History Main / IrrevocableMessage

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' did this once, where Fred sent an angry letter to his boss over a misunderstanding.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': In "Copycat," Marinette works up the nerve to call Adrien and panics when she gets his voicemail. She leaves a short, awkward message and then, [[IsThisThingSTillOn after she thinks it's hung up]] a blunt admission of her feelings.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E22BloodFeud Blood Feud]]", a dying Mr. Burns is saved by Bart's rare blood and thanks the family with only a card, prompting Homer's angry composition of an insulting letter. Despite coming to his senses, Bart (who knew Homer would calm down) sends the letter to Mr. Burns anyway, and part of the episode deals with attempts to retrieve or destroy it by flooding (along with all the other letters in the mailbox). The gambit fails, and Homer is [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity fired]], but Mr. Burns comes to his senses and buys the family a giant head statue.

* ''Series/TheThickOfIt'' has an episode on this trope. Hugh sends a humorously vulgar email to what he assumes to be his aide Glenn's Hotmail address, only for to be delivered to a schoolgirl who [[GenderBlenderName shares his name]]. This leads to a public apology: "I promise that I will never [[ItMakesSenseInContext call an eight-year-old girl a cunt]] again."

* A sketch on ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'' involves a man trying to leave a voicemail message to a woman he met, only to keep tripping over himself out of awkwardness. He eventually learns that his attempts have filled her phone's entire inbox, at which point the whole thing turns out to be a recording being played by his defense attorney, explaining why he mugged the woman for her phone. Their plea? "Not guilty, but come on, what else could he have done?"
* In the ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresDoubleActs'' episode "Here's What We Do", it eventually transpires that Pidge's story about being on a scavenger hunt at a rival university is actually an attempt to get back a gift he'd sent to a girl he met at an inter-college ''TabletopGame/{{Catan}}'' tournement. [[spoiler: A comment she made made him think that a dog collar with his name on it would be a fun gag gift, and it was only after he sent it that he realised it could be interpreted ''very'' differently.]]

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/RichardIII'' plays with this one by having Richard let King Edward think he's failed to countermand his impulsive order to execute George -- thus conveniently allowing Richard himself (who's had George killed behind Edward's back) to escape suspicion. Ian [=McKellen=]'s [[Film/RichardIII film version]] shows Richard burning George's pardon with a Zippo lighter.
* Played straight, however, in ''Theatre/KingLear'', where the villain Edmund, after being mortally wounded, attempts to call off his order for Cordelia to be executed, but it's too late.

* Fortunately averted in ''Theatre/LadyWindermeresFan'': Lady Windermere's "Dear John" letter is intercepted by [[spoiler:Mrs Erlynne]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' did this once, where Fred sent an angry letter to his boss over a misunderstanding.

--->'''Homer:''' (in unnecessary fake voice) Hello, my name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me.\\

'''Homer:''' (still in fake voice) ...I don't know.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Information Stupor Highway" revolves around Timmy travelling into the Internet in order to retrieve a love letter he sent to Trixie that his parents had tampered with, adding all kind of embarrassing things. [[spoiler:Though he does manage to get it back, it's then immediately taken by Trixie, who seems to react surprisingly favourably to it...[[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne except for the part that compares her to Timmy's mother (which was written by his dad).]] ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' had WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, trying to figure out how to work his new fax machine, sending a love letter to WesternAnimation/{{Minnie|Mouse}} and an insulting note to Mortimer through it. When he discovers that Mortimer got the love letter, he urgently tries to get the fax Minnie received away from her. [[spoiler: At the end, it turns out that the fax Minnie was carrying was written by Daisy and was wholly unrelated to anything Mickey wrote; the insulting letter actually wound up in the hands of Roy Disney.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' segment "Film/JamesBond: [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Reply All]]" started off when M accidentally sent an embarrassing video of Raoul Silva to every spy in the world, including Silva, who is determined to [[LeaveNoWitnesses eliminate everyone who received it]]. Among the [[PoorCommunicationKills casualties]]: Film/AgentCodyBanks, [[Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries Ethan Hunt]], and [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Perry]].
* Similarly, an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' had Malory sending out a ''Series/BurnNotice'' on her ''own son'' when he defected to Odin.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** In "I, Brobot", Doof's "evil scheme" of the day was to hoist a giant magnet over his new girlfriend's house in order to erase some long, rambling messages during their "relationship bump".
** In "The Bully Code", Candace desperately attempts to keep Jeremy from checking his phone before he sees the goofy pictures she accidentally sent him.
** In "Operation: Crumb Cake", Isabella and the Fireside Girls invade the post office trying to retrieve a love-letter that Isabella had impulsively sent Phineas.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': In "[[Recap/TheLooneyTunesShowS2E2YouveGotHateMail You've Got Hate Mail]]", WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck accidentally sends a hate-filled email to everyone he knows (except WesternAnimation/PorkyPig). He then attempts to delete the email from Tina's computer before she can read it.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': in "S.W.A.K.", Rocko sends a love letter to his new mail-carrier Aleisha, and tries to get it back after Heffer ([[NewJobAsThePlotDemands now a mail-carrier himself]]) warns him about Aleisha's overprotective big brother. Rocko fails to keep it out of the brother's hands (in part thanks to Heffer), but fortunately the message is vague and platonic enough that said brother mistakes it for a token of friendship between Heffer and Rocko.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In "Get the Message", Lincoln tries to delete an angry, profanity-laden voicemail from Lori's smartphone before she hears it. [[spoiler: She deletes it herself, telling him that her inbox is full enough without messages from him.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'' episode "Shoot the Messenger", Po accidentally writes "Keep fighting! Never surrender!" on a peace treaty because he thought he was signing an autograph. He and Tigress race to stop it being delivered, but the messenger turns out to be TheDeterminator.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': In "Copycat," Marinette works up the nerve to call Adrien and panics when she gets his voicemail. She leaves a short, awkward message and then, [[IsThisThingSTillOn after she thinks it's hung up]] a blunt admission of her feelings.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' episode "Poison Pen Letter", Rudy gets mad due to thinking Michelle chose not to invite him to her birthday party and proceeds to write a sarcastic letter "thanking" Michelle that has an illustration of an unflattering depiction of Michelle. Rudy quickly regrets sending the letter after he finds out that he is going to be invited after all (Michelle hadn't actually mailed the invitations yet, it's just that everyone in school was talking about the party beforehand due to anticipating it to be a fun one). Rudy ultimately fails to prevent the letter from arriving, but after he makes his way to Michelle's party, it turns out that Michelle hung the letter over her mantle because she actually finds the drawing of her amusing, her only complaint being that Rudy misspelled her name.

[[folder:Film]]
* The entire premise of the film ''Film/OvernightDelivery'' is set around this device. The protagonist, Wyatt Trips, sends a nasty break-up message to his girlfriend when he believes she cheated on him, only to discover later that he was mistaken. [[spoiler: Only it turns out that he ''wasn't'' mistaken.]]
* Not quite the same, but: The main character in ''Film/RoadTrip'' believes that his dumb friend sent a video of him cheating on his girlfriend to her. The movie is about him going to try and get it back.
* Sequel ''Film/EuroTrip'' had the main character offending his chat buddy Mieke when she said she loved him, thinking it was a boy's name. When he finds out it's a girl's name, she's already blocked him. HilarityEnsues.
* An Irrevocable Message kickstarts the plot of ''Film/{{Atonement}}'', though it's also due to Briony spontaneously deciding to read the letter ''that was never meant for her and then show it to her mother.''
* In ''Film/MyBestFriendsWedding'', Julianne (played by Julia Roberts) sends an e-mail from Michael's account in an attempt to cause trouble between Michael and his fiancee.
* ''Film/{{Memento}}'' runs almost entirely on this trope. Lenny sends himself messages which --5 seconds later-- are too late to take back, because he won't remember why he wrote them (and believes his own handwriting implicitly). This drives the plot of the color portion of the movie, where he [[spoiler:convinces himself to tattoo Teddy's license number on his thigh]]. Then again, he actually does mean what he's writing when he writes it - but given his condition, he's a new person every 15 minutes, constantly having to contend with whatever the "previous" person had in mind.
* ''Film/NeverPutItInWriting'' depends entirely on this trope, and the attempts by the hero (Pat Boone) to intercept a letter from the Irish and British postal services before it reaches its intended recipient.
* One of the ideas the protagonists in ''Film/TheInternship'' come up with is an app that will help prevent this sort of thing.
* In ''Film/TheIntern'' Jules (played by Anne Hathaway) tries to send a message to her husband complaining about her mom and accidentally sends it to her instead.

* ''Film/Desperados2020'': The premise of the story is about Wesley rushing to Mexico to try and delete [[StronglyWordedLetter the ranting email]] she sent to her boyfriend Jared while drunk and thinking her was ghosting her, while he was actually in a coma after having a car accident. So she travels all the way to the hotel room his phone is in to get into his computer and delete the message before he reads it.
* In ''Film/TheThingsOfLife'', the protagonist writes a break-up letter for his lover, but he realizes that he still loves her and decides not to send the letter, but he keeps it in his pocket. Then he has a car accident. The letter is found while he is unconscious and a key point of the film is about whether the letter will eventually be delivered or not. [[spoiler:It won't be.]]
* ''Film/ATouchOfClass'': Played for drama at the ending. Steve, racked with guilt at how he's stringing Vickie along as his mistress (he's married and can't bring himself to divorce his wife), sends a breakup letter by telegram. Minutes later he regrets it, changes his mind, calls the telegram company and has it canceled. He rushes over to the love nest with flowers and groceries--but it turns out that Vickie did get the telegram after all. They break up for good and the film ends.

* Creator/DouglasAdams's book ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' subverts this a little, when a ghost tests Richard [=MacDuff=]'s suggestibility by subconsciously pushing him to go to extraordinary lengths to erase a fairly inoffensive message from his girlfriend's answering machine.

* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', Miles Vorkosigan composes a report to his superiors completely obscuring the fact that the rescuee was injured by human, not mechanical, error on Miles' part. Further complicated by the fact that Miles decides to come clean and claim that he omitted the detail for the sake of security, but then changes his mind back when he thinks his boss is about to offer him another mission. His boss already knew what had really happened, and was offering Miles a chance to redeem himself. He failed [[SecretTestOfCharacter the test]].
* The interstellar explorers in James Tiptree's story ''A Momentary Taste Of Being'' have only enough resources to send a single message back home to tell a followup colony fleet whether or not it's safe to follow. The outcome is summarized in [[http://catfish.dhs.org/~happyfish/filk/spoketoosoon.pdf this FilkSong]].

--> Alice -- What's the matter with you? Were you sick when you left the room? Carole
--> I had to go down to the Letter Box & get something back. Alice
--> Did you? C.
--> It was too late. A.
--> Oh my God, dear God, what did I do! He's got my letter now . . . My soul lies naked in his hands . . . I'll die . . . I'll just die. . . . . .
** She very nearly does. [[spoiler: He treats her letter like an ordinary English essay, correcting her spelling and punctuation. She attempts suicide and ends up possibly crippled for life.]]
* This is what the novel ''For Every Solution, A Problem'' is entirely about. Protagonist Gerri plans to commit suicide and sends letters to all her friends, family and her boss in which she tells them what she really thinks of them, expecting the letters to be delivered after her death. When her suicide attempt fails, she tries to stop everyone from reading their letters (but fails).
* Iain Banks's ''Literature/DeadAir'' ends in a long, harrowing adventure necessitated by the lovable rogue-type protagonist having drunkenly left a '''very''' compromising message on a mob boss's answering machine.
* Inverted by Luisa Valenzuela's short story "[[http://www.saginaw-twp.k12.mi.us/view/6585.pdf The Censors]]". A man living under a dictatorship joins the government's CensorshipBureau in an effort to ensure that a letter he wrote reaches its intended recipient without endangering her safety. By the time the letter actually comes across his desk, however, he's become so absorbed in the bureau's work that he censors the letter himself and is summarily executed.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Noodnick, Daughter of Medic", Mr. Conklin thinks he's being fired and Miss Brooks is taking his place as Madison High's principal. Conklin sends Mr. Stone (head of the board of education) a resignation letter telling Stone to "take a flying half-Nelson off a galloping goose". Mr. Conklin panics when he discovers his job is safe. No matter; fortunately the letter causes the school board and Mr. Stone to realize how much they need Mr. Conklin. Miss Brooks even manages to arrange for Mr. Conklin to get a raise.
* In the ''Series/{{Austin and Ally}}'' episode "Costumes & Courage"., Austin accidentally insults his boss Jimmy Starr with a heated text message calling him an "evil gutless rat", under the mistaken belief that Jimmy is planning to sell off one of Austin's songs to another singer. Fortunately, Ally manages to intercept and delete the message at Jimmy's Halloween party before Jimmy can read it.
* The ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' two-part episode "The Bardwell Caper" involved the two characters retrieving a nasty letter they had written to their boss.
* The ''Series/ThreesCompany'' episode "Out on a Limb" involved Jack Tripper trying to retrieve a scathing letter sent to a food critic.
* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Phone Message", [[ButtMonkey George Costanza]] leaves nasty messages on his latest girlfriend's answering machine then, with Jerry's help, tries to switch the tapes before she hears the messages.
** Subverted as [[spoiler: his girlfriend had already heard them and thought it was merely George playing a hilarious joke]]
** In "The Sniffing Accountant," Jerry suspects his accountant's sniffing as a sign of drug use and, fearing for his income, writes a scathing letter ending their association. When an unrelated character ''also'' sniffs around Jerry and reveals that it's an allergic reaction to his mohair sweater, Jerry tries to stop Newman from mailing the letter. It's subverted when [[spoiler: Newman fails to deliver the letter after getting handsy with a woman]]. To top it off, [[spoiler: Jerry later finds out the accountant is going bankrupt and wishes the letter ''had'' made it]].
* Rachel's drunken "I'm over you" message on Ross's answering machine in ''Series/{{Friends}}'' in "The One Where Ross Finds Out."
** Monica did this in "The One Where No One's Ready"; after finding an old message from ex-boyfriend Richard (Tom Selleck) on her answering machine, she calls him and leaves a message on ''his'' machine, which she immediately regrets and decides must be erased. Cue wacky hijinks.
** And when Rachel's secretly dating her hunky assistant and employee evaluations are due? After Rachel realizes that her funny, sexy, and somewhat explicit evaluation for Tag (which discusses his "teeny tiny tushy," among other things) has been sent straight to the boss, Rachel freaks out and prepares for the worst. When her boss comes in to discuss the outlandish report, Tag takes the fall and says that he sent the report about himself in as a joke. Rachel and Tag get away with a reprimand.
* The ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' episode "Goodbye Mr Grainger", which had the elderly and depressed Mr. Grainger resigning in a rather unpleasant letter insulting everyone on the store. Fortunately, he snapped out of his depression and the letter was retrieved before it got to the boss.
* ''Series/{{Ellen}}'' coming out over a [[AccidentalPublicConfession loudspeaker.]]
* The ''Series/JonathanCreek'' episode "The Problem At Gallows' Gate" featured an answering machine message [[spoiler: filled with threats towards the victim from one of the suspects. It was removed from the machine by the murderer, who wanted all the evidence to point to another suspect. Then the blank tape was stolen by the suspect who left the message, since he didn't know this. Then the ''next'' blank tape was stolen by the ''other'' suspect, who thought he could use the message to clear his name.]]

* ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'' had an episode where Mary has to stay up all night at her apartment updating the newsroom's obituary file. The next morning, she's almost finished when Rhoda comes in and starts cracking jokes about the last entries in the file, including some tasteless jokes about William Williams, who at 110 is the single oldest living person in Minneapolis. Mary, in a tired, giggling mood, types them into the file. Guess which famous person happens to die that very day and whose file is read aloud live on the 6 O'Clock News before Mary can correct it?
* In ''Series/TheWestWing'', Toby and Will have to write a speech for President Bartlet announcing his choice of "Bingo Bob" Russell as the new Vice-President, even though nobody in the White House (not even Bartlet) really wanted him. Frustrated at having to come up with something nice to say, Toby and Will start dictating a rant on how much they all despise him and how useless a Vice President is. Of course, it accidentally winds up on the teleprompter. Fortunately, the President is able to improvise a much kinder speech. Unfortunately, "Bingo Bob" can see everything on that teleprompter. [[spoiler: Fortunately, he thinks it's hilarious.]]
* In the ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' episode "Butt-Dialing Duncans", [=PJ=] and Emmett accidentally send a voice message to the school bully mocking him. The two seize an opportunity to intercept the message when they find out the bully had his phone confiscated by the teacher for being caught texting in class. They thought they succeeded by destroying the phone, but the bully receives the message on his new phone anyway and punishes them.

* In an episode of ''Series/WynonnaEarp'', Waverly, who is angry at [[spoiler:Nicole for hiding her DNA test results,]] decides to send a nasty text [[spoiler: calling her a control freak]]. As soon as she presses send, she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regrets it immediately]] and even admits that she wished [[spoiler:she hadn't read the papers.]]
** To make matters worse, not long after, she impulsively [[spoiler:plants a kiss on Rosita, and then pulls away, regretting it as well.]]
* There's an episode of ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' in which Tim frantically tries to retrieve a caricatured portrait of his boss that has accidentally been slipped into a portfolio that his boss requested. [[spoiler:While Tim is making his getaway after retrieving the picture, the boss gets his hands on it but it is screwed into a ball at this point, and thankfully the boss doesn't open it up but just throws it away]]. [[spoiler: He gets it because the boss' assistant, who had a crush on Tim, went through the portfolio and removed it. And also takes out the less insulting but no more appropriate picture of her, which he'd forgotten about.]]
* In an episode of ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'' the writers accidentally turn in a script which has all their sarcastic comments about Alan Brady not blacked out, and they attempt to retrieve the script before he reads it.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Major Winchester gets the news that his sister is marrying... an Italian. He completely loses perspective, sending a series of racist, elitist and cruel letters until he learns that the wedding was called off by the groom's family. At this he sends a contrite telegram; his sister's reaction was never shown.
** Another episode has Klinger forging Col. Potter's signature to a set of discharge papers for himself, then working to retrieve them after he has second thoughts.

* One of the "lost episodes" of ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' has Ralph firing off one of these to his boss after (mistakenly) coming to believe that he's about to be laid off anyway. No sooner has he dropped it in the mailbox than he discovers that he's actually in line for a ''promotion''.
* ''Series/TheLWord'' has one storyline where Bette decides she wants sole custody of Angelica, largely due to the fact that both she and the baby are biracial (and Tina and her new beau are both white). She reconsiders, but [[spoiler:by then it's too late, and Tina has just received Joyce's fax. Bette then kidnaps Angelica, but the bub is later returned and Tina doesn't press charges.]]
* Double-subverted in the ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' episode "Bobby and the Critic". A powerful SmugSnake of a theater critic raises Bobby's ire, causing him to fire off an angry letter to the critic's newspaper. Bobby's letter gets published and he's sure he's kissed his career goodbye, but to his astonishment the critic seems to have taken it in stride and even shows Bobby a glowing review he's written for his most recent performance...only to turn around and get his revenge by tearing it to pieces right in front of Bobby's eyes.
* On ''Series/TopGearUK'', Season 13, Richard Hammond and James May used a Porsche Panamera to pursue a mailed envelope from the extreme south of Britain to the extreme north. May's writeup of the event for the ''Top Gear'' website claimed that the envelope contained a compromising photo of the two of them which they were trying to retrieve. [[spoiler:They failed.]]
* ''[[Series/HermansHead Herman's Head]]''. Herman writes in a workplace assessment that his boss Mr Bracken is a bit gruff, then panics when he hears another boss lost his job over such an assessment. After various shenanigans to intercept the message he fails, but the CEO is surprised at all this -- after all Mr Bracken is a bit gruff. The last boss was fired simply because he was incompetent.
* On an episode of ''Series/{{Coupling}}'', Patrick broke up with a girl he was with through her answering machine, but when she suggests a threesome, he hurriedly tries to correct it with another message, claiming that his flatmate Ivan likes to pretend to be him and dump his girlfriends. This is ruined when Jane and Steve interrupt him without realising he's on the phone. He then continues the message, claiming to be Ivan, but Linda interrupts him and gets her voice on the message before he can hang up. Luckily, she sends him to her apartment, allowing him to change the tape.
** A funnier one from the first episode where Steve calls Jane to break up with her. He is cut off by the messagebank being full just after saying "a man would have to be insane not to want to spend the rest of his life with you."
* ''Series/TheThickOfIt'' has an episode on this trope. Hugh sends a humorously vulgar email to what he assumes to be his aide Glenn's Hotmail address, only for to be delivered to a schoolgirl who [[GenderBlenderName shares his name]]. This leads to a public apology: "I promise that I will never [[ItMakesSenseInContext call an eight-year-old girl a cunt]] again."
* Played for both laughs and drama in the ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'' hour-long movie "Spring Break-Up". Chase, who has been harboring a years-long crush on best friend Zoey, accidentally sends her a text message that reveals his true feelings. He gets it back in time to delete the message, but ends up losing Zoey's friendship in the process. After (mostly) explaining himself, he regains her friendship and gets the courage to tell her how he really feels. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: the text message he sends never gets read, as Zoey's phone is forgotten and falls into a fountain, effectively killing both the message and the phone.]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' did a bizarre variation on this problem: after their single biggest falling-out in the show, Dean left Sam a mending-fences type voicemail which included an apology. The angel Zachariah monkeyed with it, and the message Sam ''got'' was one of hate and repudiation with an implied death threat. Sam then gave up and finished his WellIntentionedExtremist JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope trip. So far as we know, seasons later they ''still'' don't know this happened, because they are bad at communicating, and Sam still thinks Dean gave up on him.
* In ''Series/TheNewsroom'', Mackenzie overhears a Sloan dissing Will for causing their breakup by cheating on her. She tries to send Will an email to tell Sloan that it was Mackenzie who cheated that she'll lay off Will, but accidentally sends the email to everyone in the company. Her attempt at stopping it from being read start with smashing Gary's phone and escalate from there.
-->'''Mac''': I want everyone to delete the email you just received. Delete it right now, without reading it, honour system. A-a-and then I need someone to, um, sneak into Will's office and delete the email from his inbox. If it's...password protected I need you to, um, ''take a baseball bat and smash it!''
* In the ''Series/ModernFamily'' episode "Caught In The Act", Gloria accidentally sends an insulting email to Claire. She tries to apologize by phone, but Claire is too upset to talk, which Gloria naturally assumes to be because of the email. HilarityEnsues when she goes to apologize in person, not realizing that Claire hasn't checked her email yet and is upset because her kids walked in on her and Phil having sex. Gloria then tries to access Claire's email to delete it, but gets caught. Jay quickly solves the issue by telling Claire that Gloria accidentally sent her naked pictures of herself that were meant for Jay, and Claire promptly deletes the email without opening it.
* ''[[Series/TwoTwoSeven 227]]'' also had an episode with an answering machine message that the sender wants to intercept. Mary calls Lester's boss to chew him out about not giving him a raise and ends up leaving the message on his machine. Lester comes home minutes later and announces that he got the raise. Mary and her friend then sneak into the boss's house to retrieve it. After another sitcom misadventure, they end up confessing what they did to Lester's boss. He understands...and reveals he doesn't have an answering machine.
* In an episode of ''Series/TheFamousJettJackson'', Kayla is criticized by their teacher and, deciding to vent in the school computer lab, writes a strongly-worded email to him, meaning to delete it. Jett comes in and sends it. The rest of the episode is about Jett, Kayla, and J.B. trying to delete the email from the teacher's computer before he reads it. They fail, but the teacher ends up apologizing to Kayla after reading it.

* ''Series/GameOn2015'': In "The Text", Toby sends a funny text to Jessica, but worries she'll find it offensive.

* Supposedly [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Queen Elizabeth I]] didn't mean the death warrant she had signed for Mary, Queen of Scots actually to be enacted but the Privy Council decided to carry out the execution before she could change her mind. When she found out she was not pleased (though it has been suggested that this was an act).

* In the ''Series/{{Good Luck Charlie}}'' episode "Butt-Dialing Duncans", [=PJ=] and Emmett accidentally send a voice message to the school bully mocking him. The two seize an opportunity to intercept the message when they find out the bully had his phone confiscated by the teacher for being caught texting in class. They thought they succeeded by destroying the phone, but the bully receives the message on his new phone anyway and punishes them.

* On ''Series/TopGear'', Season 13, Richard Hammond and James May used a Porsche Panamera to pursue a mailed envelope from the extreme south of Britain to the extreme north. May's writeup of the event for the ''Top Gear'' website claimed that the envelope contained a compromising photo of the two of them which they were trying to retrieve. [[spoiler:They failed.]]

* In the ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresDoubleActs'' episode "Here's What We Do", it eventually transpires that Pidge's story about being on a scavenger hunt at a rival university is actually an attempt to get back a gift he'd sent to a girl he met at an inter-college ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'' tournement. [[spoiler: A comment she made made him think that a dog collar with his name on it would be a fun gag gift, and it was only after he sent it that he realised it could be interpreted ''very'' differently.]]

** In a (much) later episode, Bart's attempt at mail-tampering results in several people gratefully retrieving their ill-considered messages.

-->'''Homer:''' (in unnecessary fake voice) Hello, my name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me.\\

->'''James Bond:''' You see, ''there's'' the "reply" button, and ''there'' is the "reply ''all''" button.
->'''M:''' Give me a break. I'm old.
->'''James Bond:''' I don't believe this... all of the spies in the world have now been compromised.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had an episode where a dying Mr. Burns is saved by Bart's rare blood and thanks the family with only a card, prompting Homer's angry composition of an insulting letter. Despite coming to his senses, Bart (who knew Homer would calm down) sends the letter to Mr. Burns anyway, and part of the episode deals with attempts to retrieve or destroy it by flooding (along with all the other letters in the mailbox). The gambit fails, and Homer is [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity fired]], but Mr. Burns comes to his senses and buys the family a giant head statue.
--> '''Homer:''' (in unnecessary fake voice) Hello, my name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me.
--> '''Postal Clerk:''' Okay, Mr. Burns, and what's your first name?
--> '''Homer:''' (still in fake voice) ...I don't know.

* ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' had Mickey, trying to figure out how to work his new fax machine, sending a love letter to Minnie and an insulting note to Mortimer through it. When he discovers that Mortimer got the love letter, he urgently tries to get the fax Minnie received away from her. [[spoiler: At the end, it turns out that the fax Minnie was carrying was written by Daisy and was wholly unrelated to anything Mickey wrote; the insulting letter actually wound up in the hands of Roy Disney.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' segment "Film/JamesBond: [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Reply All]]" started off when M accidentally sent an embarrassing video of Raoul Silva to every spy in the world, including Silva, who is determined to [[LeaveNoWitnesses eliminate everyone who received it]]. Among the [[PoorCommunicationKills casualties]]: Film/AgentCodyBanks, [[Film/MissionImpossible Ethan Hunt]], and [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Perry]].
* Similarly, an episode of ''{{WesternAnimation/Archer}}'' had Malory sending out a ''Series/BurnNotice'' on her ''own son'' when he defected to Odin.

** In "I, Brobot" Doof's "evil scheme" of the day was to hoist a giant magnet over his new girlfriend's house in order to erase some long, rambling messages during their "relationship bump".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': In "You've Got Hate Mail", Daffy accidentally sends a hate-filled email to everyone he knows (except Porky). He then attempts to delete the email from Tina's computer before she can read it.

** In "The Bully Code", Candice desperately attempts to keep Jeremy from checking his phone before he sees the goofy pictures she accidentally sent him.

* In ''Film/TheThingsOfLife'', the protagonist writes a break-up letter for his lover, but he realizes that he still loves her and decides not to send the letter, but he keeps it in his pocket. Then he has a car accident. The letter is found while he is unconscious and a key point of the film is about whether the letter will eventually be delivered or not. [[spoiler:It is not.]]

See also EmbarrassingVoicemail, LoveLetterLunacy and IrrevocableOrder.

** Autocorrect can also play a big role in unfortunate messages. If the person realizes it, they'll say it was autocorrect, but it's still highly embarrassing.

* In the ''Series/{{Austin and Ally}}'' episode "Costumes & Courage"., Austin accidentally insults his boss Jimmy Starr with a heated text message calling him an "evil gutless rat". Fortunately, Ally manages to intercept and delete the message at Jimmy's Halloween party before Jimmy can read it.

* Back in pre-email days, writer Creator/IsaacAsimov once detailed his method for avoiding sending one of these: write up the nastiest, most vitriol-filled screed your pen can spill forth, put it in an envelope, seal, address and even stamp the envelope... then rip the whole thing to shreds and write something more moderate.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Home}}'', Oh tries to invite Kyle to his housewarming party, but accidentally transmits the message to everyone in the galaxy, including the Gorg. The Boov have to figure out how to stop it before the Gorg learn where they are.

* In the ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresDoubleActs'' episode "Here's What We Do", it eventually transpires that Pidge's story about being on a scavenger hunt at a rival university is actually an attempt to get back a gift he'd sent to a girl he met at an inter-college ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'' tournement. [[spoiler: a comment she made made him think that a dog collar with his name on it would be a fun gag gift, and it was only after he sent it that he realised it could be interpreted ''very'' differently.]]