Sustained Misunderstanding
A classic gag. Alice tells Bob some news, which he interprets in a wrong (and hilarious) way. She tries to explain and correct his mistake, but he applies his misinterpretation to the explanation as well. Bob is usually portrayed to be somewhat dim-witted, but a variant of this trope has him invoke it on purpose, just to screw with Alice.
Related to Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, Chain of Corrections, Comically Missing the Point, and Who's on First?.
Advertising
- There was an ad for Best Foods salad dressing where a woman is trying to explain to her relatives that the salad dressing she's serving isn't homemade. At the end, she says "Best Foods made the dressing!" at which point the relatives say "You sold your recipe to Best Foods? We're gonna be rich!"
- There was an ad for Kraft shredded cheese where the husband was being a Jerkass about the word "finely," purposely misinterpreting it as "finally."
Her: Wow, Kraft finely shredded cheese! |
Comic Books
- Played for drama over a fifteen year period in Quantum and Woody. Eric Henderson believes his best friend Woody abruptly left because of simmering racism, surfacing only once to leave him a rude note demanding a phone call. In reality, Woody left because he and his mother ran away from an abusive relationship and soon fell into poverty; the note was intended for Woody's father to finally call his long-abandoned son.
Film
- From The Lion King:
Rafiki: You won't find him here! The king, has returned. |
- From The Wizard of Oz:
Uncle Henry: Dorothy? Well what has Dorothy done? |
- From The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle:
Rocky: She's not here about the trees! She's with the FBI! |
Live-Action TV
- On ANT Farm, Lexi is unaware of a fellow cheerleader's birthday since she never received her invitation. When she stopped trying to find out why. Her Dumb Blonde friend Paisley says she has to deliver an invitation to someone named " iX37" and assume its a robot. When Lexi sees the name, she realizes that Paisley had the envelope which says LEXI turned upside-down. When she tells Paisley its addressed to herself, Paisley replies, "I didn't know my best friend was a robot!"
- Red Dwarf, from episode "Pete 1":
Lister: Nah, Kill Crazy's probably right. That's why houses under the flightpath are always so cheap. |
- Blackadder:
- In the Blackadder The Third episode "Duel and Duality", Blackadder and Prince George switch places after the latter is challenged to a duel.
Prince George: Oh, fantastic, yes, dressing up, I love it. It's just like that story, "The Prince and the Porpoise". |
- Blackadder himself gets one in the second series;
Blackadder: Perhaps you'd like to slip into something more confortable? |
- Scrubs had one moment where The Janitor accuses J.D. of taking 'it' after J.D. asked if he had lost something. As J.D. continues to deny taking anything, The Janitor tells him he'll leave his cart unattended and if 'it' should reappear on the cart, no further questions will be asked. J.D. tells him he doesn't even know what 'it' is, to which The Janitor replies, "Then why take it?"
- A deliberate one from Gilmore Girls:
Emily: You were on the phone? |
- The opening skit of the 2006 Emmys found host Conan O'Brien wandering into several TV shows. Towards the end, he walked into an empty house, only to find himself in the middle of an episode of "To Catch A Predator", with every (truthful) explanation that he gives only serving to make him look more guilty:
Chris Hansen: I'm Chris Hansen with "Dateline NBC". |
- On MST3K, Mike tells the 'bots, who are performing a kabuki play, how he prefers Noh theater. Who's on First? and hilarity ensues.
- The entire plot of the Japanese drama Anna-san no Omame (a.k.a. The Best Friend of Beautiful Anna) is based on this trope.
- The comedy team of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin were masters of this trope. Take this example from the opening of just one of their many Laugh-In shows:
Rowan: Are you looking forward to the show tonight? |
Newspaper Comics
- In one Pearls Before Swine anthology, Stephan Pastis wrote that Pig "is rather easy to write for. He just needs to misunderstand everything said to him, and then when it's explained to him, he needs to misunderstand that too." And indeed, it's one of Pig's most common gags. The strip he referenced had this exchange:
Pig: If this player can win a World Series, he'll finally get the donkey off his back. |
Web Comics
- Questionable Content: Hannelore and Marigold discuss their lack of sex lives; Hannelore because she's rather squicked out by those fluids, while Marigold is a shut-in:
Marigold: You can probably guess how many boyfriends I've had. |
- Padma trying to determine how Momo is related to Marten is good, too.
- The Order of the Stick: Elan tends to do this a lot.
Elan: Man, I can't believe the illusionist guy lied to the nice ghost-paladin! |
- Basic Instructions in "How to Listen to Other People's Problems", especially the second panel.
- Dinosaur Comics here:
God: OH PHEW I THOUGHT YOU WERE DOING DRUGS. |
Web Original
- Used on Naruto the Abridged Series.[context?]
- Melee's End uses this when a Cloudcuckoolander tries to have a conversation with a Ditz, and two (relatively) normal guys get caught in the wake:
Marth: Hey look, it's Metroid. |
- Even the Bastard Operator From Hell has his moment:
Boss: These network computers are great! Sonya's just been proselytising us. |
Western Animation
- A staple of Rocky and Bullwinkle[context?]
- Often done with Fred the squirrel on The Penguins of Madagascar:
Kowalksi: [shows picture of Marlene and King Juilen] You there. Have you seen this otter and lemur? |
- Archer, "Skytanic", during a bomb defusal:
Archer: OK, I'm about to... |
- From an early episode of King of the Hill:
Willie Nelson: Hey I know you, you're the kid who rakes my yard. |
- The Simpsons, when Homer is required to take a science class
Teacher: We're going to take a test, true or false. |