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Comically Missing the Point in Web Original.

  • 4chan's Traditional Games board had a thread whose original post was a hot naked woman chained to a rock with a dragon approaching, with no text. The following posts were all about what type of rock it was, whether they could determine the area from the flowers nearby, whether the dragon could fly with its displayed wingspan, and so on, while largely ignoring the naked woman. Largely
    9434575: Her vagina is leaking. I think she might have a medical condition.
    • There's also a recurring series of threads where someone post an image of someone famous, usually challenging /tg/ to figure out who they are, and they proceed to make dozens of incorrect guesses, often while berating others for getting it wrong. Often enough, the person's real name is actually in the file name in the first post.
  • In Episode 75 of The Angry Video Game Nerd:
    Kyle: C'mon, get 'em! He's the one that broke the couch!
    James: Well technically, it was a futon...
  • In the Brows Held High episode when they get to the part of Tromeo and Juliet where it's revealed the title characters are brother and sister.
    The Cinema Snob: This is so messed up!
    Oancitizen: Yeah. They're clearly quoting As You Like It in this Romeo and Juliet adaptation.
  • In Brad Jones' Demo Reel, Braddie takes a few minutes to realize his E.T. costume is actually a pattern, not a completed costume.
  • In a Comic Book Tid Bits article covering an instance of overt censorship in World's Finest Comics #189, the author writes the following about it (though he does get serious in the paragraph after):
    "The lights went out in the hospital momentarily and some silly graffiti artist spray painted some weird, glow in the dark letters! It's so obvious!"
  • The Cracked article on Incredible Real-World Supervillain Lairs has a deliberate Comically Missing The Point under Number 2:
    Well, a Ledher associate describes how he would be picked up at the airstrip in a Land Rover driven by naked women—which is so awesome because Land Rovers are quality vehicles.
  • The Cry of Mann: Agent Martinez, who's straight-laced sincerity often leads her to misunderstand what the other characters, and the callers, are trying to tell her. For example, when told that Jouglat's killer was Frank, she spends the rest of the call saying "Frank" repeatedly and comparing his name to hotdogs, apparently forgetting she'd met Frank earlier in the series. She also responded to a caller telling her she had the hots for Berry by saying "Berry Hots... Berry Hots... that sounds like a delicious cereal", and went on another tangent with a caller who told her that Frank is dangerous and could snap bodies:
    "Snapping bodies? Like peas? Well, I really like snap peas...if he's gonna snap those, then I don't really mind, ya know?"
  • DarkMatter2525: Zig-zagged. In "God is Punishing Us!", Pat Robertson on The 700 Club equates several natural disasters - like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis - to God's displeasure towards an unrelated secular incidents - gay marriage, not forcing children to pray in public schools, saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", etc. Justified since this is the actual reason in-universe. When Jeffrey fills in for God and uses natural disasters to only target the transgressors, causing legitimate belief in God to sky-rocket, Pat wonders aloud if this was caused by climate change.
  • Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues: Zia comes across a group of students who are trying to escape the school, after discovering that the regular doors are locked. She grabs a chair off of them and tells them not to break the window with it. Sebastian misses her point and picks up a guitar to use instead.
  • Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
    • In the Pre-TFS version of The World's Strongest:
      Piccolo, Brainwashed and Crazy, is about to attack Goku. Not realizing, Gohan runs up to him.
      Gohan: Mr. Piccolo, what is he talking about- gets pimpslapped away
      Piccolo: Shut up, Gohan! Mommy and Daddy are killing each other.
      Gohan: But Daddy isn't drinking!
    • On episode 11, when Korin explains who Mr. Popo is.
      Korin: That's Mr. Popo. He lives up on the lookout with Kami.
      Roshi: ...did that cat just talk?
    • From episode 21, when Goku repeatedly punches Jeice in the face.
      Jeice: BURTER! SUPPORT!
      Burter: Well, you've got very nice hair, you're a beautiful shade of red...and honestly, you're the only guy on this team I can count on.
      Jeice: I MEANT PUNCH 'IM, YA DAFT BASTARD!...oh, but thanks, y'know, that really cheered me (*punch*) GOD, I THINK HE BROKE SOMETHING THAT TIME!
    • In Revenge of Cooler Abridged, when Piccolo tries to figure out which tropes fit which of Cooler's goons.
      Piccolo: Okay, I think I got this one: pretty one, stupid one, one with weird powers.
      Doore: Oi, I appreciate that, but I'm more "handsome" than "pretty"!
      Sauze: My powers are not weird!
      Neiz: ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!
      Piccolo: ...okay, I take it back: you're all stupid.
  • Dreamscape: Done by Keela of all people in "Tale of the Unworld", Anjren fires an Energy Ball at Vampire Genisis, only for him to turn into Super Smoke and the attack to crash into the wall of the coliseum behind him. Dylan and Anjren react with shock at Vampire Genisis' transformation while Keela just makes a remark about how sturdy the coliseum is.
  • In Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, during the song "Slipping," Dr. Horrible mentions the prospect of "Anarchy/That I run!"
  • Duck does this in the episode 'Beach Brawl' of DSBT InsaniT after seeing Fire Guy get captured by Cell.
    Duck: Holy shitoki mushrooms!...That was awesome!
  • Epic Meal Time has of late featured one fellow who digs into their crazy preparations politely with a knife and fork. Muscles Glasses has a tendency to give him reproachful looks.
  • In The Fantastic Favio Bros episode "The Horrors of Ecstasy", MaCavio picks up the recently defeated Tony's phone and sees the screen say "message sent" after Tony had threatened to text details of the secret plan to The Hero. MaCavio does not realize what this means, instead thinking it's something to do with massages.
  • From Fat, French and Fabulous:
    "You raising children is just a waking nightmare. Who needs a child-leash when you can put 'em in a regular old gimp mask and dog collar?"
    "Hey, it's really hard to find a gimp mask that small."
  • In Freeman's Mind, Gordon dismisses the idea that the HECU marines were sent to cover up the disaster by killing everyone inside (Mostly because of Fridge Logic: Black Mesa is a huge facility that employs a lot of people, so what they're doing would be a Revealing Cover Up). Many of his encounters with them involve him yelling over his gunfire that he's on their side and to stop trying to kill him.
  • Gorillaz:
    • The Ditz 2D's attempts at Sudoku on the website.
    • According to Rise of the Ogre, the band once attempted to write a script for a movie. After much nagging from Murdoc, Russel suggested one in which "a bullying egomaniac bass player" gets what's coming to him. The other band members elaborated on the idea, and Murdoc never noticed that they were talking about him.
  • How does Hadriex react when told he should shave? "You're right, my hand is getting awfully hairy!"
  • A very common joke in Hello, from the Magic Tavern, going back to the first episode:
    Arnie: How does one finger a spider?
    Usidore: With consent.
  • Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email "secret recipes":
    Homestar: (to Marzipan) Hey, girlfriend, have you tried any of this free ice cream Strong Bad made?
    Marzipan: Homestar, didn't anyone tell you? That's, like, cottage cheese and The Cheat hair.
    Homestar: WHAT?! (does a Spit Take) Strong Bad told me it was sour cream and The Cheat hair!
  • In How Did This Get Made?, host Paul Scheer somehow missed the fact that The Apple, a film about a man and a woman being tempted by a character clearly supposed to be Satan offering them a giant apple, was supposed to be a metaphor for the Garden of Eden story. June Diane Rapheal, normally the group's Cloudcuckoolander, had to point this out to him.
  • In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, when the Emperor learns that he's worshiped as a God (and he had a very strict Stop Worshipping Me policy), he reacts with terror. Kitten is quick to assure him that the worship is holding strongly.
  • The "Illuminati Confirmed" meme parodies the Conspiracy Theorist trope by taking random images and pointing out the presence of triangles, the number three, or other things with vague resemblances to Illuminati symbols in an image as "proof" that the Illuminati is up to something. A common trend in these is to take something with an obvious reference to the Illuminati, and ignore it in favor of a hard-to-notice triangle shape. The crowning example of this may be a picture of a newspaper ad page with an ad for the Illuminati Secret Society, which is ignored in favor of a photo of a woman whose nose is shaped like a triangle.
  • This web-promo for the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards has Joel McHale (the host for that year's ceremony) be forced to sit down and watch all the pictures nominated for Best Feature... and completely fail to respond in the intended or appropriate way to any of them.
    "I dunno about "Winter's", but it's tickling my funny bone!"
  • Peter Pilbeam, the resident hotel reviewer on The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show is subject to this a few times:
    To cap it all, I was very offended at the end of my stay, when I was expected to pay the bill. I found this both awkward and uncomfortable, especially as I had no money. I was then moved to a room that looked almost like a prison cell, which I'll be reviewing next week. And let me warn you: It's not going to be pretty! Thank you!
    • Also this episode, after having dyed the carpet in his hotel room "a more relaxing, holistically therapeutic shade of pink":
      As I was putting on my bicycle clips and getting ready to leave later in the day, I was heartened to see that my overnight work on the carpet in my room had been discovered, as all of the staff had come to show their appreciation by throwing a generous amount of fruit my way, obviously trying to make up for the mistake they'd made at breakfast.
  • The Jolly Roger Telephone Company is a company that provides bots designed to waste the time of telemarketers and other unwanted callers. The callers sometimes think that they're talking with an actual person who is doing some sort of gag or running a soundboard simply to mess with them. The ultimate example of this would have to be this call in which two debt collectors blow over thirty minutes combined with a robot that emulates Santa Claus, thinking that "Santa" is just a personality created by the person they called to put off unwanted callers and that they can wear him down.
  • In Llamas with Hats, episode 4, Carl gives Paul a surprise birthday party featuring a deadly nuclear explosion and a large collection of skinned human faces. On reflection, he concedes: "This was clearly the wrong way to go. I expected them to be cooked more. Raw face is just gross."
  • The LoadingReadyRun video Son of a Bitch features this.
  • In 7 Things That Make a YouTuber by Matt Santoro, the world is ending, and Matt gasps in horror... because he almost forgot to save the video that he was editing.
  • Nobody Here: "Homophobic" has Jogchem pay the doctor a visit, fearing that he might be homophobic and that he's subconsciously avoiding gay people since he doesn't know any. When the doctor says that this is likely due to him not having strong bonds with anyone, considering sexuality is a very intimate subject, Jogchem tries to deduce which of the people he knows could be gay, before guessing that the doctor himself is the likeliest candidate.
  • Noob:
    • When Sparadrap's father turns out to be a priest (the kind that can be assumed to breaking a sacred rule by having children), Omega Zell, who's chronically annoyed by Sparadrap's behaviour, reacts to the info by saying he'd probably turn to god also if he had a child like Sparadrap.
    • There's a brief period during which the main guild's command is given to the group's misogynist and Noob-hater, while all other members of the guild happened to fit one of the categories. While two of the women are discussing the very real possibility of being kicked out, the Noob chimes in by saying : "No way, you're just imagining things. You see, he's given me an ultra-important mission to complete! He wants me to find a super strong male healer. Then he wants me to recruit him. That's surely a show of confidence!". Guess who's the guild's current healer.
  • Nella is battling her dark side and, in great pain, tells The Nostalgia Chick to run away. The Chick, who has witnessed all this, has the important question to ask: does Nella really consider her a nerd?
  • The Onion uses this trope in probably over half their work, especially their "In The Know" and "Today Now!" segments.
    • The columns by Jean Teasdale are made of this trope. A sterling example comes from Ad Nauseum Vol. 14, where one column has her discuss how a local magazine called her the worst columnist ever; she reprints the magazine's slams against her, and then immediately afterwards says that she doesn't know why they hate her. And then proves the magazine completely correct.
    • The Onion's Film Standard uses this trope fairly often. For instance, his main takeaway from Spectre is that James Bond has an alcoholism problem and all of his problems stem from that.
  • After seeing Phelous hanging himself from the horror of Caligula, The Cinema Snob is shocked that the camera turned itself off!
  • PONY.MOV: SHED.mov has this moment when Spike, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie enter Fluttershy's shed and come across all the blood and dissected animals.
    Spike: Oh my god. Look at all this porn!
  • reddit commenters often invoke this trope on purpose. A popular in-joke is to reply to such comments with "Ahh, the old reddit switcharoo."
  • From the SF Debris review of TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds", after saying Picard trying to warn off the Borg with threats of new weapons developments is:
    "... like thinking you can warn off a date rapist by saying you're wearing crotchless panties. You might say that's a tasteless metaphor, but you'd be completely wrong! It's a simile."
  • In episode two of Shephard's Mind, Shephard comes across an alien corpse with a knife implanted in it:
    Shephard: Oh my god...Is that a knife?! Ho ho, look at this thing! Oh man, it's got a killer edge, it's just- Makes me wanna-
    • Then subverted when Shephard notices what the knife is in:
      Shephard: HOLY FREAKING CRAP! IS THAT AN ALIEN?!
  • Sonty Mick from These Web Comics Are So Bad frequently does this in his reviews. For example, when he reviewed Dinosaur Comics, he somehow failed to notice that every single strip is the same art but with different dialogue—instead, he focused on the fact that "Ryan North can't draw a sad expression to save his life".
  • The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles reveals that Canadians fundamentally don't understand the purpose of locks. They have locks, but they'll open for any key, which completely defeats the purpose.
  • TLF Travel Alerts: The official travel advice for dealing with the Covid Coronavirus outbreak of 2020; wash your hands, try not to touch other people, respect personal space, means that the virus is a great thing for commuters as it means ideal commuting behaviour.
  • In roleplay Touhou: a Glimmer of an Outside World Reimu is telling a ghost story, but ghosts are the least scary part. The most scary part is asbestos.
  • Ultra Fast Pony is fond of using this one.
    • In "Funk Master Z", after establishing that Twilight Sparkle is only voice of reason on the topic of racism towards zebras:
      Twilight: You know what? You all stay here, and I'm gonna go talk to [Zecora].
      Pinkie: Don't worry Twilight, we'll go with you!
      Twilight: Did you not just hear a word I said?!
      Applejack: Yeah, but we hate listening to you, remember?
      Twilight: Fine! Whatever!
    • In "Gelatin Swingsets", after Scootaloo learns that Sweetie Belle sold her scooter:
      Scootaloo: <Will you please excuse me for a moment?>
      Sweetie Belle: Sure, okay.
      [Scootaloo smashes her face into the piano keyboard repeatedly.]
      Sweetie Belle: What'd you do that for?
      Scootaloo: <Being in this group makes me want to cry.>
      Sweetie Belle: Well, maybe you wouldn't feel so bad if you didn't hit your head on the piano.
      [Beat.]
      [Sweetie Belle smiles at Scootaloo.]
      [Scootaloo resumes smashing her head against the keyboard.]
      Sweetie Belle: I like that noise, though. Totally brutal.
    • In "The Longest Episode":
      Spitfire: In fact, you're not allowed in my presence anymore. Stop following me.
      Rainbow Dash: Omigosh, that's a friggin' secret code! That's the secret code for I have to follow her! I am so freakin' good at secret codes.
  • Video Game High School: When Brian unexpectedly enters an FPS duel.
    Ki: I've been looking over the official rulebook, and I really think you should read paragraphs twelve through ninety.
    Brian: Can you paraphrase?
    Ki: Okay, um... read rules. Important!
    Brian: Not what I meant, Ki!
  • Half the humor in Welcome to Night Vale comes from this. Cecil tends to be a bit... easily distracted, and will often derail a report on the bizarre goings-on in Night Vale to talk about, say, how beautiful and perfect Carlos the Scientist's hair is, his violent hatred of Steve Carlsburg, or how Old Woman Josie posted this adorable video of kittens on her Facebook page along with that message of impending doom, and oh my god it's so cute you have to watch this. Or there's the bit in one early episode where the Apache Tracker sneaks into the Post Office and reports seeing numerous corpses and messages in blood on the walls, and Cecil spends the entire segment complaining about how ridiculously racist it is for a white guy to pretend to be a Magical Native American.
  • The Wikipedia article for "you have two cows" jokes, jokes parodying various economic systems (and political ones) using cows as metaphors for money and currency that often begin with the sentence "You have two cows", features an image of...two cows, with no references to their role in the joke.
  • The xkcd What If? section is fueled by this stuff. After quickly answering how little effect every person on earth jumping at the same location at the same time would have the earth's orbit, it explains how much carnage would result from people trying to get away from said location.
  • During the first Yogscast playthrough of Trouble in Terrorist Town, Simon Lane is subjected to the "spell innocent backwards" test that is meant to weed out traitors (although in practice it has its flaws), when Smiffy of Hat Films challenges him to do so. Simon then uses Exact Words and spells out "I-N-N-O-C-E-N-T B-A-C-K-W-A-R-D-S". He gets killed for this. He was a traitor, ending the round.
  • In the Yogscast Minecraft Series, specifically Shadow of Israphel, Professor Webley asks Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane if they have a bed for him to rest on. Lewis snarks if he can see any sheep anywhere, since their wool is needed to make beds. Webley replies "I can hardly rest on a sheep, space-man!"
  • YouTube is full of "Confederate Pride" white supremacist videos calling for the extermination of foreigners, minorities, and liberals, all set to a song performed by Gary Lee and Showdown called "The Rodeo Song" - a song written by a French-Canadian from Ontario about the small-town Alberta winter rodeo circuit. It takes a special talent for missing the point to hear the stirring lyrics "It's forty below and I don't give a fuck" and think of Mississippi.

  • There's a Post Secret about someone whose mother bought them a Post Secret book, but blacked out all the "inappropriate" parts.
  • There's a subset of the Fauxtivational Poster that combines this with Ignore the Fanservice.
  • In a series of DVD-exclusive reviews, The Nostalgia Critic (suffering memory problems while in the Plot Hole) reviews a trilogy of films made by someone called "The Nostalgia Cricket". At the end of the last review, the Critic notes how similar the "Cricket" is to him, and after some deep thought, he concludes, "My god, Nostalgia Cricket is... and always have been... Phelous!"
  • Random Assault: On one episode, Drew wanted to talk about Sexy Beach 3. He then went on to talk about how great the environments looked.
  • Not Always Right and its sister sites catalogue a lot of this. One good example is this Not Always Working post, where a (drunk) guy insists his friend be let out of jail because he's being "held against his will."
  • Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party:
    • When Poe's romantic rival Eddy is found dead, head plunged in his plate of soup, EVERYONE gets their turn at completely misconstruing the events of the evening as Poe desperately tries to state that This Is Reality. Has to be expected for writers.
      • H.G. Wells thinks it's a game and sticks his head in the soup too.
      • Charlotte Brontë corrects him: they're supposed to wait out turns to stick their head in the soup.
      • George Eliot imagines that this is the beginning of a game... investigating the nature of the soup.
      • Louisa May Alcott understands that they should rather investigate the murder... for the murder mystery game. She then proceeds to read her character card, and wait untill this somehow solves the murder mystery.
      • Ernest Hemingway thinks everyone has gone mad... the murder mystery game must be solved logically, looking for the motive of the murder.
    • Similarly, when they all find out Eddy's character in the game, attributed by a jealous Poe:
      Ernest: (reading aloud Eddy's character card)... Virgil, the Foul-Smelling Orang-Utan ! Come on, Poe... Virgil ? That's a terrible name !
  • In Resident Evil Abridged, when Chris confronts Wesker about his betrayal, he asks why Wesker simply didn't leave them behind to be eaten by the Cerberi. This tense conversation ends up completely derailed as the two spend almost a minute trying to figure out what the plural word for "Cerberus" is before settling on "Zombie Dogs."
  • We Are All Pokémon Trainers: When a girl (who is actually a Mew) turns Milagros into an Anorith...
    Milagros: This isn't even my mon form...
  • StacheBros:
    • In "Episode 1-3 - Lost Luigi" of "Mario & Luigi! Stache Bros", when Mario and Donkey Kong are interrogating Goomba about Luigi's whereabouts:
    Goomba: Look, man, I just do Bowser's orders. I don't know any Luigi fella.
    Mario: He looks like me, only he's green.
    Goomba: Green? Now, who could have green skin color?
    Mario: No, retard, the hat, it's green!
    Goomba: Dude, I'm not colorblind, that's red.
    Mario: Not me, Luigi!
    • In "A StacheBros Christmas Carol", when Bowser Scrooge asks Wario Marley why he's returned as a ghost:
    Wario: I am here to warn you. You still have a chance of escaping my fate!
    Bowser: I'm gonna be fat?!
    Wario: No! The chains! You still have a chance to resist the discomfort! And you're just as fat as I am.
    • In "Episode 2-1 - The Typical Mario Beginning" of "Mario & Luigi! Stache Bros", after Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser:
    Luigi: [scoff] What are we gonna do?
    Mario: Hmm, I don't know, Bowser, the ruler of his own castle, just stole the princess. Wherever could he be?
    Luigi: Hmm. Maybe he's in Canada. I like Canada.
    Mario: [slamming Luigi into a wall] No, Luigi, we're going to Bowser's Castle!
    • In "The Curse Of Toadsworth Mansion", when Peasley first asks who the King is, Mario tells him that they don't know where King Toadstool is. When Peasley clarifies that Toadstool isn't the King he's after, Donkey Kong thinks Peach has two fathers.
    • In "Who Killed Princess Peach?", after Peach tells the guests to take their seats:
    Peach: As you know, Thanksgiving is a day where we gather together and reenact the bloody civil war that took place between Columbus and the Indians on this very day just 80 years ago.
    Donkey Kong: I don't think any of that was accurate. You forgot to mention the beluga whale invasion, but go on.
    • In "Home Alone", when Wario realizes that Bowser Jr. is the only one inside Bowser's Castle:
    Wario: I think we just got scammed by a kindeygartner.
    Waluigi: Am I supposed to be impressed? I only have a preschool education! This is normal! Kindergartners are like Einstein to me! Uh...that's a smart guy, right? Did I speak well?
  • YouTube Poop in many instances. For example, take any scene, and zoom in on some person or object in the background or off to the side, and make a big deal of it. Another great example is how important the wheeze is from the line "That's 'Mama Luigi' to you, Mario! *wheeze*"—important enough that commenters will observe when it is missing. This may also be used to point out Off-Model moments.

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