History Main / TwistingTheWords

-->"OH NO!!! I JUST CALLED MYSELF A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!"

The causes and consequences of this type of ploy vary with age. Among young children, this might be as simple as "Miss, Bobby said a bad word!" when Bobby happened to comment that he's had a nosebleed and his face is all "[[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch bloody]]." On the adult stage, however, it can be more severe, as when the nastiest employee of a company reports a colleague to the boss, using their own words against them in the hope of getting them fired. Gets extremely messy when the police turn up and the local gossip has "proof" that Joe Average did it in revenge for John Doe almost backing the car on top of him that morning (tip: Before grumbling that you're going to "kill him/her," check the local newspapers for [[TemptingFate stories about serial killers]]).

* Inverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYUL1R4pupU this skit]] from ''Series/EretzNehederet'', where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admits to having a kidnapped Israeli baby in his house, and the Creator/BBC interviewer twists his words to make it seem like ''he's'' the victim, dealing with "torture by sleep deprivation" (the baby crying).

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E9HomerBadman Homer Badman]]", [[AccidentalPervert Homer gets mistakenly accused of sexually harrassing Ashley Grant, the college-aged babysitter he and Marge hired]]. So, he goes to the news show ''Rock Bottom'' to explain himself. Unfortunately, they twist his words to paint him as a crazed sexual predator. To make it that more obvious that [[ManipulativeEditing this is a hack job]] to score UsefulNotes/{{Ratings}} for a ''Hard Copy''-style TV tabloid, the hands on the clock in the background jump around more than Homer does. At the end, when Homer is cleared and the truth is revealed, the show was forced to admit that many of their reports were lies and reveal many truths. However, it's apparent that the reporter never learned his lesson, especially since the corrections flash across the screen too fast to actually read.

* In ''Manga/{{MAR}}'' there's a version where the character doesn't even have to say anything. Early on in the War Games, Jack fights Pano and she ends up tied up in his ''Earth Beans'', which he starts to climb. When his hand reaches her breast (and is clearly nowhere near touching and all signs point to him continuing to climb) she calls out that he's a pervert and the crowd catches on. He quickly climbs down and tries to convince them he's not.
** Later, he shows that he actually is a pervert, and[[spoiler: Pano ends up being his girlfriend and living with him and his mother]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/OnePiece'' where during Baby 5 and Sai's fight, she misinterprets all of Sai's aggressive fighting shouts as declarations of love, such as "I'll rip your heart out" as "I'll steal your heart" in a metaphorical sense.

* In ''Film/MeanGirls'', this is one of the first things Cady does that marks her [[TheDarkSide slide]] into the habit of being a two-faced liar. Her teacher talks to her privately about her performance in school, and Cady twists her words to make it sound as if she were confessing to being a drug dealer.

* The [[TabloidMelodrama obnoxious journalist]] Rita Skeeter in ''Literature/HarryPotter'', who has a magical quill that appears to have been enchanted to do exactly that.
** It also twists ''reality''. In other words, it lies. At one point, while she is interviewing Harry, it mentions a "tearful Harry Potter" or something along those lines and Harry is, if anything, a bit annoyed at being shoved into a broom closet and being interviewed by a rude, nosy woman.

* Similar to the Homer Simpson example, an episode of ''Series/BrassEye'' featured [[Radio/JustAMinute Nicholas Parsons]], thinking he was reading a poem dedicated to a (fictitious) elephant who had jammed his trunk up its arse, being (incredibly obviously) edited to say

* ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'': ''Alibi in Ashes'' features [[IntrepidReporter Brenda Carlton]], who does this for basically everything she reports on.
** When Nancy stumbles out of a burning building at the beginning of the game, Brenda immediately demands to know what made Nancy "decide to burn down the old Town Hall". Nancy denies it, which results in Brenda throwing out all the video footage and saying Nancy was "rendered speechless" instead.
--->'''Brenda:''' And speechless is the word of the day as onlookers struggle to come to terms with the brazen destruction of the beloved Town Hall - by none other than the girl detective they had once trusted their lives and livelihoods to.
* In the VideoGame of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', one can damage the sound system in the Jedi temple, twisting the Jedi oath into a more sinister form ("There is only the Force" becomes "There is only...the Dark Side").

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E7TheCallOfTheSimpsons Call Of The Simpsons]]", after Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot, Marge protests "That's not Bigfoot, that's my husband!" We are then treated to a tabloid headline reading "SHE MARRIED BIGFOOT!"

** Similarly, many people on Website/YouTube have taken one of JFK's speeches out of context to try and make it look like he's warning us about the New World Order. Even without the context, it's still blindingly obvious to anyone with a brain that he's talking about the Soviet Union. For that matter, the whole theory comes from taking out of context one time UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush said "new world order" (he too was talking about the Soviet Union, specifically its fall).
* Sadly, British newspapers twisted an engineer's words about the Titanic. When describing the compartmentalized hull, the original words were "Near unsinkable".
** A large amount of publicity for the Titanic also claimed it to be "practically" unsinkable, as well as "made as close to unsinkable as modern technology will allow". The newspapers were hardly making a huge leap.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', in the episode "Homer Bad Man":
-->'''Homer:''' "Eh, somebody had to take the babysitter home, and I noticed she was sitting on / her / sweet can-- / So I grabbed / her / sweet can-- / *drooling* / Just thinking about / her / can-- / I just wish I had / her / sweet-s-s-sweet can--"
** To make it that more obvious that [[ManipulativeEditing this is a hack job]] to score UsefulNotes/{{Ratings}} for a Hard Copy-style TV tabloid, the hands on the clock in the background jump around more than Homer does.
** At the end, when Homer is cleared and the truth is revealed, the show was forced to admit that many of their reports were lies and reveal many truths. However, it's apparent that the reporter never learned his lesson, especially since the corrections flash across the screen too fast to actually read.
** In one Treehouse of Horror, Homer is thinking of detonating the nuclear plant, Ned Flanders comes in to stop him by yelling through a mic "Don't do it! Don't do it! You'll kill everyone!" but by interruptions, Homer only hears: "<interruption>DO it! <interruption>DO it! <interruption> Kill everyone!"
** In "Call of the Simpsons", after Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot, Marge protests "That's not Bigfoot, that's my husband!" We are then treated to a tabloid headline reading "SHE MARRIED BIGFOOT!"
** And this gem:
--->'''Reporter:''' What does it eat?\\

** '''THE BIGFOOT DIET: PORK CHOPS APLENTY'''
** Hilariously invoked by Skinner in "Skinner's Sense of Snow":

* Himeno of ''Manga/{{Pretear}}'' can barely open her mouth without someone claiming that she said or did something inappropriate. Especially in the manga adaptation, whenever she tries to explain the cavalcade of men who have taken to following her about.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the Fifth Mizukage [[BerserkButton takes great offense]] to being called [[OldMaid too old to get married]]--which includes statements that only have a few words even vaguely related to such a topic ''which weren't even directed to her or speaking of her in the first place''.
* In ''Manga/{{MAR}}'' there's a version where the character doesn't even have to say anything. Early on in the War Games, Jack fights Pano and she ends up tied up in his ''Earth Beans'', which he starts to climb. When his hand reaches her breast (and is clearly nowhere near touching and all signs point to him continuing to climb) she calls out that he's a pervert and the crowd catches on. He quickly climbs down and tries to convince them he's not.
** Later, he shows that he actually is a pervert, and[[spoiler: Pano ends up being his girlfriend and living with him and his mother]].

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[StalkerWithACrush Juvia]] will twist any word that has ANYTHING to do with Gray.
* [[Manga/{{Toriko}} Chief Mansam]] always thinks someone's calling him handsome.
* Neko-Sensei from ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' always seems to twist words or actions to a belief that someone wants to marry him.

** Also, a RunningGag about Buggy is that he often mishears words and thinks people are [[BerserkButton talking about his red nose]] instead. One instance where Alivda was talking about being in "big trouble" but Buggy only hears the "big" part and thinks she is making fun of his nose and threathens to kill her.

[[folder:Film]]

* The newspaper editor teases Sergeant Angel like this in ''Film/HotFuzz'', asking him how he liked a production of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' , and when Angel says he enjoyed it, coming up with headlines like "Cop Enjoys Watching Young Lovers" and "Local Bobby Gives Thumbs Up to Teen Suicide." Angel describes the latter as 'just grossly inappropriate."
* A humorous example from the film ''Film/TheTrollhunter'' features a genuine clip from the former Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jBuNMHzqmI "We've got trolls in Norway"]] He's actually referring to the Troll oil field.
* Done by the TV reporter in the second ''[[Film/ScoobyDooMonstersUnleashed Scooby Doo]]'' movie. "Hey! You're doing that thing again where you take everything I say out of context, you're trying to make it look like '''I think Coolsville sucks!''' ''*{{beat}}*'' No! Don't record that!" Of course, in peak Scooby-Doo fashion, [[spoiler: this turns out to be part of the villain's big plan. As Jonathon Jacobo (disguised as Heather Jasper Howe) attempts to smear Mystery Inc.'s name in order to turn the public against them.]]
* Often inverted in RealLife movie ads, which take quotes from negative reviews and use ellipses to make them sound flattering, or take the one positive word ("Spectacular!") in an otherwise disparaging sentence ("This film is a spectacular failure").[[note]]Another good tip is the size of the quote's credit line. If it's from a local TV affiliate, and/or is close to unreadable on a standard-def TV, it's probably not a good movie. EA has to take the cake for this though, advertising ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' as having inspired the largest fan reaction of all time. They edited out the part of the sentence that clarifies that it was viciously negative.[[/note]]
* A Malaysian bootleg version of ''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' avoided this, opting instead to provide some unintentionally funny [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Advertising]] using this blurb from a [=FilmCritic.com=] review: "Superbabies has no redeeming qualities", using the same large-type font usually reserved for a glowing review from ''Rolling Stone''.

* The 1980 movie "Used Cars" has a corrupt competitor doctor a car dealership's TV advertisement, changing "many styles of cars" to make it sound like she said, "a mile of cars." The dealership was then threatened with charges of false advertisement unless they could prove they really did have enough cars to measure a mile when placed end to end.

* Used to a chilling effect in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV8khm4s9j4 the trailer]] for Creator/{{Netflix}} documentary ''Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story'', where clips from Savile's TV shows are included out of context to make them sound like a sinister confession.

* Pretty much the entire plot of the novel ''BigMouthAndUglyGirl''.

-->'''1st Person''': Santa Claus exists, if I'm not mistaken. \\
'''2nd Person''': Yes, Santa Claus exists, ''if you are not mistaken''. \\
'''1st Person''': So you admit that I am correct. \\
'''2st Person''': Yes. \\

* Early in the follow-on to ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series, Admiral Geary is outraged to see a news headline reading that he expressed only "qualified support" for the government. His wife explains that he told a reporter that he'd follow any lawful orders -- that's limiting his support because he wouldn't follow '''any and all''' orders.
* Discussed in ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'' as a means of making the most (from TheDevil's {{Perspective|Flip}}) of a domestic PassiveAggressiveKombat:
--> "Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother's utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, [[MoralMyopia that they are quite innocent]]."

* In the ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "It's Your Funeral," one of the prisoners is being used by the powers behind the scenes to assassinate the current Number Two. Number Six attempts to warn him (to avert reprisals against the inhabitants of The Village); his warning is ignored because the current Number Two has seen a misleading recording that makes Number Six sound like a paranoid crank who has [[CryingWolf delivered several such warnings]] to his predecessors.
* Toby in ''Series/TheWestWing'' misreads his relationship with a Republican woman, who takes an inflammatory statement said in a "casual" conversation and uses it to attack the Democratic White House regarding the minimum wage in a televised press conference.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/PhilOfTheFuture''. Pim becomes principal for the day but will be forced to step down in favor of Vice-Principal Hackett once the day ends. She counteracts this by splicing together obviously out-of-context and blatantly non-linear segments from his speeches (even having the black Lil' Danny say one of the lines), in hopes of getting the student body to turn against him. It of course works on everybody but Phil and Keely.

* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "The Illusion Of Truth," a reporter's interview footage is taken out of context and combined with slanted commentary to produce a propaganda hit piece.
* Inverted in the fourth season of ''Series/{{House}}'', after a documentary film crew has been recording Dr. House's attempts at diagnosing a patient for most of the episode. At the end, we see a glimpse of an early cut of the documentary, and several of House's JerkAss comments had been edited out of context (for instance, making sarcasm sound sincere) to create the illusion that he's a decent, sympathetic man. House, being House, is pissed that he's been misrepresented.

* The UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} sketch-comedy show ''Series/AlmostLive'' did this to humorous effect in its "Street Talk" sequences.
* Similar to the Homer Simpson example, an episode of ''Series/BrassEye'' featured [[Radio/JustAMinute Nicholas Parsons]], thinking he was reading a poem dedicated to a (fictitious) elephant who had jammed his trunk up its arse, being (incredibly obviously) edited to say
-->'Aren't we a bunch...of f/uck/wits. An elephant could / no more / get / its trunk / up / its / arse / than we / could / lick / our / balls.'
* Italian satirical TV Show ''Le Iene'' (''Hyenas'') broadcast several interviews with [=VIP=]s where they cheerfully admit tax evasion, fraud, and so on. The trick was editing the ''questions'' from harmless ("What's your shoe size?") to... less harmless ("How many millions have you embezzled this year?"). The same answer ("40") takes on a different meaning.
* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's ''AL TV'' features various celebrities getting grilled by Al on various topics. The answers are taken from interview footage taken for the program without the interviewees' knowledge of the parodic nature of the final product.

* Done in-universe in ''Series/BurnNotice'': a drug dealer's phone conversation is cut to make it sound like he's entering a plea bargain with the FBI. The other members of the cartel are not happy.

* One ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' comic had Paige saying "Mr. Vivona says we have to cut three newspaper articles out for social studies every day this week, and the only pair of scissors I have is like totally dull" over the phone. Jason records the conversation and splices it into "I cut social studies every day this week. Mr. Vivona is like totally dull" in order to get her in trouble.

* Another similar example: In the Thomas Edison level of the ''VideoGame/WhereInTimeIsCarmenSandiego1997'' game, one of the puzzles is solved by recording the store owner's message onto a series of wax cylinders and then rearranging them to have the completely opposite meaning.
--> '''Store Owner (actual):''' Hello, this is Joe. What?! They want to borrow thread?! It's the middle of the night! Listen close, guard: Do not give those rascals a spool of thread!
--> '''Store Owner (forged):''' Hello, this is Joe. Give those rascals a spool of thread.

* ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'': ''Alibi in Ashes'' features [[IntrepidReporter Brenda Carlton]], who does this for basically everything she reports on.
** When Nancy stumbles out of a burning building at the beginning of the game, Brenda immediately demands to know what made Nancy "decide to burn down the old Town Hall". Nancy denies it, which results in Brenda throwing out all the video footage and saying Nancy was "rendered speechless" instead.
--->'''Brenda:''' And speechless is the word of the day as onlookers struggle to come to terms with the brazen destruction of the beloved Town Hall - by none other than the girl detective they had once trusted their lives and livelihoods to.
* Performing quests for the Harpers in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'' eventually has the leader of that particular division reveal that he knows about the player's Bhaalspawn lineage, and decides to ask them some questions about their past and personality to judge whether or not they're a danger to the world. The problem is, he twists every answer they give (including their ''favorite color'') to make them sound more dangerous because his real goal is to capture them and earn himself a promotion.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', this is the standard MO for the media mega-corp Picus. Reading the emails on their computers makes it very clear that they deliberately manipulate the news to promote their own agenda. One email in particular has an editor send back a rookie's column with changes made in such a way that it didn't ''say'' anything different but certainly had a very different tone.
* The ''[[VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack Jackbox]]'' party game "Survive the Internet" is essentially Word Twister, The Videogame. Players are initially asked to provide a quote for a review or opinion on something totally innocuous, then another player takes that quote and attaches it to a headline that changes the context of the quote completely, making it come off as either deeply embarrassing or [[CrossesTheLineTwice insensitive and tone-deaf]]. [[https://youtu.be/JEvuFsNopEE?t=1882 Example:]]
-->'''Innocuous question:''' What do you say to a person that just cut you in line?\\
'''Player quote:''' bitch you better get to the back!\\
'''New "Headline":''' [[CrossesTheLineTwice First Black Woman President voted in.]]

-->'''Reporter:''' What does it eat?
-->'''Marge:''' I don't understand! What's this all abou-?
-->''(beat)''
-->'''Marge:''' Well, I suppose pork chops are his favorite.

-->'''Bart''': "What's the problem, Seymour? Stuck?"
-->'''Skinner''': "That's precisely the problem, and you know it. Now get me out of here!"
-->'''Bart''': "What's that? You want the pee bucket on your head?"
-->'''Skinner''': "No! You're twisting my words."
* The entire premise behind ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast.'' Celebrities on the show are interviewed in a fairly normal manner. The answers are then taken wildly out of context, with the questions Space Ghost asks often having no relation at all to what was originally asked. One extreme example of this is when they made it look like Music/{{Bjork}} was Space Ghost's wife. This is balanced by the fact that Space Ghost and the other cartoon characters often look more [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} insane]] than the interviewee.
* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' where Lincoln and JFK are both running for student president, and JFK makes an attack ad full of ManipulativeEditing:
--> '''Narrator:''' [Abe would] also like you believe he's not a [[EatsBabies baby-eater,]] but he's never gone on record saying he isn't.\\
'''Abe:''' ''(in the video, holding a fork)'' I can't wait to eat this / baby?\\ ''(Cut to a baby on a plate. Cut back to Abe, who has a mouth full of what is clearly spaghetti)''\\
'''Abe:''' ''(watching ad)'' How did JFK get my spaghetti video?
* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' Captain Marvel mentions to a group of reporters that Luthor is reformed and now running for president, saying that people can change. The next day the headlines read, "Captain Marvel endorses Luthor for President."
* Once on ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents,'' Vicky used this trick to blackmail Timmy into doing her chores. She had a tape of him saying: "Hi, I'm Timmy Turner, and I..." then the voice cuts to Francis, who says "...cheated on my math test." Timmy angrily responds that "I never cheated on my math test!" Vicky then cuts the tapes together so it's all Timmy's voice. He later pulls the same trick on her after wishing her young so that he could be the babysitter.
* Ginger, in ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' was occasionally a victim of this kind of thing. Her histrionic friend, Dodie, did it unintentionally while vicious Miranda used it deliberately, especially in attempts to break up Ginger's friendships.
** Another unintentional variation turns up in the episode "And Then, She Was Gone." Ginger's teacher decides that her student's rather bleak poem is [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory obviously evidence of suicidal tendencies]] despite the girl's protests that it's just fiction. Everyone else who quotes the poem back to Ginger assumes that the poem is about the poet herself, and applies suitably morbid connotations to it. Ginger ends up at the school psychologist's office as a result.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

Well, yes, she probably is. She probably won't beat you up personally, and while she might be queen bee of her clique, she doesn't have any official authority... but she can let a few comments slip to the principal, SadistTeacher, or your OverprotectiveDad. And what's more, she won't make up "proper" lies to do so. She'd get caught fairly quickly that way, and she's smarter than that.

* In February 2023, the US Energy Department announced that they had "low confidence" that the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic was caused by a leak from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology Wuhan Institute of Virology]].[[note]] Wuhan has a long and sad history of virus outbreaks, frequently involving coronaviruses, which made it a natural location for a lab devoted to studying the things. It also made it '''exactly''' the kind of place where a novel viral strain would be most likely to emerge all on its own.[[/note]] "Low confidence", in this context, is basically official speak for "we're as certain as we can be that this is not what happened". Unfortunately, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment certain sections of the media]] chose to home in on the word "confidence", and reported it as if the ED had declared the "lab leak" hypothesis a credible possibility.

* The famous alleged [[{{Precognition}} psychic prophet]] Nostradamus made predictions that were, on the whole, extremely vague. This leads a lot of {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s to start pointing to his "prophecies" to whatever great event or disaster recently occurred to fit the view of the theorist. Some even go so far as to [[BlatantLies make them up completely]], such as the "Nostradamus 9/11 Prophecy" that was supposedly written several decades after he died.