Multitasked Conversation: Difference between revisions

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** Misa does this too, talking as if asking her captors to kill her because she can't stand the torture any longer, while actually telling Rem, her [[Shinigami]], to kill her so that she won't break down and reveal secret information.

** Also when Matsuda is caught. He takes cues from L over the phone to let them know he's in trouble while making it sound to his captors like he's just turning down an offer to hang out with his friend.

* In an early episode of ''[[Nyan Koi]]'', Junpei attempts to tell Kaede, the girl he has a crush on, that she should stop [[And Call Him George|being so rough with the local cats]] while said local cats are chattering at him. He can't hear what she's saying, and he finally bellows 'Would you just shut up!' at the cats; cue Kaede running away.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[All of Me]]''.

* Hogarth saying grace at the dinner table in ''[[The Iron Giant]]'' doubles (rather clumsily) as an attempt to shoo away the Giant's hand before his mom sees it.

* Subversion: the fact that Haley Joel Osment's character ''doesn't'' talk to Bruce Willis when anyone else is around is a major clue to the twist ending of ''[[The Sixth Sense]]''.

* In John Sayles's ''Matewan,'' Danny (a teenager active in union organizing) is doing some lay preaching in the local church. He knows that the coal company has {{spoiler| framed Joe, the main activist, for being a company plant, playing on a woman's jealous desire for him as part of the framing.}} The company-enforcer thugs have told Danny not to say anything about the plot, or political at all, while he's preaching. So he tells the congregation the story of how Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph and failed, and she tried to frame him out of jealousy, to get his point across.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In "[[Vorkosigan Saga|The Borders of Infinity]]" by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]], some of Miles' more oblique comments to his fellow prisoners are really instructions to his Dendarii Mercenaries, who he knows are listening in, telling them that he's changing the plan in mid stream. The reader is kept in the dark about that until late in the story.

* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]:

** In the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology, the [[Con Man]] Flim, [[Dead Person Impersonation|impersonating Grand Admiral Thrawn]], tries to talk down a pirate ally who wants to kill one of Flim's allies. He suggests a new alliance. A Mistryl shadow warrior with a grudge against the pirate is eavesdropping, having taken out the pirate's backup, and when the pirate decides to ignore the offer she kills him. In the ensuing conversation, Flim tells the shadow warrior that he knows what she is, knew that she was there, and his offer was actually for ''her''. Later he admits to his allies that he hadn't known any of that; when she'd appeared he'd just recognized that she was a Mistryl shadow warrior. He's just very good at [[Indy Ploy|rolling with the punches]].

** Thrawn himself pulls off a multitasked conversation in ''Side Trip'', a collaborative [[Michael Stackpole]] / [[Timothy Zahn]] novella in ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Tales From The Empire]]''. Disguised as a helmeted bounty hunter, he gets [[X Wing Series|Corran Horn]] to go along with him into a criminal's fortress, then turns a blaster on him and helps the criminals stick Corran in the jail. While Corran blusters and threatens retribution, Thrawn tells him that he looks forward to when Corran gets out, since he's the only one standing between Corran and freedom. Come find him. To the criminals, and admittedly to Corran, this is a threat. To himself and Corran's more rationally-thinking father, who he's come to save, it's an announcement that this is a [[Trojan Prisoner]] scheme, since Thrawn provided a way for them to break out.

 

** In "The Bank Shot Job", Nate finds himself trapped in a bank that's being robbed while using an earpiece to communicate with the rest of his team. He manages to cloak everything he says to them under the guise of a conversation he's having with the corrupt judge who's right next to him. Eliot, by contrast, simply walks to the other side of the police line after they've set it up and stares intently at the bank, having a conversation with Nate without even bothering to have a cover story. When a policeman tries to tell him that he needs to be on the other side of the tape, Eliot turns and growls, [[Memetic Badass|"I wasn't talking to you."]]

* In season one of ''[[Roswell]]'', Michael needs Maria's car to get to a big geodesic dome, while she needs to interview him for English. Things go a bit wrong, he ends up driving her there against her will, and she manages to surreptitiously call Liz on her cell phone and have a conversation like this (saying things along the lines of "Boy, Michael, it's really strange to be alone with you... in my car... going to the dome...").

'''Baltar''': Yes, and I don't need to take this from either of you. ''(Realizes that Roslin can't see Six. Points at her aide, sitting in the corner.)'' You, or you! }}

** Oh, they notice. They just assume he's crazy, and y'know... he is. So.

* In ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' Sam tries to talk to his [[Invisible to Normals]] [[Ninja Butterfly]] Al in private as much as possible, but he's had to do this a few times.

* ''[[Bones]]'':

** A run of the mill one happens when Brennan is talking to Sweets' girlfriend over problems in their relationship. Cam comes in with DNA evidence from a murder weapon where the gender was in question. Brennan says one word in response: "Sex?" ...needless to say, as Sweets' girlfriend didn't hear Cam come in, [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** It also happens frequently when someone is questioning a suspect in the interrogation room, and someone else is talking to the interrogator from behind the one-way glass. When this happens, the interrogator will usually respond to the person on the headphones, and the suspect will think they were talking to them.

* ''[[Coupling]]'': Poor Jeffrey ends up stuck talking to his girlfriend on a mobile and another girl who fancies him simultaneously. Julia asks him if he loves her at the same moment as Wilma asks him if he fancies her. Jeff is forced to answer, "Yes," and spends the rest of the following episode trying to get rid of Wilma.

* Happens on occasion in ''[[Due South]]'', as Benton Fraser alternates between talking to the (invisible-to-others) ghost of his dead father and whoever else happens to be present at the time, usually one of the Rays. Notably, being Fraser, he manages to carry on two conversations at the same time while hardly missing a beat.

'''Fraser:''' You're right about that. What I think we should do is... (etc.) }}

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

** "The Sontaran Stratagem / Poison Sky": The Doctor's nonsensical babble (well, it's not [[Buffy-Speak|strictly out of character]] for him...) addressed to General Staal is actually a secret message to Donna.

** He does the same thing in "The Age of Steel" to secretly give Mickey instructions in the middle of one of his "I've figured out exactly how to defeat you" speeches.

'''Ballard:''' Yes. }}

* Walt does this basically any time Jesse calls him at home in ''[[Breaking Bad]]''.

 

== [[Machinima]] ==

 

== [[Theater]] ==

* Willy Loman from ''[[Death of a Salesman]]'' does this while talking to his neighbor Charley: he imagines that his dead brother Ben is present and gets confused trying to converse with them both at once.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In [http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=304 this] installment of ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', Liquid pulls this off accidentally, giving responses to the ghost of Big Boss that coincidentally sound like responses to what Psycho Mantis is saying.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Done by Twilight Sparkle in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1zfGhwtbBw&t=1m46s this] My Little Pony: The Mentally Advanced Series

* ''[[The Joker Blogs]]'': While driving through a security checkpoint, Dr. Arkham tries to tip off the security guard that [[The Joker]] has taken him hostage and is hiding in the back of his car. Unfortunately for him, the guard doesn't pick up on it... But [[The Joker]] does.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Doctor Orpheus uses Astral Projection to talk to his vampire hunter and alchemist buddies and gets the lines crossed.

** Also happens when 21 has a conversation with the Monarch and {{spoiler|the ghost of 21.}}

* This trope is basically the entirety of Rummy's interactions with Ed III in the ''[[The Boondocks|Boondocks]]'' episode "Thank You For Not Snitching", due to Ed III's affinity for his new Bluetooth earpiece.

* In ''[[Generator Rex]]'' Cesar notices that someone cloaked is following him and the providence agents, since they plan on blowing up the area after they're done searching it, he loudly announces it for the sake of the cloaked followers

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Dialogue]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]