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| 14 | [[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Identity}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/identity_6_is_9.png]]]] |
| 15 | [-[[caption-width-right:350:"...4, 5, 9—wait, we're not missing a few doors, are we?"]]-] |
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| 17 | %% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion here: |
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| 20 | |
| 21 | ->''"And this is a 6 from somebody's house, or is it a 9? Ya don't know!"'' |
| 22 | -->-- '''Moe''' (trying to solve a mystery), ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' |
| 23 | |
| 24 | If you rotate the figure 6 so it is upside down, you get a 9, and vice versa. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | This trope is about those cases where confusion between these two numbers becomes a plot point. The most common (but not the only) scenarios: |
| 27 | * Causes some sort of confusion in the plot, that doesn't allow it to advance (like the example below). |
| 28 | * It's used for TheReveal or a PlotTwist. Often, but not necessarily, is the NumberOfTheBeast. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | For example: |
| 31 | Alice is a detective and has learned from a phone call that weird things are happening in Apartment 6. She goes over there and investigates, but finds nothing. But the phone calls continue, so Alice goes again to Apartment 6, but finds out that the apartment where she was investigating was number 9, but the "9" somehow was unscrewed before and looked like a 6. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | This trope also covers any other symbol (or collection thereof) that could be misinterpreted if read at the wrong angle, such as M and W (and to some extent E and even ''number'' 3). There are often attempts to avert (or at least defy) this trope by putting an underscore on the letter or number in question, to act as an aid to show which way they should be read. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Not to be confused with LOL69 (especially since that number is technically immune to this trope). Compare CalculatorSpelling for characters exploiting the fact that some seven-segment digits look like letters when upside-down. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | '''Due to its possible nature plot-wise, expect SPOILERS.''' |
| 38 | |
| 39 | ---- |
| 40 | !!Examples: |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 45 | * ''Film/InTheLineOfFire'' used this quite well in one of their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU4iPNL5yBM trailers]]. |
| 46 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had an ad for [[Franchise/StarTrek the franchise's]] 30th anniversary episode where they showed the number 1966 (''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''' first year) and rotated the first 6 into a 9. |
| 47 | [[/folder]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 50 | * In an episode of ''Anime/BravePoliceJDecker'', Yuuta suspects artist Ninomiya Mutsuky as being behind a string of art thefts, as his art was exhibited at all the museums that were hit, and an sculptor's knife was found at one of the crime scenes with the initials N.M. However, it turned out that the knife was being held upside-down, and the real culprit was one of Mutsuky's employees, Wakabayashi Nobio. |
| 51 | * In ''Anime/TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughTime'', the title character notices a '90' tattooed on her arm that wasn't there before. It isn't until she time leaps a few more times that she realizes it was the number of leaps she had left, and it was actually '06'. |
| 52 | * ''Anime/GodzillaSingularPoint'': One of Professor Ashihara's many cryptic notes has "6=9" written on it. It's a hint how The Archetype material works with space-time, as in a curved area a direction can turn 180 degrees. |
| 53 | * Used for a gag in the final episode of ''Anime/GundamBuildFightersTry''. Meijin Kawaguchi announces the winner of the Meijin Cup modeling contest is Entry #9, Minato Sakai. After Minato gets a moment to boast, Meijin looks more closely at the card and corrects himself, saying that it's actually #6, making Yuuma Kosaka the winner. As Yuuma takes the stage, we see Minato crumble into dust. |
| 54 | * In ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'', Buffaloman uses this to hint at how he's going to defeat the Kinniku Buster, Kin's iconic move; Just as you turn a six into a nine by flipping the number upside down, so can the intended victim of the move reverse it on the one performing it! |
| 55 | * In the ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' spin-off, ''Kanna's Daily Life'', Saikawa, hoping to placed next to Kanna when their grade school class is changing seating order, reacts in horror when she picks her new seating arrangement number from a box and assumes that she drew a 9. However, she then learns that she was holding it upside-down and that she actually drew a 6 (which is the number she wanted, as Kanna drew seat number 5). |
| 56 | * Elie from ''Manga/RaveMaster'' gets her name from reading her tattoo after suffering IdentityAmnesia. She read it upside down: the tattoo actually says "3173". |
| 57 | * Gang members Scorch and Chills in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' use the Number monsters "Number 61: Volcasaurus" and "Number 19: Freezadon", which have opposite motifs (fire and ice), body styles, strategies, and stat at 2500 (Volcasaurus: 2500 ATK, Freezadon: 2500 DEF). |
| 58 | [[/folder]] |
| 59 | |
| 60 | [[folder:Comedy]] |
| 61 | * Creator/VictorBorge, during his Phonetic Punctuation sketch, would pull out a book and read a passage. "It starts on page nine." He would look at the book, realize he's holding it upside-down, turn it around and say, "Page six." |
| 62 | [[/folder]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 65 | * ''[[Recap/AsterixInBritain Asterix in Britain]]'': Asterix and friends get the address (number VI in a row of identical suburban huts) of the thief who stole their barrel of magic potion. But when they bust down the door the firt time, it turns out to be a perfectly ordinary couple living at number VII (the I fell off). |
| 66 | * ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW:'' In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue87To88 Issue #87]], the thief Sacks Roamer decides to use a cart race to smuggle a stolen artifact out of Equestria. He tells his minion Lumpy to hide it in his cart, giving him a card with the cart's number, #16, on it. But due to Lumpy having the card upside down, he hides the artifact in Rainbow Dash's cart, which is numbered #91. |
| 67 | * In ''[[Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar The Broken Ear]]'', ComicBook/{{Tintin}} realizes that the license plate "169 MW" is actually "MW 691" flipped upside down. |
| 68 | * In the "Tales from the Pit: Black Day at Bad Rock" story from ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', a squatter is given apartment number [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]] as a reward for informing to the Judges. When he goes to open the door, it turns out to be one of the apartments {{Booby Trap}}ped with explosives that an old lady from earlier in the story was using to coverup her welfare fraud. |
| 69 | -->'''Priest:''' Did you see that, Struthers? Numbers 999 must have slipped loose to make 666.\ |
| 70 | '''Struthers:''' Yeah. Just like in a vidcom.\ |
| 71 | '''Priest:''' Life's like that sometimes -- one bad joke. |
| 72 | * A comic parody of ''Film/TheOmen'' had the Antichrist Damien, at school, start a fire with telekinesis. His flustered teacher, unable to remember the telephone number for the Fire Brigade, has his memory jogged when he sees the tattoo on Damien's scalp [[note]]He reads "666" as "999"[[/note]] and later thanks him for being so helpful. In the parody, this is Damien's inevitable fate: his attempts to be the embodiment of ultimate evil always blow back on him and achieve the opposite. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 76 | * ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': In one cartoon, a painter has just painted "999" on Satan's office door in hell. Satan doesn't look happy, and the painter says "I must have been holding the dang work order like ''this''!"(ie: upside down). |
| 77 | * In a ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' comic, Peter's teacher is handing back a test: |
| 78 | -->'''Peter:''' ''[yelling for the whole class to hear]'' A 99! I got a 99! I knew it! I'm gonna ''own'' this semester!\ |
| 79 | '''Teacher:''' You're holding it upside-down. |
| 80 | * There was a ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' strip where Pig is sitting contently, reading a comic book. Suddenly, The Bluebird of Happiness flies onto his window and announces that he has been watching Pig for years, and thinks he deserves some joy in his life. Pig thanks the bird, who replies "No, thank YOU, Joseph C. Skalabonsky!". It was then revealed that he was supposed to go to 608 Bradbury, but he held the directions upside-down and went to 809 Bradbury, which is Pig's house. The bluebird then says "Ohhhhh.", flies away, and Pig sighs. |
| 81 | * Newspaper cartoon from about 30 years ago: |
| 82 | -->'''Boating lake worker:''' Come in No. 61, come in No. 61.\ |
| 83 | '''Other boating lake worker:''' We don't have a No. 61.\ |
| 84 | '''First boating lake worker:''' Oh dear! Are you in trouble, No. 19? |
| 85 | [[/folder]] |
| 86 | |
| 87 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 88 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThePagemaster'': The pirates' treasure map uses a letter W for directions, but the pirates mistake it for an M or an E. They would have gotten lost if Long John Silver didn't show them the right way to hold the map. |
| 89 | -->'''Pirate #1''': It's, uh, in the middle, by the waterfall. |
| 90 | -->'''Pirate #2''': No, it's east, by some broccoli. |
| 91 | -->'''Long John Silver''': Give me that! Why, you half-wits, it's west by a tree! |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 95 | * In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPlutoNash'', Pluto interrogated the body clinic specialist to find the identity of the crime boss and was given the initials "WZW" as a clue, but found no results upon searching. Realizing the initials were read upside-down, he searched "MZM" and found one result. |
| 96 | * ''Film/BallOfFire'': A poorly secured 9 on the front door of a motel cabin falls over and becomes a 6. This causes Bertram to enter the wrong cabin (thinking it's Professor Oddly's room) and accidentally pour his heart out to Sugarpuss, reciting a Love Confession speech he's planned beforehand. While sitting in the darkness feeling guilty about planning her escape, Sugarpuss is moved to tears by his words. |
| 97 | * Eighties Creator/TomHanks comedy ''Film/TheBurbs'' had the villains' house address being "696". [[NumberOfTheBeast No points for guessing the 9 was flipped]]. |
| 98 | * In ''Film/CarryOnCamping'', Babs invokes Dr. Soaper and Miss Haggerd's {{UST}} by covering the "men" and "women" signs as Dr. Soaper is going for a nighttime shower. He walks into Miss Haggerd's shower and chastises her for being in the men's shower. When the two of them go outside to check, Babs had already gone to bed and the signs were back to normal. |
| 99 | * In the 1990 Italian comedy ''Film/LeComiche'' ("The Comic Actors") in the 3rd episode the numbers on hotel rooms 6 and 9 keep flipping every time someone as much as touches a door, [[RuleOfFunny completely disregarding common sense]]. Room 9 is occupied by a jealous husband with a beautiful wife, followed by a busful of lovers; room 6 is occupied by [[TheChewToy newlyweds]] accidentally driven to nervous breakdown by protagonists in the 1st episode. And the delivery man keeps confusing the doors (he's new at this job, he's a TravelingSalesman working off the damages inflicted on the hotel earlier that day). |
| 100 | * In ''Film/EndOfDays'', the NumberOfTheBeast is really [[spoiler:999]]. |
| 101 | * A pretty weird example in ''Film/Forbidden1932''. Bob is in compartment 99 on the cruise ship. But he is apparently drunk enough that he mistook the 66 on Lulu's compartment for 99 and entered her cabin instead. |
| 102 | * Something like that happened in the French/British Film ''Film/LaGrandeVadrouille'', set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, with hotel rooms 6 and 9. |
| 103 | * Done oddly in ''Film/{{Identity}}'' where it's revealed that [[spoiler:the guests are being killed in the order of their room numbers]]. Shortly after one of the characters walks into room 9, the closing of the door causes their number to flip to 6, making them the next target. The fact that [[spoiler:they're all alternate personalities in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind]] means this might not be coincidental. Also provides the page image. |
| 104 | * This happens to Leonard in ''Film/{{Memento}}'', causing him to bash a random motel resident in the face. |
| 105 | * In the film version of ''Film/MinorityReport'', there was a scene where John Anderton gets Crow's hotel room wrong due to the figure 9 or 6 having a screw loose. |
| 106 | * ''Film/MrBeansHoliday'' is kicked off by a raffle where ticket 919 is the winner. Bean checks his own ticket and it's 616, so he disappointedly throws it away, but then it lands on an electric train set and when it comes around he sees it rightways up and excitedly claims victory. |
| 107 | * In ''Film/NationalLampoonsEuropeanVacation'', the Griswolds spend some time with German-speaking relatives. As they leave, they slam the door and the 6 swings down and becomes a 9, they'd been staying with strangers and didn't realize it. |
| 108 | * The blast from Oona's Whoosh-You-Back-In-Time-inator causes the 6 number of the building to become rotated so it reads 9. When Oprah arrives at the building, instead of going inside to see the Patternista, she expresses confusion and continues searching for her kidnapped boss. |
| 109 | * ''Film/INotStupidToo'': The protagonist, Cheng-chai, has been failing in exams when his father leafed through his schoolbag without his permission, and exclaimed Cheng-chai scored 91 in his tests. Turns out the paper is upside-down and obscured by another book, and cue Cheng-chai receiving a scolding for flunking his exams with 16 points and hiding the results from his dad. |
| 110 | * ''Film/OddSquadWorldTurnedOdd'': An early example in the 1920 short ''Film/OneWeek''. After all their labor building the house, Buster Keaton's character and his wife find out that the Lot 99 sign actually meant Lot 66, so they have to move the house. |
| 111 | * In ''Film/TheOutlawsIsComing'', the Stooges sneak into the hotel to sabotage the guns of the outlaws who are staying in Room 9. A group of showgirls are staying across the hall in Room 6. When the showgirls close their door, the loose room number turns upside down: changing from '6' to '9'. As a result, Moe enters the correct room and sets about sabotaging the outlaws' guns, while Larry and Curly Joe sneak into the showgirls' room, and become increasingly baffled by the very feminine items they find in what they believe to be a room full of hardcases. |
| 112 | * In ''Film/Paddington2014'', Paddington is searching for Montgomery Clyde. The final "M. Clyde" address on his list is 36 Hetchlays Rd., but when he gets there the man who answers has never heard of an M. Clyde. It turns out that he was at 39 Hetchlays Road, the door number having flipped around, and the actual 36 was the right address. |
| 113 | * The plot of ''Film/RuangTalok69'' is set off when the 6 on a flat door keeps flipping accidentally to resemble a 9, resulting in all kinds of mayhem. |
| 114 | * In ''Film/ASongIsBorn'', Frisbee mistakes Honey's bungalow at the motel for Prof. Oddley's, since when Honey walked in the door number flipped from a 9 to a 6, Oddley's room number. |
| 115 | * ''Film/TwoDistantStrangers'', The "9" on Perri's apartment door has come loose and is now hanging as a 6. This leads to one of Carter's deaths when Officer Merk and the cops crash into the wrong apartment on a no-knock raid... although given TheReveal it might not have mattered. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 119 | * Ever hear about the blonde hired as a proofreader at the M&M factory? She was fired for tossing out all the 3s, [=Es=] and [=Ws=]. |
| 120 | * [[CalculatorSpelling With a calculator, especially the older ones where the digits were made up of straight lines, you could make it spell a word by typing in some numbers, and turning the calculator upside down]]. Examples: |
| 121 | ** 0.7734 spells "hello" |
| 122 | ** 77345 spells "shell" |
| 123 | ** 372215 spells "sizzle". |
| 124 | [[/folder]] |
| 125 | |
| 126 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 127 | * In Creator/KimNewman's fantasy/crime novel ''Literature/BeastsInVelvet'', a murder victim tries to write the name of his killer in his own blood, but it's initially mistaken for a number code due to being read upside down. ([[spoiler:"5037" instead of "Leos".]]) |
| 128 | * ''Literature/TheClocks'': Colin, more or less the protagonist and a spy for British intelligence, might not be such a great spy. He begins the story trying to find number 61 on a notoriously confusing street--based on a handwritten note on a sheet of paper--when he runs into a murder mystery at number 19. He doesn't connect the dots until the very end of the mystery, so maybe it's for the best that he decides to quit the intelligence services. If that's not bad enough, Agent Harbury's drawing doesn't just have the number 61, it has a 61 with an M underneath it, next to a crescent. The murder takes place at 19 '''''W'''''ilbraham Crescent, and Colin ''still'' can't figure it out. |
| 129 | * In one of the ''Literature/LordDarcy'' stories, the victim leaves a dying clue by carving three letters into an earthen bluff. No one realizes until later that he was hanging over the edge of the bluff -- flipped around to his viewpoint, the message is the code number of the dangerous Polish spy who killed him. |
| 130 | * Scott Kim's ''The Little Book of Big Mind Benders'' invokes this with its "Crazy Cross" puzzles, which are a 3x3 crossword made with letters that can be read in two different directions, becoming a different uppercase or lowercase letter when rotated 90 degrees one way or the other. For instance, N can be read as Z, D can be read as A, E can be read as M (or W), and H can be read as I. |
| 131 | * There is one scene in a Creator/PatrickMcManus story where one of the characters wakes up in the middle of the night on a camping trip, takes out an analog watch, and reads it upside down, interpreting it as 7:00 instead of the intended 1:30. |
| 132 | * In ''The Mona Lisa Mystery'', Jessica, staying in room 9, sees someone enter her room at night. Turns out that her roommate had earlier slammed the door, so that one screw came out and the 9 fell upside-down. |
| 133 | * In ''Literature/TheSavant'', Arlo and Louie lose the first ten dollars they bet at the Kentucky Derby because Arlo accidentally reversed a six for a nine in his head. |
| 134 | [[/folder]] |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 137 | * Parodied in ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': |
| 138 | -->'''Harry:''' "Dick, I've lost all feeling in the left side of my body. [looks at can upside down] Could somebody please call "1-1-6"? |
| 139 | * In a short sketch on ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'', Benny as a jealous husband breaks into a hotel room and shoots the man & woman in the bed. Then he takes another look at them, looks at the room number, rotates the 6 to a 9, and sheepishly exits. |
| 140 | * Occurs in the ''Series/MrBean'' episode, "The Hospital Visit". Bean, holding a card numbered 52, meddles with the digital counter (currently at 24) by flipping it upside-down while the receptionist is on the phone. The hospital staff is bewildered at the counter going from 52 to 92 all of a sudden. |
| 141 | * In the ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' episode "How Green Was My Grass", after a disagreement with Sam over their yard, Darrin slams the front door hard enough to flip the loose 6 on their address plate, causing a pair of workers to replace their yard with Astroturf meant for another house while both he and Samantha are out. Naturally, Darrin thinks Sam twitched it up to defy him, and forces her to change it back into real grass, causing the two of them no end of grief when both the workers and the neighbor it was intended for come looking for it. |
| 142 | * In the "Secret's Safe with Me" episode of ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'', the VictimOfTheWeek appears to have written "LIE" in [[DyingClue her own blood on the ground before dying]]. But they were looking at it the wrong way up and It is actually "317". |
| 143 | * ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': In "[[ARoundOfDrinksForTheHouse Our Hourly Bread]]", the bar has a raffle using numbered ping pong balls. Number 99 gets chosen, but Sam points out that the 99 looks like a 66. HilarityEnsues. |
| 144 | ** And then at the end of the episode, the number 11 is drawn, but [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Woody]] [[ComicallyMissingThePoint flips it over and laments]], "HereWeGoAgain." |
| 145 | * ''Series/DadsArmy'' has an episode in which Corporal Jones is told to telephone the local military headquarters after a plane crash, on Walmington-166. Unfortunately he writes it down, misreads it as Walmington-991 when he gets to the phone box, and is put through to the local cinema instead. |
| 146 | * In an episode of ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'', a woman found a dead mime in the house she was staying at. She then noticed the 6 in the house number had a nail missing, making it a 9, and she deduced that whoever killed and left the mime got the wrong house. [[spoiler:It turns out it was a RedHerring.]] |
| 147 | * In the ''[[Series/DoctorInTheHouse Doctor in Charge]]'' episode "Honeymoon Special", newlywed doctors Lawrence and Mary Bingham have had to be driven to their honeymoon hotel by fellow doctor and Mary's ex-boyfriend, Duncan, as Lawrence's leg has been put in plaster as a prank and Mary cannot drive. As he cannot get back to London until the next morning, Duncan stays the night at the hotel and is given Room 9 while the Binghams are given Room 6. When prankster doctors Dick and Paul call the hotel to confess that Lawrence's leg isn't broken, they wake up Duncan and the Binghams. Duncan goes back to his room and slams the door, causing the "9" to flip upside-down; Mary stops at the bathroom on the way back and goes into Duncan's room by mistake, leading to a BedmateReveal when Lawrence goes to what he thinks is Room 6 and switches on the light. |
| 148 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E3TerrorOfTheVervoids Terror of the Vervoids]]": |
| 149 | -->'''Rudge:''' Uh, no. The other way round, I think. You are in cabin 9, and that is where you will find your luggage, Professor. |
| 150 | * ''Series/TheElectricCompany1971'': A sketch about a lucky number versus an unlucky number. |
| 151 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Ross tries to sit next to Mona at Monica and Chandler's wedding, but misreads her place card as "6" instead of "9" due it being held upside down when she showed it to him, causing him to end up at the DreadedKidsTable instead. Ross even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it. |
| 152 | * Happens in an episode of ''Series/GetSmart'' when Max and the Chief are under the [[ICantHearYou Cone of Silence]]. As usual, it isn't working right, so Max decides that they should use CONTROL's secret word file, which contains a bunch of different cards which they show to each other. Max's first cards read, "Is KAOS after 66?" The Chief replies with "Who's 66?" Max realizes he has the last card (the one that said "66") upside-down, and flips it over to say "99". |
| 153 | * In the ''Radio/HancocksHalfHour'' episode "The Alpine Holiday", Tony Hancock twice ends up on the wrong side of a 6/9 misunderstanding, both times involving confusion over whether the room is his or that of a female film star who is staying at the same resort as he is; when she goes into what she thinks is her room but is actually Tony's room, the film star has the hotel staff throw him in the local jail for lewd behaviour. |
| 154 | * In ''Series/{{House}}'', Kutner tries to pull a fast one on Dr. House by flipping his candidate number (6) over once he'd originally been eliminated. House finds it amusing and (since he pitched a good idea) gave him another chance. |
| 155 | * In the ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' episode "Bad News", the numbers 50 to 1 are hidden in the episode as a countdown until Marshall [[spoiler:receives the news of his father's death]]. A file folder Barney is holding is marked with the number 9, and later the folder is picked up upside down, now representing the number 6 in the countdown. |
| 156 | * ''Series/InsideNo9'': |
| 157 | ** In "[[Recap/InsideNo9S4E3OnceRemoved Once Removed]]", May removes a screw, and this is the result. |
| 158 | ** In the opening scene of "[[Recap/InsideNo9S6E1WutheringHeist Wuthering Heist]]", Arlo is having trouble finding the address to the hideout because he mistakes a written 9 for a 6. |
| 159 | * ''Series/LazyTown'': The episode "Time to Learn" features a song with Robbie Rotten answering the question 4*4 with the number 91 on paper. Everyone notices this mistake and so he turns the paper around to give the correct answer, 16. |
| 160 | * ''Series/{{Llanargollen}}'' S1 E1 is about a package that was supposed to be delivered to House No. 9, but was accidentally delivered to No. 6 after the address number for No. 6 came loose and flipped upside-down. |
| 161 | * In the ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' episode "Hi, I.Q." Al and Jefferson are putting together a workbench and get annoyed when they keep finding parts shaped like 7's instead of L's. |
| 162 | * ''Series/TheMathFactory'' had an episode where Cranston and Stubby were playing with a card (19 is 61 upside down). |
| 163 | * ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': In "Murdoch and the Tramp", Murdoch deducts early on that the VictimOfTheWeek resulted from the killer mistaking his hotel room, 419, for room 416 because the 9 had rotated. The real target was the resident of room 416, one Creator/CharlieChaplin. [[spoiler:Until he finds later that the murderer missed his target for a different reason.]] |
| 164 | * In a Halloween episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', Sam leaps into the body of a horror writer whose street address is 669. Near the climax, [[spoiler:the 9 flips upside down to reveal that the devil is amongst them]]. |
| 165 | * ''Series/Reno911'': In "Security For Kenny Rogers", the officers completely trash a crying woman's apartment in a drug search and find nothing. They finally spell out the address ("917 Keystone Avenue, number 6"), and she tells them that this is apartment 9, not 6, and reveals that a nail has fallen out of the number on the door. Subverted when it turns out that it really was number 6 all along, and they return just in time to find her flushing a bag of drugs down the toilet. |
| 166 | * {{Parodied}} in an early episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', one sketch was a parody of ''Film/TheOmen''. Late in the sketch, one character accuses the child, Damien, of being spawned from Satan, and they should check for the Number of the Beast on his forehead. One character checks by standing behind the child, and declares that everything is okay with him, because the number on his forehead is 999. |
| 167 | * ''Series/DieSendungMitDerMaus'': In a Mausspot, the Maus runs into a school board asserting 6+6=81, confusing her greatly until the elephant turns it upside-down. |
| 168 | * An early Muppet sketch on ''Series/SesameStreet'' spoofing ''Series/{{Dragnet}}'' had a couple of police detectives looking for a fugitive W. When the detectives encounter a W, the letter fools them by flipping over, claiming to be an M. |
| 169 | ** In another sketch, Herbert Birdsfoot is lecturing about the letter M, when it suddenly turns over and becomes a W. |
| 170 | * In an episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam & Dean investigate an old folks' home and think they've found a demon-worshiping old woman because she has an inverted cross nailed to her wall. A scene or two later, Dean is impersonating an orderly and the woman asks whether he ''finally'' came to fix her cross, which has fallen upside down. |
| 171 | * In an episode of cult TheSeventies British cop show ''Series/TheSweeney'', the "6 with a screw missing turns into a 9" gag is used in a scene where a very respectable family are eating dinner when armed policemen crash into their home, and are just as surprised as they are because they were expecting to meet armed criminals. After the mistake is cleared up, the officers leave with apologies and the family calmly return to their meal. Moments later, a crash is heard in the distance, and the father comments that it sounds as though they've found number 9. |
| 172 | * In the second series of ''Series/TBag'', the magical items being sought are silver numbers to complete a clock face. The final number, the 0 to make the ten on the clock, turns out to be hidden in plain sight as a letter O in a sign that reads TOWER. |
| 173 | * In episode 9 of ''Series/TheUnusuals'', the cops find out that the perpetrator of the case they're investigating lives in apartment #6. They go to the apartment, and find the wrong person entirely. Naturally, the apartment they knocked on was actually #9, and the nail had fallen out of the top of the sign. (Cue chase scene, set to "Tunak Tunak Tun", as the actual perp has had plenty of time to prepare to flee...) |
| 174 | * In ''Series/TheWire'' cops have trouble finding an officer who has been shot because drug dealers turned the street signs 45 degrees to confuse cops. |
| 175 | [[/folder]] |
| 176 | |
| 177 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 178 | * [[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Was_Nine (Ex)German band named "6 was 9"]] |
| 179 | * Music/JimiHendrix referenced this trope in his song "If 6 Was 9" from his album ''Music/AxisBoldAsLove''. In 1994, a group called The Beautiful People created a club-mix called "If 60s were 90s". Also the band Music/{{Love}} covered the track to good effect, and even had a minor hit with it. |
| 180 | ** A band named themselves "If Six Was Nine" after his song. |
| 181 | * The Judds recorded a song in 2000 titled "The 90's Was the 60's Turned Upside Down". |
| 182 | * In the [[https://youtu.be/1eBLNzbHyi0?t=256 music video]] for Music/{{Madonna}}'s "What It Feels Like For A Girl", Madonna shuts her motel room door with the number 669, causing the 9 to swirl around and build [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]]. |
| 183 | * A Music/TheyMightBeGiants song called "The Secret Life Of Six" has six and nine disguise themselves as each other - six pretending he's older and nine pretending he's younger. |
| 184 | [[/folder]] |
| 185 | |
| 186 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 187 | * In ''Radio/OldHarrysGame'', there is a bit where Satan received a phone call intended for the emergency services because the caller had the phone upside down. [[note]]In Britain, the emergency number is 999.[[/note]] |
| 188 | [[/folder]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:Tabletop Game]] |
| 191 | * Defied in the numbers-based card game, ''TabletopGame/{{Uno}}''. There's a line drawn under 6 and 9 to help players identify which is which. |
| 192 | [[/folder]] |
| 193 | |
| 194 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 195 | * A RunningGag in the Australian comedy ''Theatre/{{Verve}}'', by Mark Lucas. Various characters turn up at 16 Sunnybrook Crescent, the apartment of ButtMonkey Mitchell Germaine, whose wife slammed the door too hard after walking out on him. First is Warren (a TV repairman who believes it's No. 19) then Leon (a dyslexic pizza deliveryman) and finally escort girl Tasha. |
| 196 | -->'''Mitchell:''' I've got it! Number 19.\ |
| 197 | '''Tasha:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint That'll cost you 100 bucks]].\ |
| 198 | '''Leon:''' What the dude means is that you were looking for No. 19 Sunnybrook Crescent.\ |
| 199 | '''Tasha:''' One! I was called to No. 1 Sunnybrook Crescent.\ |
| 200 | '''Mitchell:''' Excuse me. ''[goes outside and returns with a shocked expression, holding the 9 in his hand]'' I don't believe it!\ |
| 201 | '''Warren:''' Well, she must have slammed it very hard.\ |
| 202 | '''Mitchell:''' I don't believe that George Lorimer in number 1 would order a prostitute! |
| 203 | [[/folder]] |
| 204 | |
| 205 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 206 | * The piece of evidence that irrevocably incriminates the murderer in the first trial of ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' is the victim's [[DyingClue dying message]]: the digits "[[spoiler:11037]]" [[CouldntFindAPen written in their blood]]. If you turn them upside down, it spells out [[spoiler: L E O I I, implicating fellow student LEON Kuwata - the victim died before they could add the crossbar on the N]]. |
| 207 | * In ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'' a murder victim writes the word "Azile" on a wall. The game's mechanic of putting two facts together to make a deduction allows you to combine this knowledge with the fact that the victim was hung upside down before his death. Turns out "Azile" is actually "3712A". |
| 208 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'' (aka ''Indigo Prophecy''), a TimedMission puts police detectives Carla and Tyler in a hotel attempting to find the protagonist, Lucas, who is hiding in room 369. The player controls Carla/Tyler, but the first "room 369" you enter has someone else inside; the lettering on the door un-sticks and swivels to reveal that they're actually at room 366. The mistake gives Lucas just enough time to get his own objective done and hide. |
| 209 | * ''VideoGame/IBecameADog'': The password relies on it. The digit you find in the study looks like a 9, but the dog questions if it's actually a 6. It indeed is. |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'': The description of the 9 from the flower clock states that it can be turned upside-down to be a 6, "but nobody really does that". In the Gemini stage, there is instead [[ExactWords an upside-down 6 in place of the 9]]. |
| 211 | * Pops up every so often in the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' games. If a puzzle requires you to manipulate a set of numbered tokens which can be freely rotated, it's probably a good idea to assume this trope is in play. Alongside 6 becoming 9 and vice versa, you can often find plus signs rotating 45 degrees to become times signs, or minus signs rotating 90 degrees to become 1s. |
| 212 | * In ''[[VideoGame/NancyDrew The Shattered Medallion]]'', you have to rotate a series of letters that could be N or Z, U or C, H or I, and M or W to find an arrangement that spells out a clue. |
| 213 | * In {{Room Escape Game}}s, if you find a code which could be rotated by your character (even if you can't do it in the interface) and makes sense that way, it's very likely that its orientation in your inventory is not the correct one. |
| 214 | [[/folder]] |
| 215 | |
| 216 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 217 | * In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', the flyers made to promote the diner's reopening are supposed to say that the diner opens at 6:00 AM. However, when no customers show up for a couple of hours, the staff double-check the flyers, and find that they actually mention an opening time of 9:00 AM. And sure enough, customers start flooding through the door at 9. |
| 218 | * ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'': |
| 219 | ** ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' revolves around a set of bracelets numbered from 1-9, but not everything is as it seems: |
| 220 | *** Late in the game, [[spoiler:a #0 bracelet is introduced which theoretically shouldn't alter a digital root, but it acts as if it were #6. It's actually the letter O.]] |
| 221 | *** Immediately following this, one character theorizes that [[spoiler:June's #6 bracelet is actually a 9, which allows her to open any of the doors in the game]], which in context implies that [[spoiler:Santa's #3 bracelet marks him as [[BigBad Zero]].]] This theory is mostly correct, [[spoiler:but it's the other way around. Santa is the real #9, and June is the real Zero.]] |
| 222 | *** This comes to a head when [[spoiler:the final door with an apparent "9" on it turns out to be a "q". In Japanese, the number 9 can be pronounced as ''[[GoroawaseNumber kyuu]]'', while in English it's easy to mistake the two. This led to a slight change in the English translation where at the beginning, the rules for the Nonary Game were given to the players on paper notes which used a handwritten font that obscured the 'q is 9' twist whereas Zero gave the instructions verbally in the original Japanese version.]] |
| 223 | ** ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' has this for a few puzzles. The Crew Quarters for example has Sigma find some numbers labelled with shapes [[ItMakesSenseInContext after scratching off the clothes on a pinup poster]]. Two of the numbered shapes (6 and 9) are associated with a triangle and star which are upside-down on the poster, which alters the code for a locker. |
| 224 | * In the remake-exclusive fifth case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', a piece of evidence contains a note that reads "6-7S 12/2." However, the note was written upside down on pre-printed stationery and it actually reads "2/21 SL-9," tying it to another case altogether. |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 228 | * ''WebAnimation/AstroLOLogy'': In "A Capricorn Delivery", Gemini try to impede Capricorn's delivery to their house by flipping the 9 on their door to a 6, but he just uses a tracking app on his phone to find them. |
| 229 | * In one of the vector-animated ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' shorts, Woodstock dives into Snoopy's water dish. Snoopy [[HoldUpYourScore holds up a score card]] showing a 6. Woodstock complains, and Snoopy flips his card around to show a 9. |
| 230 | * Episode 4 of ''WebAnimation/RetardedAnimalBabies'' featured a fake TV screen as a bonus feature, and selecting Channel 666 will lead to a video of Satan eating children from a bowl. Channel 999 is this upside down. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 234 | * ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella:'' In [[http://nonadventures.com/2017/03/18/sequential-thwart/ "Sequential THWART"]], Wonderella and Wonderita get teleported into the kingdom of anthropomorphic numbers, and they're asked to solve the mystery of why Nine, the King of Numbers, is behaving so strangely. Wonderella quickly figures out that Nine's evil brother, Six, has stolen his identity just by turning upside-down. |
| 235 | ** [[LOL69 "Well, that certainly explains a lot in the bedroom"]] |
| 236 | [[/folder]] |
| 237 | |
| 238 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 239 | * The ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irBD30O-FmM 8-bit Haunted Dance Party]]'' video has Creator/FeliciaDay being invited to a halloween party at 966 Ravenscroft Lane. As she walks through the gate of what she thinks is the address, [[NumberOfTheBeast the 9 swings down and turns into a 6]]. |
| 240 | * In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', Vegeta orders Nappa to fight Goku, saying he'll have an easy time of it since Goku's power level is only 1006. Nappa promptly gets thrashed, and Vegeta realizes that he'd had his scouter upside-down; Goku's power level is actually [[MemeticMutation over nine thousand]].[[note]]What? Nine thousand?[[/note]] |
| 241 | [[/folder]] |
| 242 | |
| 243 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 244 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'', Ickis is waiting in line with the other monsters to get Snorch'd and is given the number 61, much to his relief since it takes more time. The monster in front of him then reminds him that he has the sign upside down and flips it, showing it as 19 instead. |
| 245 | * ''WesternAnimation/AppleAndOnion'': In "Falafel's Fun Day", Falafel warns Apple and Onion not to turn the air conditioner past six, or it will leak water. When their apartment floods the next morning, Apple explains that he was practicing his trapeze routine, saw the dial upside-down, thought it was set to nine and turned it to what he thought was six. Falafel then turns around the thought bubble where the flashback played to show that he actually set it to nine. |
| 246 | * ''[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSuperDeformedShorts Avatar: The Last Airbender "Super Deformed Shorts" ]]'': |
| 247 | ** Momo turns over his sign to change Aang's score from six to nine. |
| 248 | ** And then Appa does the same to turn his score [[RuleOfFunny from eight to... eight.]] |
| 249 | * In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Riddler's Reform", the supposedly reformed titular villain shows an advertisement on TV with the digits "31753701". At first, Batman believes these are map coordinates (for the First National Bank), but then realizes Riddler flipped over the blackboard, and it actually means "10 Leslie" - an address of a jewelry store. |
| 250 | * ''WesternAniamation/{{Bernard}}'' has a sketch where the titular bear delivers pizza to a house numbered "6". Somehow, he got lost and ended up near a HauntedHouse numbered "9", but the "9" had a few screws loose and flipped to a "6". He enters the house, and HilarityEnsues. |
| 251 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}}'', a ghost who is haunting the Piquel residence turns out to be there by mistake. The address card says he should have gone to 18-18, but he read it as 81-81. |
| 252 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS1E8ABigPieceOfGarbage A Big Piece Of Garbage]]", the crew are sent to blow up the titular ball of garbage set to collide with the Earth. Unfortunately, they end up nearly getting killed due to Professor Farnsworth having set the timer while the screen was upside down. |
| 253 | --> '''Leela:''' That idiot! It wasn't set for 25 minutes, it was set for 52 seconds! |
| 254 | * In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', after Arnold visits Eugene in a hospital room from a bike accident, the loose screw on the 9 of the door's room number causes it to become a 6. Eugene, therefore, gets his tonsils and his spleen removed by mistake. |
| 255 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'', 625 finds an inactive experiment, which is labeled with its number like all the others. Gantu looks up its number (611), discovering that it is an "unstoppable superweapon", and sends it to Hämsterviel, reporting that ''he'' found it. 625, angered by Gantu taking credit for his discovery, warns him of [[LaserGuidedKarma karma]] coming back to bite him, and it does: the experiment was actually 119, which was a much less useful experiment Hämsterviel did not actually want to deal with. |
| 256 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode, "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS3E23HomeOfTheFaveHeroTodayGoneTomorrow Home of the Fave]]", when Lola and Lynn Sr. are playing pageant, Lola seems to give Lynn Sr. a score of 9, but the card was upside down and his real score is 6, which he's okay with. |
| 257 | * An episode of ''[[Series/MrBean Mr. Bean: The Animated Series]]'' has Bean getting his credit card eaten by an ATM because he kept inputting the wrong PIN. After he gets his credit card back he finally realises he was holding the piece of paper that he wrote his PIN on upside-down. |
| 258 | * There is also another example of 'W' is 'M' in ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMysteries'' episode "A Nutcracker Scoob". Daphne finds a lapel pin on the floor with the initials W.N. on it, which everyone believes stands for Winslow Nickelby. In the end, it turns out that they were holding the lapel pin upside-down so the correct initials were N.M. for Nanette Musette. |
| 259 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': In "[[Recap/NinjagoS1E9TheRoyalBlacksmiths The Royal Blacksmiths]]", the SnakePeople leader Pythor uses a PaperThinDisguise to pose as a judge for a talent show in order to help his (equally poorly-disguised) snake crew win a trophy that secretly contains one of the {{MacGuffin}}s needed for his plan. When the other two judges rate the snakes' performance 6 out of 10, Pythor growls at them, intimidating them to turn their score cards upside down to become 9. |
| 260 | * One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Numberblocks}}'' features Nine leaving his apartment to buy a newspaper. When he comes back, all of his stuff goes missing. Detective One and Nine solve a mystery as to who took the stuff, later revealed to be Six. She only wanted to move in, and the gang rushes up the building, when they get to apartment 6, they realized that the "6" on the door was upside-down, the apartment that Nine mistakenly entered earlier. |
| 261 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Bullseye!", Lawrence Fletcher is driving to speak at a conference at 9019 Palindrome Rd. Unfortunately, the piece of paper gets dropped and placed upside down, reading 6106 Palindrome Rd., which leads him to a Pageant of Evil hosted by the city's organization of evil scientists, L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.. |
| 262 | * One of ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' cartoons has the stork accidentally delivering a baby meant for an alligator couple to the Panther because the rainstorm flipped his address number from 616 to the zoo's address, 919. |
| 263 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': One of the episodes of ''Peabody's Improbable History'' has Peabody let Sherman copy an address by writing it on a piece of paper. The address was 999 Schnitzel Street, however Sherman realized he had the paper upside down when they arrived to a lake located on 666 Schnitzel Street instead. |
| 264 | * ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991'': |
| 265 | ** "[[Recap/RugratsS1E6RuthlessTommyMooseCountry Ruthless Tommy]]" involved Tommy being kidnapped as a result of criminals succumbing to this trope. |
| 266 | ** In the "Literature/SnowWhite" special of the "Tales From the Crib" series, one of Angelica's magic mirrors rates her a nine, then to show his disdain for her, he turns the card over to rate her a six. |
| 267 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 268 | ** The official answer to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E25WhoShotMrBurnsPartOne Who Shot]] [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Mr. Burns?]]" involves a clue where Burns left when he fell on the town sundial, pointing to W and S which implicates [[spoiler:Waylon Smithers]] - except from his angle, he was pointing to M and S for [[spoiler:Maggie Simpson]], the true culprit. Notably, they actually ''did'' consider this before, since it could still have implicated [[spoiler:Moe Szyslak, Sideshow Mel, or even Santa's Little Helper (referred to by Mr. Burns as "that Simpson mutt")]] as a RedHerring. |
| 269 | ** Exaggerated in "Mother Simpson", where Chief Wiggum reads Homer's ''entire name'' upside down. |
| 270 | --->'''Wiggum:''' Put out an A.P.B. on a "Uosdwis R. Dewoh." Uh, better start with Greektown. |
| 271 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E2BartTheGenius Bart the Genius]]", after Bart gets a high score in an IQ test (by switching his answer sheet with Martin's), the school counselor shows homer the results. Homer is surprised to see "912" but the counselor tells him he has it upside down and it's really "216". Homer's briefly disappointed until the counselor tells him that's still a very high IQ. |
| 272 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': |
| 273 | ** The 'W' and 'M' were allegedly mixed up in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV" as well; when [=SpongeBob=] shrinks people and things with Mermaid Man's belt, Patrick tells him he has it set to M for "mini" instead of W for "[[PerfectlyCromulentWord wumbo]]." This doesn't seem to do anything, but [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike Mermaid Man's later comment indicates there really is a "wumbo" setting.]] |
| 274 | ** In "Born to Be Wild", 'W' is 'M'. [=SpongeBob=] rips the letter 'W' from the shirt of a biker belonging to [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels a scary gang, the Wild Ones]]. The biker actually belongs to a much tamer group, the ''Mild'' Ones. |
| 275 | ** In "Moving Bubble Bass", Bubble Bass Tricks [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick into heping him move his belongings [[BasementDweller from his mother's basement to his grandmother's basement]]. The address Bubble Bass gave them was house #166, but because [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick were holding the paper upside down, they mistake house #991 for the proper address, much to the chagrin of the house's owner. |
| 276 | * When April O'Neil of the 2003 ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'' series was posing as a news reporter, she wore a badge saying she represented Channel 9. When it was damaged, it flipped down, making her a reporter for Channel 6, referencing the original series. One of several shout-outs in that episode. |
| 277 | * In ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'', Larry the Cucumber never got his pizza in one Silly Song because the house number (16) on his door was broken. |
| 278 | [[/folder]] |
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