One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Difference between revisions

* The [[Bill Murray]] movie ''[[The Man Who Knew Too Little]]'' is ''ninety-four solid minutes'' of this trope. Bill Murray plays a [[Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist|naive American tourist]] in London who gets [[Mistaken for Spies|mixed up in a real-life espionage plot]]- all the while [[And You Thought It Was a Game|believing]] that everything going on around him is [[All Part of the Show|some kind of hip, experimental, audience-participation theater event.]]

* ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'': When Christian and Satine are talking in the Elephant, he's trying to read his poetry to her, but she thinks he's talking about sex.

** [[Jiggle Show|Well, of course he is]].

* Happens twice in ''[[My Cousin Vinny]]'' - first case is a [[Mistaken Confession]], second is a pure instance of this trope. Vinny is introducing himself to his cousin's friend and preparing to represent him in court, but he thinks Vinny is a prisoner preparing to rape him.

* In the ''[[Get Smart (film)|Get Smart]] movie'', Max attempts to drop hints in the bakery that he is trying to find the secret base hidden underneath. The lady he's speaking to, however, believes she is being hit on and responds that she has a boyfriend, but could make an exception, and the flour sacks in the back are very comfortable.

* A lot of ''[[Fight Club]]'' is like this (though it's impossible to tell without knowing the big plot twist near the end).

'''Ted:''' Hitchhikers? I don't know - fifty... a hundred maybe - who keeps track? Hey, I know this is the Bible Belt, but where I come from this is not that big a deal. }}

* Played straight in [[Fiddler On the Roof]] when Lazar Wolf wants to ask Tevye for permission to marry his daughter, but since Lasar is a butcher, Tevye assumes he wants to buy Tevye's milk cow. See the entry under Theater.

* Applied liberally in Roberto Begnini's ''Johnny Stecchino'', where many, many people converse with Dante on the actions of his [[Identical Stranger]], the titular mob informant which he is unwittingly playing [[Body Double]] for, while Dante himself is talking about something much more innocent, like the banana he stole.

* Les Grossman's [[Cluster F-Bomb|infamous]] exchange with Flaming Dragon in ''[[Tropic Thunder]]''. They're a group of warlords trying to ransom a hostage, and he thinks they're a rival talent agency trying to sign his biggest star. Possibly subverted in that I doubt Grossman's approach would have been any different had he known they were warlords.

* ''[[Juno]]'': when Mark and Vanessa are painting the baby room, the actual lines they have about the shades of yellow is neither here nor there.

* ''[[Sideways]]'': Paul Giamatti's poetic description of why he loves Pinot Noir probably isn't about wine.

* In [[Billy Wilder]]'s ''The Emperor's Waltz'', the Emperor is suggesting the breeding of two poodles. The general he is talking to believes they are discussing an [[Arranged Marriage]] for his daughter.

* A very good one happens in the first ''[[Shrek]]'' movie when Shrek overhears Donkey's conversation with Fiona about {{spoiler|her turning into an ogre at night. Because he hears only part of the conversation, when she says, "Who could love such a hideous, ugly beast?", he thinks she's referring to him.}} The confrontation he has with her the next day is very much two different conversations:

'''Shrek:''' Yeah, well, it does! }}

** The subtext makes sense from either viewpoint, but Shrek's viewpoint makes Fiona's responses sound offensive, and vice versa. This results in a huge misunderstanding.

* ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' often uses this trope.

** A memorable example occurred when Harry realized Tommy had grown taller than him. So they went to an enlargement clinic, not realizing, of course, that it was a penis enlargement clinic. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** In another episode, Harry's pet from the Home Planet came to Earth as a human and destroyed one of Sally's shoes. Meanwhile, Don thinks that Sally is pregnant.

'''Dick''': Of course. Harry watched the whole thing happen. His best friend did it. }}

* ''[[Frasier]]'' does the equivalent of moving from Newtonian Physics to Quantum Mechanics to this trope. About one-third of the episodes from later seasons are built on this.

* ''[[Grounded for Life]]'': Uncle Eddie is confronting the daughter's boyfriend because he thinks he got her pregnant. It turns out they just got tattoos together.

* ''[[Family Matters]]'': Carl thinks he is arguing with Harriet about their sex life; she is under the impression that the conversation is about barbecuing burgers.

* The ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' sketch "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B38g-tLOTFI My Dear Boy]". {{spoiler|It's actually a subversion; the punch line of the sketch is that they were talking about the same thing all along.}}

* An episode of [[Leverage]], ''Three Nights of the Hunter'', has a very brief example. The mark for the episode, a journalist, has been steered towards a politician to ask about an alleged government project called "Destiny". The Destiny that he thinks she means is his favourite stripper.

* Subverted between Brian and Justin in an episode of [[Queer as Folk]]. They are both aware of the fact that their discussion concerns two different things at once (namely, whether Brian should accept Justin back on his firm, and whether they should resume their relationship).

** In another episode, Brian and Michael are very upset about the night before; Brian because Babylon was closed down and Michael because he found out that Melanie and Lindsey had broken up months ago without telling anyone. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity Ensues:]]

'''Brian:''' "For closing Babylon?" }}

* In "Sorry, Bro" in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Marshall needed a new pair of pants and Lily brought them to the workplace, only to run into Barney. Barney being Barney assumed she was there to give Marshall something else. Their conversation ends with Barney thinking that Lily wanted ''him'' to give Marshall that "something else."

* The ''[[Scrubs]]'' episode "My Own Private Practice Guy". JD thinks Dr Cox is jealous of the time he's spending with Dr Fischer - he actually hates Fischer for having an affair with Jordan.

'''JD''': That's a lie! You bought me a latte! }}

* ''[[30 Rock]]'', in an episode where Liz was having trouble with her boyfriend and Jenna was thinking of getting an [[Important Haircut]]. More a jab at Jenna's self-centeredness than anything:

'''Jenna''': We're talking about my hair, right? }}

** Jack prides himself on his ability to hold two conversations in his office, one with the person in the office and one with the person on the phone, by giving a response that answers both questions. In one episode, he does this with Liz.

** After Jay accidentally insults a pair of vacation acquaintances, Gloria tells them he's going senile. Then they try to talk to Manny about it, beginning with "We hear he's a little off his game," which gets Manny thinking they're talking about Jay's golf skills ("He does swear a lot. The worst is when he goes in the woods.").

* The ''[[Spin City]]'' episode "The Great Pretender" has Mike being named sexiest man in New York City and finding himself unable to perform after a mistimed comment from the Mayor about not being able to get away from the public eye. He finally asks the Mayor if he had any "problems" when running for office, and he tells him about the time he took his wife on a romantic getaway... only to have his golf game run out the window. Mike ends up running with it and ends up getting great advice, though the Mayor remains oblivious throughout the conversation.

'''MIKE:''' *beat* I think that might be a little optimistic, sir. }}

* ''[[Spaced]]'': Marsha has seen Tim kissing his girlfriend, believing him to already in a relationship with Daisy. When she confronts him about this, however, Tim --unaware of this -- believes her to be talking about a birthday cake he's arranged for Daisy's birthday. [[Hilarity Ensues|Misunderstandings ensue]]:

'''Marsha''': ''[Appalled]'' You ''bastard''! }}

* Thanks to Sir Humphrey's [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]] and overall [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] demeanour, a lot of the conversations he has with Jim Hacker in ''[[Yes Minister]]'' fall here, but one particularly notable example concerns the time he attempted to inform the Minister that he was leaving the department because he'd received a promotion, only to manage to convince Hacker through his pompous inability to clearly express himself that he was dying.

* Done for rare dramatic effect on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Buffy and Xander go to talk to Spike, who seems distracted and occasionally says things that don't make sense. Since he's been a bit nuts since getting his soul back, we don't think anything of it. Then we see that Willow is also there, having unconsciously cast a spell that prevents her and the other Scoobies from sensing each other at all.

* A dark, [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|*dark*]] variant in the last episode of ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'', and a {{spoiler|literal}} example of [[Poor Communication Kills]]. [[The Hero|Blake]] assumes he's explaining the situation. His second in command, [[Sanity Slippage|Avon]], assumes he's {{spoiler|confessing to a betrayal}}. It doesn't help that his behaviour towards Avon's fellow crewman Tarrant has been equally open to misinterpretation. The conversation goes something like this:

'''Blake:''' Avon, I was waiting for you...{{spoiler|Before he finishes, [[Bolivian Army Ending|Avon shoots him.]]}} }}

* One episode of ''[[Family Matters]]'' had Harriette complaining about her husband Carl's bland barbecue technique, so she left him a magazine article on barbecue recipes. Carl thought she wanted him to read the "Rate Your Mate" article a few pages over. The scenario [[Double Entendre|climaxed]] in a hilarious [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCPx01lIFxI conversation] packed to the brim with double entendres where Harriette was talking about barbecue but Carl thought she was talking about their sex life:

'''Harriette:''' Yeah. What did you think we were talking about? }}

* Played for drama between Dov and Chris in the second season of ''[[Rookie Blue]]'' where they open and honestly promise to compete for everything. Chris merely thinks the conversation is about promotions and so forth. Dov on the other hand, is in love with Chris's girlfriend.

* In an episode of [[Castle]], Beckett asks the [[Body of the Week|victim]]'s therapist what problems he came to her for. She said he had battled depression, which led to an eating disorder: "His diet was horrible. Scraps from the garbage... dead birds, even his own feces." After a beat, Castle realizes she was actually talking about the victim's ''dog''.

* An early episode of ''[[Cheers]]'' has this conversation between Diane (talking about meditation) and Rick (talking about sex):

(''They enter Sam's office.'' ''[[Beat]]''. ''Slap!'') }}

== Stand Up Comedy ==

* Comedian Carl Barron tells of a conversation based around the two meaning of the word 'thongs' (either footwear or underpants).

'''Carl''': I don't think so. }}

* Swedish comedian Adde Malmberg once talked about how he had been on a train and heard how two people who didn't appear to have ever met before were talking to each other. One of them told the other that he was a scientist who for the moment did research about "skator" (magpies, that is), but because of his peculiar dialect, the other thought he said he did research about "scouter" (scouts, as in members of the scout movement). Apparently, they had a very long conversation about it, until the scientist started talking about how they like to steal things, and the other person got a bit confused.

== Video Games ==

Was...was that really how it happened? It occurred to Junpei that perhaps that was how it worked... Perhaps he'd been mistaken all these years. Had he misunderstood life so gravely? The thought terrified him. June seemed to be entirely oblivious to Junpei's mounting confusion and terror. }}

* ''[[Da Capo]]'' ([[Visual Novel]]): As Junichi and Nemu set off for school, they start talking about who should get married first, and Junichi decides that they should get married at the same time. Nemu immediately assumes he means to ''[[Brother-Sister Incest|each other]]'', and the practical-thinking Junichi doesn't understand why Nemu's getting so flustered. And just a moment later as Nemu threatens to deliver a [[Megaton Punch]], Sakura suddenly admonishes them that they can't do "that", because they're brother and sister. Both siblings [[Brother-Sister Incest|take it the wrong way]] and start realizing their feelings for each other, until Sakura finishes her sentence--that siblings shouldn't ''hit'' each other. Oops.

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Out There]]'' has [http://outthere.keenspot.com/d/20090923.html a rather subtle one]. Keep in mind that Clayton's serious, and Sherry's just bantering:

'''Sherry:''' Another in a series of life's paradoxes. }}

* ''[[xkcd]]'' has [http://www.xkcd.com/476/ this] but it's one sided.

* In an episode of ''[[American Dad]]'', Francine sees Stan's body double making out with Hayley. When she confronts Stan, he thinks she's talking about his stealing cookie dough from the fridge. Video is [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25059520857f5f0120866dd4df0015 here].

* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has Homer become a labor union boss, and eventually facing a bribe attempt from Mister Burns. The offer's made with a great deal of [[Accidental Innuendo]], however, and Homer mistakenly assumes Burns is coming on to him, leading to the following refusal (which Burns simply takes as Homer being above bribery and getting righteously indignant at the attempt):

{{reflist}}