Bilingual Backfire / Live-Action TV

• Parodied in an episode of 30 Rock. The language in question was "Australian", and mostly consisted of Australian slang people know, and the expected accent.
• Though it perpetuates some arguable bias about nuclear energy (in the same way the real-life news media's critiquing did), The Newsroom delivers a truly badass example here.
• In Breaking Bad, this is first downplayed in one direction, and then subverted in the other direction, while Jesse is teaching a cartel how to make Walter's meth. Jesse doesn't know Spanish, but picks up on enough words and body language to know that one of the scientists isn't exactly singing his praises. Jesse then calls the scientist an asshole while telling the translator what to say to him next. The scientist reveals he speaks English, but Jesse doesn't care and just throws it back in his face:
  Jesse: So then you know what "asshole" means. Now get me my phenylacetic acid — asshole.
• In Peter Kay's Car Share, Kayleigh, who has been learning Japanese, insults Ray:
  Kayleigh: Kusa debu.
  John: Correct.
  Ray: Who you calling a fat shit?
  Kayleigh: Oh, you speak the Japanese?
• Zig-Zagged in ER: an elderly Chinese woman shows up with a serious illness that is quickly identified as symptoms from a brain tumor. It turns out that her son and daughter-in-law already know this, but are keeping it from his mother since they thought it would kill her. The doctor disagrees, but their argument quickly becomes a moot-point since they argued in front of the mother and she catches the meaning of "cancer".
• A variant in an early episode of Everybody Loves Raymond: Marie (who, like her husband Frank, is a child of Italian immigrants) states her understanding that her two sons don't know much Italian, as she and Frank "only" spoke it around the house when they were fighting, so the boys wouldn't understand. Robert, to the surprise of no one at all familiar with Marie and Frank's marital relationship, confirms that he and Ray are in fact nearly fluent.
• Fresh Off the Boat: In an early episode Louis and Jessica remark, in Mandarin, about how annoying the guy who must lead Louis’ employees in the sexual harrasment training course is. He respond how hurtful their words are in equally perfect Mandarin.
• Ros na Rún once had an Indian character who spoke primarily in English, while two of the women had a rather insulting conversation about him in Irish. Turns out he spoke Irish pretty well.
• Scrubs:
  • When Marco was first introduced, he pretended to only speak Spanish to annoy Turk. Turk eventually goaded him into revealing he spoke English.
  • In a later episode, Turk decided to surprise Carla by telling her he'd learned Spanish, but then decided to keep it a secret for a bit so he could listen in on her secret conversations and appear to be a more attentive husband. This didn't go entirely as planned.
• A sketch from John Leguizamo's short-lived sketch show House of Buggin' used this. It took place at a Mexican restaurant wherein a mariachi band was going around to the tables and singing. Subtitles indicated that the lyrics they were singing (in Spanish) were mocking the patrons, such as "Little do you know where that meat came from — enjoy your burro burrito!" And the patrons would clap, and they'd move on to the next table. Until they got to one where the very muscular patrons sang back at them, in Spanish: "We speak fluent Spanish and understand everything you just said!"
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The businessman from Macau did this.
• Lost:
  • The Korean woman Sun Kwon pretended not to understand English, when in actual fact she had had lessons. A very serious use of this trope.
  • Her husband Jin has this too in later seasons, but in an innovative way. The time on the Island made him understand English without knowing how to speak it too well. After his realization, he eavesdropped on many conversations and reacted in regards with those that concerned him.
  • At first the "Alternate Universe" version of Jin didn't seem to speak English at all, but ended up learning it really fast.
• In Phoenix Nights, Corrupt Corporate Executive Keith Lard rhetorically asks one of the club owners if he knows the Mexican for "Help! Let us out! We're burning!" He then walks away... and the club owner translates it behind his back.
• In an episode of The Tudors, Anne Boleyn is washing Queen Katharine's feet when Katharine curses her in French, calling her a whore for returning King Henry's affections, to which Anne replies in English that she is no whore.
  • The show specifically did mention Anne's background in the French court back in the earlier episodes of Season 1 and in Season 2, so this might either have been a mistake on Katharine's part written intentionally by the writers, or Katharine was intentionally insulting her.
• The title character of House speaks a variety of languages, and uses this to bust a Chinese teenager who is using her role as translator for her mother to get herself birth control pills. House doesn't let on at first that he speaks Mandarin. He claims he can't speak the language more than a few relevant phrases, but a season 8 episode has him conversing in Mandarin. Hilarity Ensues as House walks out the door.
  House: No, you gave her the wrong pills!
  Chinese girl: You speak...Mandarin?
  House: I can count to ten, ask to go to the bathroom and... [turns to mother, in Mandarin] Congratulations, you're a grandmother!
• In one episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted bumps into a woman he used to date, but dumped because she talked too much, and her new boyfriend, who turns out to be deaf. While she attempts to interpret between Ted and the boyfriend, Ted is communicating with him through sign language behind her back.
• Seinfeld:
  • One episode revolves around Elaine (correctly) assuming that the Korean women at her nail salon were insulting her. Upon learning that Frank Costanza spoke Korean, she brought him along to secretly translate for her. It would have worked if they didn't start insulting him too, because this is Frank Costanza we're talking about here. It also turned out one of the women who worked there was his old girlfriend from when he was a religious icon salesman in Korea.
  • George and Jerry attempt to invert this trope. When talking about asking Jerry's deaf girlfriend (played by Marlee Matlin) to use her lip-reading talents to find out why George's girlfriend dumped him, the two keep trying to hide their mouths so that she can't figure out what they're talking about, but she does anyway.
• Happens occasionally on Stargate SG-1, understandable considering Jackson knows something like 30 languages.
  • Colonel Mitchell manages to catch Jackson on this in one episode, when Jackson and a Chinese diplomat are conversing about the team in the latter's native tongue. They insult him in Mandarin, only for him to reply "Screw You" in Mandarin. This is a double backfire, as the Chinese diplomat's Chinese is completely incomprehensible (the actress is actually Japanese, not Chinese) and Daniel's Chinese is perfectly understandable, if a little accented, as is Cameron's.
  • Inverted when they go back in time and are captured by the US military of 1969. The officer in charge asks (in Russian) if they are Soviet spies. Daniel naturally responds "Nyet", and then a moment later realized it was a mistake.
• In an episode of NCIS, Gibbs, Ziva, and McGee are in a hotel room while a foreign prince from Saudi Arabia and his brother argue in Arabic in the background. Ziva tells Gibbs that they "do not know that I speak Arabic", and then translates for him until the prince's last words, to which she says "That is too disgusting to translate."
  • When Abby's adopted brother Luca is brought in as a person of interest in a murder case, he starts using sign language with her—not knowing that Gibbs can sign as well.
  • In one episode, they arrest a suspect at a costume party where he's dressed as a Klingon and yells at Gibbs in that language. McGee (of course) is able to translate.
    McGee: "It means 'Your mother has a smooth forehead.' It's a Klingon insult."
    DiNozzo: "You speak Klingon?"
    McGee: "Not fluently, but yes."
• Babylon 5:
  • Marcus tells Ivanova some of his deep feelings for her in Minbari, knowing she doesn't speak it — and not knowing that she has an eidetic memory, which lets her remember everything he said until she learns Minbari a year later and finds out the meaning.
  • Delenn and a Minbari Captain are captured by human individuals violently loyal to Earth (despite/ignorant/because of President Clark's recent fascist direction). They quietly start assessing the situation and planning an escape strategy in Minbari, only for one of the captors to interrupt them. (He didn't actually say anything in Minbari, but he made it clear that he understood exactly what was being said.)
    Captain: [in Minbari] I think my ropes are loose.
    Human: [in English]] Then I'd better tighten them!
• In one episode of Frasier, the title character has been trying to win the affections of his matchmaker from her boyfriend. When he crashes their dinner-date, he tells the maitre d' in French that the boyfriend won't be staying; the boyfriend responds, also in French, that he will be.
• A variant in the pilot episode of Fringe. We're introduced to Peter Bishop speaking to a pair of investors in Iraq about rebuilding an oil pipeline. He tells them that he speaks fluent Arabic, among his other qualifications. One leans to the other and whispers in Farsi that they should hire him for a substantial amount. Peter replies, "I also speak Farsi. And that amount would be fine."
• A variant in the White Collar episode "All In": Peter very awkwardly approaches a group of Chinese women to ask for information. They chatter freely amongst themselves in Chinese, but won't say anything in English to Peter. Turns out he actually doesn't speak Chinese—but he tape-recorded the conversation, and can have it translated.
• In an episode of Bones, Booth and Brennan meet the children of a wealthy businessman, who insists that his kids learn Chinese, given the rise of China as an economic power. They turn to each other and start insulting Booth in Chinese. Bones, having travelled everywhere, is able to understand and translates the insult.
• A variation happens in Castle, when the eponymous author infiltrates an underground gambling den in order to assist Beckett in a murder investigation. Himself a pretty good poker player, he pretends to be a newbie, a rich writer looking for inspiration for his next novel. The Russians he's playing with talk among themselves in Russian, saying how they're gonna take him for all he's got. While Castle isn't bilingual, Beckett, who is listening via a wire on Castle, has spent several months in Kyiv, Ukraine, as an exchange student and is able to understand them. However, Castle, even without knowing what they said, cleans them out.
• In the All in the Family episode "The Elevator Story", Archie is stuck in an elevator with several people, including a Puerto Rican man. He tries to use the elevator phone, while the man tries to get his attention. Archie says "Can somebody translate what I'm saying to this spic here?" The man responds: "Is not necessary, mister, this spic is speak English!" Archie, however, is completely unfazed.
• In an episode of Who's the Boss?, Samantha's boyfriend helps her cheat on a French exam. While they're in the kitchen later with Mona, Samantha thanks her boyfriend in French for helping her cheat, unaware that Mona knows French also.
• JAG:
  • In one episode, Sarah Mackenzie is on a submarine as part of a fact-finding mission to determine whether women should be allowed to serve on submarines. A sailor looks at Mac and says, in Russian, "Do you think they'd look like her?" Another sailor says, also in Russian, "No, more like sperm whales," and they both laugh. Mac, who is fluent in Russian, says, "Let me know if you see any sperm whales. I thought they were rare in these seas."
  • In another, where she and Harm travel to Russia, two hotel clerks make some crude remarks about him 'being able to afford' a woman like Mac (they are in civies). Mac steps forward and rattles off a quick, untranslated, reply, then tells Harm not to bother trying to look up what she said in his phrasebook.
• In an episode of Sea Patrol, the crew were attending a event at a French embassy and when Spider asked for a beer the French waiter pretended not to know English and said, "I'm proud of my bum when I see your face". Bomber came to his rescue and told the guy "Don't mess with me, w***!", and got his beer and one for herself. She then told Spider that she could just speak high-school French.
• Skins:
  • In one episode, the group went to Russia. Anwar rescued a Russian woman from her abusive household and when she was in his room, he proceeded to talk about the sexual acts he'd like to perform with her. Turns out she spoke English and understood every word he said.
  • Happens again in the S3 premiere when Cook discovers that the girl he and JJ are hitting on is deaf and a lip reader. Cook covers his mouth while describing everything he'd do to the girl to JJ, only to have the girl's translator sign everything she hears back to her. It does not end well for Cook.
  • And echoed in the S4 finale when Thomas is pretending to teach Katie French. Cut to Pandora sat outside the bedroom with her new A-level results - including an A in French - and then we get the subtitles showing us what he's really saying...
• In the pilot of City Homicide Matt pulls this on an Italian hotel manager reminding him that he's in the middle of a murder investigation. He later reveals that his mother was Italian.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Mind's Eye", a Klingon governor, Vagh, is accusing the Federation of supplying weapons and supplies to local rebels and insults Picard in Klingon. Picard calmly leans into the governor's face and insults him right back in Klingon. This earns him some respect from the governor in that not only did Picard stand up to him but he knew how best to swear back at him in Klingon.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "The Way Of The Warrior" has a Klingon soldier stopped by Odo, who happens to have been speaking with Garak at the time. The Klingon says something (roughly translated as "Does your mother let you walk around in that uniform?"). Garak responds with "I don't think Constable Odo has a mother."
• An episode of Just the Ten of Us had the Lubbock family boarding a Spanish exchange student who promptly made advances to all four of the teenaged daughters, who each believed that they were the first to successfully teach him English—only to have it turn out that he already knew and merely used the supposed language barrier as a tool of seduction. The funny thing is, he reveals this when he gets fed up with two other characters bad-mouthing him for his lecherous behavior (not realizing that he can understand them) and blurts out an angry retort. His satisfaction at embarrassing the other two is short-lived when he—and they—realize that he's just revealed himself to be even more of a jerk than they originally thought.
• An episode of Baywatch had a rebellious lifeguard mouthing off in French to a senior lifeguard who was disciplining him. She coldly informs him that she understands French (though the audience never finds out specifically what he said) and promptly ups his punishment.
• An episode of The Golden Girls had Sophia in the hospital and Stan and Dorothy trying to get information. When Stan tries to speak to one of the orderlies, the man tells him in broken English that "the men's room is down the hall" and "the cafeteria is closed". But as soon as Stan hands him a wad of cash, the man instantly tells him in perfect English that "someone will be with you in a moment."
• Inverted in an episode of Strong Medicine. A young Frenchwoman is brought to the hospital. Andy offers to treat her since she is fluent in French (and other languages). But when Andy questions the woman about her symptoms, she seems confused by her responses. Suddenly, Andy switches back to English and tells the girl to cut the crap—she's been asking her about pain and/or trouble breathing and the girl keeps responding with "oui" (yes) or "non" (no), essentially telling her that she can't breathe at all. As it turns out the girl isn't French, just an actress, and can't understand a word that Andy's been saying.
• In True Stories of the ER, a young female doctor is sent to a Greek woman and her family. Little did the family know, the doctor spoke Greek fluently. The patient only speaks Greek and begins insulting the doctor and refusing tests. Not wanting to offend them, she waits until the woman is cured until she reveals she speaks Greek too.
• A variation in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. Moze attempted to insult the opposing volleyball team and not get ejected for poor sportsmanship by insulting them in Dutch. However, it turns out that the referee happens to be Dutch himself and Moze ended up getting ejected from the game.
• In the Inspector Morse episode Who Killed Harry Field?, a German witness tries to stall Morse by claiming (probably falsely) that his English isn't up to being interrogated. Morse switches to German and carries on questioning him.
• Cousin Skeeter - Skeeter has just knocked over a T-Rex skeleton A couple of women say in Portuguese, "The short one is in trouble" as they laugh amongst themselves. Skeeter replies in Portuguese "Hey! I'm not short! I'm still growing!"
• Sam Hannah on NCIS: Los Angeles has done this a few times.
  • In one episode, when a Japanese executive belittles Sam and Callen to his entourage and calls a woman in Japan to tell her to "answer the cops' questions" Sam informs him in Japanese "You wish I was just a cop." He then takes the phone and converses with the woman in fluent Japanese while the executive stares.
  • He does it again when working protection detail with visiting South Koreans, responding to their criticisms in fluent Korean.
• On The First 48 a suspect called his home from the Miami Homicide interrogation room and told his father, in Creole, to hide the murder weapon, even describing it so the father knew what it was. The detectives, watching on a monitor in another room, could barely restrain themselves from howling with laughter as a Haitian-born detective translates this for them with a big-ass grin on her face.
• In Season 5 of Weeds, Shane busts out some unexpectedly perfect Spanish while two Mexican drug addicts are attempting to rape his step-sister. "You guys better get out of here before I rape you in the ass with this knife!" is what he shouts, brandishing a knife out of nowhere. Let's just say the rapists quickly scramble away.
• On Law & Order, Detectives Briscoe and Green are asking the girlfriend of a murder suspect about his whereabouts. She claims to not know, but when her phone rings, proceeds to talk to the other person in Spanish, obviously assuming that neither detective will understand her. When she hangs up, Detective Green talks to her in Spanish, revealing that he knows the language and HAS understood everything she just said to other person. The audience never finds out exactly what either of them say, but given her Oh, Crap! reaction and Green's tone of voice, it seems obvious that she was lying and that Green is warning her to cooperate, lest she face jail time herself.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent:
  • An inverted version. Several deaf persons are suspects in the murder of a doctor who performed cochlear implants. In one scene, the detectives are at a skating rink, observing the "conversation" between two of the suspects. When Goren asks the police interpreter to tell him what they're "saying", the man refuses, but Goren points out that in a public place, the two have no right to privacy. Unfortunately, the two realize the cops are talking about them—Goren's staring at them and his attempts to hide his mouth so they cannot read his lips tip them off, and promptly tone down their signing gestures, leaving the interpreter unable to decipher what they're "saying". A later scene has another suspect "talking" with his lawyer. This time it's the district attorney who demands that the interpreter reveal the details of the "conversation", trying to use the same "in plain sight" loophole, but this time, the interpreter stands firm in his refusal to translate, as that would violate attorney-client privilege.
  • Another episode had a Hispanic woman warning her little girl in Spanish that "people with big eyes get hurt", obviously fearing for her daughter's safety should she reveal what she knows about a murder. At this point Detective Barek reveals her fluency in Spanish by gently urging the woman to let her daughter tell what she knows.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
  • In a variation, Benson and Stabler see a man pick up a package for their suspect. Benson asks him where he's going with it. The man replies in Spanish that he doesn't speak English. Olivia then says in Spanish, "That's okay I speak Spanish", and then asks him the question again.
  • Another episode has the team investigation a possible molestation in the Orthodox Jewish community. The Orthodox Jewish leaders attempt to run interference with Hebrew pamphlets and conversations in Yiddish advising community members against cooperating with the secular police. Munch is fluent in both Hebrew and Yiddish, so their attempts are exposed.
  • A related example involves the little girl of a missing woman talking to her aunt in Chinese. When the aunt lies to the cops about what the girl said, Dr. Huang (who speaks Chinese) immediately calls BS.
• And on Law & Order: UK, when a suspect pretends not to understand or speak English, clearly hoping to deter the cops. Only to have Ronnie speak to him in French, thus revealing that he will not be put off, and forcing the man to admit that he understands English after all.
• Cold Case did something similar, when Scotty attempted to talk with a potential witness, who pretended not to understand English—nor the fluent Spanish that Scotty then spoke to him in. Only the threat of a call to immigration—no doubt the very reason he was keeping his mouth shut—got him to talk.
• A variant in the Republic of Doyle' episode "Mirror, Mirror". Several scenes establish that Jake Doyle doesn't speak French. At the end of the episode, love interest Sgt Leslie Bennett claims that a francophone police officer isn't her type, then switches to French to say that Jake is her man. Jake asks her what she said, and adds "You know I don't speak French." Bennett refuses to translate and leaves. After Bennett is gone, Jake says, in French, that she is also the one for him.
• In an episode of Houston Knights, a Mexican cop who is supposed to be working with the protagonists gets information from a woman in Spanish, and then tells the others that she doesn't know anything. Unfortunately for him, one of the American cops speaks Spanish just fine, and immediately calls him on it.
• Game of Thrones:
  • In the episode "And Now His Watch is Ended", Daenerys Targaryen and her entourage enter Astapor intent on buying a slave army so she can conquer the seven kingdoms. During the sale of the slave army, the slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz pretty much continually insults her in Valyrian. His translator/slave Missandei "cleans up" his statements when she translates Kraznys's words into Westeros. Its only after Daenerys takes control of her slave army does she reveal that Valyrian is her mother tongue, and she's heard and understood every single crass insult he's made about her. And then she orders her brand new slave army to kill all the slavers and conquer the city for her. Then she frees the slave army, making them loyal to her forever.
  • Daenerys does it again with Khal Moro and his bloodriders, shocking them that their hostage is fluent in Dothraki.
• In Defiance Christie McCawley cooks dinner for her alien future in-laws, the Tarrs. After Datak Tarr insults her cooking in Castithan she looks stricken, then he tries to claim that he was saying some Casti traditional saying and she storms out. Then Alak tells him that he's been teaching her their language.
• An episode of John Doe has the police station taken hostage by an ex-cop who wants something from the evidence lockers. As he's planning his escape, he converses in Farsi on the phone. Unfortunately for him, the titular character has the total sum of human knowledge in his head, including every language. Not only does he translate what he heard to his Friend on the Force, but he also explains that the "Bedouin Prince" is not a person but a ship. After his capture, the ex-cop is astonished that his careful escape plan is foiled. John explains how he was tracked down and then adds that he speaks Farsi.
• In an episode of Grimm, the cops go to question a Russian couple about a crime. The couple argue with each other in Russian about whether or not to tell the police what happened; Captain Renard calmly interjects in Russian, making the question moot. For reference, Sasha Roiz (the actor who plays him) is the son of Russian immigrants, so his Russian is pretty good, if accented.
• Pretty much anyone trying to do this to Annie Walker in Covert Affairs will be surprised at her language skills. This includes her first meeting with Eyal Lavin, a Mossad agent. After learning she dumped the briefcase she was supposed to give him, he goes on an unsubtitled rant in Hebrew. A few minutes later, she speaks a phrase in Hebrew. His expression is priceless. However, in one episode, this works against her. Her attempt to infiltrate an organization results in her meeting its boss, who takes a call in front of her and speaks Turkish into the phone. Naturally, Annie understands, but the woman later reveals that he guessed by Annie's body language that she understood, which was part of the reason her cover was blown.
• Played for laughs in an episode of Ned & Stacey, where Stacey is looking for a new bed. Ned is forced to go with her to all the furniture stores, until she finds the bed of her dreams, only to be told that the last one is sold out. Suddenly, the clerk reveals that they found another bed. She buys it and keeps telling all her friends about the lucky find, only for Ned's friend to let it slip that Ned slipped the clerk a $100 bill to make the bed available.
  Ned: [to friend] Ixnay on the ibebray.
  Stacey: You bribed him!
  Ned: Damn, she's bilingual!
• In an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, while serving in Italy during World War I Indy hitches a ride with a couple of American soldiers (the driver a young Ernest Hemingway), one of the soldiers upon noticing that Indy is serving in the Belgian army assumes that he only speaks French, so he starts making fun of him in English, Indy fires back by making snide comments of him in French which are caught by Hemingway:
  Soldier: Man... this guy stinks!
  Indy: [in French] This is the most expensive cologne I could find, and it's wasted on a bloke like you!
  Soldier: [mockingly] Oh oui, oui, monsieur... What did he say?
  Hemingway: Uh... something about his cologne.
  [upon arriving at their destination and Indy getting off]
  Indy: [in English] Oh, by the way... Thanks for the ride guys! [both him and Hemingway burst laughing]
• Israeli early ‘90s cult teen drama Lo Kolel Sherut had a Very Special Episode (one of many, actually) in its second season, featuring a Russian immigrant who comes to work at the café where the series takes place as a cleaner. Back in those days, as the USSR was just collapsing, former Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel en masse (along with people with Jewish parents or grandparents, who could still immigrate easily using the Law of Return). When the staff were told he did not speak Hebrew, they started speaking somewhat bluntly about him around him, some making disparaging comments while others were more supportive, reflecting the actual variety of attitudes prevalent at the time (and two female waitresses talked about finding him attractive). Soon enough, however, some of the staff overhears him speaking Hebrew on the phone, and at the end of the episode he reveals that he does speak the language (albeit with some mistakes), and didn’t at first because he was shy. He quickly patches things up even with the ones who made particularly mean comments, but decides he does not want to keep working there.
• Happens in My Name Is Earl, when Joy asks Catalina how to say something in "Mexican". Catalina obliges by giving her a very wrong, insult-filled translation that would only get Joy into trouble. Joy immediately knows Catalina is trying to pull a fast one, because the Spanish word for "bitch" was used, and Joy has been called a bitch in every language on Earth.
• On an episode of National Geographic's Drugs Inc, US Border Patrol agents in Detroit find some drugs in a car and driver tells the passenger, in Spanish, to say that the drugs belonged to the passenger instead of the driver. The agent looks amused for a moment and then turns to the driver and says (in English) "So the drugs really belong to you, then?"
• Happens in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries when Mr. Lin's stern grandmother warns him to stay away from the "floozy" Phryne for his own good. Phryne merely compliments the meal she'd served them in the same language, prompting the grandmother to stalk away in embarrassment.
• In the first Horatio Hornblower telefilm, Horatio and his four men end up in a longboat with a dozen Frenchman after his prize vessel sinks under them. Horatio makes the ship's erstwhile captain swear not to make trouble. Then he asks the captain to have his crew swear. The captain tells them, in French, to wait for his order to seize control. Horatio feigns ignorance by asking what they said, but quietly begins plotting a false course on the chart so that they won't be able to reach shore after the inevitable takeover.
• Played for Drama in one episode of Criminal Minds when bank robbers rob a bank. Two hostages plot to run away in German, only for one of the robbers to threaten to shoot them in German if they try it, which is part of the foreshadowing that the criminal is much more than just a bank robber.
  • Played with in another episode, where a criminal mother (who was brainwashed) agrees to help the team catch her captor/husband in exchange for a chance to say goodbye to her son. The team is sympathetic until she begins whispering to the son in Romani, at which point she's dragged away. No one on the team speaks Romani (Prentiss only knows enough to recognize the language), but they were recording the interaction and quickly get a translation, which serves the same purpose. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what language she used, the damage was done as soon as her son got the message: "Don't tell them about your brothers."
• On M*A*S*H:
  • Winchester is forced to show three Korean doctors around the hospital, and disdainfully starts referring to them as "Larry, Curly and Moe." At the end of their visit, the lead one turns to Winchester and says "Not bad for three stooges, huh?"
  • In the episode where Klinger is Court-martialed, Winchester is his defense attorney and is being torn apart in court. The prosecutor accuses Klinger of "res ipsa loquitur". ^note "The thing speaks for itself", Klinger was caught with the stolen camera in his possession. Winchester counters with the Latin phrase "Unum pilule acetylsalicylicus, tres in diem, post sebum." The prosecutor doesn't know its translation but the President of the court does and orders Major Winchester to repeat himself in English.
  Major Winchester: One aspirin, three times a day, with meals.
• Veronica Mars: In season 4, Logan is recalled to active duty after serving as Congressman Maloof's personal bodyguard for a few weeks. As he says his goodbyes, Maloof's wife comments in Arab that she'll miss "seeing that young man's body around". Logan matches her comment by replying in Arab that he'll try to keep in shape.
• Orange Is the New Black: When held at gunpoint by Daya in the opening seconds of Season 5, CO Humps (who secretly speaks Spanish) attempts to talk her down in Spanish. Unfortunately for Humps, Daya is the only Latina who can't speak the language.
• Defied by Xiomara in an episode of Jane the Virgin who asks a nearby police officer an innocuous question in Spanish to confirm he can't speak it before telling Jane that Abuela's illegal immigrant status has been discovered in Spanish.
• Peaky Blinders' has a scene where Kosher Nostra boss Alfie Solomons meets with Leon Romanov (yes, those Romanovs), an exiled Russian archduke. Leon complains to his wife, in Russian, that "the Jew smells like rum". Without missing a beat, Alfie explains in English that yeah, he does, because he works in a fuckin' distillery. He then lays into a pretty memorable tirade about the atrocities the Romanov family have inflicted on his people, and why his family left Russia in the first place.
  You people hunted my mum through the snow with dogs.
• In Barbarians, a German mercenary makes fun of the Romans in his own language just after Arminius has given him an assignment, not knowing it's Arminius's mother tongue (Arminius is the son of a German chieftain, taken hostage as a child and raised in Rome). This gets the mercenary flogged.
• Deliberately set up in Hogan's Heroes, a new prisoner (who supposedly doesn't speak any languages other than English) is being tested on whether or not he is a German spy. The heroes set a fire in the middle of the night as a diversion, when the prisoner is woken up Kinch yells at him "Aus dem Fenster! Schnell!"^note "Out the window! Quick!". When the prisoner comprehends immediately, his cover is blown, so the heroes use him for some useful counter-intelligence before they capture him and send him off to a POW camp in England.
• The Shaka Zulu miniseries begins In Medias Res, with Cetshwayo — Shaka's nephew and king-in-exile of the Zulus — appealing to Queen Victoria to support his claim amid a civil war with promises of peace. His appeal is conveyed through a translator, and is not directly responded to. Instead, the queen's advisors offer patronizing and disparaging commentary, and suggest a gradual destruction of the Zulu nation and enslavement of its people. When Cetshwayo's translator sheepishly asks whether their words should be translated, Cetshwayo — in perfect English — explains that it won't be necessary, and calmly castigates the advisors for their lack of respect. The embarrassment on the faces of all present speaks for itself.
• Midnight Sun (2016): Anders is insulted in Sami by some young people, and then reveals with annoyance that he knows the language (being half Sami himself).
• Ana (2020): In L.A. Mexican-American actress Ana is running late to an audition. The English-speaking casting agent tells her it's fine, and hands her six pages worth of revisions, telling Ana she should have enough time to review them. Ana mutters under her breath, calling the agent a "pendeja" (an asshole) in Spanish. Much to Ana's dismay, the agent announces that she speaks Spanish.
• The Queen's Gambit: Beth decides to learn Russian, since most of the best players in the world are Russian. When she is at a tournament in Mexico, she ends up in the elevator with Russian grandmaster Vasily Borgov and his KGB handlers. The handlers are telling Borgov about Beth's personal weaknesses, unaware taht Beth is both behind them and speaks Russian. Later at a press conference in Paris, Beth makes a barb at Borgov, paraphrasing the handlers letting Borgov know she heard.

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