History Main / CorrelationCausationGag

* Series/SledgeHammer: Hammer and Doreau are watching a TV in a bar, showing a commercial by an obnoxious used car salesman that Hammer hates. He seethes, ''"I wish that guy would just drop dead!"'' Guess what happens next. Several of the bar patrons edge away from Hammer in fear, one of them whispering, ''"Hammer doesn't even need his gun anymore!"''

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': In the season two finale, "[[Recap/FrasierS02E24DarkVictory Dark Victory]]", Martin blows out the candles on his birthday cake. The instant he does, the entire neighborhood [[TheBlackout blacks out]].

* Series/SledgeHammer: Hammer and Doreau are watching a TV in a bar, showing a commercial by an obnoxious used car salesman that Hammer hates. He seethes, ''"I wish that guy would just drop dead!"'' Annnnnnnnnd...

* In ''Series/SantaClaritaDiet'', Anne asks for a sign that Sheila has been sent down from God. Sheila and Joel have no idea what to do, but suddenly Eric and Abby's bomb goes off, and Anna begins praising Sheila.
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'':
** In the episode "The Gun", Radar is blamed for the loss of a colonel's personal revolver (actually stolen by Frank Burns). Radar eventually gets drunk and confronts the colonel with a teddy bear; at the same time Frank tries to return the gun...and shoots himself in the foot.
--->'''Radar:''' ''(in Creator/JohnWayne voice)'' You'd better believe it or I'm dead where I stand! ''(points his teddy at the colonel) (BANG!) (shocked)'' MY BEAR WENT OFF!
** In the season 7 episode "Preventative Medicine", Klinger has been using HollywoodVoodoo in a gambit to force Col. Potter to give him a Section-8 discharge. As part of the scheme, he has a VoodooDoll made up as Potter, which he threatens to stick pins in if Potter doesn't comply. Near the climax of the episode, this plot and the A-plot collide: Hawkeye has poisoned the drink for a [[ColonelKilgore bloodthirsty colonel]] so that he can simulate appendicitis, perform unnecessary surgery and cause the colonel to be put out of action. Just as Klinger sticks a pin into the Potter doll, the colonel feels the effects of the drug and bellows in pain. When Klinger sees Hawk and BJ dragging the colonel into pre-op, he decides that he somehow voodoo-hexed the wrong colonel and has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', Uncle Phil runs for a judge position against a former mentor of his, who is rather nasty in his campaign. When the former mentor wins, Phil insists that they go to his party anyway. At the party, Will derides his uncle's opponent, culminating in a, "If you don't like it, you can drop dead!" He does. Even though the man's doctor confirmed that he had been in poor health and drinking heavily just before his death, Will still feels some guilt over it.
--> '''Will''': Come on, man! If I told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?
* In the episode of ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' where Bertie goes to stay in Devon, there's a scene where somebody blows a car horn several times to attract his attention, each time just as he's blowing a note in the trombone he's learning to play, with the result that the trombone apparently makes a noise even Bertie can tell trombones shouldn't make.

* in ''Series/That70sShow'' Eric calls out his paternal grandmother for being openly mean and nasty to his mom Kitty. He then flat out says it wouldn't kill her to be nice. She then slumps dead onto his shoulder.
* ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'': The Mole Women are in a dark, mysterious tube and are searching for a light switch. Someone accidentally pulls out Cyndee's earring just before the lights come on, prompting Cyndee to declare, "My ear is the light switch!"
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': One episode starts with a gag where Reese is poking a doll while Hal is screaming of pain for unrelated reasons. Reese assumes he's harming Hal through voodoo.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In "This Is Your Sword", Felicity throws her tablet at a member of the League of Assassins in desperation. She watches amazed as the assassin starts to fall to the ground. However, as he finishes falling, she sees he has an arrow in his back and Malcolm Merlyn is standing behind him with a bow. "Oh. That makes more sense," she says to herself.
* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "A Mother, a Child, and a Blue Man's Backside", after the tornado passes and both the main Cooper household and Connie's home are mostly unscathed, Narrator!Sheldon remarks that the worst consequence they suffered was Mary believing her praying was integral to their survival.

** The episode "The Smoking Peanut" starts when SpongeBob, upset at the giant clam Clamu being asleep during his and Patrick's trip to the Zoo, throws a peanut at her to wake her up. It appears to work... only for Clamu to start rampaging. SpongeBob spends the entire episode thinking he's responsible for it, though eagled eyed viewers will notice Clamu [[{{Foreshadowing}} searching around frantically when she first wakes up]]. In fact, it was actually the result of Mr Krabs, who exploited Free Day to get his claws on loads of things he probably shouldn't, including Clamu's egg.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "On the Lam", Harold, Sid and Stinky wanted to replicate Mr. Simmons' Soda and Vinegar Experiment. They tied up 7 rockets together and added a whole jug of vinegar and a whole box of baking soda ([[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and some tabasco sauce]]). The rockets went out of control and landed on the old dilapidated Police Dept. At the same time, Ernie dynamites the old police station, causing the boys to believe ''they'' blew up the Police Dept and attempt to escape and [[ItMakesSenseInContext become hobos]].

* In episode 12 of ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'', [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Emiya Shirou]] and [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Tohno Shiki]] are caught by the lead girls of their {{Unwanted Harem}}s trying to pull a TwoTimerDate. Saber and Arcruid vent their fury via their more powerful attacks when the scene cuts to Hisui repairing the Tohna Mansion roof. Just as she hammers a nail, the FantasticNuke goes off in the distance, and Hisui looks at her hammer quizzically.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': in the beginning of "Future Shellshock" (First episode of the Fast Foward season), the Turtles are fighting over the TV remote. Michelangelo manages to push a button, when suddenly the Turtles and Splinter are inexplicably warped into an alien metropolis (New York in the future). Seeing their new surroundings, Raphael gripes, "Nice going, Mikey! You didn't just change the channel- you changed the whole freakin' world!"

[[folder: Theatre]]

* Used in one episode of ''Series/HogansHeroes'' as part of a brilliant FakingTheDead. When a field marshal defects and is chased by Major Hochstetter and the Gestapo, the [=POW=]s plant a dummy in the marshal's car along with a time bomb. When they make it look like the field marshal is getting away, Hochstetter tries to stop the car by shooting the tires. The time bomb goes off the exact moment Hochstetter fires, making him think [[ShootTheFuelTank he hit the gas tank instead]].

** Invoked ''[[PlayedForDrama darkly]]'' again in the stampede scene; Simba is practicing his roar (nudged on by Scar), and when he manages a particularly loud one, the wildebeest begin the stampede...which the hyenas had started on a cliff above by attacking them. [[spoiler:Scar uses this to his advantage in making Simba think he killed his father.]]

* In the film adaptation of ''Literature/TheStupids'', Stanley takes off his shoe and uses the heel to smash a wasp on the hood of his car, just as a bomb inside the vehicle goes off and blows the body of the car to scrap (oddly leaving both the entire front of the car and Stanley completely untouched). Unsurprisingly (considering who Stanley and his family are, [[TheDitz see the title of the film]]) he thinks he did it.

* A joke about [[Music/{{U2}} Bono]]'s activism has him saying at a gig "Every time I snap my fingers, a child dies in Africa," only for someone in the crowd to yell at him "Well, stop doing it!"

* A black joke about the famous UsefulNotes/LiveAid scene where [[Music/{{U2}} Bono]] says "Every time I snap my fingers, a child dies in Africa" has someone yelling at him "Well, stop doing it!"

* In the opening of one episode of ''Series/ALF'', ALF attempts to get a midnight snack by raiding the fridge for a piece of meat, even in spite of a note telling him not to eat it (with ALF commenting [[AmbiguousSyntax he wouldn't eat the note]]). Just as he's about to pierce the meat, an earthquake begins, with him thinking he might've angered some gods.