History Main / WeWereRehearsingAPlay

* In one scene of AgentAika Zero, some of the bad guys appear to be rehearsing Hamlet in the background, giving them an excuse to move around with openly bared weaponary against the hero. (Anyone familiar with Hamlet would know there's something different about the lines...)

* In the ''PowerRangers'' fanfic "OfLoveAndBunnies", an argument between Rangers in a diner parking lot is excused as "a play they're practicing".

* ''MoulinRouge''. Gets taken so far that said play ends up actually being written.
* ''GingerSnaps'' has a related example, when the girls, unable to clean up the place of a fatal accident quickly enough, mask it as the scenography for their morbid photographic art.

* ''{{Friends}}'':

* The inversion also appears in ''{{Blackadder}} the Third'', where it's set up by a RunningGag about how Prince George [[TheDitz can't tell the difference between theater and real life]].

* Inverted on ''ILoveLucy'', too. One episode, Lucy suspected new residents in a neighboring apartment of being Soviet spies, and while snooping around in their apartment, she winds up hiding in the closet when they return and hears them discussing plans about executing an important espionage mission for a communist agenda. Lucy freaks out, calls the police, at the episode's conclusion, it turns out that Lucy's new neighbors are actors who were reciting their lines for a play. In a large part, this was a TakeThat from Desi Arnaz, a Cuban, who, with wife Lucy, were both suspected of being communists in RealLife by... the FBI.

* In an episode of ''{{Cheers}}'', Woody is in a play, but is afraid that his girlfriend Kelly won't approve. He hides it from her, but she eventually walks in on him practicing a kiss with his co-star. Kelly runs from the room crying. "You're in a play and you didn't even tell me!"
* Played with on ''{{Neighbours}}'': Ruth walks in on Amy and Lance in the midst of what appears to be a bitter breakup. They tell her they're rehearsing for a play. In actuality, they're rehearsing for a public breakup, staged so that Amy can get back in with her former best friend Jacinta, who she suspects of framing Lance and getting him suspended.

* In ''{{Soap}}'', when Sally is making a scene in a diner because Burt told her that the two of them can't be together, this is Burt's excuse.
* Played with in ''Series/TheWildWildWest'''s episode "The Night of the Turncoat." A public disturbance involving the main characters is explained away by one of them as a scene from a play which their "troupe" has come to perform in the town. While technically untrue, in actual fact the whole thing ''was'' staged by the main characters as part of a larger infiltration plot.

* Inverted on ''TheSimpsons''. Homer was once heard shouting, "I'm going to kill you" in an angry tone, and Marge thought he had snapped. It turned out that Homer and Bart are rehearsing for a play, and Homer was just reading the play's title, ''I'm Going To Kill You'', aloud.

** Another Simpsons episode has Bart getting paranoid about a series of threatening letters [[spoiler:from Sideshow Bob]]. One scene (part of a montage of similar BaitAndSwitchComments) has Mrs Krabappel telling Bart, "You're going to be my murder victim, Bart - in our school production of ''Lizzie Borden'', starring Martin Prince as Lizzy."

* During a task in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV, Niko has the job description described to him, in a roundabout, not really implicating way, in a car that his employer's other agent (the man explaining the job) thinks may have listening devices in it. Niko then bluntly sums up the assignment to be sure he understood, leading his co-worker to quickly state, for the benefit of anyone listening, that he does not really know Niko, and that they are rehearsing for a night school drama class they attend together.

* During a task in VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto IV, Niko has the job description described to him, in a roundabout, not really implicating way, in a car that his employer's other agent (the man explaining the job) thinks may have listening devices in it. Niko then bluntly sums up the assignment to be sure he understood, leading his co-worker to quickly state, for the benefit of anyone listening, that he does not really know Niko, and that they are rehearsing for a night school drama class they attend together.

->"Oh, hey. We're rehearsing a - a scene for the upcoming company play called uh, ''Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me''. It's a musical."

->"Oh, hey. We're rehearsing a - a scene for the upcoming company play called uh, Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. It's a musical."

* The ''{{MASH}}'' episode "Hey, Doc" did the inversion with Radar and Klinger. IIRC, one was proposing to the other.

** Later Ellen and Nanase are caught kissing by [[spoiler:Nanase's "Scary Homophobic Mother"]], Ellen [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-01-11 claims]] "We're rehearsing a play about CPR!"

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': A pizza delivery boy [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2006-02-27 walks in]] on [[GenderBender Male!Susan and Male!Nanase]] discussing skirts, and transformed Tedd tried to explain it away. The problem is, this guy's also the head of the student council in Tedd's school. [[spoiler:Okay, [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord not]] a ''big'' problem...]]
** Later Ellen and Nanase are caught kissing by Nanase's "Scary Homophobic Mother", Ellen [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-01-11 claims]] "We're rehearsing a play about CPR!" while Nanase decides to come out.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''{{Dramacon}}'' Derek says it at the beginning at a customer who caught Chris and him arguing.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': "Rehearsing a play" tends to be used if a {{Muggle}} catches the heroes talking about demons and monsters.

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* At least once in ''QuantumLeap'', Sam uses "I'm an actor practicing my lines" as an excuse when someone catches him talking to the InvisibleToNormals Al.

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[[folder:VideoGames]]
* During a task in GrandTheftAuto IV, Niko has the job description described to him, in a roundabout, not really implicating way, in a car that his employer's other agent (the man explaining the job) thinks may have listening devices in it. Niko then bluntly sums up the assignment to be sure he understood, leading his co-worker to quickly state, for the benefit of anyone listening, that he does not really know Niko, and that they are rehearsing for a night school drama class they attend together.

* This happened in the ''StarTrekTNG'' episode "Time's Arrow part II".

->"Oh, hey. We're rehearsing a - a scene for the upcoming company play called uh, Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. It's a musical."
-->-- ''MonstersInc''

Two characters are caught in the middle of doing something they do not want others to know about, like talking openly about the {{Masquerade}}, fighting among each other or [[NotWhatItLooksLike making out]]. Since the situation is blatantly obvious, the only option is to claim that it was all just an act. Probably for a SchoolPlay.

* The ''MonstersInc'' example gets taken to extremes -- there's another instance played straight in the movie ("She's Out of our Hair"), and the DVD includes a feature showing the staging of the musical, and excerpts from several scenes.

* ''MoulinRouge''. Gets taken so far that said play ends up actually being written.

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** Another Simpsons episode has Bart getting paranoid that Sideshow Bob is coming to get him. One scene has Mrs Krabappel telling Bart, "You're going to be my murder victim, Bart - in our school production of ''Lizzie Borden'', starring Martin Prince as Lizzy."

* ''ElGoonishShive'': A pizza delivery boy [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2006-02-27 walks in]] on Male!Susan and Male!Nanase discussing skirts, and transformed Tedd tried to explain it away. The problem is, this guy's also the head of the student council in Tedd's school. [[spoiler:Okay, [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord not]] a ''big'' problem...]]

* The inversion also appears in ''{{Blackadder}} the Third'', where it's set up by a RunningGag about how Prince George [[RalphWiggum can't tell the difference between theater and real life]].
* The ''[=~M*A*S*H~=]'' episode "Hey, Doc" did the inversion with Radar and Klinger. IIRC, one was proposing to the other.

* The ''[=~Monsters, Inc.~=]'' example gets taken to extremes -- there's another instance played straight in the movie ("She's Out of our Hair"), and the DVD includes a feature showing the staging of the musical, and excerpts from several scenes.

-->-- ''[=~Monsters, Inc.~=]''

** The trope is mentioned in the episode where Bart sees Principal Skinner and Mrs. Krabappel making out at a party. Skinner tries to convince Bart that he (Bart) just imagined it, prompting Bart to say "That's the best you can do? You could have at least said that you were [[KissOfLife read: giving her CPR]] or rehearsing a play!". Skinner then asks if it's too late to say that.

* ''MenInBlack''. Agent K is interrogating Frank the Pug (an alien in the form of a dog) while holding him.

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** Another Simpsons one is in the episode where Sideshow Bob tries to kill Bart for the first time. One scene has Mrs Krabappel telling Bart, "You're going to be my murder victim, Bart - in our school production of ''Lizzie Borden'', starring Martin Prince as Lizzy."

* ''TheNostalgiaCritic'' theorized that ''TheRoom'' started because Wiseau and his girlfriend were caught making a sex tape, and he had to pretend that he was making an indie film even though he can't act.