawn Michaels) were showing a slide-show of pictures on the jumbo screen, a picture from Michaels' infamous spread in Playgirl popped up on the screen...

Triple H: What?! How did that get in there? Shawn Michaels: I was young! I was stupid! You told me girls read that magazine! (Playgirl's readership includes a lot of gay males.)

• At a Ring of Honor show, Colt Cabana pulled double-duty, wrestling earlier in the show using his masked "Matt Classic" persona. Later in the show, as the referee is doing his pre-match check of the wrestler's knee-pads, he pulls out the Matt Classic mask. Cabana snatches it away with mock-surprise, and says "How did that get in there?"

Theater

• In The Disney Afternoon Live! show at Disneyland, as the FBI agent is briefing the heroes on their mission, he accidentally shows a picture of Jessica Rabbit in his slideshow. See it here at the 2:47 mark.

Web Comics

• This Penny Arcade comic. According to Tycho's subsequent post, this particular event actually happened, and he said the trope to the letter, and, in true trope fashion, it did not work. He was eventually exonerated, however.

Web Original

• Broken Saints: Raimi uses his computer to explain the situation to Oran, only to inadvertently open up windows on which he was looking up porn.

Raimi: "Uh, I have no idea where that came from. Damn spawned sites" Oran: "Is this how Americans use the Internet?" Raimi: "You should see the crap online. It's all freaky sex and dumb cartoons. That's what I hear, anyway."

• Llamas with Hats:

Paul: Carl, there is a dead human in our house! Carl: Oh, hey, how did he get here?

• The Strong Bad Email tape-leg. (Note that it's considered the worst e-mail ever.)