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The shameless couple is in.
Strephon: You know, my grandmother looks quite as young as my mother. So do all my aunts. Phyllis: I quite understand. Whenever I see you kissing a very young lady, I shall know that it's an elderly relative. Strephon: You will? Then, Phyllis, I think we shall be very happy!
A common trope in romantic comedies is the humourous misunderstanding, or the Not What It Looks Like.
A couple teetering between Will They Or Wont They has gradually started to slide toward "they will". But wait! The girl sees the guy's old crush/ex-girlfriend/other person who's previously expressed a romantic interest in him (or vice versa) go into his apartment/a hotel room/etc., and stay for a suspicious length of time.
The girl is convinced that he and the other woman have gotten together, and goes through intense doubt about her own relationship with the guy. However, she'll hardly ever confront him about it, instead preferring to stew in her own insecurity or make veiled bitchy comments to the guy, who's usually completely clueless as to what's going on because the other woman just wanted something completely banal, like someone to bitch to after her latest boyfriend dumped her. The scales even out, the status quo (i.e., UST) is restored, and the fans tear their hair out and scream at the writers for some progress, dammit!
Often the other woman will catch on to what's happened after a while and tell the girl what really went on, clearing the way for a slide toward "they will" again. In most of these situations, the other woman is a relative, "proving" to the girl that nothing untoward was happening.
This can also apply to parents or teachers finding young people in compromising positions, where one or both parties age is the problem. Granted some things are easier to explain than others ◊
The name of the trope comes from what is usually the first line the guy says afterward, often followed by, " I Can Explain!" This line is also the first line uttered by an Accidental Pervert.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- In Ranma 1/2 this leads to Mistaken For Cheating more than a few times. It's never what it looks like.
- In Full Metal Panic, Kaname is first introduced to Sousuke's CO Teletha Testarossa, a 16-year old girl, coming out of the shower in his apartment. Since she is unaware that Tessa is his CO, Kaname's immediate (and justifiable) assumption is that she is his girlfriend - an assumption only encouraged by Tessa, who's too pleased to be taken for Sousuke's girlfriend to be any help at all in clearing things up.
- However, when Tessa actually climbs into bed with Sousuke in an episode of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Kaname - by this point well aware that he's a hopeless case - replies to Sousuke's panicky "It's Not What It Looks Like!" with an irritable, "yes, yes," and proceeds to get on Tessa's case for breaking their mutual agreement not to go into Sousuke's room.
- Before the first meeting with Tessa, there was an episode where Sousuke noticed a thief sneaking up to Kaname's balcony and went to stop him. It turned out to be Shinji Kazama, a classmate of theirs forced to steal a pair of Kaname's panties by upperclassmen who were holding something of his hostage. Shinji's also a military Otaku so he and Sousuke start having a lively conversation. So of course, Kaname steps out onto the balcony just in time to see the two of them chatting away - and even worse, when Sousuke starts to explain, he raises his hand and accidentally shows the panties he grabbed from Shinji earlier. Batter Up!
- In Maison Ikkoku, Godai has to go to a love hotel to cover the bill for a drunken housemate whose date had abandoned her, and walks out with her just in time to run into his girlfriend - who then immediately runs to the woman he really loves for advice.
- That whole show is nothing but a long string of Not What It Looks Like for Godai (and occasionally Kyoko). The example mentioned might actually be considered a subversion because instead of a Snap Back it actually was key in moving the plot along and tying up loose ends.
- Kyoko's most notable instance was when Godai and Asuna (Mitaka's sort-of finance) open Mitaka's door to find him on the floor on top of Kyoko of course he had passed out from his fear of dogs.
- Hah, that's nothing. Mitaka suffers the king of all Not What It Looks Like situations when: He gets drunk and can't remember what happened between him and Asuna, except that he woke up in the morning in bed without his clothes on. He asks what happened, and she, thinking he is talking about their kiss, confirms they "did something". As if that isn't enough Asuna's dog becomes pregnant by Mitaka's dog, and when she tells him about it, he assumes that she is the pregnant one. Now this is all classic comedy, and you're just waiting for the Snap Back, but by the time Mitaka learns the truth it's too late and he's committed to marriage. He was rather unhappy about it too. At first, at least.
- In REC (Not the Spanish horror film), Aka notes that Fumihiko never comes home after going out drinking with an old crush whose boyfriend had just broken up with her. He'd carried her back to her apartment after she'd passed out drinking, then she'd woken up and wanted to continue drinking with him through the night.
- In Nodame Cantabile, Chiaki's ex-girlfriend Saiko comes to see him so she can complain about being passed over for the lead role in a concert. Nodame sees them together and spirals into comic depression. Slightly different in that Saiko (after a few drinks) does try to get back together with Chiaki, but he refuses.
- Subversion: In the Beach Episode of School Rumble, Kenji Harima ends up naked and grappling with the bikini-clad Eri Sawachika when their classmate Akira Takano walks in. Akira is immediately able to discern (and explain in detail) exactly how they got into that position, rather than jumping to the obvious conclusion. This only serves to further cement Akira's position as the only Genre Savvy person in a series full of Genre Blindness.
- This happens a lot in Love Hina. It usually ends up with either Naru or Motoko attacking Keitaro.
- Also in Mahou Sensei Negima, the next series by Ken Akamatsu.
- Harem comedies in general rely heavily on this trope, if to distract people from the main couple (or make their relationship not so painfully inevitable) or inspire shipping.
- Ai Yori Aoshi averts this: despite having so many situations where it's Not What It Looks Like, as the girls listen to Kaoru's explanations and actually believe him. Sometimes, he doesn't even need to explain anything.
- Except, of course, for his first encounter with Miyabi. He'd gotten out of the tub in an unsuccessful attempt to keep Aoi from coming in. Then he slipped and fell on top of her. So Miyabi enters and sees Kaoru, naked, kneeling between Aoi's legs ... with his hands firmly planted on her breasts. It was perfectly natural for Miyabi to throw him across the room and start trying to stomp him to death. <snicker>
- In Suzumiya Haruhi, Taniguchi jumps to the obvious conclusion after seeing Kyon kneeling over the collapsed Yuki in an empty classroom after she had saved Kyon from a rogue Data Entity, and was still healing from the wounds she got in the fight, and while it wasn't what it looked like, Kyon couldn't exactly divulge the truth.
- At one point in the novels, Haruhi is trying to force Kyon to give her something he has in his inside jacket pocket; as a result, Mikuru walks in to find what looks like Haruhi stripping his clothes off while in a suggestive pose. Given Haruhi's tendency to strip people against their will (Mikuru herself, for example), and her apparent lack of a nudity taboo, this misunderstanding is entirely understandable.
- Busted.◊
- Haruhi uses a lot of force to coerce a very distressed Kyon into that position, clearly abusing the fact the she's quite a bit stronger than him. This troper thinks that this makes for a very nasty scene, although it's played mostly for laughs.
- Played... oddly in season 3 of Zero No Tsukaima when the ridiculously busty Tiffania comes to Saito and asks him to feel her boobs because she doesn't know why everyone keeps asking her whether they're real. Saito, rather stupidly (considering his past track record) agrees to check them out and is predictably caught by Louise and Siesta sitting behind Tiffania on a bed, enthusiatically groping her breasts. While it wasn't exactly what it looked like (Louise and Siesta thought Saito was seducing Tiffania) it wasn't exactly innocent either (no matter how much Saito tried to convince himself he was just trying to help her).
- Welcome To The NHK features a comedic example. Misaki spills hot sauce on Setou's lap, and jumps in to wipe it off. Cue Yamazaki walking in, with Misaki's back to him.
- In Ah My Goddess, multiple goddesses and demons tend to pull Keiichi into strange situations, then Keiichi explains to Belldandy it's Not What It Looks Like... and Belldandy believes him. One character stated that Belldandy must be stupid to always trust Keiichi. However, considering Keiichi's personality, it's impossible that something may actually happen between him and any girl.
- Belldandy once defended her K1 from a manufactured compromising situation by saying "It's true! He doesn't have the guts to do that!" She caught how bad it sounded, tried to correct herself, and made it worse.
- In an episode of Inu Yasha, Inuyasha has been wounded, and Kagome tries to apply first aid (not knowing about his demonic Healing Factor). In order to do this, she must remove his clothes, which leads to the two of them on the ground, her on top, struggling to pull open his robe, loudly ordering him to undress. At the time Kaede is Right Behind Her, along with children who take the scene the wrong way.
- Nearly every episode of Chobits. Poor Hideki is always found in compromising situations... especially when it comes to Chii's "power button".
- In Mai-Otome, after Shizuru discovers a secret about Akira (that she's disguised herself as a boy and is impersonating Prince Takumi), Arika walks by and sees the two of them in a suggestive pose with Shizuru's face behind Akira's.
- Early in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, Lucia, looking for Rina to make friends with her, finds her on the roof apparently cutting class to kiss Kaito. In actuality, Rina was harassing the poor boy instead, as she mistook him for the Big Bad in disguise.
- Happens all the time in Girls Bravo. Quite a lot of episode start with Miharu ending up naked or near-naked in front of Yukinari, during which Kirie will probably walk in and beat the shit out of him before bothering to hear an explanation.
- Rito from To Love Ru constantly ends up in ridiculously suggestive situations with Lala in front of Haruna, the girl he has a crush on. Some of the situations he's had to attempt to explain his way out of include him and Lala popping out of a locker in the girl's locker room while naked, and running into Haruna in a lingerie store, just in time for Lala to emerge from the changing room wearing only a bra and panties and ask Rito what he thinks of it.
- In the first episode of Karin, Kenta witnesses Karin embracing an older man in a park and jumps to the conclusion that she is a prostitute (conveniently failing to notice that she is, in fact, biting the man's neck). Later on, he sees her in a similar position with his own mother. Hilarity Ensues.
- The second season of Hidamari Sketch has Yuno walking in on Sae posed on all fours over Hiro and starts freaking out. Turns out the two were practicing for the school play, with Sae being the criminal. I wonder what the crime was. Oddly, this scene is depicted in the OP for the first season, making it Bait And Switch Credits at the time.
- In the Beach Episode of Shuffle, Sia catches Rin carrying a half-naked Asa-senpai to the washroom and jumps to the wrong conclusion; unbeknownst to Sia, Asa's top was washed away by a large wave.
- Near the beggining of the Bount Arc in Bleach, Ichigo suspects Renji may be one of the mod souls which are kidnapping their friends. He decides to test it by jumping on him outside the classroom screaming at him to "get out of them" (them in this case being the articifical body which allows him to interact with the "real world", but the rest of the class didn't know that, of course).
- In Candy Boy, there is a roll call just when Kanade and Yukino are fighting over control of a mobile phone, which makes them end up on the bed in a very suggestive position. After an awkward pause the student checking on them simply declares that the "shameless couple" is in and leaves. This provides the above picture.
- Considering that they also provide the picture for Twincest....yeah
- In Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~, Seiichirou sees how Sora seemingly gets seduced by her teacher. In reality she is having a heart attack, after which the series becomes much darker in nature.
- The hospital episode of Get Backers had this, repededly, Himiko was not amused.
- After her first battle in the dream world, Mizuki rushes to Tomokazu's room to see if he had the same dream. His cousin Nanase finds them with Mizuki kneeling between his legs (bonus points because Mone slipped between Mizuki's legs and has her head poking out from under Mizuki's skirt). Tomokazu twists this, deliberately making it seem it is what it looks like with a shy expression and a whispered "Please be gentle." Mizuki's face gets redder than is physically possible, and she wails, "It's a misunderstanding!"
- Subverted in Elfen Lied. Kouta is most definitely groping Nyu, who as local Innocent Fanservice Girl made him do so because she uh liked the sensation. While he has an excuse, it's pretty clear what was going on.
- Played straight however when Yuuka opens the screen door just as Kouta pulls the wet underwear off Nyuu who's lying back on the tatami, because she can't change her own clothes.
- Although played straight briefly at the beginning in Mx0, the presence of openly lecherous Ise and Kuzumi's past attempts to stop Ise's schemes quickly teaches the girls to give Kuzumi a chance to explain himself. At one point Kuzumi ends up in the women's shower room and the girls (who are invisible at the time) don't even bother calling him out for it, and just let him leave. They beat up Ise later even though they never knew what the plot was.
- Kannagi: The final scene in the last episode.
- PrincessTutu has a somewhat more innocent variation. Episode 20 opens up with a beautiful woman sneaking up behind Perpetual Frowner Fakir and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Later, it shows him out buying flowers with her and smiling. Ahiru and her friends see them together and automatically assume that they're dating, but the woman later happily informs Ahiru that she and Fakir are Like Brother And Sister.
- Inverted in Fushigi Yuugi. Taka and Tasuki are napping together (with absolutely no overtones at all, no sir). When they wake up, Taka realizes he can't see himself in the mirror, leading him to experience a minor Heroic BSOD, which he begs Tasuki to keep a secret because it will upset Miaka. Miaka herself promptly walks in, sees them all rumpled and uncomfortable looking, and wants to know what's going on. Taka comes up with the excuse that "Tasuki can't sleep unless someone is hugging him," vaguely suggesting it is what it looks like (and you can't tell me Yuu Watase didn't know some fans would really get a kick out of it).
- In Ouran High School Host Club, Tamaki trips and falls onto Haruhi as he and the Host Club visit her apartment on her day off. In walks Haruhi's dad...
- In another case, during a storm, Tamaki attempts to help Haruhi of her fear of thunder and lightning by blindfolding her and plugging her ears. While Tamaki may have had good intentions, in walks the remainder of the Host Club ready to accuse him of being a S&M loving pervert.
- Serge in Kaze To Ki No Uta says these exact words when Sebastien enters his room to find him with a very naked (and partially unconscious) Gilbert on top of him.
- In Gin Tama, ep 67. Gin-chan no baka!
- Soul. Poor, poor Soul.
- Wonderfully subverted in Bitter Virgin, despite one character's efforts to make it seem exactly what it looked like. Yandere Kazuki attempts to seduce the male lead Daisuke, going so far as to unbutton her shirt and threaten to cry rape if he leaves the room. Right then walks in female lead Hinako, a Shrinking Violet who Does Not Like Men and has only managed to open up to Daisuke. Kazuki keeps her word and tells Hinako Daisuke tried to rape her. Hinako's response: "Liar. Suwa-kun would never do that." The final nail in Kazuki's coffin is when a third party, Daisuke's sister, appears and suggests going to the police to prove her claims.
- Change 123: in chapter 29 (volume 6) this happens.
- In Darker Than Black Hei learns the hard way that, when purchasing clothes and undergarments for a Doll that you're sheltering from the Yakuza, it's generally a good idea to not go alone, lest you run into the target of your UST and be forced to explain that the wig and bra you're buying aren't for yourself.
- In Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyoushou, Akane is visited by Dragon God's messenger spirit and tries to follow him as he starts to leave; Yorihisa, who is guarding her outside the door, rushes into the room, and the two of them end up on the floor on top of each other just as a court lady walks in to inform them of the return of the house owner. Cue Yorihisa hastily apologizing to Akane and yelling to the court lady not to leave without a word as she walks away chuckling.
Comic Books
- Subverted in Y: The Last Man when Yorick walks in on Allison Mann and 355 having sex. 355 blurts out "This isn't what it looks like!" much to the annoyance of her lesbian lover who doesn't see what they have to be embarrassed about. Moments later they encounter Australian spy Rose who's trying to explain why she's just stabbed a woman to death, by using exactly the same line. This situation, as it turns out, is a bit more complicated.
- In one issue of Teen Titans, Robin (Tim Drake) returns to his room one night and sits on his bed, only to have a naked and extremely drunk Ravager (Rose Wilson) wrap her arms around him and try to seduce him. Robin's completely not interested but, knowing Ravager can be a bit hard to dissuade, pins her down on the bed and starts to handcuff her hands behind her. Then Kid Devil walks in.
Kid Devil: Hot damn!
Robin: This isn't what it looks like.
Ravager: Yes it is.
- Subverted in Ultimate Spider Man when Spidey gets caught by a guard in the security room of the Kingpin's tower:
Spider-Man: Hey! Listen- this isn't what it looks like- unless it looks like that costumed freak Spider-Man punching your friend in the face so he can break into your boss's security system. Because if that's what it looks like... that's actually right.
- In Batman Bruce Wayne was talking to social services worker about Jason Todd, when Cassandra Cain showed up in a dressing gown. Given Wayne's reputation and uncooperativeness about Jason and Cassandra being underage, he went away with the apparent impression that Bruce Wayne is a pedophile who probably abused and murdered his ward.
- Hilariously mocked by Seanbaby in his "Aquaman SUCKS!" parody comic◊, where Aquaman takes off his shirt and starts trying to molest Aqualad... only to be caught in the act by Seagull.
Film
- In Mystic Pizza, Daisy (a poor Portuguese Catholic girl) sees her love interest Charles (a wealthy WASP guy) talking to a very attractive woman at a party. Consumed with jealousy, she persuades a lobsterman to dump his entire day's catch into Charles's expensive convertible sports car. Daisy then discovers that the woman Charles was talking to was in fact his cousin, leading to a memorable exchange:
Daisy: I fucked up.
Charles: Yeah... but you gave it a 100% effort!
- In the first Austin Powers movie, Austin Powers disables a bunch of "fembots" by doing a striptease. Immediately afterwards, his girlfriend walks in and sees him in his underwear with what appear to be scantily dressed beautiful women. He tells her it's Not What It Looks Like and starts babbling; she cuts him off, laughs, and says "I believe you."
- Given that she was eventually revealed to be a fembot herself, it actually makes sense.
- In Monster In Law, the title character sends the ex-girlfriend up to the room where her son is getting dressed in order to try to break up his engagement to a girl she thinks is not good enough for him. So his fiancee walks in on him, half dressed, with his ex-girlfriend practically pasted on him.
- In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jessica (a toon) barges in to Eddie's office/apartment while he's getting dressed. A few minutes later, Eddie's love interest walks in on them, producing one of the more original gotcha lines ever: "Dabbling in watercolors, Eddie?"
- When Fiona pulls the arrow out of Shrek's butt in the first Shrek film, she ends up on top of him, just in time for Donkey to walk in and take things the wrong way.
- Subverted in State And Main. At first Joe goes to some length to keep Ann from finding out that a nude Claire is in his room (against his will), thinking that the trope will play out. Then when she suddenly walks back in and catches Claire, Joe immediately explains what's going on, and Ann believes him.
Joe: Wait, you believe that? But it's insane!
Ann: So's our electoral system but we still vote.
- In Steve Martin's The Pink Panther, this trope occurs twice. The second time is a particularly funny scene where Detective Ponton walks into Clouseau's apartment and it appears that he is having anal sex with his secretary, Nicole. In reality, she was choking on an egg and he rushed to perform the Heimlich. What makes the scene particularly amusing is that the two of them don't think that Ponton took it the wrong way and have the following conversation, which piques Ponton's interest:
Nicole: You are so good! Where did you learn that?
Clouseau: You know...I practiced on mannequins...
- When Shondra gets caught in a compromising position with kidnapee B-Rad in Malibu's Most Wanted, her boyfriend makes it quite clear that: "I use that line all the time, and you know it's always what it looks like!!!" (Though in fact, it wasn't what it looked like. She was merely trying to extract a bullet from his foot, and her face ended up on his crotch. Easy enough to explain.)
- In Titanic, Jack saves Rose from falling off the back of the ship and they fall into what Cleolinda describes as the "rescuer's missionary position." At that moment the lookouts run in to see what all the screaming was about.
- In Lucky Number Slevin, Slevin walks into his bedroom to find a strange man having sex with his girlfriend doggy style.
Girlfriend: This isn't what it looks like!
Slevin: Oh right, so, he tripped and then you fell?
- In Iron Man, this, along with the following "I can explain," is subverted when Tony Stark is discovered, in his battlesuit, apparently being molested by robots. His response? "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing." The bullet holes, however, are a bit bad.
- In American Wedding, Stifler and Jim are in the room with the cake that was made to celebrate Jim's engagement to Michelle. Jim catches Stifler rearranging the letters to read "Congratulation Jism!", and the two get in an argument that ends with both of them getting cake all over their pants. Stifler starts to take off his pants to clean them, while Jim gets knocked to the floor by a dog, who starts licking the cake off his crotch. Stifler, with his pants around his ankles, gets behind the dog and tries to pull it off of Jim. Jim and Michelle's families then walk into the room and catch what looks like Jim and Stifler raping a dog. Stifler even blurts out the line "It's not what it looks like!"
- This happens again with Stifler in the same movie. Jim's grandmother had been locked in the closet by some of his friends so that she wouldn't cause a fuss at the wedding (she objected to the fact that her Jewish grandson Jim was marrying Michelle, a gentile). Meanwhile, Cadence, Michelle's hot sister, had arranged with Stifler for the two to meet in that same closet to have sex. Cut to Stifler getting busted having sex with a granny.
- Independence Day - Will Smith's character drops the wedding ring he hasn't told anybody about on the ground, and one of his pilot buddies kneels down on one knee to go pick it up. As he raises the ring up to get a look at it another pilot walks by and is shocked to see what looks like a man proposing to another man.
- In Working Girl, the main character walks in on her boyfriend stark naked and having sex with another woman (also stark naked). "This is not what it looks like! [beat] Okay, this is what it looks like. But I can explain!"
Literature
- Happens in one of the Confessions Of Georgia Nicolson books where Georgia's love interest (Robbie) and enemy (Lindsay) come across her while she is kissing another boy at a party. She is so startled that she falls over backwards, causing her skirt to ride up - and is aware from their expressions that they've taken it the wrong way.
- In the Whateley Universe, it's happened at least twice so far. One time, it was Phase, standing with pants down and an erection, while Hot Scientist Bunny Cormick knelt down to get a 3-D model of said privates (for something else Phase is planning). So of course Bunny's roomie walks in just then. And brings back Phase's girlfriend, among others. It took a while to explain.
- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry, Ron and Hermione exit the boys' dormitory with Harry wearing the Invisibility Cloak and run into Lavender, who Ron is dating. Lavender, only seeing Ron and Hermione leaving his dormitory together, jumps to conclusions about them being together, putting another nail in the coffin of that doomed relationship.
- Poor Harry Dresden. In Proven Guilty, he has the misfortune to have a friend's daughter stopping by the hotel room he was using as a workspace for a shower at exactly the time her overprotective mother comes in to find him. As he points out, if she'd come ten seconds early, he wouldn't have gotten clobbered.
- At least the family priest who was present understood.
- Happened to him again in the short story Day Off. This one was even worse, involving two werewolves mid coitus, his topless, unconscious apprentice, smoke and flashing lights, and . His bemused girlfriend responded with "Frankly, I'm not sure what it looks like."
- InDrumsOfAutumn, Claire has the misfortune to walk in on her husband Jamie and a male friend (previously incredibly surprised to see her) embracing. While said friend has a, ah, less than chaste look on his face. No, it's not what it looks like. (They kissed earlier thank you very much. And yes, John's gay. Jamie's just very understanding.)
Live Action TV
- Boy Meets World playfully subverts it. After a talk, while laying intimately in bed beside his best friend's semi-girlfriend Angela, Cory comments on the trope and states how impossible it would be for anyone to find reason within this picture. Suddenly both Topanga and Shawn walk in, causing Cory to instinctively shout out the trope name. However, they nonchalantly shake it off and the episode ends with both jumping right in with Cory and Angela.
- Friends had an epic one of these with a dramatic twist where, in picking up a ring that had fallen down, it appeared Joey was proposing to Rachel.
- Then there was that episode where Joey and Ross "took a nap" together after watching Die Hard..
- In Hogans Heroes, Col. Hogan is meeting with Soviet agent Marya (the only character in the series who always outwitted Hogan) in an apartment. When they hear a door open, Marya exclaims "He is my brother!" (At that moment, she was straddling him with her lips firmly against his.) Fortunately, the person at the door was Le Beau (who believes everything Marya ever says).
- Joanne deliberately set up one of these in Seacht to upset Linda; as of this writing, she has not revealed what she and Pete were actually doing in her room.
- Scrubs does this a lot, although subverted quite often in that it turns out that it was what it looked like, but the involved characters try to come up with an excuse. In a particuarly extreme example, JD ends up having sex with a girl at a funeral, with the guests in the other room hearing the girl scream out her orgasm... and then tries to explain to the shocked guests that the screams were screams of pains because he stubbed his toe.
- Another variation in the same show is a scene implying a couple getting naughty... and then it turns out to be completely unrelated.
Turk: Mmm... Oh baby... Oh yeah... You are the best, baby. I love it when you bring me chicken wings in bed!
- Same quote, different context in Firefly's "Trash," prompting the hilarious subversion:
Mal: Unless it looks like we're stealing your priceless Lassiter, because that's exactly what we're doing. Don't ask me about the gun though; that's new.
Durran: I appreciate your honesty. Not, you know, a lot...
- A particularly horrific subversion of this trope occurred in American Gothic: Sutpen, a convicted killer now released from prison for good behavior, is taken in by Carter as fulfillment of a debt to Buck...after which he begins, quite unsubtly, to put the moves on Carter's daughter. (The popsicle-suckling scene is particularly over-the-top.) After catching Sutpen and his apparently willing daughter practically skinny-dipping together, then giggling and tickling each other under the sheets, Carter forbids them from having any more contact. The very next night, he hears giggling again, grabs his rifle, bursts into his daughter's room, and fires...only to discover it was his daughter and wife playing together, and he had just killed his wife. The fact this is apparently a repeat of history and the reason Sutpen was locked up in the first place, as it's strongly implied Sutpen accidentally killed the wrong man for sleeping with his wife, when it was Carter who had done the deed, only puts the icing on the cake.
- In Roswell, this happens in the early stages of the Max/Liz/Kyle triangle, when a suspicious Kyle has followed Max and Liz (Max is driving). Liz ducks down into the driver's side foot-pit to either retrieve something or hide from the person they came to follow, and Kyle draws the obvious conclusion.
- A B-plot in the House MD episode 'Who's Your Daddy?' involves House getting a physical therapist to help ease the pain in his leg. Twice in a single scene, characters walk in on him with his pants down groaning in pleasure while she... massages his damaged thigh. Both times he immediately yells, "Not what you think!" without even being prompted. It doesn't help that the angle is such that anyone walking in might interpret the scene as her giving him a blowjob.
- The writers really like this trope. It happened to Cameron in "Daddy's Boy' when she was examining a potential patient's groin infection/fungus/whatever it was. For the record the man's boss didn't buy it, asking the "doctor" to leave a card behind.
- Lampshaded and subverted hard by House himself in another episode. House is with his exgirlfriend washing dishes when his ex's husband walks in, to which he replies, "It's not what you think. I know it looks like we're washing dishes, but really, we're having sex."
- Inverted in a 3rd Rock From The Sun episode in which the rest of the family is outraged to discover that Tommy is secretly a gourmet chef after finding oregano and fresh rosemary in his sock drawer. Tommy desperately insists that it's marijuana.
- Will And Grace plays with it. Karen starts teaching Grace how to get her boyfriend to be more assertive by withholding sex. When Grace starts shooting down the idea, Karen starts talking her through it, which leads to a mailwoman coming in to see her telling Grace "I am not going to have sex with you" repeatedly. The mailwoman's response? "I'll have sex with you."
- Averted in the UFO episode "Close Up". Paul Foster walks in on his superior Commander Straker having what appears to be an intimate tete-ŕ-tete with a mini-skirted Lieutenant Ellis. The ever-calm Straker advises him to never judge a situation by the end of a conversation.
- On The Drew Carey Show episode "Drew's Reunion" a girl that Oswald had dated and dumped left him tied up and naked, when Lewis went to un-tie him his own date Bo Derek walked in on him straddling his naked friend and she ran off. Later Lewis tells Kate that if she sees Bo tell her that him and Oswald were not having sex, it just looked like it.
- The tendency for BritComs to base plots around this kind of misunderstanding is parodied in The Young Ones cutaway sketch "Oh, Crikey!", in which a sitcom husband accidentally gets into a compromising position with his dog just as the vicar walks in.
- Gussie Fink-Nottle is victimized by this several times in Jeeves And Wooster, and it always just happens to be his hopeful fiance Madeline Basset who walks in on him.
- Inverted in Blackadder II when Baldrick walks in on Blackadder and "Bob" about to kiss on the floor.
Baldrick: Don't worry, Bob. He used to try 'un kill me too.
- Played straight in a rather touching Sister Sister episode. As it turns out, Ray was paying respects to his dead wife. In addition to all the evidence stacking up against Ray, who wasn't even aware that Lisa (his current love interest) and their daughters were suspicious, Lisa meets the ghost of Ray's old wife, who admits to being "the other woman," without realizing that the woman is a ghost.
- This is actually one of the (numerous) running gags in Allo Allo.
- And a subversion since it is almost always what it looks like Rene making out with the waitresses and his wife always buys his explanation. The trope is played straight when Lt Gruber makes advances though.
- In an episode of The Nanny, Fran gets a too-tight dress stuck over her head and Mr. Sheffield tries to help her remove it. Just as they manage to pull it off, they over balance and fall down onto her bed, just as Niles is walking past. Niles overheard them saying things like "Mister Sheffield, I'm so hot!" and "I can't do this standing up!", and afterwards asks "If you let me tell Miss Babcock about this, I'll work free for a year!"
- Used in WWE, when Triple H was teaching Trish Stratus how to escape a hammerlock just as his wife Stephanie walked in...
- Though if that particular escape technique has ever actually happened in wrestling, it's been a very, very, VERY rare example...
- In Frasier, when Niles gets into bed with his couples therapist (believing it to be Maris) and demands to know what is going on, the therapist starts by saying "Its not what it looks like" before exasperatingly saying "What am I saying?"
- Played straight and subverted in an episode of NCIS. Gibbs walks into the morge and sees Palmer giving CPR to a dummy, to which he askes, "New girlfriend?" The next scene is him walking into the lab and seeing Abbey giving a model of Di Nozzo mouth-to-mouth.
Abbey: This isn't what it looks like.
Gibbs: CPR?
Abbey: Oh, then it's exactly what it looks like.
Music
Theater
- Commonly occurs, usually with the genders reversed, in Shakespeare's plays, making this Older Than Steam.
- The Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Iolanthe contains the version of this trope involving the main character's mother (who is a fairy, and therefore looks deceptively young). This is probably a Shout Out to a similar scene in The Marriage Of Figaro, involving Figaro and his mother (who, until she discovered that she was his mother, was trying to get him to marry her in order to pay off a debt).
Video Games
- A rather dramatic example in Devil May Cry 4. When the older brother of Nero's love interest, Credo, challenges Nero to a fight and reveals himself to be a part of a growing conspiracy, Nero naturally is forced to beat him into submission. Trouble arises when said love interest, Kyrie, stumbles on the scene to see her brother Credo on the ground thoroughly bruised and Nero standing over him seemingly about to finish him off with his demon arm (revealing him to be part demon, which is very bad as they are all part of a religious Order that hunts and kills demons). Nero instantly recognizes what it must look like to her, and before he could try to helplessly explain, yet another character shows up, blatantly lying to make Nero even look more like the villain.
- And then renders the whole point moot by threatening to kill her if Nero doesn't do what he says, turning into a bug-like demon, and flying away with her. I'm sure she could tell who the bad guy was at that point.
- Used in Yoshine's route in Brass Restoration. Subverted once you find out that Yoshine set the whole thing up in order to get a major romantic rival out of the way.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Subverted in the Mission Hill episode "Porno For Pyro": Kevin is pleasuring himself to pornography in a public bathroom and accidentally commits arson trying to hide it, but no one ever suspects him of any wrongdoing.
- Subverted in the Family Guy episode "Sibling Rivalry": after being discovered embracing bags of Lois' liposuctioned fat with his pants down, Peter says "Umm... this is exactly what it looks like."
- In another Family Guy episode, "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou", Stevie gains an obsession with tanning, but Brian forgets to let him out and Stewie is so badly burned he can barely get up. Brian retrieves some lotion as Stewie manages to get up to his knees, and he squirts it from the bottle from hip level onto Stewie's chest as Mr. Furley (from Threes Company) enters and hurriedly says he'll come back later, while Brian can do nothing but say this trope.
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The name of the trope comes from what is usually the first line the guy says afterward, often followed by, "I Can Explain!" This line is also the first line uttered by an Accidental Pervert.
