pasted from TVTropes (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=m7b8tgz7isr2wwj9atm2ka8q), filter and edit as needed:
added: 2012-03-13 17:32:18 sponsor: StevenT edited by: Stratadrake (last reply: 2013-07-20 09:14:54)
Subtrope of Poor Communication Kills. Often, a written message only makes sense if it is read all the way through. However, not everyone has the patience to finish reading. They'll fasten on the part of the message they saw first, and act upon it, not realizing that there is more important information in the rest. Often justified in fiction by the writer of the message using poor syntax, or "burying the lead" so that the most important information is on the next page. Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! characters are prone to this. Not to be confused with It Gets Better, when the audience stops following a story too soon.
Exampies:
Anime & Manga
- In Love Hina Christmas Special: Silent Eve, Su and Sara find Naru's letter to Kintaro and only bother to read one word in the middle of the page (love) before jumping to conclusions, setting off the whole Idiot Plot.
- In Bakuman｡ both the protagonists stop reading only a few pages into the book Iwase gave Takagi, one because he doesn't like the genre she wrote in, and the other because it was too "deep" for him. Thus they both miss the message she inserted between pages about halfway through the book.
Film
Literature
- In The Incredible Journey a housekeeper finds only one page of a two-page note. This leads to confusion about who is going to be taking care of three pets for two weeks. This sets the plot in motion- the pets escape and have adventures before anyone realizes they're gone.
Live-Action TV
- There's the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Fear Itself" where Giles reads the information on Gachnar but doesn't read the inscription with its 'actual size' caption. Buffy also fails to let him finish reading later on before she breaks the seal and summons Gachnar on accident.
Western Animation
- On American Dad a guy stopped reading Carrie, literally in the middle of a sentence. Thus, he dropped pigs from the ceiling onto Stan at the prom instead of pigs' blood.
replies: 38
added: 2012-03-13 19:18:49 by SKJAM
- In Bakuman。, both the protagonists stop reading only a few pages into the book Iwase gave Takagi, one because he doesn't like the genre she wrote in, and the other because it was too "deep" for him. Thus they both miss the message she inserted between pages about halfway through the book.
added: 2012-03-13 19:37:07 by KZN02
- Hellboy: a variation; Abe Sapien reads off the description for the Hellhound from a book to Hellboy. Hellboy supposedly kills the hellhound before Abe finishes, after which he mentions the last few sentences about resurrection.
added: 2012-03-13 19:41:11 by lebrel
- "In Love Hina Christmas Special: Silent Eve, this is what sets off the whole Idiot Plot." Just a tip: This is not a good way of writing an example; it doesn't tell you anything about how the trope was used. What was the character reading, what was the actual message, and what did they misinterpret it as? For instance (making this up because I haven't read Love Hina): "Bob receives a message from Alice telling him to meet her behind the gym at noon, and gets so excited thinking it's a confession of love he rushes off to buy roses and neglects to read the back of the page, where she rebukes him for his behavior towards Carol and challenges him to a water-pistol duel." Hilarity Ensues."
added: 2012-03-13 20:09:50 by Met
- In The Incredible Journey a housekeeper finds only one page of a two-page note. This leads to confusion about who is going to be taking care of three pets for two weeks. This sets the plot in motion- the pets escape and have adventures before anyone realizes they're gone.
added: 2012-03-13 20:29:43 by chicagomel
- There's the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 'Fear Itself' where Giles reads the information on Gachnar but doesn't read the inscription with its 'actual size' caption. Buffy also fails to let him finish reading later on before she breaks the seal and summons Gachnar on accident.
added: 2012-03-14 01:47:09 by HaggisMcCrablice
- A character in American Dad! quit reading Carrie, literally in the middle of a sentence. Thus, he dropped pigs from the ceiling onto Stan at the prom instead of pigs' blood.
added: 2012-03-14 04:23:19 by PsiPaula4
- Add to the description- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! characters are prone to this.
added: 2012-03-14 05:30:05 by Koveras
- Not to be confused with It Gets Better, when the audience stops following a story too soon.
added: 2012-03-14 06:00:55 by HiddenFacedMatt
- This seems familiar, but I'm not quite sure from where...
added: 2012-03-14 07:30:17 by Alvin
- I could get more detailed, but in an episode of MASH an unexploded bomb lands in the 4077th compound and Hawkeye and Trapper John have to defuse it from step-by-step instructions read to them by Col. Blake. Due to Blake reading it a step at a time, and the way the manual is written, they do something and then Henry reads "But first..." Also maybe this coincides some with [Lost In Transmission] ?
added: 2012-03-14 10:48:33 by OmarKarindu
- The Hellboy example is from the film, not the comics.
added: 2012-03-14 11:35:41 by Mozgwsloiku
- In the Polish comedy Nic Smiesznego ("nothing funny") this is how the protagonist gets fired from one of the movies he worked with. He was sent to find a scenery that matched the script and then spent several hours driving the director to show him a forest. What he didn't notice was that the sentence continued on the next page: ...of crosses.
added: 2012-03-14 16:18:40 by TBeholder
- Moon Night by Stanislaw Lem had this as a punchline turning the whole plot into Black Comedy gold.
Also, Seen It a Million Times as a part of the gag where a Lethal Chef fails to read the whole recipe before trying to follow it - and, of course, does terribly wrong something that becomes obvious upon reading the next line.
added: 2012-03-14 17:02:41 by SKJAM
- Hmm, expanded description perhaps... Often, a written message only makes sense if it is read all the way through. However, not everyone has the patience to finish reading. They'll fasten on the part of the message they saw first, and act upon it, not realizing that there is more important information in the rest. Often justified in fiction by the writer of the message using poor syntax, or "burying the lead" so that the most important information is on the next page. ---
- In Ranma ½, Genma trains Ranma in the Cat Fist from a manual, not noticing that the manual continues on the next page with a dire warning not to use this training method.
- At least one Glurge story involves an impoverished young person being given The Bible or other inspirational work by a relative who claims "there is all the treasure you need within". The recipient gets no further than reading the title before shelving the book. Years later, it's discovered there's money tucked between the pages.
added: 2012-03-14 18:59:00 by jbrecken
- In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Staff of Ra the bad guys used was the wrong length because they only got to read the message on one side of the headpiece instead of both.
added: 2012-06-28 13:10:45 by TBeholder
seems good enough to launch. is it abandoned?
added: 2012-06-28 13:24:10 by Ryusui
The Raiders example isn't this - the Nazis didn't have the other half of the message, having made their duplicate headpiece from the burns on their agent's hand.
added: 2012-06-28 13:30:06 by sliz225
- Parodied twice in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Once, in-universe, a vital note is hidden behind chapters and chapters about somebody picking a snack. On another occasion, the author actually buries us in boring information before writing a note to his sister.
added: 2012-06-29 10:30:23 by randomsurfer
- An allegedly Real Life Secret Test of Character utilizes this: The instructions are to read the entire test before starting to answer. What follows is a series of crazy questions with multiple choice answers, and/or instructions like "stand on one leg and recite the pledge of allegiance." The last line is "put your name on the the top line, then don't answer any other questions."
added: 2012-06-29 11:55:46 by Alvin
I've had one like that pulled that on me, and my dad was once a vice-principal so I think I've seen a copy of one of those floating around somewhere.
added: 2012-06-30 18:54:44 by Lumpenprole
- In one Road Runner skit, the Coyote sets out some birdseed bait spiked with "Earthquake Pills". But the Road Runner eats the bait with no effect. Disgusted, the Coyote swallows the entire jar of Earthquake Pills only to notice too late the fine print on the label: "Does not work on roadrunners".
added: 2012-07-02 10:35:22 by surgoshan
Related to Read the Fine Print.
added: 2012-07-02 10:48:10 by NimmerStill
- The Colbert Report and The Daily Show lampoon Real Life journalists for only reading page 1 of the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care act ("Obamacare") and thus thinking incorrectly that the latter is declared unconstitutional. Colbert parodies it by reading comically inadequate amounts from A Tale of Two Cities (just "it was the best of times") and War and Peace (just "war" from the title).
added: 2012-07-02 12:22:01 by NimmerStill
- Lampshaded in Dogma:
Loki: "Cardinal Glick cuts ribbon on Catholicism, Wow! campaign." And?
Bartleby (sighing): You have to keep reading.
added: 2012-07-02 15:55:21 by Rognik The Bakuman example is more of a subversion of this trope. Normally, this trope is when the message is in the actual text, and results from a person not fully reading the message. In that case, though, neither character read far enough in the book to find the loose slip of paper (which is later found by the book being knocked off the shelf). I can't think of any other examples off hand, but I support this as a trope.
added: 2012-07-04 20:17:26 by abk0100
- The The Twilight Zone episode that named the To Serve Man trope: the protagonist is wary about trusting the aliens that recently arrived, but once an alien book's title is translated as "To Serve Man," he's convinced enough to get onto their spaceships and take a trip to their home planet. The rest of the book is translated seconds too late to stop him.
added: 2013-07-15 16:30:04 by XFllo
YKTTW Bump. Up for Grabs.
added: 2013-07-15 19:28:23 by oneuglybunny
== Western Animation ==
- One ploy that Wile Coyote uses on the Road Runner in the Looney Tunes cartoon is to leave a pile of bird seed laced with Acme Earthquake Pills. The target ingests the entire bait, then departs unaffected. The coyote disgustedly eats the remaining pills, about half the bottle. A moment later, his eye catches the fine print at the bottom of the label: "Caution: Not effective on road runners." Cue the coyote's leg quivering ominously.
added: 2013-07-15 21:08:29 by TheTitan99
- In the episode of The Simpsons "Blood Feud", Homer writes an angry letter to Mr. Burns, which starts out as a fake thank you note. Mr. Burns at first reads the thank you part, and is deeply touched, until he later discovers the following sentences.
Dear Mr. Burns... I'm so glad you enjoyed my son's blood and your card was just great. In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. You stink! You are a senile, buck-toothed old mummy with bony girl-arms, and you smell like an elephant's butt.
added: 2013-07-16 01:40:15 by DAN004
I wonder why this trope isn't called [Too Long Didnt Read] instead. EDIT: Oops, it's already there?
added: 2013-07-16 07:06:30 by Stratadrake
No, that's currently a redirect for Wall of Text (though why, I have no idea). ^^^ I don't think that counts. That's Strangled By The Fine Print or something.
- In one episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Twilight Sparkle is visited by a post-apocalyptic future version or herself trying to deliver an important message, but the time-travel spell pulls her back before she can complete it ("Whatever happens, don't -- !"). Naturally, Twilight assumes the worst about this future, when the real message is "don't worry about the future"; future Twilight's post-apocalyptic appearance is actually just the result of several zany (but otherwise mundane) mishaps that occur as a direct result of Twilight's crazy speculation about this assumed future.
added: 2013-07-16 07:54:44 by Lophotrochozoa
Compare [Lost In Transmission].
added: 2013-07-16 07:56:22 by DAN004
Personally I wanted to remove the [Too Long Didnt Read] redirect and use it for this trope. It may be really hard, though.
added: 2013-07-16 08:03:50 by Omeganian
Related to Prophetic Fallacy.
added: 2013-07-17 19:24:56 by notShemp
- Goosebumps, "How to Kill a Monster", the two main characters are trapped inside their grandparent's house with a monster inside. They find a letter from their grandparents telling them they left and warns them about the monster inside. After killing the monster and escaping from the house and into the swamp at night, they continue reading the letter explaining their grandparents lock them inside for their protection and to prevent them from leaving the house because there are more monsters in the swamp and they come out at night. After they finish reading, the kids have no idea what they are going to do next.
added: 2013-07-20 04:00:02 by WeAreAllKosh
== Film ==
- Crimson Tide had a variation of this: the U.S.S. Alabama receives a coded order to launch nuclear missiles at a Russian nuclear installation controlled by military units loyal to a rogue ultranationalist leader. A second message comes shortly after, but due to an attack by a Russian sub loyal to the rogue leader, the radio is damaged and decoding the second message is impossible beyond a partial exerpt. The XO believes this message could likely have been a retraction of the previous orders due to the Russian government retaking control of the installation, while the Captain believes the original orders should be followed since the second message is unknown--which becomes the central conflict in the film.
(Note: this example fits the laconic of a message being "cut short", although the description seems to suggest the trope is about willful or ADD-like focusing on only a part of a given message. I assume both situations thus apply here?)
added: 2013-07-20 07:14:29 by DAN004
Related to Read the Fine Print or (sometimes) Read the Freaking Manual.
added: 2013-07-20 09:14:54 by RandomSurfer
Some of the items in Cue Card Pause might fit better here (Buffy as was mentioned in the OP, MASH, etc.)