1000 Ways to Die: The segment "Kill Bill and Billie" has a man, knowing his wife is unfaithful, hire a hitman to kill "that whore and the man she's with". The next day, the man hires a prostitute... who turns out to be his wife. As they're arguing, the hitman (who doesn't know what his client looks like, having only heard him on the phone) enters the hotel room and, having orders to kill both the wife and "the man she's with", shoots them both.
In That '80s Show, Corey gets coerced into writing an eulogy for "Silverpants", a fellow clubgoer whom nobody actually knew beyond his very superficial party lifestyle. (He was mostly known for his pants.) What little he finds out isn't flattering (such as how the guy liked to feel up waitresses and then pass the blame on someone else), but his not-girlfriend Tuesday manages to spin it into something vaguely nice-sounding. ("He touched people.")
"Pilot" had The Centipede Lab, which had been leased as a "self-empowerment center": It was a place where people went to gain superpowers, so this was technically the truth.
In an early episode, May declines to go into the field armed and states "If I need a gun, I'll take one." While made to sound like she Doesn't Like Guns, she later grabs a gun off an enemy in the middle of a fight and shoots him with it. She herself points out afterward that she did say she'll "take one" if she needs it.
"The Magical Place" sees Agent Hand bluntly asking Agent May if Skye will be any use to S.H.I.E.L.D. "on this plane". May's response is a blunt "no" — because May knows full well that Skye will be far more use in finding Coulson off the plane, and thus unimpeded by other agents getting in her way — including Hand.
''Heavy is the Head" has an unusual case, where the speaker, Fitz, isn't trying to be obtuse, he is simply having trouble communicating due to brain damage. When asked about coming up with a device to neutralise Carl Creel's superpowers, he keeps repeating "I didn't solve this today", leading the others to think he hasn't solved the problem yet. Turns out, he solved it a while back, and all he has to do is modify an old device he had worked on the previous year.
In "Ascension", when Giyera seemed to have Fitz and Daisy at his mercy, Fitz warned Giyera that there was a weapon on the plane designed to kill him. He repeatedly told Giyera "You'll never see it coming." He then shot Giyera dead with a gun rendered invisible by a cloaking field.
Also from "Ascension", when Coulson confronts Hive aboard the Zephyr, he invokes this trope twice in rapid succession when he tells Hive, "I gave the order for the others to stay behind," and that he was "prepared" to die. He later informs Hive, "When I gave my team the order to stay behind, they just wouldn't listen." Then when Hive attacks Coulson only to discover he was a hologram all along, Coulson adds, "I said I was willing to die, sure, but I certainly don't want to."
In "Let me Stand Next to Your Fire", AIDA, who otherwise Cannot Tell a Lie, gets around giving away the secret that she's an android by claiming she's worked with Dr. Radcliffe since he "gave her hands", which she was "born without". She was an artificial intelligence before having her android body built, but her statements sound to the uninformed like Radcliffe had built her high-tech prosthetic limbs. Most not already on the know buy it, but Simmons figures out the deception.
In "The End", Daisy tries to talk the newly superpowered and Face–Heel Turn'd Talbot into coming back over to the face side, using the phrase, "We need to join forces". This quite predictably turns out to be a very poor choice of words to say to The Assimilator.
In an episode of Andromeda, Tyr uses this trick against the barons of Ne'Holland, who are plotting to kill their crown prince on the day of his coronation.
Archduke Constantijn: You have chosen the right side. Tyr Anasazi: I've chosen the winning side. Archduke Constantijn: Then we have a deal. [Later] Archduke Constantijn:[as Tyr is busy killing the barons] You said you were on our side. Tyr Anasazi:[stabs him] I said the winning side.
Angel: Lorne's karaoke bar Caritas was originally protected by a Sanctuary Spell which prevented "all demon violence" within it, so no vampire or demon could harm anyone within its walls. Unfortunately, this meant a gang of human demon hunters could storm the place and pick off the demon patrons, who were helpless to defend themselves. When he reopened it, he had the spell tweaked to prevent any human or demon committing an act of violence within Caritas, only for Holtz to light a petrol bomb outside and kick it through the doors.
Annika (2021): The MHU is tasked with solving murders that take place in or by water. In Season 2 this extends to a wealthy man found dead in the shark tank in his mansion.
In the season 1 finale of Arrested Development, a doctor at a hospital informs the Bluths that they've "lost" George Senior. The family enters his room to pay their last respects, only to find that he escaped out the window. The season 2 premiere follows up the gag when Tobias is hit by a car and the same doctor tells his in-laws that "it looks like he's dead," causing them to go into hysterics with the exception of Michael, who asks if he's really dead or if he only looks that way. He only "looks" dead because he's covered with blue body paint.
Later in the season, the doctor informs the family that Buster is "going to be all right." Because he lost his left hand.
Season 4: "Mrs. Bluth, your son went down while piloting a plane over Afghanistan. He deserves a big hand for that and we gave him one. I'm afraid, besides that, there's nothing we can do."He fell out of a chair from which he was remotely piloting a drone strike, and they made it up to him by giving him an oversized prosthetic hand.
In the second episode of Season 1, George Sr.'s only answer to Michael's questions about where he hid his funds is "There's always money in the banana stand." $250,000 lining the walls, to be exact. Unfortunately Michael has to have this one explained to him after he's already burned the stand down.
In "By Any Means Necessary", after an accident in the station's docks causes multiple deaths, the dockworkers at Babylon 5 stage a strike over poor working conditions, being underpaid, etc. A "negotiator" named Zento is sent from Earth and after some half-hearted negotiations, invokes the Rush Act. The Rush Act authorizes Commander Sinclair to use "any military means necessary" to resolve the strike. Sinclair then resolves the strike by transferring money from the military budget to the civilian one to improve working conditions and pay in the docks. When Zento protests that he can't do that, Sinclair responds that he couldn't... until Zento invoked the Rush Act. (The Senate reportedly isn't happy with the solution, but they let it slide because the public sided with the strikers.)
Sheridan is ordered to implement martial law on Babylon 5, to be enforced by the Nightwatch. The admiral who delivers the orders informs him that they come from the Political Office and to "respect the chain of command". The admiral proves to be hinting subtly that, as a civilian agency, the Political Office is outside Sheridan's chain of command and therefore has no authority to issue him orders in the first place. Sheridan subsequently lures the Nightwatch into a docking bay and then arrests them all for trying to carry out an illegal order.
A seeress tells Londo and Vir that they will both be emperor, with one of them becoming Emperor after the other dies, and the two spend the evening looking at each other suspiciously. She never said that one would kill the other. Londo ascends to the throne after assassinating Cartagia, and Vir succeeds him upon his Mercy Kill death decades later.
Also seen with Garibaldi's Restraining Bolt in season five. It prohibits him from attacking Bester (or, through inaction, allowing Bester to come to harm), but it doesn't ban him from providing large sums of money to rogue telepaths who will (eventually) use it to attack Psi Corps. It also doesn't prevent him from making a deal that will allow him to get the Restraining Bolt removed before they actually start attacking.
In Battlestar Galactica (2003), Apollo resolves the first conflict with Zarek by agreeing to his demands for elections to decide the presidency rather than have it fall to Education Secretary Laura Roslin. However, he points out to Roslin that he's only following the law: the elections will be held, but on the normal constitutional schedule, seven months from now.
Batwoman: Mary is resistant to making her underground clinic "official" because some of her patients don't just need free healthcare, but also healthcare that won't be obliged to report to the cops. However, she eventually does get everything in order to get a licence, including a fax machine that she will use to send the appropriate paperwork to the police department if necessary. And as a child of the 21st century, she certainly can't be expected to know that the machine needs connected to a landline.
Belgravia: Everything Charles Pope knows about his background is true... metaphorically at least. His father was a soldier who was killed at Waterloo, and his mother died in childbirth, so the Reverend Pope and his wife adopted him. The bigger details however are more complex, namely that the businessman who took Charles under his wing is his grandfather, and his true father was a Blue Blood whose family had no idea Charles existed.
Big Time Rush: During a heat wave, the kids can't swim in the hotel pool because Bitters put up a sign saying "Adult Swim No Kids Allowed". Kendall tells everyone they're reading the sign wrong and proceeds to add some punctuation marks so it says "Adult Swim? No, Kids Allowed!". Cue everyone jumping in.
In "The Harvest of Kairos", Servalan makes a deal for our heroes to surrender their ship to her, in return for a promise not to kill them, but to let them go on the nearest inhabited planet. Servalan then asks the ship's computer for the name of the nearest inhabited planet - which turns out to be the one right beneath them, which just happens to be inhabited by a particularly vicious insect race, making our heroes' chances of survival limited. Servalan smiles and replies to the computer, "Yes. I know."
In "Rumours of Death", Kerr Avon promises Shrinker 'a way out' of his imprisonment in exchange for assistance. When Shrinker demands his 'way out', Avon directs him to a gun, then teleports back to the Liberator.
Blue Bloods: A Serial Killer who has been tormenting Danny warns him that he's going after his family. He rushes home and is confused to find that his wife and kids are safe. Until the FBI agent working with him reminds him of the guy's preferred demographic of "18-22 year old females" and he realizes that his niece Nicky is the target.
In another episode, the cops track down a man who has been mugging and beating up elderly people to steal their money and prescription medication. When they collar the perp, they manage to talk him into confessing to "all crimes he's currently charged with" in exchange for a lighter sentence. The perp, not knowing that one of the women he attacked has died, identifies his victims—including her, which means he now faces a murder charge. The perp has a severe case of Idiot Ball, though, as the fact that Danny uses the exact terminology of "all crimes you're currently charged with" several times doesn't tip him off that "Hey, maybe I've been charged with something else." And just to be sure the audience gets it, Erin spells out exactly why the trick worked after the criminal makes his confession.
On Bones, the episode "The Friend in Need" features a teen suspected of raping a 15-year-old girl and murdering her friend who confronted him about it. The teen confesses to accidentally killing the friend and covering up his death, but won't confess to rape, claiming it was consensual. Booth, Sweets, and Bones have a "hushed" conversation in front of him in which Agent Booth states that if the suspect confesses to the rape, Booth cannot charge him with rape and murder. This prompts the suspect to confess to the rape. However, after his confession, they immediately point out how stupid he was to confess to both crimes.
Bones: He can only charge you with murder. The rape is a whole other jurisdiction. Booth: DC cops will take care of that. Brennan: Sucker.
Booth has actually done this more than once.
Booth: You see, these two agents are from the Treasury Department. And they're gonna make sure that you find a nice cell. 'Cause they heard everything that you said.
Suspect: What the hell? You said you had no interest in financial crimes!
Booth: Uh, I don't. But these two, they do. It's their job. Have fun.
In an episode of Bosom Buddies, Kip and Henry are arguing. Kip attempts to wrestle Henry to the ground using what he calls "my bad move." But Henry turns the move on Kip and puts him in an armlock. Hilarity Ensues thusly:
Henry: Now, I want you to say something for me... I want you to say 'I'm a big sissy.' Kip: All right, you're a big sis—ah! Henry (applying pressure): Not me!
Richie: Eddie — where's the cattle-prod? Eddie: Well, here it is! Richie: Right, give it to me. Eddie: What? Richie: I said "give it to me"! Richie: Right-o! (Eddie zaps Richie with the electric cattle-prod; one change of tights later...) Richie: Right, Eddie hand me — hand me the cattle-prod. Right.
The Brady Bunch: In the episode "Greg Gets Grounded", Greg gets around a "no driving" punishment by borrowing a friend's car. When Greg's father calls him out on this, Greg argues that the punishment as worded applied only to the family's car. Mike responds that Greg knew what he meant, but Greg insists on living by "exact words", insisting that his parents' punishment was too ambiguous and unclear. Mike agrees to this, and Greg gets clobbered by the agreement and learns his lesson.
Jesse gets furious at Gus because two of his trusted underlings are using a kid as their assassin (and is the one who murdered his friend Combo). He won't accept their apologies until Gus can promise "no more kids" in the drug business. Gus assures Jesse there will be no more kids in the business. Jesse begrudgingly accepts this, but is horrified when later that night he finds the kid has been shot to death now that he's outlived his usefulness (whether Gus himself ordered it or the two underlings did it of their own accord is left ambiguous however).
Mike wants Saul to give up Jesse's current location. Saul refuses, citing attorney-client privilege, but Mike threatens to beat him until his legs don't work unless he spills. Saul tells Mike he might not be able to say anything, but he will write the location down on a notepad, and then tells Mike not to touch anything on his desk while he's Stepping Out for a Quick Cup of Coffee. It's a trick, the location Saul wrote down leads to nowhere, it's meant to send Mike on a snipe hunt for a bit while Jesse and Walt think of a plan out of their predicament.
After Jesse proves he can closely match Walt's meth recipe without Walt's help, Gus informs Jesse that he will be taking over the entire cooking operation. Knowing exactly what that means for Walt, he makes a deal that he will only keep cooking if Gus promises not to kill Walt. Gus agrees to these terms, and then puts targets on Walt's family, preparing to kill Hank for getting too close to finding his operations, and warning Walt that his wife and children will be next if he tries to stop him.
Skyler, worried for their safety, asks Walt if the people he works for killed Gale. This is right after the episode where Skyler made Walt promise complete transparency, so, after a moment's pause, he says "definitely not". Walt leaves out the details where Gale was killed under his instructions, because it would've been him on the chopping block otherwise.
After the police find concrete evidence linking Mike and several other underlings to Gus's drug empire, Mike is forced to flee town. Before he goes, Walt demands the names of the other underlings so he can silence them before they can potentially identify and testify against him. Mike adamantly refuses, ripping into Walt for causing the collapse of Gus's drug empire and having it come to this in the first place. Walt, in an impulsive rage, shoots and kills him. He's immediately remorseful, and the next day, when Jesse asks him if Mike got out of town, Walt merely says "he's gone".
In his phone call "confessing" to Hank's murder, Walt chooses his words carefully, stating that "you're never going to see Hank again. He crossed me", openly taking the blame for it to give Hank's wife Marie closure, but not outright saying he killed him, because he didn't. His actions indirectly led to Hank's death, but as the viewer knows, he outright begged Jack not to kill him and was absolutely devastated by Hank's death. Even during the phone call, he's outright sobbing trying to get the words out.
In the last episode, Walt visits Skyler for the last time to give her the location of Hank and Gomez's bodies and get "a proper goodbye", telling her "it's over". When Skyler asks if that means he's going to turn himself in to the police, Walt simply says "they'll be coming to me". At the end of the episode, after Walt has massacred the Neo-Nazis, he succumbs to a ricochet wound just as the police arrive on the scene.
In Broad City, Bevers won't fix a clogged toilet even though there's a plunger because Abbi told him not to touch her stuff in the bathroom.
The Bridge (2011): Saga, who is incapable of lying, tells Martin that "[We've] found August" and that he's being taken to hospital. This trope is lampshaded when Jens points out that she never said they found him alive.
In the first episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Capt. Holt orders Detective Peralta to put on a tie. Later, Peralta is seen complying, but then stands up to reveal that he's not wearing pants.
Done in Brothers & Sisters. Kevin is finally going to marry his boyfriend, Scotty, in a private ceremony in the family home. Knowing that his mother Nora has a tendency to go overboard with celebrations, he makes it clear to her that he doesn't want anything fancy, and even makes her promise not to do anything over the top with her planning. Nora reluctantly agrees... but then realizes that she only promised Kevin that she wouldn't make something elaborate. She asks for Scotty's permission instead, and he cheerfully agrees when she promises that it will just be "a few little flowers" (it's unclear whether Scotty genuinely didn't know that Nora would take a mile from the inch he gave her, or if he was aware and simply allowed her to have her fun). The Heartwarming comes when Nora creates a gorgeous wedding pavilion covered with flowers for her son, insisting that he deserves to have a day just as beautiful and special as other married couples.
Derren Brown's preferred form of creating loopholes. For example, in The Gameshow episode of The Experiments, he keeps assuring the audience what they're seeing in the next 50 minutes is the real deal. The clincher? The part where the victim tries to escape the kidnappers and got hit by a car happened right after the clock passes the 50th minute mark, so he's now allowed to use staged footage.
In "Lie to Me", Ford, Buffy's old friend turned Vampire Vannabe, comes to town and makes a deal with Spike: he'll hand Buffy over to him in exchange for being turned into a vampire. While Buffy ultimately comes out on top, Ford nonetheless points out to Spike that even if Buffy got away, he still technically fulfilled his end of the bargain by delivering her to him; Spike agrees and turns him... only for Buffy to dust Ford the minute he rises from the grave. Spike, after all, didn't promise to leave Ford's body somewhere Buffy couldn't find it.
A little less "exact words" and a little more "exact context". Buffy and the gang must fight a demon so powerful that, according to a reliable ancient source, "no weapon forged can kill him." At some point offscreen, the gang realizes that this statement was true when it was written, but we've invented some significantly more powerful weapons since then, A fact which Buffy is quite happy to demonstrate to the demon. With a rocket launcher.
In "Bad Eggs", Buffy's mother grounds her to her room, except for school or bathroom breaks. Later, she and Angel are kissing. However, as the scene pulls back, we see she is in her room and he is in her window.
Early in season four, Oz leaves town to try and gain greater control over his werewolf side. When he returns, having (apparently) succeeded, he asks Willow if they can pick up where they left off. "I talked to Xander, and he said you didn't have a new guy." "No. No new... guy." But Willow does have a girlfriend now.
Late in season 6, Dark Willow's Roaring Rampage of Revenge spirals into a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum after Giles lets Willow drain the magic he was lent be absorbed, causing her to feel all of humanity's pain and resolve to end it all by destroying the world. Giles tells Anya, who passes the info on to Buffy, that neither the Slayer nor any other supernatural force could stop Willow, but he didn't say that an ordinary human force, like Xander's love and compassion for his friend, wouldn't do the job.
Played most viciously in season 7: now-restored vengeance demon Anya begs the demon D'Hoffryn to revive the people she's slaughtered, and agrees to sacrifice herself for it when he tells her that will require the life and soul of a vengeance demon. There is protest by Anya's friends, teary goodbyes and a lot of drama; right up until the point D'Hoffryn summons Anya's best friend Halfrek, also a vengeance demon, and immolates her right in front of everyone.
In "A Chill Goes Through Her Veins", Castle and Beckett eventually come around to the theory that the father of one of the victims had killed the other, her husband, in revenge for her death at her husband's hand. They interrogate the father, but he doesn't exactly confess, and given the circumstances they decide to let him walk.
Beckett: So you took matters into your own hands. Ben Davidson: Well, you could certainly understand how a father might want to. How he might follow his daughter's murderer one dark night, when he was sure no other people would be around. How he might confront him with a gun he'd brought back from the war. Might even promise forgiveness in exchange for the truth. And, hearing his admission, be overcome with rage. Every time he brought the girls to see us, I watched a little piece of my wife die. A visit from your grandkids should be life-affirming, not a reminder of how your only child was murdered. Beckett: Killing him wasn't the answer. Ben Davidson: I never said I killed him. I said a father might be justified. Police told me Sam was shot in a robbery. And, without evidence, there would be little chance his killer would ever be brought to justice. So I guess we'll find out if that's really true. I'd like to see a—a lawyer, if I could.
Beckett is standing on a pressure plate-triggered bomb that's going to explode in minutes if not disarmed. The bomb team makes Castle leave, which he promises to do. In a rather poignant scene, Beckett stands there alone, about to die, thinking about Castle... who then comes back: "Yeah, I promised I'd leave... I didn't promise I wouldn't come back..."
One Cold Open of Cheers has Diane enter the bar and barely receive a reaction. She complains that Norm is always welcomed with a boisterous call of "NORM!", and requests "the same treatment" for once. Sam apologizes and tells her to come back in so the patrons can give it a try. She does so...and sure enough, everyone cries "NORM!" when she walks in. Surprisingly, Diane takes the joke in stride ("That's better!") and heads for the counter with a smile.
In one episode, Harry the Hat sets up one of his cons by claiming he can place a full shotglass under his trademark chapeau and drink it all without touching the hat. He arranges the glass, ducks under the counter to make "glug glug" noises, and resurfaces declaring himself the winner. Cliff cries foul and lifts up the hat to prove it—and then Harry grabs the glass and drinks it down, as the wager stated that he wouldn't touch the hat.
Community: In "Basic Lupine Urology", the study group's project yam for Biology is "murdered". Jeff complains that Annie got him to run over in the middle of the night with "a misleading text message". She counters with "Well technically, you are about to get screwed in the Biology room" (since with their yam dead, their grade is screwed over).
In the Pilot of Continuum, Kiera gets Lucas Ingram to talk by threatening to find his grandmother in the present day and make sure his mother is never born (thus preventing him from ever existing.) When asked by a present-day cop what she said to him to make him talk, she simply responds "We talked about his future."
Officers Davis and Karen (the entire police force) decide to work to rule. Partly subverted because they don't bother with the rules most of the time anyway (and Davis, the senior officer, had never even seen the rulebook and thought it much thinner) while the mayor is happy letting them dig their own grave with the townsfolk, so the entire episode ends up with Karen and Davis trying to get out of it.
In the episode "Oh, Baby", Brent asks Tanner to stop throwing toy cars at his head. So Tanner throws a truck.
In an episode of The Cosby Show, Clair gets invited to be a guest panelist on a political talk show, and Cliff gets to watch in the green room. Clair instructs him not to eat any of the available doughnuts, and tells the studio's janitor to enforce her prohibition. The janitor sympathizes, having identical dietary restrictions from his own wife, but points out a loophole:
[holding up an éclair] "This is not a doughnut."
Crash Zone: Episode Free Stuff — Marcello tries getting rich by creating a program which searches the internet and automatically accepts all offers which include the word "free". Too late he realizes that it also accepts offers along the lines of "buy for 10000$, get one free" and the like.
CSI: The team is investigating a murder related to a marketing scam. The sales pitch goes, "Congratulations, you've won! You're eligible to receive one of three amazing prizes: a new car, a trip to Tahiti or a new air filter." Somehow, all of the "winners" get the air filter.
In 'Seth and Apep', the season 9 crossover with CSI, DB Russell assists Mac with the apprehension of a perp wanted for murder in Egypt, but while he's in custody they discover that they need to use the man to help free Christine from her kidnappers before turning him over to INTERPOL, who are on the way to the precinct. Flack & DB head them off at the pass, telling them he's at a different one due to a mix-up. As they lead the officers away to get coffee while they wait, DB says, "Why, I'll bet our guy's walking him out the precinct right now." Cue Mac leaving with the handcuffed perp in tow.
In 'Hide Sight', Mac is told "not to utter the word 'sniper'" during a press conference. He doesn't, but when a reporter says, "Sounds like a sniper to me," Mac, concerned that the public needs to know the truth, replies, "Me, too." Chief of D's Carver asks what he's supposed to tell their superiors. Mac says, "Tell them I never uttered the word 'sniper'."
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: After the Skeksis are forced to retreat from the battle of Stone-In-The-Wood the Emperor asks the Chamberlain what happen to General skekVar, Chamberlain answers "Friend General perished at Stone-In-The-Wood, I'm just glad I was with during...final moments". While these are both correct statements, what the Chamberlain doesn't say is that he murdered skekVar for replacing him as the Emperor's advisor.
In "In the Blood," Ben Urich tries to discourage Karen from investigating Union Allied, telling her to "count the angels on the head of a pin, and move on." Karen takes this to mean that he's not interested in the story, so is baffled when he encounters her that evening while she's crashing an auction where Union Allied assets are being sold off.
Karen Page: I thought you weren't interested. Ben Urich: I said you should move on. Never said anything about me.
Late in season 2, when searching a Hand facility, Brett Mahoney asks Matt (in costume as Daredevil) if he saw anyone while he was inside a building. Matt, not wanting to admit who else was inside, simply says, "No," which is true, because he's blind.
In Dead Boy Detectives (2024) Esther sold her soul to Lillith for eternal life. It took a few decades for Esther to realize she should have specified she wanted eternal youth to go with it so now murders young women to steal their youth.
The show uses this as the launching point for a subplot. Rita confronts Dexter about her suspicions about his heroin use, which has never happened. She concludes the accusation with this question:
Rita: If there is anything left between us, you will answer this one question, and you will tell me the truth: are you an addict? Dexter: Yes, I have an addiction.
In fact, this quote is only the beginning of a long string of language loopholes surrounding this subplot. Almost any time he discusses the addiction, he conveniently leaves out any mention of heroin. He manages to give speeches that are completely truthful without raising suspicion.
Drake & Josh: In "The Bet," Drake gives up eating junk food while Josh gives up playing video games, both signing a contract saying that whoever caves must dye his hair pink. When they cave within seconds of each other, Megan smugly points out the wording, meaning they both have to dye their hair.
On Dynasty (2017), Fallon is propositioned by an investor who promises to give millions if she sleeps with him. She challenges him to a card game for a night in her bed. Fallon ends up bluffing the guy so he calls the deal off. She then tells a friend that even if the guy had called her bluff, it would have been okay. "The deal was he got to spend a night in my bed. He never said anything about my being in it at the same time."
In the Emerald City episode "Prison of the Abject", when the Wizard asks Glinda and West to keep the Prison of the Abject running, Glinda tells him that all of East's spells died with her and they can't replicate them. This was entirely true, but she neglected to mention that there was a ritual that could be used to retrieve the spells from her corpse.
A recurring theme on Fantasy Island is guests discovering Mr. Roarke has a unique way of interpreting their requests...
A businessman convinced he was Born in the Wrong Century asks to be sent back to the "real West," meaning the romanticized Old West of movies and TV shows. He's thrown to find himself in a modern setting with folks on cars and motorcycles. Roarke states he's fulfilling the request as this is the "real" West where hard work is needed more than gunplay.
A female equestrian asks to be the most famous horse woman, and Rosrke makes her Lady Godiva.
Harrison Wells from Earth Two makes Wally think he's dying using some technically true phrases like "I don't know how much time I've got" (well, no one does exactly) and "Yes, I've been to the doctor" (most people get checkups). The reason he's doing this is because Harry's daughter Jesse is moving to Earth One to be with Wally, and Harry is trying to convince Wally to send her back to Earth Two. Jesse sees right through it, and is pissed.
Jesse: Hey, dead guy! You told Wally you were dying? Barry and Caitlin:[concerned] You're dying?
Two brilliant clues about Savitar's true identity:
Savitar is explicitly stated to be the very first speedster in history. Now again, who was the very first speedster in the show's history?
Savitar mentions the gang building a "cerebral inhibitor to use against DeVoe." The gang are confused as they've yet to meet the man they'll know as the Thinker. In season 4, as the Thinker's plots continue, they remember Savitar's words and build the device, expecting it to be the solution. But when it's used, it fails to stop the Thinker. Too late, they realize Savitar had simply said they "built it to use against" the Thinker; he never said it actually worked.
At the start of season 6, Barry is told by the Monitor that "The Flash must die" in the coming Crisis. Barry spends the season preparing for it, including ensuring his friends can take up defending Central City. In the Crisis, Barry is prepared to sacrifice himself...until the Flash of Earth-90 steals his speed and sacrifices his own life to stop an anti-matter cannon. As Flash-90 points out, the Monitor never said which Flash had to die to save the universe.
In Flashpoint, the first rule of negotiation is to never lie to the subject. Majority of the time Parker or the other members follow this in spirit as well as in letter. For some cases, it's the only way to make the negotiation work. One example was in "Terror" where a mentally ill man took the staff and patrons of a restaurant hostage because he believed the owner is a leader of a terrorist front. Sam used his soldier background and careful wording to allow the man to think that the military is involved, so that he would lower his guard and allow Jules to take away the man's gun before he could shoot anyone else.
In "Punk is Dead" Lieutenant Reece tells Martinez and Hanson to stay away from a suspect and stresses to Henry that no member of the NYPD is allowed to pursue this particular line of inquiry. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York happens to be an entirely separate entity from the police department.
Lt. Reece: Henry, I just want to make sure that you understand that no one from this office is allowed to pursue Farrell any further. But...there's only so much control I have over the O.C.M.E. [significant look] Farrell's club is called the Marquee. No one from the N.Y.P.D. is allowed to go with you. Got it?
In "The Night In Question", Jo has arrested a small-town sheriff for murder. Reece makes a point of mentioning that "no one with a badge" is to go anywhere near him until Internal Affairs arrives. Henry has to be hit over the head with the message, but they send him in to question the man.
In "The Night in Question", Abe and Henry refer to Abigail as Abe's mother, giving a list of aliases she has used but never referring to her by her real name to anyone from NYPD. Jo asks Henry who "Abe's mother" is to him that her case is causing him to act so irrationally. In a deleted scene, Henry later describes their relationship. Everything he says is technically true, but someone who doesn't know he's immortal and talking about his wife would assume he's describing a time when he was a child and Abe's mother was a parental or grandparental figure to him.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In one episode, Hillary insisted that her family watch an episode of her talk show (which is mostly her chattering with her equally vapid Valley Girl friends). Carlton and Ashley fulfill the promise...by taping the show, then watching it on fast forward, which results in chipmunk-like chatter and lots of high-pitched giggling from the television.
Friends: Used for one of the most heartwarming moments in the series when, after having his surprise proposal ruined, Chandler is led back to his apartment by Joey... to find Monica waiting, with dozens of candles.
Tyrion says he's willing to confess his crimes on two separate occasions, but not necessarily the crimes he's accused of.
A twofer in Vaes Dothrak: it's illegal to shed blood within the city, but Viserys threatens Daenerys and her unborn child to demand the crown he was promised. Khal Drogo responds by telling him that "You shall have a golden crown, that men shall tremble to behold." Then he pours molten gold on Viserys' head, killing him without shedding a drop of blood.
Joffrey swears to grant mercy if Eddard Stark confesses to treason. Unfortunately, Joffrey considers a quick beheading merciful. Later, he says his mother told him never to strike his lady, so he orders Ser Meryn to strike Sansa instead... with a gauntlet.
Mirri Maz Duur says her blood magic will save Drogo's life, but only brings him back as an Empty Shell.
Melisandre promises to give Stannis a son in "The Night Lands" and gives birth to a living shadow assassin a few episodes later. In a meta example, the dialogue of that scene is also deliberately vague about whether Stannis has a daughter because the producers had not yet decided if Shireen would be Adapted Out.
Jon Snow, as a sworn member of the Night's Watch, swore that he "shall take no wife and father no children." Ygritte points out all the obviousloopholes.
Brienne explains killing some scumbag Stark loyalists by insisting she only serves Catelyn Stark.
Arya tells the Hound that her victim in "Mhysa" was the "first man" she killed, leaving out the boy she killed in "The Pointy End" and her emphasis suggests that he's only the first.
Sam justifies bringing Gilly and her son to Castle Black by pointing out that his vows are to "guard the realms of men," which he insists includes the wildlings.
Ned Stark tells Jon Snow, "You are a Stark. You might not have my name, but you have my blood," when Jon asks about his mother. That's because he's not Jon's biological father, but his uncle. Lyanna Stark, Ned's deceased sister, is Jon's mother. So Ned's blood does run through Jon's veins, just not in the way he has been told all his life.
Jaime, sarcastically, asks Bolton to tell Robb Stark that "the Lannisters send their regards" concerning Edmure Tully's wedding. Roose relays the message before he personally kills Robb.
Lyanna pledges loyalty to the Starks, but not to Sansa, who is technically both a Lannister and a Bolton, nor to Jon, who is illegitimate. This changes after the battle, as she is the first to name Jon, King in the North.
Near the beginning of Season 3, Tyrion insisted he be rewarded for saving King's Landing. Tywin's promise, among various vague assurances, was that he would be given a proper wife. In "Kissed By Fire", Tywin points out this demand when ordering Tyrion to marry Sansa Stark.
House of the Dragon: Daemon Targaryen cuts the upper part of the head of Vaemond Velaryon, leaving his tongue attached to his body, then says "He can keep his tongue". King Viserys wanted to cut Vaemond's tongue for insulting his daughter (with "whore") and Velaryon grandchildren (with "bastards").
In Girls 5 Eva Wickie has talked of having a difficult upbringing she fought hard to escape. In Season 3, the gang discover Wickie's parents are very wealthy and happy parents and Wickie made up a harder past to be more interesting. When the girls accuse Wickie of lying, she insists everything she told them was technically true, she just omitted a few details. Her mother is in a home (a beautiful house in a wealthy Maryland suburb) and dropped out of school (parachuted out of airplanes at the Air Force academy), her father's not in the picture (he's not in their family photos because he loves taking them), her twin siblings are in and out of the hospital (they're doctors), there was never a Christmas at home growing up (because they were vacationing in the Caribbean), they lived in a van (for 10 days while traveling through New Zealand), they didn't know where their next meal came from (they could never agree on takeout) and "I could do this all day."
Dawn: All your talk about a hardscrabble life is bullshit.
Wickie: Is it? My family is very good at Scrabble and it's hard.
In an episode of The Golden Girls, Dorothy asks Rose (who has just made yet another inane statement) to hand her a nearby newspaper. Rose hesitates until Dorothy promises that she will not hit Rose with it. Dorothy then hands the newspaper to Blanche, who hits Rose with it.
Goodbye My Princess: Xiao Feng tortures Cheng Yin by repeatedly declaring how much she loves Gu Xiao Wu and can't forget him. He's unaware that he is Gu Xiao Wu.
[Travel customs agent picks up poker menacingly] Tim: Er... don't do anything you might regret. Travel agent: I shan't regret it.
In the Gotham episode "Anything For You", Butch, jealous of Nygma's new position as Penguin's right-hand man, forms a gang that targets Penguin's reputation, with the intent of taking them out when they attack the mayoral reception, and thereby proving himself. Instead, when Nygma deduces where their base is, he has to machine gun them there and then, and play it like he got there just before Nygma and Cobblepot did. Later, when he's being hailed as a hero, a reporter asks him if his life was in danger, and he replies "I can honestly say that if I'd hesitated, I'd have been a goner."
Hank Zipzer: In "Ballot Box Hunter", Hank attempts to register his candidacy for the school election but is told by Miss Adolph that he is too late. Mr. Rock points out that Mr. Joy had said candidates should register their interest "after the assembly", and that now was definitely after the assembly. Miss Adolph protests that he had obviously meant at the end of the assembly. Mr. Rock counters that while that may have been what he meant, it was not what he said.
Harrow: In the final episode of season 1: "Do you know what happened to Robert?" "I wish I could tell you."
The Haven episode "Burned" features a little girl with a Compelling Voice that makes those around her do exactly what she says. When she screams at a would-be kidnapper that she hates his guts, he disembowels himself in the middle of the street.
In one episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Herc is on his way to check out a town's new bank and runs into king of thieves Autolycus along the way. Knowing Autolycus, Hercules makes him swear not to rob the bank, to which Autolycus agrees. As soon as Hercules is briefly out of sight, Autolycus pickpockets a guy, noting he only agreed not to rob the bank.
In an early episode of Highlander, Duncan asks a reporter for a favor. When she asks what's in it for her, the immortal replies, "You'd have my undying gratitude!"
One of the schemes by Hogan was to secretly steal ammo to assist with blowing something up. Hogan is known for his schemes being very complex. In this case, he had his men spray insults on the building that contains said ammo so his men would be assigned the task of painting over it (his schemes are intentionally overcomplicated so someone who didn't know him any better would just think that his men were just screwing around). In order to stall for time, they did so, just not very well (the insults could still be clearly seen) saying "You asked us to paint it, we painted it. After being ordered to paint it again (presumably in a way that would actually cover the insults), in order to stall for more time, they do so, but in pink after Hogan (sarcastically) asks his men "Alright fellas, you heard the commandant, now let's do it right". Given that this is a Prisoner of War camp, pink is absolutely not an appropriate color (especially because the camp is all male). After this incident, Hogan had one of his men bring out a palette of colors to verify which color that Klink wanted them to be painted as. Klink got fed up with this and demanded him to "Just paint it like all the other buildings!".
In another episode, Hogan meets up with a group from the underground who wants to help conduct acts of sabotage against Germany. Not realizing of course that this is actually being ran by a captain of the Gestapo at the time, he helps make plans to blow up a train tunnel used to help transport ammunition and supplies. The Gestapo captain arranges for this to be done with fake dynamite in order to trick Hogan. However, because Hogan has a wiretap into his commandant's office so he can listen in at any time, he quickly learned that the person he met up with was not who he claimed to be. Later on when he was asked to load dynamite on the truck to assist with this task, he swapped the fake dynamite with real dynamite. Near the end, after wiring it all in, the Gestapo captain gets revealed (more publicly) and attempts to demonstrate that the dynamite was fake (not knowing of course that it got swapped out with real dynamite). This results in the Gestapo captain inadvertently blowing up the tunnel. He flees the scene after realizing that he was tricked. He had a woman with him that he abandoned (a prisoner taken from France), who asked Hogan to make it so he couldn't turn her into the Gestapo. Hogan suggested that he was quite sure he wouldn't tell anyone. Cut to the next scene where Klink's men were set up for an attack on Stalag 13 (being tricked into thinking that the attack would be on his own camp, not the tunnel), and the Gestapo captain tried driving to Klink. However, because many of Klink's men were prepared to attack the saboteurs who were supposedly going to attack the camp, they fired at the captain's car and killing him (of course not realizing that it was him). Hogan was right because since the captain was dead, there was no way that he could tell anyone what happened.
In the third Horatio Hornblower telefilm, Hornblower's hotheaded subordinate protests when Hornblower restrains him from immediately firing on a group of enemies because they're here to fight them. Hornblower, who has planned a careful ambush, replies "no, we're here to defeat them."
The title character of House likes to use this trope to his own advantage, but occasionally someone will turn it against him. In "Sex Kills", as a last resort to obtain a heart for his patient, he uses emotional blackmail on the husband of a woman who died ten minutes ago. Enter the patient's daughter, who thanks the man for his generosity. Enter House, the Jerk with a Heart of Gold. "You're mad at me. Fine, I get that. Take it out on me, not on her." The husband nods tearfully, kicks House in the balls (crunch) and donates the heart.
In one episode, after House has his "Eureka!" Moment, Wilson remarks, "I've just given you the answer, haven't I? And now you're going to walk out of here without saying a word." House replies with a quick "Nope"; having then said a word, he promptly walks away.
How I Met Your Mother: “The Sweet Taste of Liberty”, after dragging Ted to Philadelphia and getting them detained by the TSA in an ill advised scheme to pick up chicks, Barney excitedly tells Ted that a female security guard has invited them to her house for drinks with her friends. They end up drinking lemonade and watching TV with her male coworkers while her dad sleeps upstairs.
In the Season 4 episode "Benefits", Ted and Robin start having casual sex. Lily advises them against it, since it could compromise their friendship and lead to someone getting hurt. She's right, someone does get hurt, but it's not Ted or Robin, it's Barney, who's still in love with Robin.
In the Hyperdrive episode "Convoy", the Schrane operative who brainwashed Henderson using the Captain Helix program orders him to kill the crew. Henderson hesitates, so the operative tells him that he must do what Captain Helix wants him to do. Captain Helix is a fictional character, specifically the highly honourable protagonist of an old-fashioned Space Opera. Henderson is highly adept at Death of the Author, literally and figuratively.
In "iPie", before his death, Mr. Galini had told his granddaughter that his pie recipes were in the computer. She couldn't find them. Not even Freddy could until they realized he meant he hid the paper copies of the recipes literally inside the computer.
In "iStart a Fan War", Spencer is cosplaying as a character from an MMO and is engaged in a battle against another cosplayer (played by Jack Black) as a character from Spencer's rival faction, leading to this:
Aspartamay: Say your costume's lame. Spencer: Okay. Your costume's lame!
In "The Case of the Concert Catastrophe", Miss Tan gets fed up with Maudie's obsession with the January Valentines and bans talking about the group. When Maudie starts singing the song that got her into the group in the first place and the rest of the girls in class join in, Miss Tan scolds Maudie, who sheepishly points out that she wasn't talking; she was singing.
In "The Case of the Burgled Bags", Miss Tan tells her class to stay calm while she tries to figure out who's screaming and why; as the Inbestigators point out in their video, she only said "stay calm", not "stay put" and as such, they rush to the scene.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: When the McPoyles are holding the gang hostage, Liam decides to show them they're serious by having his brother Ryan "stab somebody".
Liam: Aaaahhh! You were supposed to stab one of them! Ryan: (shrugs) sorry.
JAG: In season 8 episode "Friendly Fire" acting judge Harmon Rabb and his acting clerk Coates realize that both prosecution and defense have missed evidence which would give defense a crucial edge in showing reasonable doubt. However, Judicial Conduct rules are strict and interference beyond the scope of his duties in the case is a court martial offense. However when Harm realizes the rules only prohibit from giving advantageous help to the side which would gain the advantage. So he nudges the prosecution to look over where he found the evidence. Upon discovering it, they must give it to the defense. And with that, the case was over.
This trope will make or break someone in Jeopardy! as the answer has to be the given one and any deviation will get it wrong. One infamous incident had the question of "What is (Coolio's) "Gangsta's Paradise"?", but the person answering it as "What is "Gangster's Paradise?"
Jessica Jones: Kilgrave's commands can be satisfied in this fashion, although the people under his sway don't seem to be able to take advantage of this on their own initiative and follow the obvious meaning.
Kilgrave orders Trish to put a bullet in her skull. Trish had previously emptied her revolver at Kilgrave, so she removes the spent shell casings from the cylinder and tries to push one of them into her temple with her bare hands to fulfill the command. Jessica manages to break her out of this by putting the bullet in Trish's mouth.
After he unintentionally tells his bodyguard to say "Hello, Hank", Kilgrave tells Jessica about one time he unthinkingly told a man to "screw himself". He does not give exact details on how the man interpreted his instructions, instead asking "can you imagine?"
Kilgrave tells Luke Cage to blow himself up, but does not actually say the word "kill," allowing Luke to survive because Kilgrave was not aware of his invulnerability. This is actually part of Kilgrave's plan, as Luke is under his control the entire time afterwards and he wants Jessica to believe that he is unaware of Luke's survival.
Kilgrave's exact words regarding ordering Jessica to kill Reva were "take care of her", which he uses to dodge any responsibility for her death. He directly tells Jessica that it was her own decision, not his, since she interpreted those words as "Kill her". Jessica points out that even an idiot could tell that he meant "Kill her", and this word-shuffling does not absolve him of any responsibility.
Joe Pickett: In "A Call for Help", Joe asks Vern why Sheriff Barnum allowed a Miscarriage of Justice ten years ago and is told that Barnum was on vacation and only came back after one of his deputies mishandled the investigation into :an alleged gang-rape committed by a hunting party, implying that he never knew what happened. What Vern either doesn't know or deliberately omits is that Barnum was on vacation with the hunting party and was one of the rapists.
In the TV adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Jonathan asks the Gentleman With Thistledown Hair to bring his wife back to life. The Gentleman says that "circumstances" aren't right for him to do this, and then asks Jonathan where the body is and how long it's been there, obscuring that the "circumstances" he has in mind are that he knows perfectly well she's not actually dead.
A skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien had a machine which Conan declared could turn anyone into a celebrity. A participant from the audience entered the machine and emerged... as John Lithgow.
In the Law & Order episode "The Serpent's Tooth", Ben Stone makes a deal with a Russian gangster's lawyer where the gangster will get full immunity for any crimes he admits to "in New York County" in exchange for his testimony in a murder trial. Immediately after his testimony, he's arrested by the NYPD.
Attorney: We had a deal! "No prosecution in New York City." Ben: In New York County; that's Manhattan. I never gave your client immunity in Brooklyn; that's Kings County. [to the client] If you want some free advice, sir, next time get a better lawyer.
"Malignant" opens with a van full of medical drugs being robbed by three youngsters, with one of them holding the two drivers at gunpoint while the others went to rob the drugs in the back of the van. The gunman warns the driver that if he talked, he would shoot. After two of the other robbers got the drugs and drove off in an escape van, the driver assured his coworker that "everything's gonna be okay." Then, the gunman says "Hey! You talked!" and proceeds to shoot them dead, even though they cooperated during the robbery.
In the second-ever episode "Art", the Villain of the Week, a German art snob who cons rich people into paying exorbitant amounts for exquisite forgeries of famous paintings, tells Goren he knows of no man who could subjugate his ego to such a degree as to forge and sell pieces painted by more famous men. Turns out the forger is a woman with an inferiority complex promised a chance to showcase her own pieces if she forged pieces for the villain.
In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Svengali", Serial Killer Robert Morton says he'll testify that he did not order a Loony Fan to commit murder in exchange for a transfer to the Federal Prison Services (which supposedly have better food and facilities). Casey Novak agrees...but since Morten didn't specify which Federal prison it was, she sends him to Florence Supermax, which, to an Attention Whore like Morten, is pretty much a Hellhole Prison.
Casey: You're gonna love Florence Super Max. 23-hour lockdown, no visitors, no mail, no phone calls. No human contact for the rest of your life. Morton: You can't do that to me! Casey: Why don't you wave bye to all of your fans? Morton: We made a deal! Casey: And it's a masterpiece. How do you like my work?
LazyTown: "Robbie's Dream Team": After giving his clones a net, Robbie tells them "When I say go, be ready to throw!" Problem is, they're standing behind him. So when he does it:
Robbie: Throw it at him, not me!
In Leverage, Spencer constantly insists that he Doesn't Like Guns and he shows that by routinely beating up people who have them. In a season finale, he and two other characters are pinned down by the bad guys with guns. He grabs two guns and proceeds to shoot every bad guy in the room in a display that wouldn't be out of place in an over-the-top action movie (including sliding on his knees on a puddle in slow-mo, while firing both guns to the side, as bullets fly just above him). When the final guy creeps up from behind and wonders if Spencer lied about not liking guns. Spencer admits that he really doesn't like them. He then spins around and shoots the Mook, adding that he never said he didn't know how to use them.
Maddie:(in her Confession Cam) Okay, you would think I'd know by now to be incredibly specific with that amulet.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: When Sauron isn't being Metaphorically True or giving a Sarcastic Confession, he's abusing exact words. When Galadriel thinks the crest he's carrying means he's the heir to the Southlands, Sauron as Halbrand never outright says he's part of the lineage while talking about how the line carries with it the burden of having sworn loyalty to Morgoth. When Sauron vaguely references his family losing the war, he never actually claims to be the heir, clearly relying on Galadriel assuming he's talking about the bloodline.
On The Love Boat, a retired spy (Gene Kelly) is taking a cruise and tells his former boss he doesn't want any agents following him with his boss agreeing. The spy is soon romanced by a woman but suspects she might be an assassin. She ends up saving his life to reveal she was assigned to watch him. When Kelly protests his boss promised he wouldn't assign any protective agents, the woman corrects him that he'd promised he wouldn't send any of his men to watch Kelly.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Halbrand said he took the token that Galadriel claimed was proof of kingship off a dead man. He never said when - the last rightful owner of that token died heirless a thousand years ago. He also points out how he'd told Galadriel he'd "done great evil in the past," knowing she'd never realize how much evil that was.
In the third season of Lucifer, Marcus Pierce tells Chloe that a criminal mastermind known as "The Sinnerman" killed his brother. In reality, not only is Pierce himself the Sinnerman, but he's also Cain, the first murderer, meaning he was speaking the truth when he said that the Sinnerman (he himself) killed his brother (Abel).
Malcolm in the Middle: In a rare moment where he comes out on top, Malcolm uses Lois' order to not leave his cot as an excuse to not help the others when they get in trouble.
In the second season premier, Mando goes to an informer to learn the whereabouts of others of his kind, so they can aid him in bringing the Child to his people. The informer predictably double-crosses him and tries to steal his armor with an army of mooks. One Curb-Stomp Battle later and he's running for his life, ending up tied upside down on a lamppost. He begs Mando to spare him, and Mando agrees that if the informer gives him the information he seeks, he will not die by his hand. He gets the information he's after...then shoots the lamppost and leaves the informant to be torn apart by the creatures that stalk the night.
The titular character's one rule about "No living thing can see him without his helmet" has been exploited twice so far. First when IG-11 removes his helmet to treat Mando's injuries because a robot is not a living thing, and second when Mayfeld and some imperial soldiers see Mando faceless: the soldiers are left actually dead and Cara claims Mayfeld died as well to free him from his prison sentence. As things stand, technically no living thing has seen his face. He finally outright breaks this rule in the finale of Season 2 so Grogu can see his face when they say goodbye.
A rare positive example comes in the second season courtesy of Boba Fett. When Boba has Fennec hold Grogu in her sights to demand his armor back from Din, he states that he will "guarantee the safety of the child" if his terms are met. After Moff Gideon's forces interrupt the confrontation to kidnap Grogu, Din hands over the armor and tells Boba their bargain is fulfilled, as he at least tried to save the kid. Boba, however, insists upon helping with the rescue anyway, since by failing to stop the Imperials he has failed to "guarantee the safety of the child" as he promised.
In the M*A*S*H episode "Private Charles Lamb", Frank gets mad at a Greek soldier and demands his name, rank, and serial number. So the soldier tells him, in Greek.
Subverted on Merlin. After Arthur is mortally injured by the Questing Beast, Merlin makes a deal with Nimueh for his life. He makes it very specifically clear that he is bartering his life for Arthur's, but that doesn't stop Nimueh from trying to take Merlin's mother's life instead.
When The Mickey Mouse Club returned to television in 1989 with a whole new generation of Mouseketeers, they spoofed Tim Burton's Batman film with a segment called "Bratman", in which the superhero is a spoiled little boy who plays pranks on people and is mean to his butler. The butler decides to teach Bratman a lesson by paying "The Practical Jokester" to torment him. One of the Jokester's tricks is urging Bratman to take a sniff of the flower in his lapel, promising that "my flower will not squirt you with water." Bratman sniffs the flower - and immediately gets squirted in the face. Bratman starts crying and wails: "You said your flower wouldn't squirt me with water!" The Jokester's response? "IT WAS SELTZER! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
In "The Clover" during the third season of The Middle, Frankie, worried about Aunt Edie's ability to continue on her own after her sister's death, visits her. While there, she points to the phone with extra large buttons and pictures of her, her mother and her sister on the buttons for the numbers in memory:
Frankie: Press my face if you want to talk to me. Aunt Edie:(reaching out and actually pressing Frankie's face) Hello? Hello?
Midsomer Murders: In "Birds of Prey", Charles Edmonton promises investors a "revolutionary fuelless transportation system". Upon his death, investors are promptly sent a scooter, which fits the description perfectly.
In episode 6, since Alan only pays one thousand rupiah for their nasi uduk (out of the nine thousands rupiah price), Bambang and Prima only allow him to use one finger to eat the rice, expecting Alan not being able to pick up any rice. Frustrated, Alan sweeps all the rice into his mouth, using one finger of course.
In episode 19, Mami Bibir asks Pipin to put a flyer for the dorm somewhere can be seen by many people. Pipin immediately put it in Mami Bibir's back. Mami Bibir is going somewhere can be seen by many people after all. When the moment is revisited in episode 28, it's revealed that Pipin eventually uses it as tray cover, reasoning that her customers would be able to see it (forgetting that doesn't mean they will read it).
In episode 62, Pipin tells Alan to not ngegas (figuratively, speaks louder in anger) when Pipin brought up Wawan on their motorcycle trip. Alan promptly stop driving as ngegas literally means "hit the gas". Pipin, being Literal-Minded, is okay with this.
Monty Python's Flying Circus: In the "Self-Defense Against Fresh Fruits" skit, after shooting one of his students, the instructor promises not to shoot the next student he tells to come at him with a raspberry. Instead of shooting him, he drops a 16-ton weight on him. The instructor is then asked if he won't kill the two remaining students. The instructor promises that he won't kill them. The next lesson involves releasing a tiger to kill the two students instead of him doing the killing.
Moon Knight: In the finale, Marc and Steven agree to help Khonshu fight Ammit as long as he frees both of them from his servitude afterwards. Khonshu agrees, and honours his word when the fight is over. That is, he sets Marc and Steven free. The two aren't aware that they have a third alter, Jake Lockley, who still acts as Khonshu's fist of vengeance.
In the episode "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", George Teeger, when apparently angered that his wife, Julie Teeger, was killed, demanded that Stottlemeyer and the rest of the San Francisco Police Department find whoever did this and nail him. Right in the last few minutes of the episode, Stottlemeyer reminds him of that statement... when arresting him for the murder of both his wife and a graduate student who both have the same names.
In an earlier episode, "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy", the publisher of Sapphire Magazine, when the accountant refuses to drop the shutting down of his franchise, remarks: "All right then, it's your funeral." The Accountant thinks he's exaggerating... he's not exaggerating.
Done brilliantly in one episode, Kermit asks Miss Piggy if she'd like to go on a date, and describes an incredibly lavish and luxurious evening. When she eagerly agrees, he casually hands her off to Gonzo; he never said the date was with him.
In the John Cleese episode, Gonzo has one arm stretched to five feet long, and is unhappy about this. Cleese says he can make both arms the same length...
Liberacereassures Sam the Eagle that he's not going to be putting on a rhinestone tuxedo and playing boogie-woogie "soon"...because he's going to do it right now.
Alice Cooper offers a Deal with the Devil to Miss Piggy, promising to make her beautiful. She agrees, and he promptly turns her into what he sees as beautiful — a bird-like monster muppet with a metal beak.
In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Ministry of Virtue", the Victim of the Week's fellow Mail Order Brides swear that none of them wanted to kill her, and they don't know why anyone would, and Murdoch's lie detector comes up clean. When he interviews the woman who runs the Virtue Ministry, he gets the same results, including that she's telling the truth when she says the man who broke her alibi couldn't have seen her leave her hotel early. Because in fact, she's the supposed victim, who killed the organiser rather than go through with the marriage. She didn't leave the hotel early because she was never there, and the others don't know why anyone would kill her because they know nobody did.
In "Everything Is Broken, Part Two":
Violet Hart: I did say itnote a tin of opium was ninety-nine percent pure. The one remaining percent was curare.
As a tribute to the movie of the week Riding With Death, Tom Servo decides to sing a song about "The 70s"...as in, the 0070s AD! After being chewed out by Mike and Crow, he instead decides to sing a song about "The 50s"...
Tom Servo (singing): Do you remember the 50s / When Emperor Claudius di-ied!
In another episode, The She-Creature, Pearl begs Mike and the bots to save her and Bobo from the Observers, who are intending on dissecting the two of them. Mike decides to give this to the Nanites, telling them to "take care of this little problem". Their solution? Obliterating the Observer Planet. This is the Trope Namer for Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds.
This trope popped up quite a few times on The Nanny:
Niles, a rare male version of a Gossipy Hen, is specifically told not to turn on the intercom that allowed him to eavesdrop on Mr. Sheffield's office. Instead, he has Grace turn on the intercom for him, then listens in on the conversation.
After Fran sleeps with Maxwell, she makes Niles promise not to tell anyone. Niles, being the Servile Snarker that he is, can't resist taunting CC about it, so he writes the details down on a piece of paper and tells her to read it.
In "Stop the Wedding, I Want to Get Off," Fran senses that Maxwell's sister, who's about to marry a wealthy duke, is secretly in love with her long-suffering chauffeur. Maxwell makes her swear not to say a word to his sister, and she agrees...then realizes that he didn't say anything about talking with the chauffeur himself. The ploy works and Fran ends up creating a happy union between the lovers.
In the pilot episode, Fran lists the Queen Mother as a reference on her application for the job of nanny; when Max asks her about this, she explains that she does know the "Queen Mother"—her mom Sylvia, who lives in Queens.
In "Love is a Many Blundered Thing," Fran and Val have to paint over a Valentine's Day billboard that Fran bought for Mr. Sheffield. They use a window washer's rig to get to the billboard, and Fran instructs Val: "Unlock your lever when I say 'Three.' You got that, Val? 'Three!'" The Literal-Minded Val immediately releases her lever, leaving Fran dangling from a rope (Val herself lands in a terrace garden).
Nash Bridges once had to deal with a hitman who dies in a shootout. His client has not yet been informed of his death, so they keep this information secret when they interrogate her and pretend he's only been arrested. When the client asks if the hitman has a lawyer, Joe replies "He hasn't asked for one."
In one episode of Nathan for You, Nathan tries promoting a liquor store by having the business openly advertise that it sells alcohol to minors. The advertising doesn't say anything about minors being able to open, consume, or even leave the premises with the alcohol, as that would obviously be illegal, just being able to purchase it: Upon payment, minors are given a form to fill out, reserving their purchase to be picked up on their 21st birthday. After this inevitably disappoints the first few customers, one corner of the store is also set up to look like a Wild Teen Party, so that minors can at least stage photos with unopened liquor or beer bottles and trick peers into thinking they drank it.
NCIS: "About Face": Palmer has been targeted by an assassin and follows the team to the distant location. Gibbs sees him and orders him to stay in the car. Palmer sees the assassin trying to flee and uses his car as a battering ram against the assassin's truck.
Gibbs: Don't ever do that again.
In the NCIS: Los Angeles episode "Bounty", the Killer of the Week, who was a Marine undercover agent who killed the victim of the week so he'd get the bounty to himself, had political immunity in America. However, that same political immunity did not apply within Afghanistan, the place he was native to, which the NCIS team later exploited in a sting to capture him by posing as some Afghanis, and later handed him off to his fellow teammates (who were presumably not too happy with him for murdering their leader) after locating the high-priority target he intended to gain 2 hours before he arrived.
Night Gallery: In "Dead Weight", Bullivant promises Landau that he will get him "out of the country" after he accidentally kills a little boy during a bank robbery and wants to escape prosecution. He gets out, all right... by being murdered, ground up, put in the meat mixture for the smuggler's brand of dog food, and is taken "out of the country" on a barge that is shipping the brand overseas.
In "Undercover Olive", during the Rock–Paper–Scissors competition, Fladam goes outside and sees the Odd Squad ice cream surveillance truck. Thinking it's a normal ice cream truck, he walks up and attempts to order an ice cream sandwich. Oscar and Otto hastily make the sandwich not out of cookies, but out of two slices of bread, and hand it to him — like how most sandwiches are created. Fladam then remarks that they actually got his order right for once.
Happens twice in "Oscar of All Trades".
First, when Oscar describes working in the Security department, he ends up neglecting his duties and letting a large amount of flying goldfish escape. Owen tasks him with finding out about how many of them got loose, and he gets to counting them one by one, causing Owen to tell him that they don't have time for that and explaining that he wanted to know about how many there were and that he didn't want an exact count, teaching Oscar about how estimation works.
Later on, when Oscar describes being an assistant to Oprah, the same thing occurs, only with her empty discarded juice boxes. He empties one of her wastebaskets out and counts ten juice boxes, then deduces that she has one hundred of them to be taken away for recycling. When she confronts him about it, he explains how he estimated the total amount and says the same thing that Owen said to him: that she didn't want to know exactly how many juice boxes she had, she wanted to know about how many.
In "Put Me In, Coach", Olympia and Otis, as well as Oriele and Orielle, are tasked with bringing something back from the Pillow Room that is heavier than a medicine ball. Oriele and Orielle bring back an agent, who ends up weighing heavier than the ball, allowing them to win the first round of the competition. When Olympia protests by saying that they didn't bring back a pillow, Coach O reiterates his instructions and says that the agent does indeed count as a "something" from the Pillow Room — he never specified it had to be a pillow. Later on, during the final round, Olympia and Otis invoke this trope when looking for something that weighs the same as an ice skate and end up using both a shoe and a stapler to make the weight even, realizing that Coach O never said they had to find one thing that weighs the same as the skate, just something. Unfortunately, they don't end up winning the competition, as it's deemed a tie.
The Office (US): In order to discourage the salespeople's bad attitudes, Michael "hands out" the new leads to every other employee instead, who in turn use the leads to bribe, blackmail, and/or taunt the salespeople.
Gabe: You are in charge of supporting the sales staff. You are required to hand out those leads, Michael. Michael: Well, if that's what I'm required to do, I will do exactly that. Gabe: Ok good — Michael: Exactly that. Gabe: Good. Michael: Exactly that! Gabe: Why do you keep repeat— Michael:(hangs up)
A general rule is that if you're making a deal with Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold, you have to pay attention to what's being said. A prime example of this is when Regina works with him to frame Mary Margaret for Kathryn's murder. Except Kathryn's not dead; she was merely abducted for a while. When Regina demands to know why he didn't live up to their deal, Gold points out that Regina asked for something "tragic" to happen to Kathryn. And in his opinion, abduction is tragic.
Another prime example results in a very small "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gold promises Belle that he won't kill Regina—he won't, and in any case he's giving her a Fate Worse than Death. Belle is less than pleased and calls him out on his habit of toying with words like he does people.
David: You need to be more honest with her. Gold: I don't lie... David: There's a difference between not lying and telling the truth.
Before Rumplestiltskin became the Dark One, his wife Mila left him and ran off with Captain Hook. When he ran into them again years later, Rumple killed Mila and cut off Hook's hand to punish them both. In the present, when Belle asks him why he and Hook hate each other, Rumple tells her that Hook took Mila away from him and is the reason his son had to grow up without a mother, and that Mila is dead, heavily implying that Hook murdered Mila without explicitly saying so.
Rumple got hit with it himself a couple of times: One was courtesy of a Seer who told him that the action he performed the following day would "leave his son without a father". What she failed to mention was that this did not mean that Rumple would die. Instead, his actions would start a chain of events that would lead his son to be separated from him fourteen years later. He lampshades it when he meets the Seer years later, noting she was right but "It would have been nice to have known all those pesky details."
The second was courtesy of the miller's daughter (named Cora in this version of the story): The two made a deal where he would teach her magic so that she could spin thread into gold and in return, she would sign over her firstborn child to him. Rumple eventually fell in love with Cora and amended the deal so that Cora would give him their firstborn child. However, Cora decided her need for power and status were more important than her love for Rumple, so she screwed him over and married a prince named Henry. When Rumple tried to invoke their original deal, Cora pointed out that he had no claim, since her firstborn child would be with Henry, not Rumple.
In Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Jafar and the Red Queen go to a monster called Grendel who captured (but released) Alice to get information about her. He asks to be reunited with his wife if he gives up the information. Jafar says he'll do it, but unfortunately, the wife is dead, and magic can't bring back the dead (not that Jafar would have done that even if he could) so he reunites them by killing the Grendel.
In one episode of One Foot in the Grave, a man delivers a yucca plant to the Meldrew's house. Victor tells him to put it in the downstairs toilet. He later finds that the man has planted it in the actual toilet.
Uncle Albert: During the— Del: If you say 'During the War' one more time, I'm gonna pour this cup of tea over your head! Uncle Albert: I wasn't going to say 'During the War'. (beat) During the 1939 - 1945 conflict with Germany...
In "The Big Game", Miss Brooks takes Mr. Conklin's exact words at their literal value to pass former football star Gus "Snakehips" Geary and give him his high school diploma.
Similarly, in "The Yodar Kritch Award", Miss Brooks gives Bones Snodgrass (or Stretch Snodgrass, in the radio version of the episode) the Yodar Kritch Award for Unique Achievement in English. The unique achievement? Not answering a single question right.
The Outer Limits (1995): In the episode "Zig Zag", Zig Zag has rigged a bunch of servers to explode through power overload. He warns the leader of the taskforce chasing him that the detonator is in his hand. Said leader is holding a physical detonator, so he drops it, then uses the microchip in his hand to try and reset the programming Zig Zag installed. Guess what "in his hand" actually meant.
In "Ann's Decision" when Leslie is trying to stop Ann from having a child via a sperm donor.
Leslie: I fully believe that a woman should be in charge of what happens to her body. In this case, the body is Ann's, and the woman in charge of it is me.
Paunch Burger's "child-sized sodas" are not the size for a child. Rather, they are the size of a small child.
Sitcom Perfect Strangers played with this trope on occasion: When Balki received a package from UPS in one episode, the delivery man handed him a pad and asked, "Would you sign your name?" Balki then spelled out his name in New American Sign Language. Later in that episode, the same delivery man told Balki, "Take the pen and sign your name." Balki took the pen in his left hand, and spelled out his name with his right hand.
Just barely averted when Larry and Balki are hanging a picture or something. Balki has the hammer.
Larry: I said, when I nod my head, you hit it. Balki: But — Larry: What's the big deal? I nod my head! You hit it! Hit it! Do you understand!? Balki:[crying] Yes...
Even the studio audience sees it coming. Larry stops Balki just in time.
Pixelface: Although the guides to each character's games are available to read, it's against the rules for one to read the guide to their game, but Claireparker points out that there's nothing against someone reading the guide to someone else's game.
Dillon invokes this in Power Rangers RPM when Ziggy becomes the Green Ranger. "You told him to protect the morpher by any means necessary. Bonding to it himself was the only way he could do it."
In the Power Rangers Time Force episode "Short-Circuited", Lucas forbids Trip from using his clairvoyance powers. After that results in Circuit being kidnapped by Nadira, he allows Trip to use his powers, but only tell them what he saw if it's "super important". At the end, Trip's powers act up, but as it's not "super important", then Lucas isn't warned of the dog poop he ends up stepping in.
After Mr. Giroux (the principal) complains to Vincent that he gave the former only 38% while grading the school staff in his newspaper, Carl tells the principal that he would have given him a rating higher than that. Giroux thanks him for his support and leaves before Vincent criticizes Carl for being such a bootlicker. The latter replies that he never said he would give the principal a rating higher than 40%.
One episode has the following exchange occurring right after Laplante enters the radio crew's room:
Carl: Oh, no. Not Mr. Laplante. Not my favorite teacher. Laplante: Don't be a bootlicker, the Cat Charest. I know you hate my guts. Carl: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. "NOT my favorite teacher."
Red Dwarf provides a rather lengthy example of this. A running joke in the series was Kryten's relentless spouting of Space Corps Directives directed at Rimmer, and when Rimmer finally asks, "Has anyone actually seen this manual?", Kryten asks Holly to give him a hologramatic copy. However, once the team returns from a mission sans Rimmer, they return to find that he's not only read the entire manual, but has picked and chosen a choice selection of SCDs to torment them, successfully coupling this trope with Rules Lawyer.
There is also the episode Out of Time, where the crew discover a time travel device. On using this device to travel back to the 15th century, all the crew except for Kryten are puzzled as to why they are still in deep space. Kryten explains that they haven't moved anywhere, that they are still in deep space but are now in deep space in the 15th century.
The objective of the Retro Game Master challenges is almost always "get to the ending". This usually involves beating the game normally (if not going the extra mile for the True Ending), but this was subverted on several occasions:
In SOS, Arino manages to get the bad ending early on by clearing the final area with no other survivors. He's made to restart immediately to get the True Ending by rescuing as many passengers as possible, but he ultimately fails. At the end of the episode, he's asked to make a judgment as to whether he cleared the game or not. He invokes his authority as Chief to declare the game cleared, as he still got an ending.
In Splatterhouse, the objective was "Find Jennifer, the kidnapped girlfriend." As with all Virtual Console challenges, he has a hard time limit of five hours. Arino gets as far as the boss battle with Jennifer where she transforms into a monster, but dies immediately after starting. At the same time, the time limit runs out, but the producer and Arino agree that although he couldn't beat Jennifer, he did at least find her per the challenge stipulation. Whether this constitutes clearing the challenge is left to the viewer.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch character Salem, when being arrested for his thinly-veiled Nazi group, protests that it's a "non-profit organization" whose members meet to discuss "new ways of thinking". The authorities he was plotting to overthrow do not agree, sentencing him to a hundred years as a cat.
Salem: In "Ashes, Ashes", Increase promises Mercy's girls that if they testify against Alden they'll be spared the fires. After they do, he has them all hanged and tells them they have been spared "the flames of this world and the next."
In the first season cliffhanger ending of Sanctuary, one of the keys is hidden behind two doors, one of which is safe to teleport behind and will unlock the other. The solution is based on the Exact Words translation of the phrase posted above each of the doors.
Saturday Night Live: One sketch centered around Garrett Morris's character running an "All You Can Eat" restaurant. Not all you want to eat, all you can eat. As in the staff will strap the customers to chairs and force-feed them food until they can't take any more.
School of Rock: In "We're Not Gonna Take It", Freddie gets in trouble for dying his hair green. When the other students do the same to support him, Summer points out to the principal that there are no rules regarding hair color and points out that the principal colors her hair, too.
Scrubs: In the episode "My Big Bird", Elliot has a fling with a man at the hospital, said man having told her that his wife was "No Longer with Us." When said wife shows up later:
Elliot: I thought you said your wife was dead! Man: No, I said she wasn't with us.
Sesame Street: In one game show segment, the Count appears on "Beat the Time", and Guy Smiley tasks him with finding two things that come from the sky. Rather than leave the studio, the Count proceeds to count along with the timer, and after he reaches the end, the typical Dramatic Thunder that comes whenever he finishes counting something occurs. Smiley determines that the thunder and lighting count as two things that come from the sky, and so the Count wins the game.
In Sharpe, when Sharpe is up for promotion to captain in "Sharpe's Eagle", Wellesley tells him point-blank that there is talk circulating of a promise to take an imperial eagle made to the late Major Lennox and that if Sharpe doesn't swear on oath that such talk is just gossip then he'll "walk out of that door a lieutenant". Sharpe swears that no-one heard him make such a promise to Major Lennox.
Sherlock uses this in the Sherlock episode "The Empty Hearse" to mess with John's head during a tense moment. When they're stuck in a hidden subway car rigged with explosives, Sherlock is forced to tell John that he has no idea how to defuse a bomb. He really doesn't. He does, however, know that bombs usually have "off" switches, and that switching a bomb off is just as good as defusing it.
In a Sherlock Holmes story "The Copper Beeches", Watson comments on the beautiful morning by asking rhetorically who would want to hurt their client on such a day.
Holmes: I hope no one. Watson: Then why have you brought your revolver? Holmes: You talked about my hope, not my expectations.
In "Extinction", Lana tells Clark she would be okay with it if he did have powers like the others "infected" by meteor rocks. Clark responds truthfully that he was not given any powers from meteor rocks.
In "Unsafe", Alicia promises Clark that she would never tell anyone his secret as long as she is alive. No, she doesn't wait until she is dead... no one said anything about a demonstration to Chloe in "Pariah".
Space: 1999: In "Earthbound", hibernating aliens en-route to Earth programmed their ship make a pit stop on the Moon. When the Moon was blasted into deep space, the ship duly diverted to land on the Moon anyway, even though the Moon is by this time light years from Earth, and maybe in another part of the Universe entirely!
When Ovidius, one of Batiatus' enemies, comes home to find a house full of corpses and Batiatus himself, waiting. Batiatus swears to the gods that he will not kill Ovidius if he just tells him who ordered his death. Then, once he's got the name...
Batiatus: Gratitude for your honesty, Ovidius. Ovidius: You're not going to kill me, then? Batiatus: No. My slave is going to kill you.
While challenging a rival lanista to a fight betweeen their gladiator champions, Batiatus boasts that his man could win the fight blindfolded. As the gladiators square off, the rival lanista produces a blindfold and insists that Batiatus hold to the exact words of his challenge. Batiatus protests he was using a figure of speech, but ultimately accepts the terms.
Ashur cautions Glaber not to take Spartacus's renegades lightly, saying that each gladiator from the house of Batiatus is worth three of Glaber's Roman soldiers. Bristling, Glaber insists that Ashur prove his claim by fighting three soldiers at once. Ashur proves his words by winning handily.
Ashur: And I was counted lowest among the brotherhood.
From "2010", where the team erases a Bad Future in which the Aschen have taken over Earth:
Aschen guard: I'm sorry, sir, but weapons are not allowed. Teal'c: We carry these for ceremonial purposes only. Aschen guard: I'm sorry, but you'll have to let me have it! Teal'c: Very well. [shoots the guard]
In one episode, a business man attempts to prove the government is hiding evidence of alien life (which it is) by showing off a (mindless) Asgard clone he had acquired. The military responds by having Carter go on national TV and pretend that the businessman had been using special effects to generate a hoax. However, she uses careful wording while answering the interviewer's questions, leading the businessman to note "Notice she hasn't actually lied once."
Interviewer: So, Major, was what we saw on that broadcast real? Carter: That depends on what you mean by "real". Interviewer: I mean, we all saw that alien on TV. Carter: Well, Hollywood's been making us see things that aren't real on TV for years.
In "Shore Leave", Kirk is refusing to go on Shore Leave. Spock then brings up a crew member who is irritable and restless, whose reaction time is lowered by fatigue, yet who refuses recreation. Kirk, upon hearing this, orders the crew member down for Shore Leave. It is then Spock adds that the crew member in question was Kirk himself!
In "Amok Time", Spock attempts to employ this on Dr. McCoy, telling him that Kirk ordered him to go to Sickbay and now that he's come there, he intends to go back to his quarters. Of course, the doctor doesn't buy it.
In "The Day of the Dove", Kang and a landing party of Klingons demand to be beamed up to the Enterprise and warns Kirk, "No tricks!". Kirk assures him "I'll beam you aboard, once there...no tricks." After secretly signaling Spock via a button on his communicator, the Enterprise men materialize, leaving the Klingons suspended in transit. After rematerialized and disarmed by some Red Shirts, Kang spats "Liar!!" to which Kirk replies "I said no tricks after we're aboard!"
In "A Piece of the Action", Kirk claims that the odds of getting a specific hand in Fizzbin are astronomical and asks Spock what they are. Spock replies "I have never computed them, Captain.", which is true...since they don't exist.
In "The Galileo Seven", an officious high-ranking Federation diplomat orders Kirk to stop searching for a lost shuttlecraft and deliver him to his assignment, as per Starfleet orders. Kirk does exactly that - at dead-slow speed with all sensors directed aft...
In "Elementary, Dear Data", Data, LaForge, and Pulaski try to create a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery to challenge Data. To that end, the holodeck computer is instructed to create an adversary that would be "capable of defeating Data". The computer takes this literally - not "defeating Sherlock Holmes as played by Data", but "defeating Data". The processing power required for the computer to comply triggers an alert on the bridge. This ends up causing problems when the computer makes the character of Professor Moriarty self-aware of the fact that he is a holographic fabrication on a starship, and from there, manipulate the holodeck to commandeer the Enterprise.
In "The Emissary", Worf convinces some Klingons who have been in hibernation since the last Federation-Klingon war that the Klingons have beaten the Federation in the meantime by putting on a Klingon uniform and temporarily assuming command of the Enterprise. At no point does he lie to them: he is the captain of the ship (temporarily) and the conflict between the two governments had indeed long been settled (by mutual peace treaty). He never said the Klingons defeated the Federation, he just said something like "didn't it occur to you that the war would have ended by now?" and let them assume that that's what he meant. So it wasn't a lie, it was... an omission.
More metatextual variation: when Gene Roddenberry handed down the edict that "people in the future are too enlightened to grieve" for "The Bonding", they took out a lot of the grieving...and portrayed this lack as essentially an unhealthy coping mechanism.
In "The Mind's Eye", Klingon ambassador Kell tries to weasel out of getting searched and exposed as a collaborator, telling Picard, "I will not submit to being searched by you or anyone else on this ship.". Governor Vagh agrees — he will have Kell searched down on Krios, instead.
Sisko is ordered to evacuate the station at the conclusion of "The Circle", after the decision is made by the Federation to withdraw from Bajor following a coup by xenophobic radicals. But Sisko knows that they're only playing into the Cardassians' hands by doing so. To circumvent his orders, he decides he's not just going to evacuate Federation personnel, but all Federation equipment and technology, which O'Brien says could take as long as a week. This lets him keep a skeleton crew behind to fight a guerrilla war against the Bajoran Militia long enough for Kira and Dax to expose the conspiracy and end the coup.
In "Necessary Evil", Odo (in a flashback) recalls interrogating Kira Nerys regarding the murder of a Bajoran shopkeeper on Terok Nor. After getting her to confess to being a member of the Bajoran Resistance whose mission placed her in a different part of the station, Odo, not wanting to get her killed, simply tells Gul Dukat that she's innocent of the murder. In the present day, Kira admits she did commit the murder, she just hadn't planned on it: she was stealing a list the victim had of Les Collaborateurs and he caught her in the act.
Notable is Dukat saying "if you're lying..." and Odo replying that if Dukat knew him so well, "you'd know I don't lie." And he didn't; he just confined the scope of his answer to the question at hand (did she do it or didn't she?) and didn't mention what else he'd discovered in the course of the investigation.
In "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", Admiral Ross mentions to Doctor Bashir that Senator Cretak is a Romulan patriot. Bashir, being who he is, takes this to mean that Cretak is therefore a good guy and on the side of the Federation. Later, after a massive Batman Gambit results in Cretak being framed for treason so a Federation mole can take her place, Ross reminds Bashir that a Romulan patriot is just that: in favor of anything advantageous to the Romulan Empire, which can include backstabbing the Federation if it will give them an advantage.
In "Strange Bedfellows", Damar asks Weyoun to send Jem'Hadar reinforcements to Septimus III, to relieve the Cardassian defenders fighting off a Klingon invasion. Weyoun tells him 'The situation will be taken care of.' When he learns later that the garrison was overrun and wiped out, he confronts Weyoun, who repeats that the situation WAS taken care of… by the Klingons.
Still Standing: After Bill catches a boy in Lauren's room (who's actually tutoring her in algebra) Lauren asks Bill if he can get the door on his way out. Gilligan Cut to Bill carrying her bedroom door down the stairs.
In Season 5 of Supernatural, Lucifer, once freed, shows himself to be obsessed with this trope. Throughout his appearances, he very seldom flat-out lies to anyone, and will usually respond honestly if asked a direct question. What he does specialize in, however, is answering questions from "a certain point of view" or answering specifically the exact question that was posed and nothing more.
Kelso: Hey Frank, could we get our food? We've been waiting for twenty minutes. Frank: I did not lose a leg in Vietnam so I could serve a bunch of teenagers. Kelso: Uh... you've still got both legs, Frank. Frank: Like I said, I did not lose my leg in Vietnam!
Similarly:
[after Leo tells Kelso that he was going to give the car to his son] Leo: I can't sell you the car, man. Kelso: Oh, man! Ah, I guess I understand. Leo: Thanks, man. Hyde, I want you to have this car. Kelso: What? No! You just said that you couldn't sell the car! Leo: Well, I'm not selling it. I'm giving it to him, man. He's family. He's the son I never had. Kelso: You just said you had a son! Leo: Yeah, and Hyde's the son I never had.
And lest we forget:
Donna: Well at least you got great friends. And I'll always be your friend. Hyde: Thanks Donna. [pats her on the knee and leaves his hand there] Donna: That was sympathy, Hyde. Not an opening to put your hand on my knee. Hyde: Sorry. [leaves his hand there] Donna: Move your hand! [Hyde rubs his hand back and forth on her leg, causing Donna to laugh and throw it off]
In the first episode of The Thick of It, Hugh Abbot's first day as Secretary of State for Social Affairs gets off to a bad start when he goes to launch his new policy, under the impression that he has received the Prime Minister's enthusiastic approval. On his way to the launch, Malcolm rings him up and angrily tells him what the P.M. actually meant.
Malcolm: What did the Prime Minister actually say to you? Hugh: He actually said, "This is exactly the kind of thing we should be doing." Malcolm:What did he actually say? Hugh: He said, "This is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing." Malcolm:Should be doing. "Should" does not mean "yes".
Clarkson promises not to drive James' old Ferrari in a drag race, and keeps his promise. The Stig, on the other hand...
During "The Ashes Challenge", Hammond won a drag race despite the handicap of only being allowed to drive a white van. The Top Gear Australia hosts accused them of cheating, only for Jeremy to point out that they weren't, since neither side agreed not to allow a turbo-charged white van with a Jaguar engine hooked up in the back.
After test-driving a Pagani Zonda F, a hypercar quite unlike the cars he usually tests, James May remarks that he's been told he has another car to test, but that he shouldn't worry "because it's only a VW". Cue the arrival of a Bugatti Veyron, then the fastest production car ever made. (Bugatti are, of course, owned by Volkswagen.)
In Touched by an Angel, angels obviously can't lie, but Monica, Tess, and Andrew are able to carefully select words to get a point across without giving away what they are.
Monica has to pose as a homeless woman for an assignment. When asked how she ended up there by others, she replies "the simple truth is, one morning I was wearing a fine coat and the next evening I was sleeping on the sidewalk." The others accept with "ain't it always that way?"
All three are fond of using the excuse of "a very high-up source" when asked how they know some secret information.
A non-verbal example in True Blood. The first episode to introduce Eric has him sitting in his Fangtasia bar. A (human) girl approaches and asks to snap a picture of him with her phone. Instead of replying, he gives her a fanged smile. Immediately after she takes the picture, Longshadow appears next to her, grabs the phone, and smashes it with the words "No pictures!". The frightened girl reminds Eric that he let her take the picture. He replies that he didn't say she could keep it.
A great example is "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" where corrupt CEO William Feathersmith agrees to sell off his fortune for a chance to go back to 1910 and rebuild his empire again. He tells Miss Devlin that he wants to look exactly like he did at that time, which she agrees to. Feathersmith soon finds his faulty memory is preventing him from pulling off the deals he wants and suffers health issues with a doctor noting he seems to have serious heart problems. Feathersmith confronts Devlin on that who points out he only said he wanted to look younger. He never said anything about his body and thus internally, he's still 75 years old carrying on like a much younger man.
The punchline of the classic episode "To Serve Man": "It's a cookbook!"
In "I of Newton", a math professor named Sam inadvertently summons a devil who plans to steal his soul. There's a game they must play first, though—Sam gets to ask three questions about the devil and his powers, then give the demon a final question that must be answered or a task that must be performed; if he can't do it, Sam's soul is free. The devil invokes this trope first by counting Sam's surprised "Really?" as one of the three questions. Sam then turns the tables by asking questions that reveal that the devil can travel anywhere in the universe (and even places in alternate realities) and still be able to return to his original location. With this information, Sam provides the perfect, impossible, and Exactly Worded task: get lost!
"A Small Talent for War" has aliens claiming to have created humanity announcing that they were going to end the experiment and destroy the species after concluding the titular talent was all humans had achieved (and marking the nuclear standoff as a particular disappointment). The governments of the world rush through a global peace treaty and announce total nuclear disarmament to prove we can do better... only for the aliens to explain it was the "small talent" part they had a problem with. Humans were supposed to be a warrior race, and by the aliens' standards we never got very good at it and were far too reluctant to fight.
Elijah in The Vampire Diaries prides himself on keeping his word, but it might be helpful to get a transcript to review what, precisely, he actually agreed to do. For example he asks one character if he would not have to run from his family anymore and when the man agrees, Elijah kills him.
Lampshaded by Elena, who actually inferred that Elijah's plan to kill Klaus would involve her death when she noted that Elijah is very careful with his words and promised to protect all her loved ones but not Elena herself.
Also used in the spin-off The Originals where Elijah promises Sophie that he will not let Klaus kill the local coven's last living elder, who tried to kill Hayley's unborn child. He keeps his word, then snaps the witch's neck himself.
In Season 2 of A Very Secret Service, Calot, Jacquard and Moulinier are sent to rescue their fellow agent Clayborn, but they return without her. As the new trainee wonders why their mission is considered a success in spite of that, Jacquard retorts that a pregnant woman cannot possibly an agent, therefore there was no longer an Agent Clayborn to bring back home.
Walking with Dinosaurs: The episode "Cruel Seas" begins with a Eustreptospondylus stalking at the edge of a rocky coastline, with the narrator stating that the "most fearsome predator of the Jurassic is watching his prey; peering through the water, the carnivore fixes on his unwary victim, waiting for the perfect moment to strike". The viewer is clearly led to think the dinosaur is the predator, but then a gargantuan Liopleurodon bursts from the surf and drags the theropod into the water.
Wayne and Shuster did a parody of The Devil and Daniel Webster that features a man making a Deal with the Devil to become Canada's greatest hockey player. When he becomes sick of hockey and wishes to return to music (like his mother always wanted), the Devil holds him to his contract which says he must play at the stadium or forfeit his soul. The Webster character examines the contract and points out that it does not stipulate he must play hockey, so the player becomes the stadium's organist.
Wedding Season: Stefan asked Katie if she had killed all those people and she said no. She had actually only planned to poison Mr. Delaney.
In the first episode of Weeds, the protagonist, in a conversation with her son's girlfriend's mother, is pressured into promising that the son and the girlfriend will never have sex under her roof. Fortunately for her son, his younger brother just broke their skylight, so said roof has a huge gaping hole in it...
A lower-key subversion appears in "The Lame-Duck Congress". Leo's response to Donna's complaint about the possibility of carpal-tunnel syndrome from all the typing that the aides do, and federal guidelines designed to prevent this, is "Type slower." Incensed, Donna organizes the aides to do just that. When he catches Margaret typing a memo he has asked her to type very very slowly, and Margaret informs him of Donna's initiative, Leo's response is a cold, "Margaret, look at my face right now." When Margaret sees the stony "I-am-but-seconds-from-firing-you" expression Leo is wearing, she immediately capitulates and starts typing normally. Leo then informs Donna that her little scheme wouldn't work in any case, since the White House and other buildings of the federal government are exempt from such guidelines anyway. Donna is not pleased.
Another episode has White House Counsel Oliver Babish preparing CJ to testify before Congress with the classic "Do you know what time it is?" routine.
In "The Stackhouse Filibuster", the titular senator, an elderly man with a head cold, is deliberately trying to delay a vote on an important health care bill, but no one knows why. When the White House staff discovers the truth—the bill makes no provision for autism research, and Stackhouse himself has an autistic grandson—they decide to help out, as Stackhouse (who's been talking non-stop for nine hours at this point) is almost too exhausted to continue; if he sits down or stops talking, the filibuster will end and the vote will occur. Donna then recalls a useful rule which states that while those delivering filibusters can't stop talking, they are free to take questions from fellow senators... and there's no rule that states how long those questions can be. The staff quickly rallies other Democratic senators to ask extremely lengthy questions (the first one is in twenty-seven parts), which allows Stackhouse to rest in a chair, have some water, and recover, thus stopping the bill and allowing a new discussion of autism research to begin.
In Wheel of Fortune, "Weird Al" Yankovic played a Celebrity Edition in 1994. He made it to the Bonus Round, where he was told that he had 10 seconds to figure out the right answer to the puzzle. Cue him saying the right answer of NO HARM DONE so slowly that it indeed took up the entire 10 seconds.
Moiraine manages to get around questioning by the Whitecloaks through judiciously choosing her words, misleading them in doing so. It's necessary as she can't lie due to the first oath she took preventing it.
Nynaeve tells Lan he can ask how she managed to track him all the way from Two Rivers to a remote temple. When he does, she has a tiny smirk as she notes that she never said she'd answer him.
Nynaeve is wary of using her channelling powers while training at the White Tower. An instructor sets up a test for the women to channel dirty water into clean. She presses Nynaeve to do it, telling her "no one leaves until you drink the water." To the shock of everyone, Nynaeve downs the entire brown-filled glass and leaves.
Nynaeve: You never said it had to be clean.
Once in White Collar, Neal borrows Peter's FBI jacket, swearing that he would not use it in any questionable activities. In the next scene, Mozzie's wearing it and breaking into a crime scene.
During Scenes from a Hat in Whose Line Is It Anyway?, one of the bits is "Lines that will always start a fight".
Ryan: Hey, you guys wanna fight?
Wings had Joe enter a trip from Sandpiper as a prize in a raffle, promising to take the winner "anywhere Sandpiper flies". Brian thinks the last two words are unnecessary and just leaves it reading "anywhere." Unfortunately, the winner of the raffle is Carlton Blanchard (in his first appearance) who exploits the wording to have them fly him to Las Cruces, New Mexico. (The show takes place in Nantucket and Sandpiper is presumably limited to New England.)
In Season 4 of The Wire, we learn that the local school system maintains its government funding so long as each student attends even one school day a month, so the school administration doesn't expend much effort in tracking down and penalizing students who have already hit that quota, leading to severe truancy issues.
Played for Laughs in Season 2, when Omar is testifying in Bird's murder trial. In the episode "Undertow", after she deposes Omar, Nathan tells McNulty to get Omar some clothes, specifically "anything with a tie". In the following episode, "All Prologue", when it's Omar's turn to testify, he wears an athletic jersey and jacket - along with a tie, which he waves at Nathan as he walks up to the stand. She is not amused.
When The Greek interrogates Osman the sailor, he promises him that he won't hurt him. After the sailor has told him everything, the Greek's right hand man, Spiros, slits the sailor's throat.
Wizards of Waverly Place: Wizards need to be very careful with what they say when casting spells because their powers take them literally.
In an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, Ares sets up a deathmatch between Xena and a villainess trying to prove herself to Ares by killing her, and mentions that either of them may ask for his help. Eventually, the villainess asks for Ares' help — only for him to abandon her to a Karmic Death, noting that he said they could ask for his help, not that he would actually give it. Xena later relates to Gabrielle that Ares, being something of an Evilutionary Biologist, had long ago stated that those who need to ask for his help don't deserve it.
The X-Files: In well-known episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", the titular character is a Seer who can also sense how people are going to die. When Scully and Mulder are called in to investigate, Bruckman offers Dana a prophecy: the two of them will eventually end up in bed together in a "very special moment neither of us will forget." At the end of the episode, Bruckman commits suicide in his bed, and a distraught Scully sits next to the body and holds his hand, proving the prediction as true. Bruckman also offers a case of Foreshadowing when Scully asks him how she is going to die; he merely replies "You don't." Fan theories have abounded about this being a clue that Scully is somehow immortal (which one of the creators has confirmed), but the "official" explanation is that, in a later episode, Scully is about to die—to the point where she's literally seeing the Grim Reaper—but survives, suggesting that Bruckman saw this as her potential death.
Young Sheldon: In "A Lock-In, a Weather Girl and a Disgusting Habit", Georgie tells Mandy, "I promise you I am not nineteen." At least that part is true, he's not 19-years-old, he's 17-years-old.
