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Wesley: I'm a rogue demon hunter now.
Cordelia: Wow... so, what's a rogue demon?

A simple statement becomes a bit of wordplay caused by an unclear modifier. This is also known as a "syntactic ambiguity" or "squinting construction".

This typically occurs through the use of multiple nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., in the same sentence, in such a way that it's difficult or even impossible to determine which adjective, verb, etc, applies to each noun. As a result, it's possible to interpret the sentence as having two or more meanings which are sufficiently different that the difference could potentially be very important to the reader or the plot. In some cases, there is only one technically, grammatically, or logically correct interpretation, but it's so easy to misinterpret or mis-write that most people end up getting it wrong at first. In other cases, multiple interpretations are arguably grammatically correct.

In both Real Life and fiction, this is usually Played for Laughs, because the incorrect interpretation typically leads to an absurdity. A "man eating chicken" (note missing hyphen) seems to be an especially popular variant. Legend sometimes attributes the origin of this one to notorious Hoaxer P.T. Barnum, but it's unclear what the actual origin is.

Another popular comedic variant is: "You see this object here? When I nod my head, hit it as hard as you can."

Yet another common variant: A cries, "X!" referring to seeing an X approaching, but B interprets it as the answer to his preceding rhetorical question.

If someone catches on to the ambiguous syntax and asks for clarification on whether the object being referred to is X or Y, it's not uncommon to be met with "Yes".

On a more serious note, however, ambiguous syntax is sometimes used in false advertising so that the advertiser can claim they explained everything, and it was the consumer's fault for misinterpreting the statement. Likewise, in myth and legend, prophecies often includes ambiguous syntax, to make it more difficult to determine the exact details of a predicted event until it actually occurs. It is especially abused by the Literal Genie, to grant a wish in a way not intended by the speaker.

Wikipedia lists more examples here. This can easily happen in English, where there is a lot more room for ambiguity due to lack of case marking and grammatical gender (languages with one or both of those usually require adjectives and nouns to agree on gender and case, so you know a feminine adjective couldn't refer to a masculine noun). It's also awfully common in Latin (ironically a language with case marking AND genders) due to the freer word order.

Subtrope to Double Meaning. Compare Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma, Prophecy Twist, False Reassurance, Exact Words, Confusing Multiple Negatives, I Know You Know I Know, Who's on First?, and That Came Out Wrong. For issues caused by spacing rather than syntax, see The Problem with Pen Island. For cases (in-universe and out) where a bit of text is taken for the character's name, see Lady Mondegreen. When a statement has several meanings depending on how it is written, see Punctuation Changes the Meaning.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Ayakashi Triangle: As a villain, Hinojiki's main power was "Devouring Shadow", a Living Shadow that eats Life Energy. After his Heel–Face Turn, it's replaced with "Wicked Devourer", and Sosuke's inner monologue specifies the "wicked" are the ones being devoured to protect the innocent. The ambiguity is even more direct in Japanese, where they're called "Kagebami (影食)" and "Magabami (禍食)", which mean "Shadow/Evil Eater".
  • Part of Jessie's backstory in Pokémon: The Original Series involves her dream of becoming a Pokémon nurse—one who acts as a nurse to Pokémon. She spots an ad for Pokémon Nurse School, which she thinks is perfect...until she realizes it's a school for Pokémon nurses, i.e. nurses who are Pokémon as well.

    Advertising 
  • Allstate's "Mayhem" campaign featured a line of Dennis Haysbert's which had to be changed due to this. Originally, Haysbert had said the Line 1 to close the commercials, but due to the way it was worded, his pause couldn't stop the line from having an unintended meaning (so Allstate is the mayhem no one can protect you from?). They changed it to Line 2 when it was brought to their attention.
    DW L1: No one protects you from mayhem like Allstate.
    DW L2: Mayhem is everywhere, so get Allstate.
  • Pork Farm pork pies once had this in an advertisment. Paraphrased:
    Yokel 1: Oi bets you Oi can tell the difference between a Pork Farm pork pie and another pork pie wearing a bloindfold.
    Yokel 2: Arr, go on then.
    Yokel 1: Well, this be a Pork Farm pork pie... And this be another pork pie wearing a bloindfold.
  • A poster from the Willesden Electricity Department, advertising labour-saving household devices:
    Don't kill your wife with WORK! Let Electricity do it.
  • Invoked in an ad for Wolf Insurance; that is, an insurance company owned by a person named Wolf. It shows Little Red Riding Hood going through the forest when she hears some growling, and brandishes legal documents before continuing unmolested, "Wolf Insurance" here implying insurance against wolves.

    Card Games 
(It's still a Game-Breaker, but for different reasons.)
  • Munchkin:
    • The "... of Doom!" card, resulting in "Bow with Ribbons... of Doom!". The question came up whether it was the bow or the ribbons that were "of doom".
    • Then add in to this the "...of my Grandfather" card from Munchkin Fu and you can have such gems as the "Big Black .45... of Doom... of my Grandfather" which leads one to think that the gun killed the grandfather. Or, in the other order: "Big Black .45... of my Grandfather... of Doom" brings up whether it's the gun or the grandfather that is "of doom".

    Comedy 
  • George Carlin, from his "High on the Plane" bit:
    They always keep telling you at the airport "Get on the plane." I say "Fuck you...I'm getting in! Let the daredevils get on!"
  • On The Firesign Theater's album How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?, the parody radio play "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye" begins with narration describing Danger going to his office. When he arrives, we get this:
    Narrator: He crosses MacArthur Park and walks into a great sandstone building!
    Danger: [sound of collision] Oh! My nose!
    Narrator: Groping for the door, he steps inside...
  • Shayne Smith has a bit where he talks about a newspaper headline he saw: "Local Man Robs Wendy's With Alligator". After taking a moment to reflect on the absurdity of that headline, he gets angry that the newspaper didn't feel the need to clarify if the alligator was an accomplice or a weapon.
    "Did this guy rob a Wendy's with an alligator, or did this guy rob a Wendy's with an alligator? There's a huge difference.

    Comic Books 
  • Sometimes used as one of Roger the Dodger's scams in The Beano, such as selling tickets to see the "Man Eating Fish"... which turns out to be a man, eating fish (and chips).
  • In one Captain Britain story featuring Captain Airstrip-One, an alternate Captain Britain who represents the Britain of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Captain Airstrip-One is told by his superior to "imagine a boot stomping on a face forever." Captain Airstrip-One, who has no will of his own, happily obliges, but misinterprets the order — he thought he was meant to imagine that image forever, so he does, effectively making this mission his last.
  • DC: The New Frontier: Johnny Cloud's message to Flagg warning him about the Centre mentions a dangerous creature, "an all-consuming circle that dwarfs the monsters that roam this cursed place. It is a living thing." Flagg and the Challengers of the Unknown wonder why Johnny bothered to emphasize that the monster that's bigger than all the ones they've seen so far is living. They don't realize that the means the living "all-consuming circle" is "this cursed place": Dinosaur Island itself.
  • Discworld: In the comic-book adaptation of Mort, when Ysabell drags Mort to the kitchen saying "Father says you must be fed", he replies with a nervous "Er, what to?"
  • A short story by Mœbius, "Man — is it good?" This is the correct interpretation. (Luckily, the pun works in languages other than the original French — Heavy Metal republished it as "Is Man Good?")
  • In PS238, when the Flea is looking for Zodon:
    Flea: Someone is lost in Las Vegas! Who can find him, even though he's a jerk? (I mean, the person who's lost is a jerk, not me...)
  • This one isn't so comical. In the Supreme Power version of Squadron Supreme, Dr. Emil Burbank relates to Inertia the story of a poor family in Iran: When a man's wife and daughter were raped by extremist soldiers, he killed them.
    Inertia: The soldiers... all of them?
    Burbank: No, of course not. He didn't kill the soldiers — he killed the women, because they had disgraced the family.
  • In Tomorrow Stories 64 Page Special #1, it's a Running Gag that whenever the First First American outlines his idea for fighting crime in a costume with a funny name, someone will ask him why the costume has a funny name. In the same comic, Splash Brannigan narrates that a man "slowly turned and spoke" to him, at which point the man turns and speaks slowly.
    Splash: What I should have said was "The figure turned slowly, and spoke. My bad.", I corrected, syntactically.
  • In a humorous Tom Strong story, Paul Saveen mentions once having a secret base in a "lost Eskimo mine." As he goes into detail it becomes clear that it wasn't a lost mine belonging to Eskimos, but rather a mine belonging to a lost Eskimo — it was under Death Valley. Poor guy was very lost.
  • In Top 10, after a gruesome teleporter accident, wherein his car materializes inside Kapela (a gigantic horse-like warrior taking part in a cosmic chess game), Mr Nebula is understandably upset about the death of his wife and very upset that Kapela is being so insufferably calm about it. They have this exchange:
    Kapela: I am calm. My friend, your mate and yourself count for a great deal. Your value in the Great Game is far in excess of my own.
    Mr Nebula: It's not a game! It's not a £$%&ing game! It was our £$%&ing lives, man!
    Kapela: Yes. Yes, indeed, it was. And £$%&ing is a glorious and noble thing, for thence all higher life commences... ...and you and I, my friend, I fear will not be £$%&ing any more.

    Comic Strips 
  • When Mrs. Godfrey from Big Nate becomes a mother, she makes Nate and Francis write her a note congratulating her. Nate despises Mrs. Godfrey and tells Francis that he wants to write a Stealth Insult. Francis's response? "I can't tell you what a great idea that is."
  • Dilbert:
    • An investment adviser describes a strategy in which his lawyers put the money in little bags and trained dogs bury them around town. He is asked whether they bury the bags or the lawyers, and replies that they've tried it both ways.
    • Another example involves Ratbert having a cat trying to eat his head. Dogbert proposed a solution to Bob the Dinosaur: "I'll yank the cat off Ratbert's head, and you stomp on it." The next panel had Ratbert under Bob's foot and Dogbert saying, "In retrospect, I could have phrased that better."
    • Dilbert and his colleagues gets good mileage out of these as a way of giving Stealth Insults to their clueless boss. For example, after the boss spouts off his usual management gibberish, he says "I don't think I can be any clearer". Dilbert agrees with him.
  • Garfield:
    • In one strip, there's this exchange between Jon and his friend Lyman regarding Jon's decision to have Garfield declawed:
      Jon: I took Garfield to the vet to be declawed. They're removing his stitches next Thursday.
      Lyman: Poor Garfield.
      Jon: Who's talking about Garfield?
    • Jon remarks to Garfield "touch my food and die!" meaning "there will be consequences if you eat my food". Garfield, of course, reacts to that as if it's a statement "if you touch my food you will die" replying "your food isn't that bad".
    • One strip had Jon fixing up a double date for him and his brother, Doc Boy. The following conversation accidentally adds Incest Subtext
      Doc Boy: What's a double date?
      Jon: That's when you and I go on a date together.
      Doc Boy: Gee, it seems like it would be more fun if some girls came along.
  • Nodwick: One story that is a parody of the Dungeons & Dragons 2000's movie has it turn out that villain wasn't hunting the Rod of Red Dragon control, he was hunting the Rod of Read Dragon control: everyone mistook what he was after because they only heard him say it aloud instead of seeing it written down. He wanted to use its power to edit back issues of Dragon to give himself better stats.
  • During a Peanuts storyline where Marcie had Peppermint Patty believing that a butterfly that landed on her nose turned into an angel, Patty phoned Sally about it:
    Peppermint Patty: It was a miracle, Sally! This butterfly landed on my nose, see, and then it turned into an angel.
    Sally: Your nose turned into an angel?
    Peppermint Patty: [flatly] I'm hanging up, Sally.
  • There's a comic strip somewhere with a guy charging money to see a "Man Eating Chicken". Surprise, surprise, after the people had paid, they just ended up seeing an ordinary guy on a stage eating fried chicken from a bucket.

    Fan Works 
  • In The AFR Universe story "Boys and Queens", Ryuji calls Ren and Makoto how he wound up in a scandal due to having his picture taken by a "pop rat".
    Makoto: You mean "Paparazzi". It's Italian.
    Ryuji: I dunno what country the guy's from, Makoto!
  • In Between My Brother and Me: Mors Omnibus, Edo Phoenix asks Yvonne Maxa — who earlier in the story massacred a lot of Academia students — to "come with us right now and bring Sora with you" (as in, return to Academia to be held on trial for her crimes and return Sora — who she brainwashed to become her puppet, It's a Long Story). Yvonne, who is a Deadpan Snarker, is quick to reword it.
    Yvonne: I'm sorry, did you say that you want me to "come with you"? How dare you say something so brash! I mean, I'm 14 years old! I'm not properly dressed for a round of lovemaking! I haven't even kissed a girl!
    [beat]
    Yvonne: Wait, I've actually kissed plenty of girls and I liked it!
    • Three chapters later, during which time Zarc has arrived and is displaying how his "sons" Yuya and Yuto to Yusho, and Mieru has taken three knives to the stomach for Yusho, Serenity tells Yvonne that she's missed "a lot".
      Yvonne: I missed A Lot?! Oh my gosh, what did they look like? Did they do something to their hair? Did they get a nose job? Did they —
      Ruri: Oh for the love of Heartland will you just SHUT UP?!!!!
  • Coby's Choice: When Garp first informs Sengoku he is now a great-grandfather, Sengoku hopes he is talking about the quality of his child-raising skills. Garp quickly dashes those hopes when he clarifies that his grandkid now has a child of his own.
  • The DA Missions: Agent Toots:
    Harry: Well, we came up with a few possible avenues and they were all solo missions. Considering we couldn't all take point, we decided to draw straws.
    Tonks: We never get to draw straws.
    Harry: Ron's was pretty pathetic. Hermione pouted and refused to draw, as she had problems with our methods of drawing straws. Neville's wasn't bad, but I was the only one clever enough to draw a bendy straw. Luna here, though, she drew a straw with curls and swirls that went in all directions. We agreed she drew the best one, though Hermione still abstained from the vote insisting we were doing it all wrong.
  • Evidence, a The Silmarillion/Discworld crossover, contains an example of this. Death says the kittens may get at the Silmarils, but it won't matter because they're unbreakable. Maedhros thinks he means the kittens are unbreakable, when he's referring to the Silmarils.
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Summer:
    Parrot: Mai-Tai and mangos!
    Harry: Err... I only have water.
    Parrot: Uncouth people.
    Harry: Right, I'm sorry.
    Parrot: Charmed, I'm sure. Winston Redcrest the III at your service, Sorry.
  • In Harry Potter and Defeating Dark Lords, Inc., Harry asks a house elf to take some soup to Sirius' wife, to help with her nausea.
    Juniper: Master means make it worse or better?
  • In Harry Potter and Libromancy, Harry and Sarah accidentally enter an erotic graphic novel about monster girl training.
    Harry: Why aren't we just leaving?
    Sarah: Because learning to handle monster girls should be fun. I mean look at the nurse, she's hot.
    Harry: What if I suck?
    Sarah: Then the girl giggles and thanks you?
  • In Harry Potter and His Veela Mate, Hermione comments that her parents probably wouldn't understand her being a 15-year-old who's currently classed as a magical creature and having regular sex with a 14-year-old boy. When Harry pouts and states that he wouldn't call it regular, she replies that she was referring to the frequency and not the level of adventurousness.
  • Harry Potter and the Forests of Valbonë:
    Sorting Hat: Well, I've never really had a name, but Helga used to call me Sternley.
    Harry: Whatever for?
    Sorting Hat: Well, when I was younger I was a bit more outspoken and uncouth. One day I told Helga that she was — anyway, she went running to Godric who said "If you want him to stop talking, say be quiet sternly," and she didn't quite get the gist. After a while I just sort of got used to it.
  • Kingdom Hearts Ψ: The Seeker of Darkness: In Ground Rules, When Riku finds one of the notes Roxas and Xion have been leaving for each other and questions Sora about it.
    Sora: I didn't write that!
    Riku: Looks like your handwriting to me.
    Sora: It's Roxas's! He and Xion keep writing these and I can't tell if they're flirting or just messing with me!
    Riku: Flirting with you, or messing with you?
    Sora: [blushing] No, flirting with each other! But they keep leaving these notes where I can find them and it's So. Awkward.
  • A New Dawn: Allies:
    Ginny: LA? You don't agree?
    Lily-Anne: What? Oh - no. I just had a question.
    Ginny: Which is?
    Lily-Anne: It's an interrogative statement used to determine knowledge.
  • In Royal the US magical governing body has a Non-Human Complaint Department, the purpose of which is to register complaints about and by non-humans. And yes, this sometimes results in non-humans complaining about other non-humans.
  • The Secret Guardian Angel:
    Snape: Potter, put down Malfoy this instant!
    Harry: Malfoy, you are lower than a snake's belly. If I had a dog with a face like yours, I'd shave his ass and make him walk backwards!
    Snape: Ahem, Potter. I meant for you to let go of Malfoy, not insult him.
    Harry: Oh, sorry, Professor.
  • In A Spicy Mix-Up, Yui tells Nozomi that her stuffing is infused with rosemary, as in the spice. Nozomi believes that Yui murdered Rosemary, the person, and baked the stuffing with his remains.
  • Things I Am Not Allowed to Do at the PPC: Rule 558 prohibits bringing "a Trojan" into the tech department. The next sentence clarifies that "Trojan" means a Greek warrior from Troy and mentions that the ambiguity will scare the technicians about the possibility of the computer virus of the same name being present instead.
  • Under His Hands:
    Harry: It's fine. This photoshoot thing is proving harder to get out of than I thought, that's all. In the past all I had to do was say no and they'd accept it, but maybe I've said no to them too many times.
    Draco: What does Wandersley think of it?
    Harry: Thinks it's a great idea and wanted me to pose with that Keeper for the Hollyhead Harpies, Megan. In a bikini.
    Draco: Oh I don't know, Harry, you might look quite ravishing in a bikini!
  • In Veritas Oracle Harry asks a Veritaserum-overdosed Luna how she feels.
    Luna: With my hands, usually. Although most of my body can feel things too, I generally use my hands to feel specific things. I like to touch things. I'd like to run my toes through your hair, just to know what it feels like.
  • In When One Hunger Ends, Another Begins Crabbe and Goyle start shooting cutting hexes at Harry in an attempt to impress Draco because they overheard him say he'd like to "take Harry out" and interpreted it as a desire for assassination instead of a date.

    Films — Animated 
  • Cinderella: When Lady Tremaine is trying to wake her daughters and get them ready to try on the glass slipper.
    Lady Tremaine: [The Grand Duke]'s been hunting all night.
    Drizella: Hunting?
    Lady Tremaine: For that girl! The one who lost her slipper at the ball last night. They say he's madly in love with her.
    Anastasia: The Duke is?
    Lady Tremaine: No, no, no! The Prince!
  • In The Incredibles, after learning that Bob is on Nomanisan Island, Helen flies there to find out what's going on with him. Violet asks why she's leaving:
    Helen: Nothing. Just a little trouble with Daddy.
    Violet: You mean Dad's in trouble, or Dad is the trouble?
    Helen: I mean, either he's in trouble... or he's going to be.
  • The song "Friends for Dinner" from The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island is about this, Chomper wants to invite his friends to have dinner with him, but they (except Littlefoot) think he's having them FOR dinner, as in eating them (since he's a Sharptooth).
  • Pinocchio: Geppetto tells Pinocchio to say hello to Figaro. Pinocchio promptly says, "Hello to Figaro."
  • The Simpsons Movie:
    Aide: Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.
    Russ Cargill: Of course I have! Have you ever tried going mad without power?! It's boring! No one listens to you!
  • In Wreck-It Ralph, King Candy tries to escape Ralph's fury by putting on a pair of glasses and saying "You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would you?" Ralph proceeds to slap King Candy upside the head with the frames.
    King Candy: You hit a guy with glasses. That's, heh, that's well played.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Airplane!: Ambiguous syntax? What is it? It's the use of sentences which could be interpreted in multiple ways due to syntax problems, but that's not important right now. No, actually, it's something that the film loved to do:
    • The film's Running Gag involves a character asking, "What is it?" and getting the wrong right response:
      Dr. Rumack: This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
      Elaine: A hospital? What is it?
      Dr. Rumack: It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.
    • Ted Striker takes his seat on the plane, and his seatmate thinks he's a little scared of flying:
      Hanging Lady: Nervous?
      Ted: Yes.
      Hanging Lady: First time?
      Ted: No, I've been nervous lots of times.
    • Ted, while narrating a flashback, admits he developed a "drinking problem" — depicted by his sudden inability to drink, missing his mouth and splashing the whole glass on his face.
    • Ted protests that his wartime flying experience doesn't mean he can fly a passenger jet:
      Ted: It's an entirely different type of flying, altogether!
      Dr. Rumack & Randy: [in unison] It's an entirely different type of flying.
    • Steve McCroskey gets the weather briefing and hands it to Johnny, hoping for some good news:
      McCroskey: Johnny, what can you make out of this?
      Johnny: This? [starts folding it] Why, I can make a hat, or a brooch, or a pterodactyl...
    • And the film's most famous:
      Ted: Surely, you can't be serious!
      Dr. Rumack: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
  • In the live-action remake of Aladdin, Genie points out the "gray area" of Aladdin's request to "Make me a prince", explaining that it can be taken two different ways: "Make me a prince" as in producing a prince for Aladdinor "Make me a prince" as in turning Aladdin into a prince.
  • Animal Crackers:
    • Captain Spaulding's speech in contains one of the most famous examples of all time:
      "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know." note 
    • In the same speech, he also says, "We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren't developed. So we're going back again in a couple of weeks..."
  • In Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Eglantine is rummaging through her ingredients and pulls out "Poisoned Dragon's Liver." One of the children asks, "Did they poison the dragon, or just the liver?" Even she's not sure; it came already prepared.
  • In A Bridge Too Far, a German officer calls on the British soldiers to surrender. The British officer who replies takes advantage of the inexact wording used by the German and acts as though the Germans are offering to surrender.note 
    SS Officer: My general says there is no point in continuing this fighting! He wishes to discuss terms of a surrender!
    Carlyle: Shall I answer him, sir?
    Frost: Tell him to go to hell.
    Carlyle: We haven't the proper facilities to take you all prisoner! Sorry!
    SS Officer: [confused] What?
    Major Harry Carlyle: We'd like to, but we can't accept your surrender! Was there anything else?
  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a Shout-Out to Animal Crackers when Grandpa says, "I got up this morning and shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he ever got into my pyjamas I shall never know."
  • Clue:
    • It has several of these moments:
      Mrs. White: ...he had threatened to kill me in public.
      Miss Scarlet: Why would he want to kill you in public?
      Wadsworth: I think she meant he threatened, in public, to kill her.
    • Also
      Colonel Mustard: Wadsworth, am I right in thinking there's nobody else in this house?
      Wadsworth: Um... no.
      Colonel Mustard: Then there is someone else in this house?
      Wadsworth: Sorry, I said "no" meaning "yes."
      Colonel Mustard: "No" meaning "yes?" Look, I want a straight answer, is there someone else, or isn't there, yes, or no?
      Wadsworth: No.
      Colonel Mustard: No there is, or no there isn't?
      Wadsworth: Yes.
      Mrs. White: [shatters glass] PLEASE!
      [...]
      Col. Mustard: Well, there is still some confusion as to whether or not there is anybody else in this house!
      Wadsworth: I told you, there isn't.
      Col. Mustard: There isn't any confusion, or there isn't anybody else?
      Wadsworth: Either! Or both.
      Col. Mustard: Just give me a clear answer!
      Wadsworth: Certainly. [beat] Uh... what was the question?
      Col. Mustard: Is there anybody else in this house?
      Everybody: No!
  • Conjoined: When Stanley tells Jerry that his idea to separate Aline and Alisa is a good one, we get this conversation.
    Jerry: Well I have good ideas too, man. You ever hear about my beer coozie you can fuck?
    Stanley: I think I wanna do it.
    Jerry: What, the beer coozie or the other thing?
  • In Doctor Strange, Kaecilius's first interaction with Doctor Strange. Kaecilius doesn't understand that Strange is a doctor and "Strange" is his actual name.
    Kaecilius: How long have you been at Kamar-Taj, Mister...
    Doctor Strange: Doctor.
    Kaecilius: Mister Doctor?
    Doctor Strange: It's Strange.
    Kaecilius: [shrugs] Maybe. Who am I to judge?
  • Flubber: One of the goons takes a long time to understand that his boss' various euphemisms for shooting someone (with a water pistol, thankfully) were actually meant literally.
    Chester Hoenicker: Let him have it.
    Wesson: [squirts Philip Brainard in the face]
    Chester Hoenicker: N-No, no. Give it to him.
    Wesson: [squirts him again]
    Chester Hoenicker: W— Stop that and give it to him.
    Wesson: [squirts him again]
    Chester Hoenicker: Put-Put it in his hand and give it to him.
    Wesson: [squirts him in the hand]
    Chester Hoenicker: No, no, no, no, no. GIVE THE GUN TO HIM!!
    Wesson: Oh.
  • In The Fugitive, Helen Kimble's last words, "Richard... He's trying to kill me...", gets interpreted by the prosecutors as Helen identifying her husband Richard as the assailant, when in fact she was calling to him, begging for help.
  • The Gamers: Hands of Fate: Invoked by the Show Within a Show, Ninja Dragon Riders. It is later clarified that both the dragons and the dragon riders are ninjas.
  • In Goliath Awaits, a group of divers hear Morse Code from the "wreckage" of The Goliath that ends with the sign-off message "Beware, McKenzie. Turns out it was actually made by The Bow People and was meant to be interpreted as "Beware McKenzie."
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) has this exchange.
    Ford: You're looking for the Ultimate Question.
    Zaphod: Yep.
    Ford: You.
    Zaphod: Me.
    Ford: Why?
    Zaphod: No, I tried that. "Why? 42." Doesn't work.
    Ford: No, I mean, why are you looking for it?
  • 1939 film serial The Phantom Creeps: creeps who are phantoms, or someone called The Phantom who creeps?
  • Early on in Home Alone after Kevin gets in trouble for retaliating against Buzz's taunting, his mother forces him to go to bed early:
    Mother: Say good night, Kevin.
    Kevin: Good night, Kevin.
  • From The King's Speech:
    Bertie: [telling a story to his daughters] This was very inconvenient for him, because he loved t-t-to hold his princesses in his arms. But you can't if you're a penguin, because y-you have wings, like herrings.
    Margaret: Herrings don't have wings.
    Bertie: Penguins have wings which are sh-sh-shaped like herrings.
  • There's also this little exchange from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:
    Perry: I want you to picture a bullet inside your head right now. Can you do that for me?
    Orderly: Fuck you. Anyway, that's ambiguous.
    Perry: Ambiguous? No, I don't think so.
    Harry: No, I think what he means is that when you say "Picture it inside your head" okay is that that a bullet will be inside your head? Or picture it IN your head?
    Perry: Harry, will you shut up?
    Harry: Well, he's got a point.
  • The source of many a Laurel and Hardy joke. In County Hospital, for example, Ollie tells Stan to cut off a leg (from his pants). Stan thinks he means Ollie's actual leg.
  • Lesbian Vampire Killers: a debate occurred on this very wiki about whether this movie would be about lesbians who killed vampires, lesbian vampires who were killers or people who killed lesbian vampires. It turned out to be the third option, although the second also applies.
  • Let Him Have It: Derek Bentley yells "Let him have it" when he and a friend are confronted by police while breaking into a warehouse. His friend then shoots one of the officers. The intention is later argued in court, with defense saying he was urging his friend to surrender the gun, and prosecution arguing he was encouraging his friend to commit murder.
  • The Little Rascals had a "three foot man eating chicken" in a freak show. It was one of the kids wearing a fake mustache, and eating from a bucket of chicken.
  • Deliberately misinterpreting ambiguous syntax is (ab)used to get the protagonists out of a sticky situation in Looney Tunes: Back in Action — while chasing the MacGuffin, it falls into a deck of playing cards being dealt by Foghorn Leghorn, who surreptitiously delivers it to DJ by pretending to play Blackjack with him while ignoring Yosemite Sam, who is impatiently also demanding "Hit me!" over and over again; once the delivery is successful, Foghorn finally fulfills Yosemite's request... literally, of course, after a brief Aside Glance.
  • In Love Me Tonight (1932), a classic exchange between Gilbert and Valentine after Jeanette has a fainting spell.
    Gilbert: Valentine, could you go for a doctor?
    Valentine: Certainly! Bring him right in!
  • From Mary Poppins: "I met a man with a wooden leg named Smith." "What was the name of his other leg?"
  • In Mean Girls:
    "Did your teacher ever try to sell you marijuana or ecstasy tablets?"
    "What are marijuana tablets?"
  • Monty Python's Life of Brian brings us the trope-naming "We ARE Struggling Together"
    Brian: Brothers, we should be struggling together!
    Rebel: We are!
  • In My Cousin Vinny, Billy Gambini and his friend are arrested and offer to cooperate, not realizing that they're trying to confess to shoplifting, and they've actually been arrested for murder. When the sheriff finally asks directly when he shot the clerk, Billy asks "I shot the clerk?" in an attempt to clarify, but the police interpret it as an admission of guilt ("I shot the clerk!"). note .
  • In the same vein, Ninja Assassin manages to accomplish this with only two words, as the trailers did not clarify whether the film was about a Ninja who assassinates people, or people who assassinate ninja. (As it turned out, it was about both.)
  • This exchange from Oscar (the French movie) between husband and wife:
    Bertrand: Germaine... I have to talk to you.
    Germaine: Yes?
    Bertrand: Your daughter has a lover.
    Germaine: So do I.
    Bertrand: WHAT!?
    Germaine: I say, so do I, I have to talk to you.
  • In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in the song "Charles Atlas", Frank N. Furter makes the claim, "In just seven days, I can make you a man." Since he has just unveiled the man he made for himself, it's fairly clear which way he means that.
    • The opening credits refer to the dead Eddie as an "Ex Delivery Boy", prompting fans to shout "What kind of delivery boy delivers exes?".
  • The Silence of the Lambs: "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner."
  • Singin' in the Rain: When Don is mobbed by his fans, he shouts, "Cosmo, do something! Call me a cab!" Cosmo replies, "Okay, you're a cab!"
  • In Shutter Island, Teddy Daniels, while searching an insane asylum for a dangerous man named Andrew Laeddis, is told by insane patient George Noyce "This is about you, and Laeddis. That's all it's ever been about". At least, that's what Teddy thinks he said. What he actually said was "This is about you. And Laeddis, that's all it's ever been about", secretly spoiling Teddy's true identity.
  • Smokey and the Bandit: Frog and the Bandit are talking about Frog's legs as she is changing out of her wedding dress when Frog mentions that she is a professional. The Bandit replies that she shouldn't be wearing white, at which Frog glares at him and replies that she's a dancer, though he may just be teasing her for her lack of context.
  • Star Trek Beyond: In his log, Captain Edison says "Of the crew, only three remain." While presumably this means Edison himself, Manas, and Kalara, it could also be interpreted as meaning three crew members besides Edison himself, in which case there might be a fourth member of the Swarm out there.
  • Of the Sustained Misunderstanding variety in Super Troopers, when Favre orders a "Liter a' cola" at the burger joint, but the employee thinks he's asking for a cola with the (non-existent) brand "Litera". Called back to in the sequel, as Favre loves being a Mountie because the Canadian places know exactly what he's referring to.
  • In the 1941 film Tarzan's Secret Treasure (fifth in the MGM film series starring Johnny Weissmuller), after Jane describes what courtship is like back where she came from, Tarzan replies, "Too much talk. Tarzan way better." Does he mean "Tarzan's way is better" or "Tarzan is way better than other men"? Both are probably equally true, in Jane's opinion.
  • Near the end of The Thin Man, Nick and Nora throw a dinner party for all the suspects in order to catch the murderer. Since nearly every one of their guests is a bit bonkers, Nora catches herself when asking one of the waiters to bring out the next course of hors d'oeuvres.
    Nora: Waiter, will you serve the nuts? I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts?
  • An old Three Stooges bit involves Curly getting knocked out and Moe trying to revive him.
    Moe: Speak to me, kid! Tell me your name so I can tell your mother!
    Curly: [suddenly awake] My mother knows my name!
  • In Universal Soldier, when Andrew Scott (Dolph Lungren) thinks he's about to finish off Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), he says "say goodnight, asshole". Deveraux then surreptitiously injects himself with Phlebotinum and says "goodnight, asshole" and kicks Scott's ass. Probably a Shout-Out to the apocryphal George Burns and Gracie Allen "Say goodnight, Gracie" bit.
  • The Wizard of Oz:
    • Uncle Henry does this to Ms. Gulch likely just to mess with her.
      Ms. Gulch: I'm all but lame from the bite on my leg!
      Uncle Henry: You mean [Dorothy] bit you?
      Ms. Gulch: No, her dog!
      Uncle Henry: Oh, she bit her dog, eh?
      Ms. Gulch: No!
    • The Wicked Witch skywrites "SURRENDER DOROTHY" above the Emerald City. Given that skywriting makes punctuation difficult, does she mean "Surrender, Dorothy" meaning she wants Dorothy to surrender, or "Surrender Dorothy" meaning she wants the people of the Emerald City to surrender Dorothy to her?
  • From Young Frankenstein after the cast hear a wolf howling.
    Elizabeth: Werewolf!
    Frederick: Werewolf?
    Igor: [pointing] There.
    Frederick: What?
    Igor: There wolf.

    Gamebooks 
  • In the GrailQuest game book The Gateway of Doom, you enter a room containing "a man eating plant". The next line informs you that the plant he's eating is a carrot.

    Jokes 
  • An engineer's wife sends him to the store, telling him, "Pick up a loaf of bread, and if they have eggs get a dozen." He comes home with twelve loaves of bread.
    • The engineer's wife tries again the next day: 'Go to the shop for a loaf, and while you're there buy eggs'. He doesn't come home.
  • A classic Jewish joke goes like this: Kohn walks over a cemetery and with horror sees the gravestone of his old buddy X (insert name here): "Here lies X, a loving father and an honest salesman." He cries out: "Oy vey, they put you in a mass grave!"
    • There's also an Evil Lawyer Joke along these lines. A mother and child are walking in the cemetery and the child asks, "Mom, do they usually put two people in a grave?" Mom says, "No, why?" Kid says "Because that one over there says 'Here lies a lawyer and an honest man.'"
  • There is a classic tongue-twister "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers." Now, are they baby buggy bumpers made of rubber, bumpers for a baby buggy made of rubber, or bumpers for a buggy containing a baby made of rubber?
  • An immigrant couple take the highway to their friend's house and don't show up for three days. Their host inquires why it took so long and they said there are three rest stops between the two cities. When asked why that matters, they say they saw a sign that said "Clean Restrooms Ahead."
  • One that hangs a lampshade on the trope goes like this:
    Linguists enjoy ambiguity more than most people.
  • A man went to a doctor with severe scalding all over his feet. It turns out that he misinterpreted the cooking instructions on a can that read "Before opening, stand in boiling water for five minutes."
  • A joke from a fast-food employee relates being asked for a "big-ass water" - cue the employee replying "Sorry, we're out of ass-water, would regular be okay?"
  • A farmer is looking to hire a farmhand, and asks the prospective hire if he can milk and drive a tractor. The lad replies that he can drive a tractor, but has never tried to milk one...
  • A man comes home late at night smelling of booze. His wife yells at him for being drunk and when he insists he's not, she asks if he can tell the time. He turns and tells the clock he's not drunk.
  • An untranslatable German sketch/joke circles around an oven. And one dude telling the other to ignite it. 1st try: "Anmachen". "Na du, Ofen?" 2nd try: "Anfeuern." "O-fen! O-fen!" note 
  • His father fought with Black Jack Pershing. His grandfather fought with Teddy Roosevelt. His great grandfather fought with Robert E. Lee. His folks couldn't get along with anyone.
  • A rural priest is taking a walk when he sees a local farmer's son leading an enormous bull on a string.
    Priest: Good Lord! What are you doing with that bull, my child!?
    Child: Taking him down to the Johnsons' so he can mount their cows, your reverence.
    Priest: What, all alone?! Can't your father do it?
    Child: Oh no, your reverence, his dick is far too small for that!
  • There's an old-ish joke combining this with Literal Metaphor where the person says "Did you know (insert name of some celebrity/politician/etc they don't like) was a test tube baby?" and when they respond with something like "really?" the person says "ya, apparently they weren't worth a fuck back then either!"
  • From Esquire magazine: "A man is mugged in Passaic, New Jersey, every twenty minutes. This is his story."
  • On a similar note, there's an old(ish) joke which goes "Every 30 seconds a woman in the UK gives birth. Boy, must she be exhausted!"
  • A student tells his teacher "You only teach useless crap!". She replies with "you don't need to be so hard on yourself."
  • The source of a trope name on here:
    Alice: I know a place where we can eat dirt cheap.
    Bob: But who wants to eat dirt?
  • "Should you eat pickles with your fingers?" "No, your fingers should be eaten separately."
  • "How can a kangaroo jump higher than the Empire State Building?" "The Empire State Building can't jump."
  • An apocryphal graffito and response:
    My mother made me a homosexual
    IF I GAVE HER THE WOOL, WOULD SHE MAKE ME ONE, TOO?
  • An instance that doubles as a Take That!:
    "What do you think of Flushing, New York?"
    "I'm for it!"
  • A man arrived at a bus stop to find a little old woman shrinking as far back into the shade cast by the roof as she could. He asked her if she was alright, and she said "Oh, it's just this new medication I've been given. The instructions on the bottle said 'Keep out of direct sunlight'."
  • A man's therapist tells him to "write letters to the people you hate, then burn them". At their next session, he comes back and says "I did what you said, but what should I do with the letters?"
  • Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

    Literature 
  • Adrian Mole frequently corrects his own ambiguous syntax, in his diaries.
    He bit the vet, but I expect he's used to it. (The vet, I mean - I know the dog is.)
  • In the Doctor Who New Adventures/Sherlock Holmes crossover novel The All-Consuming Fire, when Holmes tells a junior librarian at the Library of St John the Beheaded that he's interested in stolen books, the librarian replies that they have a number of documents on that subject, including one that sheds new light on the fire of Alexandria. (He's kidding.)
  • The title character of Amelia Bedelia will interpret all syntax incorrectly if it's even slightly ambiguous, no matter how nonsensical the interpretation is (e.g. 'draw the curtains' — she draws a picture of the curtains instead of closing them, and for 'dress the chicken' she puts clothes on it). Good thing she makes great apple pie.
  • Animorphs:
    • Ax uses this as an excuse when he morphs human (which causes him to turn into a Sense Freak where food is concerned) to get some cinnamon buns, and after accidentally causing a disturbance, the Cinnabon manager takes pity on him, shows him some trays of buns, and allows Ax to "have one". His narration shows his thought process:
      Ax: One mouthful? One bun? One tray? It was certainly not my fault if there was any confusion.
    • At the end of The Departure, Cassie explains her time missing in the woods to her parents by saying she'd survived for three days eating mushrooms. The news reports it with the headline, "Girl Survives Ordeal Eating Mushrooms."
      I thought that was kind of funny. Like the ordeal was mushrooms.
  • In Blindsight by Peter Watts, a linguist intentionally uses extremely ambiguous sentences to determine whether she's talking to an actual person on the alien ship or an extremely sophisticated syntax engine. She deliberately gives answers which could be interpreted in several different ways, but after receiving only the most obvious, not actually related thematically, follow-up questions she concludes that they're dealing with a Chinese room.
    Sascha: Our cousins lie about the family tree, with nieces and nephews and Neanderthals. We do not like annoying cousins.
    Rorschach (the alien ship): We'd like to know about this tree.
    Sascha (to her crewmates): It couldn't have parsed that. There were three linguistic ambiguities in there. It just ignored them.
  • Bunnicula: In Howliday Inn, the animals in the kennel are being disappeared one-by-one. Harold finds an unpunctuated message scratched into the bottom of his food bowl and tries to parse out whether it's fingering the murderers ("Help! Howls out now!") or the next victims ("Help Howls out, now!").
  • Lawrence Block's The Burglar on the Prowl:
    Bernie: That's got to be the connection. They committed a crime, and I was arrested for it. The cops made a mistake when they arrested me, but the newspaper story didn't mention that part, so the guys who committed the crime don't know that.
    Carolyn: They don't know they committed the crime? What do you figure their problem is, Bern? Short-term memory loss?
  • In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka at one point introduces a new creation of his: "Square sweets that look round."note  Once he and the others enter the room, a stack of square-shaped sweets with little faces on them turn to face them. In other words, they looked 'round.
  • Constance Verity Saves the World opens with an example that would make Groucho Marx blush:
    It was date night, and Constance Verity was wrestling an alligator woman in her underwear. How the alligator woman ended up wearing Connie's underwear was a mystery she never solved.
  • In the fifth Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Uncle Gary is dating a woman who says that she has "thirty thousand in the bank, maybe forty" and Uncle Gary says that he has 45. It turns out he only has 45 dollars.
  • "Die dampfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm zu Babel" by Franz Fühmann is a children book classic about language: use, abuse and play. Many examples, including an impromptu SF story "The Black Hole Aggressor" whose main weapon is comma moving.
  • Discworld:
    • Lord Vetinari's verbal signature - literally, since he uses it to indicate that the current meeting is definitively over - is "Don't let me detain you." On the surface, it's a courteous suggestion that he shouldn't take up any more of his interlocutor's valuable time. Underneath, it's a subtle reminder that as the tyrant of Ankh-Morpork he can detain-as-in-arrest anyone for any reason...and you should not GIVE him a reason to do so.
    • The Truth has a few jokes about not only ambiguous headlines, but trying to compensate for them, such as "Patrician Attacks Clerk With Knife (he had the knife, not the clerk)". In the same book, Mr. Tulip uses a phrase (via his Verbal Tic swearing) that is misinterpreted due to this:
      Mr. Tulip: It's not a ——ing harpsichord, it's a ——ing virginal! One ——ing string to a note instead of two! So called because it was an instrument for ——ing young ladies!
      Chair: My word, was it? I thought it was just a sort of early piano!
      Mr. Pin: Meant to be played by young ladies.
    • An earlier appearance of this particular Verbal Tic appears in Mort, as does another case of unclear syntax (this time via Literalist Snarking):
      First Villain: Well, —— me. A ——ing wizard. I hate ——ing wizards!
      Second Villain: You shouldn't —— them, then.
    • In Night Watch Discworld, Carrot describes a crowd of refugees as "mostly human". Vimes has to stop him and ask if that means that the crowd was mostly made up of humans, or that each person in the crowd was partly human. Given the demographic makeup of Ankh-Morpork, that's an entirely reasonable question.
    • In Snuff a character says "I'm just a complicated chicken farmer!" By which he means he keeps complicated chickens.
    • In Interesting Times, an oracle is asked to predict the outcome of the climactic battle, but doesn't know what answer to give Lord Hong. So he says with confidence that 'The enemy will be defeated' and then leaves before he is asked whose enemy (it helps that the question that is asked is "Are you sure?", which also lets him leave, apparently in a huff over being doubted.)
    • In the Tourist's Guide To Lancre, there's mention of a Headless Horseman who haunts Magrat's home village. How the reins stay on is something of a mystery.
    • Death's manservant Albert is actually a wizard named Alberto Malich, who attempted to become immortal by casting the "summon Death" spell backwards, believing it would repel Death. Instead, it summons him from his home to Death's home. Technically it still worked, since Death was willing to negotiate when he got there.
    • In Soul Music, Ridcully, searching for the rest of the senior wizards, tells Ponder Stibbons "I've lost my faculty." Ponder replies "For what, Archchancellor?"
    • There's a Running Gag in Reaper Man about the zombified Windle Poons having "eyes like gimlets", which is interpreted in at least once instance as "eyes like Gimlet's", "that dwarf who runs the delicatessen on Cable Street". (Taking the joke further, official art by both Paul Kidby and David Wyatt suggests that Gimlet does have a very penetrating stare.)
    • In Unseen Academicals an urchin asks Ridcully "'Ow do I know I can trust you?" and Ridcully replies "The workings of the mind are a mystery to me too, but I'm glad that is your belief."
    • In The Fifth Elephant, when Carrot wants to follow Angua to Uberwald and resigns from the Watch without explaining why, Lord Vetinari says "Nevertheless, it is a long way to Uberwald." Carrot asks "How did you know?" and Vetinari, of course, explains that people have measured it.
    • According to the Ankh-Morpork Post Office Diary, the youngest person ever to be sacked from the Post Office lost his position when a packet clearly marked "PRICELESS ENGRAVINGS DO NOT BEND" was delivered with the additional message "YES THEY DO".
  • Dresden Files:
    • In the book Skin Game Michael is a little vague with his pronoun usage.
      Nicodemus: Lower the Sword, or I will order Grey to kill Valmont.
      Michael: If you do that, Dresden and I will fight to the death.
      Harry: Right. We'll fight you. Not each other. In case that wasn't clear.
    • Dresden's specificity probably comes from dealing with the Fae as much as he has.
      Leanansidhe: Give me your hand, child.
      Harry: I need my hand, godmother.
  • From The Elements of Style:
    New York's first commercial human-sperm bank opened Friday with semen samples from eighteen men frozen in a stainless steel tank.
    (...) In the left-hand version of the third example, the reader's heart goes out to those eighteen poor fellows frozen in a steel tank.
  • The Sophists in the Socratic dialogues by Plato sometimes employ these when making their arguments, like Dionysodorus in Euthydemus when he is speaking with Socrates.
    Dionysodorus: You know then what the proper business of each craftsman is? For instance, you know whose business it is to work metal?
    Socrates: Yes, I do—the blacksmith's.
    Dionysodorus: Well then, what about making pots?
    Socrates: The potter's.
    Dionysodorus: And again, to slaughter and skin, and to boil and roast the pieces after cutting them up?
    Socrates: The cook's.
    Dionysodorus: Now if a man does the proper business, he will do rightly?
    Socrates: Very much so.
    Dionysodorus: And the proper business in the case of the cook is, as you say, to cut up and skin? You did agree to that didn't you?
    Socrates: Yes, I did, but forgive me.
    Dionysodorus: Then it is clear that if someone kills the cook and cuts him up, and then boils him and roasts him, he will be doing the proper business. And if anyone hammers the blacksmith himself, and puts the potter on the wheel, he will also be doing the proper business.
  • In Gardens of the Moon, the first book in Malazan Book of the Fallen, a character named Sorry is asked for her name. When she replies truthfully, the other party shrugs it off as a case of amnesia. Sorry doesn't bother to correct him.
  • This is used twice in one of the Greyfriars stories.
    • Bunter is on holiday and in Singapore with some other boys from his school. Too lazy to walk, and with no rickshaws (or means of summoning one) in sight, the following conversation takes place:
      Bunter: Don't hang about. Just call me a rickshaw.
      Bob Cherry: O.K. You're a rickshaw!
    • Shortly after, a rickshaw comes along but Bunter is a bit too fat for the flimsy rickshaw. He only gets a slight bump from the rickshaw collapsing but immediately wants an ambulance anyway.
      Bob Cherry: Like me to call you an ambulance? [grinning]
      Bunter: Yes, I jolly well would.
      Bob Cherry: All right! You're an ambulance, Bunter.
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hagrid purchases a "flesh-eating slug repellent". It's confirmed elsewhere in the series that it's the slug that's flesh-eating, not the repellent.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
    • An infamous one:
      Ford: You'd better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace. It's unpleasantly like being drunk.
      Arthur: What's so unpleasant about being drunk?
      Ford: You ask a glass of water.
    • Later, Ford explains a random sofa appearing in a field as "eddies in the time-space continuum". Arthur replies "And this is his sofa, is it?" (This also happens in the radio version, except Arthur's line there is "Well, tell him to come and collect his sofa, then!")
  • Holmes on the Range: The villain of "The Crack in The Lens'' is revealed when Old Red takes notice of some missing photographs.
    Old Red: I'm talkin' about the man who took 'em.
    "You mean The man who took 'em?" I pantominined pressing a camera button with my thumb. Or the man who took 'em? I swiped an imaginary picture off the wall and tucked it under my jacket.
    Old Red: Good God, Otto — don't you see how it all fits together? They're the same man.
  • In the I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue spin-off The Little Book of Mornington Crescent, one of Heroes of the Game is a Child Prodigy who obsessively played the game against her Imaginary Friend. Her baffled parents took her to a child psychiatrist. And when he couldn't help, they took her to a grown-up one.
  • Robert Thornton gives us The Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations (L.I.A.R.), which contains this gem of a candidate recommendation:
    I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine. In my opinion you will be fortunate to get this person to work for you. I recommend him with no qualifications whatsoever. No person would be better for the job. I urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment. All in all, and without reservation, I cannot say enough good things about him, nor can I recommend him too highly.note 
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: The Witch's threat that if anyone (the dwarf or Edmund) mentions Aslan's name again, he shall instantly be killed. Did she mean Aslan shall be killed, or he who speaks his name? A later scene implies the latter, and the wording of the threat was changed slightly note  in the BBC adaptation.
  • There's the famous one from The Lord of the Rings. The inscription on the door to Moria reads, "Speak 'friend,' and enter" in Elvish. What is required is to say the Elvish word for friend (the gates were to a Dwarf-kingdom, but were designed by an Elf from the neighboring Elf-kingdom). Gandalf misinterprets this as saying "Speak, friend, and enter," and assumes the door is commanding him to speak a required secret password that he doesn't know. He finally gets through when he realizes his mistake.
  • Patrick McManus in one of his books, after swerving to avoid hitting a skunk one night:
    Bun: My goodness! What would you have done if you'd hit that skunk with the car?
    Pat: The only thing to do. I'd have stopped and buried it in the ditch. I might have even buried the skunk while I was at it.
  • Moon Base Alpha: During the first half of the second book, people ignore Dash's sister Violet's repeated suggestion about where Nina disappeared to. When they finally tell her why they think she's wrong, it becomes clear that Violet is right. Specifically, [she said maybe Nina left without taking her spacesuit (which is still in its locker). Rather than suggesting Nina is able to breathe in the vacuum, Violet means maybe she didn't take her suit, but borrowed someone else's.
  • From Nursery Crime: The Fourth Bear:
    "The other three orderlies who accompanied him are critical in the hospital."
    "Critical?"
    "Yes. Don't like the food, bed's uncomfortable, waiting list's too long. Usual crap."
  • An entire scene in The Well of Lost Plots is built on this, when Thursday meets a man with a hat named Wilbur (or something like that). The man is apparently cursed with bad syntax, and is constantly apologizing for it.
  • In One Cool Friend, Elliot tells his father he's going to do research at the library about Magellan (the penguin, not the explorer). His father says in third grade, he got Captain Cook. The reader is made to think he's talking about a research project about James Cook, but since he owns a tortoise named Captain Cook, it's more likely he's telling his son he got the tortoise when he in third grade.
  • Past Mortem.
    • An IRA sympathizer (or possibly an active member) who is being questioned about one murder says that her alibi is attending a fundraiser to buy bullets for British soldiers.
    For a moment Newson was confused, knowing that Mrs. Ahern was a staunch Irish Nationalist. Then he realized that these bullets were not intended to be offered as gifts.
    • A schoolgirl is found dead with a note saying "The bullying killed me in the end." People initially assume that she was a bullying victim who killed herself, but Newson realizes that she was murdered and the note meant that the Serial Killer targeted her for being a bully.
  • The Railway Children: When the children want to get the attention of the old gentleman who travels on the train every day, they make a sign beside the railway saying "Look out at the station". Did they mean "Beware at the station"? Fortunately, the sign has the right effect, and people do look out of the train, including the old gentleman.
  • The story (and story collection title) "Reality Conditions" by Alex Kasman of "Math Fiction" fame. The obvious interpretation is also legit, but what meant is a mathematical terminus technicus: preconditions on a function so that it takes real values (in contrast to complex ones).
  • In X-Wing Series: Rogue Squadron, Corran Horn is flying with a randomized flight program while broadcasting a beacon that allows a set of proton torpedoes to follow him toward a target (It Makes Sense in Context). Most of the torpedoes hit the target, but one set that was fired late didn't, and continued to follow him. Horn, struggling to evade the torpedoes with the randomized flight program, tells his astromech Whistler to "cut it out". Corran meant the flight program; Whistler instead opted to "cut out" the beacon. It worked out, though Corran got a bit of a scare.
  • Since his Basic isn't perfect, the title character of Thrawn does this at the beginning, and also as a Mythology Gag. In the beginning of Heir to the Empire , Thrawn explains how you can learn a lot about a culture by studying their art. Here, to his translator:
    Thrawn: You can learn a lot about people by the stories they tell.
    Parck: Is that right? And what do our stories say about the Empire?
    Thrawn: Pardon, I misspoke. I meant to say, you can learn a lot about a person by the stories he chooses to tell.
  • A big clue to the mystery of While My Pretty One Sleeps is hidden in plain sight in Ethel's fashion article thanks to this trope, though it's not until the climax that a character (and likely the reader) picks up on it. In the section of Ethel's fashion article covering Anthony della Salva, she finishes it with the line "The creator of the Pacific Reef look deserves all the honours the fashion industry can bestow." Jack later discovers from Ethel's early draft that she intentionally rewrote this sentence to remove mention of della Salva and leave it ambiguous. This is because she'd already started to figure out that Sal didn't create the Pacific Reef look, but still needed more evidence, so she simply reworded the sentence so it could be interpreted as either 'Sal created it' or 'someone else did'.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, Harry has gotten Easy Amnesia and forgotten he's an alien, but finds out the others are aliens and becomes paranoid about them:
    Sally: Come on, let's eat, Harry.
    Harry: Did you just say, "let's eat Harry"?
    Sally: Yeah, we're hungry, so it's time to eat, Harry.
    Harry: "Eat Harry". I see. [beat] Could I just have a moment?
    Sally: Whatever. [leaves]
    Tommy: [enters] Will you hurry it up, I'm starving!
  • In 30 Rock, a new actor is hired and Jenna enlists Tracy to help get rid of him. She tells him "He's evil, Tracy!" making Tracy say "He's Evil Tracy?!" before he realizes that she meant "He's evil, comma, Tracy."
  • In the opening of one episode of ALF, when ALF attempts to raid the fridge for a midnight snack of leftover pork, he finds a note on it from the Tanners saying 'ALF, don't eat this'. ALF wonders why they think he would eat a piece of paper before tossing it aside.
  • From The Amazing Race 29
    Matt: Only a couple of weeks ago I-I met this guy with a carbon-fiber leg named Redmond.
    Redmond: What was the name of the other leg?
    Matt: First place.
  • When Wesley first showed up on Angel, he announced that he had become a rogue demon hunter. Cordelia's response: "What's a rogue demon?"
    • The Angel roleplaying game introduces a rogue demon hunter character type, who is in fact a rogue demon, who hunts other demons, thus technically making her a "rogue demon demon hunter".
    • One episode involved an enchanted "talking stick", as in a stick used in group therapy sessions to signify when it's someone's turn to speak — when Cordelia hears about this, she asks "there's a stick that talks?".
  • Arrested Development:
    • Dr. Fishman does this as a Running Gag, making ambiguous statements about patients' conditions that badly miscast the situation:
      • He tells the Bluths that George Sr., critically ill following a heart attack in prison, "got away from us", and they "lost him". (Because he faked the symptoms and escaped from the hospital).
      • He tells the Bluths that Buster will be "all right" after being attacked by a seal. (Because the seal bit off his left hand.)
      • He tells Michael that there's nothing he can do to treat his illness. (Because his case has been assigned to another doctor.)
      • He tells the Bluths that it looks like Tobias is dead. (Because he's covered in blue paint.)
      • He tells Lindsay she looks hot. (Because she has a fever.)
      • He tells his interns that Tobias broke his skull in two places. (Once in the street, and once in the hospital hallway where he fell off the gurney.)
      • He tells Lucille that Buster went down piloting a plane that crashed in Afghanistan (he was piloting it remotely, fainting when the machine crashed), but the Army gave him a "big hand" (a super-high tech prosthetic hand).
    • The series gets a lot of mileage out of George-Michael's cousin Maeby, who may or may not be his cousin after all. Her alter-ego Shirley, however, doesn't exist at all.
    • Buster has an argument he had with his mother about him dating her social rival, Lucille II:
      Buster: And I'm going to continue dating, Mom!
      Michael: Sounds a little bit like "dating Mom".
  • In one episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, when Lethal Chef Elly May enters a cake-baking contest, she mentions that she needs the broom to sweep up because when put her cake down on a table, it broke to pieces. When Jed and Granny express this means she's out of the contest, Elly May clarifies that it was the table that broke.
  • The Big Bang Theory:
    • In "The Wheaton Recurrence" Sheldon & the gang are playing a bowling match against a team that includes his rival Wil Wheaton, so he makes team t-shirts for everyone. In an attempt at a Take That! towards Wheaton and his Star Trek character “Wesley Crusher”, Sheldon has every shirt labeled with his appointed team name: “The Wesley Crushers”. Sheldon intended it to mean that they will crush Wesley, but everyone else thinks it means he named the team directly after Wheaton’s character, to which Sheldon tries to explain his intent. Of course, when Wheaton arrives, he finds it hilarious that Sheldon named the team after his character, to which Sheldon gives up on the name. It doesn't help that when Penny asks why he named it after Wesley, he just keeps saying "not the Wesley Crushers, the Wesley Crushers", instead of saying something like "it means we're gonna crush Wesley."
    • In the episode "The Zazzy Substitution", after the intervention for Sheldon's cat hoarding, Sheldon and Amy are finding home for the cats with the sign "Cats $20".
    Sheldon: Thank you, Amy. Here's your cat. And here's your $20.
    • A scene in "The Indecision Amalgamation" has Penny and Leonard looking over a terrible movie script she's been offered.
      Penny: Okay, look, here, page 58. I oil-wrestle an orang-utan in a bikini.
      Leonard: Just to clarify, which one of you is wearing the bikini?
      Penny: Both of us.
  • Birds of a Feather: Occurs when the girls are discussing how to get help to escape a locked parking garage in "Sunday":
    Dorien: Let's shout in unison.
    Tracey: No, I think we should shout "Help".
  • Blackadder:
    • In the first episode, Richard IV asks Prince Edmund, "Fight you with us on the morrow?" Blackadder hastily replies that he'll be fighting with the enemy. Cue awkward pause.
    • In Blackadder Goes Forth, Bob Parkhurst disguises herself as a man because she "want[s] to see how a war is fought so badly." Edmund informs her that she has come to the right place, as the war is being fought very badly indeed.
    • Blackadder also gives us "Say thank you, Baldrick." "Thank you Baldrick."
    • From Blackadder II:
      Blackadder: Get the door, Baldrick.
      [Baldrick returns to the room with a door in his hands]
    • In another episode, Percy mentions that Lady Caroline Fairfax is his girlfriend, to Blackadder's surprise.
      Percy: Oh, yes. I even touched her once.
      Blackadder: Touched her what?
      Percy: Her... once. In a corridor.
      Blackadder: I've never heard it called that before. Still, when you get home, you'll be a hero! She might even let you get your hands on her twice!
    • In "Potato," Edmund kvetches about Sir Walter Raleigh and his exploits and how he introduced potatoes to Ireland. He holds up said vegetable:
    Edmund: I mean, what is this?
    Baldrick: I'm surprised you've forgotten, m'lord.
    Edmund: (long suffering) I haven't forgotten...it's a rhetorical question.
    Baldrick: Nah, it's a potato.
    • In Blackadder the Third, Edmund tells Mr. Hardwood that "The Prince wants your daughter for his wife." An outraged Mr. Hardwood replies "Well, his wife can't have her!"
    • Blackadder the Third also has an incredibly reactionary MP who declares that he "dined hugely off a servant":
      Prince George: Um, you eat your servants?
      Sir Talbot: No, sir; I eat off them. Why should I spend money on tables when I have men standing idle?
    • An unintentional example from Third: Due to Vincent Hanna's hushed delivery, it's not entirely clear if Brigadier-General Horace Bolsom represents the Keep Royalty White, Rat-Catching and Safe Sewage Residents' Party or the Keep Royalty, White Rat-Catching, etc. Do they believe in keeping royalty white and catching rats, or in keeping royalty and catching white rats? (Most transcripts and online resources go for the former.)
  • Boy Meets World:
    Topanga: And we're living in an apartment where a guy was shot over a salad, part of which was still stuck on the wall!
    Angela: ...the guy or the salad?
    Topanga: I don't know. I ate it anyway.
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Band Candy", someone had painted "KISS rocks!" on the students' lockers. Willow is briefly confused over why anyone would kiss rocks.
  • On an episode of Carnivàle, Stumpy did a spiel promising to show "the fearsome Man Eating Chicken." When the curtain was pulled aside, another carny was sitting at a table, eating... well, you can guess.
    • Was the carny in question fearsome?
  • Cheers:
    • One episode has Rebecca hold Sam at gunpoint, but she doesn't shoot. She then goes "I'm sorry the gun wasn't loaded", before clarifying she means she's sorry for pointing the gun at Sam, and that it wasn't loaded.
    • In the final episode, Frasier heads off by saying Lilith asked him to pick up a Chinese for dinner. He's fairly certain she meant Chinese takeaway.
  • Criminal Minds: When the team is investigating a bank robber/killer who makes his victims undress, Elle reads a headline that calls him the "Stripping Bandit" and points out that it sounds like he's the one doing the stripping.
  • In the Defiance episode "This Woman's Work", Stahma Tarr is being harassed by the holy man Kurr who vows to "see [her] on a shaming rack." She arranges for him to be put on a shaming rack and makes sure he sees her when she casts her stone.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "The Two Doctors" uses the oldey-but-a-goodey To Serve Man version with an alien going into a restaurant and asking, "Do you serve humans here?"
    • In "The Name of the Doctor", the Doctor has a secret that he will take to his grave. It is discovered. Not the secret, the grave.
    • Somewhat the case in the 50th Anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor". The three doctors attempt to save their home planet of Gallifrey from destruction during the Time War, but are left clueless about whether they succeeded or not. All they have is a painting of the planet, which apparently has two titles: "No More" and "Gallifrey Falls". It's only after talking to the museum's curator (implied to be a future version of the Doctor, given his resemblance to the fourth incarnation) that Eleven finds out the painting has one full title: "Gallifrey falls no more".
    • "Heaven Sent" ends with the Doctor finally revealing the identity of the Hybrid, a being who has been discussed all season: "The Hybrid...is me!" It's left unclear (and never properly revealed) whether he was referring to himself ("The Hybrid is me") or to Ashildr, who had been calling herself simply "Me" for centuries ("The Hybrid is Me"); each of the two proposes the other is the Hybrid in the following episode, and ultimately the question is handwaved away (it turns out the Doctor never knew to begin with, and was lying to get the Time Lords to resurrect Clara).
    • In the opening scene of "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", the Doctor hands Grant (a young boy at the time) an energy gem and a glass of water and tells him "Take this." He means "hold onto this for a moment"; Grant (who assumes that the fellow who introduced himself as "the Doctor" is a medical doctor) interprets it as an instruction to "take" (swallow) the "pill".
  • Drake & Josh just before leaving for a wedding:
    Mrs. Parker: Aww Drake, you don't eat a hot dog wearing a tuxedo.
    Drake: This hot dog's not wearing a tuxedo.
  • Fawlty Towers has one of the best gags in the series use this trope.
    German Guest: Will you stop talking about the war?!
    Basil Fawlty: Me? You started it!
    Guest: We did not start it!
    Basil: Yes you did, you invaded Poland!
  • In The Flash (2014), speedster Big Bad Savitar taunts Barry Allen saying "I am the future, Flash." When Savitar is revealed to be a future Flash, he echoes the line back to Barry.
  • Friends:
    • One episode has Joey being interviewed:
      Interviewer: How does it feel to have a huge gay fan base?
      Joey: Really, me? Wow, I don't even know any huge gay people.
    • In the first episode, when Monica says she's got a date with "Paul the wine guy," Phoebe asks, "Does he sell it, drink it, or complain a lot?"
    • In another episode, Chandler questions whether "the place with the big fish" refers to one big fish or several big fish.
    • Then there was a time Monica got a catering job for "a funeral for 60 people." Rachel gasps in horror, "Oh, my God, what happened?!" before she adds, "60 guests."
    • The tragic "Got the keys" incident that led to everyone accidentally getting locked outside while Thanksgiving dinner burned. Monica insists she phrased it as a question ("Do you have the keys?") before they all rushed outside, but the others insist they heard it as an affirmative statement ("I've got the keys.").
  • In a German sketch show, there was an emergency telephone. When a poor victim wanted to use it, it cried "Emergency! Emergency!".
  • In Good Luck Charlie, PJ is offering cats, with a sign saying "Cats, $20."
    PJ: Here's your cat. And here's your $20.
  • While being interviewed on The Graham Norton Show, Keira Knightley spoke about how for A Dangerous Method she had to practice her "bad sex faces". Samuel L. Jackson, also being interviewed, joked whether she meant bad sex faces, or bad sex faces.
  • Paul Merton likes to use this trope on Have I Got News for You.
    • For example, when he was asked to complete the headline "(BLANK) flies off without warning", he suggested "Spider scares..." and "Clinton's...".
    • Also: "Saddam Hussein was found in his underpants. Makes you wonder why they didn't look there in the first place."
  • An episode of Hey Dude! featured Buddy trying to prove that hypnosis works by hypnotizing Jake, who is eating a bowl of cereal, into pouring the cereal over his head. Meaning Buddy wants the cereal on Jake's head, not his own. Jake plays along just so he can abuse this trope, along with Pronoun Trouble:
    Buddy: I want you to pour the cereal over your head.
    Jake: Must pour cereal... over your head. [dumps cereal on Buddy]
    [later Buddy tries to correct this]
    Jake: Must pour cereal... over... over...
    Buddy: My head, over my head.
    Jake: [dumps cereal on Buddy]
  • In one episode of House, while House and Wilson are living together, House wanders out into the kitchen in the nude, and ends up crossing paths with Wilson's new girlfriend who had spent the night. When he tells Wilson about the encounter, he phrases it as, "I bumped into your babe, naked". This causes Wilson (quite possibly by House's design) to initially misunderstand exactly who was naked in that scenario.
  • In an episode of I Love Lucy, there was a comedic stage show featuring a "Man Eating Tiger"; Ricky holding a tiny, edible model tiger and taking a bite out of it.
  • The InBESTigators: Ava and Kyle are vlogging about a recent case that the team solved.
    Ava: Anyway, I was away at my cousin’s wedding so you need to say what happened.
    Kyle: They got married?
    Ava: Not at the wedding. To you guys!
  • Is It Legal?: The first episode has Stella inform the Naïve Newcomer Colin of Dick's current whereabouts by informing him that "Dick's out". This makes Colin believe that she wants his dick in a weird initiation ceremony until Stella tells him otherwise.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In "The ANTI-Social Network", Dennis tries to find the man who shushed the Gang in a bar. He posts drawings of the guy around town with the writing "RUDE MAN WHO SHUSHES PLEASE CALL", along with his own phone number — and keeps getting called by rude men who shush him. It's Charlie of all people who lampshades the problem to him.
  • Judge John Deed: Played for Drama. When a boy resists handing over his mobile phone which two thieves are attempting to steal, one of them shouts "Give it to him, let him have it before we're nicked"; the other thief then stabs the boy. They are asked in court what "Give it to him, let him have it" meant.
  • Kaamelott: One episode has Séli explain the problems with hosting meetings with clan chieftains, citing their appetites, the drunkenness, the nonexistent manners...
    Séli: And then they fight with the servants.
    [blank stare from Arthur]
    Séli: They fight with the servants.
    [blank stare]
    Séli: They grab the servants, and they use them to
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: Exploited. White Woz (the antagonistic Alternate Universe version of the more heroic "Black" Woz) possesses a notebook that lets him alter reality just by writing down what he wants to happen. In one arc, White Woz's Kamen Rider powers are stolen and he attempts to retrieve them by writing "The powers return to Woz". However, at that moment Black Woz leaps out and intercepts the Transformation Trinket, observing that he really should have specified which Woz would get the powers.
  • In an episode of Kate & Allie, Allie finds an envelope on the sidewalk. When she opens it, she announces, "It contains five hundred dollar bills!" Kate asks, "Is that five hundred dollar bills, or five hundred-dollar bills, or an unspecified number of five-hundred dollar bills?" (It's the third option, specifically $5000 in $500-dollar bills.)
  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Any time John Oliver adds a #HashtagForLaughs, he'll sometimes mention that the exact message of his hashtag might seem unclear. For example, in the example about guardianships, after a joke about foxes was accompanied by the hashtag "Not All Foxes" (#NOTALLFOXES), he sees that the hashtag could also be interpreted as "No Tall Foxes".
  • In an episode of The Latest Buzz, a psychic tells Michael that he will encounter "a 6-foot man eating chicken". He then sees his teacher, who is 6 feet tall, eating chicken and becomes convinced that the psychic is genuine.
  • One episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has witnesses hear a struggle and a girl screaming "Don't! Stop!" Afterward, she's found beaten and bruised, and her boyfriend is arrested for it. Turns out she was trying to induce an abortion, so she and her boyfriend were both pummeling her stomach, and she was actually screaming "Don't stop!" to encourage her boyfriend to continue the assault.
  • The Librarians (2014): In "And the Steal of Fortune", Jenkins is converting a toaster into a machine that can scan new artefacts as they arrive in the Library. He tells Jones it's a "new artefact tester", and Jones immediately asks what happened to the old artefact tester. When Jenkins clarifies "a tester for new artefacts", Jones replies "All right. And what happened to our old tester for new artefacts?"
  • Played for Laughs in an episode of The Mentalist, when Rigsby, whose girlfriend is pregnant with his child at the time, ends up in an elevator with a crying baby.
    Van Pelt: That'll be you soon.
    Rigsby: No, no. I can cry much louder than that.
  • Mock the Week:
    • From a Scenes We'd Like To See round of 'Things you wouldn't hear on a survival show':
      Milton Jones: Of course, if you're on an expedition, you must always make sure you boil all the water. Now this can really slow you down if you come to a lake.
    • One episode has a panelist mention a "huge pigeon problem" - then immediately points out he means a pigeon problem that's severe, not a problem with gigantic pigeons. Dara mocks him by imitating a monstrous-sized pigeon attacking people.
  • In an episode of Modern Family, Mitch explained to Gloria that his daughter's "My Lil' Companion" doll had a backstory involving working with "blind dolphins and models".
    Gloria: There are blind models? That's so sad! They can not see how pretty they are.
  • Monk:
    • In "Mr. Monk on Wheels", Monk has been shot in the leg, and Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher are interrogating the suspected shooter's cousin:
      Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: Hmm, tough guy, ehh? [shows the bullet in an evidence bag] Look at this. See that? That's a bullet. That's a bullet that got dug out of our very dear friend's leg tonight!
      Lt. Randall Disher: That makes your cousin a former cop shooter.
      Vince Kuramoto: Former what?
      Lt. Randall Disher: Former cop shooter.
      Vince Kuramoto: You mean he used to shoot cops?
      Lt. Randall Disher: No. He shot someone who used to be a cop.
      Vince Kuramoto: Why didn't you say that?
      Lt. Randall Disher: I did, it's the same thing.
      Vince Kuramoto: It's not the same thing at all, it's not even close—
      Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: Oh, for God's sakes! What are you two, married or what?! Look, it's not complicated, Vince! If you know where your cousin is and you're not telling us, [points an accusing finger at Vince] that makes you an accessory after the fact.
      Lt. Randall Disher: For aiding and abetting!
      Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: For attempted murder, which is a very very very long "goodbye"! Let me put it this way: your parole officer? He hasn't been born yet.
    • In "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs", Bob Costas asks Stottlemeyer if Monk's told him about the way they met. Stottlemeyer says all he knows is that involved something about a demented cat salesman. Costas then clarifies: the cat salesman was not demented, he sold demented cats, like a calico kitten that was psychotic, and other cats that had multiple personalities.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus:
    • "Next week, part 2: Biggles Flies Undone."note 
    • "In 1970 the British Empire lay in ruins, foreign nationals frequented the streets — many of them Hungarians (not the streets-the foreign nationals)."
    • "Don't anybody leave the room, my name is Constable Look-out!"
      "Look out?"
      "Where? Oh, right. Look-out of the Yard."
      "What will we see when we look out of the yard?"
    • "Walk this way."
      "If I could walk that way, I wouldn't need aftershave."
    • "There's a man at the door with a mustache."
      "Tell him I've already got one."
  • In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Teen-Age Strangler", there is some discussion as to the meaning of the title of the movie: there is a strangler, but it isn't a teenager, and not all of the victims of the strangler are teen-age girls, so why is it titled Teen-Age Strangler?
  • Open All Hours:
    Arkwright: [reading newspaper] "The police are looking for a small man with one eye". If he's that small, you'd think they'd use both eyes!
  • In the Parks and Recreation episode in which Ben and Leslie get married, Andy sees Leslie in her wedding dress:
    Andy: Oh my God, I'm not supposed to see you before the wedding!
    April: Andy, that's the groom.
    Andy: Oh no, I saw him too!
  • An episode of Perfect Strangers has Larry and Balki trying to fix the plumbing in their apartment.
    Larry: [holding pipe] Now, when I nod my head, you hit it with the hammer.
  • The Prisoner (1967) uses Number 2's odd, stilted syntax to hide something that, were it written down properly punctuated, would give away the series' Twist Ending.
    Number 6: Who is Number 1?
    Number 2: You are, Number 6.
  • QI:
    • Stephen Fry is asked by a panellist "Where do you stand on Marmite?" His response: "I never stand on Marmite. It's a stupid thing to do. But I quite like the taste of it, I have to admit."
    • From the Season F Christmas episode, "Fire and Freezing":
      Rob Bryden: My father grew up in the same street, literally the same street, as Anthony Hopkins.
      Stephen Fry: In England we live in houses.
  • In the first episode of Red Dwarf, Lister outlines his plan for the future as "I'm gonna buy meself a little farm on Fiji, and I'm gonna get a sheep and a cow and breed horses." A bemused Rimmer asks "With a sheep and a cow?"
  • The hosts of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In's perennial signoff lines:
    Dan Rowan: Say goodnight, Dick.
    Dick Martin: Goodnight, Dick.
    • A zinger from Judy Carne:
    My parents say I don't know what good clean fun is. And they're right. But they never knew what good it is.
  • This is the entire point of the classic Saturday Night Live sketch "Robot Repair."
    • A Saturday Night Live skit, wherein Ed Asner tells Julia Louis-Dreyfus first "You can never put too much water in a nuclear reactor," and ends with "You can never stare too long at a mushroom cloud."
  • One episode of Scrubs has Gooch threaten to smash Turk's face in with her ukelele until it's in a million pieces. She doesn't say whether his face or the ukelele would be the one in pieces.
  • In an episode of Selfie, Henry has the wrong idea about the song "Working For the Weekend" by Loverboy, he thinks its about working during the weekend, and he tells this (even singing it with a coworker in an elevator) to Eliza to encourage her to do something nice on the weekend. Another co-worker explains the song is actually about working during the week so that you can have fun on the weekend, and Henry declares he's going to delete that song from his playlist.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017):
    • Count Olaf, in disguise as "Stephano," vs. Mr. Poe. This happens when the Baudelaires try to warn Mr. Poe:
      "Stephano": Who am I? What am I doing? Don't you miss the vivid imagination of childhood?
      Mr. Poe: I never had one.
      "Stephano": An imagination or a childhood?
    • Later, when Count Olaf first interacts with Aunt Josephine in his "Captain Sham" disguise:
      "Captain Sham": I've been fitted with a wooden prosthetic.
      Aunt Josephine: How did it happen?
      "Captain Sham": Uh, we used half of an old broom.
      Aunt Josephine: No, I mean "the accident".
  • Shining Time Station: In "Mr. Conductor's Movie", when everyone tries to show off for a visiting movie director, Mr. Conductor films the ensuing chaos and turns it into a movie. Stacy asks him what his title is, and he responds "Producer/Director".
  • The Soup discussed this regarding a reality show called What!? I'm a Stripper. Joel can't figure out what inflection to use when saying the show's title. It could be read with confusion ("What?? I'm a stripper??") or belligerence (WHAT!? I'M A STRIPPER!).
  • In the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", La'an is confronted by a dying time traveler who gives her a device and tells her to "get to the bridge". Being on the Enterprise, she assumes that bridge, only to discover she's on an Alternate Timeline bridge with Kirk as captain. Once the two are swept up and sent to 21st century Toronto, they have absolutely no idea what to do until a bridge is blown up, setting them on the right path.
  • The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Devil in the Dark" has the Horta, after a mind-meld with Spock, carve out on a rock (with its acid) the message NO KILL I. Kirk even points out the ambiguity: "What is that, a plea for us not to kill it, or a promise that it won't kill us?"
  • Superstore: This causes confusion in the Season 3 premiere "Grand Re-Opening," when Jeff sends Glenn a memo reading, "Bring back the staff a week before the grand re-opening on the 28th." Glenn assumes the start date for the Cloud 9 re-opening process is on the 28th, but it turns out that the 28th is the actual re-opening date, so Glenn ends up a week behind. This leads to an argument between Dina and Glenn over whether the memo was clear enough.
    Amy: "Bring back the staff a week before the grand opening... on the 28th." Yeah, this is confusing.
    Dina: No! "Bring back the staff a week before... the grand opening on the 28th."
    Glenn: He didn't say it like that! You're adding emphasis!
    Amy: Okay guys, we just need to figure out what we're going to do.
    Glenn: Or as Dina would put it, "We need to figure out what we're gonna do!"
    Dina: Maybe I would. Maybe I would say it like that.
    Glenn: Yeah, well, good luck in radio.
  • Taskmaster: Many of the tasks are deliberately written in a way that allows for interpretation on the part of the contestants, allowing for potential Loophole Abuse. For example, one task called for the contestants to "Place these three exercise balls on the yoga mat on the top of that hill." While most of them did so by carrying the balls up the hill, one interpreted it as "Place these three excercise balls on the yoga mat that is currently on the top of that hill", and proceeded to bring the yoga mat to the balls. The show actually consulted a grammarian, who confirmed this interpretation as valid.
  • That Mitchell and Webb Look: In one of the event sketches, the announcer introduces the contestants as "Peter, who you may remember; and Sheila, who you're also permitted to remember."
  • The Twilight Zone (1959) provides the classic example of "To Serve Man". An instruction manual on how to cater to human beings, or a cookbook with the best man-steak recipes? It wouldn't be The Twilight Zone if it were the former.
  • Jokes based on this are part of Aaron Sorkin's Signature Style.
    • From The West Wing:
      Abbey: Women talk about their husbands overshadowing their careers — mine got eaten.
      C.J.: Your husband got eaten?
      Abbey: My career.
      C.J.: Yeah, well, I'm on dangling-modifier patrol.
    • In the pilot of The West Wing, Leo asks Sam to give his daughter's fourth-grade class a tour in the West Wing. He is utterly unprepared and spends his time between making a fool out of himself and trying to figure out which of the girls is Leo's daughter, so he can properly suck up to her. The teacher loses her patience and drags him out of the room to chew him out, after which this happens:
      Sam: Now. Would you please, in the name of compassion, tell me which one of those kids is my boss's daughter.
      Mallory: ...That would be me.
      Sam You?
      Mallory: Yes.
      Sam Leo's daughter's fourth grade class.
      Mallory: Yes.
      Sam: ...Well, this is bad on so many levels.
  • Similarly to the Ninja Assassin example listed under Films — Live-Action, previous to its debut, the Netflix series Wu Assassins never specified in any of the promotional material if the titular character was a Wu who worked as an assassin, or someone who went around killing Wus.
  • The X-Files: In "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", a supposed psychic claims that he'll die in bed with Scully. He ends up dying in a hospital bed, with Scully in the same room.

    Music 
  • Jim Stafford's My Girl Bill: At first listen you think the two men are talking about coming to terms about their love affair to each other... but it's really about two men who loved the same woman. "She's MY girl,(beat) Bill."
  • Sheb Wooley's 1958 novelty hit "Purple People Eater". The "one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater" could either be a purple creature who eats people, or a creature who eats purple people. It's not clear from the title itself, but the song clarifies it with the exchange ''I said, 'Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line?'/ He said 'Eating purple people, and it sure is fine'," and later in the song the confused backing vocalists ask "purple people?" However, a lot of the promotional materials for the song had it colored purple as well, so it could've been a purple Purple People Eater.
  • Ray Stevens' "Little League":
    I remember batting practice — I put a baseball on a string
    And I told this kid, "When I nod my head, haul off and hit that thing!"
    Heh, gotta give him credit; he did
    exactly what I said
    Cuz the second that I nodded... HE HIT ME IN THE HEAD!
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic:
    • "Jurassic Park" has the line "A huge Tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer/Well I suppose that proves/They're really not all bad." The ambiguity is whether the T. rex isn't all bad, for disposing of a lawyer, or the lawyer isn't all bad, either for providing sustenance/another target, or in the "not un-tasty" sense. Al says he left it ambiguous on purpose.
    • Applies to the opening line of "Everything You Know Is Wrong": "I was driving on the freeway in the fast lane with a rabid wolverine in my underwear", the ambiguity of which was later the subject of a quiz question on Weird Al's website. Is there a rabid wolverine stuffed down Al's pants, is Al sharing a car with a wolverine who's wearing his underwear, or is Al simply in his own underwear, with the wolverine just along for the ride?
  • Mike Doughty's "Rising Sign" includes the deliberately ambiguous line "I resent the way you make me like myself". "Like" can be read as a verb or a preposition in the context, so it could mean either "I resent that you make me feel good about myself" or "I resent that you make me feel (or behave) like myself".
  • My Chemical Romance gives us this line in the chorus to "Teenagers": So darken your clothes/or strike a violent pose/Maybe they'll leave you alone/but not me!.
    • Is the singer saying "they" will leave the teenagers alone, while still harassing/intimidating/looking down on him?
    • Or is he saying that "they" will leave the teens alone, but he won't?
    • Or is this still part of the direct speech beginning "They said 'Teenagers scare the living shit out of me'", in which case "they" are currently the teenagers, "Me" is the previous "they", and "you" is someone else, possibly the singer? And that can also be interpreted in both the above ways.
  • In "Ellsworth" by Rascal Flatts, a line in the chorus reads "Tomorrow she won't remember what she did today..." Either Grandma won't remember the things she physically did today, or she won't remember the same things she remembered today.
  • The last verse of The Kinks' "Lola" ends in "...I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola". This could either mean that the naive narrator never found out that Lola was a transvestite at all ("Lola and I are both glad that I am a man"), or that he did eventually figure it out and just doesn't mind ("I'm glad that Lola and I are both men" or I'm glad I'm a man, and Lola is also glad she's a man.").
  • One that's troubled generations of children: "There was a farmer had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o." More dogs than farmers are named Bingo, but you never know.
  • Danish band Mew named one of their albums "And The Glass Handed Kites"...so, is it a group of kites with glass hands or a glass that gave kites?
  • Comedian Rodney Carrington's song "Fred" has a plot where a man, his horse, and his love interest ("a woman in a nightgown") are all called Fred. This trope makes the chorus either completely innocent or unspeakably filthy.
    Oh, oh, now Fred's a-ridin' Fred
    Fred's ridin' Fred, Fred's ridin' Fred
    Fred's ridin' Fred, Fred's ridin' Fred.
  • Jonathan Coulton has a song called "Nobody Loves You Like Me." Does it mean "nobody loves you like I love you", "nobody loves you and nobody loves me either", or “nobody loves you and neither do I”?The answer seems to be all three.
  • The name of the classic carol is conventionally written as 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'. Given the nature of 16th-century sentence construction, the comma could (and has) been placed either before or after the word 'merry' to produce different, but equally appropriate, versions of the title.
  • The track "Big Butter And Egg Man" by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven. Is it about a duo named Big Butter and Egg Man? Or about a man called Big Butter And Egg? note 
  • Station to Station by David Bowie, which has a title that can be interpreted as a station named Station To or a station named To Station. (Actually, neither; it refers to a form of telephone calls involving operator assistance that has become obsolete.)
  • The chorus of Camila Cabello's "Something's Gotta Give" includes the line "No reason to stay is a good reason to go." Now, does that mean that having no reason to stay means you should leave, or that having a reason that you should stay cancels out a reason to leave?
  • "Titelstory gegen ganzseitige Anzeige" by the band Flowerpornoes (which can be filed under Hamburger Schule, even if from Duisburg). Does the "gegen" means "against", like a title story about the propaganda of the full-page ad? Or does it mean "in exchange", like, you give me a story, then I give you an ad? Neither. It's a standing phrase from layouting (which totally makes sense once you remember Hamburg is the home of a lot press giants) and "gegen" simply is "left page vs right page".
  • "A Good Day is Hard to Find" by Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott. Are the following lines in the chorus saying that "these days" are filled with mediocrities, which is why a good day is hard to find, or that "these days" are so bad that even a day filled with mediocrities would be a good one?
    A good day these days,
    Filled with alrights and okays,
    Filled with backhanded compliments,
    And the faintest of praise.
  • They Might Be Giants's "Dead": "I returned a bag of groceries accidentally taken off the shelf before the expiration date." The second line clarifies that it's about reincarnation, not merely putting the bag back on the shelf.
  • The Bellamy Brothers's song "If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me" plays on the title question having two different interpretations, one is asking if the lady being asked the question be upset if the asker commented on her body and the other asks if she'd hold her body against his if he complemented her body.
  • Dexys Midnight Runners failed to add a comma in a crucial place in the title of their hit "Come On Eileen"; as a result, a large number of jokes interpret the song as being about ejaculating on Eileen rather than calling out to her.
  • An interviewer once asked Dave Grohl if the Foo Fighters "fight foo, or fight for foo?" Dave verified that it's the latter.
  • The first line of Bob Seger's "Her Strut" contains the phrase, "They do respect her, but they love to watch her strut." On its own, it reads as though they love to watch her strut in spite of their respect for her. The way it's sung implies that they respect her butt (and love to watch her Supermodel Strut for that reason).
  • The Rolling Stones: "Sympathy for the Devil" has the eponymous fiend, talking about the death of Jesus Christ, claim to have "made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate". It's unclear if this means Jesus's fate (crucifixion) or Pilate's (damnation, presumably) - the latter is also plausible given the song's focus on tragedy caused by humans.
  • In the song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", is the bikini in question yellow with polka dots, or are the polka dots themselves yellow?
  • "Let the Sun Come In" by The Pretenders has the lines "They even say that we must die/I don't believe that, that's a lie". The rest of the song ("To live forever, that's the plan") makes it pretty clear that the comma should be there, but the rhythm of the tune makes it sound like "I don't believe that that's a lie", which is the exact opposite.
  • No Doubt's "Don't Speak" has "don't tell me 'cause it hurts" in the chorus. Does that mean "don't tell me it's because it hurts", or "telling me would hurt, so don't do it"?
  • "Don't Believe a Word" by Thin Lizzy opens "Don't believe me when I tell you/Not a word of this is true." Is that "Don't believe what I'm telling you because it's not true" or "Don't believe that this is untrue, even though I'm telling you it is"?

    Newspapers 
  • Newspaper headlines can fall victim to this. In fact, they're even more vulnerable to it than normal sentences due to pressures of space requiring all words that seem superfluous to be removed. The professionals call these crash blossoms, the origin of which is from a headline, Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms note  This New York Times article gives several examples of ambiguously worded headlines.
    • The languagelog article listed above contains another zinger: "Bethany Lott killed while being proposed to by a lightning strike in Knoxville"
    • A case in point is "Two Cars Collide; One Sent to Hospital". It means one person, but it sounds like it means one car. Similarly, "Two Ships Collide; One Dies." How exactly does a ship die?note 
    • Another ambiguous headline featuring this trope: "Man Eating Piranha Accidentally Sold as Pet Fish". It's also an example of why attention to punctuation is important. The headline would not be ambiguous if "man-eating" were hyphenated.
    • Some other notable crash blossoms are "Iraqi Head Seeks Arms" and "Police Help Dog Bite Victim."
    • There's also "Giant Tea Bags Protest". Is it a giant protest about tea bags, a protest about giant tea bags, are the giant tea bags protesting or are there bags protesting about giant tea? Or did giant tea give up on (bag) a protest?
    • Similarly, "Hershey Bars Protest," meaning that the company (or town) of Hershey "bars" (disallows) a protest on their premises, but sounds an awful lot like chocolate bars are out there with signs.
    • When Ike Turner died, the New York Post failed to resist the temptation to run the headline "Ike Beats Tina to Death."
  • Robert Ripley, an American columnist, once wrote the supposed origin of the phrase "Pardon impossible. To be sent to Siberia", the meaning of which flips if the period is moved to become "Pardon. Impossible to be sent to Siberia".
  • Another issue is the (especially British) newspaper tendency to build up absurd compound nouns referring back to previous stories: Buried Alive Fiancé Gets 20 Years in Prison note , Sex Quiz Cricket Ace in Hotel Suicide Leap note , Whip rules furore claims first victim note 
    • There is also the reputed headline: "General MacArthur Flies Back To Front", although this may just be an Urban Legend.
  • This can happen in other languages as well. A German newspaper once read "Sri Lankas Soldaten sollen Kinder entführen" — which you can roughly translate into English as "Sri Lanka's soldiers are supposed to abduct children".
    • There's actually a Facebook group dedicated to newspaper titles and articles that suffer from either this or hilarious typos. Their banner for example has the gem "Lepra-Gruppe hat sich aufgelöst" which can translate to either "Lepra group has disbanded" or "Lepra group disintegrated".
  • During Lyndon Johnson's term, at least one newspaper published photos of LBJ showing beagle puppies sired by his dog, whose name was Him, to a small child in the Oval Office. As a result of this trope, the caption of the photo took on a rather... different tone.
  • Because headlines tend to be completely capitalized, the Associated Presses December 2015 headline "John Lennon Fans Mark Singer's Death 35 Years Ago Today" leaves one wondering how John Lennon could "fan" someone named "Mark Singer"'s death.
  • The trivia book How Much Poo Does an Elephant Do? contains a section on these, including the headlines "Kids Make Nutritious Snacks", "Complaints About Referees Growing Ugly", "Gunman Shot By 999 Cops" note , "Stolen Painting Found By Tree", and "Mad Cow Talks".
  • The book Anguished English by Richard Lederer (a book about funny language mistakes in general) has an entire chapter of these, including such gems as DOCTOR TESTIFIES IN HORSE SUIT, PASTOR AGHAST AT FIRST LADY SEX POSITION, CAUSE OF AIDS FOUND: SCIENTISTS, EYE DROPS OFF SHELF, TEACHER STRIKES IDLE KIDS, note  and ENRAGED COW INJURES FARMER WITH AXE
  • British headline from the time of the Falklands War: "British left waffles on Falklands". It's supposed to mean that the British left wing can't make up its mind about the Falklands War, but it sounds like the British left waffles (i. e. the breakfast food) on the Falklands islands.
  • Another British headline circa 2019: "Nasa administrator announces plans to ‘go to the Moon and stay’". The plan is for humanity to go to the Moon - he doesn't just hate his job that badly.
  • Probably deliberately invoked at this point with every "Florida Man [Does Something Stupid]" headline, where the wording suggests there's only one man from Florida behind the most bizarre crime spree in history.

    Podcasts 
  • In Kakos Industries, Corin learns that he is entitled to attend the ultra-board meeting. He's unsure if this is an ultra-meeting of the regular board, or a meeting of a hitherto-unknown ultra-board.

    Puzzles 
  • "In Kansas, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why?" Answer: You can't take a picture of a man with a wooden leg anywhere, you have to use a camera!
  • You have two U.S. coins that add up to thirty cents, and one of them is not a nickel. The two coins are a quarter and a nickel. The quarter is "not a nickel".
  • How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it? however you want, as it's pretty hard to crack a concrete floor with an egg.
  • Bob is a butcher living in Canada. He stands 5'11. What does Bob weigh? Meat.
  • What tastes better than it smells? A tongue.
  • What has four wheels and flies? A garbage truck.
  • If you have three apples in one hand, and four oranges in the other hand, what do you have? really big hands.
  • What's long, brown and sticky? A stick!
  • What starts with an E, ends with an E, but contains only one letter? "envelope".
  • What gets wetter as it dries? a towel.
  • What's red and bad for your teeth? a brick.

    Radio 
  • In the Adventures in Odyssey episode "A License to Drive", Connie is attempting to teach Eugene Meltzner to drive, when they encounter a stopped vehicle with a pregnant woman in it. When attempting to get the woman to the hospital, Connie has Eugene drive, while she tries to comfort the pregnant woman.
    Connie: Take some deep breaths! [Beat] NOT YOU, EUGENE!
  • In the Cabin Pressure episode "Ipswich", Arthur says he went on a course about understanding people in Ipswich. Douglas snarkily replies that if he ever wants to understand people in Ipswich, Arthur will be the first person he calls.
  • The Goon Show:
    • A subversion of the old "when I nod my head, hit it" gag in the 1950s.
      Neddie: There, that did it! [to audience] Hands up all those who though I was gonna hit him on the nut.
    • There is also a rather amusing example that happened partly off stage in "Operation Christmas Duff", a Christmas Special that was broadcast on the World Service and was aimed at British forces overseas. It began:
      Greenslade: Greetings from The Goons!
      Eccles: Hello Eccles!
    • In "Six Charlies in Search of an Author", Seagoon reads the instructions on a book of matches: "To ignite match, detach it and strike sharply against bottom" — and promptly sets fire to his trousers.
  • Hello Cheeky:
    • This:
      Tim: Barry, turn the radio on.
      Barry: Certainly. [lecherously] Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are? Oh, I want to stick my tongue in your aerial socket—
      Tim: ...I meant switch it on.
      Barry: Well, that's no fun.
    • Also:
      Barry: I think I met your aunt, once.
      Tim: ...I don't have an aunt Once. Once is a very silly name for an aunt. I did have an uncle, however...
      Barry: However's a very silly name for an uncle!
  • From The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy 1978, Fit the Sixth:
    Zaphod: It's a carbon copy of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal — or I'm a Vogon's grandmother!
    Arthur: The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal?! Is it safe?
    [sound of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal salivating]
    Ford: Oh, yes! It's perfectly safe — it's just us who are in trouble.
  • I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
    • Sometimes used in the Complete Quotes round, for example:
      Jack: Rod Stewart: "If there's one thing I've learned about women, that I've tried to pass on to my boys, it's..."
      Barry: "...they don't like being passed on to my boys."
    • In the Christmas Episode Humph in Wonderland, when the narrator says that Humph saw the White Rabbit take a watch from his waistcoat pocket, Humph cries out "Come back with my watch!"
    • "And now, to introduce our panellists - four comedians who love amusing people. Not that they meet many amusing people."
  • The panelists of the BBC science show The Infinite Monkey Cage occasionally get derailed into discussions about the title of the show. If a cage is infinite, how is it a cage? Or is it a finite cage somehow containing an infinite number of monkeys? Or is it just one single, infinitely huge monkey, and if so, how could there even be a cage...?
  • In John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme Series 5 Episode 2, the Storyteller promises "a tale of espionage, treason, and people in suits looking out of windows with rain running down them. (The windows I mean, not the suits)". Later in the story, he describes his boss "looking out of the window, with rain running down his suit. I was wrong before."
  • Played for Drama in the Radio 4 Afternoon Play Camberwell Green. Marilyn and Frankie are bus drivers discussing their friend Letitia, who died of Covid-19 after being spat on by a drunken passenger. Frankie admits that, on some level, she blames Marilyn, because Marilyn took Letitia's bus to cover for her being late, and refused to take the passenger if she didn't put on a mask. It then turns out that the version Frankie heard was that Marilyn specifically told the passenger to take the next one.
    Marilyn: I did not say that! Why would I do that?
    Frankie: That's what she told Letitia.
    Marilyn: Why would you believe her instead of me?
    Frankie: Oh, my god.
    Marilyn: I mean the woman! The drunk woman!
  • On one episode of his morning show on BBC Radio 2, Ken Bruce read out an e-mail from a listener whose signed photo had been damaged by one of their dogs, and was asking for a replacement. Ken said he was very sorry, but he didn't have any dogs available.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The RPG based on Angel had a character template who was a rogue demon hunter (that is, a demon who hunted other demons) as a direct reference to the line in the page quote.
  • One April edition of Dragon had various useless magical items including the Invisible Ring. When you put it on, it turned invisible.
  • The Dungeons & Dragons cleric power Turn Undead. "Turn" in this case means "drive off", as it makes undead flee or possibly even destroys them outright. However, it can also be interpreted as meaning it turns the cleric undead, although if that were the case it would presumably only be usable by evil clerics.
  • Forgotten Realms has an in-universe example with punctuation: one of the many, many prophecies floating around there either (in the standard translation) says that (the) dead and dragons will rule the world or (in Sammaster's translation) says dead dragons will rule the world, depending on when a sentence starts. Note that while Sammaster's translation is rejected by the modern scholarship (in no small part likely because Sammaster ended up going completely crazy and tried to fulfill the prophecy), it is consistently indicated to be a mistake you could easily make.
  • Near the end of the Ravenloft adventure "When Black Roses Bloom", a flock of ravens begins croaking three words in sequence as the PCs confront the darklord Soth. As events progress, the words initially heard as "Lord Through Dark" (guiding the heroes to his location) are rendered as "Dark Lord Through" to mark the failure of his evil schemes. Finally, the birds' words resound one last time as "Through Dark Lord", indicating that an escape-portal out of the domain exists in the emblem on Soth's armored breastplate.

    Theatre 
  • This triggers Ben's breakdown in Follies, as his refrain of "Me, I like live/Me, I like to laugh/Me, I like to love" becomes "Me, I like to love/Me..."
  • Groucho Marx's famous line "I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know."
    • And his "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
    • "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
  • There is a famous quote from Henry IV, Part 1 that goes:
    Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.
    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
    But will they come, when you do call for them?
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is full of this. Possibly the best example:
    Rosencrantz: Do you think Death could possibly be a boat?
    Guildenstern: No, no, no... death is not. Death isn't. Take my meaning? Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not be on a boat.
    Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats.
    Guildenstern: No, no... what you've been is not on boats.
  • In the play A Village Fable, it's unclear whether the notorious Six-Fingered Man has three fingers on each hand or a total of 12.
  • During a standup routine, Zach Galifianakis cited the importance on how you say things.
    Zach: [solemnly] She had a crack-baby. [Beat, then enthusiastically] She had a crack, baby!

    Video Games 
  • An Interactive Fiction game called The Six-Foot-Tall Man Eating Chicken.
  • The fan-made game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden owes its entire existence to this trope. The creators were browsing Michael Jordan's Wikipedia page one day, and the section regarding Space Jam caught their attention, as there was debate over the film's canonicity. One would assume it meant the Looney Tunes canon, but the phrasing could make it seem like it referred to the canon of Michael Jordan's actual life. They then decided to make a game off of this premise, with the opening text "WARNING: The game you are about to play is canon."
  • Beacon (2018): The Explosive Armor. It's for protection against explosives, it doesn't explode:
    Due to some previous confusion, it should be clearly stated that the item is intended to protect from explosives, and is not itself an explosive device.
  • Cragne Manor: One of the magazines in the real estate office is called "Yurt Fancier". The protagonist knows it means "someone who likes yurts", but also wonders if it's implying that the yurt is fancier than she is. The narration says that it is: "it's made of cruelty-free faux beluga whaleskin and you, last time you checked, are not."
  • Dawn of War Retribution has the Big Bad Moon Shoota. The description says it best:
    Big Bad Moon Shoota: Fer shooting da big bad moon. Wot? No? So it shoots moonz outta it, badly? Its shoots Bad Moonz dat're big? Zog it, nevahmind.
    It's a big shoota that belonged to an ork from the Bad Moonz clan.
  • Day of the Tentacle:
    Bernard: That hamster really should get some exercise.
    Ed: Well, Dad puts him to work down in the basement sometimes. But then he starts sweating, and then he gets wet...and then he gets cold, and then he refuses to work.
    Bernard: Your dad or the hamster?
  • In The Elder Scrolls series, M'aiq the Liar is a recurring Easter Egg Legacy Character. M'aiq is a known a Fourth-Wall Observer (and Leaner and Breaker) who voices the opinions of the series' creators and developers, largely in the form of Take Thats, to both the audience (given the ES Unpleasable Fanbase) and isn't above taking some at Bethesda itself. His catchphrase is "M'aiq knows much, tells some." It's been noted that this could mean that either he only tells some of what he knows, or that he only tells what he knows to some people, and he appears to be doing it on purpose to be mysterious (which, given his role, makes sense).
  • The Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown has this bit of dialogue between Cosmo and Wanda in "Fairly Disastrous":
    Wanda: I wish I had my magic back.
    Cosmo: The back you're using is fine.
  • Done for narrative purposes in the Fallout: New Vegas expansion Dead Money. The epilogue for the companion characters, should they live, mentions the Courier and another, who "fought under an Old World banner at the edge of the world". This foreshadows Lonesome Road, and it applies to both possible outcomes: either you and Ulysses fight each other, or you talk him to death and the two of you fight together against the horde of enemies he had set up to attack you just in case you won your fight with him.
    • Also Played for Laughs in the same game, where Fantastic, an idiot in charge of the Helios 1 facility, explains how he got his position.
      Fantastic: They asked me if I knew anything about power plants. I said as much as anyone I'd ever met. They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I told them I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.
  • Final Fantasy VII has an infamous and decidedly unintentional example in the Guard Scorpion fight. At one point Cloud will say "Attack while its tail is up! It will counter attack with a laser!". The intended meaning was "Attack while its tail is up, and it will counter attack with a laser" (in other words, don't attack when its tail is up). Instead, most players interpreted it is as "Attack while its tail is up! Or else it will counter attack with a laser!" As such many players did exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to do. It didn't help that "Attack while its tail is up!" appeared in its own text box, making it sound like an imperative statement to do what it says, rather than a warning not to.
  • Henry Stickmin Series:
    • In Infiltrating the Airship, one of the options in the game has Charles helping Henry out with a gravity bubble, whose controls are only two buttons labeled "Up" and "Down". Charles accidentally crushes Henry to death with the bubble because he can't figure out if "Up" increases gravity or lifts you up in the air. Lampshaded by the FAIL screen that appears afterward.
    • In the "Free Man" route of Completing the Mission, one of the options for escaping from a prison cell on the Toppat Clan's orbital station is a "melt ray", which, like the Duck Dodgers example below, melts out of Henry's hands.
  • Human Killing Machine, a Street Fighter knockoff for early gaming computers such as the Amiga and Commodore 64. As Stuart Ashen put it: "Is it about a human who is a killing machine? Or a machine that kills humans?"
  • Guilty Gear -STRIVE-: That Man/Asuka R. Kreutz states in REVELATOR that he has a "score to settle" with Sol Badguy, and in STRIVE he says that his goal is to "erase Sol Badguy from the world". Said "score" turns out to be to free Sol from his uncontrollable Gear powers and turning him back into a normal man so he can live a peaceful life as Frederick Bulsara again. When he succeeds in doing so in the ending of STRIVE, he declares that "Sol Badguy has perished from the world." Finally burying the hatchet with his old friend.
  • The Last Sovereign has a lot of fun with this trope.
    • A succubus in the Stineford Tower complains about the "fucking mold" she is trying to clean. Yarra overhears and is about to ask, but the succubus clarifies that no, it is not mold that you can fuck, just mold that she really, really hates.
    • During the Gathering the Fucklord organizes an event called the "Succubus Hunt", leading Yarra to wonder what the succubi are hunting. Turns out to be rare butterflies. A good way into the event the Fucklord reveals the twist; it's the succubi who are being hunted and the incubus kings are the hunters.
    • This series Flavor Text for items.
      Zirantian Leather: Made by Zirantians, not of them, you sick fuck.
      Old Zirantian Leather: Wasn't made of Zirantians back then, either.
      Maranite Cloak: Made of fabric, not Maranites. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past the Mad Batter in the well outside the blacksmiths' house Curses you to punish you for waking him so that "your magic power will drop by one-half". However instead of halving the size of your magic meter as he presumably intended he instead halves your magic power consumption, effectively doubling the size of your magic meter.
  • The "Purple People Eater" thing discussed under Music gets consideration in Mutant Football League, where the Minnesota Vikings parody team is known as the Purple Mutant Eaters. The players are purple-skinned cannibals, and the intro to the Mutant Eaters' Dynasty Mode campaign leaves no room for confusion: "We're the purple ones, and we don't only eat purple mutants."
  • In the setting for the game Perihelion, the word "perihelion" can mean "the center of Perihelion Imperial space", the planet called "Perihelion", the solar-centrist culture the Imperium inherited from the Ancients...or "solar-centric", its real-world meaning.
  • Played for Drama in Pillars of Eternity when speaking to the spirit in Caed Nua. Mistaking you for her son, she tells you what happened to your father: "before you were born, the Glanfarthans attacked settlers like us...they came into our village and killed many people. Your father was one of them." She actually means her son's father was one of the Glanfarthan raiders.
  • In the Curiosities Shoppe in Planescape: Torment, one of the items you could examine was a jar of baby oil. Doing so got this response from the proprietor:
    Vrishika: Interested? It's the real thing, of course. Thousands of mewling, mortal babies went into the making of the stuff.
  • The Portal series:
    • No one's entirely sure whether GLaDOS is a Genetic Lifeform who is also a Disk Operating System, or whether she is a System for Operating Genetic Lifeforms and Disks. (Judging by the second game, it's both).
    • In the second game, one of Cave Johnson's pre-recorded lines is "Say 'goodbye', Caroline."
      Caroline: Goodbye, Caroline!
      Cave Johnson:...she is a gem.
  • One of the "That's My Merlee!" quiz questions in Super Paper Mario is "What do you wash first [in the bathtub]?" The real Merlee hears it as what part of her body she washes first, and the fake Merlee hears it as what part of the bathtub she washes first when cleaning it.
  • Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night had a bit of fun with this, when Marisa points out the different meanings "troublesome youkai hunting" can have.
  • In Uncle Albert's Magical Album, the player is asked to take a picture of a lemon, but instead of looking for the fruit, the player must find a butterfly named after the fruit.
  • This is an actual plot point in Undertale. The opening of the game asks you to "name the fallen human". Most people would think that this is referring to the Player Character. You're actually naming the Fallen Child, the human that fell down the mountain all those years ago. The protagonist is a separate person from the Fallen Child, and their Canon Name is Frisk.
  • An aspiring journalist talking about Troll Hunters in the Warcraft III preview days noted that "We don't know if they are orcs who hunt trolls or trolls that just hunt."
  • The flavor text on at least one item in World of Warcraft exhibits this. On the Shop Fodder item "Robot Brew":
    "Not fit for human consumption. Robot consumption is also questionable. You should not consume robots."

    Visual Novels 
  • In Fate/stay night and its adaptations, Illya refers to Shirou as "onii-chan". The intended ambiguity of this is Lost in Translation in the English dubs and translations (translated to "mister"), because in Japan, "onii-chan" is both used to refer to a stranger who is a young man and older brother figures (like your older brother, your older male cousin, etc.). It turns out to have a Double Meaning, because Illya is Shirou's long lost older adopted sister.
  • In the DLC case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Phoenix tells Maya that Larry got dumped by his imaginary bride, meaning only Larry thought she was his bride. Maya takes it to mean that Larry somehow got rejected by a figment of his imagination.
  • In one event in Roommates, Sally leads a protest against a group of kids when she learns that they're "testing on animals." If you decide to go along with her plan to free the animals, she busts into the classroom and is shocked when she hears a horse whinny and discovers...a bunch of students riding animals and taking their exams at the same time (in other words, they're "testing on animals). Sally comments on the absurdity of the situation before going back outside and breaking up the protest.

    Web Animation 
  • In asdfmovie 10:
    Person 1: You know what I hate? Child murderers.
    Person 2: [horrified] Oh, no, here comes one now!
    Kid: [chasing after two people with a knife, Evil Laughter] I'm gonna getcha!
  • Homestar Runner: Strong Sad uses it in his character video, but then clarifies that he meant both meanings.
    Strong Sad: I like board games more than most people. And by that I mean I like to play board games more than most people do. But by that I also mean I like board games more than I like most people.

    Webcomics 
  • This Cyanide and Happiness strip shows the importance of antecedents in Freudian psychology.
  • The title of Demon Eater is another "both" example: Saturno is a demon who eats, and an eater of demons.
  • Dinosaur Comics: T. rex riffs on a classic example (known as a garden-path sentence): "The horse raced past the barn fell".
  • In El Goonish Shive, when Arthur decides to break the masquerade on television, but refuses to actually discuss it:
    Arthur: For now my words carry little weight. What matters is they were said. There are those with power. The misinformed would call them wizards. They are but people with power they did not ask for and cannot explain. For now they are hidden. But remember my words. Their weight will grow. [exits]
    Beat Panel
    Interviewer: Coming up next, join me for the next fifty-five minutes as I speculate why wizards would be prone to obesity.
    Arthur: [off panel] My words. The weight of my words will grow.
    Interviewer: Thanks. I almost had something to talk about.
  • In the Girl Genius side-story "Ivo Sharktooth: Private Jaegar", Sharktooth tells his Friend in the Black Market "Hy iz here for a client". The black marketeer replies that they don't sell people, so he'll have to find one the old-fashioned way.
  • In Jerkcity, Spigot tells a story of an old man asking him, "Wanna pounda dope?" and when he answers in the affirmative, he gets pounded in the face and realizes he is the dope.
  • In the Kirby Sprite Comic Warp Star, during a crossover arc with Super Mario Bros., Bowser has claimed the Star Rod (the Kirby version, which for the sake of the plot is the same as the Star Rod from Paper Mario 64) and wishes that it would make him a sandwich, but it interprets "make" as "turn into". After turning back to normal, he wishes that it would make Mario and Luigi two sandwiches, and this time it interprets "make" as "create" (Bowser's original intention), prompting Bowser to say "Oh, come on!"
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • The comic uses a similar garden-path sentence early on in its first arc: "When the goat turns red strikes true."
    • Not long after, they're given a quest to kill a group of ogres by a peasant woman — however, Belkar initially thinks the plan is to kill the helpless villagers.
    • Also when Thog (who pays no heed to grammar and often skips verbs) tries to explain that Nale stuck his goatee to his twin brother Elan so he'd end up in jail in his place:
      Thog: not nale, not-nale. and thog knot not-nale while nale nail not-nale. nale, not not-nale, now nail not-nale by leaving not-nale, not nale, in jail.
      Police officer: Pleading insanity, then?
    • Also here, where a character is told about a "rogue cleric" and mistakenly assumes it means a character who is both a Rogue and a Cleric, rather than a cleric gone rogue.
  • Partially Clips has this comic, of the missing-hyphen variety. What makes it funny is that the person in question deliberately misinterprets the sentence to make a point about grammar, despite the very clear intended meaning.
  • Rusty and Co.: During the "Critical Missives" session following Level 11:
    Presti: But I like the options that focusing of my training gives me. Like using illusions to make my enemies waste their ambushes. Or escaping a golem in my pajamas.
    [...]
    Anti-Madeline: How'd a golem get in your pajamas?
  • Schlock Mercenary:
    • Kevyn finding out about Lieutenant Pronto's death.
      Elf: Pronto's dead. Shufgar killed him.
      Kevyn: I'm sorry. I think we should name the planet after him.
      Elf: [gives him a weird look]
      Kevyn: After Pronto. We'll name a hole in the ground after Shufgar.
    • In another strip Aardmann came to Dr. Bunnigan saying that he broke a tooth with his kidney. When she said that was impossible, he clarified that it wasn't his tooth. He'd been slammed into Chisulo, an uplifted elephant, while wearing armor, and broke off one of his tusks.
    • Lampshaded here. The obvious syntax (that plant means spy) is the correct one but given everything that has happened Bunni decides to double-check and make sure that he wasn't some form of genetically engineered asparagus.
  • In this Skin Horse, K.T. runs up to Unity shouting "Zombie attack!" By which she means that she, a zombie, is being attacked. By zombies. And wants Unity, also a zombie, to attack them.
    Unity: Wait, what do I do?
    K.T.: Zombie-attack. With a hyphen.
    Unity: Awright! Punctuation!
  • In the Punyverse arc of Sluggy Freelance, after the transport that Torg and Riff are on leaves the planet, Lord Grater's men destroy the planet. Why? Because Lord Grater told them if any ship escaped the planet, they were to destroy it immediately. Cue Face Palm.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: Mikkel's in-comic interrupted "I'd say so. Well technically..." concerning him being the oldest of his siblings came before an All There in the Manual reveal that he was the youngest of a pair of twins, that contained no clear indication of his brother Michael's current status. A casual confirmation that Michael was still alive came only much later. In the meantime, the interrupted statement could be interpreted both as Mikkel about to mention that he technically has an older brother or Mikkel stating to technically be the oldest, which would have hinted to something having happened to Michael.
  • Used cunningly in this Stolen Pixels, lampooning Tabula Rasa:
    "Anyway, hope you and little Jim are well. Send some chocolate or some pornography! The Forean stuff we have here just isn't doing it for us."
  • In V The Vampire Vigilante, V meets Athena, a vampire hunter aiming to kill her, but she thought she was a vampire who's a hunter. V later lampshades it by stating that she could call herself Athena The Hunter of Vampires instead.
  • xkcd's Hyphen and Jacket. Trying to lampshade it goes poorly when Black Hat Guy is around.
    • Captain Picard Tea Order exploits this in order to conclude that the oddest substitution for the word "hot" in Picard's iconic order "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" is "Tea for him, too."
    • "Garden Path Sentence", as the title suggests, is a newspaper headline with multiple garden paths.

    Web Original 
  • The SCP Foundation has a "Six-Foot-Tall Man Eating Chicken". The SCP object is described as follows: "SCP-3467 is a six (6) foot tall, two hundred (200) pound man eating chicken. Subject is thirty five (35), slightly balding, dark brown hair and eyes, and slightly overweight. Name is Hank ██████████, and he has worked as a Level 1 cleanup crew for the past three years. Hank is never seen without a bucket of chicken, and only stops eating it when actually working, which is a rare occurrence in itself." Which is in turn a reference to The Little Rascals.
  • TV Tropes itself has a few, many of which are chronicled in "I Thought It Meant..."
    • For example, a Serial-Killer Killer: A killer of serial killers, or a serial killer of killers? (Both, more often than not).
    • An example rightly documented in TV Tropes:
      From the Peanuts Headscratchers page:
      Jesus, Lucy, Violet, and Patty are CRUEL to poor Charlie Brown! They expect him to get an over-commercialized tree, made of pink aluminum? Charlie brings back a tree that looks like one that would be next to the humble manger, and they all laugh at him! Even damned SNOOPY! Although it sets up a Crowning Moment of Awesome with the "That's what Christmas is all about" speech, I just want to wring those three bitches' neck!!

      Is it bad that I read the start of this entry as a list of 4 names, rather than an expletive and 3 names?
      Jesus is laughing at Charlie Brown for having a great Christmas spirit! The irony!
      Nope. I did it, too. As did my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
      Your parents are Ayn Rand and God?
  • "No one is around to help"; a standard message from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp telling you that there's currently no errands that your villagers need you to do for them, with Bob doing a carefree little dance. This message became a meme when someone realized the Ambiguous Syntax sounds less like "There's no work to be done" and, in no small part thanks to Bob's perpetual smirk and half-closed eyes, more like "Nothing can save you now".
  • Not Always Right: Posted sign in a bathroom: "Employees must wash hands before returning to work." (If no employee comes in to wash your hands, can you just wash them yourself?) Self-Disservice is a case of a Literal-Minded customer seeing such a sign and waiting in the restroom for someone to wash her hands for her.
  • Seinfeld - "The Twin Towers": When George is praised for his alleged heroism, he says things like "I didn't really do anything"—technically telling the truth while manipulatively portraying himself as a Humble Hero.
  • An image making the rounds shows a Fox News headline reading "Cheeseburger Stabbing", with a confused commenter wondering whether:
  • The "Florida Man" meme comes from reading bizarre headlines about various male residents of Florida as instead being about a super hero (or super villain) by the name of Florida Man.
  • A popular gem from Scottish Twitter:
    "The police came tae ma door and told me my dugs note  were chasing people on bikes my dugs don't even have bikes"
  • Came up on the forums of xkcd, so it's probably legit to quote here — a poster who as a kid read a photo labeled "Lick Observatory Photograph" as an imperative.
  • Someone posted on an advice board asking "My child won't eat fish. What should I replace it with?" and the first reply was "A cat. Cats love fish."

    Web Videos 
  • In his review for Independence Day on PS1, the AVGN contemplates getting a tattoo of "a goat holding up a baby snorting cocaine off its penis". However, he never makes it clear which one had the penis being snorted, nor whether the baby or the goat was doing the snorting.
  • Exandria Unlimited: Calamity: The last line of the finale's summation has two possible meanings, both of which are accurate. The actions of the Ring of Brass kicked off the 150-year long war known as the Calamity, but their actions also ensured that it would end eventually with a chance for the survivors to rebuild in the aftermath.
    Brennan: And though Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever.
  • Game Grumps:
    • An episode of Game Grumps vs. has them playing Family Feud, where the category was "Real or fake, name a famous blonde." Danny read it as "real blondes or fake blondes", completely missing the possibility of fictional characters.
    • A different episode had Arin telling a story about how his copy of Wave Race 64 'was stolen'. When Danny expresses sympathy that someone had stolen Arin's game, Arin clarifies that he was the one who had stolen the Wave Race from someone else.
  • Petscop: The game/series' title itself, as it's not exactly clear what it means. Either "Pet's Cop" or "Pet Scop".
  • During the Coliseum fundraising stream hosted by The Runaway Guys, AttackingTucans was asked whether his name refers to tucans being attacked or doing the attacking. He more-or-less replied 'Yes'.
  • In Ashens' video on "20 Year Old Egg and Bacon Baby Food", one comment expressed confusion over whether the video was about 20 year old baby food containing egg and bacon, or about a 20 year old egg and some bacon-flavoured baby food (it's the first option).
  • In the Rocket Jump short Huge Guns (With Smosh!), the sign advertising a "HUGE GUN SALE!!" can be read one of two ways. Normally you'd assume that it's a huge sale of guns. In this case it's actually a sale of huge guns.
  • Some of Thomas Sanders sketches are based on these. Among others, when he rides past a yard sale, he asks the owners how much the yard would cost him.
  • During SF Debris's review of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Chain Of Command", Chuck narrates how Madred is interrogating Picard while under the influence of drugs, and then has to clarify that Picard is under the influence, not Madred. Chuck then goes on to say (and provide a brief skit of) how much more hilarious the episode would be if it was the other way around, playing a Stoned Madred.

    Western Animation 
  • Animaniacs:
    • In the episode "King Yakko", when the dictator of Dunlikus is defending his fashion choices.
      Dictator: This is the uniform of a great man!
      Yakko: Does he know you're wearing it?
    • There are many other examples too, the most notable being "Garage Sale of the Century", in which the Warners interpret it as an actual sale of a garage.
    • This exchange from "Hercule Yakko".
      Yakko: Number one sister, dust for prints!
      [later]
      Dot: I found Prince!
      Yakko: No no no, fingerprints!
      Dot: (exchanges an awkward look with Prince) I don't think so.
    • In "Turkey Jerky", after Miles Standish tells the Warners to "Give me the bird!" (a literal bird, in this case the titular turkey), Yakko replies, "We'd love to, really, but the FOX censors won't allow it."
    • In "The Warners & the Beanstalk", after Dot pulls out one of the giant's nose hairs, he protests "Ow! That smarted me!" Yakko's response is "I doubt it."
    • This Good Idea, Bad Idea sketch gives us the following:
      Good idea: Playing catch with your grandfather.note 
      Bad idea: Playing catch with your grandfather.note 
  • In episode 9 of Arcane this is played for gut-wrenching horror during the "family banquet" scene when Jinx produces a covered platter just large enough to contain, say, a human head and places it in front of Vi while mentioning that she'd "paid your girlfriend a visit". When Vi fearfully asks Jinx what she did to Caitlyn, Jinx says "I made her a snack." Fortunately Jinx was just Trolling Vi and the platter only contains a single cupcake (topped with the stolen hexcrystal gem).
  • Archer:
    • In Season 4, ISIS is in charge of security at a high-end restaurant. This also requires the operatives to be undercover, where they are berated by the chef.
      Lance: We're not making food, people! We're creating cuisine! Food is what a dog eats! Or a tourist!
      Sterling: Wait, a dog ate a tourist? [has a tomato thrown at him] WHAT?! THAT WAS AMBIGUOUSLY WORDED!
    • In A Going Concern, Archer is conspiring with Dr. Krieger to implant a mind control chip into Len Trexler, to force him to fall out of love with his mother in order to prevent her from selling ISIS to Len. Krieger has tested the concept by putting the chip in a rabbit's brain, and demonstrates his success to Archer by making the rabbit tap its foot:
      Archer: So, can you put it in a person's brain?
      Krieger: [Beat] ...He'd suffocate.
      Archer: Not the rabbit, idiot! The chip!
    • In "Legs", Archer is terrified of Krieger giving Ray bionic legs calling the operation "building a gay Terminator". Cyril is confused by what Archer meant.
      Cyril: Does he mean a terminator of gays? I mean I know Krieger is weird, but he isn't homophobic. So he must mean... but that can't be right either, aren't Terminators asexual?
  • From a Mickey MouseWorks short adapting Around the World in Eighty Days, which was recycled for the House of Mouse episode "House of Scrooge":
    Mickey Mouse: Put down that broom and pack your bags! We're going around the world in eighty days! Come on, let's go!
    Goofy: What's the big hurry? We're not leavin' for eighty days.
    Mickey: [aside glance]
  • From BoJack Horseman, when Katrina reveals that her political rival's hand transfers came from a pedophile-murderer:
    Tom Jumbo-Grumbo: [Beat] ...well, if you gotta murder somebody...
    Katrina: No, Tom. Not a pedophile-dash-murderer. A pedophile-slash-murderer!
    Tom: Oh no! The way you said "slash" was very scary!
  • Cartoon Cartoon Fridays: One host segment had this exchange between The Mayor and Miss Bellum:
    Miss Bellum: Coming up later tonight, it's Dexter's Laboratory, followed by The Powerpuff Girls, and then a brand-new Mike, Lu & Og.
    Mayor: It's been a while since we heard from them, huh?
    Miss Bellum: Yes, sir.
    Mayor: Now, do they live on a desert island or a desert isle, hmm?
    Miss Bellum: I believe they're interchangeable, sir.
    Mayor: Really? Mike, Lu and Og are, or the island is? Augh, I'm not following you.
    Miss Bellum: And we've also got a brand-new Sheep in the Big City coming up at 9:30.
    Mayor: Is Sheep, you know, interchangeable?
    Miss Bellum: Uh, I don't believe so, sir. But first, here's Johnny Bravo, right here on Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.
  • In Central Park, Season 1 "Rival Busker", when Paige is trying to get past the Russian guards to get into Bitsy's secret ballroom:
    Russian Guard: Give me a name, please.
    Paige: Um, you look like a Derrick. Okay, bye.
    Russian Guard: No. Your name.
  • Discussed on ChalkZone whenever Rudy Tabootie talks to his friend Snap about his idea for a comic about Vampire Cannibals, most notably with Snap asking whether they're vampires that eat other vampires or if they're cannibals that happen to be vampires. This eventually proves to cause serious problems for Rudy in the episode "Vampire Cannibals of New York" when Gore, the Vampire Cannibal King, decides to eat Rudy and responds to his claims that Vampire Cannibals only eat other vampires by pointing out that it was never made clear.
  • Count Duckula:
    • The episode "Igor's Busy Day" has a joke involving Igor enlisting Nanny in triggering a Falling Chandelier of Doom for castle vistors with the instruction: "Hit the beak, Nanny!". He meant for Nanny to press the beak of a statue to activate the Booby Trap, but Nanny thought he meant his own beak.
    • In "Dr. Goosewing and Mr. Duck", Nanny serves Duckula muesli for breakfast. When Duckula finds it appetizing, he tells her, "Hit me with some muesli, Nanny!", and Nanny hits him with the box. When he asks Nanny why she did that, she tells him she only did what he told her to, to which he has to remind her that it's a figure of speech and that he meant for her to put the muesli in a bowl. When Nanny brings Duckula a bottle of Dr. Von Goosewing's carpet shampooer disguised as milk, Duckula is about to say, "Splash me with some milk!", but quickly corrects himself and tells Nanny to splash his muesli with milk.
  • Danger Mouse:
    • At the end of the episode "Duckula Meets Frankenstoat", the mission is completed, so DM tells Penfold to call him a cab. Penfold is about to say "you're a cab" when DM abruptly says "Don't you dare!"
      Penfold: Spoilsport!
    • At the beginning, the duo are on a skiing holiday:
      DM: This morning we're going to tackle the giant slalom.
      Penfold: Well, I'm not all for tackling giants but anything's better than skiing.
      DM: Penfold, a giant slalom is skiing.
      Penfold: Ah, we won't have to worry about him, then. He'll probably fall and break his neck anyway.
    • In "All Fall Down," Dudley Poyson leaves his lab for a meeting with Mac the Fork. He says "I'll call myself a cab right away. I'm a cab! I'm a cab!"
    • In the final episode "Intergalactic 147", DM and Penfold encounter a trio of aliens that just paved away Londontown, with them saying they had recently painted Mars brown.
      DM: You painted Mars brown?
      Alien 1: Yeah. Rue of a job. Put us days behind, that did.
      DM: But why?
      Alien 1: You ever try to paint a planet?
      DM: Not why 'did it put you behind schedule', why did you paint it?
  • In the Dinosaucers episode "Take Us Out to the Ballgame", Sarah is assigning the Dinosaucers positions on a baseball field, with Bonehead at the end as "left out". Bonehead starts crying about not being allowed to play; Sarah clarifies that she meant left outfield.
  • Two examples occurred in The Fairly OddParents! episode "Fairly Odd Pet", Sparky's introduction episode. First, Jorgen, while working in a magical pet store, says he needs to clean up some magic turtle poop...before clarifying the poop was magic, not the turtle. Then later, Timmy tries to show his dad the tricks Sparky can do by saying "Go fetch the paper, boy!". Unfortunately, Sparky ends up bringing back the paper boy.
    Timmy: No, Sparky, the newspaper!
  • In The Flintstones, while quarterbacking the football team at Princestone U., Fred asks one of the players if he can kick a field goal. He explains:
    Fred: I'll hold the ball, and when I nod my head, you kick it between the goalposts.
    Player: You'll hold the ball, and when you nod your head, I kick it between the goalposts.
    Cue Fred flying over the goalpost, holding onto the ball.
    • In another episode, Fred and Barney are approached by a female spy seeking assistance:
    Spy: Are you two married?
    Barney: No, just good friends.
  • In Gargoyles, Puck uses the Exact Words version when Demona temporary forces him to grant her wishes. Specifically, this line, when Demona wants him to "get rid" of Elisa but he instead turns her into a gargoyle:
    Puck: Did you say "that human" or "that human?" Oh, never mind, I'll figure it out.
  • Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child "The Emperor's New Clothes"
    Treasurer: Sire, this cloth... it's like trying to describe the song of the bamboo flute or a bonsai tree. Words fail.
    Emperor: Does a bonsai tree have a song?
  • From an episode of Hilda:
    Hilda: David, would you say I'm disruptive in class?
    David: No, I wouldn't say that in class. What if the teacher were talking? It might be disruptive.
    Hilda: No, I mean, would you say that I am disruptive when I am in class?
    David: Oh. Yes.
  • Kappa Mikey had a pirate tell Gonard, "Feed my parrot." Gonard threw the parrot in the water. After it was eaten by a shark, the pirate complained, but Gonard said, "I did feed your parrot. I fed it to a shark."
  • Kim Possible: In "Emotion Sickness", an emotion-control device accidentally causes Kim to fall madly in love with Ron. Unaware of the reason for her sudden attraction to him and not sure how he feels about it, Ron at one point says, "It's not like I haven't thought about this, I mean, who hasn't?" On a meta level, it's a Fandom Nod to their shippers, but in-universe, it's impossible to tell if Ron meant, "It's not like I haven't thought about us dating, I mean, who hasn't thought about me dating Kim?" or "It's not like I haven't thought about dating Kim, I mean, who hasn't thought about dating Kim?"
  • King of the Hill: In "Of Mice and Little Green Men", Dale becomes interested in purchasing some alien urine. When he asks the man selling it "How much?", the man answers "Half a mayonnaise jar". The man is clearly referring to how much alien urine he has, but Dale thinks the man is saying that he has to pay half a mayonnaise jar.
  • Let's Go Luna!: Part of the plot of "London Frog" is that Andy overhears someone mentioning the clock tower Big Ben in such a way that he interprets it as "Big Ben is a giant with four faces who carries around and rings a giant bell every hour".
  • In the Little Audrey short "Tarts and Flowers", when Audrey is baking a cake and puts the ingredients in the bowl, the radio voice finishes by telling her "Now beat it." Thinking that he's shooing her away, she prepares to leave, before he clarifies that he meant to beat the batter.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • A vintage short, "The Ducksters" has Daffy Duck as the host of a quiz show, "Brought to you by the Eagle Hand-Laundry. Are your eagle's hands dirty? We'll wash 'em clean!"
    • "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century":
      • Daffy Duck (Duck Dodgers) uses a Disintegrating Pistol against Marvin the Martian. Unfortunately, Daffy's pistol crumbles into powder when he pulls the trigger.
        Duck Dodgers: Well, whaddaya know? It... disintegrated.
      • He also dons a "Disintegration-Proof Vest" — which remains intact while utterly failing to protect him from being disintegrated.
    • Bugs and Daffy have a Duck Season, Rabbit Season argument in Rabbit Seasoning:
      Daffy: Say, what's the matter with you, anyway! Don't you even know a rabbit when you see one?! Hmm?!
      Bugs: It's true, doc, I'm a rabbit, all right. Would you like to shoot me now or wait 'til I get home?
      Daffy: Shoot him now! Shoot him now!
      Bugs: You keep out of this! He doesn't have to shoot you now!
      Daffy: He does so have to shoot me now! I demand that you shoot me now! Nyah! [Elmer shrugs, then shoots Daffy]
      [beat]
      Daffy: Let's run through that again.
      Bugs: Okay. "Would you like to shoot me now, or wait 'til you get home?"
      Daffy: [in a calm voice] "Shoot him now, shoot him now."
      Bugs: [in a calm voice] "You keep out of this, he doesn't have to shoot you now."
      Daffy: Ha! That's it! Hold it right there! Pronoun trouble. It's not "he doesn't have to shoot you now", it's "he doesn't have to shoot me now". Well, I say he does have to shoot me now! So shoot me now! [Elmer shoots Daffy once again]
      [Daffy angrily points an accusing finger towards Bugs]
      Bugs: Ye-es?
      Daffy: [lowers his accusing finger as he carefully reconsiders what to say] Oh, no you don't. Not again, sorry. This time we'll try it from the other end. [to Elmer] Look, you're a hunter, right?
      Elmer: Wight.
      Daffy: And this is rabbit season, right?
      Elmer: Wight.
      Bugs: And if he was a rabbit, what would you do?
      Daffy: Yeah, you're so smart?! If I was a rabbit, what would you do?
      Elmer: Well, I'd — [Elmer aims his gun at Daffy]
      Daffy: [worriedly] Not again. [Elmer blasts Daffy once more]
    • In "Hare Brush," Bugs reads the instructions on a medicine bottle: "Take one teaspoon every hour with water" He shrugs and pops a teaspoon in his mouth and downs the required glass of water.
      Bugs: Ew, nasty medicine teaspoons!
    • In "Bugs and Thugs", Rocky tells Mugsy to take Bugs into the other room and "Let him have it". Bugs takes advantage of this, holding out his hand for Mugsy's gun and telling the not-too-bright Mugsy to "Let me have it".
    • Babbitt sends Catstello up a ladder to get Tweety in "A Tale of Two Kitties":
    Babbitt: Give me the bird! Give me the bird!
    Catstello: (to us) If the Hays Office would only let me, I'd give him the bird all right!
  • From the Maya the Bee movie:
    Hank: How can you sleep when my boy's missing?
    Hornet: What's he missing, boss?
  • [adult swim] once had a letter asking whether the Dethklok's song Murmaider, described in-show as about "Mermaid Murder" meant mermaids being murdered or mermaids doing the murdering. [adult swim]'s response worked in both scenarios.
  • "Paw and Order", an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has a gang of horse thieves as the villains, which in this case aren't thieves that steal horses, but thieves that are horses.
  • Paddington (1975) has also done the "when I nod my head, you hit it" joke. To Paddington's credit, he does ask Mr. Curry if he's sure that's what he wants, but Mr. Curry just tells him to be quiet and do as he's told...
  • When Brain bursts in during the climax of the Pinky and the Brain episode "Snowball" and Snowball asks what he wants, Brain gestures to Pinky as he answers "My friend... and my world!" To many fans, it sounds less like "I'm here to take back my friend and also to take the world you conquered" and more like "I'm here to take back the mouse who's both my friend and my world."
  • A 1950s Popeye cartoon taking place in a gym had Olive (who ate his spinach and cleaned the floor with Bluto) holding Popeye up in the air and repeatedly kissing him:
    Popeye: Don't! Stop! Don't! Stop! Don't stop! Don't stop! [rapid fire] Don't stop! Don't stop! Don't stop! Don't stop!
  • The Regular Show episode "Snow Tubing" gives us this example:
    Mordecai: Don't worry, Rigby knows this hill like the back of his hand!
    Margaret: [spots Eileen and Rigby hurtling down the mountain] What's that?!
    Mordecai: [pointing to his own hand] It's like this part of your hand right here.
  • Rocko's Modern Life: In "Driving Mrs. Wolfe", Rocko and Virginia drive past a sign reading "Slow Children At Play". It then cuts to two kids playing catch in slow-motion.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle: In one "Mr. Know-It-All", Bullwinkle tries to show how to open a jar of pickles. One of his attempts is to hold it to the floor and give Rocky a hammer while saying "When I nod my head, you hit it." Guess what happens.
  • A sketch in the Sheep in the Big City episode "Mistaken Identi-Sheep" featured the Sombrero Brothers attempting to perform a stunt with a man eating cheese. Rather than the cheese eating people, the stunt was one of the Sombrero Brothers eating the cheese while restrained in stocks.
  • The Simpsons:
    • In "Treehouse of Horror VI", school janitor Willie has left a note over the thermostat reading "Do Not Touch - Willie." Homer takes a look and says, "'Do not touch Willie.' Good advice!" and proceeds to turn up the thermostat, leading to played-for-laughs tragic results.
    • In "Lisa on Ice", Bart and Lisa are playing opposing pee-wee hockey teams. The half of the stadium cheering for Bart chants "KILL, BART!", while the half cheering for Lisa chants "KILL BART!".
    • In "The Bob Next Door", Bart is worried that his new neighbour Walt Warren is actually Sideshow Bob, and he and Marge go to the prison and see someone who looks like Bob writing "Bart Simpson will die" all over the wall. It turns out that the neighbour really is Bob, who surgically swapped faces with the real Walt Warren and was released from prison because Warren's sentence was over. Warren, who now looked like Bob, wrote "Bart Simpson will die" as a warning.
    • In "Two Bad Neighbors", George H.W. Bush puts up a poster that says "Two bad neighbors" with very crude drawings of Homer and Bart, but everybody gets confused by it.
      Dr. Hibbert: I-I don't understand. Uh, are you saying you and Barbara are bad neighbors?
      Bush: No! That's not Bar and me. It's them!
      Ned: Who? Maude and me?
      Bush: No, the man and his boy!
    • In "Bart's Girlfriend", Jessica Lovejoy steals the money from the church's collection plate and pins it on Bart. Lisa later gives a sermon in an attempt to pressure Jessica into confessing. However, her sermon prompts other parishioners to admit to various deeds.
      Lisa: There is someone among us with a guilty conscience. After much soul-searching, I decided it would be wrong of me to name names. But I urge that guilty person here, under the eyes of God, to come forward, to confess, and save yourself from the torment of your own personal hell!
      Skinner: Aah! I smelled some marijuana smoke in Vietnam!
      Abe: I was the one who canceled Star Trek!
      Hibbert: I left my Porsche keys inside Mrs. Glick!
      Lisa: I am talking to the collection money thief! Only you can come forward and end this injustice.
      (silence as Jessica looks around, smiling and saying nothing)
      Lisa: Oh, what the heck... it was Jessica Lovejoy!
  • South Park:
    • The episode "Chickenlover" has this exchange.
      Police officer: This time, he made love to Carla Weathers' prize chicken. She's catatonic.
      Barbrady: Who, Carla Weathers or the chicken?
    • In "A Song of Ass and Fire", Cartman gets annoyed when he has to explain that his title of "Wizard King" means that he's a king who's also a wizard, not that he's the king of wizards.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • In "Big Pink Loser", Patrick tries his hand at managing the cash register at the Krusty Krab and repeatedly gets calls from people asking "Is this the Krusty Krab?" Patrick, thinking that they're calling him a crusty crab, responds each time with "no, this is Patrick," getting increasingly irate each time before SpongeBob points out that "the Krusty Krab" is the name of the restaurant.
    • In "Dying for Pie", one of the items on Spongebob's list of things to do with Squidward is to show Squidward to everybody in town, then right after that is to show Squidward to everybody in town wearing a salmon suit.
      Squidward: You're gonna be wearing a salmon suit?
      Spongebob: [Laughs] That's a good one, Squidward!
      [Cut to Spongebob showing Squidward to three kids while Squidward is wearing a salmon suit, followed by the kids all throwing rocks at Squidward's head]
    • Inverted in "Krusty Towers", where Patrick said to Squidward "One Krabby Patty and one room. With cheese. Ooh, and can I also have cheese on the Krabby Patty?"
  • In one episode of TaleSpin, while fighting the heroes, Don Karnage tells his crew to "Fire at will!". A second later, one of the men is being chased by gunfire. The pirates had thought Karnage meant Will, the second mate. He has to clarify his order by bluntly saying "FIRE AT THE SEA DUCK!".
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "It Came from Beneath the Sewers", the Turtles sneak up on Shredder's hideout disguised as pizza boys, leading to this exchange between Shredder and Baxter Stockman:
    Baxter: [looking through the peephole] It's four green pizza delivery boys.
    Shredder: I don't remember ordering any pizzas, especially green ones.
  • In the Teen Titans episode "Troq", Cyborg asks Starfire what the titular word means when Val-Yor calls her it. Starfire says, "It means nothing". Later, when Cyborg calls Starfire Troq, she gets very upset with him over it. Cyborg thought she said the word didn't mean anything, but Starfire clarifies it literally means "nothing", as in her race is worthless.
  • In one episode of ThunderCats (1985), Cheetara gets a (faked) call for help at the "giant beehive". It's not until after the line is spoken that we learn it's a hive of giant bees (as in, big enough to ride).
  • In The Tick episode in Europe, Tick encounters the two Fortissimo Brothers, who, he is told, have the strength of 10 men. He then asks, "Is that five men each or 20 altogether?"
  • In one between-episode segment on Uncle Grandpa, he asks his friends if they know how to play their instruments. They tell him "No" and proceed to play badly. In a follow-up short, he says that they lied to him and do know how to play their instruments, because he didn't ask if they knew how to play them well.
  • In one episode of Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz invents a miracle product to reverse baldness. He calls it “Get Back Hair.” The chorus shifts the emphasis of the name, suggesting that the product will cause the user to get hair on their back. Doofenshmirtz is mystified as to why it isn’t selling well.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Syntactic Ambiguity, Squinting Construction, Garden Path Sentence, A Wooden Leg Named Smith, The Purple People Eater Effect

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"Okay! I Won't Eat Pork!"

Acting like a hunter, ALF attempts to get a midnight snack of meat (believing the note telling him not to eat it meant the note itself). Just as he's about to dig in, however, he experiences his first earthquake and believes it to be the work of the heavens.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (7 votes)

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Main / CorrelationCausationGag

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