Sakura thought she was getting a boyfriend.
Nozaki thought he was getting a new manga assistant.
Nozaki thought he was getting a new manga assistant.
Homer Simpson: I want peas.
Capt. Tenille: We all want peace, but it's always just out of reach!
Homer Simpson: Uh huh.
Capt. Tenille: So, what's the best way to get peace?
Homer Simpson: [scooping up peas with a knife] With a knife.
Capt. Tenille: Exactly. Not with the olive branch, but the bayonet!
Capt. Tenille: We all want peace, but it's always just out of reach!
Homer Simpson: Uh huh.
Capt. Tenille: So, what's the best way to get peace?
Homer Simpson: [scooping up peas with a knife] With a knife.
Capt. Tenille: Exactly. Not with the olive branch, but the bayonet!
— The Simpsons, "Simpson Tide"
Two characters are discussing something... but they're discussing two totally different things. Their actions and responses — vague enough to be applied to either topic — happen to match up so well, though, that neither notices for some time, if at all.
A common scenario in comedies. Expect one of the 'conversations' to be sex-related. Similar to Out-of-Context Eavesdropping, but with the overhearing party actually being a participant. Mistaken Confession is a possible outcome if the conversation is an interrogation. The technical term in real life is "double illusion of transparency". This can also happen when a question is answered with a seemingly unrelated answer until one thinks about interpretation.
See also Multitasked Conversation. Not to be confused with One Scene, Two Monologues, where no misunderstanding is possible because nobody listens anyway; with Two Scenes, One Dialogue, where two separate intercut conversations contribute to exposition together; or with Sustained Misunderstanding, where only one party is missing the point. Related to Digging Yourself Deeper. This may overlap with Who's on First? or Funny Phone Misunderstanding. If one side is doing it deliberately, it may be Non-Answer. Depending on whether the work in question is lighthearted or more serious, may lead to case of Comically Missing the Point or Dramatically Missing the Point respectively.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Fan Works
- Films – Animation
- Films – Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Video Games
- Western Animation
Other examples:
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Advertising
- Some of the Bresnan Communications commercials involve a married couple talking about 2 different things
- Commercials for Kraft Bagel-fuls have a woman commenting on someone's giant diamond ring
or a ferret in a pouch harnessed to the stomach, but the other woman thinks she's talking about the Bagel-ful she's eating.
- The ad campaign for Super Mario Bros. Deluxe involves people goofing off at their jobs by playing on their Game Boy Color systems, with the people around them misinterpreting the things they shout at it. One ad involves a driving instructor playing the game while his student drives recklessly thanks to his "instructions", while another involves a drive-thru worker seemingly hurling threats and insults to customers through the intercom.
"With games like Super Mario Bros. now in color, you might actually forget where you are."
- In a Vonage VOIP commercial, a couple with a new child walk into the room where the father refers to their daughter as "their new bundle of joy". Hearing the word "Bundle" the wife remembers something and explicitly states that they are losing a lot of money to his current phone bundle and they should drop it. The husband, seemingly unable to hear the word "Phone" in her sentence, thinks she is talking about their child. So when she states they should get rid of the bundle as it will just get harder to do the longer they don't, the husband has a look of utter horror on his face.
- A commercial features a husband and wife talking about how they've "been waiting so long" and hoping something has "turned blue" and how excited they both are. She's talking about a pregnancy test. He's talking about the new cans that change color when the beer inside is at the ideal temperature. When they realize this, she runs away crying, and his attempt to apologize... falls flat. "It's blue like your eyes!"
Comic Books
- In one issue of the short-lived Beetlejuice comic series, Beej and Lydia overhear her father talking about how he can't afford to maintain something anymore and he's going to have to get rid of it. They think he means the house, and both sort of panic over the idea of her having to move. It later gets revealed that Charles was talking about a storage shed.
- In Peter David's Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics) run, in the final issue, Marv had this with Eulogy. Marv believes Eulogy is talking about the people of Earth, but Eulogy is referring to the fans, and how their collective apathy killed the series.
Marv: Be happy?! How, when I know people are going to be calling me for help! Granted, no one has yet, but that's only because they became afraid of me, because I was dangerously insane. But I can wait. Wait for them to—
Eulogy: They didn't become afraid, Captain. They became bored. Bored because they didn't know what to make of you. Your unpredictability became your liability. Furthermore, they didn't really care about you that much in the first place. That, combined with boredom, was fatal.
Marv: No, they'll come back.
Eulogy: No. They really won't.note - In issue 17 of Daredevil (Mark Waid), a flashback to the early days of Matt and Foggy's law office shows them having a spat about the division of workload. Foggy accidentally makes an insensitive remark about sight and apologizes, but the artwork implies that Matt's response was actually obliquely referring to his double life as Daredevil.
Foggy: I wish you could see the nonsense I deal with!
Matt: [with Daredevil's shadow] So do I.
Foggy: That's not... not what I... - In a 1989 Detective Comics storyline, Bruce Wayne is questioned by federal agents who bring up his years traveling in Europe, connections to shady individuals and how millions of dollars of Wayne Enterprises funds have been funneled into special projects. They press on how Bruce "knows what we're talking about" and, assuming they've figured out he's Batman, Bruce replies yes. It's only when he's being arrested that Bruce realizes the agents are under the impression he's a Communist spy.
- A brief example occurs in Harbinger. Peter, visibly nervous, invites Charlene to his motel room, talking about how he's unsure about "this next part" and hesitantly asking if it's okay to touch her. She assumes they're about to have sex, but he's actually preparing to activate her latent powers.
- In Runaways, little Molly asks her parents about how she's been feeling weird lately. Since she's just about the age of puberty, and her parents are busy, they tell her it's natural and they'll talk to her about it later. Turns out not to be her period, but mutant powers.
- Neil Gaiman loved to do this in his The Sandman (1989) comic series, with at least three separate occurrences. The most notable instance takes place in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", in which an actor asks Hamnet if he is proud of his father. Instead of answering the question, Hamnet laments how distant and aloof his father is, much like Dream is to Orpheus, only to hear the actor reply that he'd be proud if Shakespeare were his father.
- In Spider-Girl #5, there is an oblique conversation between Peter Parker and Phil Urich after which Peter thinks he made Phil understand that Mayday must not continue being Spider-Girl while Phil thinks Peter told him to train her being a superheroine because Peter can't do it himself for fear of worrying his wife Mary Jane.
- Tintin: In "The Castafiore Emerald", two reporters from the Paris Flash magazine ask Calculus about whether Bianca Castafiore and Captain Haddock are in a relationship, but Calculus assumes he's getting interviewed about the new breed of rose he developed. Hilarity Ensues.
- Happens in X-Factor (2006) #29, when Theresa tries to tell Jamie she's pregnant with his child, and Jamie thinks she's trying to quit the team. The situation is resolved and lampshaded by Monet, who apparently recognizes the situation from Three's Company.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes has this in an early strip where Calvin imagines himself as Spaceman Spiff shooting down Zargons:
Susie: Psst, Calvin! What was the capital of Poland until 1600?
Calvin: Krakow.
Susie: Thanks.
Calvin: KRAKOW! KRAKOW! Two direct hits! - In one FoxTrot strip, Andy asked Roger what he thought of her new haircut. Roger thought she was asking about the new brand of beer he was drinking and replied that it didn't have much body and he hoped she hadn't paid a lot of money for it. He then wondered why she ran off crying.
- Garfield: In the May 12, 2024 strip, Jon and Garfield take a walk in the park, where they both express appreciation for the sights, the sounds, and the smells... and then the strip ends with Jon hugging a tree but Garfield hugs a hot dog vendor.
- In one Zits comic strip, teenage Jeremy is explaining to his friend Hector how he's Googled everybody he knows. Hector is somewhat startled (perhaps at the fact that Jeremy now knows everything he'd need to know about everybody), as Jeremy goes on: "Friends, teachers, neighbors... you name 'em, I've Googled 'em." All the while, Jeremy's dad is standing behind them with an increasingly alarmed look on his face, until he runs over to Jeremy's mom to learn that Google is actually an internet search, and not, well...
Folklore
- There's a Jewish folktale about a silent debate between a Jew and the Pope that works this way.
- All four of the silent debates featured there are like that.
- There's another one in which the uneducated deaf-mute of Chelm defeats a Cossack who had gone to the University of Krakow. It is also silent, but it has a completely different set of misunderstandings.note
- The Grimm fairy tale "Dr. Know-All" features a somewhat similar setup, in that while one character either talks to someone else entirely or to himself, he's misinterpreted as speaking to someone else entirely and far more intelligently.
Jokes
- This Double Entendre-heavy yarn:
A couple was unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, the husband kissed his wife goodbye and said, "Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon."
Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.
"Good morning," he said, "I've come to..."
"Oh, no need to explain," the woman cut in, embarrassed, "I've been expecting you."
"Have you really?" said the photographer. "Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?"
"Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat."
After a moment she asked, blushing, "Well, where do we start?"
"Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there."
"Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for my husband and me!"
"Well, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results."
"My, that's a lot!" gasped the woman.
"In my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that." he said.
"Don't I know it," she said quietly.
The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. "This was done on the top of a bus," he said.
"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed, grasping at her throat.
"And these twins turned out exceptionally well, when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with."
"She was difficult?" asked the woman.
"Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look."
"Four and five deep?" said the woman, her eyes wide with amazement.
"Yes", the photographer replied, "And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in."
The woman leaned forward. "Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh .. . . .equipment?"
"It's true, yes. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away."
"Tripod?"
"Oh yes, I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand for very long."
The woman fainted.
Music
- Several conversations on Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy are so surreal that people sometimes seem to be talking about the same topic, but one line later appear to be going on about something totally unrelated.
- Madness' "House of Fun". The teenage protagonist wants to buy some condoms from a chemist. However, for whatever reason he's incapable of actually using the word 'condom' and instead refers to them by a series of increasingly bizarre euphemisms that confuses the chemist into thinking he wants to buy some party supplies.
- "We're A Happy Family" by The Ramones from the album Rocket to Russia have various family members chatter about about topics that don't tie in with each other.
- "The Murder Mystery" on The Velvet Underground's album The Velvet Underground (1969) featured all four band members' voices. During the verses, Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison each recited different verses of poetry simultaneously, with each track panned strictly to the left and right. For the choruses, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule sang different lyrics and melodies at the same time, also separated left and right.
Radio
- Die tauben DJs ("the deaf DJs") had a variation of this as its formula; the characters misunderstood each other acoustically, so it involved rhymes rather than puns. For example, one of them asks about the "Lampe" (lamp), and his colleague, thinking they're talking about consuming too much alcohol, understands "Wampe" (potbelly).
- In The Men from the Ministry Sir Gregory is being interviewed on Ministry's Hospitality budgets on the TV-program Panorama. However, due to a mistake caused by the General Assistance Department, the Interviewer Robin Gay thinks he is interviewing Sir Gregory about sex in the civil service. The result is as hilarious as you think:
Sir Gregory: In next month I'm expecting a foreign delegation. I'd like to put a show for them. Let them see what we British can do.
Robin Gay: S-sir Gregory I must ask you to be a lot less strict...
Sir Gregory: And I may say that Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition will be involved.
Robin Gay: Sir Gregory please!
Sir Gregory: May I explain what their position will be?
Stand Up Comedy
- Australian comedian Carl Barron tells of a conversation based around the two meanings of the word 'thongs' (either footwear or underpants).
Carl: I always wear thongs.
Others: When?
Carl: When I feel hot. I don't see the big deal. My mum wears thongs. My dad wears thongs. When we get to the beach we take them off, put them on our hands and run down to the water.
Others: Are we talking about the same thing?
Carl: I don't think so.- British comic Jasper Carrott describes a similar conversation with some American friends, concerning his getting aroused by suspenders (either stocking supports or trouser braces. Just to be clear, he does mean the former).
- 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.
- Dave Allen did a routine about two different meanings of the word 'shit'
- Trevor Noah talks about how he once ordered tacos from a truck in the US and the cook asked him if he wanted a napkin, which in his native South Africa means a diaper, it was an... interesting conversation.
Trevor: Why the hell would I want a napkin?
Cook: Hey, man! For the mess, afterwards!
Trevor: For the mess? Is it that instant that I'm gonna need a napkin?
Cook: You never know with tacos, man! One minute you think you got it, then it's coming out!
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: The famous Eric and the Dread Gazebo story consists of one of these, with the player (Eric) trying to take down an apparently invulnerable monster, while his DM is confused about why one of his players is attempting to attack a small garden structure. The DM eventually loses patience after Eric tries to flee from the gazebo and declares that "it's too late. You have awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you." Immediately afterwards, the amused players restored some semblance of order by explaining to Eric what a gazebo was.
Theater
- Fiddler on the Roof: Tevye and Lazar Wolf meet up in a bar in one scene. Lazar Wolf wants to talk about potentially marrying Tevye's daughter Tzeitel. However, as Golde never told Tevye what Lazar Wolf wanted to speak to him about, he drew his own (incorrect) conclusion that Lazar Wolf wants to buy one of his cows. Cue an awkward conversation between the two (adapted from the same scene in Sholem Aleichem's original short story) where Double Entendres and innuendos abound.
- The H.M.S. Pinafore song "Never Mind The Whys And Wherefores" is about Captain Corcoran and Sir Porter telling Josephine that rank is no barrier when it comes to love. They think they're saying this in the context of the middle class Josephine marrying the upper class Sir Porter, while she's interpreting it as permission to marry the lower class Ralph Rackstraw.
- In another Ayckbourn play, How the Other Half Loves, a boss mistakenly thinks that his philandering employee is having an affair with another employee's wife, and tries to tell the supposedly cheated-on man. The boss does this in the presence of his own wife, whom he does not know has actually had an affair with the philandering employee; because the lady's name is not mentioned, the boss' wife thinks her husband has discovered her cheating and that he is sordidly airing her dirty laundry to a third party. This results in a conversation of misunderstandings between them, with despondent reproach on her part and puzzlement on his, before he unwittingly sets her straight right at the moment when she is about to confess.
- In Molière's play The Miser, Harpagon and his steward Valere are talking about the supposed thievery Valere has done. Harpagon is talking about his stolen money box, while Valere is talking of Harpagon's daughter whom he's in love with. Harpagon is so fixated on the stolen money that he takes unusually long to realize what's up, even when Valere begins talking of the "fair eyes", "modesty", and "purity" of the daughter.
- Next to Normal manages to do this with the very same dialogue during "How Could I Ever Forget". Diana, who has lost her memory from electroshock therapy, has suddenly remembered the day that her son died. Singing the title of the song, she wonders how she could have forgotten such a thing. Dan, who remembers it clearly since it was the day he lost both his son and Diana (in a sense) sings the title asking how he could possibly forget it.
Dan and Diana Goodman: How could I ever forget? This was the moment my life was set. The day that I lost you is as clear as the day we met.
- Most of the Alan Ayckbourn play Relatively Speaking.
- In an relatively old Norwegian theater piece, Rett i Lomma ("Right in the Pocket", referring to money easily obtained through fraud), the Villain Protagonist (Erik) has spent the last two years making up fake personalities to cash in on their various "illnesses" and subsequent state support money. Then a tax inspector shows up and wants some signatures on a few papers in order to confirm the next payment to "Mr. Thomasen". Erik promptly says he is Thomasen and signs the paper, but the inspector also needs Erik's signature. He asks his friend Normann to do this, but the attempt is thwarted as Normann is forced to take on another role as the inspector mentions other people and Erik begins lying about them too. This leads to him and Normann having to play various fake roles in order to cover up the fraud as more and more oblivious people arrive at the scene and begin asking questions. Hilarity Ensues as they take on more and more ridiculous personality traits and come up with more and more complex excuses. Most conversations are then misunderstood as the roles become too complex to keep track of. Several scenes have not double, but multi-layered conversations.
Visual Novels
- CLANNAD: Tomoya is an expert at arranging this kind of situation for his own amusement. In one case, Nagisa wants to ask for Ryou's help in establishing the theater club, so Tomoya has Sunohara tell Ryou that someone wants to ask her out on the rooftop. When they arrive, Tomoya introduces Nagisa as the girl who wanted to "talk to her", and a beautiful confession scene unfolds until Nagisa finally mentions the club itselfnote .
- Da Capo: 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 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 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. That said, it's strongly implied to be a subversion given later plot events involving the three of them.
- The infamous elevator scene from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. The elevator seemingly can go down to a part of the ship that is flooded. Naturally, June is worried she might get wet "down there". Subverted, given The Reveal that June is telepathic and has spent much of the game reading Junpei's thoughts.
June: Your body will force you to swallow some of it, eventually...
Junpei: Wh-What are you trying to do to me...?
June: Nothing... I'm not going to do anything to you. I'm just saying that that's what happens. It's a psychological reaction to what you're experiencing...
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.
Webcomics
- In Bleach: Happy to Serve You, during a scene set in the past, Isshin winds up in Hueco Mundo and meets Nel. He assumes she's a Shinigami, and she thinks he's an arrancar. Their talk about his captain's haori winds up making Nel think that he's a bloodthirsty monster who killed a Shinigami Captain and wants to go right back to kill more. Nel only finds out otherwise when he corrects her that he was nominated, and that Kenpachi is the only one who got his job through Klingon Promotion.
- Out There has a rather subtle one. Keep in mind that Clayton's serious, and Sherry's just bantering:
Clayton: I can't believe someone as unconfident as you won't at least consider giving someone as unchallenging as me a shot.
Sherry: Another in a series of life's paradoxes. [1]
- xkcd: This strip graphs the awkwardness of having a conversation with a stranger, only to realise halfway through that they're actually just talking on the phone.
- The Order of the Stick:
- The comic does this exploiting the several meanings of the word "level". Roy's talking about exploring the next floor of the dungeon, Haley's talking about the group becoming more powerful. Lampshaded by Belkar at the end of the strip.
- An extremely literal variation happens in one strip. Due to the panel layout, it looks like Haley and Elan are having a discussion about their Relationship Upgrade. That's just a gag, though - they were having two separate conversations entirely, Elan with his Banjo the Puppet and Haley with her pile of gold.
- The comic does this exploiting the several meanings of the word "level"
- In Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures , While attending a diplomatic and business meeting, Mehlata wants to ''kill'' Kria. the other guy isn't aware of her homicidal intent.
- Forest Hill: This happens twice to Flora. When she and Benni run into Mr. Verost, who is a paedophile in an incestuous relationship with his daughter, he assumes that she is in on the secret, and she doesn't realize what he is talking about. Later when she is talking with Benni, she does not immediately realize that Benni is actually talking about having sex with Mr. Verost and Talitha due to him using an Unusual Euphemism, until he makes it very obvious that he thinks Flora and Colin were having sex with Colin's daughter. This makes Flora suspicious of Benni's pedophilic relationship with all the men he knows, leading to Benni confessing Benni and Talitha's abuse by Mr. Verost, and from his own father, but also hints at a wider conspiracy.
- Lies, Sisters and Wives: Due to various characters having different understandings of the facts, often they will have conversations that they interpret in wildly differing ways.
- Arthur, who thinks that Jessica is Matilda's sister, asks Matilda about her sister and comments that she and Jessica look nothing alike. Matilda tells him about her actual sister and is confused why she and Jessica would look alike.
- Elisabeth says to Agatha that Arthur wants to be married to Agatha's sister, the call girl. She thinks that Jessica is both Agatha's sister and Arthur's wife, so from her perspective she is simply pointing out that Arthur is not bothered by his wife's profession. To Agatha, who is Arthur's actual wife, Elisabeth is telling her to her face that her husband would rather be with her sister.
- Fredrik, who thinks that Jessica is Arthur's wife, says to Agatha (Arthur's actual wife) that Arthur is attracted to Jessica. Agatha, who thinks that Jessica is Fredrik's daughter and Jim's wife, is outraged.
- Elisabeth thinks that Jessica is a call girl, while Fredrik thinks she's a psychologist. Elisabeth calls her job terrible, while Fredrik defends it and suggests that both Elisabeth and her brother could benefit from sessions with Jessica. Elisabeth storms out.
- Elisabeth talks to Arthur about his wife's job, calling it a disgrace; she thinks he's married to Jessica and that Jessica is a call girl. Arthur's actual wife is a psychologist, and Arthur thinks that Jessica is a veterinarian. Arthur says his wife's clients think she's good, and mentions Jessica sticking her hands up (animal) bottoms and working with horses. This results in Elisabeth thinking that "Arthur's wife Jessica" openly sleeps around with other men, anally fists people, and has sex with horses.
- Arthur tells Fredrik that Jessica sometimes euthanizes her clients without their knowledge. Arthur, who thinks she's a veterinarian, is talking about animals. Fredrik, who thinks she's a psychologist, thinks he's saying she kills people.
- Like Wind On A Dry Branch: Played for Drama in "The Wounded Beast" arc, when Killian and Rieta argue over Killian's decision to release a captured she-wolf over her cub. While at first glance, their argument concerns captured animals, they are actually talking about Rieta's value as an individual: having lost her young daughter to a plague, Rieta is all for sacrificing a mother to save her child, whereas Killian, who lost his own mother to a demonic curse (and is quite enamored with Rieta), insists on saving the mother (whether the she-wolf or Rieta herself), even if it means causing pain to her and to the child.
- Love On The Menu: Hoyeong is secretly poor and doesn't want anyone to know it, so he's very shocked when he discovers the deliveryman for his sushi is one of his classmates, Eunseong. The next day, Hoyeong asks if he saw the inside of the apartment, and Eunseong says yes. He starts freaking out internally, only for Eunseong to say "it's his fault for not dressing properly", making him realize he thought they were talking about how he saw his "chili pepper" when the former's towel fell off.
- In one Questionable Content strip, Hannerlore has been watching Marigold play World of Warcraft, and her enthusiastic description of it could be interpreted as something sexual. Will deliberately encourages her to continue while pretending he's just interested. Mar figures it out and is not amused, but Hanners remains clueless.
- Lackadaisy: Mordecai has No Social Skills and is sufficiently Asexual that at times he has trouble realising that people are even talking about sex, which leads to a couple of awkward conversations where he and a minor character named Joey are talking past each other. In the first, Joey assumes Mordecai is talking about a kinky sexual encounter instead of the violent knife attack he's actually dealt with (in Joey's defence, Mordecai's exact words are "I was trying to fend off a feral animal, I don't know why she had to involve knives"), and in the second, they're both admiring a picture of two cabaret girls, but Mordecai's focus is on symmetry as a concept (a thing that is of great interest to him personally) while Joey is mostly just fantasising about having a threesome.
Web Original
- The short comedy sketch "Citizen Kane" opens with two film fans talking enthusiastically about Orson Welles and his most famous film. In an ending that changes everything, it is revealed that one of the pair was instead talking about Brendan Fraser and the somewhat less-acclaimed Bedazzled (2000), turning most of her seemingly-innocent lines into jokes on second viewing.
- ColeyDoesThings: "omegaverse vs. alpha bro" has the two titular fans meet and carry on a conversation about their respective interests. Despite the alpha bro's hypermasculine aggression, it takes quite a while before they figure out the fan is actually talking about smutty fanfic.
- In Dimension 20, in the first season of The Unsleeping City, friendly doctor Kingston Brown has an intimate heart-to-heart with magic initiate Pete the Plug where he explains that magic is real, and that he will help take care of him.
Pete: Is this like a full-time job, or do I still have my life?
Kingston: Ah—you can still have a life, but Imma tell you, it's gonna be a wild one.
[cut to Sofia, who also is only just being introduced to magic, having an almost identical conversation with Kugrash, a talking rat that lives in the sewers]
Sofia: Is this like a full-time job?
Kugrash: Ehh, ya know, it's gonna be a wild one! - Flander's Company: When Caleb is asking Mr. Trueman if he can engage an assistant (who ends up being Igor), the boss seems to be responding positively, but he is in fact talking on the phone (with an earpiece hidden by his hair) and has no idea what Caleb wanted.
- LoadingReadyRun has a three-way version with cell phones, though it's not actually a "dialogue" as none of the three are actually talking to each other. Kathleen is breaking up with a boyfriend, Graham is making a business deal, and Matt is talking to a friend about returning a defective product to the store. It's just the 3 halves of the conversations that we hear match up perfectly.
- An Abridged Series of Puella Magi Madoka Magica has a conversation in which Homura thinks they're discussing Mami's weapons, while Madoka thinks they're talking about her...built-in chest armor.
Madoka: They were so... awesome... Subtitle: Referring to Mami's boobs
Homura: I've never seen another magical girl with ones quite like that. Subtitle: Referring to Mami's rifles
Madoka: If only I could have held them... Just once... Subtitle: (Boobs)
Homura: You... like them that much? Sorry to disappoint you by not having any. Subtitle: (Rifles) - In a scene of Noob, Sparadrap and Ivy run into each other after both having a confrontation with another female character that they don't like very much. Sparadrap starts telling Ivy of all the nasty things he's like to see happen to the woman he hates while only using female pronouns. Ivy replies that it's the minimum she deserves, quite obviously thinking of the person she just got wronged by, who happens to be somebody Sparadrap knows also.
- Seinfeld - "The Twin Towers": George Steinbrenner chastises George for lying to him. George thinks he's finally been caught in his lie, but Steinbrenner clarifies that he meant how George is being a Humble Hero.
Web Animation
- SparkTales: In "[Wrong Wedding?]Wedding Panic: Bride Missing, Then the Twist!" Lisa talks with Devon about her impending marriage with Noah, whose identity she kept a secret from everyone. However, Devon misunderstood and thought Lisa was marrying him and told it to everyone. However, come the wedding day and Devon calls her about her absence, Lisa brushes it off until he confronts her for "skipping" her wedding with him, but Noah and Mia come to her aid.
Real Life
- An Australian news show in the 1980s had a reporter investigating a newspaper ad from a man in Adelaide selling his house, where the ad ended with "No Asians, thank you." It led to a rather interesting exchange. The reporter questioned the seller repeatedly about why he would not work with Asians and insisted this was discriminatory. The seller pushed back, saying that they were all crooks and he didn’t want to work with them. Eventually, after multiple questions, the seller said that the only thing "Asians" want is "just to put the sign up." At this point, it dawned on the reporter that he was saying agents, not Asians, and that the newspaper and the reporter had both misunderstood him due to his heavy accent.