Mistaken for Cheating: Difference between revisions

Similar to [[Mistaken for Gay]], this is when a character is wrongly accused of cheating on his spouse or girlfriend because of a series of misinterpreted clues. Usually these clues look very suspicious (a bra left in his apartment, [[Lipstick Mark|lipstick on his collar]], a romantic note) and the real story is hard to believe. The wrongly accused may protest "Wait! [[I Can Explain]]!" or "It's [[Not What It Looks Like]]!" If the spouse or girlfriend is another major character, the conflict will be resolved; if the love interest is a [[Girl of the Week]], she may storm off, thus ending the relationship.

 

 

See also [[Comedy of Errors]]. Often part of an [[Idiot Plot]]; and can result in [[Poor Communication Kills]], at least figuratively. May be resolved with [[The Grovel]].

{{examples}}

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZFSxbBmQ4 Here] it's played for laughs. Quite well, in fact.

** For what it's worth, that's a (well-done) version of a [[Older Than They Think|30-year-old]] [http://www.snopes.com/love/revenge/concrete.asp urban legend].

 

* Forms the basis of some of the plots in ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'', when [[Insecure Love Interest|Belldandy]] suspects Keiichi is cheating on her. In the end it always turns out to be a [[Not What It Looks Like]] moment, or in Hild's cases, manipulating him and the goddesses in order to try to steal him away.

{{quote|'''Himeji:''' This bra isn't your size, Yoshi-kun...}}

* Happens multiple times to Ranma from ''[[Ranma ½]],'' almost always in a way that goes far beyond mere [[Lipstick Mark|lipstick on his collar]]. A few examples:

** Caught in bed with a girl snuggled up to him, both of them asleep (the girl slipped into his bed [[Heavy Sleeper|while he was asleep]]).

** Caught with a girl attached to him like a barnacle while both of them are naked (she sneaked after him into the [[Furo Scene|furo]] as a ''cat'' and [[The Glomp|glomped]] him).

** Caught shoving a girl down onto a table while grabbing one of her breasts and shouting "Now give it up!" (No, seriously, it really ''isn't'' [[Not What It Looks Like|what it looks like]].)

** The entire student body always jumps to the conclusion that Ranma is cheating on Akane.

{{quote|'''Girl 1#:''' Don't just stand there, Akane.

'''Yusuke''': Because I [[Not What It Looks Like|know what it looks like!]] }}

* In ''[[Bakuman｡]]'', Akito Takagi, seeking ideas on how to write female characters, meets fellow mangaka Yuriko "Ko Aoki" Aoki, but keeps the meetings secret from his girlfriend Kaya Miyoshi out of fear that she would get jealous over him turning elsewhere for advice. While there, he meets his former classmate and academic rival, Aiko Iwase, who gives him a copy of her book with a letter inside. Miyoshi then discovers the letter and becomes quite upset until the misunderstanding is cleared a few chapters later.

* Shi from ''[[Wandering Son]]'' mistakes [[Cool Big Sis|Yuki]] for cheating with one of the protagonists, Takatsuki, in his first appearance; she's touching him rather suggestively on the face. The creepy part is that Yuki is in her mid-twenties at youngest, and Takatsuki was only eleven.. And a [[Transsexualism|girl dressed as a boy]], though neither Shi nor Yuki knew that (though Yuki seemed to have guessed).

 

* Mary Jane Watson's Aunt Anna once tried to get her to face the "truth" about Peter Parker's apparent infidelity, what with all his sneaking around at odd hours and missing committments with the flimsiest of excuses; this aggravated MJ enough to evoke a [[Sarcastic Confession]]: her husband was really [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]].

* A story in ''[[Tales from the Crypt|Shock SuspenStories]]'' #11 called "Three's a Crowd" had a paranoid man believing his wife was cheating on him with his brother and he murders them both. {{spoiler|It turns out they were being secretive because they were planning a surprise anniversary party where the husband would find out she was pregnant.}}

** [[Jimmy Olsen]] has been known to be [[Disguised in Drag]] on more than one occasion. After one such example, though, Jimmy got read the riot act by Lucy Lane. Turns out Lucy found in his apartment the purse, perfume and jewelry that were part of the masquerade lying around his apartment, but she thought he was dating someone else behind her back.

 

* In ''[[Through a Diamond Sky]]'', this kicks off the plot. Jordan ''thinks'' that Kevin's secretive behavior, bizarre references, and long periods of no accountability are proof she's married a cheater - again. (He's husband #2). While it's true that he's up to a lot of very strange things in [[Cyberspace]], an affair isn't one of them.

* In the ''[[Ben 10]]'' [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4267279/1/Hero_High_Sphinx_Academy Hero High: Sphinx Academy], Ren suspects this of Ben when she has noticed him hanging out with Julie several times, though more often than not he is getting help from Julie to get a gift for Ren for their upcoming anniversary. It doesn't help that Susan is the one encouraging the idea.

 

* In ''[[The Incredibles]]'', Helen finds [[Affair Hair|one of Mirage's hairs on Bob's suit]], then overhears the second half of Bob and Mirage's phone conversation. Even after discovering that her husband had secretly resumed superhero work, she finds him [[Not What It Looks Like|hugging Mirage]].

 

* In ''[[Enchanted]]'', Giselle, just coming out of the shower, trips and falls on top of Robert, who had tried to catch her. Then walks in Nancy...

* Subverted in the Brazilian movie ''Meu Tio Matou um Cara'' ('My Uncle Killed a Guy') Éder finds a series of pictures that seem to indicate that his girlfriend Soraya cheated on him with Kid. She then explains to him that he looked at the pictures in the wrong order, and they tell the story of a perfectly innocent afternoon. Later, the protagonist Duca mentions to a friend that the sun's position in the sky don't match Soraya's story, and Eder was right after all.

* An odd example in ''[[Top Hat]]''. Dale has confused Jerry for her friend's husband, Horace. Jerry loves Dale and Dale is convinced he's trying to have an affair with her.

 

* Turns up regularly in the works of [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]], often on the most hair-triggered and flimsy of pretexts.

* Happens with {{spoiler|Denise and Spade}} in the [[Night Huntress]] books when she's told that "the vampire" is in a bedroom with another woman. Becomes a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when she furiously pounds on the door only to find she's got the wrong vampire.

* In the novelization of ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'', Palpatine (who is fully aware of Padme's and Anakin's secret marriage) insinuates that Padme is cheating on Anakin with Obiwan. When Anakin visits Padme's residence to confirm these suspicions, he detects signs that Obiwan did visit her. While Padme is able to assuage his temper, Anakin never really lets go of the insidious notion. Later on Mustafar, when Anakin sees that Obiwan stowed away on Padme's ship, he takes it as a sign that Padme had betrayed him. Cue Force Choking.

 

* ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' has a classic early example.

* ''[[iCarly]]'': Tasha and Freddie, mistaken by Gibby, in ''iEnrage Gibby''.

** There's an episode where a married couple is found to have genital herpes. The wife, naturally, is furious, assuming her husband to be unfaithful. He denies it. House then proposes that one of them could've picked it up in a public toilet. The wife claims she knows about it and always covers the toilet seat. The husband claims he never knew. All seems resolved... then House points out that the husband agreed way too quickly. Turns out the guy really is a cheater.

* Played with in ''[[Friends]]''. Rachel and Phoebe see Chandler meet with an attractive blonde lady and follow them out to a house in Westchester where the two of them spend almost an hour together. They, Joey and Ross leap to the conclusion that Chandler is cheating on Monica when in reality the lady was a realtor who was showing the house. Kind of an [[Idiot Ball]] moment, since they immediately assume the worst about their friend.

** Also, Cally wasn't just imagining things {{spoiler|because Tory and Galen were engaged in a past life and a bit of attraction was coming out in the bar.}}

* Early in the first season of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Francie suspects that her boyfriend, Charlie, is cheating. Sydney and Francie follow Charlie and find him meeting with an attractive blonde woman, into whose car he loads a bag, before driving off with her, while he has told Francie he has a law review. It turns out that she {{spoiler|is his partner for a MUSICAL act, and he wants to be a singer}}.

** Another episode, "Mr. Monk and the Bully," has Monk and Natalie follow another client's suspected cheating spouse - he suspects it based on her clothing. They follow the spouse, and catch her in a bar with someone else. The next day, he turns up dead. In the end, it turns out that the spouse was not cheating, and Monk and Natalie were following her identical twin sister.

** Similar thing happened in ''[[Smallville]]'' with Lana's biological father's wife.

* Just about every second episode of ''[[Bewitched]]'' revolved around Samantha mistaking Darrin for doing this, with [[Jerkass|Endora]] egging her on.

* Paul Merton's sketch show had a sketch where his wife (played by Caroline Quentin, his real wife at the time) accused him of having an affair with Gloria Hunniford, [[Insane Troll Logic|because the same night he was out of town on business, she wasn't on TV]].

* In ''[[Castle]]'' the Victim of the Week was killed over a girl in Cuba, leaving behind a very pissed off wife. Until she learns the girl in question was the victim's ''daughter''. A double whammy followed, as the wife confronted the husband's best friend about the girl, who had no idea what was going on and was trying to calm her down and comfort her... when the husband walked in on them. Guess what conclusion the husband leapt to.

* From the ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' episode "Future Harper":

'''Harper''': Oh, everything's fine. Turns out my dad was just sleeping in the car. }}

* Subverted in ''[[Cheers]]'' when Kelly finds Woody holding another woman (a pre-''Friends'' Lisa Kudrow!) and immediately jumps to the ''right'' conclusion:

** Not at all helping is the fact that another character is playing with Akiko's worries for a laugh and because she herself has a crush on Ryu; she's the one who gives Akiko the divorce papers, earning a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] from her grandfather.

* On ''[[Glee]]'', the club's best dancers Brittany and Mike are tasked with coming up with a dance number for sectionals. All's fine and good until Mike's girlfriend Tina confides in Brittany's boyfriend Artie <ref>[[Dating Do-Si-Do|who happens to be her ex]], go figure</ref> that she suspects Mike and Brittany might be cheating on them with each other. When Artie asks Brittany if she wants to spend more time with him, she avoids the question, saying that she has to rehearse with Mike. Tensions run high all the way to right before the actual competition, and it turns out {{spoiler|Brittany didn't want to talk to him because she lost the "magic comb" he'd given her as an encouragement token and wasn't really cheating on him.}}

* Happens on ''[[The Good Life]]'' when Tom and Barbara discover that Margot has not been taking riding lessons like she claimed. They try desperately to keep the secret from Jerry. It turns out she has actually secretly been going to weight loss classes.

* In ''[[Noah's Arc]]'', {{spoiler|Alex suspects Trey may be cheating on his with his friend guy. Early on he investigates it and finds he was completely off base. A subversion comes up though in that later we learn Guy was secretly pursuing Trey all along, without Trey's knowledge}}.

* On ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'', Mrs. Rumpole (Hilda, a/k/a "She Who Must Be Obeyed") thinks her husband's cheating on her. Actually, {{spoiler|He's taking dance lessons because she's mentioned being annoyed that he can't dance with her in the past. At the end, it's a CMOH when they dance together.}}

* ''[[CSI]]'' did this in "Genetic Disorder" with Doc Robbins' wife. Although Brass and Hodges refused to believe the couples' assertions they were faithful, it was proven to be a frame up made to look like she'd been cheating and a random one at that.

* ''[[Brothers and Sisters]]'' had the complication of Robert's presidential campaign. An investigator took suspicious photos of him entering a woman's home and showed them to a member of his staff, who happened to be his brother-in-law Kevin. Kevin is torn over his job and loyalty to his sister. In the end it turns out that the woman was actually his therapist.

* During a case on ''[[Bones]]'', Booth and Bones see Sweets' girlfriend trying on a wedding dress and hugging a man. This leads them to assume that Sweets is the other man in this scenario. It turns out she was just the bridesmaid filling if for the bride since they had the same build.

* On ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' Rob thinks that his coworkers Buddy & Sally are having an affiar, but it turns out they're just moonlighting as a comedy song-and-dance act.

 

* The Mecano song "Hijo de la Luna," covered by [[Sarah Brightman]]. A gypsy woman makes a deal with the moon to find her a husband, as long as she agrees to give up her first-born child in return. The baby ends up as pale as the moon. {{spoiler|Her husband ends up killing her, and the moon gets its child.}}

* Played darkly in [[Vocaloid]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8L75guzMn4 The Tailor Shop on Ebizaka] where the tailor was upset that her lover hasn't been coming home to her and finds out he was seeing three different girls on different occasions. {{spoiler|She kills the three girls and took their clothing/accessories thinking it would make her beautiful to her lover. It turns out that her "lover" doesn't even know who she is and the three girls were his wife and two daughters. She then kills him too, offended by his lack of recognition.}}

 

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In the [[The Bible|Biblical]] account of [[Christianity|the Nativity]] of Jesus, Joseph initially assumes that Mary's virgin pregnancy was the result of infidelity, until an angel explains the truth to him.

 

* A series of ''[[FoxTrot]]'' strips has Andy convinced that Roger is cheating on her when he's actually at work. ("Listen -- hear that squeaking? You know how my chair squeaks." "Sounds like bedsprings." "Fred, get in here and talk to my wife.") In the last strip, she apologizes for being paranoid and they hug...at which point she [[Affair Hair|plucks a hair from his jacket and asks whose it is]]. (No, Roger wasn't cheating; he's just balding.)

 

* Some of the villains of ''[[Ravenloft]]'' have this trope in their backstory. Anton Misroi caught his wife in the arms of another man, whose shoulder she'd been crying on because Anton was so cruel. Romir Hiregaard leapt to conclusions after seeing his wife and a family friend arm in arm, unwilling to believe that he'd interrupted a waltz lesson. In each case, the wives wound up murdered, and the villains, cursed by the Dark Powers.

 

* [[Shakespeare]] used this plot device:

** It's played extremely seriously in ''[[Othello]]'', when the title character believes that he overhears his friend Cassio laughing about sleeping with Othello's wife. Cassio is in fact talking about another woman entirely, and the whole thing had been set up by the villain of the piece in order to mess with Othello's head, but nobody discovers this in time to prevent the usual [[Kill'Em All|Shakespearean]] [[Downer Ending|tragedy]] ensuing.

* This happens to Fiyero and Elphaba in act 2 of ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''. Somewhat subverted in that Fiyero most definitely did want to be cheating on Glinda at the time.

 

* In ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel Moonlit Lovers]]'', Ranpha suspects Tact of cheating on her with Chitose because she walked in on their hands touching while picking up papers. He spends much of the rest of the [[Multiple Endings|story path]] trying to win her back, eventually dressing up in a ridiculous pink "I love Ranpha" outfit

 

* A variation occurs in the webcomic ''[http://foxtails.comicgenesis.com/ Fox Tails]'', when the [[Raised by Wolves]] (Or rather, foxes) amnesiac girl Miyo tells Keen Kotoru's childhood-friend-with-a-crush, Crystal, that she '[http://foxtails.comicgenesis.com/d/20050518.html slept with him]'. She ''did'', indeed, [http://foxtails.comicgenesis.com/d/20050422.html sleep in his bed]... while [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifted]] into a fox. The fact that Miyo habitually refers to Keen as 'Master' probably doesn't improve Crystal's [http://foxtails.comicgenesis.com/d/20050511.html view of her] either.

* Subverted in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0394.html this] ''[[Order of the Stick]]''.

** Also [[Defied Trope|defied]] in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0670.html this] comic.

* The webcomic ''[[Punch an Pie]]'' has this happen constantly to Heather at the beginning of the strip. Her girlfriend [[Clingy Jealous Girl|Angela]] seems to think that literally every one of Heather's friends is a possible affair. Angela believing that [[Polyamory]] is natural and both being bisexual apparently makes Angela very jumpy about any contact with someone outside the relationship.

* Used as part of a revenge plot in [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/11/7/ this] ''[[Penny Arcade]]''.

* In ''[[General Protection Fault]]'', Craig is thought to be cheating on his wife with Sharon, as Nick and Dexter spy on the two. Similarly, the German, while taking on Craig's identiy during his business trip to Paris with Sharon, makes advaces on Sharon, but when she rebuffs him, realizes that he has misunderstood their relationship.

 

* ''[[The Flintstones]]'' had an episode where Fred's accidental discovery of a poem dedicated to Wilma, as well as Wilma's strangely secretive behavior, make Fred suspect that Wilma cheats on him. The catch is in the fact that the poem was actually written by Fred himself when he was still a high school student, while Wilma was secretive because she wanted to surprise Fred for his birthday. It doesn't help that a man calls wanting to talk to Wilma, and she acts strangely, like she doesn't want Fred to hear. He becomes suspicious and goes to another phone, to hear her say, "...that's right, Darling, not the only man I ever loved, the only man I ever will love." Fred thinks he's about to lose Wilma to another man. It turns out he didn't get to hear the beginning of the conversation, where the man said to her before she responded, "This is the jeweler calling, on your husband's watch for his birthday, you want the engraving to read 'Darling...'" It was at that point Fred picked up the phone.

** In another episode, Wilma suspects Fred of cheating, though with better cause: He's coming home late from work, unusually tired, and when she follows him, she finds him in a romantic nightclub him with a very sexy blonde. The blonde is a charm school instructor, and Fred has been taking courses in dancing, small talk, and related matters so as to make their upcoming anniversary more special and memorable. That night was the final exam/dress rehearsal.

* ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'': In "Beauty School", Lola sees a woman (actually Bugs in drag) leaving Bugs' house and getting into Bugs' car and immediately assumes that Bugs is cheating on her.

 

* A tragic real life example: Rush Dozier in his book ''Why We Hate'', describes an event when a friend of his separated from his wife after several attempts at reconciliation. The man decided to call his wife before moving to another city and an unfamiliar male voice answered the phone. The man rushed to his wife's apartment (it turned out she was alone), broke down the door and fatally shot her, then himself.

* Things can get odd for adult brother/sister siblings who travel or even just go out to dinner together when people who are unaware that the person has a brother/sister sees them out having dinner together or sharing the same hotel room.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Romance Arc]]

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Mistaken for Index]]

[[Category:Romance Novel Plots]]