History Main / ScriptSwap

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart Sells His Soul", Bart replaces the hymn sheets and music at the local church with those of Music/IronButterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", labelled as being titled "In the Garden of Eden" by "I. Ron Butterfly". When Reverend Lovejoy picks up on the swap (nearing the end of the duties, ''17 minute-long'' song), he remarks that it "sounds like rock and/or roll."

-->'''Strong Bad:''' That's not a love poem! ''That'' is a lavishly produced grocery list.\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart Sells His Soul", Bart replaces the hymn sheets and music at the local church with those of Music/IronButterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", labelled as being titled "In the Garden of Eden" by "I. Ron Butterfly". When Reverend Lovejoy picks up on the swap (nearing the end of the entire, ''17 minute-long'' song), he remarks that it "sounds like rock and/or roll."

* In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' toon [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail195.html "love poems"]], Homestar produces an acrostic poem that spells out the name of his girlfriend Marzipan. The poem consists entirely of food items.
-->'''Strong Bad:''' That's not a love poem! That is a lavishly produced grocery list!
-->'''Homestar:''' No, ''here'' is my grocery list! [[TropeName "Amazing thing, amazing thing, amazing thing, amazing thing."]]

** This is done on two levels in ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame'', where Marty has to swap the sheet music at the piano so Cue Ball plays just the right music to change the mood so a drunken officer will get in the mood to talk to him. Then when he needs a more inspirational song than the club has to offer, Marty gets the lyrics to such a song, swaps them for Trixie's lyrics to her own song, then changes the piano music so Trixie's song is played. Possibly justified in the latter case in that the two songs have ''really'' similar lyrics, and Trixie explicitly hasn't memorized hers.

* A classic accidental example from ''{{Series/Friends}}'': Rachel is making English trifle for dessert, but two pages on the recipe book stick together, so she ends up making a mincemeat trifle that {{tastes like feet}}.

** This is done on two levels in the second ''VideoGame/BackToTheFuture'' game, where Marty has to swap the sheet music at the piano so Cue Ball plays just the right music to change the mood so a drunken officer will get in the mood to talk to him. Then when he needs a more inspirational song than the club has to offer, Marty gets the lyrics to such a song, swaps them for Trixie's lyrics to her own song, then changes the piano music so Trixie's song is played. Possibly justified in the latter case in that the two songs have ''really'' similar lyrics, and Trixie explicitly hasn't memorized hers.

* A TV movie of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' has the encrypted directions to a WMD switched with Judy Jetsons's lyrics submission to pop star Jet Screamer. Screamer likes the directions, mistaking them for song lyrics, and calls it "Gleep Glorp." "Gleep Glorp" subsequently becomes a hit song while the goons tasked with finding the WMD somehow manage to decrypt Judy's lyrics, which lead to a pair of fuzzy dice.

* In the second WesternAnimation/GeraldMcBoingBoing cartoon "Gerald [=McBoing-Boing=]'s Symphony", Gerald is asked to stand in for an orchestra for the premiere of a new symphony. Unfortunately, some of the pages from his sound effects script get mixed in with the score, and so the music is often interrupted by sound effects. At first Gerald is fired for his mistake, until messages come pouring in praising this new piece of "avant-guard" music.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman''. [[spoiler:It seems as if Norman took the wrong book when trying to cast the spell that keeps the ghost of the witch asleep; he gets through the first few lines before he realizes that it's actually a book of fairy tales instead of a spellbook. Then it's revealed that it ''was'' the right book; the ritual that keeps the witch's ghost asleep is telling stories to her at her grave. The zombies appeared because he was at the wrong grave.]]

* ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'': When Veronica switches the teleprompter to read "go fuck yourself, San Diego", Ron reads it without missing a beat.

* In the ChillyWilly cartoon "The Legend of Rockabye Point", a bear tries to keep an AngryGuardDog asleep by singing "Rock-a-bye Baby". At one point he's playing it on a clarinet, and Chilly switches the sheet music to a loud circus theme to wake the dog again.

* Variant: In the manga ''CatStreet'', Keito's script is wrongly transcribed for her by rival auditionees in order to improve their own chances of being selected. Keito cannot read kanji and asked them for help, resulting in a completely nonsensical monologue.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "Carmen Get It!", Jerry pulls a variation of this trick on Tom by having a sizable number of ants rearrange themselves on the conductor's lectern, making him play random songs like "Yankee Doodle", "I Wish I Was A Dixie", and "Jingle Bells".

[[[AC:{{Advertising}}]]

[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Advertising}}]]
* One commercial for Snickers has the news anchors on a news broadcast saying only "AAAAAAAA" because the teleprompter operator had fallen asleep on the keyboard due to hunger.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart Sells His Soul", Bart replaces the hymn sheets and music at the local church with those of a song called "In the Garden of Eden" (actually "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Music/IronButterfly).

* TelltaleGames loves this trope.

* On ''TheWestWing'', President Bartlett is forced to nominate complete non-entity "Bingo Bob" as a replacement V.P. to avoid a long confirmation battle, and his speech writers complain bitterly, going so far as to pen a resounding denunciation of this ridiculous lobbyist lapdog. [[HilarityEnsues Inevitably]], it ends up on the president's teleprompter by mistake. In a partial aversion, Bartlett merely gives a surprised blink and then improvises a glowing eulogy, because he is just that awesome. (And the V.P. actually requests a copy, saying he needs to be aware of what people are thinking of him.)

* Done in an episode of ''MurderSheWrote'' with an aging actor whose memory is so bad he has to rely on the teleprompter. While this looks like an EngineeredPublicConfession, it is actually a ploy on Jessica Fletcher's part to trick the real killer into exposing themselves.
* In the first episode of ''JustShootMe'', Maya is fired from her job in a newscast for changing the teleprompter on an obnoxious anchor, making her say that she got her frontal lobe removed and that she wet herself.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "Carmen Get It!", Jerry pulls a variation of this trick on Tom by having a sizable number of ants rearrange themselves on the conductor's lectern.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', the CIA holds a telethon to raise funding in order to keep their torture program. Roger, who came up with the idea, becomes enraged by Stan who takes credit for it, and vows to get revenge by sabotaging the telethon. One of the tricks he pulls is messing with the teleprompter so that instead of making the joke "CIA stands for Central ''Insanity'' Agency", Stan ends up saying "Stan Smith was born with both male and female genitalia.

** Another episode has Nina and Maya nominated for fashion magazine awards. Maya's nomination was for an article that was changed without her permission, so she planned a speech rejecting the award and badmouthing the article. Unfortunately, Nina took Maya's acceptance speech by mistake, thus making Maya look bad when she won her award immediately afterwards.

--->''"Okay. The game is Cue Card Rummy. I deal."''

-->''"Okay. The game is Cue Card Rummy. I deal."''
->-- '''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''', preparing to invoke this trope in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' (episode: ''Health Feud'')

-->-- '''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''', preparing to invoke this trope in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' (episode: ''Health Feud'')

->''"Okay. The game is Cue Card Rummy. I deal."''

* [[TheBully Roger]] would often do this to {{Doug}} such as the time where it led Doug to report that Mr. Bone wore pink underwear. Doug never caught on [[http://dougfunniesjournal.tumblr.com/post/241021275/introducing-doug-funnie because he's crazy]].