History Main / CaughtComingHomeLate

* One ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' ColdOpen had Will sneaking back in from being out late and after evading Geoffrey and a seemingly sleeping on the couch Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil and dancing in silent victory, his Aunt then mutters, "Good night, Will!" As his Uncle then shouts, "You're grounded!", which makes him [[SoreLoser stomp up to his room in response.]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* Harriett Potter in ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'' gets caught in [[spoiler: a gang brawl in the Lower Alleys]], causing her to arrive home well past curfew -- and her dad is in the living room. And her identity swap with her cousin, living each other's lives for most of the year, means that she's not very good at answering his security questions.

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---> "We always say something like, "Baby, I'll be back by 5:30, quarter 'till six at the latest." Then we come rolling in, like...February."

---> '''Mom:''' I don't wanna know where you've been, what you've been doing, or who you've been doing it with.\\

* Happens in ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' with Jeremy sneaking home after his curfew and thinking he's got away with it, but his parents are laying inside his bedroom door in a sleeping bag. He faints.

* In ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', a sequence of Peter sneaking in late after the prom [[BaitAndSwitch is framed as though a burglar is breaking into the house.]] We hear but don't see something clicking, somebody saying, "Freeze, mister!" and the response, "Aaaaah! Don't shoot!". Not a burglar holding Roger at gunpoint - Jason and Marcus catching Peter in the act with a flashlight and a dart gun.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMutantMayhem'' the turtles return home late only for Splinter to say he was worried about where the turtles have been. The turtles lied about what they were doing until Leonardo told the truth.

-->'''Pops:''' I wouldn't do that just yet. ''[belt snap]'' 'Cause your ass is mine.

* In ''Film/{{Footloose}}'', Ariel's father waits for her when she returns home late at night after curfew.
* In ''Film/BoogieNights'', Eddie's mother is waiting for him when he returns from a night out at Jack Horner's house. She makes a horrible scene which causes Eddie to leave home and move in with Jack.

* ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington From the Highlands]]'' reverses the usual parent-child version of this trope. At the end of the story, Anton sneaks back into his cabin to find his teenage daughter waiting up for him.

* Played for laughs in ''Series/BlackBooks'', when Manny comes home from an evening out with friends to find Bernard sitting in a chair waiting up for him, with Bernard proceeding to yell at him like a parent who's been waiting for an errant child all night. For context, Manny is a middle-aged man and Bernard is merely his employer/landlord.

* On the show ''Series/TeenWolf'' Scott came home, closed the window, turned on the lights and BAM! There was Derek, sitting in a chair expectantly. Stiles went to Scott's house, went to his room, closed the door, turned on the lights and saw Scott sitting in a chair.

* The Music/StephenFoster song "My Wife Is a Most Knowing Woman" has these lines:
-->Not often I go out to dinner\\
And come home a little "so so,"\\
I try to creep up through the hall-way,\\
As still as a mouse, on tip-toe,\\
She's sure to be waiting up for me\\
And then comes a nice little scene...

* Country singer Music/CollinRaye has a song called "That's My Story" in which he insists that he fell asleep in the back yard[[note]]He was actually up all night playing cards with his friends[[/note]] only to find out that his wife put the hammock in storage a week ago.

* Mindy [=McCready's=] "Guys Do It All The Time" starts out with her coming home at four in the morning to an angry boyfriend, only for her to point out the DoubleStandard that men often go out drinking with their buddies until the wee hours and expect not to get hassled about it.
* Inverted in "I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew" by Eddie Morton, where he says his wife was shocked to catch him coming home at two in the morning ... because she never expects him until dawn.

* ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls'':
** ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'':
*** One episode has Harold walking in with his wife there waiting, unknowingly to him, with wonderful news.
*** This is played straight and inverted in an episode where the Professor begins dating a disguised Sedusa. The first time it's used, she scolds the girls for being out at night despite them being superheroes. Later on, the roles get reversed when the girls sit in the living room waiting for her to come home after a crime-spree.
** In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'', Bubbles is in curlers sitting in chair angrily waiting for Donny the Unicorn to come home from a visit with a new friend. From the episode "Odd Bubbles Out".

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Brother from the Same Planet", Bart comes home from spending time with his "bigger brother" Tom. He opens the door to find Homer sitting on the stairs in the shadows. Homer confronts him about where he was.
-->"You've been out gallivanting around with that floozy of a bigger brother of yours, haven't you? ''Haven't you?!''
* A recurring sketch on BlackComedy ''WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust'': A sad looking man arrived home late at night to find his wife waiting up for him. He explains his lateness with an elaborate, detailed and dubious story. Skeptical wife asks him what he's really been doing. Man confesses to something disturbingly degrading. Funnier than it sounds.
* The ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "All About Steve" has a [[RuleOfThree three-fer]]. Stan comes home and walks into the living room, where Steve confronts him over having a black man else pose as him at a CIA softball game because he's ashamed that his son is a weak nerd. Then he enters the kitchen, where Francine chews him out about the same. Finally, he goes to the bathroom and is greeted by a bruised-up Roger, who tells him [[ItMakesSenseInContext "I got beat up by a taco"]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' season 4 episode "Deep Throats" plays this trope straight with [=Brian=] waiting in the living room to confront [=Meg=] with [[spoiler:her relationship with Mayor West]].
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' attempts to pull this [[spoiler:on Hollyhock]] in Season 4, sitting in the dark for ''five hours'' to invoke it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for him, he realizes only after trying to turn the light on that the bulb had burned out, prompting him to run out of the room to replace it, and ''then'' pull the trope off]].
* ''WesternAnimation/PeppermintRose'' begins with Rose stuck at home because [[YouAreGrounded she was grounded]] for coming home late the previous night.

* One ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' ColdOpen had Will sneaking back in from being out late and after evading Geoffrey and a seemingly sleeping on the couch Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil and dancing in silent victory, his Aunt then mutters, "Good night, Will!" As gis Uncle then shouts, "You're grounded!", which makes him [[SoreLoser stomp up to his room in response.]]